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

fintail

sda said:

I saw this MB 380 SL at CarMax today. It didn’t look bad, an obvious respray and decent seat covers. I did see rust bubbles over the left headlight. Could not see the mileage.

380SL with patina is a sub-10K car. I am unaware of how to tell these apart by year from the outside, but it is 81-85 for sure. It's interesting how 107s are pretty valuable in Europe, but only the best of the best cars in NA have similar value.

uplanderguy

Saw this in an antique store today and thought of you. Image says copyright 1965. Opened it up and not many cars I recognized. Lots of euro Matchbox cars inside.

fintail

uplanderguy said:

Saw this in an antique store today and thought of you. Image says copyright 1965. Opened it up and not many cars I recognized. Lots of euro Matchbox cars inside.

Nice, any pics of the contents? Although the most valuable Matchbox tend to be just slightly older than that carrying case, some variants exist from that era that can be worth considerable money, and in my experience few general resellers know the differences. A slight detail can make a $20 car a $200 car or even much more.

This is the car (technically a fintail coupe, same platform, W111) used as the basis for the illustration, from my collection (I have a few of these with slight variations):

stickguy

a few oldies this weekend. at the market, heard and smelled some muscle and a few spots up there was a late 60s red GTO pulling out. Looked very clean. Not a judge though.

and leaving the lot, a 77 or so black Bandit trans am. That was on the back of a rollback. also looked very nice. and on the road earlier, a mid-late 60's Bonneville convertible. a creamy yellow with white top, looked nicely restored. Also a late run Coupe DeVille RWD version driving around.

uplanderguy

Nah, didn't take any pics of the contents. You know me, I was hoping the Wagonaire was inside!

explorerx4

I just got reminded how awesome this movies was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOK9QW21VPo

fintail

Saw a Taurinental moving along fine in traffic today - getting pretty thin on the ground.

uplanderguy

Spotted this morning at the drugstore. The I-H is owned by the same guy who owns the gold '77 Caprice Classic six-cylinder sedan I've posted here before.

Below isn't a 'classic', but I was aghast that someone could park like that and proceed to walk away from their car.

uplanderguy

This '68 Impala Custom Coupe is on barnfinds today. I'll say right away, I loathe the '68 formal top. That's all having an 'Impala Custom' got you over the Sport Coupe.

https://barnfinds.com/custom-coupe-survivor-1968-chevrolet-impala/

But boy, does this one look original and that always trips my trigger. Whatever the gold is called, this is what probably almost half of all '68 full-size Chevys I ever saw, were.

I think, generally, the '68 is the second-worst-looking full-size Chevy of the sixties, after the '64, but like I said, original condition says something to me. I find the car more interesting than the typical Camaro or Chevelle SS396 of the same year, with big tires, aftermarket wheels, fuzzy dice, and the owner's initials painted subtly on the driver's door just under the side glass, LOL.

uplanderguy

Here's a '67 Caprice coupe in Royal Plum, one-year color which I always really liked, with matching original Strato-Bench seats. Gorgeous interior IMHO. Like the '68 above, though, I loathe the formal top on the '67 too. Wish there were still interior colors like this, sigh. This car's for sale for $22K.

sda

I saw this M> @fintail said:

Saw a Taurinental moving along fine in traffic today - getting pretty thin on the ground.

Between head gasket and the suspension rubber bladder spring failures, not many left. My sister's boss bought one new in 88. It was a source of constant trouble and traded within 2 years.

andre1969

I'm not a huge fan of that Impala Custom/Caprice coupe formal roof either. But, at the same time, I'm not a big fan of the regular B-body hardtop coupes either, as I thought the '67-68 roof was a little TOO radical. Still, I wouldn't complain too much if this was in my possession Maybe it's the angle you look at it from, though. In that pic above, from that angle, I think it looks good. I also thought the '65-66 hardtop coupe roofline was just about pure perfection, and a hard act to follow. But, who knows? With the way the '67 cars got fatter looking, and curvier, that '65-66 roof might not have worked quite as well on them?

uplanderguy

I'm not crazy about the '67 2+2's seat pattern and IMHO door panels are 'meh' (probably not to take away from Grand Prix), but that said....

