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

bhill2

berri said:

I don't recall a 62 version. I can't recall if the 63 XL 4 door ht was for the full year, or just a midyear introduction like the new (thanks to NASCAR) 2 dr fastback version?

I think the 63 was full year. In 62, as in 63, they had an XL coupe and convertible but they didn't have a 4 door in 62.

uplanderguy

The '63 Studebaker Cruiser could be had with buckets and floor-shift automatic, but the '62 Cruiser could only be had with buckets and a (small) console but column-shift automatic. But, a '62 Cruiser could also be had with buckets and 4-speed.

I forgot about the '63 Galaxie 500 XL 4-door hardtop. I recall those being built in '63 and '64 and in fact my aunt's husband in Arizona has one but I've never seen it, even in pics.

In Chevrolet-land, the first four-door availability with buckets and floor-shift I can recall was either the '74 or '75 (I'll have to check) Malibu Classic wagon. As far as four-door sedans, it's the '75 Nova LN. Amazingly, Malibu Classic wagons could be had with buckets but the four-door sedans could not.

sda

A very tired greenish blue 91 Plymouth Sundance 4dr and this Cord look alike. Pictures are not clear, it was across the intersection.

fintail

I'm not aware of a repro ever made of a Cord sedan, that one is real. Wheels look pretty aggressive, I suspect it isn't on the original powertrain.

Odd spotting this morning - original Nissan Pulsar NX, the wedge 80s style. Been ages since I have seen one on the road.

sda

fintail said:

I'm not aware of a repro ever made of a Cord sedan, that one is real. Wheels look pretty aggressive, I suspect it isn't on the original powertrain.

Odd spotting this morning - original Nissan Pulsar NX, the wedge 80s style. Been ages since I have seen one on the road.

Wasn't the Cord front wheel drive? With the big tires on the back I suspect this one is rear drive.

uplanderguy

The Cord was FWD.

The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum in Auburn, Indiana is awesome. It's in their old art-deco showroom and offices. Go west an hour and see the Hudson museum in Shipshewana and get some great Amish-style food, then head east less than an hour and see the Studebaker National Museum. It's wide-open country and a regular hotbed of old-car museums out that way.

xwesx

uplanderguy said:

I didn't like four doors either growing up, and I'd say that was the general consensus into the '70's.

That's pretty funny, uplander! In my recollection, I would say you are spot on! ALL of the cars my mother owned while I was growing up were two-door. Now? I refuse to own such an abomination! If it doesn't have *at least* four doors, it has no place in my driveway. LOL

fintail

I am certain I have seen custom/rod Cord sedans (and unrestored basket case cars) before, no doubt the original FWD layout can be expensive to restore if anything is broken or missing. Probably a car that costs much more to restore than the restored value, no matter their styling or significance.

This afternoon I spotted a mid 80s 200SX notchback, a K-car woody, and an early 50s Chevy sedan.

berri

I always thought the C pillar treatment made the 64 Ford 4dr HT kind of sharp looking.

Mr_Shiftright

'65 Impala SS, very much the worse for wear... looks like a small block, chrome shot, paint faded, interior a mess, tires flat, not run in many many years. Still it's rust free and all there. Somebody will want it.

js06gv

All the recent Skylark talk brought back memories of my '84. It was my dad's former company car, bought new. Although the car wasn't ordered, this was still back in the day when a car could be individually optioned and this one had to be a unicorn. It was a Limited sedan with vinyl roof and wire wheel covers, the typical plush blue velour interior, a whitish/cream exterior color that was very popular across all of GM then, but the jackpot was it had the T-Type's H.O 2.8L as an option (but still carbeurated in '84). It had the telltale raspy GM V-6 exhaust note and the car would really scoot for its day. I remember embarrassing some mid-80s 305 Camaros with it. It was well optioned too, seemingly lacking only the power seat, and it was also a full bench although the individual seats manually reclined. No center seat; had a fold down armrest with an uncovered storage area beneath. I want to say here were plastic slots for cassette tapes!

I inherited the car in '87 with about 73K and drove it till '90 with 116K and dumped it for my first new truck, a Ranger XLT. The car had held up reasonably well, still looked great, but the transmission sometimes held onto first gear until about 40 mph or so and seemed like it was about to become a problem. And it's funny to see several of you commenting about steering morning sickness. Mine also had that but didn't know at the time it had a nickname. It would subside after a few miles. I remember the trans acting up the day I traded the car, and me being very relieved that I limped it over to the Ford dealer and got $2,100 for it, leaving my balance on my brand new Ranger at a cool $6,800.

fintail

Went to a yard sale this morning, and under a tarp in the garage was a 63 Galaxie 500 XL convertible, black on black on black, buckets and console/floor shift, 390, etc very dusty and probably idle for 10+ years, but it looked pretty decent. I could recognize what it was by the hubcap, and pointed it out to the proprietor. Also spotted that Pulsar again, a W123 240D, and a mid 60s big Dodge wagon.

