re: #254 Guanxi88

Indeed. If Henry Ford could have found a way to squeeze plastic body panels and honeycomb aluminum into his early cars, you can be damned sure he would have.

I’m currently snooping about for a good old mercedes diesel with the old-fashioned steel and iron engine block.

There’s a reason those things run forever - the materials and processes they used were state of the art and were the best and cheapest way to get the job done. You’d be a maniac to build an engine like that now, as there’d be no need to, and the cost would be prohibitive.

HA! Good points. I have an old wagoneer that my wife wants me to get rid of but I just refuse. It has actual steel paneling and framing and it weighs as much as a tank (slight exaggeration), It gets horrible gas mileage but it can’t snow enough to stop that thing. I have a few new 4-wheel drive trucks and none of them compare to that old thing.