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

fintail

Unusual spot in a real estate ad:

andre1969

Looks like a '49 DeSoto, but I can't tell if it's a Deluxe or Custom. That house looks like it perhaps had a two car garage under the bedrooms originally, but at some point, the garage was made into living space, and then the driveway, for some odd reason, raised up. Maybe raising it like that, and having it on a slope, helps channel rainwater away from the house and makes the basement less likely to leak?

fintail

Likely. House is in metro Seattle, where garage conversions are common - mild weather means cars decay slowly, and space is always at a premium. Water retention can be an issue too.

andre1969 said:

Looks like a '49 DeSoto, but I can't tell if it's a Deluxe or Custom. That house looks like it perhaps had a two car garage under the bedrooms originally, but at some point, the garage was made into living space, and then the driveway, for some odd reason, raised up. Maybe raising it like that, and having it on a slope, helps channel rainwater away from the house and makes the basement less likely to leak?

andre1969

Just curious, what was the asking price on that house? Could you post the real estate listing? I'm kinda curious to see the inside. I like the landscaping of it. I wish I had that kind of ambition, but I'm a bit of a lazy type. I also try to landscape to the point where I can basically hit all the grassy areas with the lawn tractor, and not have to break out the push mower.

fintail

Here's the listing. Pretty average house and price for that area (which wasn't nearly as expensive in the past):

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/20419-102nd-Ave-SE-Kent-WA-98031/48954634_zpid/

The house I bought last year has plantings from the prior owners, who were avid gardeners. I will keep things alive, but am not as into it as they might have been. I do like seeing things bloom and attract bees - the roses came to life in an impressive manner. I also have a large rock bed, which is nice as it doesn't need mowing (I am pretty sure they installed it for that reason), but at the same time it is loved by weeds and box elder bugs (who seem to have moved on finally).

andre1969 said:

Just curious, what was the asking price on that house? Could you post the real estate listing? I'm kinda curious to see the inside. I like the landscaping of it. I wish I had that kind of ambition, but I'm a bit of a lazy type. I also try to landscape to the point where I can basically hit all the grassy areas with the lawn tractor, and not have to break out the push mower.

roadburner

I want this 1973 Chevelle SS.

uplanderguy

I'm one of the weirdos that liked '73 Chevelles right from the get-go...well, I was hoping Dad would trade our '67 Chevelle on one. He hated them and bought a Nova coupe instead. My sister and her husband bought a new dark brown metallic '73 Deluxe wagon, six-cylinder! Those Chevelles steered and rode nicely and I think were better-riding than the full-size Chevy.

I have seen exactly one '73 SS wagon in the flesh. It was in the early or mid-eighties, in a mall parking lot, and it was beat up.

The color of the one in the link was 'Chamois', probably to my eyes the most unfortunate 1973 Chevy color other than 'Taupe'.

I got the '73 showroom album from our salesman at the end of the model year. I no longer have it; gave it to a friend who swap meets. I only had the contents of the album; the salesman who gave it to me kept the binder itself.

A couple weird things I remember about the SS wagon, compared to the coupe, were that they only came with the Turbine I wheels, optional on the coupes--the coupe's Rally Wheels were not available on the wagon--and that white-lettered tires were not available from the factory on the wagon, only whitewalls were optional which to my eyes looked stupid on an SS. The white-lettered tires are one non-factory thing on the car in the link I'll look over, because they look so much better!

A minor authenticity thing is that the instrument panel photo appears to have the '74 and later instrument bezel outlined in plastichrome. The '73 did not have this. This car is a later-in-the-model-year car as it has the body-color front bumper filler instead of silver (body color much better IMHO) so maybe the latest cars got the '74 bezels--but I rather doubt it.

