Those who know me know that I'm a self-acknowledged automotive hoarder. At one time I owned upwards of 40 vehicles at one time, and as one might imagine, most of them served the sole purpose of elevating my property values and preventing foliage from growing beneath them. Around a year ago my wife and I purchased a new home several hundred miles from the old one, and roughly 1/3 of the hoard was sold or scrapped, rather than moved with us. Since then I've bought and sold a few cars, but we only have a handful - perhaps 5 or 6 - running at any one time. Most of the flock are realistically just parts cars, and over 1/2 are Volvo Amazons.
In June of this year our first child was born, the most beautiful baby girl I have ever laid eyes on. And I realized that we somehow had no vehicle practical for a family. Her SUV combines the attractive attributes of poor fuel economy with the easy accessibility of a 2 door body style. My F350 4x4, while a crew cab, is a monster to drive and park, guzzles diesel, and is precarious to load and unload with a squirmy child. Everything else we own is either small, old, dangerous, or impractical- many of them all of the above.
We're both somewhat different people. And not different from each other, but rather, different from most other people. Thankfully, we're very much alike each other, which helps us get along psychologically. But we have trouble, in some ways, working within the confines of the Standard World. When I suggested to my lovely wife that we should look for a new car, something practical for the 3 of us, our dog, and our roadtrip- prone lifestyle, she balked. I suggested a 4 door version of her SUV, but the reaction was lukewarm. Similarly, numerous newer wagons were mentioned, all met with numerous shades of nonchalance. A minivan was also assumed verboten, and the subject never even broached. So, what, then?
I've been pretty good at culling further the dross of my Automotive ADD affliction, and decided to direct some of the freed up capital towards a family cruiser more befitting our kind. The Chrysler Town and Country has been a staple of Americana for decades now, and I managed to find an early example that spoke to me:
This T&C spent the first 48 years of its life in Arizona, so it's almost completely rust-free. And it's fairly basic- the entry-level 383 cubic inch V8 lives under the hood, sucking fumes through a 2 barrel Stromberg WWC, and backed by a 727 automatic transmission. The windows all wind up with cranks - except the tailgate glass, which is power (and works). There's an AM radio to supply the nostalgic tunes, and ashtrays for every passenger.
The main downside of this desert gem is just what you'd expect- a baked interior. Add in the fact that this cruiser hasn't plied actual roads in a dozen years or more and it's obvious we have some work ahead of us.
Unlike so many of my previous projects, though, I am determined, this time, to see it through. I'm hoping that chronicling the journey here will help in that regard. The immediate goal is to get the T&C roadworthy, and I mean bulletproof roadworthy. I want to be able to strap all of us in and take off for, say, Ohio (we live in Maryland) without any more thought than if we were hopping in my F350. After that, we'll focus on making it livable- freshen the interior, renew, customize, make it how we want it. The clean, straight, solid sheet metal means we won't be touching the paint gun for a while, at least- a fact I'm hoping will let me focus more on the fixes at hand. And so, the journey begins...
for less than $200. We'll save the original seats, of course, and when we have some money saved up those will get redone.
