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

uplanderguy

My parents:

1) 1937 Plymouth coupe bought with $100 loan from my grandfather
2) 1950 Ford Custom 4-door sedan, black
3) 1956 Chevy Two-Ten two-door sedan, gray and white--first car I remember. They had it 'til '64 and it was rusty by then
4) 1962 Ford Fairlane, white, the car that turned my Dad off of Fords forever, LOL
5) 1967 Chevelle 300 Deluxe 4-door, light green, first new car
6) 1973 Nova coupe, light green, new
7) 1974 Impala Sport Coupe, light green with white painted top, new
8) 1977 Impala coupe, bright red, new
9) 1980 Monte Carlo, dark metallic green, new
10) 1984 Monte Carlo, light maroon metallic, new
11) 1990 Corsica, two-tone maroon and silver, new

xwesx

You guys must have great memories. I definitely couldn't recreate the list for my parents. Maybe in my lifetime, but not before that for sure.

ab348

My folks had a '55 Ford as their first new car, a black 4-door that they had the dealer 2-tone with a white roof. Then a used '56 Ford Crown Victoria, yellow and black, that Dad traded the '55 for over Mom's objections around '57 or '58. That is the first car I have any memory of, and I'm fuzzy whether or not it had a glass roof.

Then a '59 Ford, a '61 Meteor, a '62 English Ford Consul, a '63 Pontiac Laurentian, a '65 Pontiac Parisienne, a '66 Olds 88, a '67 Parisienne 4-dr HT, a '69 Impala sport coupe, a '71 Dodge Monaco 4-dr HT, a '68 Volvo 144, a '73 Volvo 144, a '74 Ford Maverick LDO, a '75 Hornet Sportabout, a '78 Grand LeMans Safari, and a '79 Chevy Impala. Except for the '68 Volvo and '69 and '79 Impalas, he bought them new.

Mom passed away during the ownership of the '79 Impala and I moved out of the family home not long thereafter as Dad sold it off. He had a few cars after that - an '82 Omega, a couple of K-cars - but I had little exposure to them.

uplanderguy

andre, I have noticed that you use "Chevies" here and I use "Chevys". I figured since it's a name, just adding an 's' at the end was proper.

Well, this morning on FB I saw a magazine ad for a '60 Bel Air Sport Coupe, and Chevy themselves used "Chevies" in text under the photo of the car.

I tip my hat to your proper usage!

andre1969

sda said:

Farmville is in central VA. Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Richmond are all around an hour or so away. It is largely rural with a lot of farming, logging, etc. Dad bought a 450 acre farm there which was sold a few years later. I have the utmost respect for farmers.

Small world. I have a lot of family down in Alta Vista, which is a bit south/southwest of Lynchburg. My ancestors from that side of the family came from North Carolina before that, but a lot of them settled in Alta Visa. I haven't been down there since roughly 1996 or 1997. I remember going down for my Aunt Alice's 90th birthday, and then, sadly, the next time was her funeral, not too long after. I guess that was probably my Great-great aunt, since she would've been a generation older than my grandparents.

I just google-mapped the old neighborhood, where a few of my relatives down there live, and apparently, they're not exactly chronic car buyers. Here's a screen capture, that Google took in 2008...


Google hasn't been down that street since 2008, so I dunno how much it's changed. But I had to smile when I saw that Bronco II...I actually remember riding in that little rig!

There was an old farm down there, long since abandoned, that was still in the family. The house was decaying, and the field overgrown. But one time when we were down there, we rode out to the old farm to look around. There was a dresser in the house that had a bunch of shop manuals for '62 Chevies. They were still in pretty good shape at the time...I'm surprised rodents hadn't gotten to them. The relatives let me have those manuals, and I still have them, packed away somewhere. I'll probably never have use for them, myself, but something in me just wanted to save them.

**Edit...one thing that I just noticed. I've spelled it "Alta Vista" my whole life, but I notice on Googlemaps it's "Altavisa". In a similar mixup, my family owns 10 acres of nearly worthless mountainside in Appalachian Virginia that I always spelled "Hollybrook" but it's actually "Holly Brook". To make things more confusing, there is Hollybrook VA, as well. It's near Williamsburg/Busch Gardens.

andre1969

uplanderguy said:

andre, I have noticed that you use "Chevies" here and I use "Chevys". I figured since it's a name, just adding an 's' at the end was proper.

Well, this morning on FB I saw a magazine ad for a '60 Bel Air Sport Coupe, and Chevy themselves used "Chevies" in text under the photo of the car.

