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

ab348

uplanderguy said:

I like the '63 1/2 Ford. My uncle has a medium blue metallic '63 XL four-door hardtop, pretty rare piece but I'd still prefer the two-door.

The vinyl upholstery used in the '63 and '64 XL's seems to wear like iron. Interiors in otherwise 'meh' cars look like new.

My friend who has wrenched for about 60 years has said he thinks both the Chevys and Fords of '63 and '64 were about the most durable they ever built, but he also really likes the '63 Ford, especially.

I can remember my Dad parking behind one and saying to me, "That's what a taillight should look like". They were big.

I don't know if I ever posted these before but my buddy who moved up-country is helping a hoarder car guy up there with his '63 Ford. He bought it decades ago in nice condition from the original owner in Boston and brought it up here, then didn't do anything to it for decades other than keep it stored in a heated warehouse. It needed lots of recommissioning but my friend was up to the task.

uplanderguy

Very nice Galaxie 500. I don't recall that color, not that I necessarily would of course. But it looks great.

Where I lived, Fords from about '61 to '64 were often what I called a 'Tomato Red' with the same color interior. I got tired of that. Nice to see other colors.

I have never been able to figure out if the '63 1/2 roofline replaced the boxy roofline hardtop coupe, or if they were still built simultaneously through the remainder of the '63 run. My guess is that the boxy roofline was discontinued mid-year, but it's only a guess. Of course in '64 there was only the fastback roofline.

I'll guess that Ford's a 289, without any additional emblems ahead of the wheel openings to indicate a bigger engine.

andre1969

That's a really nice '63 Galaxie! Love that color combo.

Oh, I stumbled across this picture on Facebook...

One thing I think is interesting, is how red/white sort of became cliched in later years as "the" color of the 50's. Yet, looking at this line of cars, the only red I see is on the '57 Plymouth. However, I can't tell, but there's a car behind the '60 Lincoln (car with the canted headlights poking out behind the van towards the back), that looks like it might be red. It's easier to see if you open the pic in a new tab and zoom in. It's mostly chrome and glare from the sun, but my eye is picking up a bit of red. I know this pic was taken sometime in the 60's, but there's still a lot of 50's cars in there.

uplanderguy

Newest cars I see are '62 Buick and '62 Ford....possibly the Corvair is a '62. The radio station bumper sticker makes me think this is a later photo.

ab348

uplanderguy said:

Very nice Galaxie 500. I don't recall that color, not that I necessarily would of course. But it looks great.

Where I lived, Fords from about '61 to '64 were often what I called a 'Tomato Red' with the same color interior. I got tired of that. Nice to see other colors.

I have never been able to figure out if the '63 1/2 roofline replaced the boxy roofline hardtop coupe, or if they were still built simultaneously through the remainder of the '63 run. My guess is that the boxy roofline was discontinued mid-year, but it's only a guess. Of course in '64 there was only the fastback roofline.

I'll guess that Ford's a 289, without any additional emblems ahead of the wheel openings to indicate a bigger engine.

Yes, it has the 289 under the hood. IIRC it has the 2-speed Ford-O-Matic transmission.

The colors are Corinthian White over Viking Blue. In '70/'71 Olds also had a paint called Viking Blue but it was different than this shade.

In the revised brochure featuring the new "sports hardtop" they still show the "Thunderbird roof" version in the background of a picture, but it is not featured.

imidazol97

uplanderguy said:

Very nice Galaxie 500. I don't recall that color, not that I necessarily would of course. But it looks great.

Where I lived, Fords from about '61 to '64 were often what I called a 'Tomato Red' with the same color interior. I got tired of that. Nice to see other colors.

I have never been able to figure out if the '63 1/2 roofline replaced the boxy roofline hardtop coupe, or if they were still built simultaneously through the remainder of the '63 run. My guess is that the boxy roofline was discontinued mid-year, but it's only a guess. Of course in '64 there was only the fastback roofline.

I'll guess that Ford's a 289, without any additional emblems ahead of the wheel openings to indicate a bigger engine.