I know I always b***h about fake vents, but I'd gladly own that '67 2+2!! Great color too!

The production numbers are crazy-low....like 1964 Studebaker Hawk low!

In fact, on FB I've come across people who didn't know there was a '67 2+2!

I bet I've only seen two or three in my 66 years.

The '67 GM big cars got 'hippier', for sure. I still like that Pontiac, Buick, and Olds (and Chevy, on the Impala SS with strato-bench seat), offered luxury interiors on a fastback roof. I always thought the one feature line on the rear quarters of the 2014+ Impala was a nod to the 'hippy'-quarters of the '67 and '68 cars.

I really didn't like the formal top on the Chevys better than the 'Sport Coupe', until '71. We've discussed that here before. Starting in '71, on the Chevy I'd take the formal top all day long.

Here's a low-mileage one that sold some time back. I like how the '71's had silver wheels, one-year only. Made cars with dog dish caps look better than body-colored wheels iMHO.

xwesx

I loved those vinyl tops when the cars were newer, but they sure didn't age well (to put it nicely). That Impala looks really good from the angle you photographed it, but I feel like the shine is heavily worn off the horizontal surfaces, so that vinyl might not really be looking as good as the photo suggests.

uplanderguy

Agreed. Note the guy has a '68 Caprice Estate wagon in the garage too.

fintail

sda said:

I saw this M> @fintail said:

Saw a Taurinental moving along fine in traffic today - getting pretty thin on the ground.

Between head gasket and the suspension rubber bladder spring failures, not many left. My sister's boss bought one new in 88. It was a source of constant trouble and traded within 2 years.

I know of three of them in my general area, two of them seem to be on the road, the other is parked in the carport of what looks like an elderly person's house and doesn't seem to move.

Spotted in the neighborhood today - Buick Cascada and a Samurai.

andre1969

The real estate agent who sold my condo for me back in 2004 had one of those FWD Continentals. I forget which year exactly, but even back then, it looked pretty ragged. It was a light blue, and was sagging seriously in the rear, yet at the same time the front-end looked like it was raised up unnaturally. The windows were tinted to the point I'm sure they had to be illegal, and I remember the wheels seems to stick out further than they should. It almost looked like a car someone had tried to set up with some kind of hydraulic system to make it bounce and turn tricks, but then gave up and let it go to pot.

And, my real estate agent was this sweet, no-nonsense, German lady who was probably in her early 60's at the time. It just seemed like a funny contrast, to see this Continental approaching and you're almost tempted to get your cash out and buy some dime bags, E-pills, or whatever the kids were hooked on at the time, and then see this sweet, unassuming, petite lady step out.

Around the time we went to closing on my condo, she bought a new car, a black Kia Amanti.

sda

@andre1969 said:
The real estate agent who sold my condo for me back in 2004 had one of those FWD Continentals. I forget which year exactly, but even back then, it looked pretty ragged. It was a light blue, and was sagging seriously in the rear, yet at the same time the front-end looked like it was raised up unnaturally. The windows were tinted to the point I'm sure they had to be illegal, and I remember the wheels seems to stick out further than they should. It almost looked like a car someone had tried to set up with some kind of hydraulic system to make it bounce and turn tricks, but then gave up and let it go to pot.

And, my real estate agent was this sweet, no-nonsense, German lady who was probably in her early 60's at the time. It just seemed like a funny contrast, to see this Continental approaching and you're almost tempted to get your cash out and buy some dime bags, E-pills, or whatever the kids were hooked on at the time, and then see this sweet, unassuming, petite lady step out.

Around the time we went to closing on my condo, she bought a new car, a black Kia Amanti.

