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

kyfdx

@uplanderguy

The Star Chief had that extra taillight section, as well. As a five year old, riding around in my Mom's car, I knew how to tell it apart from the lesser models that were missing it.

sda

My Cub Master had a 62 Grand Prix in light pastel (Carolina) blue with dark blue interior. I thought it was neat as it had bucket seats and gear shift in the console. I remember riding with him and his son. We got caught in a traffic jam on the Mississippi River Bridge. We were told to roll the windows down as the ac had to be turned off otherwise the car would overheat. As soon as we got moving again all windows up and ac on.

Michaell

That shift knob on the Malibu looks exactly like the one I had on my '79 Sunbird...

tjc78

@Michaell said:
That shift knob on the Malibu looks exactly like the one I had on my '79 Sunbird...

Knowing GM of the era (really any of the big 3) it probably has the same part number.

sda

Michaell said:

That shift knob on the Malibu looks exactly like the one I had on my '79 Sunbird...

With the low hp of the 267, it probably is the same transmission! My sister had an 80 Sunbird hatchback that I bought for her. It also had the 4 sp, Iron Duke. The shifter had a very solid and notchy feel to it.

Michaell

sda said:

Michaell said:

That shift knob on the Malibu looks exactly like the one I had on my '79 Sunbird...

With the low hp of the 267, it probably is the same transmission! My sister had an 80 Sunbird hatchback that I bought for her. It also had the 4 sp, Iron Duke. The shifter had a very solid and notchy feel to it.

Iron Duke for mine, as well.

I had the car 3.5 years and drove it 40,000 miles before I totaled it roughly 4 months before I graduated from college.

ab348

tjc78 said:

@Michaell said:

That shift knob on the Malibu looks exactly like the one I had on my '79 Sunbird...

Knowing GM of the era (really any of the big 3) it probably has the same part number.

Yesterday, Adam of the Rare Classic Cars YT channel posted another video about his '59 Pontiac Parisienne. In it, mention was made about the interior door handle release it had - you may remember them and how they extended forward from the door armrest, a diecast chrome-plated horizontal paddle of sorts with an elegant little fin detail on one of the sides. I remembered those from my father's GM cars when I was a kid, and had them myself on my '64 Skylark. They were deemed unsafe when the first federal safety standards arrived and my '68 had a much less elegant handle instead. Adam and his friend mentioned how many 10s of millions of those handles GM made from whenever they began using it in the '50s through to when it was superseded, and how that huge volume allowed them to use a more expensive part than smaller manufacturers could justify..

andre1969

We always called that really pale green, "Gonorrhea Green!"

I know I've mentioned it before, but one little detail I always HATED about the Malibu Classics, is that plastic/rubber strip that goes down the center of the seat. It's a shame too, because the vinyl they used was actually really nice, so that cheap strip clashes with it something fierce. Oddly, if you got the base Malibu, the vinyl went all the way across, in one uninterrupted piece. At least, on my Mom' 80 coupe it did.

andre1969

On the '57 DeSoto, when it came to those types of door handles, it was sort of like "pick your poison". On the cheaper, Dodge-based Firesweep and the Firedome, the handle was placed at an angle that almost made it look like a grab handle for emergencies.

Just what you need, in a car with no seatbelts, to grab at that handle and fling the door open just as you're about to crash!
On the upscale Fireflite, as well as the Adventurer, they used a more integrated armrest, with a handle that I've heard referred to as an "Aircraft style" door handle. Anyway, where it's placed, in relation to the armrest, it almost looks like it's begging for you to rest your hand on it, perhaps fiddle with it subconsciously, and possibly pop the door open before you know it...

fintail

Funny thing, I was just thinking about door handles the other day.

