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

stickguy

definitely one of a kind. and it was out on a main road.

a very well done replica (I assume it could not be a movie car) wagon king family truckster. all the right colors, stuff on the roof, logos, etc. back seat drivers side window had a huge head shot of Clark too. Did not get a good look at the driver.

could be this car, or another one (I assume there must be more out there). truly a bizarre thing to pass sitting at a red light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmRtzqgn2d8

fintail

Metallic Pea?! No, Antarctic Blue.

Spotted in a real estate listing, Jeepster:

tjc78

@fintail said:
Metallic Pea?! No, Antarctic Blue.

Spotted in a real estate listing, Jeepster:

With the CB and the optional Rally Fun Pack….

texases

I'm more interested in the lift.

fintail

tjc78 said:

@fintail said:

Metallic Pea?! No, Antarctic Blue.

Spotted in a real estate listing, Jeepster:

With the CB and the optional Rally Fun Pack….

I know what happened, it didn't come in.

fintail

texases said:

I'm more interested in the lift.

Garage is definitely a selling point - pretty normal if not a little quirky/unique looking 50s house in an average neighborhood (house is on the corner of a secondary arterial which could be a problem for some), but the garage is impressive:

stickguy

That garage would certainly fix my problem. Only issue is I would have to bulldoze my neighbors house to fit it.

texases

Wow, first one I've seen with an overhead crane. Ideal setup for car restoration.

tjc78

I’d never come inside

fintail

This is the listing:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/428-E-Joseph-Ave-Spokane-WA-99208/23552879_zpid/?

Definitely a "niche" property that will likely only sell to a car guy, but the house is pretty immaculate too. Current owner bought it in 1975 (!), for pocket change, as local real estate was significantly undervalued then, and no doubt has made all of the improvements since.

xwesx

Wowza. Well, he definitely made efficient use of that lot's space! Haha.

stickguy

I would have tried hard to sell the wife on that place. would have failed, but at least made an effort.

explorerx4

Someone we know bought a house with a garage similar to that.
The previous owner did repair jobs out of it.
It had a big compressor with air lines all over the place.
BUT, no crane.

ab348

Just when you thought you’d seen everything, check out this Eldorado motor home on BaT that looks like a Lincoln.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1987-eldorado-starfire-30-foot-motorhome/

explorerx4

Not sure about the inside, but the outside is ugly.

andre1969

I wonder of GM protested...not only appropriating "Eldorado", but "Starfire" as well! I'm kinda surprised they got away with that, considering the Eldorado was still in production at the time.

I wonder though, if there's some words you can't lay a claim to. For instance, while most people think of "Suburban" as a Chevy, Mopar used the name for years. It was a long-wheelbase DeSoto for a few years, and famous as a taxi. Plymouth also used the name on wagons, for years.

Both DeSoto and Cadillac used the name "Seville" in 1956. At Cadillac, it was the Eldorado Seville hardtop coupe. DeSoto used it as the stripper version of their Firedome hardtop coupe and sedan...the cheap one was "Seville" and the nice one was "Sportsman". DeSoto dropped it after '56, but then in '59 used it as a "Spring Special". It came in one color, called "Bradenton Blue", which to me looks like a washed out Crayola periwinkle. The interior was a blue, sort of broad checkerboard pattern.

I know names get recycled now and again, but usually, you don't have two different auto makers using the same name, at the same time. And with that Eldorado motorhome, perhaps because it's a totally different market (motorhome vs passenger car), GM didn't really care?

fintail

That Eldorado Starfire is something, I love the comment about it being the highest trim level of the Mark VII.

Also seen in an episode of Miami Vice:

fintail

Real estate ad sighting in a time capsule 1968 (not so much in a cool MCM way but in a green carpet and swag lights way) house:

tjc78

Let’s play name the price. No cheating!

Sold at Mecum recently.

From the video condition truly looks like a 9/10

stickguy

$12,000. And I didn’t cheat!

andre1969

Wow, look at the poor fit of that hood! All joking aside, as I recall, the fit and finish on these was actually pretty good. Anyway, I'm going to guess $15,000?

uplanderguy

My initial guess was $12,300 before I saw stickguy's estimate!

I dated a girl with a new '87 Cougar, dove gray non-metallic and blackwalls. She was impossibly cute for 30 and my wife refers to her as 'Marcia Brady', but sheesh she was not very bright. Around my college friends, I'd have been embarrassed.

