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

ab348

iluvmysephia1 said:

ab348 - were/are you a Tragically Hip fan? So hard to hear of Gordon Downie's passing. They are my 3rd favorite (favourite) rock band of all time. Gordie was a musical genius, full of love for Canada and full of life and intelligence. I respect his talent immensely and mourn his passing immensely. Dang cancer - I guess drinking water with baking soda sprinkled in helps fight cancer - according to several docs. Reason being is that it fights inflammation.

RIP Gordon Downie

I really wasn't, sorry. It was a generational thing. As they were becoming popular, I was getting less and less interested in the music of the day. I don't mind some of their more popular songs that got radio airplay, and I have a few of their albums, but I never got into the worship that many here seemed to practice. The concerts they had locally were absolute weed-fests too which turned me off even more.

fintail

MB has a couple of browns these days, they seem to pop up on rare AMG models now and then:





W116s can definitely pull it off, too, the 70s proudly shines through:

Mr_Shiftright

Metallics seem to improve the brownie/bronzy look, but I remember some 450SLs in a rather flat, chocolate brown and well, given the rather sluggish nature of the car, the jokes were inevitable.

fintail

There was a non-metallic brown (Havana Brown/Tobacco Brown) available in the fintail days, but I don't know if it carried over to the 107s:

Mr_Shiftright

That car in that color----no, just no.

Mr_Shiftright

I think this was what I was thinking of:

iluvmysephia1

I like the little sports cars like Triumph TR-4's and MG Midgets in British Green or classic mid-level red. Even faded red works with the little tikes. After all, I am 1/4th British, eh? That's likely the pull to me liking Foghat (British), The Guess Who (Canadian -which is a mixture of French and English), The Tragically Hip (Canadian).

ab348 - yeah, I see what you mean. I grew up going to concerts in Seattle and that had a big impact on my musical taste.

Never saw Tom Petty, though, too bad.

ab348

Yeah, Petty was here just a few years ago but I missed him.

Most of my concert-going was in the late '70s and '80s so my list has Neil Young, Loverboy, Paul Young, Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Beach Boys (early '80s version), Hall & Oates, Dire Straits and a few others from that era.

uplanderguy

I like that dark brown metallic in the top picture. My sister and her-then-husband had a new '73 Chevelle Deluxe wagon--six-cylinder, believe it or not---in a similar color and it cleaned up very nice I always thought.

ab348

I also like the dark root beer brown metallic paints. Very few vehicles offer that today though.

iluvmysephia1

I love root beer brown paint on automobiles. Would look great on a 1968 Datsun 411 Bluebird sedan or a 1972 Datsun 510 sedan. 

xwesx

fintail said:

MB has a couple of browns these days, they seem to pop up on rare AMG models now and then:

Ah, that first one is soooooo pretty....

imidazol97

uplanderguy said:

I love a dark metallic brown on 1964 Studebakers called "Bermuda Brown". It seems like Ermine White was half their production those last few years. I generally get so sick of white, black, and red on old cars.

Your comment reminded me I had taken a picture of a less-than-perfect Stude at a local car cruise. I couldn't remember how brown it was. Is this an original Stude color on this poor puppy?

Michaell

ab348 said:

I also like the dark root beer brown metallic paints. Very few vehicles offer that today though.

Both Subaru and VW offered it in the past few years. Very distinctive.

I was able to see Dire Straits on their "Money for Nothing" tour back in the 80's. I wasn't a huge fan of their music then (I am now, plus Mark Knopfler's albums as a solo artist), but attended the concert with someone who was. He was quite disappointed that they didn't play "Telegraph Road" in their encore.

ab348

This is the setlist from the show I was at. I liked Dire Straits anyway, but this was the best concert I ever attended. Knopfler (and the whole band actually) was incredible.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dire-straits/1992/halifax-metro-centre-halifax-ns-canada-3d9656f.html

uplanderguy

imidazol, that '62 Lark is an original color, but not the Bermuda Brown I remember on '64's. Funny you posted that pic--I was sort-of intrigued by Larks even as a kid and I can clearly remember three '62 Larks in town and all three were that color! When I've mentioned that to my friend who was the dealer, he expressed surprise that he would've sold three cars the same color, LOL. In my mind it was sort of a hot-chocolate color.

'62 was the last year Studebaker sold over 100,000 cars (not including trucks) BTW.