Still, very interesting. I think the reasoning for an SS wagon was the Vega offered the wagon in a GT version which had me scratching my head in '71 too, but seems like I saw a fair amount of those cars....way more than SS wagons.

andre1969

I haven't wasted much bandwidth for awhile, so I figured I'd throw this up. I started the Catalina and 5th Ave today, backed them out of the garage, and swapped their positions when I put them back...
Oh, also, weekend before this past, I was involved in a car-jacking of sorts, but not in the normal sense...
Let this be a cautionary tale...even if your tires still look fine, time passes by way too fast, and before you know it, it's later than you think...The tire didn't seem that old going from memory, but when I checked my records, the sucker was pushing 14 years old. So, unfortunately, I was kind of asking for it

uplanderguy

Yikes, where did that happen, and at what speed?

Tires on my Stude are from 2014 which is getting me a bit concerned.

My spare is the original Dunlop. I like that, but not very useful if what happened to you happens to me.

andre1969

I was on my way to the Das Awkscht Fescht car show in Macungie, PA, which is a bit SW of Allentown. I had gone up to a friend's near Harrisburg that Friday evening and crashed there. Car was fine for that leg of the trip, which was about 110 miles. Saturday morning, we set out for Magungie, which is about 90 miles I guess. Anyway, as soon as we got on I-81, I noticed a slight vibration. It actually seemed to be coming from inside the car, and seemed like the top structure, and/or the rear roll-down window on the driver's side might have been loose.

I didn't think anything of it at first because hey, it's an old car, and they get these squeaks and rattles and resonances from time to time. But, then it started getting worse. Still, it felt like it was coming from the left rear. I pulled off at a rest stop near Exit 80 I think, on I-81, and checked both rear tires. My first thought was that maybe the lugs had worked loose or something. But no, both tires felt nice and tight. And, they looked fine.

I started the car up and we were about to head on our way, but then as soon as I put it into reverse, it stalled out. Sometimes it does that when it's been running for awhile, and probably on the hot side. The idle gets really low, and it'll cut out fairly easy. And, for bonus points, it tends to get "hot spots" on the starter, so it's a crap shoot as to whether it will re-start or not, until it finally cools down a bit. Well, I started getting frustrated with that, because it seemed to be taking extra long for it to re-start. But when it did, we decided it would be best to go back to my buddy's place, and just get his car and go to the show as spectators. The vibration was still there, and getting worse and worse, but got to the point it seemed like the whole car was shaking, even the front.

I started thinking about all sorts of potential problems, like a U-joint, the driveshaft, some issue with the rear end, transmission, or Lord-knows-what. Well, suddenly there was a loud BANG!! as the passenger side rear tire blew out, at about 55 mph, maybe a mile or so east of the Susquehanna River. Oddly, my first thought when the tire popped was "thank God, it was just a tire!" Nevermind the fact I was in a middle lane on the interstate, had to get over to the shoulder, and still had to deal with changing it. Oddly, it rode better on a flat tire, than it did before it popped!

Well, I'm ashamed to admit it, but the spare tire is at least 28 years old. It was on the car when I bought it, back in 1994. When I had the 15" Rally wheels put on in 2008, I decided to keep what looked like the best of the tires it had been running on, as a spare. I kept meaning to get the spare replaced, but kept forgetting about it, putting it off, etc. I'd check the air pressure every time before going to a car show, and add air as needed. It would hold air, at least, but over the course of say, August of one year to June of the next, which is when I'd get ready for the GM show in Carlisle, it might get down to about 15 psi. Well, I had to depend on that spare, to get us back to my friend's house. It actually did just fine, but we got off the interstate at the next exit, and took surface streets to his house, so we didn't have to go too fast.

Well, the next morning, Sunday, I decided to chance coming back home on that spare. I left early before traffic got too bad, and figured I'd just drive slow, with the flashers on. Coming south on I-83, I was doing fine for the most part. After about 25 miles or so I pulled onto the side and checked the tire, to make sure there weren't any bulges, or anything else that seemed off kilter. And also, to make sure it didn't feel like it was getting too hot. Unfortunately, about 8-10 miles after that, I started feeling a familiar vibration, the one of the day before, just very gentle at first. I pulled off again on Exit 10, checked the tire, and it still didn't look bad. So, off I went again, but then the vibration started getting noticeably worse, so I got off on Exit 4, Shrewsbury PA, stopped in the parking lot of a shopping center, and was planning to call AAA. I have 100 miles of free towing, and by this point was only about 65 miles from home.