In Thunderbirds, I prefer the '87-88 styling to the '83-86; reverse for the Cougar.

uplanderguy

I'm ready for the abuse, but I saw this '74 Oleg Cassini Matador coupe at an independents' show Saturday. I will admit I like these for their boldness and pretty nice interior. Liking the rear view, especially, of '73 Chevelle coupes, I'm reminded of them by the big quarter windows, fastback roof, and twin round taillights. Of course the AMC exaggerates those features. But in an era of bolt-upright formality, AMC went sporty for the family-sized coupe.

Those quarter windows actually roll down.

I had to explain to somebody who/what 'Oleg Cassini' meant/was, LOL.

I always hated AMC's door handles then. You could only open them with two fingers, and on the side.

I think the wheelbase was longer than the 112 used on Colonnade coupes except Monte Carlo and Grand Prix, but not sure. I'll have to see how interior room compared. My guess is headroom was less in the Matador, LOL.

I remember that from '73 to '74, the Matador in coupe form went from tallest intermediate to lowest.

tjc78

Cougar sold for $9000

andre1969

One detail I liked about those '74 Matador coupes is that the rear windows still rolled down, and most of the way. Here's a pic of one... It looks like it's just a reflection in this factory photo, but I've seen them every once in a blue moon at car shows, with the windows rolled down.

Despite that low-slung styling, and the "split wheelbase" that was in vogue at the time for midsized cars, where they'd put the coupes on a shorter wheelbase, I seem to recall that these were still roomier inside than equivalent Ford/GM/Mopar models.

There's no denying that the car is ugly, but I still think they're pretty cool. AMC certainly took a chance, with that daring styling. Personally, I think if they could have gotten rid of that bulging headlight look, perhaps worked in some kind of hidden/flip up headlight, it would have looked great. And either a wider front/rear track, or at least wider wheels/tires, would have also helped.

andre1969

As for the T-bird vs Cougar, I'm the same way. I wasn't a huge fan of the '83-86 Bird, but I do like the Cougar. For '87, I thought the T-bird took its basic look and improved upon it, but the Cougar seemed to get a bit too exaggerated in its proportions. Up front, I think the grille is too small and the headlights too big. The taillights, where they wrap around into the rear quarter panels, seem to extend too far forward. And that whole C-pillar/rear quarter window area just seems too bulky and out of proportion, making the car look top-heavy.

uplanderguy

I wouldn't call them ugly, but a thing that stops me in my tracks whenever I see one (rarely), is the lack of filler between bumpers and body, not unlike a '50 or '51 Studebaker in front.

I do think volume normalizes bad or 'meh' styling (think '59 Chevy), so the Big Three often gets a styling pass sometimes. I thought that, too, when I walked around a '63 Olds F-85 Cutlass coupe at Hershey some years back.

I absolutely remember when I saw my first Pacer. Buddy and I were out at the Chrysler/Plymouth/AMC dealer in our small town. A salesman came out and said, "Do you want to see the new car?". I knew what he meant. It was tucked in a corner of the Service Dept. It was a low-line model in yellow, small hubcaps IIRC. I was stunned. Salesman said, "Dont say it!".

I will say that car was also bold for the time, but AMC never really did seriously compete with the others in the subcompact/economy class IMHO. I think the Matador coupe looked absolutely graceful in comparison.

The pressure to do some type of 'opera window' must've been overwhelming, and I'll say that those later Matador coupes with the filled-in quarter windows will qualify as 'ugly' in my book.

andre1969

I think that was the Barcelona trim level on the Matador, that had the opera window. And I believe the rear windows in those were stationary.

ab348

I thought those Matador coupes were a big improvement over the predecessor model coupes despite their styling quirks. They may look more odd now than they did at the time, given the competition also had styling quirks - the GM colonnades in '74-'75 were certainly no beauty queens, and the Fomoco intermediates had the same huge front overhangs, as did the Dodge Charger coupe. I liked the Matador greenhouse and wonder why AMC didn't try quad headlights up front to reduce the googly-eye look. They also needed a wider track front and rear for a better stance.

texases

I've always liked the Matador coupes, distinctive styling. Just wonder why all the pics I see have a vinyl roof, would be cleaner without.

andre1969

Here's a Matador without a vinyl roof. Definitely looks better without it!