According to Wiki, the Sports Hardtop was sold alongside the box hardtop starting as a 63 1/2
year model. It quickly outsold the boxy styling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Galaxie

I had looked that up before after one car show where both were present.
Also 260 cu in was the entry level V8 at the beginning of '63 and the 289 was
added midyear.

uplanderguy

Looks like both two-door hardtops were offered simultaneously:

fintail

Spotted in a real estate listing:

andre1969

I'm guessing that's a Morris Minor, but I'm not really familiar with them. Kind of a cute little thing, but good lord, how small are they?! With that type of garage construction, they usually put the poles 8 feet off-center, and the horizontal 2x4s are normally 2 feet off-center.

So just eyeballing it, that would put that car at about 8 feet long, and I know that can't be right! Looking online, I saw 148" mentioned. I guess it's just an optical illusion.

I think it's cool, seeing the old cars that sometimes pop up in real estate listings. Or, even just looking at Google street views of various areas.

uplanderguy

I knew of a guy in my hometown with two of them. The semaphore (sp?) turn signals were a hoot.

kyfdx

@andre1969 Those look like 12' spans, with 10' posts..

andre1969

kyfdx said:

@andre1969 Those look like 12' spans, with 10' posts..

I just did a comparison to my own garage, which uses that same type of siding. I think it's 20x24 feet, more or less, with those posts being 10 feet off center. With that type of siding, the big creases are 9 inches apart, with two smaller creases in between breaking it down further into 3" strips. So, 20 feet deep could make sense to me. It's hard to tell because the floor is uneven, but I think the way that car is parked, the rear axle roughly aligns with the center post. So, figure the rear hangs out a couple feet beyond that?

But yeah, definitely NOT 8 feet off center. Here's a pic I took in my garage, for comparison...
The post immediately to the left of the entry door is at the 16 foot mark, in keeping them 8 feet off center. Because of the door, though, I think they made the first one about 7 feet off-center, judging by the way it splits the difference between the attic trusses. It's just out of the picture, but that window butts up against the pole that's at the 24 foot mark. It's a 36" window, so the right side is roughly the 21 foot mark? But, a 16 foot deep garage wouldn't be of much use to most people...unless they're into small cars!

I remember one of the first houses I looked at, once I was getting serious about looking, was advertised as having a 2-car garage. However, the garage floor was a couple feet lower than the main level of the house, so there were a couple stairs and a small landing leading up to the entry door. Just enough to reduce that spot to about 15 feet. It was a nice house, but that garage made it useless to me. Here's a pic of it (all the pics from when it was last for sale, are still showing)...


When I was looking at houses, I was paying more attention to the garage, or ability to build a garage (how large/level the lot is plus building restrictions), than I was, the house itself. It got to the point that when I'd pull up at the house, one of the first things I'd notice was the distance from the edge of the garage door, to the edge of the building itself, and if that distance was too narrow, my first thought would be yeah, right, good luck getting a big 2-door car in there! And then I'd start thinking "that's really a 1-car garage plus storage", and start thinking that means when I build a separate garage, it'll have to be even bigger to account for that.

With the garage in the pic that Fintail posted, I'm really curious, about the total setup. It looks like there was an existing garage already behind it, and then this open structure in front, and then the garage beside it. I wonder how many cars, total, you could fit in it?

kyfdx

I just thought it looked deeper than 20 feet.
But, you may be correct. Perspective is everything.

fintail

Morris Minors are pretty small. I like the side porch on the garage of that house Andre posted.

This is the listing, if anyone wanted to see the setup Garages are a big deal here, due to winter weather I am sure. Even modest houses can have sizeable garages, not so common west of the mountains.

The city has an interesting archive of building permits, going back maybe to the first permits around 1900-1910, and seems to have them for virtually every address. I found the permit for my garage, things were cheap then:

andre1969

I like that house, Fintail. I'm surprised they were able to pack that much onto a 0.28 acre lot, though! I like the "garage behind the garage" layout too, almost like you have a secret hiding space back there. The construction of the roof is interesting, too, how it looks like they only use trusses on the ends, and one in the center, but then run some pretty beefy crossmembers to support the metal roof. With both of the garages I've had built, they have trusses running every 24". But then the crossmembers on the new garage are just 2x4's that are run, spaced 2 feet apart I think, with the vapor barrier and then the metal roof attached. The garage at the old place just has OSB or whatever they call the roofing plywood, nailed directly to the trusses, and then shingles over that.

