I’ve been in denial about this for a while. “My cars aren’t holding me back at all,” I’d convinced myself for years. “If I wanted to, I could sell them all tomorrow.” Recently it’s become clear that this just isn’t true, as has been proven by my move to LA, which should have happened months ago but hasn’t yet due to an anchor made of tons of American iron. So I come to you asking for advice on how to move past this.
The truth is, I’ve been wanting to leave Michigan for years, but what happens is: 1. November rolls around, things get cold, and I tell myself “I’m out of here.” Then 2. I fly to Germany or Hong Kong to be with my family for Christmas, and stay over there for a month working remotely. 3. I get back, spend a few months in cold Michigan and then the sun comes back out in April. 4. Weather is absolutely perfect from April through October, and car culture thrives. My enchantment with Michigan swells. 5. I vow never to leave Michigan. 6. November hits again. 7. Repeat.
[Ed note: Right before the pandemic I had dinner with David and our bud Aaron Foley and pleaded with him to move. I offered to buy one of his cars. Anything to make it happen. It didn’t work. Then during the pandemic we hung out in a junkyard and had the same conversation. Next week I’m going to make him get an apartment. Just tell him to sell all but two of his cars for everyone’s sake – MH]
This has been the cycle for about five years. My upbringing as an Army brat has built within me an insatiable desire to move every year or so, and yet I’ve staved off this urge by traveling so often and for such long durations — I was just in Australia for a month earlier this year, I was also in Germany and Italy, plus I see my brother in Hong Kong relatively frequently. But I don’t know that I can push this off any longer, mostly because the long-term future of The Autopian depends on me being in LA and working with our talented behind-the-scenes crew out there.
So I have to go, and in truth — as a single dude who feels a little out of place in suburban Michigan, and who’d like to try listening to the buzz of a bigger city for the first time in his life (I’ve only ever lived in small cities) — I want to give it a shot. The problem is these beautiful mechanical anchors:
- Jeep J10 4spd stick: Store in MI (?)
- 1966 Ford Mustang auto: Drive to CA
- 1992 Jeep Cherokee auto: Store in MI (?)
- 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Sell
- 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Tow to CA
- 2000 Chevy Tracker 5spd: Sell
- 1958 Willys FC-170 3spd stick: Tow to CA
- 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle 3spd auto: Sell
Let’s go through them one by one. Each car has a poll below it; I’m eager to hear your recommendations (it might make sense to read the whole article before going back and voting).
1985 Jeep J10: Store In Michigan Or Drive To California
I love this truck with all my heart, but I don’t think it’ll make it through emissions inspection in California, mostly because all the smog stuff has been ripped off. I could fuel inject it using a Jeep 4.0-liter cylinder head, then throw on a 4.0 catalytic converter and hope the shop doesn’t care that I don’t have an air pump on my accessory drive. But I don’t know that this will work; California has a “visual” inspection, so even if my now-fuel-injected truck is cleaner, it’d likely fail. Logical? No. But such is life.
“Sell it,” you may now suggest, but I can’t. It’s the greatest truck on earth, and I can’t let it go. It’s true mechanical perfection in my eyes. As of now, my plan is to store it somewhere. Or maybe take it to California. I haven’t decided.
1966 Ford Mustang: Drive To California
Is there a place where this vehicle would be more at home than in southern California? Answer: No. I’m daily driving this. I have some security concerns, so I’ve purchased a GPS tracker and a “club” steering lock. I hope those do the job; I’ll also make sure to park it in a garage whenever I can.
I’ll likely drive this on weekends as my free Nash Metropolitan will be my true daily driver that I take to work and park on the streets without worry. I doubt anyone wants to steal that.
