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

explorerx4

@PF_Flyer,
Going to guess the police car is 64 Plymouth Belvedere? Also, 67 Ford Custom taxi and mid 60's GM bus.
57 Plymouth behind taxi?

omarman

The Odd Couple movie: "I was impossible to live with."

kyfdx

stickguy said:

Not bad. Hard to imagine doing more than 1k per year on a toy like that, so less than $2k annually. So $175/month.

It's less than that, if you park it, the first time it breaks down.

tifighter

I like the color combo on that 412 pictured a lot. None listed on Hemmings but there are a few earlier 400i’s starting in the $60k range. I’d expect a good 412 to be way north of that now.

Mr_Shiftright

412s run about $30K ahead of the 400i. Of course, the nicer the 412, the wider the spread. The 5-speeds are the most desirable.

PF_Flyer

omarman said:

The Odd Couple movie: "I was impossible to live with."

The FMEH FMEH scene IS one fo my favorites, as is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy6JWHNYRzk

PF_Flyer

explorerx4 said:

@PF_Flyer,
Going to guess the police car is 64 Plymouth Belvedere? Also, 67 Ford Custom taxi and mid 60's GM bus.
57 Plymouth behind taxi?

No side trim, so the police car is a '64 Plymouth Savoy, but that's picky
Right on the taxi, and the info I have is a '59 Plymouth Windsor Dartline behind it.
1965 GMC bus. I guess that's pertty MID 60's...LOL

uplanderguy

Admittedly random, but I recently came across this pic and it is by far my favorite Imperial. It's one of the very, very rare times I would pick a Mopar over the similarly-slotted GM or even Ford product.

http://imperialclub.org/~imperialclub/Yr/1966/Hawkins/66LeBaron/66sidelight.jpg

I can remember seeing magazine ads for Imperials where they mentioned "Crown" and "LeBaron" models, but back then, I NEVER remember seeing a LeBaron in the flesh. That name really meant something to me--before it was attached to a K-car variant.

stickguy

stately looking beast but man, I never understood how people wanted to drive something that large for normal use.

uplanderguy

Generally I don't like enormous cars either, but I can admire it for what it is.

When I was a kid, you'd see these at Demolition Derby events, as I believe they were a combination of unibody and body-on-frame and were considered among the most stout cars out there.

They still had the late '50's Mopar wraparound windshield.

I can almost see Mrs. Drysdale pulling up to the Clampett Mansion in one.

fintail

When I was a kid, those were still in demo derbies. I think they were eventually banned, as they were much sturdier than any other car.

texases

I like how one can see the lineage of cars by windshields and rooflines. Carmakers often hold onto those for years.

PF_Flyer

Demolition Derby. Jalopy Races from Gardena, CA on TV '50-'50, featuring Crackup of the Week, and don't forget Figure-8 Racing in Islip. Went to many of those as a kid. Which reminds me, my brother is a bigger car junky than I ever was. Since it's his birthday, I figure why not get a shot in



All set for a night of valet parking, eh? LOL

kyfdx

I loved figure-8 racing on Wide World of Sports..

Michaell

kyfdx said:

I loved figure-8 racing on Wide World of Sports..

Ditto ....

omarman

Until receiving a standing ovation when introduced at the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981, Vinko Bogataj was apparently unaware of his fame.

xwesx

omarman said:

Until receiving a standing ovation when introduced at the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981, Vinko Bogataj was apparently unaware of his fame.

Ouch?!

stickguy

Driving around, a very original looking 1970ish dodge adventurer PU. Just like this, same colors. Just more beat up.

kyfdx

xwesx said:

omarman said:

Until receiving a standing ovation when introduced at the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981, Vinko Bogataj was apparently unaware of his fame.

Ouch?!

Anyone over 50 has seen that clip approximately 1000 times..

Michaell

kyfdx said:

xwesx said:

omarman said:

Until receiving a standing ovation when introduced at the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981, Vinko Bogataj was apparently unaware of his fame.

Ouch?!

Anyone over 50 has seen that clip approximately 1000 times..

"The agony of defeat..."

RIP Jim McKay

ab348

Michaell said:

kyfdx said:

I loved figure-8 racing on Wide World of Sports..

Ditto ....

Double ditto. I figured Islip, Long Island was just one big junkyard when I was a kid.

ab348

uplanderguy said:

Admittedly random, but I recently came across this pic and it is by far my favorite Imperial. It's one of the very, very rare times I would pick a Mopar over the similarly-slotted GM or even Ford product.

For me it's the '67. Can't exactly say why but I always loved that front end:




And if you were a Captain of Industry, how could you resist an interior like this to let you work as you were driven around?

xwesx

That's brilliant!

