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

andre1969

I always thought the Turbine Car screamed "1961 T-bird", too. Wasn't Elwood Engle responsible for the styling of both of them?

fintail

Has to be one of the best on the continent...much more loved in its homeland

Three heaps of unobtanium parts

Of all the things to preserve

Old school JDM

Labor of love over logic

High status Buick

I never thought I could think "poor thing" after seeing one of these

The 70s were unkind to Christine's cousin

These things lived forever

Maybe an Andre-mobile

This fintail was originally my color, why change it?

" thought by many to represent the epitome of post war Mercedes Benz elegance and styling"

"classic style"

These had style...dunno about those wheels though

Early muscle

The "rare and beautiful" Andre-mobile can't find a buyer

Not many of these seemed to have survived compared to their platform relatives

andys120

Honda 1300 Coupe- That's a new one on me being much larger than other early Honda cars I know about with 500-800 cc engines.

1940 Buick-What a beauty. Love the side-mounted spares.

explorerx4

back in '61 they already had the superbird tail on a car.

explorerx4

i remember seeing that car at the '64 world's fair.
when was the last time there was one of those?

explorerx4

about 20 years ago, i went visit a friend out at china lake.
there were 2 f-86's parked outside a hanger, and a pilot was just getting out of one of them!

andre1969

I've been watching that '76 Bonneville for awhile, now. That's another one that seems to never meet its reserve, so it pops back up. I notice this time around, the seller deleted a couple pics. It has a lot of rust around the wheel openings, and other lower parts of the car. Shame, because the interior looks like it's in really nice shape. And I like that color scheme, the forest green with the tan interior.

If I was going to get one of these barges, I'd try to get the biggest engine possible, in this case the 455. But maybe the 400 was still enough to move one of these things?

lemko

I was watching an old movie that was made in 1951 where these detectives were looking for a killer. They were examining some tire tracks and the one detective says, "Look at that skinny tread pattern. He must be driving around in some old pre-war wreck!" I recall seeing a picture of a 1957 demolition derby where they were smashing up a couple of rather pristine-looking 1947 Chryslers!

Mr_Shiftright

Well no different from the modern 4-door cars that Godzilla steps on regularly in the movies--of course they are only 4 inches long, but still.... :P

Most cars that are "utilitarian" don't survive very well as time goes on.

andre1969

I caught an episode of "I Love Lucy" today, the one where they entrust Fred to get them a car to go to California in, and he gives them a bit of a shock with what he pulls up in. One thing that was amusing, was the prevailing attitude about automobiles in those days. At one point, Lucy, Ricky, and Ethel are standing out at the curb, waiting for Fred to show up. Lucy sees a car coming in the distance, and says "Is that Fred?". Ricky responds "Geeze, I hope not. That car must be 7 or 8 years old, it would NEVER make it to California!" And then, right on cue, Fred pulls up behind them, coming from the other direction, in a 1923 Cadillac!

Fred made a comment about the car wasn't like one of those flimsy assembly line jobs you get nowadays. "They don't build 'em like this anymore!" Now this would have been 1955, late 1954 at the earliest. Funny how, even back then there were people convinced that the new cars were getting cheaper and cheaper.

I guess that shows just how far cars have come since then. Back in those days, they'd look at a 7-8 year old car as being on its last legs. In contrast, my Intrepid is 9 years old, and I wouldn't hesitate to take it across country. I might have the mechanic check it out first, and do any maintenance that was coming close to due first, but I'm confident the car would make the trip. Heck, I think even my '76 LeMans, which is about as old today, as that 1923 Cadillac was in the context of that era, would have a good chance of making the trip.

Back then though, it wasn't so easy to just drive cross-country. The interstate highway system hadn't been built yet, so I imagine the trip would have been a lot of two-lane roads that would take you through every small town. And I'm sure those roads weren't as good as they are today. Also back then, there were a lot of really remote areas where you really didn't want to break down! I guess there are still places like that today. I remember going through Wyoming in 1995, and at one point on the interstate, it was about 69 miles between exits!

I guess stuff like belts, hoses, and tires were also more likely to fail...but wouldn't that hold true even on a new car back then?

Mr_Shiftright

A car built in 1955 was pretty much dead at 100,000 miles, probably burned oil, probably had at least one valve job already, and probably rattled like golf balls in a clothes dryer.

oregonboy

But on the positive side, it took much longer to put 100k on a car back then as most "highways" were 2-lane blacktop which ran through the center of a little town every few miles. :P

boomchek

I never knew Honda made such a car, and I thought I knew all about Hondas. I guess they had a lot of oddballs for their JDM market when theyr first started up.

One of the local Toyota dealers in town has/had an original Toyota 2000GT in red, in the showroom. Pretty cool for an early Japanese car too.

As for the "rare" Olds on ebay, maybe he should drop down his starting bid and he'll see some action.

Mr_Shiftright

The Toyota 2000GT has the distinction of being the ONLY high-dollar Japanese collectible car in history.

boomchek

The article is here.

