Bought this as a stop gap until I could get something better.

Took a long weekend and drove to Victoria.   On the way the rear axel bearing started on fire.

Did temporary repairs in Duncan to get me to Victoria.

V-17 - `72 Buick Centurion  

V-17 (Photo: `78 Dawson Creek, B. C.) Buick Centurion 454 Cu. In. 4 Bbl. 4 Dr. hardtop convertible.

V-17a Same colour as mine except mine had a black roof. Photo courtesy of BUICK CENTURION . com

I got a honey of a deal on a two year old `72 Buick Centurion.

Like brand new except for the scratches where the golf clubs went in and out of the trunk. The passenger seat and ashtray had never been used.

The next day we stopped at the shopping mall in Nanaimo, B. C. and a pick up with a camper backed into the side of it.

We were taking a leisurely drive down a logging road and things seemed awfully quiet in the back.  I looked and saw my eldest daughter tossing a sock out the window which was down a few inches.

I turned around and went back looking for two socks and two shoes.

V-18 - `72 Ford Econoline  E-150 

    After the Buick was repaired W1 wouldn’t let me take it fishing in case it got scratched.

I flew to Vancouver to get some work done on my teeth.   I was put to sleep under a general anesthetic.

The next morning, as I was packing to leave the hotel, the phone rang.   I was told my van was ready.

It turned out that while I was under the affluence of the anesthetic, the salesman thought I was drunk, I had told the cab driver, whom the nurse told to take me to my hotel, to take me to Dick Irwin Chev Olds.

The driver was happy to do that. Instead of a three block fare he got to take me over the bridge to another city.

I caught a cab to North Vancouver to see what I had bought.   A panel van that was two years old and I had insisted they replace the wiper motor.

We had a lot of fun camping and fishing with that van and I took it to Reno then Whitehorse,  and back. Then sold it to the brother of W2.

Actually I let him take over the payments.

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2nd marriage

V-19  - `64 Ford,  Fairlane 500 sedan, yellow with a black top.

    I bought this from W2’s brother so we could rent a trailer and move to Vancouver Island.

I was going down a long hill in the Fraser Canyon.   The trailer was too heavy for such a little car and it was pushing me.  If I tried to slow down the trailer would ship to the side.  I could only keep it straight by going faster.

It was a very scary ride to the bottom.

After we were living in Cobble Hill, B. C. I was going into Duncan, B. C. when the axel bearing gave way.

The fender was lower than the top of the tire so the axel was unable to come out, but it made a hell of a racket with the tire rubbing on the inside the fender.

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V-20 - `68 Buick white 

    I don’t recall where I bought it.

I remember it had a small hole in the head gasket and the exhaust blew a stream of steam.

I changed it myself and dropped the head on the end of my finger.

Then I had to fix my mother in-law’s car, it was blowing purple exhaust.

The diaphragm was gone in the modulator valve on the tranny and the carburetor was sucking tranny fluid.

When I left Duncan I left the car with W2.

V-21 - `69 Rambler  Ambassador

Img  V- 21
Photo courtesy of HUB CAP CAFE . Com

    Don’t remember where I bought this but I sure liked it.

V8, push button tranny

It had air conditioning that would put icicles on your nose in the middle of a desert.

I never used it to keep cool but I used it to pressurize the car when on dusty roads, to keep the dust out.

This was wicked in the winter because I couldn’t turn the heat on and had to drive with my parka, ear muffs, and gloves on.

The car had holes in the floor boar and the dust would pour in if I didn't. If I hit a puddle I would get a face wash.

I used the car when I was prospecting. It would go anywhere.

Once I went through a creek and had to back up and tow a police 4X4 out of the water.

I sold it at an auction. It stalled when it got to the top of the auction block so it only sold for $60.

V-22 - `74 Ford pickup, dark red

    I had a tool box, dog house designed in the back.

I had a dog that loved to ride in the back but only went into the dog house on the coldest of days.

I had it when I lived in Quesnel, B. C. and when I moved to Prince George, B. C.

I can’t remember when or where I got it, or got rid of it.

    Before I had my dog, so consequently, before I built the dog house, into my pick-up, while I was living in Quesnel, I went to visit my sister in Pouce Coupe.

I stopped for fuel at Windy Point and while the man was pumping the gas I wanted to phone ahead to my sister.   I glanced at the phone booth on the far side of the lot, behind my pick-up, but thought, `No, it will be warmer inside and I can buy some snacks at the same time’.

