I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

fintail

Very similar to the wheel in my fintail, which is white (under a leather cover), has a horn ring (completely round on older cars), and a padded donut, but on earlier cars, the donut seems to always be a beige-cream color, or a tan/brown (mine is the latter).

This was one of the last MBs with a horn ring, as they soon moved to a modern 4 spoke design.

ab348 said:

The are many, many things to like with that 280 coupe. But what really gets to me is the steering wheel. White (a plus) with a horn ring (a plus) and the color-keyed red padded donut around the hub (plus plus plus).

sda

andre1969 said:

Does that '76 Ninety-Eight have a leather interior, or is that just a very high quality vinyl? It looks nice, but something about the way the material wrinkles a bit around the buttons makes me think of vinyl.

By this time, I prefer the 4-doors, because they were a true hardtop. And the way the quarter window and the door window don't line up at the B-pillar always bugged me. Still, it's a really nice car. My favorite among these big barges is actually the Buick Electra, which seems just a tad sportier (or at least, less conservative) than the Ninety-Eight, but they're both nice. And I prefer them both to the Cadillacs, which were just too flashy for my tastes.

One mastodon from that era that I'm starting to appreciate more and more is the Grand Marquis. I think it tends to get overlooked, because Mercury started making their whole big car range look the same, once the Monterey went away. I think '74 was the Monterey's last year? Anyway, the Marquis pretty much took over for it, with the Marquis Brougham being a step up, and then the Grand Marquis being priced into Electra/Ninety Eight and New Yorker territory. Unless you're really into these cars, most people are probably just going to lump all the Marquises together back then. It wasn't like with Buick and Olds, where the Electra and Ninety-Eight were actually bigger than the the LeSabre and Delta 88...all Marquises were the same size. But, I've started noticing them more at car shows, and the Grand Marquis trim level was pretty damned nice inside! I always liked the look of the whole range, with its hidden headlights, but just never really thought of them as quite the same league as an Electra/Ninety-Eight.

I think one of the '73-74 Marquis sedans, when they still offered a true 4-door hardtop rather than the thin-pillar sedan, would be pretty cool.

I liked dad's 77 Grand Marquis w/460 and deep dish wheels for the reasons you mention. The combination leather and corduroy interior was especially nice. It had a huge, usable trunk.

uplanderguy

RE.: White wheel--Canadian-production '64 Studebakers, imported into the U.S. starting Jan. '64, had all-white wheels. I wonder if Stude was influenced by M-B there. I had one and honestly I didn't like the all-white wheel in an otherwise blue interior, but it looks nice on that 'Benz.

RE.: The Ninety-Eight--I feel nearly-certain that interior is vinyl, which IMHO honestly wore better than leather back then. At an $8K sticker, I believe it's vinyl, too. I think the only GM's available with leather in 1976 were Cadillacs...DeVilles and above. Even the Cadillac Calais used a high-quality vinyl that year, and previously.

fintail

Only thing that comes to mind with a late run big Marquis:

sda

This is the only picture I have of the 77 Grand Marquis, in stylish 70's dark metallic brown.

tjc78

My Grandparents neighbor had one when I was a
kid. Silver over grey, loaded up. They kept it forever, Pop went through 3 or 4 Panthers while they had it. IIRC it was replaced with a jellybean Taurus. Ugh.

Great movie.

sda

I can post pictures again from my Surface! From a conversation a couple of days ago, here is a picture of dad's last car, which he bought new in Sept 94. 1995 Olds Cutlass Cierra SL II. He gave it to me in 2005 when he could no longer drive because of failing eyesight. A good reliable car that did not like to drive in a rushed manner. Dad is 85 and essentially blind, but has a positive attitude and is sharp as a tack,. The Cierra was traded for a used 2003 Acura TL in 07.

omarman

My dad bought a new '73 Bronze Age trim Mercury Monterey 4 door pillared roof sedan like the one in this ad:

We all went on a couple test drives with other cars at Heritage LM before dad picked out this one from the showroom floor. I don't think Mercury offered a true 4 door hardtop back then but I did see a full sized Marquis 2 door hardtop at the dealership in '73.

explorerx4

Late 90's(?) Benz commercial - "Faithful"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kybh3ntL33o

imidazol97

This pulled out in front of me this morning. I couldn't get my phone out fast enough to get a picture!
1956 Mark II

I've seen one in last years being transported on I70. It was a soft cream color.

fintail

Was the Ciera a 4 or a 6? Seems a lot of those later ones were 4s, but I bet it could be reasonably smooth with a 6.

