making a vehicle last 40 years/million miles??

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I daily drive a 1992 Cavalier with the 2.2L/auto that I bought wrecked with 76,600 miles on it in 2006. It just turned over 200,000 miles with minimal repairs and regular maintenance. It still runs well and has minimal body rust. It still gets 28-31mpg. I plan on driving it until it needs some major repair like an engine or transmission.

That being said, I have quite a few other vehicles to drive when I want a change of pace from driving the Cavalier. I personally wouldn't want to drive the same vehicle for that long or that many miles on a daily basis. There are too many vehicles out there to tempt me away.

Doing regular maintenance, keeping the body clean and waxed, and doing repairs right when something goes wrong is the best way to make any vehicle last as long as possible.

Wayne
 
Try an old Fury.
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http://www.allpar.com/old/high-miles/vaillancourt.php
 
I haven't been able here in NY State, to keep a car driving everyday for beyond 18 years. The rust, even though I have done/had it painted and fixed some of the ruts myself, the structure becomes weak and fails long before the rest of the vehicle. Even though I have put on over 300K miles, I can't keep the vehicle from becoming a hazard on the road.

I have fixed/repaired myself or had done professionally all important mechanical items, this just isn't happening for me though, I'd love to drive a vehicle for 40 years but, 18 years is my personal record for a daily driver!

Yes, I have a vehicle in my signature that we purchased new(34 yrs ago) and will easily make it to 40 years old(Lord willing, no accidents), this car is stored winters and driven summers ONLY! And only has 40K mile and may have 45K + miles on her by the time she turns 40!
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Not really possible up here in the salt bath known as the Northeast. We have salt mines in many places, so that's what's used to keep the roads clear in the winter. Undercoating will go a long way to keeping the rust under control, so a undercoated daily driver that's otherwise maintained and garaged should be able to see 15-20 years before it succumbs.

I'm starting to see mid-2000's cars with rotted-out rockers. Won't be long before that generation of cars is off the roads and into the u-pick yards.
 
What are you trying to accomplish?

If you are trying to save money, buy a reliable economic car and drive it for 20 years today, then buy another one and drive it for 20 years again.

You will have a heck of a time fixing and finding parts for maintenance after 20 years. It would be searching and stocking for parts that are hard to find all over and that won't be economical.
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Note that vehicles were built with only lap belts to at lease 1998!

This doesn't sound right. I think shoulder belts were mandated around 1968 (convertibles excepted).

My 1971 Cutlass convertible doesn't have a shoulder belt. It is still legal to drive it in Michigan, since it was built that way. I'd like to put shoulder belts in, but that would be too invasive for the vehicle.
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Note that vehicles were built with only lap belts to at lease 1998!

This doesn't sound right. I think shoulder belts were mandated around 1968 (convertibles excepted).

My 1971 Cutlass convertible doesn't have a shoulder belt. It is still legal to drive it in Michigan, since it was built that way. I'd like to put shoulder belts in, but that would be too invasive for the vehicle.


Center positions are the only thing I can think of having lap only belts as late as '98. All outboard positions were lap and shoulder by '90 iirc.
 
Larger vehicles...I drove three different 1998 shuttle buses with only lap belts. (Come to think of it, I also drove a 1999 with no shoulder belts.)
 
I will be completely satisfied if I get 20 years from my 2011 Ford Crown Victoria. It has 62K miles on her now. Just a baby!
 
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Time is worse on a car than miles. Since I live in the salt belt, rust usually ends the life of a vehicle around here. Like others had mentioned, its the winters and time that kill the vehicles. My old Suburban was 20 years old with 250K miles on it when I finally gave up and sold it. Even with rustproofing it was starting to rust in harder to fix places, like around the windshield (causing a leak, and a somewhat expensive repair). The drivetrain was still original an running well, but I knew if I kept it, my battle with rust would quickly far exceed its value. It wasn't worth keeping anymore, so I upgraded to something newer.

That said, my old Torino has been in the family since day one, and is unrestored after 43 years. It still has all original drivetrain, body and interior. It never saw one mile in the snow since new, and has lived in a garage for much of its life, so that's probably the only reason it still exists. Mind you, it has nowhere near 1 million miles, sbout 150K miles. Although it hasn't been used much more than 1000 miles a year the last 10 years, it has been driven every year and never parked for years like so many other original cars.

On the seat belt issue, rear shoulder belts for the outboard positions became mandatory in 1989. One piece shoulder belts came in in 1974 for the front seats. In my area, the laws give an exception on shoulder belts for cars built before 1974.
 