When I came back from the hotel I noticed my pick-up had been moved to the far side of the lot.   The pump jockey said he had had to move my truck as customers needed to get  to the pumps.   I paid the man.

While walking to my pick-up, I saw nothing behind my pick-up.  I thought to myself, `I thought there was a phone booth back there’.

The next day, at my sister’s farm, I looked in the back of my pick-up and noticed a lot   of broken glass, then I noticed the broken frame of a phone booth with the B. C. Tell sign. 

I concluded that the man at the gas station had backed my pick-up into the phone booth and it had collapsed into my pick-up.   He must of then quickly threw the rest of it in.

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V-23 - `64 Falcon 6 cyl, light blue

    I don’t recollect where I bought it.

I drove it to Edmonton, looking for work.

The police stopped me for failing to signal when I changed lanes.

I told him that I had signaled.

 Later on in the day I found that the signal lights, though I had turned the lever, weren’t working because the battery was dead. When I got to Edmonton I had to buy a new generator, regulator, and battery.

For most of the time that I had it, it lived under a blanket of snow, parked outside the Arnold Brs. Yard, on the edge of Edmonton.

I sold it in Prince George to a young man.

V-24 - `74 International COE,

Img V-24 
International tractor with matching John Deere trailer. (Just coincidence)

    I bought this corn binder tractor in Edmonton from a young man who wanted to get out of highway hauling.  

I was leased to Arnold Brs. But only plated for the prairie provinces.  

They hired me on because I had a B. C. license and air ticket but they never expanded my plates to B. C., I spent most of my time going back and forth between Edmonton and Winnipeg.

Eventually the finance company took it away from me.

V-25 - `75 GMC pickup, 3/4 T, 2 Tone Green

Img  V-25 & 26 
`75 GMC pickup & `75 Ford Galaxie

    Purchased from a car lot in Armstrong, B. C.

It was a very clean truck.

I got it stuck in the bush and my skidder operator broke the grill, with the blade of the skidder, when he used it to push   me out of the snow.

As well as using it to go to work I used it to haul short pieces of logs to the chop stick factory.

The automatic transmission went so I sold the truck for parts as it would have cost too much to fix the tranny.

V-26 - `75 Ford Galaxie 2 Dr. hardtop.

    I went to an auction to buy a pickup truck.

I got there late and as I walked in the door the bid was going down from $800.  As I walked through the auction hall, to go out the back door and see what they were selling, the bidding was going down.

When the bidding reached $200 and didn’t seem to be going any lower I started to bid.

When the bidding reached $500 I finally got to the back door and saw that they were bidding on a car, not a pickup.

Too late, I had bought it.

I only had it for a week.

I put an ad in the paper and traded it straight across for a pickup truck. The man’s wife needed a car with a slush bucket and the truck had a 3 on the tree.

He thought he was pulling a fast one on me as the motor ran rough.   However, while I was test driving it, I disregarded his bull, I recognized the problem.

After we traded, a quick trip to the auto wreckers, and ten dollars, got me a newer carburetor, and it purred like a kitten.

V-27 - `75 Chevy pickup 1/2 T,  many colours

Img V-27  `75 Chevrolet pickup with a GMC tail gate	Img V-27a Photo by Amy Kirkwood

 I received this in trade for a `75 Ford Galaxie that I had bought at an auction.

My friends called it my `truck of many colours’.   The hood was lime green, the tailgate was gold and said `GMC'.   The cab was brown and the box was red.

When I got it, it was a 3 on the tree but after burning out two clutches I changed it to a slush bucket, which meant that I also had to change the steering column and shorten the drive shaft.

This truck was used like a 4X4 and went places 4X4s wouldn’t dream of going.

I had a tool box, dog house designed in the back, similar to the pickup I had had before.

I had a German Shepard that loved to ride in the back but only went into the dog house on the coldest of days.

The truck got stolen one night and they cleaned it out, all my sporting goods and tools.  They even dismantled the dog house. The thieves ran out of gas and left it on the side of a street.   A friend told me where it was and I recovered it.

A couple of days later, the police stopped me and said that I was driving a stolen vehicle.

AMV-2 - `65 Mercury Montego, sedan, blue.

    This was a beautiful car. 289 ci. With four barrel carb.