I tip my hat to your proper usage!

Well, don't tip it too fast...I still type "Mercurys" as the plural of "Mercury"

At work, I have the bad habit of typing "Galaxie" instead of "Galaxy". Which I guess is a bit extra bad, since I'm a NASA contractor!

andre1969

It's funny how the mind, and memory can work. I can pretty much rattle off every car my Mom owned, my Dad owned, and even my stepdad, EXCEPT for in recent memory! The most recent car I can visualize with my Mom and stepdad is a sage green 2008 Altima 2.5 SL they bought new. At the time, they also had a '97 or '98 Expedition, a 1999 Altima, and a 2000 F-150.

I think they still have the '08 Altima, but the other three are gone. My Mom got a newer Altima, but I forget the year. I want to say around a 2015 or 16, but it just sort of slips the mind. They also have a Ford Escape, like around a 2014 or 15, and my stepdad ended up buying a Prius, but again, the year eludes me. They also recently got a newer F150. All I can remember is that it's blue. I think I've seen it once.

Part of it too, might be that I'm not around them nearly as much as I was when I was younger, so I just don't have as much exposure to their vehicles like I used to. They live in Southern Maryland, maybe 75-90 minutes away depending on traffic. I haven't been down their place since Christmas 2019, and I've only seen them a few times since then, when they came up here.

Then, I wonder if it's just a matter of me getting older, too. Most newer cars don't excite me that much, so I don't pay that much attention to them. The older ones just seemed more, well, interesting. Mom's '57 Plymouth, '59 Rambler wagon, and '66 Catalina convertible are a lot more interesting to me than her Altima, or my stepdad's Prius!

kyfdx

Chevys looks better to my eye

sda

I'm not as excited about new vehicles as I used to be. They have all gotten too expensive, the focus is on all the high tech, and the selection of sedans and coupes has disappeared.

uplanderguy

I'm not as excited about new vehicles as I used to be. They have all gotten too expensive, the focus is on all the high tech, and the selection of sedans and coupes has disappeared.

Boy, that sums it up for me.

I open myself to ridicule here, but I just prefer to buy from an American nameplate car company. I refuse to get into all the usual discussions about that. I have enjoyed Chevrolets my whole life, and have gotten good service out of every one of mine--in fact, I have never once felt compelled to buy an extended warranty and as of yet have not regretted that decision. I have enjoyed Chevrolets in the way that 'normal' people enjoy a sports team, LOL.

But when it's time to buy my next new vehicle, I truly don't know what that'll be.

There are certain colors I like in the Malibu, but I'm sure that car is not long for this world. I very much enjoy the C8 but don't see me buying a new one of those, LOL.

GM (and Ford) have given up on sedans. I do think the import companies have had a bit of an advantage in building new plants here (as opposed to the domestics having older plants), and don't have to deal with the UAW. But hey I know, life isn't fair and the domestics have image problems going back decades. I get it. I think in general, things people think are great are not really that great, and things people think are bad are not really that bad.

I have to laugh that I was actually suspended temporarily from (of all things!) a Chevy Cruze forum on Facebook two days ago for basically saying the above. A moderator who looked less than half my age was offended at how I said I really wouldn't like to replace a Cruze with a competitor from an Asian (or German) manufacturer for reasons I detailed, largely, above. He started to level insults, including that my post about that was too long (gee, 'ADD' perhaps?!). I will admit, I replied "What a dolt" and he said "Bye bye Billy". I chose to leave that forum totally instead of accepting a temporary suspension.

I think you add winter to Covid, and now Ukraine, and people are in general testier than normal, LOL.

andre1969

It is interesting how, as buyers age, often the car purchases become less frequent. With my paternal grandparents, their history was:
1949 Ford (used)
1957 Ford Fairlane 500 hardtop sedan (new)
1961 Ford Galaxie 500 hardtop sedan (new)
1963 Mercury Monterey hardtop sedan (new)
1966 or 67 Pontiac Tempest coupe (can't remember if it was a hardtop or pillared) (new)
1971 Pontiac Tempest hardtop coupe (new)
1975 Dodge Dart Swinger hardtop (new)
1977 Ford Granada coupe (new)
1981 Ford Granada coupe (new)
1985 Ford LTD sedan (new, the small, fox-based one)
1989 Ford Taurus LX (new)
1994 Ford Taurus GL (new)

They were always a one-car family, and Granddad almost always did the driving.

