Anyone else feel horrible about driving their car in the snow??


Ken

 

Ouch, glad I live in Ga. now

 

Doh! To the car wash!~


I own two cars thank ***. The IROC is nice and cozzy under its cover.

 

That sucks. That's why I'm glad I left my car at home and we took my GF's car back up to college. I miss driving it, but when I see all the cars covered in salt, I'm glad it's at home.

 

Ouchie... I don't think I'm moving to Blue Ridge, I'll stay here in sunny Virginia Beach

 

Get a beater, your being mean to your Camaro,driving it in the snow. Winter beaters are fun... hence the name BEATER!! Every year I buy a hooptie for @ $500. They make it through the winter and then you sell em for a couple hundred
This year it's a 84 Escort 4 speed, 1.6 L, no power steering or power brakes , hell it didn't even come with a radio! But it's fun!

84 Escort stats:
0-60: if your tank is full
0-90: N/A
1/4: If it runs that long
Top Speed: @80, 85 with wind and a hill!

Winter beaters also allow you to take a break from tickets, it's kinda hard to speed when your car won't go above the limit!

 

good *** get a beater..... i geuss i lucky that im away at school during the winter and really dont need a car.. shes warm and safe under a cover and in a garage :lala:

just get a pos geo or something

 

Nope. After watching my 86 firebird turn into a pile of rot I knew I'd never have a nice car in the salt again. My IROC stays off the road all winter and the GTA only goes out when the roads are clean and dry.

For a couple hundred bucks you can buy a suitable beater. Or, for less than your hood cost, you can stop molesting your poor car like that. Feel bad yet?

 

i learned my lesson the hard way last winter. This is only a small portion of how bad it got. Now I cant even sell the car because of how bad the rust is gettin on it. Thats why this winter I bought a 89 Thunderbird off my cuz my $200. I put a tranny in it and now I have a halfway decent all year round car while my 92 RS sits in the front yard with a for sale sign on it and my IROC gets a nice rest under a cover.

 

I faring pretty well in the salt.. I give it a wash every time I drive it through snow or a lot of salt water on the streets. I'm still getting some rust. But I have started doing a little repair to it and it is holding off pretty good. I don't think there is that much of a problem with driving it in the salt as long as you have an undercoating and wash it often. I'm sure waxing right before and after winter helps a lot too.

COLD hands = healthier car in the winter.

Sorry ChevyKen, but how can you let it get that bad?

 

Salt is not as bad when you wash your car all the time, well worth it!! Only problem is that you get salt under moldings, under the spoiler and in the door jams. When the rust is under the spoiler, you dont even know it until it grows past it. Then it's to late, you probobly have a hole under your spoiler. It's just a big mess! When I get older I will have to move to a warmer climate, one with no snow so I can enjoy owning a Camaro year round! Until then...Winter Beater, I highly recomend them!

 

Well, we had planned to buy another car this winter, but the weather has been exceptional until 2 days ago when we got our first snow - so it hasn't been "Suffering" all winter. Reason we haven't bought another car is that we still don't know where we're moving after school is out in the spring - and it might be europe and that is a major move with a LOT of things to take care of, so adding another car that we'd have to sell in the last minute wasn't too tempting. I was also not interested in buying a piece of crap as I've alread spent all winter making this car run right - and we had to toss the old beater away when it gave up on us last winter...

Anyways, yeah Jim - I feel bad now

Oh, and to the one asking how I can let it get "that bad" - that pic is taken at the car wash a minute before I cleaned it off, and that was salt from driving ONE day in the nasty weather... Believe me, I don't let her just sit around covered in salt for weeks - she gets the hosed off thoroughly every day when they salt the roads, and knock on wood she doesn't have a spot of rust!!

Im very pleased to say that this is the last winter for this baby to be in use in the snow. Wherever we move in May/June we'll get another car so she can rest during the winter, at least if we're in any area that gets snow.
She has a bright future in sight - that's all I'll say


Ken

 

Thats exactly why I don't drive my car during the winter

 

The weather has been so good this year, it's not that bad driving. But, if you feel bad, just do like I do-wash it twice a week. I do it once a week at the DIY carwash, and the other time at the local gas-station touch free wash that has an underbody flush to go with it.

Come on, the only car that is going to rust if you wash it religiously is the car whose body was never taken care of to begin with.

Jon

 

As if you do that to your car man. I would take the Bus to protect an investment like that. You're lucky you're not at arms length of me dude. I'd slap ya for sure

 

I disagree, no matter how much you wash your car, it will rust! Own a car, drive it daily and wash it all the time, after 15 years you WILL have rust. When you wash, you cannot get all the salt out of the cracks. My dad bought a 1981 Monte Carlo off the showroom floor, drove it every day and washed it ALL the time. After 20 years and 250,000 miles it still looked good, but it was rusting. You can slow it down, but you cannot avoid rust if you drive in the salt, you just can't!

