[Amc-list] beaters, was Re: fan pulley/74 hornet

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Beaters are interesting to me in a couple of ways. (Hot rod word for old 
unrestored car usually daily transpo, etc). Sometimes they're "junkers" 
just barely running, but to me, and I think a lot of people, it isn't 
that simple.

My Classic wagon is more or less a beater. Meaning it get beat on; I use 
the hell out of it. It's got flaws -- floors were partially rusted out 
(had factory rubber mats and leaking windshield...) and it was hit in 
the rear, folding the drivers side chassis a bit, there's a kink at the 
roofline and a buckle in the fender wheel cutout from an accident in 
probably the 1970's, that I never fixed. 4-wheel chassis alignment 
showed it to be OK and that was 15+ years ago.

The car is sorta fugly. It's often dirty, and has stuff in the back. But 
mechanically, it's anything but junk, it's top-notch and right now would 
drive coast to coast and back.

It's a "sleeper beater". I see that sort of car around hot rod places, 
they're often better cared for than some of the rods! But I just added a 
music computer to it, and the controls I made in a scrap of sheet steel 
(nicely finished) and I just bolted it to the dash. It's appropriate 
here, and done reliably, but it's noooo waaaay a show car. To non-car 
people it's just a fugly old thing; but real car people who look (or the 
alignment shop that sees it from the bottom) have a totally different 
take on it... and their opinion matters ore to me!

Beaters are neater.
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