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Memorable Dashboards
We had a 1960 Chevy when I was a young kid. Its
dashboard had a sort of horizontal scooped-out area
at the top of each side. The passenger's side was
an empty rounded-off shelf of sorts over the glove
box. The driver's side had 5 round, hooded
binnacles or "pods" with guages and idiot lights.
The center binnacle was the largest and held the
speedometer. There were 2 smaller "pods" on each
sides that each held the gas guage, ammeter and a
couple of idiot lights. The whole thing had a sort
of sculptured, stylized jet fighter look to it.
What dashboards - good, bad, ugly or beautiful -
do YOU remember?? We spend a lot of time looking
at them whether driving or riding.
dashboard had a sort of horizontal scooped-out area
at the top of each side. The passenger's side was
an empty rounded-off shelf of sorts over the glove
box. The driver's side had 5 round, hooded
binnacles or "pods" with guages and idiot lights.
The center binnacle was the largest and held the
speedometer. There were 2 smaller "pods" on each
sides that each held the gas guage, ammeter and a
couple of idiot lights. The whole thing had a sort
of sculptured, stylized jet fighter look to it.
What dashboards - good, bad, ugly or beautiful -
do YOU remember?? We spend a lot of time looking
at them whether driving or riding.
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And the "thermometer" gauges on Volvo P1800 "sports" cars, as they are euphemistically known.
The gauges NEVER worked right but watching the little fluids go up and down vertically was fun.
Some of the best looking in my opinion were 1965 Thunderbirds and 1965 Buick Rivieras.
At night, I seem to recall the color of the dash lights changing with the speed of the car.
At higher speeds they turned almost red.
Am I dreaming or does anyone know?
http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/show/2797/dash.jpg
Thanks for sharing that with us!
Hal
http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/show/2797
I'm going to put some new pics up tonight of the car with the skirts on.
And that wierd mirror/speedometer...I think they all had that. It was only used one year and I have no idea what they were thinking!
I think it could be had very cheaply. Much less than the 57 Chev I went to look at.
picture. Awesome!
Push button transmission and a steering wheel that wasn't round,
but flat on the bottom. "Forward Look" Chrysler products were works
of art.
That car was had a front end that was sooooo ugly it was sorta cool. I did like the rear end styling though. And the drivetrain was bulletproof! 361 with a Torqueflite.
Tried to race my buddy's 65 GTO. Of course, the goat won, but not by very much!
The Chrysler must have laid 200 feet of rubber though! I remember looking back through the back window of the GTO and seeing a WALL of tire smoke!
We did the exact same thing in front of a girl's house with a buddys (dad's) 63 T-bird. It was about 1:00 in the morning. Every porch light on that street must have come on...dogs barking, etc.
We still laugh about it today.
Since she lived on a steep hill, we would also go down the hill, switch off the ignition until we got in front of her house and turn it back on.
Man, that T-bird would backfire like no other car!
Did we impress her?
" You guys are such a******s!"
THAT was her reaction!
I don't know if it had a provision from shifting from reverse to drive though! And I've never purposely tested any of the above on my '57 DeSoto...just read about it. However, I did accidentally hit the "1" button once when I was driving pretty fast, and it didn't downshift.
As for burnouts, I've done a few of them, but they were all in my '68 Dart. Did two in the parking lot right outside the window of a college class I dropped. They were taking their midterm, and the professor was bored at his desk, reading his book. Oh yeah, it was a summer course, so the windows were open. As the engine started revving, you could tell the professor was getting annoyed, but when the right wheel let go and started screaming (no suregrip, so only the right side would peel out), half the class jumped! Then we were dumb enough to sneak back again about 20 minutes later and do it again!
I've also peeled out in front of an ex-girlfriend's house, and out in front of a Little Caesar's I used to deliver for.
As for how rugged the things can be, well, I let a friend drive my Dart once, and he accidentally parked it at about 35 mph. Now keep in mind most Darts and other "lesser" cars only had the TF904, not the heavier-duty TF727. Still, all it did was stall the car, and we restarted in neutral. That was about 8 years and maybe 75,000 miles ago, so I doubt it did any permanent damage ;-)
-Andre
Dash is all wood, walnut and of course for the civilised (with an S) pic nic trays ala airlines (now) which were also placed in the back. Very proper you know. Room to move in that back seat if you know what I mean, plus a tray for what ever. Might not have lights and heat dials but it was classy
Speaking of 428 CJ Mustangs, I looked at a '69 someone was selling years ago. The guy fired it up in his garage and with the exhaust bouncing off the walls it sounded like it had about 800 lbs. ft. of torque. "Awesome" is not a word I use frequently, but that's how 7 liters with a lumpy idle sounds in a small garage.
I am the first to admit that it is not fair to compare industrial engines to automotive engines, but sometimes when I hear about "new" technology in the automotive field, it's not new at all, most of these so called innovations have been in use for decades in industrial applications.
So what has this got to do with dashboards? Nothing, unless you want to know what the gage console looks like in an engineroom..........
It was great until something went wrong and you had to get something out and back in!
By the way, all 1960s Buicks had the mirror on the dash with a knob to rotate it. The speedometer was mounted below the mirror pointed straight up and reflected back to the driver.
All Mopars in the forties era had a speedometer (only) that changed color from green to yellow to red as the needle went around the dial.
For oddball dashboards, how about the 1958 Edsel with the rotating drum speedometer or the Dodge Chargers and Pontiacs with the clock in the tach?
1968 Mercury Cougar with the oil pressure gauge over in front of the passenger seat? 1955 Plymouth with 2 gauges over in front of the passenger and the chrome spear sticking out of the left center of the dash to shift the transmission (and spear anyone sitting in the middle)? I have a 1952 Jaguar XK120 coupe in the garage that has the speedometer in front of the passenger!
Oh well, enough for now.....anyone know where I can install an oil pressure gauge and an ammeter or voltmeter on my 2001 Dodge Stratus R/T coupe that will look proper????
Olds also had a combination clock/tach called the "tic-tac-toc" or something like that.
When I was in high school my friends and I had a fleet of these things at our disposal. We, while partaking in youthful indiscretions, would race these cars at extra legal speeds and bury the speedo needle way past the "85" until it would disappear.
We often joked about what it would be like if we were pulled over for speeding. The officer would saunter up to the driver's side window and ask in that law enforcement voice, "Son, do you know how fast you were go'in?". And we would reply, "No officer, I had no idea". Too bad we never had an opportunity to try that line out.