Part of the article reads:
On the opposite and less glamorous end of the spectrum, GM is getting rid of the first production Pontiac Aztek, a white 1991 Saturn SL sedan and a blue 1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue.

It would be cool to own a one off customized production car, or a concept car, but I'm not sure if these mainstream cars will ever hold any value as collector cars. I think we discussede the possibility of the Aztek being a collector. As for the Saturn, at least you'll know the body panels will never rust.

andre1969

I think that's a very big component of why cars didn't necessarily make it to higher mileage back then. It's not necessarily that they build them better today (although they do). But the conditions they were subjected to were harsher, on average. Rougher roads, much less highway driving. The cars needed maintenance on much shorter intervals than they do today, but they didn't necessarily get it. Also, garages were much less common in those days, so chances are the car had to sit out 24/7. But then today, many people fill their garage with junk and the car still has to sit outside anyway, so that one may be a moot point!

I think it would be cool if you could somehow transport something like a brand-new 1955 Chevy into today's world, and see how it would hold up in day-to-day use, compared to a modern car. I imagine that, as long as you could keep the road salt and mud off of the vulnerable areas, and kept up on maintenance, it would go for quite a long time in today's driving conditions.

lokki

I forgot to check the size of the JPEG before I posted.... and now I can't get to the Edit button to fix it! It's hidden under the ads on the right side of the page.

Hosts - can you fix or destroy for me please?

thanks,

Lokki

Mr_Shiftright

Okay I'm sorry but I had to remove a few images due to their size. We don't ever "edit" anyone's posts or fix them, so this is the best I can do.

You can download some free image resizers from www.cnet.com, I believe.

bumpy

The 1300 was Honda's first "real' car after the kei-sized motorcycle-engined critters from the 1960s. One carb per cylinder, dry-sump, forced-draft air-cooled, FWD. The Coupe 9 was the hot-dog version, and they also built sedans (77 and 99).

http://jalopnik.com/cars/jalopnik-fantasy-garage/jalopnik-fantasy-garage-honda-1- 300-coupe-9-246084.php

Mr_Shiftright

Spotted a Fiat 124 sport coupe (pretty rare car), green with a tan vinyl roof of all things.

I always wanted one of those!

Simple and Handsome

andys120

Great little cars but why would you put a vinyl to on one? :sick:

Mr_Shiftright

I think they came like that as an option. You know, the 60s and all that.

fintail

Or maybe dealer installed bric-a-brac, like AC on a fintail or carriage top and whitewalls on a new CTS.

explorerx4

chevy long bed pickup in a driveway around the corner.
the medium blue metalic paint which didn't look original and it had chrome craiger wheels.
probably from the south.
i liked it.

lemko

Saw a TV show on TrueTV called Operacion Repo where they were repossessing some guy's pristine yellow and white 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 convertible.

Mr_Shiftright

That's one car I'd let them repo anytime. I don't think Ford had an uglier year than 1958....maybe 1946-48 and 1961

oregonboy

Okay, I had to look them up, so I guess you all can benefit from my legwork (finger work?)

1958 Fairlane


1947 Coupe


1961 Ford Gyron


Okay, okay... 1961 Ford Starliner


dang! It's a pain to find images that fit along side the ad banner. :sick:

andre1969

This probably won't surprise you, Shifty, but I actually think the '58 Ford is fairly attractive! I prefer it to the 1957, mainly because I never liked the way the upper part of the '57 jutted out, giving it a bug-eyed, weak-chin look. The only thing I really don't like about the '58 is the taillights.

Now, I don't like that one pictured above, because of the fender skirts, and I could do without that salmon color. One reason that I like it, most likely, is because I see a little bit of '57-58 DeSoto/Chrysler influence in the front-end, and those are some of my favorite cars. Probably another reason why I have sort of a soft spot for those non-Hawk Packards and Studebakers from that era.

Now I'd say the '58 Ford is my least favorite of the low-priced-three that year, with the Plymouth being my favorite. But I like 'em all.

I like the '61 Fords too, although I still prefer the Chevy. Either one blows away the '61 Plymouth in style. I've heard that was the car that inspired a whole generation of Japanese sci-fi monsters! :P

1946-48...dumpy looking little car, IMO. Now honestly, there's not much from 1946-48 that gets me turned on, but a Chevy from that era just blows the Ford away, IMO. Even the Plymouth, no beauty queen itself, I think has more charm than that '46-48 Ford!

andys120

still do, they were pretty clean, not overly chromed and miles better looking than '61 MoPars. I'd take a '61 Chevy or Pontiac over a Ford or Merc though, the '61 Chevy and Poncho being among the best cars of the "long tail" era that began in '59 and ended in the 90s.

OTOH I do agree that '58 was the low point for Ford, their '59s were much nicer.

imidazol97

>1958 Fairlane

I respectfully add that I think it's a Fairlane 500.

>dang! It's a pain to find images that fit along side the ad banner

To adjust the size of the image your goal is to have the horizontal width 640 or fewer pixels. Use the property item on right click of the image you're posting to find its width and height and the ratio thereof. Divide width by height. Multiply that by 640 as the new width to get height. If your desire width is smaller, use that number.