Fintail door handles are kind of unique, a curved lever that retracts and becomes semi-flush when not in use. Passengers are often kind of confused or surprised by this:



The wagon has what might be seen as a modern interpretation of this:

uplanderguy

'78-80 Malibu Classic center vinyl (plastic?) bolster--I had a friend who bought a used '78 Malibu Classic coupe, gold sides, cream hood, roof, and trunk, gold Rally Wheels, saddle cloth interior, and he used to say the exact same thing, how he hated that strip. I'm pretty 'meh' about it. I'd HAVE to have the split seat with the dual center armrests, and the Monte Carlo round instrument cluster which was optional on the Malibu, though.

He ended up having the hood, roof, and decklid painted black, so the car had what looked like an optional 1980 color scheme.

ab348

For further clarity, these are the style of GM handles I was referring to, which ran apparently from '59 to '67:

ab348

This strikes me as a nice honest car:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1986-mercury-colony-park-3/

uplanderguy

I remember those door handles, Greg, on my grandparents' '67 Impala Sport Coupe.

fintail

BaT is like the zillow or redfin of cars - flippers flippers everywhere

tjc78

@ab348 said:
This strikes me as a nice honest car:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1986-mercury-colony-park-3/

Nice one there. Missing a lot of options, but very clean. 86 is the first year for SEFI. I always liked the pre-88 door panels, so much more upscale.

fintail

On foot today saw a Vega Kammback being towed out of where it had apparently been sitting beside a house (maybe in carport) for some time, looked like a barn find. Small bumper model, I think it was a woody (it was pretty dirty). Also saw a later run Celebrity with a "2.5 FI" badge, which amused me.

andre1969

ab348 said:

For further clarity, these are the style of GM handles I was referring to, which ran apparently from '59 to '67:

I see what you mean, about that handle looking like a high quality, expensive piece. My '67 Catalina doesn't use anything that nice, but I think the Bonneville and Grand Prix did.

uplanderguy

Other than a Cosworth, a Kammback, a later one, is one I could like owning now.

A guy on FB has a 9K mile '76 Cosworth in a dark russet color, an orange '73 'Millionth Vega' GT Hatchback commemorative edition with 10K miles, and a bright blue '71 Panel Express...all look like new. I liked Vegas a lot as a teen due to the magazine reviews and that they were built near where I lived; styling, too. I got off his particular Vega page as he wouldn't/couldn't tolerate one word of dissension, LOL. I told him that the one Cosworth my hometown dealer got in was missing the "Cosworth Twin Cam" decal on the rear panel. I remember it clearly, and as a matter of fact, I know who owns the car now. It's still missing. He says "impossible; dealer must've done body work". I about lived there at the time. Exhausting.

andre1969

Here's something you don't see every day... 1978 Plymouth Sapporo for sale on Facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1076765029719272/

Price seems crazy, but it does look like a nice example. Personally though, I like the later ones a bit better, where they seemed a bit more squared off and sporty. This one looks like it's trying to be a small, sporty car, and a personal luxury coupe at the same time! And for some reason, that rounded off rump is giving me a bit of an AMC vibe.

andre1969

uplanderguy said:

I got off his particular Vega page as he wouldn't/couldn't tolerate one word of dissension, LOL. I told him that the one Cosworth my hometown dealer got in was missing the "Cosworth Twin Cam" decal on the rear panel. I remember it clearly, and as a matter of fact, I know who owns the car now. It's still missing. He says "impossible; dealer must've done body work". I about lived there at the time. Exhausting.

It's fun, isn't it? Right now, in another forum, there's a guy arguing that Ford stopped making full-sized 4-door hardtops in 1972. Even when shown conflicting information (as in a sales brochure page), instead of admitting he's wrong, he's doubling down on it.

Now admittedly, I don't think it was until I was in my 30's that I realized that Ford/Mercury actually did offer full-sized 4-door hardtops in '73-74. Even the pillared ones have frameless door windows and a thin-pillar look, so they look like a hardtop at a quick glance. But I remember an Edmund's member, BrentwoodVolvo I want to say? He bought one for his Dad, who had owned one back in the day. I think it was a '74 Marquis, but not positive.

