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

fintail

Spotted today: 70s Beetle convertible 80s Mazda GLC sedan, also saw the old couple who I often see out in their four holer Lucerne. Also visited a shop and saw a 220S Ponton and a 107 SL among others - have been looking for a place that isn't afraid of the fintail - when I saw the Ponton I knew that was a good sign.

stickguy

out in front of a garage of some sort, an Excalibur (or zimmer, one of those). I think based off the 90s T Bird.

fintail

There was a neoclassic brand Tiffany that used Fox Cougars, I don't recall an 89 style T-Bird neoclassic other than those weird boomer things where they graft a 49 or 55 Ford nose onto one. Zimmer used a Fox Mustang for the Golden Spirit.

ab348

Last night I was watching a season 2 episode of Mission: Impossible where Peter Graves was impersonating a government organized crime investigator, who the bad guys in the mob decided to take out. Oddly, even though this was shot in 1967, his car was a 1957 Ford 2-door, old for the times, which should have been a clue for what happened later. Sure enough, the bad guys decided to "tailpipe" his car, which involved using a radio-triggered long skinny bomb shoved up his tailpipe. It blew up real good too.

Fortunately they were planning on a car bomb being used so they rigged the car with a dummy behind the wheel and a trap door in the floor leading to a manhole immediately beneath, so he slipped out that way before they set it off, what luck!!

texases

I went to a 'car museum' a while back, turned out to be a consignment sales showroom. A few interesting cars, then there was a "Mercedes 500K" replica, Riviera-based, not very convincing.

andre1969

Mmkay, it's gratuitous picture time! I got the Catalina out of the garage this morning, and cleaned up, more or less, for the GM show in Carlisle PA tomorrow...
It's supposed to be a sunny, rain-free day, but hotter than Hades!

roadburner

That's the same forecast for Cars in the Commons, where I'm showing the Club Sport. Oh well...

kyfdx

Really nice @andre1969 !

Love that garage.

imidazol97

@andre1969 said:
Mmkay, it's gratuitous picture time! I got the Catalina out of the garage this morning, and cleaned up, more or less, for the GM show in Carlisle PA tomorrow...

It's supposed to be a sunny, rain-free day, but hotter than Hades!

Beautiful

laurasdada

It's British Car Day at Larz Anderson Sunday. May topless cruise with the better 7/8 there and then have a nice lunch at the Italian restaurant where first we met, a bit further on up the road.

For those not aware, interesting history/couple:
https://larzanderson.org/

Hopefully, not a repeat of a couple of years ago: A gorgeous new Bentley Continental GTC, blue over beige was being displayed. The owner told me, in front of my wife, that he just bought it for his wife for her 60th birthday. My 7/8 looked at me, with brief hope and then just sighed and walked away.

ab348

andre1969 said:

It's supposed to be a sunny, rain-free day, but hotter than Hades!

Be sure to bring a bath towel or a blanket to protect yourself from those black seats that will be hotter than molten lava after baking in the sun.

andre1969

ab348 said:

andre1969 said:

It's supposed to be a sunny, rain-free day, but hotter than Hades!

Be sure to bring a bath towel or a blanket to protect yourself from those black seats that will be hotter than molten lava after baking in the sun.

Yeah, I'm seriously considering that tomorrow. Normally it's not an issue because I'm usually on the show field around 9:30-10 in the morning, and we usually don't leave until around 6. And during the day when the sun is really beating down, we're sitting around in lawn chairs behind the car, if we're not walking around the show field. I just checked the weather though, and the forecast in Carlisle is for 97 degrees tomorrow! OUCH!!

uplanderguy

Lookin' great, andre! Keep hydrated tomorrow!

Wife asked me if I wanted to take the C8 with her for ice cream tonight. Too freaking hot at 94 degrees to even get ice cream IMHO.

laurasdada

uplanderguy said:

Lookin' great, andre! Keep hydrated tomorrow!

Wife asked me if I wanted to take the C8 with her for ice cream tonight. Too freaking hot at 94 degrees to even get ice cream IMHO.

