Slick 60's

my personal opinion, from the things my dad did and taught me while growing up doing all this stuff in the bodyshop and rebuild shop...

buy a parts truck.

something with a bad body, but good running gear and suspension etc. if something goes wrong with your driver, youre not going to be without transportation if you ding the bed, bash a fender etc. but you will if you dont have just the right starter. or just the right intake manifold. or just the right coil. or just the right....

you get the idea. we usually bought 2 rigs for every one that we rebuilt. one to rebuild, one that had been rolled or otherwise destroyed as far as the body went, for parts.

just my thoughts though.

Ditto on the parts truck! Get two!

Frankly, at this point in time, most if not all of the usual parts for a 65 with a 240 are available at any parts place just off the shelf. Things like fuel pump, ignition stuff, alternator, regulator. Its right there. You could buy that stuff and have it laying around (I admitt to having a spare fuel pump), but a taxi ride to a parts place may be a reasonable alternative too.

Now, if I were you and had decided to have one vehicle and it needed to be reliable, then I would start down the road of serious controlled maintainance. You clearly have the know how, so get going. Drop a gel-cell battery in there, replace the water pump, belts and alternator. Replace the solenoid, regulator, points, condensor. (Or I would do a Dura-spark conversion, personally, for max reliablilty and performance). Get good parts. Pay the extra for american made.

Replace the u-joints, make sure the rear end oil is OK, and if you have a drain plug, drain it all out and replace. Consider replacing the rear bearings, or at least pull them and check things out. Repack the front bearings.

Flush the radiator and if it looks too nasty, then replace it. Hoses being replaced is a given.

Replace ALL the rubber lines. Replace the drums or at least turn them, consider disk brakes up front. Wash out the fuel tank. You have 3 on the tree, but changing out the old tranny oil might be reasonable.

If the clutch is slipping a little, don't wait till its shot to replace, but pick your time and have a tranny shop do it for you (I am guessing that you are old enough to have gotten wise about trying to replace your own clutch, not that you wouldn't know how, but sometimes the flesh is just too weak!)

If you need it as your only vehicle, the answer is to avert breakdowns with preventive maintainance.

I could imagine my slick as a daily driver, easily, if I lived somewhere with no salt and little rain. It has been under a cover, in my shed, for 8 weeks now. I am 100% confident it would fire up and could be driven for 500 miles tomorrow if needed. Except I would not consider that with all the salt on the roads up here.....

If you are in an accident, lets face it, you are going to have to go get another vehicle while the old one is being fixed. Even if you had gathered the parts ahead of time, getting someone to fix it all up is going to take days or weeks, maybe months. And trying to predict what is going to get smushed is impossible.

If you have a place for a parts truck, thats great. But don't bother with one that has a good engine or drive train. Your engine and drive train are repairable with available parts. Buy a parts truck for the irreplaceable stuff, like doors and fenders etc.....

Just my late night thoughts....

Water pumps and fuel pumps are not good items to have in storage for prolonged periods. The seals dry out and diaphrams become fragile. Let the parts house keep'em. They will keep them rotated.

Insurance that covers towing costs might be a good thing. Maybe a rental car if you are in an accident?

I drive my slick every day to work, however I am lucky enough that if it went down I could walk to work, 5 blocks. and have two parts stores within walking distance also. That's one of the benefits of living in a small town!

Have Fun!
Marty

In my little on-board stash, I always kept a few spare things for emergencies; extra points, extra coil wire & plug wire (a long one), a quart of oil, a few tools & some wire.
If you have a universal electric fuel pump, keep some spare hose & clamps with you & maybe 4 or 5 feet of wire to wire it with.