But, then I noticed a Mr. Tire, that was supposed to open at 9, so I figured I'd wait. I saw they let a woman in their lobby around 8:45, so I went over to see if they'd let me in, too. The guy was flustered, saying we'd both have to leave our cars, because he only had one tech coming in today. I was trying to tell him that all I needed was a cheap 14" tire to use as a spare, but he just wasn't hearing me. First he said "I can tell those are the original tires on your car; I saw you pull in, I'm not going to have those." I tried to tell him that they're not original, that I had 15" put on it a few years back and he argued that "well they're whitewalls and we're not going to have a whitewall." I re-iterated that all I needed was a cheap 14" tire to use as a spare, and he replied with "we don't sell used tires; I don't know anybody that does."

So, he just wasn't hearing, what I was saying. But, at least he did tell me that the WalMart in that plaza had a service center. So, I walked up there, to see if they could do anything for me, and they actually DID have a 14" tire that would fit. However, I had to sign a waiver, saying I was putting an incorrect size on the car, and they had me actually jack up the car and take the wheel off, and then put it back on. I think they have a rule these days that they'll only sell tires in pairs, since you're not supposed to just change one side. But, in taking the tire off of the car, and saying it was a spare, got around that rule.

So, for $79.44, they got me road-worthy again, and since I knew the tires were mis-matched, I just drove gently, on the way home. I know you're not supposed to have mis-matched tire sizes on the same axle, but I figure people drive like maniacs with those little donut spares, so me driving gently for 65 miles on a standard, if under-sized tire, isn't going to mess with anything.

And, with luck, once I get new tires on it, I'll never have to use that new spare again! Just remind me oh, in about 10 years, to replace it!

andre1969

Oh, almost forgot to mention, the tires on my 5th Ave are from 2014 as well. I figure I'll wait until around the 10 year mark, to replace them. I do need to do something about the spare, though. Right now I have a donut in the trunk, which stores nice and neat upright on the passenger side, behind a carpeted divider. I don't know how much of a hassle it would be to get a donut replaced, so I might just have to take one of my old rims that would fit the car, and mount a normal spare on it.

fintail

Ugh what a nightmare - no damage to the car, right?

Fintail's radial wide whites are 9 years old now, hoping to get several more years out of them, as I do a lowish mileage at lowish speeds, and those BF Goodrich Silvertowns are not cheap (I think around $200 apiece back then). No visible signs of decay, and they can't have 15K miles on them.

That flat experience reminds me of an incident years ago, when I got a flat in the fintail. This was before I had a new kingpin set installed, so the camber was weird, and it would chew up tires - but as I was a student and back then one could find new decent 13" tires at Les Schwab for under $40 apiece, it was easier to buy another tire every 10K miles or so. I pressed my luck for too long, and a tire wore down and went flat, while driving in town. I noticed it was steering a little weird, but didn't think much of it, didn't bother looking til I got to my destination. Flat, and when I went to change the tire (with a bias ply spare, which I only got rid of when I got the wide whites), I cut my hand on steel belts. Fun times. That pressed me to finally fix the issue, I won a full kingpin rebuild set on ebay for $65 (!), spent the money to have it installed, and it's still fine today.

uplanderguy

fin, your remarks about kingpins remind me that just yesterday I was looking at an old Curbside Classics (I think) about a 9K mile Blue Mist '63 Studebaker Cruiser with the gorgeous blue broadcloth interior. Someone mentioned in a comment the Mercedes similarity in one or two places, and someone below said, "Yeah, Studebaker was still using kingpins though". True, but so was M-B.
Typical well-informed Curbside Classics poster. When I read a blatant misstatement/error/opinion like that, all I can think of is how the adults on the Peanuts cartoons sounded when they talked!

andre1969

Yeah, as far as I can tell, no damage to the car. And the rim seems fine, as well. I was worried about tearing up that Rally 2 wheel, as those things aren't easy to come by these days, on the 5" bolt pattern. I had originally replaced all four tires, when I had those Rally wheels put on back in 2008, but the car had gone out of alignment just enough (camber or whatever they call it) so that it chewed up the front tires. The mechanic caught that in time, and fixed the alignment issues, plus got me new fronts, in 2018.