As ridiculous as housing prices are, it also doesn't seem all that expensive to me, all things considered. Oh, if anyone's curious, here's the house that I had looked at, with the undersized garage...
https://www.zillow.com/homes/620-Wood-Lot-Trail-Rd-Annapolis,-MD-21401_rb/36014102_zpid/

Beautiful house, but just not enough garage for me. And I have a feeling clearing trees and stumps would have been a pretty big expense if I wanted a second garage put in. I remember it backed up to some strip of protected land, that I think was owned by the HOA. That set off a red flag with me, and made me think there would be all sorts of hoops to jump through if I wanted to build a garage.

xwesx

Quality roof trussing makes all the difference in the world when it comes to resisting shear forces (such as wind or earthquake) and dead loads (snow). Fairly simple roof structures can seem great until they get put to the test.

fintail

That house looks pleasant yeah. It is in kind of an outlying area with probably what counts for traffic here (there are issues with north-south commute traffic flow in some areas), and might be just a little underpriced in order to get attention and bids - houses going over list is really the trend now, 20-70K seems most common, but I saw one around 250K over last week. Mind you, this Spokane, a different planet from the Puget Sound metro juggernaut where 6 figures over list is common. That house would be ~100% more expensive in the metro. At the same time, houses here that were 200K in 2014 can be 600K now. Lot sizes in most of this state tend to not be huge - anything more than 1/2 acre is likely at least somewhat rural, and anything above 1/4 acre in a city is rare. My neighborhood probably averages 7500 sq ft (my house was originally on a ~15000 sq ft lot when built, but was later divided), and plats that are much newer or older can be smaller, closer to 5000 sq ft. My neighborhood was developed in the 50s, when I think there was a movement towards larger lots. That house you link to is really nice looking, and appears to have a price to match.

I suspect snow weight is also a factor in that roof construction. Makes me think about my own garage, but it seems stable and it has lasted this long, so I am OK with it. If it starts making noise or pieces start falling off, then I will be alarmed

Speaking of garage layouts, this place is interesting - looks like 4 car storage + 2 car carport. When this house was first listed, it caught my eye as it was a real time capsule, and I like these 70s semi-custom styles. However, it was used for a somewhat shameless flip, and most of that character was erased (painting over the stained cedar (?) cladding irks me), but it would have been way too much for me to deal with at original list - it needed heavy cosmetics. Nice profit margin anyway.

andre1969 said:

I like that house, Fintail. I'm surprised they were able to pack that much onto a 0.28 acre lot, though! I like the "garage behind the garage" layout too, almost like you have a secret hiding space back there. The construction of the roof is interesting, too, how it looks like they only use trusses on the ends, and one in the center, but then run some pretty beefy crossmembers to support the metal roof. With both of the garages I've had built, they have trusses running every 24". But then the crossmembers on the new garage are just 2x4's that are run, spaced 2 feet apart I think, with the vapor barrier and then the metal roof attached. The garage at the old place just has OSB or whatever they call the roofing plywood, nailed directly to the trusses, and then shingles over that.

As ridiculous as housing prices are, it also doesn't seem all that expensive to me, all things considered. Oh, if anyone's curious, here's the house that I had looked at, with the undersized garage...
https://www.zillow.com/homes/620-Wood-Lot-Trail-Rd-Annapolis,-MD-21401_rb/36014102_zpid/

Beautiful house, but just not enough garage for me. And I have a feeling clearing trees and stumps would have been a pretty big expense if I wanted a second garage put in. I remember it backed up to some strip of protected land, that I think was owned by the HOA. That set off a red flag with me, and made me think there would be all sorts of hoops to jump through if I wanted to build a garage.

ab348

fintail said:

Speaking of garage layouts, this place is interesting - looks like 4 car storage + 2 car carport. When this house was first listed, it caught my eye as it was a real time capsule, and I like these 70s semi-custom styles. However, it was used for a somewhat shameless flip, and most of that character was erased (painting over the stained cedar (?) cladding irks me), but it would have been way too much for me to deal with at original list - it needed heavy cosmetics. Nice profit margin anyway.

