What do YOU think is a must have in a daily driver?

[Paul Y]

Whilst I was sitting on my favourite milk crate looking at Woody's front suspension and thinking 'How do I fix THAT' my mind wondered to a future date when I would be embarking on epic drives, faithful mutt at my side, visiting friends up and down the country and generally burning as much fuel and rubber as possible before the whine of electric motors becomes all pervasive when I had a thought.

Always dangerous, thoughts, but bear with me.

Now, I have had many many cars over the past 40 years of driving, in fact I had probably 10 before I passed my test, but all have been compromised in some way shape or form. Either too slow, too low, too noisy or just too uncomfortable.

As my body reaches a more mature stage of its development - pleased to say that I have managed to hold onto the child like thrill that cars give me - I got thinking. Which brings me back to the milk crate.

What modification do you think is the ABSOLUTE must have in order for you to enjoy your truck as a daily. Actually thinking about that question let me reframe it.

What do you think is the ABSOLUTE must have to enable you to ENJOY going on a road trip AND being able to daily your truck.

Might be worth reminding you good folk that I am based in the UK so a long trip for me is probably going to be around the 300 mile range to visit my daughter at Uni. And by visit I really mean annoy....

Right. Got that. GO!

P.

[SkinnyG]

Great seats

Tunes

A/C

Cruise control

[Clyde65]

Reliability
Ease of handling
Safety

[Corts60]

Comfy seats big time. I didn’t care back in my twenties, but now I really appreciate a good supportive seat. And, of course, tunes.

[Thealien]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Great seats

Tunes

A/C

Cruise control

I agree with this.

Overdrive if I have to add to the list.

[shp4man]

I've often thought I could dump my DD if I was retired. Pretty sure my old truck could serve as primary transportation then.

[65truckowner]

power steering , up graded brakes, nice stereo, nice seats and ac

[Just-in-credible]

Where I'm at, the weather is usually nice enough to cruise with the windows open in the summer. so AC isnt a MUST, its a nice to have.

Overdrive however is a must. Having that extra gear makes all the difference. I swapped out a TH350 and put in a 4L60E...the difference for road trips was night and day.

cruise control is also one of those long trip nice to have items. cruise and OD make such a great pair.

power steering...because nobody likes wrestling in parking lots.

and one that I love but isn't ABSOLUTELY necessary EFI. Carbs are great, I'm not knocking them, but after an EFI swap, I'm sold, and probably will never do another carb vehicle again. The technology is finally where it needs to be.

[justa dumb hick]

Well, I wuz gonna say keep it simple and reliable. But then I read yer build thread and realized you were waaaay past that point. So with that in mind, I suppose my only recommendation would be to keep it simple and reliable. Waitaminute....WTH did I just say?

The only thing you need is an uncontrollable smile on your face each time you turn the key. If you don't have that, you missed sumthin' and need to rethink the plan.

'nuff of my worthless words of wisdom. But I do feel the need to say THANK YOU! I find electrons annoying (the internet). Handy little bastards... but annoying. Yet once in a great while they bring me great pleasure in the form of a gifted wordsmith! A limey who writes in fashion of Bill Bryson is always a pleasant surprise. So Thank you for sharing, Paul Y.

[AcampoDave]

Top 5 for my roadtrip rig in no specific order

1. Three point seatbelts (could save my life)
2.A/C ( I'm a windows up kinda guy and sometimes where I live I use the air even in winter)
3. Quiet exhaust (I got a problem with noise)
4. Good brakes, suspension, steering etc. (I'll just roll all that stuff into one because everybody gets it)
5. A new Soft Ray green windshield. (When I got rid of that old wiper scarred piece o' trash it was like the feeling of
getting new eye glasses)

[Paul Y]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to what I will now call 'moments from the Milk Crate - Episode 1 in which we realise Coke might have wanted to teach the World to sing but Trucks will cover up the fact you are tone deaf....

What are my must haves then?

In no particular order:-

1. Quiet - Having run a BBC in my 56 with 3" exhausts and Flowmasters the headaches after driving for 3 hours made me want to reconsider my life choices.
Therefore - must be quiet in the cab so good sound deadening is a must.

2. Noisy - Must have a loud enough exhaust to upset the neighbours and set off car alarms - see above

3. Comfortable - I am about 6'1" and around 185-200lb dependant on what I had for dinner so the bench seat and general ergonomics are not too bad for me. I will mess around with the peddle heights and the foam in my bench seat to get it right. Plus I like a bench seat - part of the beauty of having an old car is that it retains some of its charm as an old car.

4. Handling, steering, brakes. - Even though it is an old car I still want it to be a joy to drive in modern traffic

5. POOOWWWEEERRRRRRRR - Having had low 12, high 11 second cars I want a 10 second truck. Just for burnouts and Ice Cream you understand but being a Hooligan makes me smile. A lot.

6. Manual. Yes. Manual.

7. Safe. There are idiots everywhere so whilst I know a nearly 60 year old truck is never going to have more airbags than your local Gentlemen's club, good belts, lights, windscreen wipers (it does rain here a reasonable amount etc are a must have.

8. Cup Holders.

9. Reliable. Every car I have built to date I would happily jump in and drive anywhere knowing that, baring an unknown, would arrive at my destination. I have broken - a lot - of components, Gearbox's Axles, Engines, but only once. If it breaks I make it better. Look at it as a program of continual improvement.

10. Connected. I need to be able to make calls, use a sat nav and listen to tunes so it needs to have that functionality.

11. Make me smile. A lot.

Now, I know that list will look a lot like a wish list rather than a daily/roadtrip truck but that is what I am trying to achieve, Looks like a lot of us are trying to do the same thing.

What else do I need to add???

P.

[Paul Y]

Originally Posted by justa dumb hick

Well, I wuz gonna say keep it simple and reliable. But then I read yer build thread and realized you were waaaay past that point. So with that in mind, I suppose my only recommendation would be to keep it simple and reliable. Waitaminute....WTH did I just say?

The only thing you need is an uncontrollable smile on your face each time you turn the key. If you don't have that, you missed sumthin' and need to rethink the plan.

'nuff of my worthless words of wisdom. But I do feel the need to say THANK YOU! I find electrons annoying (the internet). Handy little bastards... but annoying. Yet once in a great while they bring me great pleasure in the form of a gifted wordsmith! A limey who writes in fashion of Bill Bryson is always a pleasant surprise. So Thank you for sharing, Paul Y.

I have my days Sir, I have my days....

P.

[vin63]

At least a 3-point driver restraint/seat belt system.

[nsb29]

Originally Posted by Just-in-credible

Where I'm at, the weather is usually nice enough to cruise with the windows open in the summer. so AC isnt a MUST, its a nice to have.

Overdrive however is a must. Having that extra gear makes all the difference. I swapped out a TH350 and put in a 4L60E...the difference for road trips was night and day.

cruise control is also one of those long trip nice to have items. cruise and OD make such a great pair.

power steering...because nobody likes wrestling in parking lots.

and one that I love but isn't ABSOLUTELY necessary EFI. Carbs are great, I'm not knocking them, but after an EFI swap, I'm sold, and probably will never do another carb vehicle again. The technology is finally where it needs to be.

In your case a good heater

[Paul Y]

Originally Posted by nsb29

In your case a good heater

Added!

P.

[Grizz1963]

Just a reminder for those who remember, and an introduction to the way PaulY collects furniture.

Like a bandit.

Click link: https://youtu.be/ucVmsET4BFw


There you go, noise, power, tyres

If I don’t drive my 66 every day, where is my motivation to make it reliable?
If it’s not fun to drive, I will stop driving it.

What’s essential? AAA Plus!

I’ve been enjoying driving the 66 daily since the day I bought it. Granted, the drive home that first evening, it had NO seatbelts and I was not familiar with any of the systems or how reliable it was/wasn’t going to be. I was still grinning my ass off driving it down the fwy, hoping it makes it home.

Driver side lap belt went in the next day...it was a good start.
I have since upgraded to comfy seats with integral 3 point belts.

With every repair/upgrade it becomes more road worthy. Lights all working properly, lube and adjust the front end, change out the nasty-ass cheery bomb it came with...the list goes on.

Bottom line, I just drive it! Upgrades will continue to improve the experience, but it’s only parked if it’s in pieces. If it breaks while driving it, then I know what I’m fixing next.

I would drive it to LA tomorrow if I needed to...would probably make it.

[jweb]

1: Quiet in the cab - Make sure all of your seals are good, add sound deadener and an exhaust that's not too loud ( add electric cut outs if you want it loud sometimes). You want to be able to have a conversation if there is someone riding with you.

2: Comfort - A good seat and quality suspension parts. Also a cup holder is nice.

3: Reliability - This could be many different things but the main point is , you want to drive it. Not do repairs on the side of the road or have it overheat in traffic.

4: Safety - Good brakes, headlights and windshield wipers. Even if you don't plan to drive at night or in the rain. Your weather is similar to here in Oregon, it can change to pouring rain at any moment.

[350TacoZilla]

Hate to sound old here but with my back comfort is #1 at this point so...

1.Seats, comfortable with good support a must. Added bonus for armrest
2.Suspension, that seat is only going to do so much for comfort if the suspension sucks.
3.Insulation, for both sound and temperature control
4.A\C (gets over 100 in summer)
5.Heat (gets below freezing too)
Random thought after typing that out, why do I live here?
6.MPG, 500HP\7mpg is fun but with decent MPG I could actually drive it.
7.Decent radio, nothing fancy needed really but input for my phone is nice.

[vince1]

As long as it has anything more than a 51 Thames P/U that at thirteen years old was my first vehicle. It had one seat and mechanical brakes.
I guess my picture upload was unsuccessful. Sorry about that.

[Paul Y]

Originally Posted by vince1

As long as it has anything more than a 51 Thames P/U that at thirteen years old was my first vehicle. It had one seat and mechanical brakes.
I guess my picture upload was unsuccessful. Sorry about that.

Try again Vince!

My first car was a 1950 Jowett Javelin. Oh the power of the 1500cc flat 4.....

But it did have a bench seat.

And Picnic trays.....

P.

[justa dumb hick]

Hmm... OK, I'll bite. Explain the picnic tray part. This Euro stuff is so danged complex...

[SidsChopShop]

I've used my '66 as my daily driver for the past 7 years; starting out with the factory 283 2bbl, 3ott, 4 wheel drum brakes and stock height springs. Over the years I have upgraded it while I drove it and it now has a disc conversion, lowered 2/4 and powered with a streetable 355 backed with a Tremec TKO. With that said here are my top 3.

For a daily driver you need a darn good cooling system. Save or spend as much as you can for the best you can buy, this is cheap insurance compared to what your motor cost you.

Install a dual port brake system with new lines and hardware all around.

Keep it simple. Clean up your wiring, ignition, and charging systems keeping them close to stock. This will save headaches trying to troubleshoot and/replace parts if they fail.

[vince1]

I asked a mechanic back then how much horsepower it had. He said oh I don't know, about eight or nine.

[Riverstory]

I didn't read this in any reply and if I missed it, I apologize.

A great companion to enjoy the journey is at the top of my list.