Also went to the small town car show, and put together some highlights. Lots of what I call "boomer rods" - a 350 stuck in anything, common 50s and 60s cars. But there were some highlights:

Kinda sorta like Biff's car:



Don't know about this color:



Same here:



I think I've seen this before, these are classy:



Little red wagon:



Rare car messed up:



Bet this is fun to drive:



This was pretty:



These will always be cool:



Would have been better on stock wheels/tires:



Very cool:





Someone spent some money:



I might have liked this more:







This had a nice 50s vibe:



Not something you see every day:



Same here:



Black primer can go a long way:



Can't recall the last time I saw one:



Unusual ornament

bhill2

Nice collection, Fin. One thing is, there are some cars and some wheels that just don't go together. The ones that are on that Rambler wagon are like fingernails on a blackboard to me. The ones on the Dodge wagon are just a cliché.

Mr_Shiftright

Yep, when you accessorize you have to pay attention to the whole car!

berri

Those Dodge 880 wagons have to be pretty uncommon today, like the Willy's car. Didn't know the 64-66 Thunderbird's came in that 50's like coral color??? That Rambler wagon could have been in my neighborhood growing up in the Chicago suburbs and I don't care how many laugh, I kind of like the original 58 Edsel. Thanks for posting the pix Fin!

bhill - how about the wheels on the Dodge wagon!

bhill2

berri said:

Those Dodge 880 wagons have to be pretty uncommon today, like the Willy's car. Didn't know the 64-66 Thunderbird's came in that 50's like coral color??? That Rambler wagon could have been in my neighborhood growing up in the Chicago suburbs and I don't care how many laugh, I kind of like the original 58 Edsel. Thanks for posting the pix Fin!

bhill - how about the wheels on the Dodge wagon!

Yeah, that was the car whose wheels I called a cliché. I can't think of any car they look good on.

fintail

Yeah, modern wheels on old cars is something that irks me - there was a lot of that at this show. That Dodge wagon is tacky, but it was a high quality tacky, the paint was pretty nice, and the car was well finished. Would have been cooler as a 100% stock restoration, IMO. The Edsel was very cool, not something you see every day. The Ford woody was a beauty, too.

ab348

The Ford woody was great.

What car was that hood ornament on?

toomanyfumes

That Maverick and the Falcon van are cool too. I am guessing that they are both restored?

fintail

I assume the Maverick and van had at least cosmetic restorations, yes, they were a little too good to be original finishes.

Hood ornament was on a 36 (I think) Nash Lafayette (rodded of course).

xwesx

What was that black one that you mentioned as being "classy?" It looks like the hub caps say "Buick" on them. It somewhat reminds me of the Pierce-Arrow that we stored in our quonset hut for a few months when I was a kid. The particular example we stored had originally belonged to Sam Hill (of Maryhill fame), and I recall sneaking in there many times to gaze at it.

As I was thinking more on those memories, I couldn't get over the headlights. This is what the car we stored looked like, except in jet black. However, this is a 1934 model (one year only, and last year of production for the company), and Sam Hill died in 1931, so I'm starting to think that the car's owner may have been mistaken about its history.... ?

bhill2

toomanyfumes said:

That Maverick and the Falcon van are cool too. I am guessing that they are both restored?

I agree. It takes a whimsical (or very nostalgic) person to restore a Falcon van. As for someone who restores a Maverick, words fail me - but if the words came to me they would be kind. We get a little flavor of the owner's personality from his description of his '71 Maverick Grabber with the big six as a 'poor man's hot rod'.

fintail

Yep, "classy" is a 38 Buick, I forget the model, but likely a fancier model due to the sidemounts.

Pierce Arrows are elegant cars, too. I think they sputtered on until 1937-38, but the lack of a lower priced model (which helped Packard for a little while anyway) might have did them in, along with their lack of size to begin with.

I remember visiting Maryhill when I was a kid, and buying a postcard featuring one of Sam Hill's cars, I think a Locomobile.

sda

Mr_Shiftright said:

'65 Impala SS, very much the worse for wear... looks like a small block, chrome shot, paint faded, interior a mess, tires flat, not run in many many years. Still it's rust free and all there. Somebody will want it.

That gold color wasn't very durable. Our cousins bought new a '65 Impala wagon in that same color. The paint was totally dull, no shine at all after 3 years. Funny story, they learned the hard way not to park the car on a downward slope if it meant having to use reverse to back up. The 283 with powerglide would just bog and not move the car. They would have to enlist volunteers to help push it backwards to get it moving! I know if happened one time when I was riding with them.

fintail

Saw this on I-5 this morning, look to the left at about 12-14 seconds, red 59 Cadillac convertible:

https://youtu.be/SQRA_Z6F7Uc

berri

I remember as a kid playing baseball the old wives tale about a little league outfielder chasing a fly ball and impaling himself on a 59 Cadillac fin.