Blasphemy! Heresy! Communism! It is NEVER any kind of weather, occasion, time of day or season not to get ice cream!

andre1969

laurasdada said:

uplanderguy said:

Lookin' great, andre! Keep hydrated tomorrow!

Wife asked me if I wanted to take the C8 with her for ice cream tonight. Too freaking hot at 94 degrees to even get ice cream IMHO.

Blasphemy! Heresy! Communism! It is NEVER any kind of weather, occasion, time of day or season not to get ice cream!

I dunno...sometimes when it's hot/humid enough, I lose the appetite for just about anything that's dairy, or "heavy," if that makes sense.

Although that being said, after the car show yesterday we ate at an Italian place. Grbeck and Lemko both got cold-cut subs that had lettuce on them. For whatever reason, I got the urge for chicken parmesan. That thing was delicious, but HUGE! Only ate half, and brought the rest home.

As for the heat, I think it got up to around 96-97 according to the weather app, although out on the show field I'm sure it was worse. But oddly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe I guess I just had myself mentally prepared for the worst, so since I was expecting worse, the reality wasn't quite so bad? There was also a breeze every once in awhile that helped, and later in the day a bit of rain. Just enough to make me put the top up, but not enough to cool things down. Just made it feel every bit as hot, but with sticky added to the mix!

uplanderguy

Any chance the restaurant was Fenicci’s?

andre1969

Nah, it was a place called Marcello's, a bit north of the Carlisle Fairgrounds, up on the hill on the other side of the fairgrounds. We ate there after the Ford show three weeks ago. Split a large pizza, and it was enough to fill up the three of us! And we had eaten there once last year, also for the GM show. Normally, Italian food isn't the first thing I think of after a hot day on the show field, but it was pretty good, and not bad-priced, either.

We used to eat at a place called Scalles (Pronounced "Scales," and maybe not the most appealing thing to associate with food but they were pretty good). Unfortunately, they closed down in late 2021, and now there's a deli in that building.

uplanderguy

Duh, I was thinking Hershey when you clearly said Carlisle. I’m a huge fan of Chicken Parmesan.

explorerx4

Interesting video but no outside views of the car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sNQiTX6sh4

ab348

Not sure what "frame-off restoration" means on a unibody like that.

andre1969

ab348 said:

Not sure what "frame-off restoration" means on a unibody like that.

I've always wondered that too, when I hear that in reference to a unitized car. Unitized cars do still have front and rear sub-frames, but they're often welded to the body, rather than bolted like a regular frame. So I'd imagine if you went so far to pull those sub-frames off, you'd better make sure you're extra diligent in re-attaching them just right, or I guess the car would be thrown off balance.

Actually, didn't Camaros and Firebirds, starting with 1970, have isolated front sub-frames, that were bolted to the body? At least, I seem to recall reading there was some kind of issue that they were extra susceptible to rust-out, and would often collapse around the cowl area. For some reason, I'm thinking the '67-69 (and associated Chevy II/Novas) were also prone to some kind of issue like that, but it was worse for 1970.

'74-79 Mopar B-bodies, as well as the R-bodies, have something up front that's isolated with large rubber bushings, but I can't remember if it's just the K-frame, or the whole front sub-frame. I just remember reading that when those bushings started to fail, the isolated part could start to get unstable and shift, making the ride and handling a bit, well, exciting!

texases

I take it as shorthand for “every component taken off for restoration “.

stickguy

Pretty sure the Camaro sub frame was just bolted on. I know they are easy to take off.

uplanderguy

Interesting lineup at the StowNut today.

MG friend says the MGB GT V8 like this one was only sold new in the U.K.

stickguy

RHD supports that!

uplanderguy

Didn’t even occur to me to look.

uplanderguy

andre, "GM at Carlisle" is a big number of cars for sure, I'm sure, but let me know by any chance if you might have taken pics of any oddballs like these:

1) Bone-stock '73 Chevelle
2) Stock-looking Pontiac Executive hardtops or full-size Ventura hardtops
3) '65 Pontiac Grand Prix
4) ‘65 or ‘66 Eldorado convertible

andre1969

Uplander, unfortunately the GM show at Carlisle isn't that big of a show, especially compared to the Ford and Mopar shows. So, none of those, specifically, showed up. And all four of those are cars that I'd like enough, that I would have probably taken a pic!