Kia's Buick

kyfdx

When my mother went into the nursing home in 2007, I sold her '97 Continental..

fintail

andre1969 said:

The real estate agent who sold my condo for me back in 2004 had one of those FWD Continentals. I forget which year exactly, but even back then, it looked pretty ragged. It was a light blue, and was sagging seriously in the rear, yet at the same time the front-end looked like it was raised up unnaturally. The windows were tinted to the point I'm sure they had to be illegal, and I remember the wheels seems to stick out further than they should. It almost looked like a car someone had tried to set up with some kind of hydraulic system to make it bounce and turn tricks, but then gave up and let it go to pot.

And, my real estate agent was this sweet, no-nonsense, German lady who was probably in her early 60's at the time. It just seemed like a funny contrast, to see this Continental approaching and you're almost tempted to get your cash out and buy some dime bags, E-pills, or whatever the kids were hooked on at the time, and then see this sweet, unassuming, petite lady step out.

Around the time we went to closing on my condo, she bought a new car, a black Kia Amanti.

Thinking back, I want to say the realtor who sold the condo (it was a foreclosure, process seemed different to me) I lived in 20+ years ago drove a late run K-Car. I think he had kind of a "Gil" from the Simpsons persona. IIRC the realtor I worked with on this house had a Corolla with some local feel-good stickers on it and she had kind of a matured hippie vibe.

tjc78

Our Realtor drove a new Lexus GX

The Realtor down the shore had a golf cart as expected!

imidazol97

I thought I posted this a few days back, but it didn't show up here. I thought this is a neat car from years ago, but I have no idea how unusual it is.

imidazol97

A couple more neat Chrysler products. except for the wheels.





Awful wheels, but memories seeing these in my young days.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

I thought I posted this a few days back, but it didn't show up here. I thought this is a neat car from years ago, but I have no idea how unusual it is.

MGA Coupe, or “fixed-head” as the Brits might say. It helps to be like Gumby getting in or out, but a handsome machine nonetheless.

explorerx4

The town just north of us has those Hero banners on telephone poles, like the one above the MG.
One of the more interesting ones is a woman in flight gear from what looks to be the WW II era.
One of my nephew's sent this pic from CT today.

andre1969

I like that '60 Dart. It does look a bit old fashioned, with the headlights above the grille, when you compare it to a same year Ford or Chevy, but at the same time, it's a nice evolution of the '57 "Forward Look" styling.

I always thought they made the '60 Plymouth look the way it did on purpose, to encourage people to pay a few more bucks for a Dart! They sold pretty well, too. The Dart lineup actually outsold the full-sized Plymouths that year. However, Plymouth still sold more cars overall, because of the Valiant.

Normally I'm not a fan of big customized rims, but I think that Dart wears them pretty well.

I think the wheels on the '62 New Yorker complement it pretty well, though. By '62 the New Yorker was a fairly rare car. Most Chrysler buyers were going for the Newport and, to a lesser degree, the non-Letter 300s. For '62 the New Yorker lost its convertible and hardtop coupe, and was down to just the 4-door sedan, hardtop sedan, and Town & Country hardtop wagons. And, that was the last of Chrysler's 126" wb cars. For '62, the 300G moved down to the shorter 122" wb. And then for '63 all the Chryslers were on a 122" wb.

laurasdada

A maroon Nissan Crosscabriolet. They're gonna sell a million of those...

stickguy

I love Panteras.

was out for dinner tonight in a cute town nearby for our anniversary, and sat at a table by the window, and saw a super clean looking 70ish Nova parking across the street. Definitely tweaked, with a bit of a rake and (IMO) inappropriate modern wheels, but it was still stunning.

roadburner

I should have put a bullet in the head of my practical side and picked up a Pantera or M1 when they were relatively affordable.

imidazol97

Neat older MB speeding passed me today in an upscale area.
Note that today is the elegance de concours at a local historic attraction park.
But they weren't headed anywhere that direction.