They weren't that common, though. In 1974, Ford sold about 34,000 hardtop sedans, across the Galaxie, LTD, and LTD Brougham lines. In contrast, Chevy sold about 124,000 across just the Impala and Caprice range.

kyfdx

andre1969 said:

Here's something you don't see every day... 1978 Plymouth Sapporo for sale on Facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1076765029719272/

Price seems crazy, but it does look like a nice example. Personally though, I like the later ones a bit better, where they seemed a bit more squared off and sporty. This one looks like it's trying to be a small, sporty car, and a personal luxury coupe at the same time! And for some reason, that rounded off rump is giving me a bit of an AMC vibe.

The (Mitsubishi) Sapporo was a pretty upscale car, at the time. They were priced like a Scirocco.. I'll guess high $5s or $6K in 1978.

uplanderguy

It's fun, isn't it?

I know we could discuss this forever, and no one wants to hear complaining, I get it, but....

The 'best' (worst? LOL) example I have is a guy who was selling a very clean '74 Vega Kammback Estate that had the gold Cosworth wheels. Now, those actually were available on '77 Vegas as an option (signalling that they had a lot leftover, LOL). This guy said "Car is all original". I politely posted, as did another guy, that those wheels could not possibly have been original as the Cosworth hadn't even been released yet. He stomped and snorted online that we didn't know what we were talking about. I said "Check the brochure online". He said "I don't care what the brochure said".

Well, this might be as bad, LOL: A month or so ago a guy had a '66 Studebaker for sale that was a Commander and it had the Cruiser trim along the back. He called the car a "Commander Cruiser". Politely corrected. He said again "You don't know what you're talking about".

Sheesh, it's OK to say 'don't know/not sure/I think', LOL.

I used to tell my kids that it didn't mean you were weak to say you weren't sure of something.

fintail

andre1969 said:

Here's something you don't see every day... 1978 Plymouth Sapporo for sale on Facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1076765029719272/

Price seems crazy, but it does look like a nice example. Personally though, I like the later ones a bit better, where they seemed a bit more squared off and sporty. This one looks like it's trying to be a small, sporty car, and a personal luxury coupe at the same time! And for some reason, that rounded off rump is giving me a bit of an AMC vibe.

I like those, especially later models with more modern/sporty trim. These were a Galant elsewhere. Price is a little nutty, but it could be the best survivor, so if the seller is in no hurry, it could work. I saw one of those on Seattle CL a few years ago, decent (but not that nice, I am sure), and I think it was 3-4K. I almost thought about taking a look.

uplanderguy

andre, did you see this on FB yesterday in "Fins"?

It should be captioned something like, "My dispatcher told me to sit tight until I got further instructions".

andre1969

uplanderguy said:

andre, did you see this on FB yesterday in "Fins"?

It should be captioned something like, "My dispatcher told me to sit tight until I got further instructions".

Hold on a sec, and let me send dispatch the new shipping address for those

andre1969

Almost forgot...last Saturday, coming back from the old house, with a truck load, I spotted a '66 Cutlass hardtop and '61 Galaxie convertible, almost at the same time. Makes me think they were coming from a little cruise-in or something. I tried to get some pics, but they're not the best...
I don't know if there's a way to tell a '66 Cutlass from a '67, from the rear, but I was able to ID it from the front, as I passed.

**Edit: I just googled, and apparently, that's actually the '67 rear end. The '66 had tall, one-piece taillights that only cut a bit into the rear bumper at the edges. But when I saw this one from the front, it definitely had the headlights close together with no turn signal between, and the wider grille. So, it's some kind of mix & match. Maybe it's a '67, that took a hit to the front at some point in its life, and someone put on a '66 front. Or maybe when it was restored, the owner just preferred the '66 front and the '67 rear?