1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Sell
What you’re looking at is the most perfect Jeep Grand Cherokee on earth. It’s the first model year with a five-speed manual and manual windows and locks. It’s not only the lightest Grand Cherokee in history, it’s also the most reliable, and it’s the best off-road platform. Hopefully I can find someone who understands the rarity and value of what I consider the ultimate Grand Cherokee, as I’d like to get as close to $10 large out of this 130,000 mile, rust-free Jeep as possible. If not, I may have to keep it, which would complicate things.
1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Tow Or Drive To California
Of course, I’m not going to sell all of my “Holy Grail” manual Grand Cherokees. I plan to keep the rougher 1994 model that I bought for $350. Why hold onto this one? Overly pretty cars are a pain in the ass to maintain, and this one being a bit rough around the edges will give me more peace-of-mind. Plus, I’ll feel less guilty when I put a mild lift and bigger tires on it; I’ve heard off-roading in California is pretty damn good.
The issue is that this Jeep is still far from being roadworthy. I swapped the guts from that rusted-out Holy Grail in Wisconsin that I wrote about years ago, but there’s still a lot to do before this thing can move under its own power. I could fix it over the next month or so and then drive it west or I could tow it and wrench later.
1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle: Sell
Oh man, this Jeep is one of my biggest regrets. It ran when I bought it, I removed a cylinder head to extract a broken exhaust stud, then I flew to Germany for a month. When I returned, I saw some surface rust on the cylinder walls, so I pulled the engine and honed it; I figured I’d swap the rings and bearings while I was at it, but sadly I could never get the motor back together properly. So I bought a rebuilt engine, which seized.
Honestly, the fact that this machine has been sitting for over five years is a result of only one thing: my own stupidity. I am ashamed, though I am twice the wrench I was back then. So should I fix it and then sell it for some heavy coin? Or do I sell it as is and give up the five grand delta?
This is a tough one for me because, if I’m anything, it’s a cheap bastard.
2000 Chevrolet Tracker: Sell
I should never have bought this Tracker, though I’m pleased with how far it’s come. I’ve fixed the crankshaft damper, cleaned the interior, bondo’d the huge dent in the quarter panel, installed junkyard all-terrain tires, fixed a few electrical gremlins, jerry-rigged a fix for the four-wheel drive system, and swapped out all the fluids. This thing is beautiful now, and I even have a buyer willing to throw me $3,000 for it. Not quite my $3,500 asking price, but close.
First, I’m taking it off-roading tomorrow (you’re all invited). This will be the second time I’m off-roading a car just prior to sale; the first time, I filled the engine with water, then that water froze, and when it thawed, I learned that my crankshaft bearings had been wiped. (You may recall my article “My 1948 Jeep’s Engine Is Ruined Because I Am A Dumbass”). I hope nothing similar happens this time around. I really shouldn’t be off-roading this thing before sale, but come on — I did all this work to this thing; I have to see how good it is in the dirt, right?
1958 Willys FC-170: Tow To California?
I want to do an EV conversion soon, and I really think this FC is the ideal candidate.
Could I just buy one on the west coast? Yes. That’d make my life easier. But look at the pedigree this one has!:
1992 Jeep Cherokee: Store?
This one’s a tough one. The Jeep isn’t in great shape at the moment; I flooded the rear diff, so I need to replace the axle. Plus the cooling system needs some work — likely a new radiator. These aren’t huge jobs, but they’re not nothing, either.
I suppose I COULD bring this Jeep out to California, or I could store it, or I could sell it. But this is my very first car. Should I sell the Jeep that started it all?
This Is Complicated
So I want to keep the 1992 XJ, the J10, the 1994 ZJ, the FC, and the Mustang. I could just bring all five of those, and sell the rest. There should be plenty of space to store these machines on the Galpin lot that Beau has so graciously offered up. Maybe I could tow the FC with the J10, then drive everything else out. Or I could ask an automaker for a big-ass heavy-duty truck and a car-hauler, and just tow the whole fleet out.
Or I could sell the original XJ and the FC, and just take the J10, 1994 ZJ and Mustang. Then I can find another FC out west and cry myself to sleep every now and then missing the ’92 OG.