I apologize for the small size. My wife is not good with the camera and zooming.
I had to crop the picture.

fintail

Virtually impossible to tell a 4 cyl from 6 cyl Ponton at that size and resolution, but it has to be one of the two!

Maybe even sold new at a Stude dealer.

andre1969

Just curious, has anyone here ever watched a movie, simply because a car that's in it caught your attention? Last night, my friends and I were scrolling through the Netflix menu, trying to find something to watch, in the horror/thriller type category. I happened to notice one of the pics showed what looked like a '58-59 Edsel about to get t-boned by a tractor trailer. It was a nighttime shot, and a bit vague, but I could make out a bit of a gullwing shape at the rear, and a Ford-ish roofline.

Well, the movie was called "Blacktop" and we ended up watching it. The car was a '59 Edsel 4-door. It was one of those "Psychotic Trucker" movies, with a little bit of "Duel" and a bit of "Joy Ride" thrown in. Although being made in 2000, it actually pre-dated "Joy Ride" a bit.

I wouldn't call it "Masterpiece Theater", but I definitely enjoyed it.
Some of the camera shots definitely have a "Duel"/Spielberg sort of vibe to them

explorerx4

That's a 59 Edsel.
Here's a video of a 59 Edsel Ranger, which I just nappened to watch yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw2sOXemsSw&t=553s

laurasdada

roadburner said:

I should have put a bullet in the head of my practical side and picked up a Pantera or M1 when they were relatively affordable.

Back in the '80s, my parents moved to a condo complex in the old hometown. A next door neighbor had an M1, iirc, he was ~37 y.o. and semi-retired. He told me he sold insurance, worked his butt off for 15 years and had built such a book of business that he no longer had to hustle.
I'm sure he admired my Mitsu Mirage Turbo as I lusted after that M1.

laurasdada

Today, after a pizza lunch, at our favorite ocean-view point, an original sky-blue Plymouth Barracuda. With the giant warp around rear window. And, boy did it make noise, engine, groaning suspension and creaking doors...

fintail

On the movie note, probably back around 1996 or so a family member told me they saw an odd old Rock Hudson movie on late night TV where he drove a car that looked just like the fintail. I didn't initially believe it (expecting the car to be like a blue 57 Chevy or a Bentley or something) and the movie was so obscure that it virtually never re-aired. A couple years later I found the title in an obscure VHS catalog, ordered it, and was surprised (courtesy IMCDB):





The movie is "Pretty Maids all in a Row" (1971), and is accurately described as a juicy piece of 70s kitsch.

uplanderguy

Boy, that is spot-on to your fintail. As was the one parked in front of the Studebaker Administration Building in that one September '63 photo I've shared on the other page. I'll assume that was one of the more popular colors available.

fintail

uplanderguy said:

Boy, that is spot-on to your fintail. As was the one parked in front of the Studebaker Administration Building in that one September '63 photo I've shared on the other page. I'll assume that was one of the more popular colors available.

Funny, when I saw the movie for the first time, the thought crossed my mind that it could have been my car, which was still living in CA in 1970-71. But a couple differences - no bumper guards, interior color looks darker, and maybe the key, the car was driven off a pier/dock at the end of the movie.

I've seen the color on several fintails, black/white/grey seem to be most popular, maybe expected on a German car. I've seen it on a number of 190SLs too.

uplanderguy

Dug these old M-B pics out, given me by Ed Filer years ago. First is a 190SL they had in; not sure if a demonstrator or if it was sold by them; next two are Mr. Filer's (Ed's dad) M-B 220 I think fin told me once a few years back. Ed told me his Dad really liked the car.

I'm going to guess the 190 pic was taken in '58 as the "Commander" neon sign was still in the window and that was the last year until '64 for a Commander, and I can't venture a guess on the 220. Stude Museum archives show he picked up M-B in Oct. '57 which I believe was at the very front end.