Now, I don't know about the '49 Ford, but for the most part, Granddad just liked to buy new every so often, before a car started getting old enough to start having problems. The '75 Dart used to stall out at random and the dealer never could get it fixed, so they finally got fed up and traded that one on the Granada. The Granada's transmission gave out, but was covered under warranty and after that it was fairly reliable.

I remember Granddad saying he liked the '61 Galaxie a lot, but he wanted the Monterey for the "Breezeway" rear window, and he got a fairly good trade-in. As I recall, the '61 was around $3500 new, while the Monterey was, in Granddad's words, "The Galaxie plus $1200".

Grandmom died in 1994, about 7 or 8 months after they bought the '94 Taurus. Ironically, Granddad had bought it, because of Grandmom getting sick, and he wanted reliable transportation to take her to the doctor, hospital and such. I don't think the '89 was getting too bad, yet, but seem to recall him saying it would stall out every now and then.

Granddad gave up driving, voluntarily, just before he turned 90 in 2004. He offered to give it to me, but I didn't really need it. It only had around 40,000 miles on it, and was in good shape, but I remember in its later years there was often a slight antifreeze smell to it. One of my cousins ended up getting it instead, and he and his wife used it for awhile. The last time I can remember seeing it was maybe 2008 or 2009. I took Granddad to see them for Easter, or some other occasion. I remember Granddad looking at the car in their driveway, kind of beat-up and forlorn looking, and just shaking his head in a bit of sorrow.

A few years later, at another family get together, I asked my cousins if they still had the Taurus, and they said no. I think they got it to around 80-90,000 miles, but didn't really need it, so they gave it away, and then lost track of it.

It's also interesting, looking back on some of the trends. My grandparents tended to buy bigger cars, but by the time they got the Tempest, the kids were all adults, so they really didn't need a big car, or a 4-door anymore. And the only reason they started going back to 4-doors, with the LTD, is because the industry was phasing out 2-door cars. There was the Thunderbird, but my grandparents didn't like it. They liked the squared-off, conservative look of their '81 Granada, so the T-bird was too much for them. Even the LTD, they bought, grudgingly.

I can still remember, around early 2000, Granddad wanted a new car. By this time, he'd had the Taurus a bit over 6 years, and that was the longest he'd ever kept a car, so in his mind he was overdue. I had just bought my 2000 Intrepid, and Granddad actually liked it a lot, but with its bad visibility, I didn't think it would be a good car for him. I took him to the Ford dealer, to see the Tauruses. I never cared for that overly-rounded off '96-99 style, but thought the 2000 refresh was nice. But Granddad took one look at it, and said no. The salesman had to literally beg him to sit in one, and even then, he still needed my coaxing. But Granddad sat in it for like a minute, and said "no thanks, let's go". And, that was the end of that.

uplanderguy

Our family friends had a '63 Monterey Breezeway which I remember riding in, clearly. That back window down was an awesome thing.

I wonder how your grandparents liked their '57 Ford four-door hardtop. In Iacocca's book I recall him mentioning how a district man had the rear doors of his four-door hardtop (may have been a '56) tied together inside the car to keep a door from opening on the road!

andre1969

I was always curious about the '57 Ford, too. I do remember Grandmom and Granddad saying they liked it. My Dad would have only been 10 or 11 when they bought it, so his memories would just be as a kid, but one of my uncles, born 6 years before Dad, had said he remembered driving it. In conversation one day, when I was asking him about it, I can even remember his face seeming to light up a bit, when he said "That was a nice car!" He said it was pretty fast, as well. IIRC, they had gotten it with the optional 312 V8. I'm thinking it was a 2-tone creme and brown color, but here I'm just going on my memory, of my uncle's memory. Funny thing is, I can remember most of their cars either being various shades of creme or brown. In the case of their '81 Granada, it was also a 2-tone creme/brown!

I'd guess the '57 Ford was a good car for them, considering they kept it for four years, and Granddad tended to have a quick trigger finger when it came to trading.

