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

xwesx

texases said:

It just sold for $9,300. That steering wheel! Yikes!

Steering wheel was terrible. I don't mind the seats, though. Custom, but fairly tasteful in terms of the design and match to the car.

roadburner

uplanderguy said:

Yeah, the bad choices he made that you could see made me wonder what other dumb things he did that you can't see.

Isn't that always the case, LOL. Whenever I see a car that someone couldn't be bothered to replace all the nameplates, or get emblems in the right places, I think, "Sheesh, I can spot that a block away--more so than I could spot a bad paint job. What can't I see that's screwed up?".

I looked at an E36 3 Serries BMW where the owner had secured the interior door panel with sheet metal screws rather than spend a few bucks for the correct plastic clips.The seller couldn't believe that I lost interest in the car as soon as I saw that.

explorerx4

One of the receipts was for over $1100 and it doesn't show what it was for. Just the guy's name and who it was ordered from.

texases

Steering wheels can be verrrry expensive!

kyfdx

roadburner said:

uplanderguy said:

Yeah, the bad choices he made that you could see made me wonder what other dumb things he did that you can't see.

Isn't that always the case, LOL. Whenever I see a car that someone couldn't be bothered to replace all the nameplates, or get emblems in the right places, I think, "Sheesh, I can spot that a block away--more so than I could spot a bad paint job. What can't I see that's screwed up?".

I looked at an E36 3 Serries BMW where the owner had secured the interior door panel with sheet metal screws rather than spend a few bucks for the correct plastic clips.The seller couldn't believe that I lost interest in the car as soon as I saw that.

E36 door panels are a lost cause. Along with the rest of the interior.

fintail

I visited Volo today. Lots of material - most cars are for sale, at prices that run the gamut from OK to wacky. Lots of movie cars, a nice Duesenberg collection, too. Here's something you don't see every day, an actual Dukes of Hazzard General Lee, from the first season:

xwesx

Shiny!

fintail

One more for today, this too is an actual movie car:

berri

I like that car

ab348

If you've always wanted your own CHP cruiser, here you go:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153249654913?ul_noapp=true

Not totally accurate but close enough.

stickguy

Interesting. No gum ball, but it does have a shotgun.

berri

Gimme Broderick Crawford's Highway Patrol 55 Buick Century coupe

texases

Is a fake cop car like that legal to drive on the street?

Mr_Shiftright

Hell NO! The real CHP would be all over that thing. It should really either be trailered, or have "movie car" plastered all over it, or some such. It's also fairly dangerous to drive around like that, for your own safety.

I know about this from my days taking cars to and fro movie sets. Even though I drove a de-contented black & white with signs all over it, I got hassled by both the cops and the public.

The decals need to come off that car, and then they'd be fine without trailering.

ab348

There are a few owners of them on the Mopar forums. They have magnetic sheets (think of really big fridge magnet stuff) they stick on over the offending graphics when they are driving. The ones who post seem to have very good relationships with the CHP and their local police stations, and even get invited to special events that are held, like retirement or memorial ceremonies..

tjc78

There is guy on one of the Panther forums who has an 80s Vic in full cop gear.  He covers the graphics up to drive on the street.  

andre1969

On the subject of old police cars, I wonder how street-legal this one would be


I remember hearing years ago that any police car or ambulance made before 1965 could be street-driven, and be fully-functional (working siren, lights, insignia, etc). But, don't quote me on that!

berri

Jackie Gleason with aviator sunglasses and a roll of toilet paper unraveling from his leg

fintail

Is that Pontiac a fan creation or a real movie item? Pretty cool. Gives one a hankerin for a diablo sandwich and a Dr Pepper.

Here's a police car I saw yesterday, claimed to be an actual movie car:

stickguy

that looks like a cop tire.

tjc78

Please don’t laugh at me for this ... but did they really make brown over blue interior?

Im sure it must be a repaint or interior swap but I had to ask. 

