The Semi-Retired Car

New cars come with maintenance schedules that give you time/mileage intervals for things like oil changes, tune-ups, tire rotation and so on. Follow these recommendations and – assuming a decent/sound car to start with – it ought to be a long-lived car.

But what about old, semi-retired cars?

They came with maintenance schedules, too. But these assumed regular use. When that assumption no longer applies . . . what to do?

For example, my 1976 Trans-Am. I still have all the original paperwork, i...