The current interior is all of the 50 Shades of Gray theme, too much for me.

I am intrigued by the lot and the resulting design, but also somewhat confused. It appears the rear half of the house is buried into a hill? Not sure how advisable it is to have the roof so close to the ground. Seems like an invitation for squirrels and other nuisance critters to move into the eaves.

tjc78

I’m sure I’ve told this before, but my uncle has a 58 Bonneville. He has had two houses built with special garages just for Bonnie.

stickguy

Also while house shopping today, in the garage. Bright blue thunderbird turbo coupe. manual trans. Looked brand new.

stickguy

And out driving a clean stock looking 65 el. Camino

andre1969

I know this is an obscure reference, but I remember an episode of "Newhart" where they showed the inside of Michael Harris's apartment. That was the yuppie who was dating the maid Stephanie. Anyway, his apartment was in one of those "50 shades of gray" decors, right down to the carpeting, furniture, etc. The interior of that house makes me think of that, and for whatever reason whenever I see that type of decor I think "Suddenly it's 1985!", which I think was when that episode aired.

Back when I was looking at houses, I remember seeing one for sale that had a similar decor. I had a friend with me, and I made a comment about feeling like I was in Michael Harris's apartment, and, by God, he actually knew what I was talking about, and started laughing!

Oh, out driving yesterday, I saw a '67-68 Camaro. Blue with a white top. I only caught a quick glance at it, so I couldn't tell if it was a convertible, or a hardtop with a vinyl roof.

fintail

Grey is trendy, and it sells. It's the somewhat bloatling CUV of colors - we may not love it, but it creates profits. When my mom was house shopping a year ago and would proclaim "flip" upon seeing grey LVP, one knew the fad is strong. I think Todd and Margo's house interior (recall they drove a now-obscure Saab 9000) would fit the 80s theme Andre mentions:



An "award winning" 1981 local build recently went pending before list, but some images were archived - this would be fun in more grey:



"bend over and I'll show ya":

fintail

It's a relatively steep hillside development, yeah. I am sure it would need to be sealed well, as we have no shortage of squirrels/chipmunks in this region, not to mention their friends I am sure.

On that note, the 1981 build I posted is also built into the ground, I think it was some kind of period energy efficiency trend:



This obscure house, not far from the 70s flip, appears to have sat idle for some time by interior images - needs a heavy interior update, and went pending before list at 615K.

ab348 said:

fintail said:

Speaking of garage layouts, this place is interesting - looks like 4 car storage + 2 car carport. When this house was first listed, it caught my eye as it was a real time capsule, and I like these 70s semi-custom styles. However, it was used for a somewhat shameless flip, and most of that character was erased (painting over the stained cedar (?) cladding irks me), but it would have been way too much for me to deal with at original list - it needed heavy cosmetics. Nice profit margin anyway.

The current interior is all of the 50 Shades of Gray theme, too much for me.

I am intrigued by the lot and the resulting design, but also somewhat confused. It appears the rear half of the house is buried into a hill? Not sure how advisable it is to have the roof so close to the ground. Seems like an invitation for squirrels and other nuisance critters to move into the eaves.

ab348

Interior color trends can be short-lived, though grey is certainly the new beige. I remember in the '90s "dusty rose" was hot for a while, but it seemed to wear out its welcome in a hurry. Oddly enough, I thought polished brass hardware was dead, but it seems to have had a revival.

fintail

All of the grey cars over the past few years support that, too. In the 80s there was a lot of beige/tan/burgundy kind of earthtones, and nobody can forget the greens of the early/mid 90s.

I notice black framed windows have also returned.

uplanderguy

RE.: "Newhart"--I was a big fan of that show. I enjoyed it even a bit more than "The Bob Newhart Show". In fact, I liked his two subsequent shows, "Bob", and "George and Leo", which sadly, went nowhere. One was up against that trendy sensation at the time, "Ally McBeal". Yuck IMHO, LOL.