 

:hail: Texas

 

Damn dude, you can get a nice (Thats right NICE) working Camaro or Firebird beater down here for $500 or less.... I got a Firebird for $120 that needed a little bit of work, then ran! Also gota '86 Fiero 2m4 for $200.... and I see in the paper now, an '84 Trans Am for $350, everythings fine, it just needs a tranny. Look around man, you can find yourself a beater that still feels like home

Adam

 

mcconahay said it! :hail: TEXAS!!! the problem down here though is what the sun does to the paint. my hood is beginning to look like complete **** from having to leave it outside ALL the time. but its all gravy, new paint is on the way this summer

 

That makes me want to

 

I repeat - it is not like she looks like that constantly. Actually it is pretty rare (read: once this winter), which is why it reminded me that we really need a second car before next winter.

For the bus comment - believe me I'd use one on days like this if we had one. Gotta love small cities with no public transportation...

And yeah, I know I could find another f-body for a few hundred bucks. Then I'd had another moneypit to feed in my last year of college Read my threads in the engine/tech section to see all the time/money spent this winter battling problems with this one. And as I mentioned - it was just not an option to get another car at this point, no matter how cheap, for practical purposes.

Texas?? As a matter of fact, that is one of the possible locations we might move if we stay over here. Some small town north east of Dallas is one of the job opportunities.
Sounds good to me!!! I've had my share of snow and winters, growing up on the arctic circle


And okay - I promise to let her sit in the carport or my in-laws garage this weekend for the announced blizzard starting again tomorrow.......better?



Ken

 

my bird last winter doh ruined the car, the only thing left on my car that the salt messed up are the rims, a bit rusty, they were perfect b4 i drove it in the winter too oh well after that i got it painted and put it in storage.





yay

 

ChevyKen - You will certainly turns some head in Europe with a nice looking thirdgen like that (parts might be a problem though)..

 

You should see mine. That shows up really well on a black car. Next winter I plan on having a beater hopefully.

 

That is one reason I took my IROC with me to Hawaii! NO SNOW!

Plus she sits under a carport all day and I take the wifes Quad4 to work when it rains!! LOL!

The only bad thing is we only got two more years here then its off to some other gosh forsaken place where people don't know how to drive and every single car you see no matter how new it is has a dent or a huge scratch on it somewhere!! LOL!


Oh well, talk to you guys later

Steve D in Hawaii

 

I hear that. My car never seen so much salt n crap till I brought it up to rochester. I spend about 12 bucks a week on it trying to get all the salt off of it. but I can see in some place that dreaded R word, but I keep thinking....after college a great graduation present from mom n dad would be a NEW PAINT JOB whoohooooo

 

Just wait chief. My firebird looked great when I started school in rochester, and within 2 years there were holes in the rocker panels.

My sport coupe came from Boston and had a real good, rot-free body. It's now got tin panels and 10lbs of filler in every panel covering the holes. There's another hole in the door that's almost big enough to fist. That car went through 3 Rochester winters. That's all.

 

Dont say that!! I am on my 3rd one now. And so far minor minor rust. Thank *** this year has been a mild winter only 3 snows. I gotta pull one more year out. Or find the loot for a second car.

 

Unfortunetly, I also learned my lesson this winter...got stuck with the TA on the hill in front of my house for 45min...couldn't make it up. After a 5-gallon pail of sand, I finally got up the hill. This is the reason why I am looking for a Jeep now

 

thats why I have a 90 grandam quad 4, 200 bux 400 in parts and this car is great! almost no rust well for now

 

yeah, this year has been crap for us snow-lovers. Every year that I was in Rochester, we got an inch of lake effect snow EVERY NIGHT. The roads were wet with salt every single frieking day! No wonder my cars turned into a pile of crap!

 

well my camaro used to have to put up with that F@$%ing salt back in Utah but then we moved to colorado and they dont use salt they use dirt but it still dont go out in the snow (like it would even be able to get anywhere *** i love HP and TQ )

 

Ken, I feel ya. I was home last weekend for midterm break, so I went to see my friend in South Bend, IN. Of course it snows on the way there, sweet, and by the time I get home on Sunday I have to leave and go directly back to school (car stays at home). Luckily my sister washed it for me.

Hey, met Derek while I was there, too. He's cool as ****, aint he?

