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

andre1969

was always driven around in Imperials. So was his wife. And on several occasions, Drysdale would lend one to Mr. Clampett. And I remember that guy Mr. Brewster, from the OK Oil Company, the one that Jethro's mother had the hots for, had a '62 New Yorker. I think he got phased out of the show pretty quickly, and Jethro's mother went on to run the Shady Rest Motel. She also did the voice for Betty Rubble.

mazda6iguy

For all the points...

QUIZ:

What car did Britt Reid (Green Hornet TV show) drive when he was not being the Green Hornet. Those who remember the show will know that when he pushed a button, the garage floor turned over and the Black Beauty appeared.

lemko

...what kind of Mercedes was Col. Klink's ride on "Hogan's Heroes?" I'm asking, I don't know the answer. I remember General Burkhalter would show up in one of those six-wheel jobs. Wasn't this called a GrosserBenz or something?

fintail

Funny thing to say...but that show was on before my time. I think I've seen maybe part of one episode.

mazda6iguy

You mean Cousin Pearl, who was played by Bea Benaderet. You brought up Pettycoat Junction... I don't remember anyone driving around anything other than the train.

lemko

...always seemed to have bad luck with car purchases. In one episode he buys a lemon 1956 Ford off the lady who played Grandma Walton. In another he shows up in a 1958 Edsel which he describes to Andy as a 1961 model.

mazda6iguy

Hint: It was a General Motors model Car....

schweikb

It had to do with the transmission, but what other issue contributed to the problem? Hint: Whales had something to do with it!!

acura_el2000

yet another reason why letterman isnt funny.

lemmer

The "Yugo Screw Yourself" not funny? That is quality humor, but since it is unappreciated I will try to stay on topic.

andre1969

I don't know if this is true or urban legend, but I heard that they used to use whale oil in transmission fluid, and it provided much better lubrication than fluid without the whale oil mixed in. At some point (1974 I'm guessing), whale oil was banned for that use, and as a result the trannies just didn't hold up as well.

I've heard that associated with other cars though, not just Pontiac. First time I heard it was on my Mopar Mailing List.

Now it is true that trannies did fail much more often in the later 70's than they did in the earlier 70's and before. I think a lot of that was because of the fuel economy standards. Often one way to boost the economy on cars was to put a taller rear end in. Instead of your usual 2.76:1, 2.94:1, etc, they started going for taller gears like 2.45:1, or higher, and it would lug the engine and put more stress on the tranny.

Also, in the later 70's they started coming out with lightweight trannies that were just too far ahead of their time to be reliable, or they'd just take existing trannies and put lighter components in them. Or even the old, traditionally sturdy trannies like the THM400, Torqueflite 727, and Ford C6 just got thrown together with less care than in the past, and would be more prone to failure.

Mr_Shiftright

LETTERMAN: I think "painfully obvious humor" was the term he was reaching for :P

WHALE OIL: It might be true!

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/article_detail.asp?articleid=392&relatedbookgroup=Main- - tenance

PF_Flyer

http://www.lubegard.com/about.html

Years ago, sperm whale oil and its deriatives were used as additives in virtually all automotive lubricants. The products were so effective that a car's transmission fluids were generally never changed, and the transmission lasted the life of the car.

omarman

Barney was a wild one with an Army surplus motorcycle for one episode some time after hooking up with Myrt "Hubcaps" Lesch (Ellen Corby).



And here's Barney's 1958 Edsel. He told Andy, "it's a '60 with a '61 grill."

schweikb

Preface:
I saw a 1974 Bonneville on the road today and it got me thinking. I had a brand new 1974 (yup - I'm 63) Bonneville with 400 Cubic Inch V-8 and it had "the problem." The most unique things about my car, however, were: I special ordered it to delete the tinted windows (was doing a lot of night driving those days and had come close to hitting a deer because of the dark windshield) and deleted the vinyl bucket seats (that every dealer spec'd on the cars they ordered) in favor of a cloth bench. These changes meant I waited 10 weeks for the Bonny!! The delaer almost refused to order the car wihtout tinted windows, saying it was not possible. I had to call the factory and get someone there to call my local delaer and tell him it was OK.
The problem:
You were close but not right!! Up until that year whale oil was the ingredient commonly used in anti-freeze to prevent corrosion (rusting of the lines, etc). The environmentalists (I’m one) had a federal rule/law changed and some synthetic was used to replace the whale oil in the “new formula” anti-freeze. However, it was not really effective and things began to corrode. With the Pontiac V-8’s the problem was that they had a transmission fluid cooler on the radiator to keep the tranny at the optimum temps to keep it from destructing. Well, the line that carried the tranny fluid from the tranny to the little fluid cooling core (it was attached to the main radiator) was clipped to the radiator for some distance (metal-to-metal). When the antifreeze began to corrode the metal in the radiator it began right in the area where the transmission fluid cooler lines came in contact with the radiator shell. Once the shell started rusting it corroded the adjacent tranny fluid cooler lines that then became porous, and anti-freeze began to mix with the tranny fluid. It was then carried back to the transmission and basically started to eat up the interior components. The first symptom was when starting in the morning after the car had sat all night, putting the car in Reverse, it would just sit, and then gradually start moving very slowly backward. After a little low speed driving the thing seemed OK and the problem was easy to ignore. I brought it in for the recall after seeing a story in the New York Times and the dealer said I was the first customer to come in for that recall. It cost GM and Pontiac millions (a lot in those days).

boomchek

Yeah I think we paid about a $100 bucks for the Lada. I have not seen a Signet wagon here probably since the time I've seen one new at our Auto Show back in 1991.

