Critical Mass

Well, it's happened.  Jodi and I have officially hit our new record for number of vehicles owned.  With our newest purchase just last week, we have a total of eight motor vehicles in our possession, six of which are at our home in downtown Springfield.

The list is as follows in order of oldest to newest:

• 1959 Ford F-100
• 1962 Plymouth Valiant
• 1973 Ford F-100
• 1985 Chevrolet Scottsdale
• 1991 Ford F-150
• 1992 Ford E-150
• 1996 Dodge Avenger
• 2006 Mazda 5

You might have noticed that we have at least one vehicle for every decade stretching all the way back to the 1950's.

So, how did we come across owning a fleet of vehicles, you ask?  Good question.  Out of all these vehicles, I've owned the oldest, the '59, the longest.  I purchased it the same day that I met Jodi.  I'll never get rid of it for that purpose alone.

Next up on the list is the '62.  The next-to-oldest is also my next-to-longest-owned vehicle.  Jodi spotted it for sale in someone's front yard on East Bennett street.  We bought it for me to drive around while my '59 was out of commission awaiting a new clutch.

Then came the '92 van that we purchased for me to drive after the '59's engine blew up.  The plan is and has always been to at some point swap over the '59 body onto the '92 and then scrap the remaining steel.  I can't start this project until I have a shop in which to work in.  That's coming after we sell our house.

We bought the '96 in '06 and drove it for well over three years until it blew a head gasket.  I then let it basically rot with good intentions.  My bad.

We bought and later sold a '94 Ford E-150 to drive in the meantime and shortly after this purchase we also purchased the '85 from Jodi's dad.  This was a great truck until I parked it at the end of '11 after the transmission went out.  I bought another transmission for it and never did get around to getting it in correctly.  Jodi's dad is buying the truck back from us later this week.

After the '85 was parked, I bought the '91 which lasted until last week.  Another blown head gasket.  I'll skip the good intentions this time and just let it go.  I'm selling it to a friend later this week, as well.

I'm scrapping the '96 once the '85 that's blocking access to it is out of the way and no longer in our possession.  That will get us down to a mere 5 vehicles.  Once the house sells, we'll get something with a shop. I'll then get the '62 nice and road-worthy for Jacob and it will become his (takes the count down to 4). I'll also get the '59 to '92 modification project complete and seemingly be rid of the '92.

So, in the end, we'll have our daily get around family vehicle (the '06), my daily driver (the '59), and a back-up/maybe first truck for Lyric (the '73).

Posted in: autobiography,automobiles,Craigslist