My grandma had one of those in the 80s, I remember she liked it a lot as it had good visibility.

sda said:

I can post pictures again from my Surface! From a conversation a couple of days ago, here is a picture of dad's last car, which he bought new in Sept 94. 1995 Olds Cutlass Cierra SL II. He gave it to me in 2005 when he could no longer drive because of failing eyesight. A good reliable car that did not like to drive in a rushed manner. Dad is 85 and essentially blind, but has a positive attitude and is sharp as a tack,. The Cierra was traded for a used 2003 Acura TL in 07.

fintail

Yep, probably from just before or after Y2K. Some MB ad creative was on a sentimental bent then. Reminds me of this classic:

https://youtu.be/ZlhLrzgDlx0

And this:

https://youtu.be/QhRG_iv_U6c

explorerx4 said:

Late 90's(?) Benz commercial - "Faithful"

sda

fintail said:

Was the Ciera a 4 or a 6? Seems a lot of those later ones were 4s, but I bet it could be reasonably smooth with a 6.

My grandma had one of those in the 80s, I remember she liked it a lot as it had good visibility.

sda said:

I can post pictures again from my Surface! From a conversation a couple of days ago, here is a picture of dad's last car, which he bought new in Sept 94. 1995 Olds Cutlass Cierra SL II. He gave it to me in 2005 when he could no longer drive because of failing eyesight. A good reliable car that did not like to drive in a rushed manner. Dad is 85 and essentially blind, but has a positive attitude and is sharp as a tack,. The Cierra was traded for a used 2003 Acura TL in 07.

fintail said:

Was the Ciera a 4 or a 6? Seems a lot of those later ones were 4s, but I bet it could be reasonably smooth with a 6.

My grandma had one of those in the 80s, I remember she liked it a lot as it had good visibility.

sda said:

I can post pictures again from my Surface! From a conversation a couple of days ago, here is a picture of dad's last car, which he bought new in Sept 94. 1995 Olds Cutlass Cierra SL II. He gave it to me in 2005 when he could no longer drive because of failing eyesight. A good reliable car that did not like to drive in a rushed manner. Dad is 85 and essentially blind, but has a positive attitude and is sharp as a tack,. The Cierra was traded for a used 2003 Acura TL in 07.

3.1 V6, yes the intake gasket had to be replaced around 65k. 4sp auto. It even had the remote keyless entry. Overall it was a good car.

Michaell

80’s Ciera was my wife’s dream car, back in the day. She got a Tempo instead.

tjc78

Every time I see one of those Cierra’s I think of the movie Fargo.

imidazol97

Ahhh. The 3100 engine from GM. I had that its first year in our Buick Century, 1989. Great engine. We probably traded it at 50 K, so it didn't have a chance to have a weak point for me. The power of the 3.3 L engine that had been in the A-body before in a smaller package.

uplanderguy

RE.: That Mark II--one of my very favorite postwar cars, bar-none.

andreeking

Aftersales Manager for BMW Astra Budi Kurniawan said that one of the main keys in maintaining a classic car is heating it at least once a week. "For cars that are not used daily, they should be heated at least once a week. This needs to be done so that the overall condition of the car can be maintained," Budi said some time ago. Daftar Joker123

uplanderguy

I had a 2.8 GM V6 and my Dad had a 3.1. No problems with either, but his I think had about 40K miles when he passed, and I traded mine at 75K. They had snappy pickup off-the-line, but that raspy exhaust--I could tell one approaching, blindfolded--and the exhaust systems didn't last long, I remember that.

uplanderguy

Those late '70's big Mercurys--not a fan of the slab-side/blunt front/hideaway headlight/fender skirts look that supposedly was HFII's taste--but also, my first 'real' boss drove one, and he was a lying, drinking, hit-on-girls-half-his-age guy. He's 83 now. His was navy blue with a gray or silver vinyl top.

I'm looking at that Mark II again. I know the faux spare was part of the Continental look, but it may have looked cleaner without it. I still love the interiors--elegant in their simplicity. First Big Three postwar long-hood/short deck styling I can remember too.

tjc78

imidazol97 said:

Ahhh. The 3100 engine from GM. I had that its first year in our Buick Century, 1989. Great engine. We probably traded it at 50 K, so it didn't have a chance to have a weak point for me. The power of the 3.3 L engine that had been in the A-body before in a smaller package.

Our 92 Century had the 3.3. It felt pretty powerful for the times and didn’t need a single thing during the time we had it.

kyfdx

imidazol97 said:

This pulled out in front of me this morning. I couldn't get my phone out fast enough to get a picture!
1956 Mark II

I've seen one in last years being transported on I70. It was a soft cream color.

I saw one being driven on I-71 in Kenwood, about 10-15 years ago. I had to go home and Google it.