Another thing I noticed that was odd, is that in the pic I took, its backup lights are on! And, I guess I should be calling it a 442, but who knows? In this day and age, it could be a clone

sda

I saw a very clean white 1st gen Olds Bravada. I don't see these often and most are beaters. This one appeared really nice.

fintail

Saw an early Kia Sephia on the road, I spot it now and then - those have to be very thin on the ground now.

For more obscurities, let's go back to roughly this week in 1983. These should zoom in if they aren't clear initially. First, a fun ad from Dave Smith, a low cost-touting dealer in a small town just across the border into Idaho - still around, with the same low cost m.o. Some interesting used material too - Peugeot 604, and a MB 280S (W116), IIRC the last carbureted MB sold in the USDM:





The C4 was in - no ADM!:



And some Subarus, they were relatively inexpensive then, but also a lot more simple than trendy current models (which are very much Americanized, the ad copy writer would be proud):

Michaell

Gotta love the 15% and 16% APRs on those Cadillacs!

ab348

Michaell said:

Gotta love the 15% and 16% APRs on those Cadillacs!

Yes, the '77 Seville was interesting until I saw that APR!

Poor Barton Olds, not using the D-word in their ad, but saying any Olds of that era had a 5.7L V-8 told you it was the dreaded diesel. I wonder if they were being strong-armed by GM at that point to order some to get them off their hands. Can't imagine that in 1983 many dealers were willingly ordering them for stock.

Interesting that in 1983 a '69 Mustang was already considered a collector's item.

sda

Dad had to co-sign for my loan to buy an 80 Mazda 626 coupe in 9/83. I had just graduated from UT and had my first permanent job at Dean Witter. Dean Witter was part of Sears Financial Network: Allstate, Caldwell Banker Realty and Dean Witter Reynolds brokerage. The running joke then was “Buy your socks and stocks at Sears.” Not a good ending. Anyhow my loan thru Allstate was for 15%/36 mo, $106 payment.

explorerx4

On my way back from hazardous Waste recycling, an Acura NSX in Mystichrome.
It looked green when it was behind me and red after it passed me.

sda

I found the window sticker for the Passat bought for my wife. Notice it is a 5sp which we both preferred.

sda

I was digging through some pictures and found two additional pictures of our 73 Grand Am 4dr. Note the nice courtesy lights on the console and somewhat floppy turn signal cruise stalk. The padded steering wheel was a nice touch and somewhat unusual during this time period. The picture was taken around 1982.

uplanderguy

Grand Am--best domestic seating, instrument panel, steering wheel, and door panels at the time IMHO.

I was thinking there was a handle above the glovebox door but I'm not seeing one. Perhaps that was only the Grand Prix, not sure.

sda

uplanderguy said:

Grand Am--best domestic seating, instrument panel, steering wheel, and door panels at the time IMHO.

I was thinking there was a handle above the glovebox door but I'm not seeing one. Perhaps that was only the Grand Prix, not sure.

You are observant. It should have had a handle there but for whatever reason it was missing when dad bought it used as a car for my sisters to drive.

benjaminh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5BnlbzykE

sda

benjaminh said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5BnlbzykE

What a great, timeless car.

Michaell

The owner of the company I worked for right out of college in 1985 owned a Pagoda, though I don't remember what engine it had.

He traded it in for a new 560SEL - personalized plate "THBEAZT".

andre1969

While the Grand Am was short-lived, Pontiac got a bit more mileage out of some of its components. For '76-77, the Grand LeMans used the same door panels as the Grand Am did. I wasn't sure if the '75 Grand LeMans did as well, but I googled around and found this pic of one, and it's different...Considering how low-volume the Grand Am sedan, especially, was, some of the sedan-specific parts were probably a bit cost-prohibitive to make. So using them for the '76-77 Grand LeMans and wagon was probably a good move.

I don't think the '75 Grand LeMans door trim is bad, although I'm not a huge fan of that big slab of fake woodgrain. But the Grand Am doors were SOOO much better!

