30,000 Miles in a Darrin!

[blackcat429cj]

Had a fun Morning today, It was  Sunny but cool.  A perfect morning to take the Darrin for a run.

I put about 100 miles on today, ran a couple of errands and stopped to see a couple of friends.  During my drive the car turned over 30,000 miles.   

It was a great day to reflect on some great times that I have had with the car, many friends that I have had over the years, a number of them are now gone, and some have fallen out of touch.

Just added the picture of the car changing over.

[HJ-ETEX]

Your post & the recent hurricane coverage reminded me of stories I had read of Bar Harbor and other exclusive resort areas on the New England coast. There were a lot of luxury cars - even custom bodied ones - that were bought and used in these areas for 3 or 4 months in the summer. The owners went back to New York and left the cars behind to be stored over the winter.
So, these cars would have had heavy usage during that short season to even run up 3,000 miles a year.   

[blackcat429cj]

Interestingly gues where the most mustang and cougar convertibles were sold?   Boston District sales office!  Other east coast DSOs all exceeded Sunny locations such as LAX, SanJose, Florida etc.

The history of my Darrin is;  The car was sold new in Chicago to an executive of the Kunio Publishing company.  It ended up in his estate.  The attorney took the car as part of his fees. 

The car was stored on the attorneys brothers fare in Dallas WI,  about 2 hour NE of the Twin cities,  in 1963 the car was located by a couple of differant Kaiser ethusiasts, the car was in a chicken coupe it had just 12000 miles on it!. 

I purchased the car in 1987, at that time it had just 20000 miles.  In the first three years of ownership I put 8500 miles on the car, then a 9 year restoration took the car off the road.  After the resto it to several years to chase out several gremlins that developed from disuse. the so basically in 10 years the car has been driven 1500 miles.  It has also be trailer a lot more.

ML

[HJ-ETEX]

Your revelation about the location of convertible sales is surprising to me in that it is in the North East instead of the MidWest (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois). Once AC was cheaply available, it was more comfortable in the South & Southwest to have a hardtop w/AC rather than a convertible. A hardtop is an all season/all weather car while a convertible is good to mild weather car.
And you know, from the late 50's most convertibles had AC installed. This paradox is mostly explained by the point that by that time convertibles were heavily optioned cars in appearance and luxury items, although not necessarily in performance options. Hence, fully loaded convertibles with base V8s.   

[blackcat429cj]

It is interesting I would suspect the while per capita sales were high in the midwest I beleive that overall a lower population in the midwest vs the NE is why the sales were lower.

I would agree with your observation on engines - On a mustang for example the base engine was a six cylinder, most converts either have a small or mid range V8 for example either a 302 or a 351 2V.

Ford Collectors a lucky with the abount of documentation that is available for cars 1967-1979. The computer data base has been licencensed so it is possible to provide a serial number and obtain complete information as to how the car was ordered.  In addition two books Mustang by the numbers and Cougar by the Numbers have been published that identify many different production statistics. 

[Fid]

Mitch, I'm sure  you'll agree that here in MN, driving a convertible in the winter ain't much fun! When I was in high school, my brother had a '68 Camaro convertible and we froze our tails off in that car in the winter with the canvas top or whatever it was made of. Of course, I'm sure you don't take the Darrin out on those types of days! 

[Jim B PEI]

Could be worse. Could be driving a CORVAIR convertible in an Ottawa ON winter--at -30. I did. The faster you drove, the colder it got. It was a choice on some nights on an hours drive of frostbite or hypothermia. 

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

During my year with GM (1990-91) I latched on to a 1991 Sunbird LE coupe with a test engine (AC Spark Plug was working on development of the platinum tip 100,000 mile plugs and left the set in the thing!).  Unfortunately, they forgot to put the thermostat back in so when I took Lauren up to Carleton College near Twin Cities from Madison WI, we were getting just enough heat in the -30F weather to either get most of the windshield clear of inside frost or keep her legs from freezing!

[Jim B PEI]

What was evil about all Corvairs was that the heat came from the rear of the car forward, and from below. You were okay-ish if you had bucket seats, because then you could keep you hands warm from the heat coming from the rear seat heater outlet at the floor, and because the heat for the front went under the floor, you might have icicles on your eyebrows but your feet might be unfrozen. Trying to keep the de-iced portion of the windshield larger than 2 half moons about 4-5 inches in radius, meant closing off the only real source of heat, the rear seat heater outlet, and running everything through the defroster vents. I tuned the thermostatic vents, sealed them up tight with silicone to get rid of airleaks, and managed to survive...just.  Mind you, Corvairs more than made up for their failings as heated vehicles, by being the worlds' best ever snow vehicle..ever. I got through unplowed highways with 30-36 inches of new snow in my Corvairs. I remember tying a rimless tire over the front bumper and pushing a stuck police cruiser up a hill with it...Every SUV I've been in since doesn't even come close--some of the Range Rovers, perhaps..

[blackcat429cj]

Mitch, I'm sure  you'll agree that here in MN, driving a convertible in the winter ain't much fun! When I was in high school, my brother had a '68 Camaro convertible and we froze our tails off in that car in the winter with the canvas top or whatever it was made of. Of course, I'm sure you don't take the Darrin out on those types of days! 

Only once - when I drove it to get it restored about 3 weeks after the holloween blizard - very drafty even with side curatains in.

what you need to do is use a roll of clear packing tape to seal the top to the windshield and anyplace else that air might leak.

A friend once had a 74 VW beatle - her car had both factory A/C - and a Gas heater - kind of strange the defrosters had lukewarm air at best - but the gas heater kept you nice and toasty!

[HJ-ETEX]

VW and heater? HA! I drove an 8 year old VW to work for about 1 year and a half until I decided something with a bigger motor and a liquid cooling system would be worth the additional cost. It was 35 miles 1 way and the drive started at an hour before dawn. So this is East Texas and there is frost perhaps 14 days a year - but frost on the outside of the windshield wasn't the problem. Since there was no heat until halfway in the drive, there was also no defroster. I had 3 towels on the passenger seat to wipe the inside of the windshield and the outside rear view mirror. The rear window heater actually worked but it didn't burn off the inside condensation so it wasn't any help. 

[blackcat429cj]

Yes the heater in the VW - was an option - It actually pulled gas from the tank and burned it,  it would cook you out of the car!!!   without it frostbite would settle in during a good North Dakota/Minnesota winter.

[boatingbill]

blackcat429cj: I remember many cars in the early fifties that did not have a heater as it was an option back then. The gas burning heater was installed as an aftermarket item and was called a SouthWind I believe. My neighbor drove his fiberglass Corvette in the Twin Cities year around and always said : "fiberglass doesn't rust so why not". Then one Winter day, the frame broke in two due to rust out from the salt!