I don’t know what the answer is. But I need to come up with something soon.
Having just moved 5 vehicles 400 miles/one state away over a several month span this summer I can relate. It still required 3 separate trips to haul vehicles interspersed with several trips to move the household and garage stuff. I think I put about 7,000 miles on the truck in two months and it was grueling. I would keep the Mustang and your original XJ, and maybe whichever Grand Cherokee is going to be the overlander. As for storing vehicles, how many stories have you seen where someone put a vehicle away for a little while, only to have it languish for years, and they’re in the same zip code, not across the country. The costs get up there too, I know guys who’ve had classic muscle cars in storage for so long they could have paid for most of a restoration with the money they’ve spent keeping them locked away in a 10×20 shed for decades.
Pick the least shitty one, donate the rest. This is no longer about cars, as much as you try to rationalize it. It’s about hoarding, and we’re your intervention. Go (to California) with grace, David.
Except for the Mustang and the 93 5spd Jeep, the other vehicles seem to be worth little to nothing.
Sell or donate them to NPR or charity of your choice, get rid of them fast. Fly to California and have the other two cars shipped. Move quickly; you say The Autopian needs you in LA, why bullshit around driving across the country in a car that might break-down or get damaged on the way.
The Mustang is pretty, but isn’t it a deathtrap if you get into an accident with a modern SUV?
I might be the only reader on the site who finds some of the articles where where you’re working your heart out on some POS vehicle cringeworthy. (I did follow you guys from the other site.)
California and allegedly Oregon is said to have lots of pre 2000’s rust free vehicles, many of which are probably rough enough to make good projects.
As BWM said in an earlier comment: “Leave all that baggage behind. You have a fantastic new chapter of your life ahead of you, and you don’t want it weighing you down.”
Or you might end up like one those lonely disheveled old guys we see occasionally on YouTube with an acre of broken old cars they refuse to sell slowly dissolving into the ground.
One last thing: don’t be afraid of unloading your first car. If it’s the best Jeep you ever had, the one that started you chasing a lifetime of Jeeps, then go ahead and keep it. But if some of your subsequent Cherokees or Grand Cherokees were better cars, well, then why hang on to an inferior one? I’m a total packrat and I know what it’s like to sentimentalize pieces of my history, but… I don’t still have my first guitar (it sucked) nor my second (it also sucked) and I certainly have long since said farewell to the first eight cars I owned (most of them kinda sucked too, but at the time I thought they were great), and I have never regretted moving on from them. I mean, I have some great memories of my first car! Remember, I lost my virginity in it! Had some great road trips in it! Drove it to Rosarito Beach in Baja California in it with some buddies and bought a pair of bull horns that I later mounted above the windshield! It was great, that 1978 Fox-body Mercury Zephyr wahon with the 302 V8, even though that 2700VV carburetor was a nightmare to pass smog. But did that car have “soul”? Hell no. Would I buy it back if I chanced upon it again? No, I would not, unless it was being sold for under a grand, in which case I would probably cut the roof off and haul manure in it on weekends or something. It was just an old car, and not a particularly good one. I’ll never properly appreciate your infatuation with XJ and ZJ Jeeps but I’m not an off roader, so to me they’re just 30 year old boxes on wheels but like we always say hereabouts: cars aren’t rational. If my first car had been a 1977 Trans Am, I’d never sell it either. It wasn’t until my ninth car that I finally found one that I would never sell: my 1970 Mercury Cougar XR-7 convertible. Owned it for 27 years now, and it was first sold off the dealership floor when I was 13 days old, so we’re essentially the same age.
But I can’t compare it to my first car. Both Mercurys, both V8s, both cars I got laid in back when I still got laid in cars… but the keeper was not my first one. That one was just a means to an end.
It doesn’t have to hurt.