As for the Breezeway, the main reason Granddad wanted that, was so that he could roll down the window and use the car to haul things, like ladders, lumber, etc. Sort of like a pre-historic Avalanche, I guess!

sda

Unfortunately 3 of 4 of my grandparents had already passed before I was born, all too young! I remember the 3 cars my grandmother (Nana) on mom's side had. Nana didn't learn to drive until after her husband passed and mom taught her! My grandfather was in sales for RCA Victor at the time and always bought a new Buick every 2-3 years. When he passed my grandmother started driving the 56 Buick Special coupe. Mom says that car was a handful as it didn't have power steering or brakes, but it looked good! Nana traded the Buick for a used 62 Olds Dynamic 88 sedan with all power, a/c. It was a goldish tan in color. She eventually traded that for a 68 Cutlass S that she special ordered. It was a light metallic blue with white interior. When it finally came in, she showed it to her mom who exclaimed you should have gotten red! Men are attracted to women who drive red cars! That was her last car which was sold in the early 90s with less than 45k on it. This was me around 30 and her Cutlass as the new owner was coming over to pick it up. I still have a full head of hair, with a lot of gray now and have gained weight, alas.

andre1969

A moderator who looked less than half my age was offended at how...

LOL...whenever I run across people like that, I tend to think of the first sentence from "The Shining."
(vague reference I know, but if anyone's curious, it's out there )

Hey, I just noticed something...when did the automotive emojis get replaced? Probably longer than I think, but for some reason it just now caught my eye.

ab348

sda said:

She eventually traded that for a 68 Cutlass S that she special ordered. It was a light metallic blue with white interior. When it finally came in, she showed it to her mom who exclaimed you should have gotten red! Men are attracted to women who drive red cars! That was her last car which was sold in the early 90s with less than 45k on it. This was me around 30 and her Cutlass as the new owner was coming over to pick it up. I still have a full head of hair, with a lot of gray now and have gained weight, alas.

Love the Cutlass and the colors, but what's with that body side molding?

ab348

uplanderguy said:

I have to laugh that I was actually suspended temporarily from (of all things!) a Chevy Cruze forum on Facebook two days ago for basically saying the above. A moderator who looked less than half my age was offended at how I said I really wouldn't like to replace a Cruze with a competitor from an Asian (or German) manufacturer for reasons I detailed, largely, above. He started to level insults, including that my post about that was too long (gee, 'ADD' perhaps?!). I will admit, I replied "What a dolt" and he said "Bye bye Billy". I chose to leave that forum totally instead of accepting a temporary suspension.

Moderators should lose their moderator status if the start throwing insults at members.

sda

ab348 said:

sda said:

She eventually traded that for a 68 Cutlass S that she special ordered. It was a light metallic blue with white interior. When it finally came in, she showed it to her mom who exclaimed you should have gotten red! Men are attracted to women who drive red cars! That was her last car which was sold in the early 90s with less than 45k on it. This was me around 30 and her Cutlass as the new owner was coming over to pick it up. I still have a full head of hair, with a lot of gray now and have gained weight, alas.

Love the Cutlass and the colors, but what's with that body side molding?

She had the car repainted and wanted to prevent new door dings which it had accumulated over the years. It was a decent respray which included a clear coat. The color ended up slightly darker than the original but not by much.

uplanderguy

Greg, I was going to ask about the side moldings too!

Then and now, I like white interiors. And I've never owned a white belt or shoes!

andre, I watched the beginning of the movie and didn't see the line you mentioned, but did see it (pretty sure what you meant!) from the first line of the book!

Another minor observation: I say 'ordered' when a car was ordered. I'd say most people say 'special ordered'. To me, that means you know somebody in the organization; i.e., a COPO Chevy or something; getting something that's not available to other customers. Neither's right, neither's wrong, just an observation. LOL

andre1969

Uplander...yeah, first sentence in the book, not the movie! In the movie, Stewart Ullman actually seemed like a pretty affable guy.

I've only owned one car with a white interior, and it was pretty trashed by the time I bought it. It was a 1968 Dart 270 hardtop coupe. Antique white exterior, and the interior had white vinyl seats, door panels, and armrests. The headliner, carpet, and just about everything else was burgundy, except for some black trim on the dash.

I'm sure it was a really pretty car when it was new, but when I bought it, it was 1992, and the car had 253,000 miles on it. The body was primer black. The back seat wasn't *too* horrible, just dingy and faded. Same with the side panels in back. The front seat was ripped pretty badly, and it was actually missing the inserts for the front doors, so you could actually look in there and see the window lift mechanisms and such. The carpet was pretty well shot, too. Amazingly, the dash pad was not cracked. though.

sda

@uplanderguy I get what you're saying about special ordered. She did meet with someone at Bert Smith Olds in St Pete and specifically selected color, trim, engine--she want the 350 2bbl as it took regular gas, ps,pb,ac, am radio, whitewall tires, full wheel covers, rear window defogger (a 2 speed fan that blew on the back glass). It had tinted glass but I think that was included with the ac option. I believe it took 6 weeks for it to be delivered. Had I had input I would have included the clock and am/fm radio but otherwise it was nicely equipped for the time. I hated the big round blank in the three pod instrument cluster where the clock would have been. It just looked cheap. I found a picture taken in 76, somewhat faded. The silver blue was a little darker that what this depicts.