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Hi again.
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I'm bringing this topic back because it makes no sense to repost the same topic when the old one was just fine! I just tend to let backburner questions sit awhile then check back up on them later.

So to bring this topic up to 2015 (and to honestly respond to every followup that was made before, albeit in more general terms) I wanted to share the following.


Yes I still want to research how to make a vehicle last 40 years and a million miles in my [censored] climate. Even if this seems excessive, the point of the post was to try and stir answers a little beyond the norm, like not just doubling a normal life or whatever.

On the rust angle I already have a 1987 dodge caravan that's now 28 years old but looks no worse than maybe ten years old (except some faded paint) just garaging it all the time and having washed the salt off when used in winter. On the mileage angle i've put almost a million miles on vehicles I had in the last two decades (trucks specifically i had, 76 suburban rear axle finally went out at 400k and was too rusty to want to fix any more, 77 chevy 1/2 ton had an oil pump failure around 280k, both original engines/transmissions) so a million over four doesn't seem unreasonable. I know it could get in an accident or get squashed by a tree, but the last two didnt, and this is more about understanding SYSTEMS than betting the farm on a single vehicle - i'm trying to get a better handle on what will really stretch the lifespan out.

I'd like to see different suggestions on ways to solve the problem and then pick the combination of solutions that works best for me. I wont repeat my original first post, i'll mostly focus on what I was hoping to do with specific followup comments now.


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The plan is to get a 3/4 ton 4wd chevy suburban in nice condition either 1977-1991 generation or 1992-1999 generation. Then frame off "restore" it doing whatever is on the list to do rebuilding and rustproofing the chassis either powdercoating everything I can or replacing with bits of stainless steel or even possibly titanium use (like the exhaust) if it literally lasts the life of the vehicle. Swap in Cummins 6bt mechanical P-pump 12 valve turbodiesel and NV4500 transmission hoping these are strong enough to go the distance, axle upgrades to a Dana 60 or Dana 70.

Specific smaller mods though i'm wanting to make a list of other things I should know about which I haven't mentioned so far. It's a given to have a prelubrication pump, bypass filtration, used oil analysis, i'd like to have a total engine preheater so first starts are as warm as if it was already running but am not quite sure how to do that. (will a block heater warm it all that much or just take the edge off the cold?) Concerning the chassis rustproofing i'm wondering WHERE I can use things like stainless or titanium without creating anode issues. (if thats what its called)


ELJEFINO suggested getting a 'modular' vehicle easier to repair like a saturn s-series, I already have one with 250k on it and no plan of getting rid of it before 400k or another 5-8 years at my current driving rate. But I need the truck for heavier duty stuff. Though out of curiosity are there any other 'highly modular' cars, I mean moreso than unibody construction seems to have everything on subframes nowadays?


GMAN2304 i've been doing 30-50k/year for two decades and depending how things work out expect the higher range of that to continue for at least another ten years, probably twenty. Retirement wont slow me down either. :^) I've probably done some 650-750k since I was 18. I'm just doing it inefficiently so far having worn out several vehicles in that time while paying more on maintenance than I think I could have with this. If I spend 30% more for twice the life it's worth it.


INDYLAN mentioned a 1st gen honda insight for being aluminum, which is interesting! Even if i'm less looking for a compact. My current strategy IS "make 2 cars last 20 years" for around town driving so far but i'm always curious about alternatives there too - didn't know they were aluminum. Maybe one needs a VW diesel swap, hmm... I know there are fiberglass cars too like the Fiero but i'm actually less concerned about the body itself (which AFAIK should be protectable with undercoating and regular washing) and more about the little nooks and crannies, places with dissimilar metals stuck together, rubber parts that wear out in hard to get to places, etc..


Can anyone suggest BETTER solutions for all those little parts, like running stainless steel braided brake lines everywhere, what are the most rust proof bolts (maybe there's the place for titanium if theyre made?), suspension bushings that dont go squishy, wiring that doesn't get brittle jackets 25 years in... seals, gaskets, washers, connectors, it's the LITTLE things that i'd like to modify/rebuild and do once and hope to almost not have to do again. It seems with old or neglected vehicles it's the little pieces that will eat you alive in bills! I don't plan to neglect it, but i'd like to prevent it.