This may be an unpopular idea – bring the J10 and use that for your EV swap. Just imagine all the Hummer/Rivian folks you can put to shame on the trails
You probably can’t afford a place anywhere near LA that actually has space to park your cars LOL
Are there any non-emission counties in CA? Or is Nevada or Arizona a drivable distance? (they only have inspections in their heavily populated counties)
Keep the good ZJ, the Mustang, and the 58 truck. The latter two are older than 75 and exempt from smug check.
Otherwise, just buy a car out west where there’s no rust. There is no reason to bring something rusty to California.
Since Beau owns Galpin, maybe he could help you evaluate the best paths for each car. Remember that GAS was featured on Pimp My Ride.
So much this, David could live in Pahrump NV, a short few hour trip and he is in LA, no inspections, extremely cheap land, no income taxes, no rust.
I made an account to post this because I’ve been following the front yard junk yard saga for a while.
Take a running jeep and tow the mustang. That’s it. Don’t store anything. Use this as an opportunity to free yourself of this stuff.
Financially you are likely underwater on most of these. Don’t compound it by paying to store them or paying to get them towed. Cut your losses and move on.
Think of everything in percentage and opportunity cost terms. Let’s say a car is worth $1,000. To ship it across the country will cost $1,000. Clearly a bad idea. Just the gas to drive some of these across the country might not be worth it. To pay $50/mo to store it is also clearly a bad idea. Either way you are just eroding all your equity in the thing. Collect some cash and get a project car at a better starting point. My $0.02 as someone with no attachment to old Jeeps and just thinking about this practically.
We are heading into a recession and used car prices have been coming down. Build up the war chest of cash to help this new venture survive.
Best of luck!
You’re not going to want to hear this, but it’s not as complicated as you think – If it’s post 1974, sell it or store it in MI. CA’s emissions requirements & testing have beaten down better men than you. That is a fight you want to avoid.
Take the Mustang to CA – that’s a no-brainer.
Store the J10 properly as it is awesome. And by properly I mean somewhere where they will either drive it occasionally to keep everything functional and can keep the rust at bay, or store it properly prepped for long term storage. No chance it’ll ever get past the CA emissions folks, so why take that on. Put it away for another day.
Get rid of the rest. The FC-170 and the 1994 Grand Cherokee are salvageable only for someone who appreciates and approves of Project Postal. Otherwise, they are parts looking for a new home. The rest are CA emissions testing nightmares that are easily avoided.
If DT conquered TUF, CA emmissions should be a breeze.
TUV…. dammit
Nah…the German TUV is logic based. The California Pollution Rules are ideologically based with the stated intention of removing old vehicles from the road. An acquaintance on an Alfa Romeo bulletin board just failed inspection there with his GTV-6 on visual grounds. His twin cams originally had a cam belt cover…. they were made of easily broken thin plastic and are unobtainable new or used. He failed and cannot pass by just substituting something functionally similar. He may be able to have one 3-D printed but it’s gonna be expensive
Good point, Lokki. “Your car’s too ugly for Cali, Bruh.” I spent a lot of time in Germany on business travel, but never had to inspect a car. Have heard plenty of horror stories. Lived Cali for a couple of years so I see where that’d be worse.
Well, as a “Rust-loving Jeep man” myself, with my own fleet of Jeeps (eight) here’s my thoughts on the matter…
Right now you don’t know how long you’ll be in California, you may move there and decide it’s not for you, that said, I wouldn’t be in too big of a hurry to sell everything if you can find a space to store them. As for the project vehicles, I’d store them in Michigan until you’re settled and get an idea of how much time you have to devote to them, you may find better examples out there to replace the project vehicles, in which case sell the Michigan ones.