fintail

Thinking of white interiors , my mom's T-Bird was white on white. I can't see how that was a good idea with kids, but I don't remember it looking too bad - however, I was a kid, and little things probably didn't catch my eye. That car was off the road in 1985 at only around 10 years old, so it had other things to worry about (I want to say transmission or timing chain fault, something happened and those pre-oil crisis cars depreciated to nothing, so my dad said it was time to move on).

The 68 Fairlane my dad bought in ~1992 was also white on white, I've mentioned it before, a basic car with manual steering, brakes, 3 on the tree, 289, dog dish caps. My dad loved that configuration and seemed to enjoy driving it, but when I was a new driver, I found it to be a real chore. The car had only maybe 60K on it at most when he bought it, and the interior was very clean, the gentle local climate helping no doubt. IIRC it had a grey dash pad.

A few makers offer white again. MB has a maybe just barely off white "porcelain", and I believe BMW has similar. Both are really sharp in the right application.

texases

andre1969 said:

Uplander...yeah, first sentence in the book, not the movie! In the movie, Stewart Ullman actually seemed like a pretty affable guy.

I've only owned one car with a white interior, and it was pretty trashed by the time I bought it. It was a 1968 Dart 270 hardtop coupe. Antique white exterior, and the interior had white vinyl seats, door panels, and armrests. The headliner, carpet, and just about everything else was burgundy, except for some black trim on the dash.

I'm sure it was a really pretty car when it was new, but when I bought it, it was 1992, and the car had 253,000 miles on it. The body was primer black. The back seat wasn't *too* horrible, just dingy and faded. Same with the side panels in back. The front seat was ripped pretty badly, and it was actually missing the inserts for the front doors, so you could actually look in there and see the window lift mechanisms and such. The carpet was pretty well shot, too. Amazingly, the dash pad was not cracked. though.

The '72 Duster I had through college had white vinyl seats. While working at the gas station I made the mistake of cleaning them with mechanics handsoap, a paste with grit in it. Cleaned them great, but my dad said 'uh-oh, now that grit's in the stitching, it'll wear through the vinyl'. And it did! The drivers seat ripping out along the stitching. Luckily I found a restoration shop near the university that replaced the torn sections with new vinyl for only $100 or so.

uplanderguy

That Cutlass was the best-looking of the four GM midsize coupes for '68 IMHO. All four were certainly differentiated in styling from each other. I like the Buick the least--that side 'swoop' could be carried on the big cars, but not the Skylark IMHO.

The only other '68 midsize GM coupe that might interest me more is the '68 Chevelle Concours coupe which we've discussed before. Not in any sales brochure or showroom album, but the result of an upholstery supplier strike that made Malibu interiors. For several weeks in the spring only a black vinyl Malibu interior could be had, or the Concours package which, depending on assembly plant, got you the Cutlass Supreme or Buick Skylark Custom black vinyl seating, along with more luxurious door panels, instrument panel and steering wheel trim, and wheel opening moldings and "Concours" exterior identification.

I've seen one in person my entire 63.5 years.

The Concours sedan was offered with panty cloth seating and is in the brochure, but the coupe was offered IMHO just to have a second interior option to offer customers during the strike.

I had read all kinds of BS on Chevelle sites about it, but a friend of mine had spoken to a guy with a Malibu SS396 convertible with the Skylark Custom seats and he provided this letter to him, which was photocopied and sent to me since my friend knew I'd been wondering about those cars.

ab348

sda said:

@uplanderguy I get what you're saying about special ordered. She did meet with someone at Bert Smith Olds in St Pete and specifically selected color, trim, engine--she want the 350 2bbl as it took regular gas, ps,pb,ac, am radio, whitewall tires, full wheel covers, rear window defogger (a 2 speed fan that blew on the back glass).

My Olds buddy who moved to the country has a '71 Cutlass SX 2-door HT he bought in the St. Petersburg area in the mid-80s and brought back here to restore. It was originally bought at Bert Smith Olds and for years he had a dealer plate from them on the front, though he later retired it to an inside wall in his garage.

kyfdx

My mom’s ‘67 Bonneville was white on white.

uplanderguy

I thought the SX was only a convertible...apparently not.