One of the funniest scenes, of many, to me in "Newhart" is when "The Turbo Z" broke down and left Stephanie without a car to drive. Bob's character says, "You can use my car, Stephanie" and she looks at Michael and pouts. Michael says, "Your car is American, Dick". LOL

I thought using a '73 Delta 88 as Dick's (Bob) car in a series starting in the fall of '82 was a stretch. I could see his character driving maybe an '80, '81, or '82 Delta 88. The Delta 88 choice seemed totally logical for his character I think.

andre1969

Wow, everything's on the internet if you look around enough. I looked up that "Michael Harris" house on Zillow, but all the pics appeared to be cleared out. However, it's still showing up on Redfin.com...
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Crownsville/1227-Sunrise-Beach-Rd-21032/home/9930885

Looking through the pics it wasn't as gray inside as I remembered, but in scrolling through the pics, the master bedroom pics (17 & 18) made it all come back to me!

Newhart trivia...all that footage in the opening scenes with the Delta 88 is actually B-roll footage they shot for "On Golden Pond". However, one of the earlier episodes has Dick and Joanna going into town, and then it shows a stock shot of the Delta 88 driving past a church, so having it actually cut within one of the episodes, rather than just being in the credits, might have made the car seem a bit more integral.

There were a few episodes where it showed the Loudons with a car. One early episode, you could really only see it in a nighttime shot (and it was a real night shot, not one of those "day for night" shots they used to do. It definitely had the shape of an A-body, and may have been a Cutlass Ciera. They showed a few interior shots, where you could really just see the B and C-pillars, and it definitely had an A-body vibe.

I recall a later episode as well, where they went on a trip and ran out of gas, and they showed a newer Ciera, with composite headlights.

I had always pictured Michael as driving a newer 300ZX, as it seemed more with the times and more "yuppie". But there was one episode, I think that dealt with the car being repossessed, and they showed him walk into the Stratford Inn carrying the driver's door of an earlier one, like a 280Z.

"Newhart" isn't shown on any classic tv network currently, as far as I know, since Antenna TV took it off back around April of 2018. But, most of the episodes are on YouTube, in varying picture quality. One thing that's cool though, is most of them are around 24 minutes, which indicates to me they were broadcast sometime ago, before they got chopped down to the current 20-21 minutes of most modern "half hour" shows to allow for more commercials.

fintail

Oddly, Newhart is not on imcdb. I remember my dad liked that show, and when I see the theme on YT, I hear "meow" at the end.

I swear something else borrowed the intro scene too, late 80s/early 90s, but I can't put my finger on it.

fintail

Out on the road a little, surprisingly little to see on a nice day. Did see a ~65 Dart hardtop and a restored/not rodded looking 35 Ford Phaeton (touring car style, not convertible sedan)

andre1969

I tried looking up Newhart on the imcdb too. I wonder if there just weren't enough cars featured throughout the run, for it to warrant an entry? The '73 Delta 88 does have an entry in "On Golden Pond"...
https://www.imcdb.org/v022335.html

There was a 2-part episode where Dick went to Manhattan, and some actress that he was going to do a book on tried to seduce him. That one showed some stock footage from the streets of Manhattan. Been awhile since I've seen it, but for some reason I'm remembering an early Cavalier, and a fairly new, for the time, Delta 88. In one episode where everyone went to Stephanie's parents' mansion, for Thanksgiving or something like that, they showed some stock footage of a mansion, and what looked like it may have been an early 60's Cadillac, but the footage was a bit grainy and exposed. I believe they showed George Utley's truck once or twice, or at least a closeup of the cab/interior, but I can't remember what it was, now.

And there was an episode where George, I think it was, tried to get a job selling used cars. In the showroom, they had a Cavalier with a thinly disguised front-end. It's disturbing, the stuff that sticks in my mind after all these years.

Hmm, I just accidentally started typing something into a browser, without completely clearing out the old address, which had started with imcdb, and this error popped up...

I'm sure that someone can identify the car, but I wonder, what movie it's from? FWIW, I don't know what kind of car it is, either. For some reason, the body seems British to me, but I'm picking up a bit of an Italian vibe from the front-end.

explorerx4

I can tell you it's a Peugeot 404.

andre1969

D'oh! That makes perfect sense, for the "404" error. I should have seen that coming!

sda

I had forgotten about the Delta 88 in "On Golden Pond" and didn't realize it was the same as shown on "Newhart". It was a base 88 and not the Royale.

uplanderguy

Today's "Curbside Classics" has an R/T review of the '73 Monte Carlo, after publishing previously, reviews of the Grand Am and Cutlass Salon.