My suggestions:
Jeep J10 4spd stick: Store in MI, if CA becomes permanent, sell and find one out there
1966 Ford Mustang auto: Drive/ship to CA
1992 Jeep Cherokee auto: Store in MI – ship to CA later (there’s something about your first Jeep – my ’85 XJ holds that special place for me – one of these days I’ll fix the transmission and body)
1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Sell, find another one in CA
1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Store in MI, ship/Tow to CA later or find a better one in CA and sell this one
2000 Chevy Tracker 5spd: Sell
1958 Willys FC-170 3spd stick: Store in MI, ship/Tow to CA later – sell if you find a better example in CA
1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle 3spd auto: Sell
I believe you are overthinking and using lots of rightful emotion to decide. Remember: you love cars and the hunt for new and interesting cars. Sell everything but the mustang (emotion and family ties) and ONE jeep (the 93?, the J10?). Then look forward to dreaming of the new and interesting ones you will find in LA.The new and interesting cars (and Jeeps) you will find in LA will be EPIC. Look forward, dream, move…
Half a century ago psychologist Daniel J. Levinson performed groundbreaking studies about the process of adult development in his book The Seasons of a Man’s Life. As so eloquently stated above by Man With A Reliable Jeep, you ARE at a crossroads in your life. I am going to make a few comments that build on that. You have been extremely fortunate to flit about doing whatever strikes your fancy, virtually at any time at any place in the world. That was a wonderful season of your life. Perhaps it is ending, and now time for a new season much more profound in terms of adding gravitas to your personal development.
You have an enormous (and rare) opportunity to become a successful and hopefully prosperous business person and well known and respected automotive publisher with a real impact in the burgeoning digital automotive publishing world. Simply stated, you have chance to be somebody. In this new season of a man’s life – yours, you have made commitments to others and many people are depending on you for their careers and their livelihood. Yet, to be blunt, you don’t always put your time and energy to its highest use. There is a real question in my mind about your maturity and willingness to make those sacrifices necessary to get to the next level. (I’m trying to say this in the nicest way possible.) Maybe it has something to do with your personality profile. It is clear you are one of the nicest people ever put on the planet and I think you have difficulty saying no. You are going to have to do much more of that if you want to turn The Autopian into something special that leaves a lasting legacy. That is not to say you have to turn into a heartless ogre. Of course not. That’s not you.
In addition, I am aware you have a business partner with enormous resources. He would love to help you — if you have the courage and maturity to let him. You have been offered a place to store your vehicles in CA. Fine. Decision made. A transport could have them there next week. Problem solved. In the same vein, a place to live can also be found in a week if you will accept the help that is readily available to you. What does your business partner get in return? He gets you ‘on the ground’ with The Autopian staff which is where you need to be RIGHT NOW. (You say it yourself in your first paragraph of this post.) You – fully focused. Staff – ready for your direction. This is your big moment. This is the next season of your life. Stop dithering man! Climb out of the (literal) dirt! Step up!
With regard to to the Midwest-West Coast dichotomy from an automotive culture standpoint, I have lived in both places. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. However, in my opinion the influence of Asia in future automotive culture writ large cannot be underestimated. Research and development (ICE and EV), manufacturing, advanced microprocessors, and automotive industrial design trends have all migrated to the West Coast. All the OEMs are invested heavily there. It will be exciting to be part of that automotive renaissance. We haven’t even touched on the world of automotive museums, motorsports, rallies, incomparable off-roading opportunities and the rich SoCal diverse hobbyist culture, from fast to slow, and from low to high. And, frankly, with your travel experience, shuttling back and forth to legacy Detroit is not a hardship for you if required.
Going forward, you can still engage in your hobbies of mechanical repairs on weekends should you find the time. However, I suspect you will be putting your time to a higher and better use. There are countless automotive legends in SoCal you need to be finding and associating with to build your knowledge and credentials. Further, your world travels, social observations, and mechanical escapades on various continents can still be planned in advance as feature stories, hopefully with production grade social media support. I hope that never stops.
Now, off with you! Enjoy the next season in your life to the fullest!
