Your best or most interesting "winter beater" cars
 

As the weather begins to change in the midwest and we are getting our last few weeks of good weather for the year, I began thinking about the beater cars I used to buy for winter driving. Usually, a different one each year. For about 6-8 years, beginning toward the end of high school and going through college, we had a little contest going between car nut friends as to who could find the best beater car. We even had rules. Maximum purchase price for the beater was to be $100.00 in running condition. It had to make it through the winter to be considered the best. I had quite a few, but two still stand out today. 1. 1971 Datsun 510 Station Wagon. Purchased for $75.00, this robin egg blue beauty was perfect. Good traction in the snow with snow tires. Super reliable, decent heater and defrost, room for all kinds of crap in the station wagon body. So rusty, especially the front fenders, it would pocket snow and they would stick out at the bottom almost a foot until the snow melted. Finally, in early March, the strut towers just caved inward and the front wheels had like 20 degrees of negative camber. Repaired with a 4X4 of treated lumber wedged between them and pounded into place until a portable camber gauge read near zero. It made it through the winter. 2. For the Pontiac fans, a 1968 Bonneville 4 door purchased for $25.00. It was missing the carburetor and battery but was allowed in the game because a used Q-jet and used battery kept the total investment under $100.00. Threw the carb on, installed the battery and drove it home. It was a 340 HP 400 and ran great. Aqua Marine color with ripped-up matching cloth interior. Great heater, and defrost. Went through snow and ice great with studded snow tires. Never had a single issue with that car and sold it for $500.00 in the spring. Even beat a 69 Road Runner in a street race with the studded snow tires. What kinds of fun winter beaters have you owned?

Two come to mind:

1970 Bonneville 455. A bulletproof tank that would go thru any snow. Hauled 3 Pontiac short blocks in the trunk along with 4 or 5 of us to A. Hines Racing Engines in Indiana. On dates with my future wife, I'd jump out of the driver door and run across the hood to go open her door and never got a dent or wrinkle.

1977 3/4 ton Suburban 454. My first tow vehicle. It would also go anywhere in any weather and took us on the maiden voyage to Arnie Beswick's farm to pick up the station wagon that would become the Grocery Getter.

Fun memories.....
Eric

1963 Pontiac Catalina 2 door hardtop, light blue, 389, 4bbl, 4 speed BW T 10. Running driving and a PA state inspection sticker on it, $75. Main problem is it still had automatic gears in the rear axle, (most likely a 2.78, 2.90 ratio) someone must have fried the organic clutch on it before I bought it, because it had a full metallic velvet touch clutch setup in it.

1994 Impala SS. I bought it in St Louis as an insurance writeoff in 2001. Stripped the 6 speed out of a 94 Trans Am and converted the Impala to a T56 6 speed behind the stock LT1. Drove it 24/7/365 for about 7-8 years. What a fun car! It took me through our nice snowy winters in style with plenty of smiles!

1972 Ford Maverick with the inline six, automatic.

Rusted so bad there were holes in the backseat floor you could put your foot through if the cardboard wasn't there.

Studded snows in back, couple bags of sand in the trunk, had a pronounced ass dragging the ground look. I could go down in the parking lot when it was 10 degrees below zero and it would start literally before you even heard it turn over once. Heat worked fantastic and something about the weight distribution or geometry you could plow through 6" deep snow like a snowmobile. The best performing 2wd vehicle winter vehicle I have ever owned.

Got the car for free from the body shop I worked for and gave it away when I was done with it ... if not for the rust it would probably still be running somewhere ( I had it around 1982). One of the most reliable engines I have ever seen.

When I was 19 or so I needed a car to get me dependably to my mechanics job.. I loved my ‘66 GTO, but needed a winter beater type for everyday driving. I found a ‘73 GP in the local paper for, as I remember, $300.
When I went to look at it the guy said his brother bought it brand new, then sold it to him just to pull his boat with occasionally. Boat was gone, so he had no use for the car now. I fired it up and the “350”ran great, but of coarse the car had the usual Midwest rust everywhere. This was around ‘84 or so.BTW. I drove it around the neighborhood and forked over the money.
The next day I figured I’d tune it up, so popped the hood to see exactly if I missed anything, seeing as how I was looking at it in a dark driveway the night before. I was happy to find out the 350 was actually a 400! Popping the air cleaner off I saw it had a Quadrajet too! I also crawled underneath to find duel exhaust! The drivers side tailpipe was missing. 3.73 rear gears too!
I miss that car to this day! I beat on it as mercilessly as I did at that age, but it never skipped a beat. I remember during cold snaps jumping all the other family members cars that wouldn’t start, including my dads new Toyota.
I sold it a few years later to buy my ‘76 455 SJ. Another one of my favorites. :)

My first 1966 LeMANS
 

It was a dual-season beater.
I was in my late teens and thought this Ol Lemans was cool.

Would run up and down the GSP from Monmouth Co down to Wildwood in the summer always running hotter than hell,
but come winter I would throw on a pair of those large honking treaded snow tires on the rear, studded of course, and make trips to upstate NY.

Man, that turd was great in the snow :)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ea630dab_z.jpg

The Spare 1995 Lincoln does the trick, while the nice 1995 Lincoln sits garaged, or snow birded south.

1974 2dr Granville,455. White with a black vinyl roof. Loaded. Easy in and out. Went like a tank in the winter.local Tire shop gave me cast off tires cheap. Bought it for 175.00 Trans needed rebuilt. $200.00 got trans rebuilt by a friend(still have Trans and engine). Use to do 'donuts' in the winter. Gas mileage 12 ,max 15.

1972 Gremlin….

Don

Arnold used to live right down the street from me. I remember him working on his '62 Chevy II out in the yard. Is he still around? Must be 85 now. :D

When you live in Edmonton, Alberta and the temperature would stay at -40 for days, you need a car that will start. In the early 80's everyone had a beater year round because everyone was broke due to the collapse of the oil market. A lot of those cars would not start after sitting overnight in that frozen environment. But my '74 Duster with the slant 6 never failed me. I've had a lot of cars but that car was definitely the best value I've ever gotten out of a vehicle. I drove it all through BC as well in the summer of '86 and then drove it all the way to Toronto after.
I wish that I still had that car for sentimental reasons. I've caught myself looking through ads for one just like it.

I had a 70 Duster slant 6 beater when I was attending University of Waterloo back in the late 70’s. Took a licking and kept on ticking.

Don

68 Delmont. 455 2bbl. 2 door. Got it for 75.00 off the back of a farm. Ran like a watch, drank lots of oil. Pulled balve covers and cleaned out drain back passages. Drank less. Had a source for free oil. Just kept it full. Woukd go through any amout of snow we got. Those 14" snow tire didnt stand a chance on dry pavement.

66 Corvair. Would never get stuck, great snow vehicle. I guess the engine over rear wheels helped a lot with traction. Safe at any speed, but don’t tell Nader

1969 GTO 400 4 speed red red interior black top. This was back in the late 80’s funnest winter car I ever had actually went good with a set of snow tires on back and a 355 posi. I pounded it all winter and parted it out the next spring. Also the winter of 83 I drove my 69 judge all winter but it didn’t get parted out of coarse.

Probably most interesting was a '68 Firebird coupe that looked like it had been laid on its side and used for batting practise (hail). Had maybe one option. Three speed Saginaw behind a monojet OHC-6. Got me to work.

While living in Michigan learned to always look for cars with AC: better charging system, better cooling system, and more important, better heaters.

Some good stories so far. I will throw in one more. I didn't list it originally as a "beater", because I loved this car and drove it 5 years. My neighbor sold me a 1966 4-door Ventura, 389, 290 HP auto car for $300.00. So it didn't make the $100.00 beater limit my friends and I had. But what a great car. Drove it everywhere and put 130,000 miles on it. It got 17 MPG city and 22-24 on the highway with the 2.56 gear ratio. Ripped into 3rd gear at just over 90 MPH in drive at WOT. Just a great car. We called it the Banana Boat as it was Mayfield Maize with a black interior. In 1978, It was parked in the BGSU student lot when the "Great Blizzard" of 78 hit. Two days later, when I went to the lot to find it, I could barely make it out. We shoveled snow away enough to open the door. The snow was over the roof. Opened the hood and you could not see the engine, just solid snow. Chopped enough away from the fan and pulleys so they could turn. Got in, pushed the gas pedal to the floor to set the choke and turned the key. It cranked one or two revolutions and started right up. Snow blowing all over from under the hood. Let it run half an hour and melt off. It was one of only a couple cars that ran on campus for several days. First order of business was to drive it back to the dorm and take the trunk lid off. Drove to the grocery and filled the trunk all the way to the roof with beer. That car was a campus hero!!

Before my Duster, I played in a band, and the band car was a '65 Impala. The one with the COLD light in the dash. That car took us all around Alberta. One time, we were heading north, as if Edmonton wasn't north enough, up to Ft. McMurray for a gig. Back then, that was a lonely highway with nothing going on because the oil patch had completely imploded. We were about halfway there and rounding a corner when all of a sudden there was a deer right there in front of us. Not some little Bambi deer, either. A full grown Buck Mule deer. Probably 400 pounds. We smashed right into it, pushing the header panel, core support, rad, and fan right back into the motor. What a disaster. We then sat in the car trying to keep warm. Again, -40 or so, before any wind chill. And it was windy.
No cell phones back then. And no one came along at all. Finally, after probably four hours, our crew with the truck came down from Ft. McMurray looking for us.
We had the car fixed, though, and it continued to provide years of great winter service.

'68 Biscayne, 4 dr, 6 banger, auto slug/rust bucket/$50 car in '78. Funny story, a police officer pulled me over for speeding; you were doing 82 in a 55 mph zone. Um, well this car can't go over 74 mph....we both laughed and he let me go.