I honestly can't remember the last time I had a blowout. I've had tires go flat, after running over a nail or other road debris, but never a sudden blowout, at least not at high speed. Now that I think about it, in the summer of '95, I had a rear tire on my '68 Dart blow out, but I was only doing around 45-50. And, that was also a symptom of me being young/cheap/poor. The tires that were on the car were pretty much shot, so I put snow tires on the rear, that my Mom had given me, and figured I'd just drive on those until I could afford new tires. Only problem is, Mom had given me those snow tires when she gave me her '80 Malibu when I started driving, back in 1987! I had just gotten a pair of Dart rims from the junkyard, and had tnose snow tires mounted on them. So at the bare minimum, they would have been 9 years old. But, being snow tires, and only used for part of the year, I imagine they were much older than that.

One thing I'll say for these tires on the Catalina, at least they did give me plenty of warning...it's just that, I didn't know what it was warning me about! When the Dart's tire blew out, it was sudden and without warning. When that 15" on the Rally 2 started to go, it gave me about 35 miles of warning! And when that ancient tire I was using for a spare started to go, it still got me at least 10 miles to the WalMart.

But, it definitely taught me a lesson. Also gave me a newfound respect for Walmart! At least, this particular one in Shrewsbury, PA!

Wow, and if this don't beat all. I looked up on the Google street view, and found the spot where I pulled over. They just went through in August of this year. It would've been ironic if they happened to pass, as I was changing the tire! I had to stay in the traffic lane until I cleared that bit of Jersey barrier blocking the shoulder. And I think I even remember that chunk of tractor trailer tire!

uplanderguy

I was just on I-81 in PA last week, but north of I-80. Going to CT is so miserable once you get to NYC on I-95, we get off I-80 and go I-81 north past Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, and then get on I-84 into NY past the Hudson Valley general area, then into northern CT and drop down. I get the heebee-geebies driving through Newtown/Sandy Hook, which is really a beautiful area though, and nearby Cheshire is where a national story happened in 2007--a home invasion which resulted in the death of a high-school classmate of mine and her two daughters. Horrible story. I've visited the memorial park at the site though.

You were south of me on I-81 though.

sda

I've noticed a lot of older cars that would have had whitewall tires, such as Cadillacs now sport blackwalls, which, to me, looks out of place. I imagine white wall tires are not an easy find and are expensive?

andre1969

Last time I checked, I don't think whitewalls were much more expensive than an equivalent size blackwall, but they were definitely becoming more rare. I ordered a set of four tires off Amazon for my '79 5th Ave back in 2014. They were $404.88 delivered, for a 225/70/R15. I remember at first they delivered blackwalls, so I had to refuse the order when they delivered it, and then they sent me the correct white walls.

I'd imagine they're a bit pricier these days, though.

ab348

You can generally only get whitewalls these days in sizes that fit '60s/'70s cars from specialty tire places. Those are a lot more expensive. Until recently Hankook made a whitewall in many of those sizes but they are now discontinued.

sda

@ab348 said:
You can generally only get whitewalls these days in sizes that fit '60s/'70s cars from specialty tire places. Those are a lot more expensive. Until recently Hankook made a whitewall in many of those sizes but they are now discontinued.