I think the problem with any type of vinyl roof treatment, is the way the quarter window kicks up at the rear, so the final rear-most point of it is well above the bottom of the backlite. With a plain roof, I think it's fine, and even an interesting touch, but when you try to put a vinyl roof on it, you have a problem. Do you follow the base of the backlite (which they ended up doing), or do you follow the kick-up of the quarter window? The way they did it, it leaves a triangular patch of vinyl below/aft of the quarter window, that looks odd. But if they followed the kick up of the quarter window, it would look odd in not having the backlite more fully framed off.

sda

andre1969 said:

Here's a Matador without a vinyl roof. Definitely looks better without it!

I think the problem with any type of vinyl roof treatment, is the way the quarter window kicks up at the rear, so the final rear-most point of it is well above the bottom of the backlite. With a plain roof, I think it's fine, and even an interesting touch, but when you try to put a vinyl roof on it, you have a problem. Do you follow the base of the backlite (which they ended up doing), or do you follow the kick-up of the quarter window? The way they did it, it leaves a triangular patch of vinyl below/aft of the quarter window, that looks odd. But if they followed the kick up of the quarter window, it would look odd in not having the backlite more fully framed off.

Much better without, actually a generally clean design and sporty looking.

fintail

Funny, when I was a kid and the cars were new, I strongly preferred the T-Bird to Cougar. That reverse angle C-pillar irked me. I see an 83-86 Bird now and then, but can't recall when I last saw a Cougar.

I know I have told the story, I remember back in the day, probably when my mom's big Bird gave up the ghost, and I was car-browsing with my dad. We looked at a high trim Topaz coupe, and my dad remarked something along the lines of "it's like a smaller T-Bird", maybe trying to convince me of something when he maybe should have said it to my mom - who ended up in a Tempo (sedan), so maybe that was a premonition. I recall those Birds and Cougars when properly equipped were not cheap, which was probably my dad's motive, as there was virtual certainty my mom would get another Ford (I wanted her to get a Jetta, which probably wouldn't have went well, not to mention the price)


Those Matador coupes bugged me when I was younger too, as I thought they were so unsightly in a 70s way. I don't mind them now.

roadburner

IIRC the Matador was originally sold with no vinyl roof option, but eventually AMC bowed to the pressure of the marketplace. I liked the design- it took some risks that the Big 3 wouldn't attempt.

uplanderguy

That 'X' model needs the wheel opening moldings, but other than that, I'd take it!

A small thing that bugs me is the script 'Matador' on the stripe when the 'Matador' nameplates on the car were block lettering. I liked uniform identity in that kind of thing.

uplanderguy

fin, speaking of Jetta, here's the era Jetta I never could stand from a styling standpoint. I'm sure the driving dynamics were great, blah blah etc. LOL, but it's like they didn't even try to style it! The rear door like that. All that sheetmetal above the wheel openings! I wouldn't call it bad styling, just lack of styling!

fintail

The Jetta III. I think for its 1993 debut, it didn't look bad - that lack of styling was a trait of the era when things were still going rounded and smooth and flush. The rear quarter view may look a little thick. A somewhat spoiled friend of mine had one of those when I was a student, when the car was nearly new - it was not 100% trouble free, not sure if he helped that a long. I recall the car was dark green, something you don't see anymore. I recall the 1999.5 Jetta seemed very modern and edgy when launched.

I remember looking at the 2nd gen Jetta when they were new - I must have known my mom was going to need another car, and the Jetta was my choice. Even though I was a kid, I guess I was really into German cars by then, and I think I thought these looked more expensive than they were (although nicely equipped, I think still way out of the budget). I think these can be quirky cars too, so probably best that it didn't happen - not terrible looking for a 1985 debut:

uplanderguy said:

fin, speaking of Jetta, here's the era Jetta I never could stand from a styling standpoint. I'm sure the driving dynamics were great, blah blah etc. LOL, but it's like they didn't even try to style it! The rear door like that. All that sheetmetal above the wheel openings! I wouldn't call it bad styling, just lack of styling!

ab348

That Gen 2 Jetta is pretty similar to my 1990 GTI except for the presence of a trunk. I still think the GTI was one of the best cars I ever had. Scads of room for its size, great on the highway, zippy, and only a couple of minor niggles that the dealer either fixed or at least pretended to try to fix. none of them major.

andre1969

That Gen-II Jetta does have sort of a "boxy-futuristic" look about it. But, for some reason my eyes just keep going to the doors, and it makes me think someone took a Rabbit and built a sedan around it! Which, I guess in a way they did, since the Jetta was essentially the sedan version of a Golf, right?

roadburner

We looked at a new Gen-ll GLI back in 1991, but we hated the "mouse belts". We ended up leasing a Volvo 740 Turbo which was much faster than it looked. I surprised a bunch of cars at the Stoplight Grand Prix...

uplanderguy

I'm impressed that the Gen 2 shown has polished wheels. Not long after that is when it seems like most all manufacturers, no matter where headquartered, changed from making wheel covers that tried to look like wheels, to wheels that looked like plastic wheel covers, LOL.