Stunning.

uplanderguy

Those Mark II's were a $10K car in 1956....breathtaking.

In the Lincoln building at the Gilmore Museum campus near Kalamazoo, MI (can't recommend enough!), there were at least a couple of them.

imidazol97

I see a lot of classic cars being transported on paid haulers along I75, east/west. A drive to Columbus almost always has one sighting. Most common are 3-car haulers.I have seen one Mark II in a creamy light yellow as I said earlier. I love that color in the barely cream color..

This one was white. Looked pristine. The carrier came out of a street that likely was from a hotel where they spent overnight? Turned into McDonalds (MEH) for breakfast and was gone when I went to the parking to look for the car on trailer 15 minutes later. I should have turned around and followed in to get more pictures in McDonald drive thru.

I can't figure out the state the Mark II plate is from.

fintail

Maybe an Oregon plate on that Mark II?

Speaking of 2.8/3.1s, my dad's 85 S10 Blazer had the 2.8. I remember it had continual issues with exhaust manifold gaskets (I think), so it would make kind of an odd clicking noise when cold. I don't remember it ever breaking down anyway, but I remember my dad thought the handling of that thing was unsafe.

Back to to the Mark, I recall seeing one in a restaurant parking lot in 2006. I had one of the earliest cameraphones, and snapped a couple pics - still have them in the archive, quality!:

uplanderguy

Lovely IMHO.

BTW imidazol, my '66 Cruiser came on a trailer on 70 from Indianapolis to Columbus, then 270 and 71 north to where I live. My friend from Indianapolis went and looked at the car an hour from his home there, and told me if the car were white and a '64, he'd be buying it. Guy's worked on Studes his whole life; that was good enough for me. Plus, he trailered it very reasonably for me.

fintail

This showed up in a fintail group today, a kind of weird probably German coachbuilt fintail-based ambulance type conversion:



Probably 2 or 3 fighting over it now.

xwesx

LOL Man, that is one ugly cuss.

ab348

It has the same taillights as the fintail wagon posted last week so I wonder if the same company that made those did this one.

ab348

The cable channel that was re-running the original Mission: Impossible episodes for the last few months finally got to the end of the last season of that series, by which time it was seriously running out of gas anyway. To their credit they didn't just re-run from the beginning again, but instead switched to a different classic series with great opening titles:




This episode opens with the bad guy in a high-speed police chase in a familiar vehicle. The speedometer shot was from the trusty stock footage library:






The chase ends when one of the characters tries to escape by jumping out of the speeding car:



The bad guy gets away and ditches the car, which is later pulled out of the ocean somewhat worse for wear by a crane. Seems to have a poor fit of the door weatherstrip:





I enjoy this series. This episode is from the first season and aired originally in 1968.

ab348

I should add that continuity wasn't a strong suit in the early seasons of this series at least. One episode from this first group of episodes I saw this week had McGarrett leaving his office wearing a gray suit and getting into a black '67 Mercury 2-door. He is shown driving it along the streets and then pulls up in the famous '68 Mercury 4-door and gets out wearing a blue suit. In the chase scenes above, the sun is coming from either side or directly overhead in various different scenes.

sda

I still enjoy that series. Not limited to 5-0, those stock footage scenes always bother me as I know the difference. Matching the wrong starter sound to a vehicle gets me too. For example using the distinct Chrysler starter sound on a Ford or Chevy makes me laugh.

uplanderguy

I rather like the exterior styling of the '67-68 Mercs. Too lazy to look, but in either '67 or '68, the Marquis was only available in a formal two-door hardtop.

Back to that '76 Ninety-Eight with the white vinyl pillowy interior--in a Coupe deVille, the brochure shows no availability of even an optional white leather pillow interior. That pushes the Ninety-Eight up in my mind, and the Caddy down. I think that white interior was striking. I can't say I remember ever seeing a Regency of that era with vinyl seats before.

roadburner

ab348 said:

I should add that continuity wasn't a strong suit in the early seasons of this series at least. One episode from this first group of episodes I saw this week had McGarrett leaving his office wearing a gray suit and getting into a black '67 Mercury 2-door. He is shown driving it along the streets and then pulls up in the famous '68 Mercury 4-door and gets out wearing a blue suit. In the chase scenes above, the sun is coming from either side or directly overhead in various different scenes.

I recall a '60s series showing a 707 taking off, an underside shot of a B-52 retracting its landing gears, and a 727 landing.

omarman

Remember the "parsec" kerfuffle after the release of the original Star Wars movie in '77? There was a line of dialogue from Han Solo claiming that his ship, "made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs."