I thought that might be the case.

tjc78

Looks like Continental still makes a narrow whitewall. I put in a late run Grand Marquis and came up with this tire.

sda

The last car I had with whitewalls was dad’s 95 Cutlass Ciera he gave me when he could no longer drive because of poor eyesight. When it needed tires I found a set of Sears Michelins on sale as they were closing out that line of tire. What a nice difference in ride those made. Of the oh no, you didn’t, when dad replaced the tires on mom’s 87 Taurus LX he had Firestone whitewalls put on it. He hated blackwalls. I gave him endless ribbing over that!

texases

Noooooo!

texases

Or was it a 'Tauchero'?

ab348

Those Continentals no longer show on Continental's web site. I assume they are also discontinued and that is just what is left in Tire Rack's inventory.

explorerx4

@uplanderguy,
I get the creeps driving by the Sandy Hook exit too.
Regarding the other event you mentioned, Dr Petit's kids went to school in the town I just moved from.
For maybe a decade, there was a fund raiser crew regatta with our town high school and the private school his kids went to.
He drove a 2k+ Buick Electra at the time I saw him at those events.

tjc78

@ab348 said:
Those Continentals no longer show on Continental's web site. I assume they are also discontinued and that is just what is left in Tire Rack's inventory.

Not a surprise. I guess Vogue tires would be readily available with a whitewall too.

ab348

Vogues and Diamondbacks are available but expensive. For a whitewall on a 14” or 15” wheel, you probably need to look at vintage tire brands like Coker, Universal, Lucas, etc.

fintail

I suspect neither of those Taurii had whitewalls when new.

I remember when I was young, explicitly telling my mom not to put whitewalls on the Tempo when it came time for new tires. She knew better by the time the Taurus came around.

andre1969

I just looked around on Amazon and found this... 15" Ironman tire What do y'all think of this one? Price almost seems too good to be true, and kinda makes me wonder what I'm overlooking?

It's anything but a performance tire, but it's not like I'm taking the Catalina through the slalom, or doing the Cannonball Run!

ab348

andre1969 said:

I just looked around on Amazon and found this... 15" Ironman tire What do y'all think of this one? Price almost seems too good to be true, and kinda makes me wonder what I'm overlooking?

It's anything but a performance tire, but it's not like I'm taking the Catalina through the slalom, or doing the Cannonball Run!

Amazon says it is unavailable.

texases

I'm not a fan of tires with never-heard-of brand names. Too much riding on them...(see what I did there?)...

sda

The local Car Max uses Ironman tires on a good variety of vehicles. Hey it has new tires! They are cheap. I haven't read anything positive about them.

andre1969

Odd...I just went to Amazon, and it went so far as to let me place the order for two of them! I didn't complete the order, though. But, maybe I'd better look around. My mechanic had no problem getting me new whitewalls back in 2018, so maybe I'll call him and see if he still has a good source.

I'll confess that I don't even know what brand tires are on the car now. The 14 year-old tires were sourced by the mechanic who did all that work on my DeSoto. I had him do a bunch of stuff on the Catalina the year before. But then the new-for-2018 front tires were sourced by my "regular" mechanic, who does all the routine stuff on my cars.

Something else I just thought of...has anyone here ever had a sudden blowout on a front tire, at a decent speed? I'd imagine the dynamics of that are a lot different, from having a rear tire blow. Honestly when that tire popped, it didn't seem like any big deal. But then again, I was only going around 55, and I didn't panic or try to make any moves that were too sudden.

andre1969

sda said:

The local Car Max uses Ironman tires on a good variety of vehicles. Hey it has new tires! They are cheap. I haven't read anything positive about them.

So, if I get them, I guess y'all would be singing "Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind?"

texases

They are a subsidiary of Cooper, so that's a plus.

ab348

andre1969 said:

Odd...I just went to Amazon, and it went so far as to let me place the order for two of them!