Mr_Shiftright

Well, maybe he broke a rib at least.

omarman

berri said:

I remember as a kid playing baseball the old wives tale about a little league outfielder chasing a fly ball and impaling himself on a 59 Cadillac fin.

That was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill old wives tale such as fainting goats or planting seeds in your
belly button. And that imaginary little league outfielder most likely sprang from the leaky plumbing of
Ralph Nader. Which was feared to be the inspiration for Ralph's first book entitled, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread and Thou Art Impaled On A 1959 Cadillac Tail Fin. (unpublished)

ab348

Funny that this comes up today. On the weekend a book published in 1980 called "The Corvair Decade" by Tony Fiore came into my possession. Fiore was a Corvair devotee from early on (bought one of the first, if not the first, Corvair sold in NYC in 1959 and owned many thereafter) and was one of the first members of CORSA, the Corvair club. In the book he talks about Nader without ever mentioning his name, almost as if he couldn't bear to see it in print. From his perspective it was all a hatchet job and criticism was unfounded. Whether that's true or not I cannot say. Book was an interesting read, lots of reprints of original factory and magazine material on the Corvair, along with his personal experiences.

Mr_Shiftright

It wasn't unfounded, but perhaps exaggerated to make a point.

All in all, I'd say Nader's book went a long way towards making cars safer. Too bad the Corvair was a sacrificial lamb, as the once-crappy car turned out to be a pretty nice automobile once GM put some development money into it.

kyfdx

I can still remember a picture from the newspaper when I was a kid. Corvair convertible broken in half at the B-pillar area (if it had a B-pillar), from sliding sideways into a telephone pole.

Mr_Shiftright

They were not the only unsafe rear engine car....the Tatra was a real killer, and the original Porsche 930 Turbo probably got rid of more high ranking drug dealers than the police ever did.

PF_Flyer

One of the benefits of having my couch be my office space is that my background noise is usually a movie I've enjoyed before (so I can just listen and not HAVE to watch). This morning's selection had a fair amount of "iron" in it. So, year make/model, movie, and character whose car it is

stever

Dunno the car or the movie, but with that department store in the background, it must have been filmed in San Diego.

berri

I think it is one of those downsized Cadillac Seville's (80"s?), but don't recall the year. I think they were actually on Nova platforms? There used to be May Company stores in many parts o the country. How times have changed.

js06gv

76-79 Seville. The '80 model got the famous "bustleback" treatment. I'm going to guess Casino as the movie?

PF_Flyer

'76 Seville it is! Not Casino. Steve has the right state for location, just a little too far south. Perhaps another screen shot from the movie with another not-so-mysterious vehicle will help pin things down

hpmctorque

Early 1980s Isuzu I-Mark sedan diesel, being driven by a 30-something guy in city traffic. Hadn't seen one of those in a very long time.

There was also a Chevette diesel version sold in in the U.S. in the early-mid 1980s.

Michaell

hpmctorque said:

Early 1980s Isuzu I-Mark sedan diesel, being driven by a 30-something guy in city traffic. Hadn't seen one of those in a very long time.

There was also a Chevette diesel version sold in in the U.S. in the early-mid 1980s.

There was also a Ford Escort diesel available about the same time. Almost bought one as I was getting ready to graduate college.

jpp75

Not a classic but I've seen two Nissan Murano cabriolet in the last two days. The ultimate answer to a question no one asked.

Mr_Shiftright

I try not to laugh when I see one, I really do.

PF_Flyer

What's worse? A Murano cabriolet or someone who took the time to trick out an Aztek??

kyfdx

Murano CrossCabriolet is worse, by far.

Mr_Shiftright

I'll vote for the Aztek as well.

berri

I didn't know you could make an Aztek even uglier

Mr_Shiftright

I don't think you can. With an OEM Aztek, the only way is UP! Or, to put it another way, if a car's styling is a joke to begin with, make it a bigger joke.

andre1969

Oddly, I think the custom work on that Aztek actually improves its look!

PF_Flyer

Certainly gives it a Hot Wheels feel

andre1969

I think the bigger rims (albeit lower profile tires) and lowered stance in general help with that modified Aztek's looks. They also look like they're offset more. The whole rig has more of a stable, hunkered-down look than the stock ones did. I thought it was the original proportioning more than anything that made these look bad...same with the Buick Rendezvous. They shared the same cowl with the minivans of the time, and that gave them the higher, more ungainly look compared to a true crossover.

fintail

Today - 80s Montero, early 80s-ish 911 Targa, W126 300SD