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

stevedebi

ab348 said:

Back when I was a kid it was quite common to see sedans converted like that into trucks. Usually they had a plywood back on what was left of the car body and a wooden platform/box mounted to the rear frame.

Makes it in the tradition of an early plane, with fabric wings. Actually, the Wellington bomber of WWII had steel frame and fabric skin, come to think of it.

roadburner

How about an M3 Camino?

andre1969

The other day I saw a pristine brown '75-79 Olds Omega sedan, with a white vinyl roof. Normally obscure in its own right, but even rarer, as I'm in Aruba now! I'd love to know the story behind it. It's hard to keep a car in nice condition down here, with the salt air, scorching sun, high humidity, and marginal roads.

Also saw an early 60s Studebaker from a distance. Teal color, and it looked pretty good too, from a distance at least.

lemko

Spotted a 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle SS on my way to the store at lunchtime.

hpmctorque

A red 1984 Fiero stopped at a traffic light. The paint was somewhat faded, but it was being driven. Don't see many of these anymore.

stever

Went by our old rental condo to check on the mail and spotted a Datsun 280Z. Looked like a daily driver and looked a bit ragged, but the sheet metal seemed straight.

stevedebi

hpmctorque said:

A red 1984 Fiero stopped at a traffic light. The paint was somewhat faded, but it was being driven. Don't see many of these anymore.

Were the headlights up or down?

andys120

I happened to see 2 mid-60s GM B-body cars on the same day. The first was a 1967 Pontiac GTO coupe which appeared to have been nicely restored. It wore a Lemon Yellow paint job which I doubt was a factory color that year.

The second was a '66 Olds Cutlass convertible with white paint that had a gloss to it but didn't look all that good. The chrome and stock hubcaps were all good as was the convertible top but the ho-hum color and blackwall tires gave it a kind of tired look. Surprisingly the plastic rear window wasn't yellowed or cloudy.

IMHO either car would've looked better in one of the metallic colors that were becoming popular at that time.

andys120

Today I saw a 1955 Chevrolet four-post sedan, white over turquiose. The lack of chrome and no V emblem on the trunk suggests it was one of the low end models (One-Ten or Two-Ten?)

The hood emblem was rather small and there was a little waviness on the sides but the chrome and paint looked fairly good. It might have been a DD.

ab348

Those were A-bodies, Andy.

robr2

stevedebi said:

hpmctorque said:

A red 1984 Fiero stopped at a traffic light. The paint was somewhat faded, but it was being driven. Don't see many of these anymore.

Were the headlights up or down?

Was it on fire or not?

robr2

Hey fin - I found this on another forum. Guy in your neck of the woods picked this up recently - 8 passenger, wood siding with 440 cubic inches of 70's goodness:

ab348

That '72 T&C looks great. Any idea of the selling price?

texases

robr2 said:

stevedebi said:

hpmctorque said:

A red 1984 Fiero stopped at a traffic light. The paint was somewhat faded, but it was being driven. Don't see many of these anymore.

Were the headlights up or down?

Was it on fire or not?

Were the headlights one of each?

fintail

Nice find, that kind of stuff survives here. Cool to see that it avoided the demo derby finale.

robr2 said:

Hey fin - I found this on another forum. Guy in your neck of the woods picked this up recently - 8 passenger, wood siding with 440 cubic inches of 70's goodness:

hpmctorque

stevedebi said:

hpmctorque said:

A red 1984 Fiero stopped at a traffic light. The paint was somewhat faded, but it was being driven. Don't see many of these anymore.

Were the headlights up or down?

Down, but it was day time, so maybe the headline mechanism still worked.

robr2

ab348 said:

That '72 T&C looks great. Any idea of the selling price?

The poster didn't say. He bought it at an auction for vehicle donated to a charity. It was a one owner car with only 90K miles.

imidazol97

Chrysler Town and Country station wagon. K-car era with wood on the sides.
Perfect with only flaw a yellow scratch on the middle of the rear plastic bumper.
Dark red.

Mr_Shiftright

You should be able to pick up a decent 70s era Chrysler wagon for a few thousand bucks.