When you paste in the location of the graphic into your post and use the "Img" button, thenafter the " and > sign at the end put in width="xxx" height="xxx" where the x's are your new numbers for width and height. The " signs are required; use a space before the word width and between the words.

I can't put in an example because the forum interprets the symbols of an example as a graphic and doesn't work right.

oregonboy

thanks, I'll have to try that.

imidazol97

Check your carspace inbox for email with a complete example of the method.

Occasionally adjusting size gives a little bias or rippling along edges that are not vertical or horizontal.

andre1969

Imidazol, could you shoot me an example of that, too? I just tried to follow your example above but couldn't get it to work.

thanks!

andys120

Sign up for a free Flickr.com account and resize your photo thru them. I find it easy, fast and best of all intuitive.

Other photo-sharing sites abound.

imidazol97

Done. Plus a second try to oregonboy's carspace box with a corrected version (even carspace recognizes the html markup in the email so I had to change what I sent)

Below the posting entry box is a preview button that will let you see what your image does to the right margin. Apologies to the hosts, I sometimes forget I can use that and mess up the margins until I get my image to the right size.

andys120

This car was entered in the Memorial Day 1950 Nascar Grand National Race at Canfield Speedway near Youngstown, Ohio>



In those days the SC in NASCAR stood for Stock Car and that car is so "Stock" it has whitewall tires!

Mr_Shiftright

apparently this is Tucker #12, raced by Joe Merola. The car broke an axle (typical, as the helicopter-derived engine was much too powerful for the used rebuilt Cord transmissions they put into Tuckers) and never completed a lap.

Some sources say the car does not survive, burned up in a warehouse fire, which makes it one of the very few Tuckers that didn't survive, unfortunately for NASCAR history.

boomchek

I always liked Tuckers, maybe because of the movie, or because of their quirky design, or the fact that if I'd be in Tucker's shoes I'd try to build my own car too.

This one looks nice slammed.

Didn't Tuckers kids build replicas of these cars and sell a few copies not too long ago?

andys120

Didn't Tuckers kids build replicas of these cars and sell a few copies not too long ago?

That seems highly unlikely, given the idiosyncratic layout of the Tucker, they'd cost a gazillion each to replicate. Are you thinking of the several Cord or Duesenberg Replicas that have come and gone?

Mr_Shiftright

Hey a nice fiberglass Tucker body with a VW 1600 cc engine in it--it would be a joy to drive I'm sure.

boomchek

No I'm pretty sure there was some. A here it is:

I found this on Wiki:

In 1997, Rob Ida Automotive started work on a replica of the Tucker '48 Sedan, which culminated in the release and marketing of the 2001 Ida Automotive New Tucker '48. This replica faithfully recreates the Tucker's external bodywork, but is built on a hotrod chassis with plastic body panels. The paint and wheels reflect modern hotrod styling, and the interior is fully modern. It is powered by a rear-mounted Cadillac Northstar V8. Claimed performance is 0–60 in 7 seconds, with a top speed in excess of 120 mph. Ida has built three cars

Mr_Shiftright

Not the best choice of engines. A simple Corvette pushrod V-8 would have been better IMO. A Northstar is a bear to work on, and has a few chronic issues.

Still, an ambitious project to be sure.

fintail

My paternal grandfather really liked that design and planned to buy one...he even kept some promotional material on the car, which unfortunately isn't worth a lot today. He later became a big fan of Corvairs...not a surprise I guess.

boomchek

he even kept some promotional material on the car, which unfortunately isn't worth a lot today

You mean like Tucker brochures and stuff? Does he or you still have it? Doi you want to get rid of it?

Anyways Merry Christmas to all and stay safe this Holiday Season.

fintail

No real brochures, nothing in color - just some flyers and price lists. I should try to locate them and scan them in. I am pretty sure my dad had them last. My grandfather was kind of a technology nut - they were early adopters of television, and in 1940 he bought a private plane, and had one for many years. I know my dad has a pile of period aeronautic material. He wasn't unusually well to do either, he just liked machines.

andys120

I'd be surprised if the lightly-capitalized Tucker had much in the way of brochures and sales material. As for color, well my 1962 AC/ Shelby (260) flier hasn't got a lick of color, it's all b&w and that's from almost fifteen years later and Shelby is believed to have had financial backing from FoMoCo..

sual

i m living in Los Angeles. I have my roof unit sitting in the driveway and I need to swap the units. I need a crane service or can I rent something? I need someone else, what am I looking for? so tell me if you know the best crane service providers.
Thanks

andys120

I assume your "roof unit" is one of those removable hard tops or truck-body caps.. Most of those are designed to be installed or removed by a couple of able-bodied males. If you wanted to do it yourself you could rent one of those hoists they use to lift engine blocks.>



You should have no trouble finding one in Lost Angels, just ask for an Engine Hoist.

oregonboy

Maybe he was talking about an A/C unit for his motorhome, (or apartment complex.) :P

lemko

...a 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix with a black vinyl top with the 8-lug wheels and finished in the same yellow as andre1969's 1967 Catalina convertible.