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

stickguy

Nice green 64ish corvair convertible. Manual. Top down, with a surfboard laid on top of front and rear passenger side seats. So very beachy.

andre1969

imidazol97 said:

But I wonder if your problem is battery. You might try putting a trickle charger on at night and seeing if that maintains the two controls.

Now that you mention it, it could be. The car sat for about 9 months, after my Dad got too sick to drive, and then passed away. I do remember it being a pain to get started. I think I left it on the trickle charge for awhile, but finally ended up using one of those heavy-duty fast-jump things to get it to fire up.

I pretty much drive it all the time now, and it's my 2012 Ram that probably sits around more than it should. 21-22 mpg on 87 octane, versus 14-15 on 89 will encourage that! But, I do remember that if I let the Regal sit too long, it would need a jump on occasion. However, it hasn't sat for more than a couple days without starting for a long time now.

xwesx

andre1969 said:

imidazol97 said:

But I wonder if your problem is battery. You might try putting a trickle charger on at night and seeing if that maintains the two controls.

Now that you mention it, it could be. The car sat for about 9 months, after my Dad got too sick to drive, and then passed away. I do remember it being a pain to get started. I think I left it on the trickle charge for awhile, but finally ended up using one of those heavy-duty fast-jump things to get it to fire up.

I pretty much drive it all the time now, and it's my 2012 Ram that probably sits around more than it should. 21-22 mpg on 87 octane, versus 14-15 on 89 will encourage that! But, I do remember that if I let the Regal sit too long, it would need a jump on occasion. However, it hasn't sat for more than a couple days without starting for a long time now.

If drives are short, or even if the battery is aged, it could still be having current issues that might manifest those problems. I think you can have it tested at most auto supply stores free of charge.

xwesx

andre1969 said:

When Ford went to that restyle for 1987, that somehow managed to be a contradiction of "Aero" and "Blocky" at the same time, I didn't think it was attractive at all. The '92-96 was a nice update, though.

I completely forgot about the '87 generation. I must recant my prior comment to say that the 80, as homely as it was, beats out that blandness. It is the 92-96/97 (for HD) that is a marked improvement.

imidazol97

This was my entertainment while at CFA for lunch today.



The restaurant in background was hit by the enter of the tornado on Memorial Day as well as the CFA I was in.
They are both below the level of the street and the topography on the west side of the road, so the damage wasn't as great as could have been. The car wash across the street was demolished.

xwesx

Not fun.

The profile shot on that car is captivating, though!

fintail

Someone at work today showed up in an obviously restored ~60 Beetle cabrio, kind of a gray green with two tone interior, wide whites, the typical accessorized VW that one imagines,

At the indy MB specialist, it was a menagerie. Fintail was easily the oldest thing there - a few 126s, an odd Euro G wagen, and a few older Jags caught my eye.

sda

Is fintail in for the annual check up? Did the mechanic ask it to say “ahhh?”

ab348

ab348 said:

This '68 Caprice wagon on BaT is sweet:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1968-chevrolet-caprice-wagon/

Sold for $38,000.

fintail

Yep, and it passed its physical just fine, or at least as well as can be unexpected for an unrestored car that has flown past its 50th birthday and has 60 in its sights. It didn't even balk in the hot rush hour gridlock as I drove it back last night.

Nice bids on that wagon, maybe a record for that model?

sda said:

Is fintail in for the annual check up? Did the mechanic ask it to say “ahhh?”

omarman

ab348 said:

ab348 said:

This '68 Caprice wagon on BaT is sweet:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1968-chevrolet-caprice-wagon/

Sold for $38,000.

Really didn't expect that. I've heard of the BaT tax but still.

uplanderguy

$38K--well, I was $3K under in my guess....and that's all it was.

That may be the highest sixties wagon I've ever personally been aware of. I remember that dark blue two-door '64 Chevelle four-speed wagon just breaking $30K I'm thinking, and I remember a perfect white '63 Studebaker Lark Daytona Wagonaire bringing $28K. Both of those were probably five years ago or so.

I remember a beautiful light blue with black painted top, '65 Pontiac Bonneville wagon that brought in the mid 20's. An appraiser here estimated it would bring about $8K I think.

uplanderguy

I went to the GM "G-Body Annual Classic" meet in Cleveland yesterday. Something a bit different for me but it was so close. I could tell from their Facebook page there'd be a number of custom-stuff and also enormous-wheel-and-tire stuff, but it was fun. Probably 100 cars, '78-88 GM midsizes which are really the last GM cars that I liked a lot.

Among my favorites were the immaculate white '87 Monte Carlo SS Aerocoupe and the dark plum '85 Monte Carlo SS just like the one I put a deposit on back then but got a bit scared and bailed on it, a couple months later ordering a Celebrity Eurosport at another Atlanta-area dealer instead.

As I've matured (LOL), I don't think the graphics on the SS matched the rest of the car very well.

Probably my overall favorite car there was a dark gray, bone-stock '87 Monte Carlo LS/CL with the checkerboard aluminum wheels. 58K miles. It looked like 58K miles; not owned by a fussbutt but respectable.

I also liked an '80 Grand Prix that had what they called the 'Viscount' leather bucket seats, which I don't think I'd ever seen outside the brochure. Very rich-looking, although the interior nor the rest of the car was in great shape.

Lots of loud '80's music piped in there...Quiet Riot, Warranty, Sammy Hagar, etc., LOL.

My dreams of a perfect-stock '78 Malibu Classic coupe with the Sport wheel covers, F-41, 305, 50/50 front seat with dual center armrests, and optional gauge cluster were not fulfilled however.