**Edit: I tried to find a good pic of a Grand Am door for comparison, but couldn't. However, one thing I noticed...looks like the Grand Am's lower door panel, the plastic part, was the more low-end design, the one without the carpet.
Although, I do like the way they added on that little piece that houses the power lock and window switches, so they're more horizontal. I'm not a huge fan of when they stick them vertically on the door panel, like on that '75 LeMans (and my car). The only thing I think it worse, is when you have a 4-door car, and they put them single-file, all in a row, on the armrest. Bonus points if they also work the power lock switches and the window lockout into that configuration, as well!

My '79 5th Ave is 5-for-6 on that. It has the four window switches in a row, plus the lockout. The power locks are designed so that you have to actually pull or push the lock plunger on the window sill, but it activates all four door locks at once. The M-body cars with power windows, had all six...

uplanderguy

That '75 Luxury LeMans door panel--starting, I think, on the '73 Grand Ville, I didn't like how Pontiac did fake wood on the door panels. It was minimal chromed edging, if any, and the wood was like 3-D, and lots of it. I'm thinking some of it had designs in it (and Cadillac did this, too), that reminded me of the stalk of a Western Ricochet air rifle, LOL.

I think that Grand Am pic is of a 4-door. I can't say if any of the 4-door Colonnades had door panels with carpet at the bottom.

sda

Our 73 Grand Am did not have carpet on the lower door panels. That is the same color, saddle brown that was in our 4dr. Also the same color interior as dad’s 71 and 73 Catalina.

ab348

uplanderguy said:

I think that Grand Am pic is of a 4-door. I can't say if any of the 4-door Colonnades had door panels with carpet at the bottom.

I scrolled through the '73-'77 LeMans brochures on the Old Car Manuals page. It appears as though the '76 brochure shows carpet on the bottom of the Grand LeMans Safari front door panel, though the pic isn't large so it is hard to be certain.

andre1969

Here's a '77 Grand LeMans 4 door from Curbsideclassic...
It has what I call the "spear" lower door panel, because of that little spear shape that sweeps off the lower part of the armrest molding and sweeps forward under the power switches, or in this case, the window crank. You can sort of see the carpeting in this pic, as well.

Anyway, as far as I know, the non-carpeted models didn't have that little spear.

I don't think any Colonade Chevelle ever got carpeting on the lower door panels, not even the Malibu Classic. With Pontiac, base LeManses, and I think the Sport Coupe as well, did not have carpeting. When the upscale version was called Luxury LeMans, I don't think it had carpeting either. But then for '75, I'm thinking they used the upscale "spear"/carpeted lower door panels, with the Luxury LeMans upper door panel, or something like it, and called it Grand LeMans. And then for '76-77, the Grand LeMans got the Grand Am upper door panels.

I always thought the Can Am was a bit interesting, where it got the Grand Prix dashboard, but just the base LeMans door panels. While they weren't all that plush, I kinda liked the way the fake woodgrain had that dip, as it went around the pull strap...

andre1969

From Facebook...America's Got Talent!

imidazol97

I want to see how they use wreckers to get the car back on 4 wheels.

fintail

Very similar to the car in Ferris Bueller:

fintail

5-speed 250SL is pretty rare, usually seen on 280SL (and still very uncommon there). I have to imagine 5-speed adds a good 10K to value.

Those Kuhlmeister units were dealer-installed, these didn't have available factory AC as far as I know.

benjaminh said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5BnlbzykE

fintail

Obscure interesting detail I spotted in a fintail group - the first USDM fintails, those with stacked lights, had parking lights/turn signals in the headlight bezels. These were only 1960/61, for 1962+, the parking lights/signals were the cone/bullet style as on my car, although the lenses for the earlier style are still present in the bezel, there is no lighting behind them. These early lights are somewhat unique looking when illuminated: