Still have the first car I ever owned: 1957 Chevrolet, 2 door sedan. I have a little over 300k miles on mine. Re-manunfactured parts are easy to find. Working on this car is a piece of cake. Many shop manuals are in print. Also nothing turns heads like a 57 Chevy. It is the symbol of life in the 50s.
[1] 55-57 Chevy
[2] 49 Merc.
you'll last three months, tops, before you're back into the air-conditioned, smooth ride of your "computer controlled box" or whatever. And the last two of those months, nobody will want to be around you. You'll be sleeping in the doghouse.
Any 60s Dodge Dart with the Slant Six...
http://bringatrailer.com/2012/06/20/bat-exclusive-1965-ford-falcon-squire-wagon/
Look around and see what’s still on the road. I’m bettin’ it’s going to be a GM product. Parts availability is going to be an issue. I think GM offers you availability and interchangability across its different automobile lines.
I haven’t read all the replies, but whatever you get remember the older cars ran on leaded gas. Unleaded will ruin the engine. You have to add lead to the fuel. That may be increasingly difficult to find also.
I would take a more modern vehicle like a Chevy Lumina van which is all fiberglass, remove the engine up front, get a mid sized Perkins diesel from a forklift and mount it amidships. For something a bit bigger I would look for an older Peterbilt cab, make an aluminum frame and build my own Peterbilt pickup, engine can be almost any decent non electronic diesel.
I say that because I happen to have a 1984 Peterbilt conventional cab that I am indeed making into a pickup truck/toy hauler.
For all you old school car buffs out there, if you like American muscle, here’s the place to look:
American Dream Machines in Des Moines Iowa:
http://www.admcars.com/inventorymanager.php
http://www.carsrotting.com/blog/
I’d get a late 40 thru 50s’ year model.Dennis Carpenter could provide some parts
http://www.dennis-carpenter.com/
Falcon with a six cyl. will give you 30 mpg...And they are EASY to work on...
Buy a 1972 Chevy pickup, 350 engine, 4 speed. Most 350’s in trucks were 4 bolt mains. Lots of parts for Chevy trucks. The engines still had point and condenser ignition systems. Air conditioning was available. You can easily put a tilt steering column in them. They came with disc brakes. A 4 speed tranny will last almost forever. I don’t ever remember having to change a differential on one of these trucks. Gas milage was around 15 or 16 miles per gallon.
One thing you might consider is the probability of vapor lock in older vehicles. With the 10% ethanol maybe fixing to go to 15% it will happen.
Fuel pumps will die and older fuel lines begin to check and leak in months.
My old carbed truck now vapor locks if you shut it off for a short period of time and then try to restart it in hot weather.
We (family) just returned from a 2500 mile round trip to Steamboat Springs Colorado (Mustang show) in a ‘68 Mustang with an EFI 5.0 and had vapor lock in external electric fuel pumps going up high passes. Others had the same problem. Now I spend $250-500 parts to put the pump in the tank.
All because the Feral govt wants ethanol
Look for it or any other older vehicle in warmer, salt free areas, preferably a dry climate. Rust was more of a problem with some than others, but they all suffered from it until the advent of widespread effective rustproofing treatments to the metal itself, in the eighties.