Mr_Shiftright

Let's just continue to drink beer and pretend we built it, but didn't.

roadburner said:

How about an M3 Camino?

omarman

That's the one-off M3 which had everyone guessing. Even after reading about it I still don't get it. I mean other than stirring up all the attention. Quote from Jalopnik, "Jim Hall tells us it's a one-off parts hauler for ZTechnik or another BMW motorcycle accessory builder..."

roadburner said:

How about an M3 Camino?

BMW did all that to create a parts hauler? I'd use it for (quick) trips to Home Depot. Andre would deliver pizzas. Fintail would fret over the lack of a bed liner. Oh this was a bad idea!

Mr_Shiftright

Once aliens conquer the earth, I'm going to have them appoint me Head of the Customizing Police. Things like this have to be stopped, for humanity's sake.

andre1969

How's this for an odd coincidence...I leave the country, vacationing in Aruba, and happen to come across a red and white '57 DeSoto hardtop coupe! It was either a Firedome or Fireflite, couldn't tell which as it came around a corner and passed by too quickly. It looked like it was in pretty good shape though. It also looked like a darker red than mine as well, so maybe it was a re-paint? IIRC, DeSoto only offered one shade of red that year, although they offered a salmon-ish color that could look light red in certain light.

kyfdx

andre1969 said:

How's this for an odd coincidence...I leave the country, vacationing in Aruba, and happen to come across a red and white '57 DeSoto hardtop coupe! It was either a Firedome or Fireflite, couldn't tell which as it came around a corner and passed by too quickly. It looked like it was in pretty good shape though. It also looked like a darker red than mine as well, so maybe it was a re-paint? IIRC, DeSoto only offered one shade of red that year, although they offered a salmon-ish color that could look light red in certain light.

When I was in Aruba, the sights on the beach were a little more interesting.. Put on some sunscreen.

andre1969

kyfdx said:

When I was in Aruba, the sights on the beach were a little more interesting.. Put on some sunscreen.

Where do ya think we were coming back from?

We were coming back from Baby Beach, on the southern side of the island. It's pretty desolate down there. Lots of wild jackasses, and I was sort of looking out for them, so the DeSoto sort of crept up on me.

Oh, also spotted some kind of really old Citroen, parked under a carport. Looked kind if like a small early '30s domestic car, just with two big chevrons across the radiator grille.

isellhondas

So, yesterday I walked out of a local grocery store in the pouring rain and parked near me was what appeared to be a PRISTINE, totally original looking 1956 Cadillac Fleetwood sedan!

Had it not been pouring rain I would have done a walk around but I was already soaked.

This car honestly looked like it had been parked in a garage for the past 50 years! Correct whitewalls, totally original looking paint and chrome etc.

It was yellow with a white top and just beautiful!

I hope to see it again under better conditions.

berri

I found this on another forum. Guy in your neck of the woods picked this up recently - 8 passenger, wood siding with 440 cubic inches of 70's goodness

Ford was often considered the "Wagonmaster" back in those days, and they did build some nice looking ones, but I thought many of the Mopars back in those days were very classy looking vehicles. Wonder if that Chrysler broke 10 mpg?

berri

1956 Cadillac Fleetwood

I'm not really a Cadillac guy, but to this day those 54-56 Cadillac's look very stately. Particularly the 56 with it's finely meshed grill. I always thought Cadillac actually took a step backwards with the 57/58's, but then I suppose dual headlights wouldn't have really looked good on the prior style - kind of like they always looked out of place on Checker's.

fintail

Went to the free dealer-run car wash today, spotted this in line:



It's my old E55 - not a similar car (as that would be way beyond simply obscure), it's the same car. Nice to see it's still on the road. Hard to judge condition by the 10 or so consecutive days of rain we've had, but it looked OK. Dirty wheels are common for MB and BMW of this era, brake dust is massive. Been almost 2 years since I moved on. These are good cars, esp for the era. I still have a little sellers remorse, but it was time to move on - I can't hoard.

stickguy

how did you know so easily it was your car? Some distinguishing marking?

fintail

Still had the same plates. And a tectite W210 is a very rare car, I'd guess about 25 units of that color per year sold in the US during the period the color was offered on the model, so when I saw it, I had a feeling it was the same car. There is another grey one in the area, but I think it is a year older.

stickguy

I find it odd too that your plates stay with the car. here, you keep them.

uplanderguy

Regarding that '72 T&C, a good high-school friend of mine's parents had that very car, except for green cloth-and-vinyl interior. I thought it was a barge and at the time would've liked a Buick Estate Wagon better. I used to goof a bit on the screwed-on armrests on the inner door panels, but I'll say this--it was comfortable!