I used it for a long time as my mother was getting too old to drive.

I had it repainted for Mothers' Day and took it back to her.

Later she wanted to give it to me but I just never got around to going and getting it.

She sold it to her neighbour for $200.

What a rip-off.

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1985

V-28 - `74 Ford van, 1/2 T.

Img V-28  
`74 E-150

    Al's dad had an old van in the back yard and after we closed the logging show, while returning the skidder to Al's I used it to plough the snow away from the van and drag into the yard.

I bought it for $50 and had a tow truck take it to my place where I cleaned all the junk out of it.  The motor was in pieces in the back and most of them I threw in the garbage.  

I bought a motor out of a `72 T Bird and put it in by myself, with the help of a block and tackle.

Then I had to lift it out again because the car oil pan wouldn’t fit in a van.

Once I switched pans it fit fine.

I got many miles out of that vehicle.

I slept in it many times. 

I kept my clothes in it and used it as a changing room when I was an extra.

I finally sold it, in 1990, when I went to college and couldn’t afford a car.

The person who wanted to buy it from me wanted me to leave the plates on it but I said, “No”.

A few months later the police phoned me and said that it was still in my name and they found it on the side of a street, out of gas and full of stolen plywood.

A few weeks later I was told that I could pick it up by paying the storage charge.

I drove it three blocks from the towing company and put it into Lawrence’s Auto Auction where I sold it a second time.

V-29 - `83 Peterbilt COE, 120" cab. 425 HP Cat motor. 13 Speed fuller floor shift.

Img V-29
  Me, in front of my `83 Pete

    I bought this at the Peterbilt dealer in Port Kells, B. C.

I leased it out to Motrux in Burnaby, B. C. I made several trips, pulling highboy trailers.

I hauled conveyor systems from Burnaby, and Richmond, B. C. to Ontario, Oregon and Kansas City.

Cedar shingles from Lumby, B. C. to Carson City, Nevada.

Lumber from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Edmonton, Alta.

But I never made any money.

The finance company took it back.

V-30 - `75 Plymouth  2 Dr. sedan, wine colour.

    I can’t remember how much I paid for it or where I bought it.

There was a time I didn’t want it and I put it on a car lot to sell on consignment.  A few months later, it hadn’t sold so I took it back.

I was driving along the TCH when there was a terrible thumping noise.

The tread came off, all around, a front tire.

I was still able to drive it several miles to a tire shop.

I sold it to ASP9.  It was a clean car. All it needed was new brakes.

ASP9’s boyfriend said he was going to change the brakes but he sold it to an auto wrecker. 

What a waste of a nice car.

V-31 - `77 Ford van 1/2 T, panel van, gray.

I bought this van from a computer warehouse.

I needed it to work as a computer tech, servicing cash registers throughout the Pacific South West.

It was a good work horse of a truck.  Big tires and big motor I could carry lots of spare equipment and parts and plow through snow.

I bought it for $500 and immediately had to redo the brakes, and tires which cost me another $500.

After a couple of years I put it in the paper and sold it for $600 US.

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3rd marriage

AMV-3 - `84 Chevette  4 cyl,   `92 - `95  Garth's

Img AMV-3 

    My friend, G. R.,  was determined I was going to make it big as a real estate salesman.
  He lent me the money to take the course and he lent me his car when I got my license.

I had a customer aboard one day, in North Vancouver, coming up to a line of cars that were stopped for a red light.   Luckily there was no traffic coming the other way.   I quickly turned left, across the street and into an uphill driveway.  The hill slowed me and I was able to stop the car.

When I had stepped on the brake pedal it had gone to the floor without slowing me down.

I forget now what the problem was but it was easily remedied and we were back on the road again.

As much as I dislike small cars, and think they should be outlawed, it was kind of fun.

I enjoyed running through deep puddles with it.

A huge wave of water would fly up on both sides but not a drop would get on the windshield.

One day I was going to pick G. up and I went through a really long puddle, by the time I came out the other end the car was starting to stutter but it cleared up. For the thrill of it I went back the same way to give G. a thrill.

In the middle of the puddle it stalled.

I truck pushed us up onto dry land.

The air filter canister was full of water.

After I got married I bought a van so I could go camping and gave G. his car back.

Thank you, kind sir, for the years that you let me use it.

Sorry I never made it as a realtor.