Mr_Shiftright

When's the last time anybody saw a real live VW 411 station wagon? Well...sorta live...it was on the back of a flat bed. I swear I haven't seen one in a decade--not at car shows or for sale. I'm sure BAT had one on sale for $40,000 dollars, but I must have missed it.

stickguy

I took my driver's test on my grandmother's 412 wagon. Automatic. What a terrible car. It was frankly evil.. I never understood how they made a car with the engine in the back so hard to steer. Not surprised that few survive.

probably the best thing to say about a 412, is that it was better than a 411.

fintail

Looks like the movie car had a blue interior too:



I am sure if any 411/412s survive, they are in WA or OR.

Mr_Shiftright

Hey, I found one! Not a wagon, though.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/d/volkswagen-411-fastback-rare/6704651653.html

stickguy

now that you mentioned it, my grandparents had a 411 sedan in addition to the 412 wagon. They dove in with both feet.

they followed a couple of Volvos. I know they had a 122. and I think maybe a 140 something?

Hey, they lived in Vermont at the time!

andre1969

That Pontiac is a fan creation. From what I've heard, Pontiac supplied three Trans Ams and two LeManses for the movie, and towards the end, they literally had to piece all the cars together to keep them moving. I'm sure that what was left of them was junked right after the movie. I think the LeManses that GM supplied were all white, with blue interiors, and then they just repainted them as needed to represent the various jurisdictions. At least, I remember a couple of scenes where you could see white in the doorjamb of Sheriff Justice's car.

andre1969

Here's another one for the "Once they were everywhere, now they're pretty obscure" files...

stickguy

Mullets will never die.

uplanderguy

When the '82 Camaro came out, I liked it much-better than the previous car, but it's probably because they built it for eleven model years, long for GM back then.

I was a big fan of the Berlinetta, with gold wheels and pinstriping outside. I liked the velour buckets and clock facing up on the console.

I liked the IROC-Z when it came out.

I hated how they did the CHMSL on '86 and later cars, and I hated the gimmicky instrument panel of the '84 and later Berlinetta. I test-drove a new '85 and was unimpressed. I ordered a Celebrity Eurosport two-door with the 2.8MFI instead.

texases

The '82 Camaro was one of those cars I found striking when it came out.

Michaell

texases said:

The '82 Camaro was one of those cars I found striking when it came out.

When I was about ready to graduate college, a friend of mine bought an '85 Firebird. I think it was a stick shift with the 4-cyl "Iron Duke" engine. Bright red. Looked quite futuristic for the time.

ab348

Near the end of the '82 model year a car salesman friend of dad's tried to sell me his '82 gold on tan Z-28 demonstrator. I was excited to get it for a full day but by the end I was really disappointed. Rode very hard, not really very quick at all, less room than the '77 LeMans coupe I was driving. I forget the price but it was way too much. I passed.

ab348

I like this except for the black interior. A rare car in this kind of condition. Last year for the full-size Dodge convertible.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113356505366

stickguy

Now that is a cruiser.

andre1969

The mechanic that was working on my DeSoto had one of those in his shop. It was a fairly bare-bones model, with a 318, crank windows, etc, but still had a nice presence about it. It was red with a black interior.

uplanderguy

That has a nice bone-stock look to it, which I like and which I think often bidders like. I don't know enough about them to know if that's an original color or not.

I hadn't seen one in so long, but when I saw the front, I thought "'70". I know the '69 and '70 are quite similar but I remembered that '70 front end. Sort-of proud of myself for that, LOL.

ab348

That color is code K5, Dark Burnt Orange Metallic, a nice shade and original to the car. It may be a repaint in the original color, hard to tell. The only interior you could get with it was black, unfortunately. Some other Mopar models offered a burnt orange interior but not this one.