Pardon the 'jailed' look of my sig pic--I'm back after six months of stepping away by my own wishes, after a couple days of being put 'in jail' back in May. I just reactivated.

Re.: '56 Fleetwood--did the poster mean the 'Sixty Special'? I remember the old guy behind us when I was a kid who was still driving an extremely nice '56 Sixty-Special well into the mid-to-late sixties. It had gold wheels and I believe a gold grille. Very elegant. Remember how Caddy dashes actually said "Nineteen Fifty-Six"? I guess that's what they meant by 'planned obsolescence'! LOL

fintail

Good to see you back, Uplander!

re: plates, I find it weird that they go with the owner. If I think about it, I think they usually stay with the car in the UK (unless a special plate the owner wants), but go with the owner in Switzerland and maybe Germany. I've thought about getting a personalized plate, but it would be something borderline to be censored, and I am cheap about such things. My new plate has 2 consecutive paired numbers, so I like that.

berri

Good to see you back Uplander as our resident GM advocate. Jail - should have stuck with cars instead of motorcycles buddy

I think in most states the plates stay with the owner. I suspect it all just reflects how each state keeps records (by owner or by vehicle). Personally I'd prefer to keep the plates, but then you can get into multiple vehicle situations where it may be simpler if they just stayed with each car I suppose. Hey, we're in America, so maybe this can flair up into a democrat vs republican overblown issue about nothing!

uplanderguy

Thanks much for the welcome back, guys. It is appreciated. I am choosing to be more selective about to whom I reply and will probably leave anything positive about GM only for the GM forum here. Anywhere else and it brings the cranky people out.

I can't seem to find how to edit a post here. Does anybody know? I'd like to change 'parding' (sic) to 'pardon' in my first new post--don't want anyone to say, "Aha! Typical uneducated GM buyer!". LOL

uplanderguy

Fin, I stumbled on this a few weeks back and thought of your right away. Check the fifth and sixth photos down in the link--appears to be a M-B van of some sort in the '60's, here utilized by Studebaker to bring the divisional presidents and their wives out to Stude president Sherwood Egbert's residence at the Studebaker Proving Ground. Long story short, we were in South Bend a month or so ago to take the cheap South Shore Line train into Chicago to look at a couple schools for my daughter (didn't want to drive into Chicago). There was a bridge being repaired not far from the South Bend station so they bused us from South Bend to Michigan City, about 45 mins. drive, but the only good thing IMHO was they drove us right past the old Studebaker Proving Ground, now owned by Bosch, and Egbert's house in the link pics was floodlit from the road at night...looks exactly the same. (I've been there in the past but it's been a few years).

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?30766-A-Visit-To-Studebaker

andre1969

fintail said:

Good to see you back, Uplander!

re: plates, I find it weird that they go with the owner. If I think about it, I think they usually stay with the car in the UK (unless a special plate the owner wants), but go with the owner in Switzerland and maybe Germany. I've thought about getting a personalized plate, but it would be something borderline to be censored, and I am cheap about such things. My new plate has 2 consecutive paired numbers, so I like that.

Here in Maryland, the plates stay with the owner, and if you don't replace your car with another, you have to turn them in to the DMV (or MVA as they say here in Maryland...Motor Vehicle Administration).

I have a friend who's had the same plates as long as I've known him, since 1997. They've gone through an '82 Cutlass Supreme and three Panthers. He had a '78 Newport and '77 Cordoba before that. I'm curious now, if he had the same plate on those cars. I'll ask him the next time I see him, if I think about it.

Oh, and welcome back, Uplander! BTW, I was in Aruba for two weeks, and saw a Studebaker Lark/Daytona, of around 1964 vintage. It was from a distance, so only got a quick look at it. Lots of obscure stuff down there. I would think it would be hard to keep those older cars running, but one of the locals told me that they get parts from all over the world, so I guess they find a way to make it work!

stickguy

Up, you only get 4 hours to edit a post. after that is locked (though I suspect if you want it deleted for some reason, you can ask a host to do it!). There will be a gear looking icon at the top right after you make a post. Hover over that, and it will give you an edit option.