We need cars like this today.

stickguy

you can do that with a minivan. Maybe not the swiveling the front seat part.

heck, get a Westphalia. They are set up like that.

ab348

A Westphalia? I'm a Captain of Industry! My time is valuable! I need a vehicle worthy of my status! I want to get there today as only 440 cubic inches of Mopar power can do it!

stickguy

well, if you really want it, I am sure you could figure out how to jam one in there. Though might be easier to just go with a GTI engine and make do with that.

texases

That Imperial would be a bargain compared to a Westy, today.

uplanderguy

I don't know why, especially, but on a '64-66 Imperial, anyway, I'm not crazy about the coupe. I think it's because they have a large "Crown Coupe" nameplate on the sail panel. The sedan doesn't say "Crown Sedan". Not sure why they did that!

They did make a convertible, not often seen.

At some point, but I'm not sure when, the Imperial just started using the same instrument panel as the New Yorker.

Boy, the earlier sixties Imperials were out there, weren't they? I guess the '63 wasn't bad, but the '60-61-62--whoa!

andre1969

fintail said:

Crazy old man probably hiding Auric Goldfinger's vault. I like those cars a lot, sharp lines.

Several years ago there was a blue one for sale locally, in blue, similar to this:



So tempting, but I have to imagine massive running costs even for a sunny Sunday driver.

I remember seeing one of those years ago, not knowing what it was, but describing it here on Edmunds as having a roofline reminiscent of my old 1980 Malibu coupe. And, you guys nailed it!

stickguy

a mid 80s Malibu. Black, with black vinyl 1/2 roof and those silly windows. Oddest part, it was down here in Jersey, but had Maine plates. was a 4.3l engine. I know this, because of the foot high chrome letters on the trunk lid attesting to the fact.

texases

Reminds me of the Bitter:

uplanderguy

a mid 80s Malibu. Black, with black vinyl 1/2 roof and those silly windows. Oddest part, it was down here in Jersey, but had Maine plates. was a 4.3l engine. I know this, because of the foot high chrome letters on the trunk lid attesting to the fact.

Probably an inch high.

That'd been a Monte Carlo, as the Malibu was gone by the time the 4.3 came into being.

stickguy

Darn. Not a Malibu. It was a Monte Carlo. Sorry. And the numerals were huge.

andre1969

I always thought it was a bit odd that they'd put that big 4.3 badge on the Monte Carlo, like it was some badge of honor or something. The '86 I had had a 305/5.0, but IIRC there was no badging whatsoever on it. Heck, the Monte Carlo SS didn't even have any engine displacement badges on it, as I recall.

Didn't the 4.3 Impala/Caprice have badges advertising the fact, as well?

fintail

This is the only Monte Carlo engine badge that matters:

uplanderguy

I have to admit, I always liked the Monte Carlo script, and it never changed from the first 'til the last (well, of the contiguous model years--'70-88). I can't think of another Chevy I can say that about.

uplanderguy

Didn't the 4.3 Impala/Caprice have badges advertising the fact, as well?

Yes they did.

I used to think it was weird, too, that the V8 got no badging but the six did--just the opposite of Chevy in the '60's and even early '70's.

I guess they wanted people to know they had a new fuel-injected engine even in these older-bodied cars. I believe "fuel injection" was even part of the badging.

I could still like an '86-88 Monte Carlo LS, with the optional checkerboard aluminum wheels, and no optional bodyside molding to be placed only an inch away from the bright trim down the side all the LS models had. Rarely seen then or now.

I didn't like how they wrote "Luxury Sport" down the side though--lame.

uplanderguy

When my '81 Monte Carlo was stolen, Sept. '82, I remember looking at a new '82 Monte diesel. I didn't drive it. My friend's Dad was a Chevy/Buick service manager 25 miles away and even then he warned me against them. I never liked the sound of them anyway.

uplanderguy

I'd not get the CL package, to get rid of that little nameplate, and I wouldn't have ordered the optional body-side molding with vinyl insert, and I'd like one of these. Other than the Grand Prix, probably less-seen than the other GM cars of its ilk, and I like it better. I remember seeing some in a dark maroon with a slightly-lighter maroon under the side moldings--I remember lusting after those at the time.

http://americanclassicscars.com/uploads/pictures/chevrolet-monte-carlo-ls-1.JPG

fintail

I think the checkerboard wheels are pretty cool, very 80s. When I was younger, someone in my area had an immaculate black later run Monte with those wheels and T-tops (not an SS). One could tell someone was babying the car.