That stuff should limp you to a pars store if you get into trouble, then you can go from there. Like Cdherman said, everyhing shouldn't be obsolete at the parts store. With the exception of the points, there's a lot of parts from later trucks that will work on Slicks, so you should be ok.

the first thing is keeping it simple.
adding things like electronic ignition and such is not worth it to me, too far from any parts stores and too expensive to have extras.
i keep a spare set of points and condensor in the glove box.
the wifes truck has a pertronix but i still have a set of points in the glove box in case it decides to take a dump on the road somewhere.i can install a set of points and gap them in a few minutes, thereby saving $ and downtime if necessary.
i have several parts trucks which although they may not be identical to the one i drive have the basic things like generator, fuel pump and carb that can be quickly swapped if you need to.they also have brake drums and clutch parts that i might need.
your post about your truck being the way it came from the factory with no power steering and other things is right on because the more you add the more can break down.
only non factory thing i added was the headlight relays,and i have a couple spare relays just in case.

At one point in time, I would have agreed with you Ice, on the electronic ignition. After having converted to the Petronix, I won't go back. Put the points extra screw, and condenser in the glove box for emergency, and forget points. My engines rung so much better, I feel it's the only way to go.

Rich

Damn Doc.
You caused me to have brain fade thinking about all this. Several days worth of brain fart, I might add.
My personal opinion is to collect all the little meaningless parts that you wouldn't normally consider. Vent window screws and springs. Hell, vent windows.
The window channel that goes on the back of the door.
Emergency brake cables.
Trim and hardware.
How about hood hinges?
Most of the big parts are and will be available but its the little stuff that will drive you wild.
An extra wiring harness is another one. Ford motors and 9" rear ends are getting scarce, but they are always going to be here. What about the tail light/ backup lamp holders?
Get a couple of good catalogs from Carpenter, Carolina Classics, LMC and the like.
Thumb thru and see what is available.
Collect anything you don't see.
I guess you get the point.
I have three little 12"x9"x1-1/2" plastic boxes full of "minor sh!t" that have saved BroncoTom, RatFinkMike, Max and others.
Rear axle vent tubes are just another example.
Just go get an adult beverage, a lawn chair, and sit down and look at your truck and think about what you will never be able to reproduce and make some notes.
With a little planning, you can keep your Slick on the road forever.
U@ss

Doc Pepper wrote: Probably the best spare parts philosophy is to have associations with other slick owners.
Doc.

that is the best plan.

Skip is right, i have boxes full of stuff like that.
salvage yard owners dont like me, anything i give up there is nothing left to sell,all they can do is crush the remaining junk.

I agree that the best part to keep my slick on the road is being a part of this site. As long as my memory is close I think most every repair has been talked through here. The only extra part that I have in addition to these mentioned is the rod that connects the clutch peddle to the clutch fork. In the tool box in the back I have an extra battery, extra "fluids"hoses, starter, alt, rear axle, electric fuel pump, small compressor, belts and complete rotor condenser cap and wires. I spend some vacation time in the desert during summers and there are never any parts stores close. I have had to use all of the above at least once. I guess the only thing would be to carry an extra engine but I havent thought of how to change the out on the Alvord Desert.

I've always wanted my own rollback wrecker to solve this very problem

Adrianspeeder

I know that when I take my slick out for a long drive I have a set of plugs and points, also keep a finger nail file and and feeler gage in the ash tray in the the cab.

Don't need a feeler gage, the box the points come in is a good gage.

Guess I've never been stuck on the side of the road with my dependable slick.

Does this stuff really happen?

the only breakdown i ever had was the cotter key gave out on the clutch pivot and the adjustment rod fell off.good thing i was coming in to the gas station at the time.i fixed it with the hook off a tiny bungee cord.its still on there.

Wait. Wait. Are we talking about emergency parts or mainanence parts.
As a general rule, if you change the oil and filter, put gas in the truck, and don't get overheated, you shouldn't have to worry about breaking down.
I was talking about hard to find stuff like JeffW's glove box door spring... aka dealy-bopper.
ROTFLMAO
U@ss

Well we put about 2700 miles on my 65 going to SlickStock and back and the only thing I needed was a fuel pump and filter, that I didn't have. I carry extra points , condenser, plugs and wires and wire and connectors oil and assorted odds and ends.
What ever you carry with you you will not need. The One thing you forgot and left on the bench is the part that will break. Keep youtr truck in good shape and maintained and you will have very few problems..........Kid