Due to the curious way the car tax/vehicle excise duty works in Ireland I have found myself in a bit of a quandary. Anything with a big engine that’s less than 30 years old is subject to some pretty severe tax unless it’s for commercial use (vat registered).

I like pickup trucks and I kind of need one for (part time) work and general wood gathering for the stoves. If I buy any kind of modern pickup I’m going to be spending anything between €1080 and €2350 on tax so I figured if I bought a big old American V8, so long as it’s pre 1988 I could spend the money I save on tax on petrol as it’s only €56 a year for vintage vehicles. It would have the added benefits of decent power and torque, sounding awesome and being mechanically simple enough for me to work on.

Has anyone on here owned any old/classic american stuff? If so what’s the parts availability like? Is it just a case of ordering stuff from the sates and paying the import duty?

There used to be glut of old USAF truck and pickups around in the 1980’s (lived not too far from what was then Upper Heyford).

Mate had one of these (Dodge):

beast of a thing and bombproof.

These were also popular with the local farmers (Chevy).

Can you weld ?

^ 😆

I own and run a car from the 80s. I don’t say that in gest

AVG has just warned me about images on this page containing executables – that must be yours, Nipper.

trail_rat – Member

Can you weld ?

My next door neighbour is so good he can weld ass cracks and fix broken hearts.

I’ve been debating something like this for a while to replace my baywindow which isn’t get much use…..ill be watching this thread with interest!

I had a 5.7L V8 Dodge Dakota with a long bed. (I think I sold it to Cozz on here actually…) anyway, parts were fine, most available in the U.K. And actually, no bother at all to just order stuff straight from the US.

I don’t think there’s been a better time to own one, the wealth of info online and instant access to ordering spares makes it a fairly stress free experience.

They can be immensely practical with the big load beds.

Buy your neighbour alot of beer

I’ve had a 1966 ford Thunderbird, 1956 desoto fireflite and 1967 ford Mustang convertible. Try to buy a Florida or California import which should be rust free, might need to be re sprayed tho. We always wax oiled the underside. We imported cosmetic parts via my dad’s business and shipping agent but used an American car parts place in Bradford for consumable mechanical parts. Only thing I can think of is in UK in some cases you need to install separate indicators as law around indicators in US was different. I’m pretty sure for us it just involved putting orange bulbs in. My only concern would be around having work done on an old US auto gearbox, i’d probably make enquiries re that, before buying. Everything else shouldn’t be an issue other than it being off the road waiting for a part to be mailed from time to time.