I have a brochure for one though.

There was a computer/network guy who worked for our dealership who was driving a mint condition Yugo. Don't see those much anymore either.

fintail

In a bizarre way, I like(d) the Signet, for its 60s Fiat styling no doubt. I remember ages ago I saw a red Signet wagon on 99 near Richmond, and I thought it was kinda cool.

I used to see a guy who lived near my dad who had a running Yugo, and about 6 parts cars in his backyard. The city made him clean it up though. And that was years ago...haven't seen one lately.

boomchek

The funny thing is Ladas were considered "luxury cars" in Poland during the ealry 80's.

Compared to the domestic offerings (4 models total) at the time, I'm not too surprised.

I think that the only Lada that did sort ok in sales here was the Niva 4X4. Cheap price, true 4X4, easy to fix.

Did you use to live in Vancouver fintail?

fintail

I still see a Niva now and then in the greater Van area. A couple of pukey green ones come to mind. The "Cossack" name was cool too, I remember that.

I'm pretty sure I recall a Lada ad touting the Signet as the "Little Red Square", a bad take-off on its styling and origin.

Yep I was there, boomchek. Now I'm in a pretentious Seattle suburb.

fintail

I like these

jrosasmc

I like those 500Es too but I'm a guy who likes things elegant, yet simple and understated. How about 260Es/300E 2.6s...what do you make of those Benzes/

fintail

Those W124 cars are excellent, honestly. Nowadays they are getting to be so old that you really have to be careful, but a maintained one should still be very sound. Very good engine (in the M103 anyway), clean styling, some of the last of the old school quality, just a great package. An excellent early model shouldn't be more than in the 5K range too, so they can be a very good deal IMO

jrosasmc

Was the M103 the six-cylinder that was first seen in both the 190E and 260E?

lemmer

I saw a Camry Wagon this morning. They are kinda goofy looking, and they have two wipers on the back window. I can't think of another car that has that.

fintail

Yeah the M103 is the inline 6 in the 300E and 300SE/L, I do believe the 2.6 was a derivation of this engine

I always thought those dual rear wiper Camrys were kind of cool in a freakshow way

lemmer

For a real freakshow, they should have combined the dual rear wipers with a single front ala Scirocco or that Mercedes in the '90s (which was it?)

fintail

That would be a W201 (190 series), W124 (E-class from 86+) or a W202 (C-class). I think the Subaru XT6 also had a single wiper. And of course, a few Euro market cars are set up that way.

The wipers in a W126 (W116 and 107 were similar) always struck me as the oddest...two wipers based near the center of the windshield, that follow each other.

andys120

they should have combined the dual rear wipers with a single front ala Scirocco or that Mercedes in the '90s (which was it?)

Both, First Gen Siroccos and C-Class Benzes employed a single racing style wiper. E-Type (XK-E) Roadsters had three front wipers!

fintail

And so did the MGB or some MG from the period IIRC. The shortness of the windshield necessitates it no doubt.

fintail

This morning I saw a very good looking young woman driving a very well kept 450SLC, and a short time later I saw what was probably a high school aged kid driving a pristine looking W114 in that awful period tobacco brown. Young people taking care of old MB? Pretty cool.

jrosasmc

One of my best friends in college had an '85 300D sedan. Unfortunately he beat the living daylights out of it and basically never took care of the car. Last I knew it had 225k miles on it but he never did any maintenance whatsoever. He never changed the oil or any of the fluids and loved to drive it at speeds of 80+ mph for really long periods.

andys120

Yes that's right, owing to the shortness of the
windshield MG-B roadsters like E-type roadsters had three front wipers while their coupe counterparts wore only two.

Mr_Shiftright

Also very hard to keep a baseball cap on your head while driving an MGB.

fintail

I suppose a W123 is as tough a car as any to try to run into the ground. How long did it last?

prosa

A bright yellow Lotus Elise passed my on the highway about an hour ago. I initially mistook it for an RX-8 before realizing what it was.

vibsr

To the host: Attached is a link to a car for sale. I do not own it. I am not selling it. I have NO CONNECTION to the owner whatsoever. It's just a picture of an extremely rare car that I want to show. If there was a means of simply attaching a *.jpg file from my flash drive through this site, I would have gladly done so.

This was considered an exotic back in the early 1970's. You would need deep pockets to own one because it is a maintenance nightmare.
I hope this URL works:

Citroen SM

This is a picture of a US-Spec car. Note the sealed-beam headlights and the side markers on the front and rear. The European-spec models had pivoting headlights under a smooth, full-width clear lens that moved with the steering wheel. Some folks would have you to think that VW was the first to offer this since the 1948 Tucker, but....no, not so.

fintail

Shifty-mobile

Not horrible looking compared to many period customs

Wow

Well preserved Anglia, I like these

Never seen one of these before, kinda wish it stayed that way

The Car

I guess if you're never going to leave Texas...