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4th marriage

V-32 - `81 GMC  3/4 T Rally Wagon, cream coloured.

Img V-32 
`81 GMC Rally Wagon with `85 350 ci.

    I bought this off a car lot in Whalley, B. C. It took several trips and several phone calls to get the man down to the price I wanted.

I immediately had to put a complete exhaust system on it which cost me another $350.

Rally Wagon is a rare model of the GMC line.   I have only, ever, seen 3 others.  They are a window van with one bench seat behind the driver’s seat.

Someone had changed the motor and had really messed up the vacuum lines.  

They put a newer block in (`85) and older heads.   By blocking off one vacuum line the fuel tank was air tight. This resulted in a vacuum situation which caused the bottom of the tank to go up and the top to go down.

When I bought the van the fuel gauge was just over the red mark and the car lot was near the foot of the Patullo bridge.   I barely made it to the top of the bridge and ran out of gas.

Over the years that I had it, it got broken into about 6 times and had the plates stolen off it once,  Another time someone put it in neutral and pushed it back against a pole.

I spent $300 having the seals replaced on the valve guides which more than paid for it self with the reduced oil consumption.

I was the fourth owner of.  It was really clean when I bought it.

At work one day my boss saw it. Checked it out.   Yup, he had been the second owner of it.

The original owner had taken it into a shop in Kelowna, B. C. and had it upholstered and had curtains and running boards put on.

I paid $700 for it, I had it for 7 years, and I sold it for $700.

Probably the longest I have ever owned a vehicle.   Probably the best purchase I ever made.

Shortly after I bought it, I washed it.   Three years later I washed it again.

Twice in seven years.  I can't understand why people will waste their time, and our precious water, to wash a hunk of metal.

People worry more about their cars then they do their children.

Get real, people.  It is only a few pieces of metal mounted on four hunks of rubber. Detroit makes them, every day, 1,000 per hour.

That brings up another of my pet peeves.

Why do people put signs in their car windows that say, 'Baby on Board'?

What am I supposed to do, switch to my quieter muffler system?   Take a different street?

The sign should be in the front window to remind the driver of the car that they have a baby on board.

It is your baby.  You drive more carefully.

V-33 - `90 FORD 1/2 T E 150 Panel van.

Img  V-33 
  `90 Ford E-150 300 ci. 6 Cyl.

    I bought this off a car lot in New Westminster, B. C. $2,300 

It had barn doors on the side.  Straight six 300 ci.  Great mileage.

I took the bed out of my Rally Wagon, bought a new mattress, and a toilet. 

My Ex, while visiting in China, made a set of curtains for the back windows.

I was going to spend the winter of `03 camping in Mexico, but!

I got married and the Ex has convinced her sister it is too hot in Mexico, so no mater how much I plead, we donętę go.

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2006

V-34 - `91 GMC Safari Window van.

Img V-34 
  (Photo `06/1) `91 GMC SAFARI V 6. OK, so it needs a paint job.

    I bought this from a lady in Surrey, B. C. $2,000 

It has a sliding door on the side, and barn doors on the back, with windows all around.

My other van only has 2 seats, and with Yi Mingęs new baby there are now 7 of us.

It is no longer safe to be riding around in the big van.

Yi Ming got a baby car seat for Xmas so the first thing I did was install it into the new van.

The next thing was to get new tires for the back wheels.

Then it cost me $450 to get the windshield defrost working.

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V-35 - `95 FORD 3/4 T E 250 Window van.

Img  V-35 
  `95 Ford E-250 Club Wagon

I bought this at an auction in Whalley, B. C. $2,900.

I had bid on it at a different auction, in Coquitlam, the week before. I had put an absentee bid on, and I was the only bidder, but the seller had a reserve on it, that was higher than my bid.

First thing I did was head straight for the brake shop, slowly.

New rotors, pads, and lines on the front. Back brakes were OK, just needed setting up. But it may need a new master cylinder

Next was the lock shop, get a couple of locks changed.

Then leave all the doors and windows open. It was clean inside but starting to mildew.

Dug through all my old boxes and found some rust paint. Paint it on white and it turns the rust to black primer.

Had to do 1/3 of the roof. Someone had been driving under low over heads.

Now I canęt park inside my building, it is too high, by about ý inch.

I parked it out back of Lins until I sold the Safari then switched the plates.

2007

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