I remember looking at one in the Olds dealer showroom in my hometown. Even as a twelve- or thirteen-year old, I remember thinking, "Hmmm, 'SX'--almost like s*x"!

andre1969

Well, speak of the devil...I was going through some old pics, and found a pic of my '68 Dart...

This would've been taken sometime over the summer of 1992, soon after I had bought it.

I had totally forgotten about its mis-matched door, but looking at that pic, now it's coming back to me. I vaguely remember the previous owner telling me that he had been backing up with the door open, on a driveway, and for some reason went into a ditch and it twisted the door. So he got that door and put it on. But he never bothered to change the lock cylinders, so he had no key for the driver's door! And now I'm remembering that, when I first had the car, I do remember always getting in on the passenger side when I locked it, and sliding over to the driver's. I also remember that door didn't always latch quite right, so you really had to make sure it was closed, or else it would sometimes swing open if you took a sharp right turn.

Also looking at that pic, I can see I had already put in some bucket seats I had, from a '69 Dart GT that I had wrecked, and held onto for parts. I can just see the black headrest sticking up. I had forgotten I pulled the white bench seat out of the car that soon after I bought it.

I need to look around and see if I can find some pics from right after I got it painted, back to its original white. It did look nice, for awhile. But then it got hit, twice, on the passenger side, and once on the driver's side, and the quarter panels, which had a lot of bondo in them, really let go. I quit driving it in late 2001, when it had about 338,000 miles on it. At one point, I let it sit too long, and then it wouldn't start. I think it was just the fuel pump, but at the time I had too many cars and not enough money. I figured I'd get to it eventually, but then I just let it sit, and sit, and sit, and it got worse. I sold it in early 2009 to a guy who, surprisingly, wanted to restore it. I don't know whatever became of it, but I did hear from him a few years ago, and he said he was planning to get into it soon.

That thing was going to be one serious labor of love, though!

Now that I think about it, I still have those Dart GT bucket seats, as well as the back seat, and that aluminum side trim, at my grandmother's house. When I repainted the car, I had taken that trim off, and some of the little clips broke, or were missing. Plus, there was the driver's door mis-match, which didn't have that piece of trim, anyway. So I figured it was easier to just pop off the cilps, bondo in the little holes, and paint it.

I imagine that trim, and those seats might be worth a few bucks nowadays.

uplanderguy

Andre was ahead of his time with that flat black finish!

andre1969

Sad thing is, the day I first saw that car, sitting for sale, it was in the rain. So it was all wet and shiny, and looked a LOT better than it really was. But that flat black did have a somewhat sinister look to it that I kind of liked. Once it got painted back to its original white, it lost some of that evil charm.

It was kind of interesting, how I found that car. I had totaled my '69 Dart GT just the day before. On the next day, traffic was really backed up on the way home from college, so I took some side streets in the hopes of getting around it. And that's when I saw the Dart sitting, for sale, at the curb outside of an old house. It was almost like some kind of sign!

I did look around at a couple of other cars before buying it, though. One was a 1980 Dodge Mirada with a 318, that was pretty trashed. The other was a 1980 Olds Ninety-Eight coupe, with a non-Diesel 350, that was in the used car section of a new car dealership.

In retrospect, I really should've bought that Olds...it was a really nice car. And the price difference wasn't all that great. I think the trashed Mirada was $1500 asking. I ended up getting the Dart for $1700. The Olds Ninety-Eight was only something like $1995. Oddly, the Mirada and the Olds were black, too. At least, I think the Mirada was black...it was night time when I saw it, but I could tell, even in the dark, that it was pretty rough.

Michaell

When I was in HS and had just gotten my license (this was early in 1980), a friend of a friend of my mom's had a '62 or '63 Dart for sale. I had a chance to look at it.

Two doors; not sure if it was the original color, but it was a bronze-ish color on the outside and a tartan cloth interior. Had the slant 6 and the push button transmission. Dog dish hubcaps.

I thought about putting some mag wheels on it and getting it repainted a dark blue.

I don't really know why the transaction didn't go through, but I think about what that car may have done to my outlook on Mopars. Heck, I could have turned into another Andre!

Michaell

Michaell said:

When I was in HS and had just gotten my license (this was early in 1980), a friend of a friend of my mom's had a '62 or '63 Dart for sale. I had a chance to look at it.

Two doors; not sure if it was the original color, but it was a bronze-ish color on the outside and a tartan cloth interior. Had the slant 6 and the push button transmission. Dog dish hubcaps.

I thought about putting some mag wheels on it and getting it repainted a dark blue.

I don't really know why the transaction didn't go through, but I think about what that car may have done to my outlook on Mopars. Heck, I could have turned into another Andre!

EDIT - just looked at some photos, and I think it may have been a '64.

This looks like the color.

sda

uplanderguy said:

I thought the SX was only a convertible...apparently not.

I remember looking at one in the Olds dealer showroom in my hometown. Even as a twelve- or thirteen-year old, I remember thinking, "Hmmm, 'SX'--almost like s*x"!

My grandmother bought her 62 Olds 88 at Bert Smith as did my parents their 63 Olds 88. I wonder if it was the only Olds store that was local. St Petersburg isn't that large.

roadburner

sda said:

I'm not as excited about new vehicles as I used to be. They have all gotten too expensive, the focus is on all the high tech, and the selection of sedans and coupes has disappeared.

My next car will either be an M240i or an M2 Comp. I have no desire to own any SUV/CUV other than a Wrangler.

roadburner

Parent's cars(since I was born):
1957 DeSoto
1960 Comet
1963 Falcon
1965 Mustang
1967 Mustang
1970 Mustang Grande
1970 Torino GT
1972 Caprice
1973 Bronco
1974 Maverick LDO
1978 Caprice
1981 Caprice
1984 Topaz
1986 Mark VII LSC
1992 Tracer
The only ones that lit my fire were the Mustangs, the Torino, and the LSC.
My dad custom ordered the 1981 Caprice and I begged him to spec the F41 suspension, but he thought that it mite be too stiff. A couple of days after he took delivery he confessed that he should have ordered it because the handling was too soft.

uplanderguy

The other day, the '62 full-size Chevrolet was being discussed here. I know, this is Charles Phoenix, but interesting survivor-example. I do agree with him on loving 'survivor' cars. Other than the exhaust, and the fact that I would put new front springs on this car, nice example and easy to see why these cars sold so well.

I like the light green metallic, same color as my grandparents' bought-new '63 Bel Air wagon. Another thing this car has in common with theirs is the huge band of blue at the top of the tall windshield.

I'm a little surprised that Chevy would have two-toned two colors so close to each other in shade. In the '70's, when I was mostly living at the Chevy dealer, the contrasting painted top was available only in white. My Dad was a big fan of that look, and did not like vinyl tops, and as I recall, the white painted top was only $31 extra on Chevys of that era and of course included the chrome divider strip.

https://www.facebook.com/charlesphoenix.usa/videos/459000505835637

imidazol97

uplanderguy said:

I know, this is Charles Phoenix, but interesting survivor-example. I do agree with him on loving 'survivor' cars. Other than the exhaust, and the fact that I would put new front springs on this car, nice example and easy to see why these cars sold so well.
https://www.facebook.com/charlesphoenix.usa/videos/459000505835637

"I know." "Uuuuuh huh." OMG

Yup. Ditch the obnoxious loud exhaust to a quiet exhaust befitting the subtle elegance
on this car.

Charles missed the chrome strip on the inside of the windows at the roofline. Very
import in that day to stating the quality int his car.

He missed the two-tone colors of the exterior alliterated on the steering wheel
between the rings he pointed out.

@uplanderguy
Thanks for sharing this. Made my day.
My buddy throughout school bought one of these 62s. I believe it was a bluer
tone and I think it had a different color on the roof but not white.
I looked to see if the hood insulation was deteriorating and it appeared
to be shedding. My buddy's car had sucked bits of hood fiberglass into the
air intake and clogged the air filter.

sda

roadburner said:

Parent's cars(since I was born):
1957 DeSoto
1960 Comet
1963 Falcon
1965 Mustang
1967 Mustang
1970 Mustang Grande
1970 Torino GT
1972 Caprice
1973 Bronco
1974 Maverick LDO
1978 Caprice
1981 Caprice
1984 Topaz
1986 Mark VII LSC
1992 Tracer
The only ones that lit my fire were the Mustangs, the Torino, and the LSC.
My dad custom ordered the 1981 Caprice and I begged him to spec the F41 suspension, but he thought that it mite be too stiff. A couple of days after he took delivery he confessed that he should have ordered it because the handling was too soft.