There were some Colonade-era Monte Carlos, although the '70-72 had a better showing. There were also two '77 Grand Prixes, a Can Am, and a '76-77 Cutlass Supreme 4-door.

An Executive or Ventura would have been in the same class as my Catalina, and as it stands, there were a whopping four cars in my class. They were: my '67 Catalina, a '64 Bonneville convertible, an '85 or so Parisienne Safari wagon, and oddly, a final-gen (2000+) Bonneville. I always thought my class was Pontiac RWD full-size, 1955-89, but I guess it was expanded somewhat to include FWD Bonnevilles.

They lumped the full-sized Grand Prixes in with the rest of the RWD GPs, but the only big one I remember seeing was a '67. I actually parked next to it initially, because it was another B-body, but then the owner said "you're in the wrong area...this is Grand Prixes!"

No '65-66 Eldorados, but Lemko snagged this pic of a '66 DeVille 'vert!

uplanderguy

Thanks. That is a nice deVille.

explorerx4

Video says April 8, 1966.
What is the car behind the Pontiac @2:59?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEz3e2nf8gs

uplanderguy

I think that's a '65 Cadillac. Those had the chromed headlight surrounds, which were painted on the otherwise-similar '66.

stickguy

looked like a Caddy to me.

explorerx4

I can't tell if it has vertical headlights but that could be a combination of my eyesight and my monitor.

ab348

At first I thought it was a car with hidden headlights but there weren’t very many of those in ‘66. It appears to be a big car so I’ll go with the Cadillac guess.

laurasdada

Not classic, but maybe somewhat obscure?
A Honda Clarity, charging in my hoped for spot... next to an identical Clarity (awaiting its turn likely).
A clutch of Claritys? Clariti?

texases

Can’t remember seeing one of those in several years.

kyfdx

Test.. test

kyfdx

Test... test

ab348

If you’re testing whether Vanilla is taking you to last unread post, it’s working now here but is not in CCBA.

kyfdx

ab348 said:

If you’re testing whether Vanilla is taking you to last unread post, it’s working now here but is not in CCBA.

Yeah... we're trying to replicate the issue for the platform vendor.

fintail

Out yesterday spotted a boomer rod style 47-48 Ford coupe, a later Civic Wagovan, and a surprisingly rough looking Beretta Z26.

Today got behind a Seven Ups style GTO in traffic, unrestored looking but decent. Also saw a 90s Toyota pickup on collector plates, and a 81-83 Toyota pickup.

ab348

ab348 said:

If you’re testing whether Vanilla is taking you to last unread post, it’s working now here but is not in CCBA.

It stopped working again.

jwm40517

At the post office yesterday, a nice looking Volvo 240 in dark blue with light brown interior in very good condition. The driver looked to be a 70 ish hippy looking academic type.

tjc78

Just passed by

uplanderguy

Although the '59 is my least-favorite Edsel, that surely looks like a nice example.

andre1969

I like the color of that '59 Edsel. It's one of those shades where, when you see one at a car show on a sweltering summer day, just looking at it makes you feel a few degrees cooler.

fintail

Nice car, reminds me of the Pee Wee's Big Adventure car, but in blue. Great color.

tjc78

@andre1969 said:
I like the color of that '59 Edsel. It's one of those shades where, when you see one at a car show on a sweltering summer day, just looking at it makes you feel a few degrees cooler.

It fit right in here at the shore.

sda

Paging @fintail https://youtu.be/tCd1tQrckuA?si=K7u6SN_FdSZ7Gyps

fintail

sda said:

Paging @fintail

His enthusiasm is endless. I know in the past he also reviewed a 60 Squire.

It's funny the details on that car that stick in my head from my dad's 60, even though he sold the car 30 years ago and we never saw it again. I recall the seat inserts were similar (but red interior). I recall the silver foil trim on the door panels too. I don't think the Country Sedan had a dashboard nameplate like that.