They actually made a surprising number of changes between the all-new '69 and follow-up '70 model years. They improved the looks considerably by lengthening the front of the car and trimming the tail, to give it better proportions. The loop bumper they switched to up front really worked well on this, I think. I also like the wedge taillights in the rear bumper they used on the 1970 model. The next year they switched to the Plymouth dash design and did away with the one seen here that was used in the '69/'70 Dodge.

andre1969

I tended to like the Dodges better than the Plymouths and Chryslers in the fuselage era, because they tended to look a bit more muscular, and a bit less fat. My favorite is the '69...


Style-wise though, I think it bears a strong resemblance to the intermediate Mopars of that era, especially if you don't have other cars around to get a reference of its true size. And, that might have been a putoff to some buyers, so perhaps that's why they changed it for '70, and bulked it up a bit?

I sort of thought the same thing about the '69 Plymouth Fury, and it seemed to bulk up a bit for '70, as well.

roadburner

I was seriously thinking about a 1982 Z/28; I was fresh out of law school and I liked the looks pretty well(although the 1970-1973 Z/28 RS was still my favorite). However, when road tests showed that the mighty "Cross-Fire Injection" 305 was only about 0.3 seconds quicker to 60 mph than my Arrow GT 2.6 I quickly lost interest. By the time Chevy finally dropped the L98 into the IROC-Z I had set my sights on a 535is

andre1969

I went though a stage back then when I kind of wanted a Camaro or Firebird, as well. But then it didn't take long before I realized something like a Monte SS was more my style. But, car insurance costs put the squash on all of that real quick. Even something like a brand-new 4-cyl Ford Probe would have run me about $3200 per year, and for used Camaros/Firebirds, and Monte SS'es, it was similar or a bit worse, with full-coverage insurance. In contrast, I think I was paying around $950-1000 per year, for liability-only on my 1980 Malibu, and then my 1969 Dart GT (yes, once upon a time, I only had one car at a time!) This would've been around 1988-90.

What I really wanted was a Buick Grand National, but I was at least logical to know those were out of my reach.

stickguy

My first car was a ‘67 Camaro. Sadly it was not a Z28. It did, however, have the much coveted lightweight body package.

andre1969

The other day I mentioned my friend's neighbors, who apparently have a Saturn fetish. Well, as promised, here's a pic...
They have two driveways on either side of the house, so that light silver looking one behind the campaign signs is theirs, too! I swear I've also seen a Vue there from time to time, as well.

tjc78

stickguy said:

My first car was a ‘67 Camaro. Sadly it was not a Z28. It did, however, have the much coveted lightweight body package.

Cars just rusted faster back then. 

fintail

Today I saw an Evoque cabrio and a Cross-cabrio. Also an RDX.

Spotted from the L in a side yard of a repair shop: series III XJ6, Silver Shadow, W111 cabrio, 90s Continental (Bentley).

uplanderguy

This car could make a Mopar guy out of me! Other than a Fleetwood or Eldorado, I'd prefer this car to any '66 Cadillac or Lincoln. When I was a kid, I always heard of Imperial LeBarons but never saw anything but a "Crown" in our town.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/11/07/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1966-imperial-lebaron/?fbclid=IwAR0CMBGUmsg2LhQamfulqoNQ2RL2Q9hE9laoz77FYpokv1d6039dfIdb5bc#&gid=1&pid=4

ab348

That Imperial is remarkable, especially the interior. Beautiful!

fintail

I wonder what the story is behind that Imperial - someone saving it as it was the last of the really unique ones, perhaps.

Here's another Volo car, this one a Seville, but not the Seville one expects:



IIRC this was one of their less expensive cars, and it presented well. More interesting to me than the gamut of tri-Chevies and Mustangs/Chevelles etc.

omarman

Let's roll Kato!

berri

Oh, I like that 56 DeSoto. Wonder what name they gave to the pinkish trim? That would make a nice companion to Andre's 57.
The last real Imperials were classy looking cars and built like tanks. I think they were still BOF construction too. In 1967 they became a Chrysler stretch.