When I was a student, a good friend had an 83 Monte CL, 305. I remember asking him in a half-mocking way what the CL stood for. I think at one time, he joking replied CeLebrity. He kept the car until several years ago, his first car with some sentimental attachment. He sold it after it sat idle for several years, I think his wife made him get rid of it, it was looking tired. It went to a customizer who turned it into a lowrider, better fate than the junkyard. He also has an 85 SS he bought soon after graduation (around 2000, I think) and has held on to. He 's a Monte Carlo fan.

uplanderguy

My parents had a new dark metallic green with gold pinstripe '80 Monte Carlo V6: I had new '81 and '82 Montes, two-tone jade and dark jade solid. My parents had a firethorn-like maroon color '84 with 305 V8. It was my favorite of all of them and really scatted with the 305--at least compared to the sixes and the 267 V8. I liked the '84 instrument panel best of all of them--a flat, dark woodgrain with gold pinstripe surround and chome glovebox knob, which in the next year got changed to black plastic (ick). I like a gloss black trim panel but even with that the '86 and later Monte dash didn't do a whole lot for me.

fintail

I never experienced any similar cars when they were new, the only 80s era GM cars in my immediate family were a Ciera and an S-10 Blazer - the former was decent, but the latter was not the paragon of refinement.

I remember my friend's car clearly. He initially put these little 13" wheels with low profile tires on it, lowrider style, as it was the mid 90s and this was a thing. In the late 90s, he put wheels from an ~81 Z28 on it, I think they needed spacers, and they were on it from that time forward. I think it had wire wheel hubcaps when new. He never had engine issues, but I recall around 2001 the transmission puked, the TH200 or whatever the weaker unit was called.

ab348

For whatever reason, the only G-body GM cars that I even noticed in the mid-80s were the Olds Cutlass and the Buick Regal, but even then it wasn't enough to want one. I'm not sure why, as I liked the Cutlass in particular. I preferred the Monte Carl SS styling to the other versions, and would have liked the HO 305 engine it had, but the interior choices were pretty limited with it if you didn't like dark blue.

fintail

My friend's 85 SS is black with a red interior, in the typical GM velour, which seems to wear well enough. I drove it once - it had a modified exhaust that sounded fun, but the braking seemed iffy to me - this was years ago when my daily driver was a W126, which felt like a precision surgical instrument in comparison.

uplanderguy

The '83 and '84 Monte Carlo SS only came in white and blue, with blue interior. The palette much-increased for '85 and later.

I actually put a deposit on a new dark maroon '85 Monte Carlo SS with matching interior and took my deposit back. Decided I didn't need a third Monte of that style. At the time I liked the performance idea on a car with a real back seat, but in hindsight, the graphics and such don't match the styling of the car. My friend had an '87 Aero coupe, interesting.

tjc78

I never knew that about the early Monte SS.

I’ve always liked the Regal, IMO the best styled of the group.

Michaell

I was in college in the early to mid 1980's, and I always admired the G-bodies. Can't remember which one appealed to me most, though I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Monte Carlo. I think it was the Cutlass.

A college buddy of mine had a Grand Prix of that vintage - '80 or '81, IIRC. Nice car, but it was a base model so not all that optioned up.

My cousin owned a '79 Cutlass - brown with tan vinyl top and a tan interior. Rallye wheels, I believe. I liked that car a lot.

uplanderguy

It's funny. I am pretty sure I never saw either a TV commercial or a print ad for a Monte Carlo after the '81 model year. It's almost as if they downplayed it on purpose, compared to the Regal and Cutlass Supreme. I was never a fan of the 'underbite' on the Cutlass Supreme, nor the square instruments on the Regal, although I surely loved the chrome Buick road wheels that were available.

uplanderguy

Despite introducing the Celebrity, Chevrolet did some big-time model reductions for '82--no Impala coupe, no more buckets in Monte Carlo, and dropped the notchback Citation coupe (best-looking bodystyle IMHO). In '83 they dropped the Caprice coupe. In '84, they reintroduced a Caprice coupe, notchback Citation coupe, and buckets and console shift available in Monte Carlos.

I like oddball stuff--I could enjoy owning a deep burgundy '78 or '79 Cutlass Salon aeroback coupe, with the Super Stock (factory) wheels, just because you never see them. My friend's parents bought a new '78 Cutlass Salon Brougham four-door in that ubiquitous orangish-copper color, and it was goofy-looking, but what a pleasant highway car. When pretty new we took it to St. Louis to visit an old friend of ours in college there. It felt plush for the size.

ab348

I always liked the Aeroback cars too. Seems like not too many people did though.

In thinking back I liked the Regal coupe's styling but I was always wary of the 3.8 engine even with the turbo. Today those are quite valuable but then I didn't trust them. The Cutlass coupes could be had with a V8 that I was more comfortable with then. Even today I am unimpressed even with Grand Nationals like the one my friend bought a few months ago.