 

I know this might sound stupid, but in this day and age, why can't we invent something to melt snow on roads without using salt? Or why melt it in the first place? I'd rather drive on hard packed snow any day than that slushy crap that pulls you all over the road when they spread salt on it. Here in NY they used to have a little bit of sand mixed in with the salt but now it's pure salt. They said the sand was harming the fresh water fish????????? What the h@!l is the salt doing to them? Improving their health???? I'm sure glad my IROC is hibernating. The only people who favor salt CAN'T drive, and they are the nice wealthy policical people who can afford to get a new car every year. Dry road laws suck!

 

Cause then people wouldn't be buying new cars every so often. (Goverment Conspiracy ). Anyways my car looks just as bad right now or even worse. Weather in WI hasn't been to bad this year but figures March 2 and we get the most snow we have had all year.

 

ahhh...being in dallas is great:-) sorry guys, had to rub that in!! kinda dumb saying that since we dropped 30 degrees in the last 7 hours, and have ice on the ground now....

 

Ken,Ken,Ken,Ken...........

GET A BEATER!!! Your rims will be toast unless you clean them regularly.

I couldn't stand having my baby covered in salt and the difficulty of driving it in snow with summer tires.

So, I went and got myself a 1999 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro as a winter beater while my beautiful thirdgen sits in a warm garage under a cover.

:lala:

 

This is my first winter in the midwest and the salt they use on the roads just turns my stomach. Every time I look at my new truck plastered in salt I get all ticked off because I know I won't be able to keep it very long because of resale value due to driving in the midwest. It also annoys me that I had to remove all my studs from my tires when I got here. They are illegal. I had to remove 400 studs! Hello people! Let me use the studs and you won't need the salt! The roads suck here anyway so I have no idea why they are concerned about studded tires.

The midwest is different, that's for sure.

 

May I point out the Audi is worth 4 to 5 times more than the Camaro. You'd save more money driving the Camaro and storing the Audi.

 

Wait 'till you see my Formula!

You'll say drive the Audi too.

 

:rockon:

 

 

yOp 84 Recaro,
Thanks - we'll see what happens. Im not worried about parts though, I've had a couple of Chevys over there before and found all that I needed. Even restored one of the cars

Chuck!,
Yeah, no kidding - that blizzard came as outta nowhere..
And oh yeah - Derek is the man!! Did you check out his T/A?? Sweet ride!!!

Formul8,
Oh, believe me I clean it regulary. Wayy too much time and money into it to not take care of it - even though I have to use her as a daily driver right now.
Now THOSE are the words from a TRUE thirdgen'er...LOL...!!


Ken

 

busted-you need to fix the camaro first or id say you already own the beater car. hehehe :lala: LOL :hail: KNOW WHAT I MEAN JELLYBEAN? seeya

 

LMAO, gga!!
Man, I've had some solid hours under the hood today - Im heading over to the other thread to share the development in ChevyKen's ongoing soap opera...



Ken

 

I feel your pain I got stuck driving my camaro the past two winters out in illinios, and this year I finally bought a beater, I picked up a 88 toyota mr2, which is a bondo king, yeah I know the mr2 is ****y in the snow like a camaro, but when I put that in a ditch I just laugh, the camaro id cry, last winter my car got messed up from going into the ditch, and spent about a grand fixing all the paint , so i figured why not buy a hooptie for cheaper

 

musclecar, economy car? aint never ever ever been a time or space on this planet or any others that i know of when one became the other. by my best guess if you are counting, 1974 saw the flame flicker and die with a certain 455 powered trans am-emasculated as it was, the beauty and strength of the intent of the design was still under all the crap getting hap-hazardly rammed down our necks. other than that 71 was when the baloon popped for me. dont let em fool ya with those stickers and decals-any mental tie in to the original should not be acknowledged. economy car? WTF is that?

 

Here's the "winter beater" I hope to be using by this time next year... Doesn't steer too well, but it's got more horsepower than a couple dozen TTA's, I don't have to maintain it or pay for gas, and best of all, it's weatherproof.


(Photo by my friend Bob Vogel)

-- David
Chicago, IL

 

I wrecked my "beater" a few weeks ago..I just left it where I wrecked it too..I was comin' home from work..hit some ice under a bridge and slid up and hit one of the tall cement pillars sideways @30 mph

R.I.P 198x escort GT, I payed a good 200$ for her but she just wasn't worth taking home that day..

 

OK, the pics attached are of the same Camaro I still have (and feature in my signature). Ever since that winter (Jan 5th of 1999 to be exact), I don't drive my F-Bod in the snow anymore. Snow/Winter + F-Bod = BAD!!