I think the first Jettas had a rear door cutout I preferred to those next two gens--IIRC, it was notched at the bottom of the rear of the door glass, not unlike BMW sedans or '75 Novas et al.

ab348

@uplanderguy said:
I'm impressed that the Gen 2 shown has polished wheels. Not long after that is when it seems like most all manufacturers, no matter where headquartered, changed from making wheel covers that tried to look like wheels, to wheels that looked like plastic wheel covers, LOL.

I didn’t look very closely at the wheels on that Jetta. Now that I have, I don’t recall ever seeing that exact style before. They look to be from the same school of design as the “teardrop” wheels on my GTI, which I always thought were cool. (Not a pic of my car but the wheels are the same):

fintail

Yep, a "Golf with a boot" as they call it across the pond. Very "pan European" styling in an 80s way.

Regarding that image, it's described as a 1985 model, the wheels might be something unique to early cars, or perhaps never offered at all. Kind of like Tempos with TRX wheels which appear frequently in early promo material, but I've never seen in real life.

I recall later in the 80s, we knew a teacher who had a Mk 2 Jetta coupe (more like a 2 door sedan), diesel. Those have to be almost a unicorn now.

The Mk2 GTI was a nice car, probably on the cusp of being a collectible now.

uplanderguy said:

I'm impressed that the Gen 2 shown has polished wheels. Not long after that is when it seems like most all manufacturers, no matter where headquartered, changed from making wheel covers that tried to look like wheels, to wheels that looked like plastic wheel covers, LOL.

I think the first Jettas had a rear door cutout I preferred to those next two gens--IIRC, it was notched at the bottom of the rear of the door glass, not unlike BMW sedans or '75 Novas et al.

sda

Not very popular vs Golf, Jetta=Vento in Germany

sda

I’ve owned a 79 Rabbit C, 87 Cabriolet triple white Wolfsburg, 89 Jetta Wolfsburg, 95 Jetta GLX VR-6 5sp, 2000 Jetta GLX VR-6 sp. That isn’t all of the VWs I've owned. I don’t have access to pics now but will post some later.

fintail

Oh yeah, you had the VR6 cars, maybe minor collectibles someday.

Vento became Bora for the 99+ models. I remember a friend who had an 04.5 Jetta TDI (which was not a trouble-free experience, but he was able to get rid of it with positive equity) wanted to put a "Bora" badge on it.

sda said:

I’ve owned a 79 Rabbit C, 87 Cabriolet triple white Wolfsburg, 89 Jetta Wolfsburg, 95 Jetta GLX VR-6 5sp, 2000 Jetta GLX VR-6 sp. That isn’t all of the VWs I've owned. I don’t have access to pics now but will post some later.

uplanderguy

Saw this '78 Monza Spyder 305 4-speed with 22K miles for sale last night. I must admit I don't care for the 'Spyder' graphics and rear spoiler--I'd much-prefer just the 2+2 with the same mechanical features--but it's been a long time since I've seen one so largely-original looking (aftermarket 'venetian blinds' on back; terrible). He's asking $19.5K or best offer, which is quite optimistic IMHO.

The '75 interior and exterior beats it to my eyes, but the car was better in '78.



Gloss black panel a la Caprice Classic above the glovebox, which I do like, but you can hardly see it in this black interior:


Sloppy dealer rustproofing under the hood.



Onto different subject...I've done my share of bagging on '62 Pontiacs here, but I liked that ice blue Grand Prix in the background of the Monza photo, a good bit.

Michaell

I didn't get a picture, but I spotted an absolutely pristine '84 (I think) Nissan 300ZX. Baby blue, and the T-tops were removed. Just gorgeous looking.

tjc78

@Michaell said:
I didn't get a picture, but I spotted an absolutely pristine '84 (I think) Nissan 300ZX. Baby blue, and the T-tops were removed. Just gorgeous looking.

Love those.

fintail

Call me crazy, but I like rear window louvers - well, I like to look at them, but I bet they'd bug me when driving.