Michaell

ab348 said:

This is the setlist from the show I was at. I liked Dire Straits anyway, but this was the best concert I ever attended. Knopfler (and the whole band actually) was incredible.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dire-straits/1992/halifax-metro-centre-halifax-ns-canada-3d9656f.html

Oh, man. Nice concert.

Yes, the whole band is pretty awesome. Big fan, now.

I found the concert I attended at that website, but no setlist has been defined. I'm sure it's pretty similar to every other US concert, that year.

iluvmysephia1

My wife and I were shopping in Chelan and heard a cool Dire Straits tune on. I'd love to see Dire Straits in concert.

berri

Those medium browns are hard to pull off without resembling calf sh...

roadburner

My wife's Clubman is a dark metallic brown- Mini calls it "Hot Chocolate."

iluvmysephia1

roadburner - looks like root beer brown ta me, man!

berri

Seems like dark browns are making a comeback and replacing the previous beige or goldish color choice on newer models.

fintail

In Vienna today: W123 coupe and wagon, couple of W124/140/201, Subaru SVX, 90s S-10 Blazer (not a vehicle I would choose to represent Murka), Escalade, 33-34 Ford 3 window hot rod (I suspect fiberglass).

tjc78

roadburner said:

My wife's Clubman is a dark metallic brown- Mini calls it "Hot Chocolate."

I know of an 87 Crown Vic 2 door painted with that exact same paint.  I usually don’t like brown cars, but could live with the hot chocolate. 

tjc78

Edit, found a picture.  

uplanderguy

Speaking of concerts, last Wed. the wife and I saw Herb Alpert and Lani Hall at the small (642 seat) theater in our city. Wife wanted to go and I was pretty non-committal, but I was blown away by his trumpet playing still (he's 82), and his wife Lani Hall was with Brasil 66. Herb did a medley of Tijuana Brass hits (about as big as Beatles in 1965-67 or so it seemed; great memories for me) and Lani did a medley of Brasil 66 hits. Other than that it was a jazz show, something new for me. Most of what Lani sang sounded like Brasilian (is that a language? ). But great show and maybe best of all, we parked on the street for free on a street behind the theater, got out of the building from an emergency exit we were allowed to use near our seats, was in our car in three minutes or less, and was in our garage at home in five minutes after that.

He talked about signing the Carpenters, among other acts, to his A&M label.

stickguy

saw a nice light ice blue Buick sedan today. maybe around a 65? Nice clean square cut design. Not the huge model. I think it was a skylark. Lightly modded I think. Crager style wheels, chrome straight dual exhaust pipes.

ab348

This is a '64 but the same except for trim. I had a '64 convertible, fun car.

stickguy

definitely a 2 door version of that car. Nice clean styling.

berri

Herb Alpert had a smash it with the instrumental "Taste of Honey'. Most people don't know about his A&M record label. He was very successful and probably made more money off the record label. I think Brazilians speak a version of Portuguese.

ab348

The Tijuana Brass was a unique '60s phenomenon. As a kid I liked a lot of their music but it did have a sameness about much of it. Alpert himself was always very talented and he was a sharp businessman to build A&M. He and his partner sold it to Polygram in '89 for megabucks, stayed on to run it, and then sued for breach of contract four years later and settled for another $200 million.

I remember when I was buying vinyl albums that A&M pressings were always the best sounding records, excellent quality.

uplanderguy

I think everyone had that album "Whipped Cream...." then. It sounds dated now but it definitely takes me back to a place and time. The show was loose and he said that up front. "If you want to ask a question, just shout it out". Someone asked if he missed the A&M days and he immediately said, "No, it started out with two people in my garage, then 4, then 8, then 16, and on and on--I got to hate it with the lawyers and accountants", LOL.

I read where the "Whipped Cream..." album was in the Top Ten for 61 weeks and that someone had estimated that it was in nine of ten households with a record player back then.

After his big hit with "This Guy's In Love With You", Burt Bacharach gave him "Close to You" to record. He said his friend right away told him that he hated it and they played a clip and it was....awful! He was able to goof on himself about it. It was speeded-up. He said he gave it to the Carpenters and look what it did for them.