This was a long time ago in a pre-internet galaxy far far away. So the first person who mentioned the "parsec error" to me was my oldest brother - the most devout sci fi fan of the family. My brother wanted me to know that he'd caught that glaring mistake made by the veteran pilot and captain of the Millennium Falcon.

It didn't seem to matter to Star Wars fans that Han Solo is a fictional character. It just wasn't right.

ab348

In a number of 1970s TV series made by Universal Studios (The Rockford Files and Columbo come immediately to mind), regardless of the vehicle shown traveling at high spped, the requite shot of the speedometer is always the same, that of an early '70s Plymouth Valiant. I recall reading somewhere that those were taken from the classic Stephen Spielberg TV movie Duel, also a Universal production.

fintail

That 60 Ford looks decent for what was then an aging car, but quick rattlecan paint job might have done it.

I think that speedometer is from a German car, maybe even a MB. The 300SL gullwing and roadster used a very similar unit, here's one from a gullwing:

fintail

They do look apparently identical. I don't know the builder of that bizarre looking thing - there were probably a dozen companies in Germany making ambulance conversions, along with non-German firms (like IMA, who made the fintail wagons). This one reminds me of high roof Binz conversions. Maybe a third party made the lenses for both coachbuilders.

ab348 said:

It has the same taillights as the fintail wagon posted last week so I wonder if the same company that made those did this one.

fintail

On the road today I saw an early W220 S-class in "horizon blue", my favorite color for the cars. Not unexpectedly, the car was in rough condition, wearing weird aftermarket headlights, and on Montana (or Indiana, the plate was even in such condition I could only make out the "ana" from a distance). More optimistic was a blue Merkur XR4Ti, wearing a lot of patina, but still on the road.

imidazol97

Just saw a dark green Karmann Ghia. Probably taking it out while no snow on streets. But I'd still worry about some residual salt dust from the cold mornings a couple weeks back and I wouldn't take a classic out right now until we've had good rains.

lemko1968

Spotted a 1960 Dodge Dart Seneca being driven by an older man on the way back fro the store. The car appeared to be in excellent condition.

uplanderguy

I always moan here about how I don't like fake scoops and things of that nature. Here's my opinion as to the ones I always say "Someone thought THIS added styling?", LOL:

Late sixties Rambler Rebel SST quarter scoop:


Ford Five-Hundred upper front-fender scoop (and later Tauruses I think, as well as some Cadillacs and aftermarket ones seen around here on everything):


...and I was just reminded of this by my commenting on how I like '67 and '68 Mercurys....except this front fender ice-cube tray:



All of those cars are good-looking basic designs IMHO. "Stylists" just can't leave well-enough alone so far as the small details of course. None of my moans are general styling things, just tiny add-ons that seem like a last-minute thing.

tjc78

Some of those add-ons probably came out of a board meeting with a comment like this:

“It‘s looks good but it’s just missing something “

roadburner

That's one thing that I don't like about the Supra I'm considering, the Japanese have a penchant for fake grills and scoops, and the Supra is a prime example- although having 382 hp under my right foot causes me to forgive a few styling miscues...

uplanderguy

Some of those add-ons probably came out of a board meeting with a comment like this

Reminds me of a summer 1963 board meeting minutes I'd seen from Studebaker. The president of Studebaker was known as somewhat of a dictatorial type. He suggested a (fake) wooden steering wheel and brown column for the '64 Avanti. One board member reported his opinion that the "wheel looks cheap". Very next comment in the minutes was "(the president) approved the wheel for production", LOL.

uplanderguy

Sacrilege, I know, but to my eyes here is the worst possible scoop/side grille combination ever to grace a Corvette:

stickguy

I assume the Corvette ones were at least functional to get heat out?

andre1969

I don't mind some fake scoops, vents, etc, depending on how they're designed, and where they're placed. On that white Mercury that Uplanderguy posted, I think that's a perfect example of what NOT to do! Not only is it not attractive, but it also seems like it was just thrown up there at random. I think if it was behind the front wheel, and lower on the fender, such as just below that center crease, it would have looked a lot better. But where it is now makes the car look front- and top-heavy.

uplanderguy

I do believe some of the scoops, if not all, on C3 'Vettes were functional, but every other one ever used looked better to my eyes than that empty egg crate! I know, I know, some of the most powerful 'Vettes were the years ('70-72) that had those vents.

Michaell

roadburner said:

That's one thing that I don't like about the Supra I'm considering, the Japanese have a penchant for fake grills and scoops, and the Supra is a prime example- although having 382 hp under my right foot causes me to forgive a few styling miscues...

Remember, you’ll be on the inside, where it looks like any other BMW...