'58 was a very lean year for Studebaker. Ed told me he actually had to hire a salesman when the Lark came out in the '59 model year.

uplanderguy

I've seen some comments here before, that there are some horror-movie fans here.

A former resident of my hometown made a movie in 2023 called "Spookt" which debuted last year at Fright Fest in London (LOL). It is just now on streaming. I found it on youtube for free and watched it last night. It's not a slice-and-dice movie I'm glad to report--I'm long-past those--and it's certainly not Hitchcock nor even Robert Aldrich (but not as bad as William Castle, LOL), but I loved how it was not only made in Greenville, PA, but set there. I recognize every exterior shot, and also the drone shots throughout town. The historical society where I volunteer a few times a month, is in it, outside and in; the public library, my alma mater's football field, the local hardware store, etc. Too funny. They got Eric Roberts to guest-star in a role as a crazy doctor, but his scenes look like they were done remotely.

If I hadn't been from the town, I don't think I could've made it through the whole 1 hr. 21 mins., but at this point anything that brings some notice to the ol' town is not a bad thing.

explorerx4

Couldn't have been too many of these.
https://www.iseecars.com/cars-for-sale?Year_min=1962&Year_max=1962&Make=Buick&Location=33570&_isccid=crt02fnd_r&id=100664266697&utm_source=criteo&utm_medium=criteo&utm_campaign=criteo&criteo_campaign_id=358424&adsetid=399615&adid=1603647&utm_id=399615&cto_pld=a3mRlmAwAADtB_IyQULasA#id=100664266697&photos=fullscreen

xwesx

Very cool wagon! The interior really surprised me after getting the walkaround on that unassuming exterior!

fintail

For those MBs, yes, the ponton is a 220S or 220SE, 6 cylinder car (as opposed to the plainer 4 cyl cars). They were sold until the 1960 model year in the USDM (fintail production started in late 1959 and ran concurrently with pontons for a moment, they even shared the assembly line for a short time).

That Buck wagon really is a rarity, can't recall when I last saw something like that, unusual wheels on it.

gsemike

Not spotted in person but this is neat

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3701333403458014/?mibextid=dXMIcH

xwesx

Ugh. Only a designer from the 1970s could possibly think that car had even an ounce of style to it. Yikes!

ab348

xwesx said:

Ugh. Only a designer from the 1970s could possibly think that car had even an ounce of style to it. Yikes!

Are you talking about the Europa? It actually was released in the 1960s. Bizarre car and with a reputation for being quite fragile, troublesome and poorly built. Originally it used a Renault 16 engine/transaxle. A school friend of my brother bought one and I don't know if he ever got it running well enough to use very much. I know it languished in my brother's garage for a long time before it finally went away one day.

That Buick Special wagon has been modded to within an inch of its life. The extra chrome strips on the tailgate weren't factory, and those wheels and tires weren't either. I know that is the way people do it these days but I'm generally not a fan. The interior sort of followed the Buick patterns of the original car but those colors are not factory either, and then of course all the aftermarket junk under the hood...

gsemike

I think the wagon is pretty cool, but not 'special' either way. 27 grand is rare air whether it's modded or original. To each their own I suppose

andre1969

Those strips on the tailgate of the Special wagon make it look a bit Pontiac-ish to me! IIRC, Bunkie Knudsen said "Get rid of that damn silver streak" and not "Let's dump it and revive it for Buick!"

What are those wheels? It makes me think of a chromed Chevy Rally wheel, but the slots look a bit small. I think it if had regular whitewalls and not those wide ones, it would look better.

roadburner

A good friend of mine bought a Europa and eventually whipped it into shape- he even wrote a book about it:

Michaell

roadburner said:

A good friend of mine bought a Europa and eventually whipped it into shape- he even wrote a book about it:

As a kid, there was a house around the corner from us that had a Europa in the garage. Covered with boxes and other junk, I suspect it was someone's project that never got finished.

I did get the Matchbox Europa because I liked the shape of it so much.