I loved the link BTW. Not that I have a particular interest in Studes, but I love this kind of history, especially car related!

stickguy

andre, with the internet, if a part exists anywhere you can eventually get it (maybe not cheaply!). My guess is that a place like Aruba imports just about everything as needed anyway, so not that much different.

ab348

In Nova Scotia they went to a plate to owner system a couple of decades ago. Over time you see people with very old plates on newish cars since they have changed the plate graphics a few times over the years. Looks odd. They will issue you a new plate design with a new number if you go to the DMV and ask. There may be a fee, not sure. If you go thru cars a lot and have some overlap with ownership periods you end up with lots of unused plates hung on your garage wall.

stever

Hm, I have my plates from AK, Idaho and Michigan. Don't see a handy link showing which states require you to turn them back in. For a while in Michigan I ran my old Alaska plates on the front (it's a one-plate state, and that practice was pretty common, at least in the UP. The in-laws ran their old Nevada plates on the front of their cars).

stickguy

speaking of plates, I now have a set sitting by the door to the garage. My son moved to NY so he re-registered his car there, and brought the Jersey plates down with him at Thanksgiving. But of course did not bother to go to DMV (he left that for me).

You are supposed to turn them in, but there really isn't any incentive to do so. I bet that many people don't bother. In the past, I have held onto a set for a while in between cars so I had them when I got a new one. Depending on the timing (how long your registration on them has to go) sometimes it is cheaper to reuse, but other times it is cheaper to get new ones.

robr2

Here in MA, the plates stay with the owner. I had the same single green plate on my 84 Cavalier, my 87 Daytona, my 91 Accord and the 98 Accord. Around 2002, the plate failed inspection because it was so faded so off the the RMV (Registry of Motor Vehicles here in MA) for a new 2 plate "Spirit of America" plates. In the next 3 years, that 98 Accord was hit so many times until it was totaled in 2005. Needless to say, I changed plates with the Passat.

Here in MA, you are supposed to turn in the plates. I did but I don't know if most people do.

Mr_Shiftright

I did it for you--but you can edit by clicking on the little gear that appears in the upper right corner of your post, just outside the box.

uplanderguy said:

Thanks much for the welcome back, guys. It is appreciated. I am choosing to be more selective about to whom I reply and will probably leave anything positive about GM only for the GM forum here. Anywhere else and it brings the cranky people out.

I can't seem to find how to edit a post here. Does anybody know? I'd like to change 'parding' (sic) to 'pardon' in my first new post--don't want anyone to say, "Aha! Typical uneducated GM buyer!". LOL

fintail

Yep, that's a MB 319 bus, kind of a slightly larger version of a VW microbus. I don't know that they were ever officially imported here, but I have seen a couple, so maybe they could be special ordered. They are quite collectible in Europe, but unicorns here. It would look like this:

uplanderguy said:

Fin, I stumbled on this a few weeks back and thought of your right away. Check the fifth and sixth photos down in the link--

uplanderguy

Thanks for the fix, Mr. Shiftright.

Regarding collector car plates...in Ohio you get a "Historical" plate but can also put year-of-manufacture (old) plates on your car, which I always did. I had to turn in my "Historical" plates but kept my year of manufacture plates after selling my Studebakers.

With 'regular' car plates, I think they go with the car. I haven't bought a car since 2011, and I traded in a vehicle but seem to remember having to get temporary (paper) plates. I'm fuzzy on that though.

andre1969

In Maryland, you can't keep your tags; you have to turn them in before canceling your insurance. If you don't, they hit you with an uninsured motorist penalty of $150 for the first 30 days, and $7 per day thereafter.

fintail

I saw a 55-56 New Yorker sedan today, looked to be in nice condition.

My fintail wears the "year of manufacture" plates - if it ever came time to sell, I would let them go with the car, as they'd only be useful if I found another car of the same year. I found them at a yard sale for 25 cents, so they are worth more as a curiosity than my initial investment.

stevedebi

Here in LA the plates stay with the car. You can pay a fee and transfer personalized plates, but the DMV issued ones stay with the vehicle.