This is what I see:

explorerx4

Doesn't Cooper fall under the Goodyear umbrella? Edit: No it's Kelly.

texases

Tirerack has no 225/70R15 white walls, but it does have a 225/75R15, but not cheap

explorerx4

andre1969 got me thinking about new tire for the Mustang.
The tires have maybe 7K on them but they are 14 year old.
Can't find anything close to the originals(Goodyear Gatorbacks remember those?) or the replacement tires on the car now(Goodyear Eagle GT's with an aggressive design).
I'll take a picture of them.

tjc78

@texases
$113 a tire is pretty cheap these days. The OEM tires for my XC90 are $234 each.

texases

@tjc78 said:
@texases
$113 a tire is pretty cheap these days. The OEM tires for my XC90 are $234 each.

You’re correct. I was thinking he was looking for CHEAP tires. Turns out they were $102 each, I’d much prefer the ones from Tirerack for just a bit more.

andre1969

Heck, in this day and age I think of $102, or $113, as a cheap tire! I looked at Coker tire, and their whitewalls, for the type I want, are into the $200 range, and I'm just having trouble wrapping my mind around that.

As for "cheap", I mean, I don't want something that's going to pop if I decide to take a plus-sized co-worker out for a lunchtime ride on a nice sunny day. But, I also don't want to take out a second mortgage either!

I know many people frown on mis-matched tire sizes, but as long as both tires on the same axle match, I don't think it's too bad of an idea. I wonder if doing a 225/75 on the back would raise it up much, with keeping the 225/70 on the front?

The lower profile would handle a bit better, but again, I'm not taking it auto-crossing, so going back to a 75 series might not be too much of an annoyance.

tjc78

I wouldn’t hesitate on the $100 tires at all. You aren’t driving this much and even bargain tires today are most likely better than what it came with from the factory.

Years ago when I had my 79 Continental I put cheap “Mastercraft” tires on it. Never a problem.

sda

@andre1969 said:
Heck, in this day and age I think of $102, or $113, as a cheap tire! I looked at Coker tire, and their whitewalls, for the type I want, are into the $200 range, and I'm just having trouble wrapping my mind around that.

As for "cheap", I mean, I don't want something that's going to pop if I decide to take a plus-sized co-worker out for a lunchtime ride on a nice sunny day. But, I also don't want to take out a second mortgage either!

I know many people frown on mis-matched tire sizes, but as long as both tires on the same axle match, I don't think it's too bad of an idea. I wonder if doing a 225/75 on the back would raise it up much, with keeping the 225/70 on the front?

The lower profile would handle a bit better, but again, I'm not taking it auto-crossing, so going back to a 75 series might not be too much of an annoyance.

I think I'd go with the 70 series all around. They will look and handle better.

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

I wouldn’t hesitate on the $100 tires at all. You aren’t driving this much and even bargain tires today are most likely better than what it came with from the factory.

Years ago when I had my 79 Continental I put cheap “Mastercraft” tires on it. Never a problem.

That's Bridgestone/Firestone's entry level brand

kyfdx

ab348 said:

andre1969 said:

Odd...I just went to Amazon, and it went so far as to let me place the order for two of them!

This is what I see:

Maybe, because they won't ship to Canada?

ab348

They don't mention that though, just saying that it is out of stock. I have bought items from amazon.com (as opposed to their Canadian site amazon.ca) and had them shipped here in the past.

fintail

I remember back in 2010 spending ~1300 installed for a set of new tires (PS2s) on my W210 E55 AMG (which had staggered wheels, meaning short tire life, 20K and they would be just about done). Fintail's wide whites were ~200 apiece 9 years ago. Tires can be costly for sure.

stickguy

Just got a fence estimate today. Not a big yard and one side already done. Shockingly high. Need to find a few others but I doubt they will be much better if I can even get places to give an estimate.

I think I’ll just get a nice long tie out to put the dog on when he is visiting and hope my neighbor does some landscaping and puts one in!

stickguy

Though we signed up for a company to put in a fancy master closet organizer system, and cabinets in the laundry to replace the one cheesy wire shelf. Oddly that was much cheaper than I was expecting! So getting that done. Nice design, should double at least the usable space in our closet. But the wife is still supposed to do a lot more weeding out first.