The Mustangs, Torino and LSC get my vote. As I've shared before I had a 93 Tracer LTS. It was a fun car, essentially a rebadged Mazda Protege.

ab348

uplanderguy said:

The other day, the '62 full-size Chevrolet was being discussed here. I know, this is Charles Phoenix, but interesting survivor-example. I do agree with him on loving 'survivor' cars. Other than the exhaust, and the fact that I would put new front springs on this car, nice example and easy to see why these cars sold so well.

I have no idea who Charles Phoenix is and after watching a minute of that video I could not stand him any longer so I quit. Nice car though. For a Chevy.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

I looked to see if the hood insulation was deteriorating and it appeared
to be shedding. My buddy's car had sucked bits of hood fiberglass into the
air intake and clogged the air filter.

My '64 Skylark had similar hood insulation. Not a single large blanket like later cars, but individual pieces cut to fit the openings in the reinforcement frame under the hood skin. On my Skylark they were dirty and almost black when I first got it. I saw repro insulation was being made and got a set for not much money. It was actually a yellow color and it proved very easy to remove the dirty stuff (which was in fact yellow on the back side) and replace it with the new. I would imagine with this being a Chevy that repro insulation would be readily available.

uplanderguy

I have no idea who Charles Phoenix is and after watching a minute of that video I could not stand him any longer so I quit.

Then, you missed when he opened the door and said, "Wow, beautiful...well, let's call it what it is, a cockpit".

stickguy

All original other than loud exhaust and lowered ride?

imidazol97

ab348 said:

imidazol97 said:

I looked to see if the hood insulation was deteriorating and it appeared
to be shedding. My buddy's car had sucked bits of hood fiberglass into the
air intake and clogged the air filter.

My '64 Skylark had similar hood insulation. Not a single large blanket like later cars, but individual pieces cut to fit the openings in the reinforcement frame under the hood skin. On my Skylark they were dirty and almost black when I first got it. I saw repro insulation was being made and got a set for not much money. It was actually a yellow color and it proved very easy to remove the dirty stuff (which was in fact yellow on the back side) and replace it with the new. I would imagine with this being a Chevy that repro insulation would be readily available.

Not long after the car had the stopped up air intake, a lady pulled out in
front of him at a crossroad on his way home from Indianapolis to his
parents' home. I lost contact after that.

roadburner

sda said:

roadburner said:

Parent's cars(since I was born):
1957 DeSoto
1960 Comet
1963 Falcon
1965 Mustang
1967 Mustang
1970 Mustang Grande
1970 Torino GT
1972 Caprice
1973 Bronco
1974 Maverick LDO
1978 Caprice
1981 Caprice
1984 Topaz
1986 Mark VII LSC
1992 Tracer
The only ones that lit my fire were the Mustangs, the Torino, and the LSC.
My dad custom ordered the 1981 Caprice and I begged him to spec the F41 suspension, but he thought that it mite be too stiff. A couple of days after he took delivery he confessed that he should have ordered it because the handling was too soft.

The Mustangs, Torino and LSC get my vote. As I've shared before I had a 93 Tracer LTS. It was a fun car, essentially a rebadged Mazda Protege.

My mother's Tracer was a base model. I actually considered an LTS, but the clueless L-M dealers in my area only stocked automatics.

andre1969

uplanderguy said:

Then, you missed when he opened the door and said, "Wow, beautiful...well, let's call it what it is, a cockpit".

Of COURSE he did

Good lord, now I'm having a flashback to "Airport '79: The Concorde" where George Kennedy made a similar comment.

andre1969

I dunno the details, but I just saw this on a facebook page called "Malaise Motors"...

The '80's strikes back!

sda

Sad, that was a hard hit.

stickguy

must have slipped on the suds. at least the old car seemed to crumple zone fairly well.

xwesx

roadburner said:

sda said:

I'm not as excited about new vehicles as I used to be. They have all gotten too expensive, the focus is on all the high tech, and the selection of sedans and coupes has disappeared.

My next car will either be an M240i or an M2 Comp. I have no desire to own any SUV/CUV other than a Wrangler.

Where did that come from?! I am shocked by this revelation!

uplanderguy

All original other than loud exhaust and lowered ride?

The rear looks about normal to me, but the front seems real low. I'd have to do something about that, and quick.

I recall that these cars had a nose-up attitude typically, enhanced by the downward-sloping lines down the body sides.

My '66 Studebaker with 27K miles (I know, that's less than 43K like that Impala has), sits nice at all four corners. I think that is largely due to the front springs being the same part no. as the '64 fronts, which was when the cars still had Studebaker's V8 instead of the lighter Chevy-based 283 the '65 and '66 cars had.