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

Mr_Shiftright

Tell me about it. Same with a 928. My only justification is that the car earns its keep by making me money, but when I sell it, I will be buried in it I'm sure. I'll probably donate it or hope someone rear ends me without me in it. That's my only upside on a car like that.

Well, I suppose a man can have far more expensive habits than throwing away $200 a month on maintaining a large V-8 french poodle.

(Aw...fifi is upset, she needs a diamond collar--LOL!)

andre1969

has this for sale:



As much as I've always liked GM RWD cars of the 70's and early 80's, I never really liked the downsized LeMans. I think they really messed up the nose of the car, although the unobtrusive, plastic covered bumpers were a nice touch, and ahead of their time. I like the way the beltline kicks up a bit at the rear window though, faintly evocative of the old GM "Coke-bottle" look.

They want $4995 for this beast, which is WAAAAY too much, but I think it's kinda cool to see one that's still this nice. I liked the '81 LeMans, that had a somewhat Trans Am-ish looking nose.

Almost forgot...does anybody know anything about the wheels that are on this '80 LeMans? I don't recognize 'em. I like 'em, though.

stumack1

That's the 1978-80 Cutlass Calais/442 aluminum wheel Andre.

lemko

...a Toyota Corolla All-Trac? It's sort of a mini-ute-like station wagon.

Also, spotted a red 1964 Ford Galaxie convertible with white top at lunchtime.

kyfdx

All-Trac.. basically a Corolla wagon with AWD... They were never that popular in a total sales kind of way.... but, very popular as a used car... hard to find.. Camry came with All-Trac at one time also..

I love those early-mid '60s Galaxies.. Both my uncle and grandfather drove them... but, not convertibles, unfortunately..

andre1969

a few of those All-Tracs before but haven't seen one in ages. Seems to me like the most common color was a light creme?

I never was much of a Ford man, but there are some years of Galaxie I love, too. '61-64's are cool with me, with the '63 being my favorite. And I like the '65-67 style, with its vertical headlights. My Dad had a '64 Galaxie 500 2-door hardtop when he was a teen, and when I was a little kid we had a '64 Galaxie 4-door sedan that I positively hated. But for the life of me I don't know why...maybe my Dad tried to teach me to hate Fords? ;-)

kyfdx

My grandfather's was a '62 two door.. black with all red vinyl interior .. really sharp..

He bought it for my grandmother who was going to learn to drive... she never did.. He didn't start driving it until they moved to the "city" in '68.. When he died in '71, it only had 30K miles and my grandmother sold it for $500.

I begged for that car, but only being 13-years-old, I didn't stand a chance.

lemko

...an elderly neighbor across the street had a light blue 1962 Galaxie with a white top. His daughter had a green 1967 Galaxie.

debaser853

Saw a creme & rust colored All-trac wagon yesterday, again, the lot at work. I see a fair amount of them in smaller Colorado towns..

That Gm reminded me of something else I saw yesterday, and have seen several times around town: A nice two-tone brown, 4-dour, Motor Trend Car of the year from 25ish years ago... Yep, a Chevy Citation.

debaser853

Saw a creme & rust colored All-trac wagon yesterday, again, the lot at work. I see a fair amount of them in smaller Colorado towns..

That Gm reminded me of something else I saw yesterday, and have seen several times around town: A nice two-tone brown, 4-dour, Motor Trend Car of the year from 25ish years ago... Yep, a Chevy Citation.

michaellno

Yeah, I think that the Toyota's were bought by folks who either hadn't heard of Subaru or were scared by the reliability.

I've noticed a couple of Camry All-Tracs around, not so many of the Corollas.

stickguy

the all trac was the one that looked like it had an ATM machine on the back, right?

kyfdx

The first Tercel wagon looked kind of like that also...

Today, I saw a female driving a yellow Honda S2000... Just the second time I've seen that..

michaellno

What? The Yellow S2000 or the female? Or the combination of the two?

I gotta belive there are more women in Cincinnati than that.

<sorry, couldn't resist ... puts head back down to work>

kyfdx

Well.. yellow was just for descriptive purposes.. yes.. female driver and S2000 together... rare.. lol

michaellno

I've seen my fair share of women driving S2000's (and other top down roadsters - Z3/Z4, SLK's, Boxsters, etc.) here in Denver.