I am an older version of you. I’ve made many of the same mistakes. I wear the same German army surplus wool sweaters (they are the best!). I used to wear the same dorky denim farmer overalls. What you do on rusty Jeeps, I used to do on rusty VW bugs. And I’m a nerdy geek from an engineering school. So we need to go back to fundamental principles.
1. You are making the move for business reasons
2. You may want to move again in a few years
3. You want those juicy clicks on your articles
4. Meeting and interacting with car people and different cars is more important to you than the cars you own.
5. You’re a nice guy who will ultimately feel guilty about leaving a pile of rusty crap on Galpin’s lot.
LA is an automotive paradise. You are a loved and respected editor of The Autopian, and you’re buddies with Beau. There will be an endless stream of cars thrown at you . You won’t have the time or inclination to drive your own. So you don’t need them. The Mustang is your brother’s car. Drive it to LA, then ask him if he wants you to sell it and send him the money.
Donate/sell the J10 to Torch, with an option to buy back. He needs it to drag the Changli around and pick up heavy Optima batteries for it. Donate/sell one vehicle of her choice to Mercedes, if she wants it. Both will generate click-bait “How DT’s rusty crap ruined my life” stories, followed by equally popular “How I visited Mercedes/Torch to fix that crap I cursed them with” stories.
Leave all that baggage behind. You have a fantastic new chapter of your life ahead of you, and you don’t want it weighing you down.
Giving Torch the J10 and letting him sell the OBS and then giving Mercedes a rusty jeep to gambler is content I approve of.
The sensible answer is keep the Mustang because it’s your bother’s, and one Jeep. The logical choice is the 1993 Grand Cherokee but you’re obviously more attached to that brown 1992.
However, that’s the sensible answer, and who’s going to read a David Tracy article about his two reliable vehicles? Throw caution to the wind and keep it all!
Mustang on the Uhaul trailer, tow it with the J10. Sell or raffle the rest. Write a nice screenplay about the trip, where you sleep in the truck bed and have to make multiple parts runs with the Mustang to keep the J10 going…oh and you are not allowed to bring any cash or credit cards and must rely solely on the belief that there are good people that will help you along the way.
Give the mustang to your parents, if you must once you are settled you can EV convert this is a few years with an epic coast to coast road trip in between. Everyone saying to take this doesn’t realize how shitty LA is without a/c.
Sell the fc, the golden eagle, and the tracker.
Pick one: j10 (and pass smog) parts zj or og xj. sell the other two.
Keep the nice zj. You will never find it’s equal again.
If you sell the j10 you can buy a pre-smog one in Cali. If you keep the parts zj turn it into the overlanding rig. If you keep the xj pull everything from the parts zj to swap in, fix rust and fully restore as your project.
I will also echo others, storing anything in Michigan is a death sentence for it. Rental cars or press cars will be enough when you come back to visit. If you move back you’ll have collected 20 Cali cars I’m sure.
Hello David,
Faced a similar issue after a car sales/flipping business with a friend ended, and I moved to NYC from Houston for a new job. At the time, we had 8 vehicles on the roof of my apt parking garage, and several in storage. My method was to get each to driving condition and list on fb marketplace; starting from easiest to most difficult to repair. Once the roof was thinned, all were moved to the storage. Some aren’t worth the effort; for example: We had an old manual W126 that needed a head gasket, and required lots of special tooling to disassemble, so just sold that to a hobbyist who was interested. It took a while to accept, but paying for a storage unit in Houston when you live across the country for a year made me absolutely want to dump it. It’s important to remember that cars are just things, and things don’t really matter much in the grand scheme of life. I’d recommend fixing one that you have an emotional attachment to, keeping it, and selling the rest, either for $ or to people who you think will enjoy them.
After the results are in for Move and sell
Use one of the Move vehicles to tow one of the dead move vehicles. Write an epic story about the move to CA and the breakdowns along the way.