They goof on the 'baroque styling' of course, although I liked the full-length wide sill moldings and lack of trim above them on the body sides. The hood is ridiculous of course, and I remember bench seats in those cars being unnaturally reclined and nothing you could do about it.

Surprisingly to me, they said it handled better than the other two. I would've thought they had the same suspensions, but I guess that is the time of more autonomy in the divisions.

They also said the 454 was faster and also got better MPG than the smaller engines in the other two cars. Who'da thunk it.

andre1969

uplanderguy said:

Today's "Curbside Classics" has an R/T review of the '73 Monte Carlo, after publishing previously, reviews of the Grand Am and Cutlass Salon.

They goof on the 'baroque styling' of course, although I liked the full-length wide sill moldings and lack of trim above them on the body sides. The hood is ridiculous of course, and I remember bench seats in those cars being unnaturally reclined and nothing you could do about it.

Surprisingly to me, they said it handled better than the other two. I would've thought they had the same suspensions, but I guess that is the time of more autonomy in the divisions.

They also said the 454 was faster and also got better MPG than the smaller engines in the other two cars. Who'da thunk it.

I saw that review this morning as well, and was going to mention it. The Monte Carlo did 0-60 in 8.6 seconds, whereas the Grand Am with the 400-2bbl was 10.3, and the Cutlass Salon with the 350-4bbl was 11.0. I was kind of shocked too, that the Monte Carlo got such good mpg. For what they call "Normal driving", the Monte Carlo was rated at 14 mpg, versus 11.5 for the Cutlass Salon and only 11.0 with the Grand Am.

I'm surprised the 454 big-block, with 245 hp, did that well economically. It had a 2.73:1 axle, versus a 3.08:1 for the Cutlass, and I think the Grand Am as well.

I wonder, did the 454 get some kind of exemption from the Feds that year? Perhaps, there was some kind of loophole that allowed it to continue on without some of the emissions strangulations that got the other cars? I know the Pontiac V8s, along with the Buicks, had trouble with emissions controls, and tended to be strangled down worse than the Olds and Chevy V8s.

Also, while it's not that common, I think sometimes a bigger engine will actually get better mpg in some driving situations, simply because it doesn't have to work as hard and rev as fast. While the Olds 350 or Pontiac 400 aren't exactly stressed out moving these big beasts under most normal conditions, I'd imagine the 454 was really loafing.

uplanderguy

I'm skeptical by nature, and I've got to wonder how 'honest' that car with the 454 was when it arrived for testing, so far as all emissions, etc.

I remember hearing that Pontiac put a 421 in a mid-size and palmed it off to the magazine as a 389 in '64 or so.

uplanderguy

A guy who worked with my Dad got a new white '73 Grand Am coupe with the red interior; pretty standard combo but very sharp to my teenage eyes then. He had it a year and traded for an (ordered) bright turquoise metallic '74 Chevelle Malibu coupe with six and three-speed. That's the only Chevelle stick I remember seeing at our local dealer in the entire '74 model year.

sda

uplanderguy said:

A guy who worked with my Dad got a new white '73 Grand Am coupe with the red interior; pretty standard combo but very sharp to my teenage eyes then. He had it a year and traded for an (ordered) bright turquoise metallic '74 Chevelle Malibu coupe with six and three-speed. That's the only Chevelle stick I remember seeing at our local dealer in the entire '74 model year.

That's an odd trade and a downward move. I wonder why he did that. I guess the 73 gas crisis could have been a factor and he was seeking better mpg.

uplanderguy

That's an odd trade and a downward move. I wonder why he did that. I guess the 73 gas crisis could have been a factor and he was seeking better mpg.

That's what I seem to remember hearing. Funny, I don't remember ever seeing the Grand Am on the Chevy dealer's used car lot, and I was there a lot. But the Grand Am was gone from his driveway and the Chevelle took its place.

ab348

The reclined Colonnade bench seats were also on the LeMans and maybe other models too. I never understood the reason why unless it was necessary for headroom. On my '77 I don't recall them feeling overly leaned back but maybe I just got used to it.