01RANGERXL told me to stick with a simple version of a common vehicle - thats one reason I love my chevy trucks! I had a 76 suburban that lasted 400k until the rear axle died and I deemed it too rusty to bother with anymore (could see the highway through the floor :p) and a 77 that lasted 280k til an oil pump died, original engines and auto transmissions. Since the market on these trucks has pretty well bottomed out (but not turned 'collector' like earlier ones) thats why i'm looking at this now - this would be the time to not only get a nice condition model but also salt away some replacement/for future parts if i'm going to in storage for instance. I don't need to go no AC and no power steering, there are some parts I expect will need periodic service and that's okay. What i hate more than anything is crawling around under a car with a bad back trying to track down a wiring short, or figure out where there's a brake line kink, or finding ever new rusty bolt holes and such. I'm aware not all that is fixed by my planning, I just mean thats what i'd like to see if I could minimize at least from rust or mechanical wear - the kind of work that you will start getting rapidly more of after about 20-25 years with a vehicle. I dont want to do another frame-off is what I mean.


ARTIFICIALIST points out my problem - "electrical glitches, climate control repairs, replacing suspension part multiple times, entire brake system"


one of the few i'll quote exactly:
Originally Posted By: linksep
To set arbitrary numbers like 40 years/1M miles for a DD in MN it's clear you haven't done the math. You'll spend more on car-washes than it would cost to replace the vehicle. That's before we factor in all the other tings you mention like cryo-treating and re-engineering...


I HAVE done the math. At least on some of it. If cryo parts last 3x as long that's less expensive than two transmission replacements/rebuilds. Washing a car at home doesn't cost much. Re-engineering that was being considered anyways is not an extra cost - whether I drive it 20 years or 40 I want a 6bt and nv4500 ANYWAYS. Powder coating a frame at home isn't massively more expensive than painting. A titanium exhaust i'm buying once instead of 4-6 times over the life of the vehicle... well thats more discretionary. But most alternatives are not even twice the cost, and definately worth reduced hassle later.


Some other comments here (like "move") or griping about fuel costs have been a bit silly too - I assumed this was the place to brainstorm extended life vehicles so can we mostly focus on that? I just want to see if there's something else new I haven't heard of but should know about yet. I'll ask the mpg questions on Ecomodder and the life-advice questions on some other board. For how decent the family vehicles I currently have in the driveway are doing for all being 16-28 years old (and all put together a million miles between them) so nothing i'm asking is that far out of line. I just know it could be better with foreplanning.
 
Sounds like you already have it figured out. MN is a lot harsher on a truck than here in VA. I would suggest to buy the truck in a southern state so you start out with a good body. I'm a huge Chevy fan, because IMO they are engineered very well. Simple and durable.
 
Well if it's inspiration for you, the C-10 I mentioned before in this thread is back on the road, sort of. We're still working things out on it. It has been months of fixing odds and ends to make it not be a piece of [censored]. There is something very satisfying about slamming the gas, then seeing the hood flop around and hearing the ZZ4 roar, but I would absolutely not drive this thing daily. Finding parts for it is easy though, and it lives again.
 
As long as you live outside of the rust belt its quite doable. My buddies E300D Mercedes is turning 20 shortly and if it wasn't for the rust would just keep on going.

The cars that are designed to be rebuilt, the W123, W126 and older G wagon are getting long in the tooth now. Many are already 30 years old, but they just keep right on going. As long as the owner is willing to continue to overhaul the systems as they age.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-Benz-G-...em=252042541263
They are built like an aircraft, keep the rust out which is easy for CA drivers and just keep fixing parts as they wear out.
 
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You also have to take into account that whenever you have two dissimilar metals in an electrolyte solution, one will become the anode and be corroded. So a really really rust resistant exhaust system in contact with the rest of the vehicle will result in corrosion somewhere, likely in the attachment areas.

For that reason, I think it would be better to have similar corrosion resistance (something like stainless steel) throughout. Stainless steel fasteners are readily available at reasonable cost too. A stainless steel exhaust system might not last 40 years in a high corrosion environment but it'll probably last +/- 20 years and it's a fairly easy to replace "maintenance item".

The 40 year daily driver in a high corrosion environment may not be achievable at a practical cost. Two 20 year vehicles might be a much lower cost and quite practical objective.

A million mile power train would be the easy part - buy that off the shelf.
 
When I buy a vehicle new, I have a professional rust proofing job done to it, like Ziebart or Auto Armour, and I have it undercoated before it has a chance to get anything more than dust on it from sitting in the dealer lot. Started doing that in the mid 80's, and I have yet to have a vehicle get cancer. Car or pickup. And I live in a salt and calcium chloride rich environment during the winter months.
 
Hey columnshift, I too am from Minnesota. Welcome aboard! My only comment on this is, why would you want a car to go 40 years. Think of it this way, it is 2015. If I was driving a 40 year old car, it would be a 1975....all I can say is yuck. Cars are so much better today as far as safety, mpg, reliability etc. My insurance rates are even cheaper on a newer car, by a large amount.
 
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