Of course, with the current temp at 37 degrees, I doubt that the tops are down today!

But, I guess I'm surprised at the number of RWD vehicles I see on the roads around here.

kyfdx

Z3 and Z4... almost all female

Boxsters.. 50/50

SLKs.... women

Hey..we used to have a topic on this..

And.. I'll have no comment about the tops being down..

jrosasmc

I saw a late '80s Toyota FJ62 Land Cruiser this afternoon on the highway. It looked amazingly good for its age. What I don't understand about those Land Cruisers are how the parts are very expensive (by Toyota standards that is) and why the resale value is so strong on these things.

I personally like the style of them but I wouldn't own one as an everyday driver because the gas costs alone would bankrupt me.

Mr_Shiftright

Supply and demand drives up resale. Some people are getting $15K for old FJs that are restored and V8 equipped. What can I say, it's a "classic", like the old Land Rovers I guess.

ghulet

Today, I saw an '87-ish (124) Mercedes 300D NON-turbo (so gray market, or at least imported). Medium blue (looked non-metallic) with gray MB-tex interior, manual seats, no headlight wipers. Looked like it was in decent shape, but I couldn't help but wonder why it was even here? Earlier in the '80s, the gray market existed so we could get decent performing Benzes and BMWs that weren't available here (500SELs, 535is and the like), but a diesel?

fintail

Maybe it was brought over by someone who moved over...maybe a diplomat or military or something.

The MB specialist I know here has a Euro 230E from 1987. It's very stripped...front power windows, cloth, no headlight wipers, plastic wheel covers, and of course it's just a 4cyl. It's also a non-metallic blue. He saw it in a newspaper and called, thinking it must be a typo. But it was brought back by a military person. He picked it up pretty cheap, but it's really sparsely equipped. I wonder if military people get a personal car exemption from inane EPA/DOT regs.

michaellno

Yesterday, there were a number of posts on the late (but unlamented) Toyota All-Tracs. On my out of downtown yesterday, I find myself behind, of all things, a Corolla All-Trac wagon.

Also spotted .. a Citroen SM. It was dark, so I didn't get a good look at the color or condition.

kyfdx: OK, I deserved that comment.

lemko

...I passed by a really nice 1980 Cutlass Supreme coupe every morning this week on my way to work. It might not be the nicest on in existance but looks to be the nicest on in Philadelphia. Most cars of this vintage are pretty beat here.

Mr_Shiftright

Some cars seem to age better than others, and I'm not sure exactly why. It has little to do with "reliability" since some of the most reliable cars end up the rattiest. Oh, well.

Many diesel Benzes (most in fact) are used in commercial service as taxis. If you see one stripped down like that, you can almost be sure it was an old cab, probably brought over by military personnel as a 2-3 year old used car. I've never known diplomats to be thrifty!

wimsey1

Citoen SM-that was a odd one!
I think Toy made a Celica AllTrac Turbo also. Ready made rally car way before Sub and Mitsu.

lemko

Spotted on television last night. TV Land shows reruns of "Three's Company" at 11 PM weekdays. Last night they showed the episode which was the pilot for the spinoff "The Ropers." Mr Roper, (depicted as a notorious cheapskate) is shown driving a smoking, primered 1956 DeSoto Fireflite sedan. Actually, the car looked imminently restorable as the interior looked pretty good, the body was straight, and all four hubcaps were still on the car, The primer was in odd locations, so it was probably added by the studio to make the car look like more of a wreck than it really was. The smoking probably was a prop too along with the sound effects.

andre1969

yeah, I always loved that episode. I remember the real estate agent of Cheviot Hills had a first-gen Seville. I loved the line where Mrs. Roper says something like "Cheviot Hills, Stanley. Doesn't that sound like a wonderful name!"

"So does 'dysentery', until you know what it means!"

That '56 DeSoto actually showed up occasionally in episodes of "The Ropers", so I'm guessing they kept it around for at least the season.

andys120

I was having an espresso downtown when I spied an old photograph of a parade taken at that location.
I could see from a distance that there were several old convertibles of 40s and 50s vintage including a black '48-'49 Lincoln and a '56 Chevy.

I thought the flag-bedecked Lincoln might have been Ike's ( don't ask how I remembered that).
I looked closer and sure enough, Eisenhower was standing up in the middle of the car waving to the assembled crowd.

Nearby on the wall was a small poster commemorating his speech before the NH General Court in August 1956. There's all kinds of neat details elsewhere in the photos such as a group of teenagers in ducktail haircuts and blue jeans leaning on a '54 Ford and a 40's Buick or Caddy convertible with Secret Servicemen on the running boards, just behind Ike's Lincoln.

If you know your old cars you can often tell the year of a photograph or movie by the cars that appear in it.

fintail

Someone at worked today turned up in a 74 Caprice sedan. I know it's a 74 because it has a for sale sign on it. It was a not so bad gold-green color, the paint being dull but probably able to be rubbed out. The interior was good too, no tears, but it needed a cleaning. It was straight and the sign claimed it to be excellent mechanically...but they want $3000 for it. Seems steep for a sedan.

andre1969

of course, if it were at Carlisle, it would probably be like $6-7K or more. Of course, it probably wouldn't sell, and we'd end up seeing it again at the NEXT Carlisle event, and the one after that, and so on...

A few years back, there was a '72 Impala 4-door hardtop near me for sale. One day I stopped off and looked at it. It was a good 50-100 footer, but up close I could see the rust coming through, and it looked like a fairly cheap repaint. Interior wasn't in bad shape though, as I recall. They wanted $6000 for it! I think it sat for about 7-8 months before finally disappearing. I would've given them maybe $1200 for it. And even that might've been a bit too generous.

fintail

I don't see how some people arrive at their prices. Stupid people have too much leeway out there.

Ebay time:

Nice earlier Morgan

In the dictionary under "hopeless"

Graceful in a piggy old Rolls way, worth finishing, but no real upside

Clean early LeCar with healthy bidding

Another project worth completing

I swear every one of these sad things survived, and they all end up on ebay

If you have a weak stomach, don't click here

This must be extremely rare, I kind of like it

Very cute little Fiat

Looks good with the tires anyway. Suicide doors are nice too

If you're an heir or an overpaid underworked CEO, here's your fixer upper

Very nice early fintail in my color, first year of production. Bench seat is impossibly rare in this car.

Low mileage Andre-mobile

Hemi K-Car

Mr_Shiftright

RE: ALVIS --- get thee to a wrecking yard!

LeCar --- holy crap, Batman! $1,500 for a LeCar? Excuse me while I sweep my jaw off the floor.

Fiat --interesting little wagon, but at $5,000+ , let it go, man. That's a fair bid. Time to drop the reserve on this one and hope for perhaps a little more.

the "packard-cougar" -- some people should be arrested for what they do to cars.

Nash -- perhaps "rare" in this condition, but they made about 60,000 of them, so not a rare car per se.

Benz Fintail -- I wonder how many gallons of red dye they sloshed on that upholstery--eek!

andre1969

I actually kinda like that 2.6 K-car. And I'm in love with that '79 NYer. While my '79 isn't in bad shape for the $900 I paid for it, that one on eBay makes mine look like a hooptie!

That Fintail looks nice, except for that clashy red. It looks to me like that interior is screaming out for any shade of blue, or maybe a creme. Or white with blue on the carpeting, metal parts, and other trim would be pretty sweet. That red wasn't original, was it?!

fintail

That NYer does look nice. Not my first color choice, but the condition looks amazing, and the CB looks amusing. The more I look at that bodystyle, it actually looks pretty nice.

That freshly dyed red interior is a bit overdone. But it very well could be original...I've seen a blue on red one before. MB was odd at that time...cloth interior colors could only be matched to certain exterior colors, but MB-Tex and leather could be chosen at will by the customer. You'll sometimes see bad things, like a brown on blue car. I think blue or creme would be the best choice for the interior color.

lemko

...that New Yorker looks just like the one these people who belonged to my church owned back in the day. All it needs is a set of period wide-whitewall tires.

andre1969

I saw a white and red '57 Ford Skyliner! I'll see these things pretty often at car shows, but it's been ages since I've seen one on the highway.

They were a neat idea, but for all practical purposes, a convertible was probably a better choice. The Skyliners look horrible with the top up, and trunk space is almost non-existent. Plus, all that wiring, electric motors, etc just waiting to fail.