He and Lani must enjoy playing still, as I watched a CBS Sunday Morning episode online from 2011 and they appear to be well, filthy rich. Doubt they made that much money playing in Kent, OH last week (although it was a sellout!).

imidazol97

@uplander I'm glad you mentioned the Herb Alpert concert. That brought back great memories from my freshman year in college. Acapulco 1922 would play on the excellent sound system in the TallyHo, a newly built student center snack shop with lots of seating--every few songs was Acapulco1922 and Scotch and Soda. As a lonely freshman, I'd go there many days and sit with friends from the block of 120 or so with whom I shared a cluster of core classes. Later I was too busy with labs. Some of them were waiting for others in their commuting groups for their return home so they killed lots of time studying and socializing.

imidazol97

imidazol97 said:

Is this an original Stude color on this poor puppy?

I found '62 color charts, after you told me it's a '62. No darker brown.

For '64 I found only one exemplar of bermuda brown poly

uplanderguy

I looked at that '64 Commander for sale at Hershey a couple years ago! It had 23K miles and the interior looked new. It was a six, though, and straight three-speed.

That is definitely Bermuda Brown, and I like it!

ab348

I like how the owner parked his scooter next to it.

fintail

Lots of older material on the Viennese streets today - saw BMW E32, E34 sedan and wagon, MB W124, W126, W140, W202 in taxi service, Citroen AX and BX, Mk 2 Golfs, quite a few 90s Ford and Opel - inspections must not be as strict as in Germany.

Also saw a gem, a nice looking pastel grey and white two tone W110 fintail - but it was at a slight distance and moving in traffic, so I couldn't get a pic. It was out in the steady rain today, someone is enjoying it.

In downtown Vienna this evening, I saw this Ford Taunus 12M, think of it as a Euro Falcon, like a mid 60s Falcon, not a bad looking car for something not meant to be fancy or fast:

ab348

Cool tires on that Taunus. Combo white letter and white sidewall.

uplanderguy

I like how the owner parked his scooter next to it.

I remember he was a retired dentist named George. He was a Studebaker guy who had bought this car to turn.

I did like how that car was South Bend production (which only happened for '64's from Aug.-Dec. '63). Canadian '64's still had Studebaker engines built in South Bend, but all-white steering wheels, yuck.

I actually wish I had a scooter for Hershey. It is absolutely enormous.

I did share a golf cart at Hershey maybe a decade ago; the way to do it.

uplanderguy

I like Bermuda Brown better on this Gran Turismo Hawk:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3591/3326462484_ce56b1295e_z.jpg

kyfdx

berri

How do you get brown out of Bermuda? It is a lush island

imidazol97

Is the roof painted? I like how the interior color matches the rich brown on the exterior.

uplanderguy

Is the roof painted? I like how the interior color matches the rich brown on the exterior

That's a white vinyl roof, offered only on the '64.

The pic makes it hard to tell, but the interior is sort-of a saddle color, called "Brown Vinyl" by Studebaker, LOL.

I'll probably never own one, but a '64 Hawk is my very favorite Studebaker. There's '53 DNA in there, but I can't think of a whole lot of '53 domestic cars that could be revised through the '64 model year and be appreciated by folks.

I'd want a dark color with vinyl top, supercharger, disc brakes, the 'PRND21' floor shift automatic, full gauges including in-dash tach--and I'll accept the fender vents, pedals through the floor and master cylinder under the floor.

Hawks never got swing pedals, cowl ventilation, or master cylinder under the hood.

Pretty amazing it was long-hood, short-deck. I grew up on GM's and love Pontiacs of the era particularly, but they are short-hood, long-deck--especially Bonnevilles.

fintail

That '53 DNA shows an interesting evolution, the wraparound windshield. This design being able to sell in '64 shows how it went full circle. In 53, nothing but Eldo had such a windshield, IIRC. In 54, upper GM cars got it, then in 55 almost everyone had it. If you didn't have it in 58, people no doubt looked at you funny. But in 60 it started going away, and by 62, gone. The Hawk then looked current, having not given in to the dogleg trend.

ab348

Did Studebaker ever go to a ball-joint front suspension or was it always kingpins?

uplanderguy

They stayed with kingpins right to the end. Hey, Corvette had them through '62, my favorite year, LOL!

There's such an oddball nature to Studebakers that I find appealing, plus the fact I can remember them. My Dad wouldn't have been caught dead in one, LOL.

fintail

Fintails have kingpins too, not sure when they switched over.

uplanderguy

One small good thing about kingpins--you never see a car with them with the tire and wheel broken off.

PF_Flyer

ab348 said:

I also like the dark root beer brown metallic paints. Very few vehicles offer that today though.

Yea, those metallic root beers colors are OK.