Regarding big-block engines in that era, the Pontiac 455SD (and to some extent the 400) retained much of their HP well into the '70s.

sda

During the gas shortage and price spike of 73 one of dad's good friends did a knee jerk and traded their 69 Dodge Superbee 440 Six Pack for a new red 73 Mazda 808 Automatic/AC wagon! That was the piston model.

andre1969

I'm too young to really remember the first oil embargo. But when the second one hit, in '79, I remember one of our neighbors had a mid '70's Ford Gran Torino coupe, but that fall she swapped it for an early 70's DeVille. I can't remember the exact year, but it had the widely space headlights, so that would put it at '71-73.

That might seem like an odd thing to do, with fuel prices the way they were, but I'd imagine that when the second fuel crisis came along, the value of those big dinosaurs dropped even worse than it did the first time around, when they were newer, so it was probably a way for her to look well-heeled, Cadillac-style, on the cheap.

Plus, from what I've heard about those mid-70's Torinos, going to the Deville might have even been an improvement in fuel economy!

uplanderguy

Something I always disliked about the Chevy Colonnades, anyway, was when you opened the hood and looked at the bottom of the windshield, it was cut all jagged. Not sharp jagged, just looked amateurish, and there was no molding there.

Andre, are the others like that, or just the Chevy? At least our '74 Impala had a wide, bright molding there.

sda

GM eliminated the stainless steel trim at the base of the colonnades windshield. What you saw was the glass bottom edge of the windshield and two black hard bumper stops to limit the travel of the wipers in the hidden parked position. I agree, I didn't like unfinished look compared to earlier models. Our 72 Cutlass had the stainless trim, our 73 GrandAm and 76 Cutlass did not.

andre1969

Yep, the base of the windshield just dropped off, with no trim or anything to finish it off. And the bottom appears to be cut in straight lines with slight angles where needed, rather than a curve...
It looks like there's some little metal piece there, that helps hold the windshield in place so that it doesn't slide down over time.

One nitpick I always had about the Colonades, is that if you don't have a full vinyl roof that covers the A-pillars, there's an exposed joint near where the A-pillar joins the roof...
Worse, it doesn't appear to be a seam, but rather the A-pillar metal seems to overlap the roof panel just a bit. It looks to me like it would let water run down in there, but I imagine it's sealed, somehow.

uplanderguy

The bottom of that windshield looks better than I remember, for whatever reason.

The WORST highly-visible thing about the Colonnades was on those without roof drip moldings--which I have to believe are only the Chevelle Deluxe and Malibu without the Exterior Decor Group--I remember you could see black goop and general poor finish, right at eye level--things that would be at least partly obscured by the roof drip moldings. I remember a light blue metallic '73 Malibu sedan with white painted top that you could see a bit of sponge actually sticking out in the upper-rear part of the cutout on the driver's door area. Terrible.

andre1969

I need another R-body like I need a hole in the head, but one of my friends sent me this link, and I gotta admit, it's pretty tempting looking...
https://www.facebook.com/commerce/products/5394547833913266/

They really improved some of the quality details on these for their final year. You could actually use those pull handles on the doors without them breaking off!

andre1969

Oh, almost forgot. Yesterday I went out on a run to the local BJs, and in the parking lot at that plaza it looks like there was a small car show going on. I was pressed for time, so didn't walk over, but did take a couple pics from a distance...
I tried to zoom in on the Caddies so I could send that pic to Lemko, as he once had a '75 Coupe DeVille.

Oh, and at the drive thru for Arby's, I was behind this...
These '92-96 era F-150s were once a common sight, but they seem a bit scarce these days. I thought it was amusing that something this "new" is sporting antique tags. Makes me feel old. (and no, that's not the actual license plate number...I doctored it a bit. I figured being right up in the guy's business like this, I'd at least try to give him a bit of privacy

imidazol97

I like that cruise-in. They leave the hoods down. That way I can admire the
shape of the car. If I want to see what's under the hood and if someone
is there with the car, I can ask to have it opened.