Mr_Shiftright

But of course that car and the earlier Peugeot were pioneers in the collapsible hardtop concept, which is quite ordinary now.

The big problem with the early retractables was that the car had to be perfectly level, which was a real pain.

Still an interesting novelty and really an admirable engineering effort. I like goofy stuff like that sometimes.

andre1969

that the car had to be on perfectly level ground! I guess another thing that's pretty noteworthy about the Skyliner is that they took the steel roof to a standard-size (the term "full-size" hadn't really come into play yet) 6-passenger car, and made it able to retract. All the cars today that have a retractable roof are either 2-seaters or have, at best, a front seat and an upholstered package shelf in back.

The Skyliner was also viewed as a flop, saleswise. However, I think it's actually pretty impressive that they sold as many as they did. IIRC, they sold around 10,000 per year, from '57-59, and while '58-59 sales were off, considering the severity of the recession, they weren't off as much as total car sales.

Did Ford lose money on the Skyliner? IIRC, they cost about $1000 more than a regular Ford Sunliner convertible ($3500 instead of $2500 base price). That $1000 premium is one reason they weren't hot sellers. But still, that seems like an awful lot of research and technology thrown into the car, for just $1000 a pop. And even at $3500, that base price was only about $400 more than my '57 DeSoto's base price. And my top doesn't go down! :-(

lemko

...the retractable top was originally developed for the ultra-high-end 1956-57 Continental. The price was already an astronomical $13,000. The retractable top would've made the car unacceptably expensive.

My Uncle Johnny had a red and white 1957 Skyliner back in the day. That top was troublesome. Sometimes it would fail halfway through its raising/lowering cycle. Fortunately, there was a manual overide so you wouldn't have to ride around with the top at "half-mast."

andre1969

about 2 hours away from me, that has tons of old cars in it. They had (might still have, but I haven't been down there since 1997) a '57 Skyliner that looked like it had been in there for ages. Its top was permanently stuck at half-mast. Really was a shame, since that let water get in both the trunk and the inside, and accelerating the car's decay.

I'm the type of person though, that if I'm in the junkyard and I see a car with the windows rolled down, I'd put them up to try to preserve the interior of the car. Of course, that's not so easy to do nowadays, since most cars have power windows.

bhill2

The reference to the 3 speed transmission on the MB has to be wrong though, doesn't it? I can't see losing a gear just because of the bench seat.

stickguy

it's on the column, so the seat really shouldn't matter! Unless the bench seat was some kind of stripper option, like a plain-jane Chevelle.

scanty

On Friday night, I spotted a nice blue Europa in the showroom of a local Euro exotic shop, and later in the evening, a new Elise flew past me headed in the other direction.

I wish I would have gotten a better look at the Elise...

fintail

Yes, I think the 3 speed thing is wrong. MB had 4 speed transmissions long before the fintail, and generally the options were auto/hydrak or manual. No different gear options.

andyman73

Hmmm, in ref to post 5426 ebay listings, that red fintail with the nice ebay workup, took @ 15 seconds to load, enjoyed the little movie clip.

Love that Fiat Abarth. One of my first matchbox type cars was a Fiat Abarth. Unfortunately it found the bottom side of a hammer, to simulate a crash.

That Packouger, what a joke! Just as funny as Andre's "garage" up in the tree!

A coworker has an Opel GT, brings it out in the warmer season. Has 13" Daytonas w/spinners on it, in the original sense, not the latest in spinners. Has nice exhuast on it. He's an electrician, keeps it in good running order. Is a mustardy yellow orange color.

stickguy

you have to be an electrician to keep an Opel GT in good working condition. Does he have the common factory "always up" headlight option?

andyman73

Was that sarcasm? No, his must not have that option. His daily driver is a 90 325iC. Still chuckling over the "always up" crack! :0

lemko

...it could be worse. How about a TR-7's one up one down look?

andyman73

Talk about the dumbest things, I saw a Prelude, years ago, that had the flip up switched hooked up to the stereo, and the went up and down with the beat. Sometimes together, and sometimes individually. Some people, and the abuses they put to their cars. Guess it's their right, even if it ain't right.

kyfdx

A BMW M5.. E39 model... I would sell my wife for one of these.... shewwww!!