Fly Back to Michigan and repeat as necessary.
Register all of your cars in Montana to get around emissions requirements
Bob’s logic is sound. Hope David is reading.
Better yet, tow two at a time back!
Every now and then on the highways of the US, especially close to the border, you will see “Mexican Road Trains” – folks south of the border who buy cars from auctions in the US, and then chain 3 of them together and drive them back to Mexico to sell for a profit.
Dave can follow the example of our southern neighbors.
The reality is, you should keep the mustang (obviously) and that’s about it. I support keeping the XJ – its your first car, I still lie awake thinking about my old Toyota that I stupidly sold when the clutch went. It was (kinda) my first car, I wish I hadn’t done that but I had nowhere to keep it. So there’s your two, the XJ and the Mustang. I know you want a manual, but the ZJ is worth too
much and you can probably buy something better. Also the J10 – you’ve had your time with it, I know you love it, but it just isn’t practical to keep. Storing it in MI? To what end?
Complicated? My dear man, this is the opposite.
1. Keep the Mustang; take it to CA
2. Sell/ scrap/ torch everything else.
Godspeed with your move.
Get rid of the junk. Only keep the J10 and mustang. Before you decide what to bring to LA you need a acw to bring them. Just gonna dump a few shit heaps at Galpin? How soon will you get to them?
As much as I love the idea of the fc ev, don’t bring it to LA. Help Mercedes find a house with a car barn and rent a space for 2 cars.
I wish you could get the Golden Eagle going to sell for more money, but that ship has sailed. You need to GTFO, not spend more time and money on a car you can’t drive where you live.
Again, I agree the J10 needs to be kept, somehow.
David, our dear friend, I actually pondered each vehicle and my vote goes with the majority. Keep the Mustang, sell everything else. You’ll find other projects that you won’t have to drag across the country, and you’ll work on them in February in a short sleeved shirt.
It’s interesting seeing the vote results. As if you ever needed it ,there’s proof you have a jeep problem XD
AND, you may prove this to yourself and everyone else if your response to the current situation is: “I Found Yet Another Rusty Jeep That I Couldn’t Pass Up“.
Pick an eight-state route between Michigan and California, then stage one vehicle in each state. This way, whenever you want travel between the two places – or anywhere between- you can drive all of your old friends in the process. Perhaps you find someone in each state to adopt/host a car or, I don’t know, just park them in Walmart lots across the country.
I love all of the people saying keep 3 cars and ditch the rest. And those cars should be the Mustang, J10, and your favorite manual Jeep.
BUT. I think they’re wrong that you should sell or scrap them. We all love and support your antics, and if you’re not going to promote the site with a special edition of Hoarders, I think it’s time to raffle off your shitheap to us. 5 lucky users get the chance to obtain a piece of rusted out glory. For America or something. $2 per ticket, give us a week to pick it up, or it gets sold/sent to a scrap yard. And we don’t get to pick which car we get if we win.
It’s basically a better, hoopty version of those scammy raffles you’d always see in AutoWeek.
AND WHO DOESN’T LOVE A RAFFLE?!
Use the proceeds to ship 2 of the 3 cars you keep to California so they don’t stay in Michigan to rust (because, let’s be honest, it will be a hassle to go back and get them, and time makes fools of us all).
Simple:
https://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/7552322924.html
. . . and, imagine the inevitable series of articles about side-of-the-frosty-mountain-road wrenching beneath *that* thing!
David, your automotive hoarding has been one of the reasons I continuously to come back to your writing. I enjoy living vicariously through your adventures. Months ago I was shocked when you announced you were considering moving.
How could you exist without your fleet?
However, I came to terms with the move and this all has gone on far too long. Cut bait and move already. Sell, sell, sell. And then sell more. You will acquire more cars throughout your life. Hell, in SoCal, maybe even a few without such terrible rust issues.
Move on with your life. You’ll be better off for it.