They all end up on ebay

Survivor

This should be uncommon

I've never seen a ragtop one of these - not the prettiest sight

The newest Airflow is the most boring

Andre-mobile

Yeah I suppose, but what's with that front end? Blasphemy

Elegance with history

My dad would be all over this

Ha!

Time warp

I wonder if all these will be claimed by demo derbies

andre1969

I REALLY like that '79 Newport! I LOVE that color scheme! It kinda reminds me of the jadestone '82 Cutlass Supreme I had. I don't think I've ever seen one in that light teal frost color, although a 2-tone teal frost over dark green St. Regis used to live nearby. Ironically, it went up for sale the day after I bought my '79 NYer! :confuse:

That neoclassic thing built using the Dodge Dart hardtop passenger cabin is...umm, interesting. At least it's not the usual conversion of an '83-86 Cougar!

I'd always wondered what a convertible of a '76-77 LeMans would have looked like, had GM kept building convertibles. Alas, I think that '77 Regal is proof that it was just never mean to be! One thing I'll say for it though, is that it looks better than the conversions I've seen done to the '75-79 era Cordoba! Not that that's saying much.

jrosasmc

Have you ever noticed that the gauge cluster in the '79-81 R-bodies (I think that's what they are) looks vaguely familiar to the one in the full-size Dodge Ram vans?

andre1969

since I've seen a Ram Van interior, so I had to look around online to refresh my memory. Yeah, they do have a strong similarity, the way the gauges are recessed, and how the dash itself slopes away. Who knows, they might've even used the same gauge faces? I'm guessing they probably used parts from the full-sized pickups, though.

The '80-83 Cordoba/Mirada, while based on the smaller Aspen/Volare, used a modified R-body dashboard.

imidazol97

Was there really a 1977 Buick Regal convertible? I don't remember it (as if that means anything!)?

That 1958 Packard is really ugly. But it fit in with the other gaudy cars of that year.

Mr_Shiftright

No the '77 Regal convertible is a chop job.

Citroen SM: -- the Tucker fender headlights didn't turn with the wheels but the center headlight did. The SM is a VERY weird car to drive, since the steering wheel does not spring back to neutral position when you come out of a turn. Maserati engine and you know what that means.

I LOVE that Goggomobile--I am so bummed it is in St. Louis.

'58 Packard Hawk: makes me sick every time I see one...they are so awful...

andre1969

but for some twisted reason I kinda like those '58 Packard hardtop coupes. It's a grubby little thing...kinda makes me think of some Eastern Bloc car manufacturer trying to ape a '58 DeSoto with various other period cliches thrown in. And for some reason, as bad as the exterior is, I think they actually did a good job on the interior. The dash looks clean and sporty, and much less over-adorned than your typical jukebox of the 50's.

Ooh, somehow I missed the '60 DeSoto the first time through Fintail's listings. That's almost kinda tempting...and not too far away from me. I'd want to see it in person though, to see just how bad the rust really is.

andys120

Don't those people look at their own ads? :confuse:
A bunch of those pix appear badly under-exposed to the point where you can barely make the car out. That '51 Ford custom might be interesting but I can just make out that it's in wrecked condition. I can't make out that '37 Airflow either.

I'd love to know how the Gullwing came by that
"SLR nose". If it was done by a recognized coach builder (Karmann? George Barris?:P) it might enhance the value of the car. Since the ad doesn't mention it, I'm amazed at the $225k bid.

Aesthetically I'm at sixes and sevens over it.
I think it adds sleekness but it's not a true SLR nose and seems to lack turn signals. :confuse:

My 1/24 scale 300SLR has small lights under the h/ls that look like turn signal indicators but those would have no purpose on a purpose-built
racing car.(??)

A set of SLR exhaust pipes would be cool. :P

fintail

I'll wager that SLR nose is from one of the semi-OK looking SLR replicars out there. I wonder why someone would do that. A gullwing has a pretty nice face to begin with, even if it was damaged you'd fix it. That car just seems a little off. And yeah, if you're going to butcher a gullwing, do it right and add those pipes.

There are so many bad ebay photos...those aren't even on the charts.

Oh yeah, and I guess this counts as obscure...I saw a black VW Phaeton today.

prosa

Now that Lands Van prototype would certainly be just the thing for someone who wants a vehicle that's not in every other driveway

boomchek

Yeah the Lands Van is an odd one. I wonder if those two designers are out of jobs after that one.

And speaking of Peugeots, I've seen one here in Vancouver with local plates, and I've also seen a 406 coupe with local plates.

Seen a new Q45 yesterday, which is odd as I haven't seen that many on the road.

Mr_Shiftright

A rusty Peugeot 404 rotting in a driveway.

jrosasmc

How are those old Peugeot 404s in terms of driving fun?

Mr_Shiftright

Kinda boring. Heavy, 4 cylinder, column shifter.