I was indeed reminded of what used to pass for acceptable in how those long, heavy, frameless-door-glass doors sounded when closed with the window down. Age probably hasn't helped.

stickguy

speaking of old GMs, I passed on the road (driving around) a light blue early 70s Pontiac plastic beak nose 2 door. Not sure which exact model, but not something I have seen in ages.

looked like this.

ab348

Man, if you wanted rattly-sounding doors when closing them, those Colonnade 2-doors led the league. My '77 LeMans 2-door had that issue. I even took the door panel off and adjusted some of the inner pieces which helped a bit but I don't think you could ever make them sound good.

fintail

I wonder if that was a long-door issue in general, especially for GM. I remember being with my friend's 85 Monte SS when an insurance adjuster came to look it over when it was hit back in the early oughts. The guy joked "this is the kind of car where it rattles for 30 seconds when you slam the door". To the car's credit, once in motion, it seemed tight and fine - but those doors did not have a quality sound, especially with the window down.

andre1969

I remember, about 25 years ago, seeing a kid slam the door on a late 70's 4-door Lincoln, the frameless variety, and the window glass shattered!

As for the frameless window cars I've had, I've noticed that, the newer they are, the cheaper they feel. My '57 DeSoto Firedome, a hardtop coupe, has a very high quality feel...ironic, considering the '57's were often considered the beginning of the downfall for Mopar quality. But, the glass is thick, doesn't have much wiggle room, and the glass edges are capped off with chrome trim, which also helps beef it up.

My '67 Catalina convertible seems like it has thinner glass, and no chrome edging, with the exception of the piece on the rear quarter that lets it seal against the door window. Still, fairly high quality. However, slam the door too hard, and you will hear some rattling. My '68 and '69 Dart hardtops seemed about similar, although I think the glass was slightly thicker.

My '69 Bonneville, despite being a 4-door hardtop, also felt like it had a high quality feel. You could slam those doors, with the windows up, and it had a high quality feel. Where it felt like GM cheaped out, both with the Bonneville, and my Catalina, was the trunk...that's where you'd get the cheap, tinny feel when you closed it.

On my '76 Grand LeMans, it's a more airtight car, so you have no choice but to slam the door, when the window is fully closed. It actually doesn't sound too bad then. Just don't slam it with the window opened.

When Mopar came out with the R-body for '79, one area they saved weight was in making the window glass thinner. I think GM might have done this when they downsized as well, but their big cars had window frames, so that stabilized them somewhat. Mopar decided to go with the "Pillared Hardtop" sham, similar to the GM "Colonades", or Ford's '72-79 intermediates. Again, they're not too bad if you close them with the window fully up, but do sound cheap when they're open.

The three GM intermediate coupes I had, an '80 Malibu, '82 Cutlass Supreme, and '86 Monte Carlo, were also nothing to brag about. I believe the window glass was thinner than on the Colonades, although the doors felt a little tighter. I do remember though, one time with the Malibu, I didn't shut the door all the way, so instead of unlocking it and closing it again, I made the mistake of shoving myself against it to shut it all the way...and put a dent in it!

Admittedly though, I've noticed even a lot of new vehicles have a cheap sound to them, if you close the door with the window open. My 2012 Ram has a pretty cheap sound. The window won't rattle like on those old cars, but it still sounds...not tinny so much, but plasticky? Not exactly "Ram Tough"

ab348

My Cutlass has the most solid-sounding door close I've ever heard on a hardtop. It just goes "thunk". Remarkable given the age of the car. I suspect that in the '60s they were still using whatever they had designed back in the '50s when hardtops first came out to stabilize the glass in the door, and hadn't subjected the cars to much in the way of lightening or "value engineering" yet. GM began cheapening up cars in the late '60s and you even see it in my generation of Cutlass. The '68 has inside A-pillar covers molded out of a dense foam and covered with grained vinyl. In '70 they got rid of that and used a stamped metal cover painted the interior color which was undoubtedly a lot less expensive.

sda

stickguy said:

speaking of old GMs, I passed on the road (driving around) a light blue early 70s Pontiac plastic beak nose 2 door. Not sure which exact model, but not something I have seen in ages.

looked like this.

That is the exact color of the 73 Grand Am 4 dr that my sisters drove in high school and college. It had the buckskin brown interior.

uplanderguy

Sheesh, I must hang around these forums too much. When discussing the loud music playing at the G-Body show, I typed "Warranty" when I meant "Warrant", LOL.

kyfdx

sda said:

stickguy said:

speaking of old GMs, I passed on the road (driving around) a light blue early 70s Pontiac plastic beak nose 2 door. Not sure which exact model, but not something I have seen in ages.

looked like this.

That is the exact color of the 73 Grand Am 4 dr that my sisters drove in high school and college. It had the buckskin brown interior.

Same color as my sister's '73 Cutlass that she received as a gift for her college graduation.

fintail

In the garage where the fintail slumbers: 66 Toronado was gone for a couple weeks, but it was back today, I think it goes in for an annual inspection like my car. None of the other covered cars appear to have moved. Off the top of my head: 56 Bel Air sedan, 64 Pontiac convertible, bathtub Packard, Avanti II, 90s Impala SS, what looks like an E39 M5, some kind of Porsche - none of them seem to move.

uplanderguy

On my morning jaunt to Dunkin', saw this '90 Lumina Euro coupe for sale in the lot. I can't think of a lamer standard wheelcover on a car, but I liked these when new when equipped with the optional polished aluminum wheels, and this one has the rear-spoiler delete option which I always thought I would've done as well (a friend used to call the spoiler on these cars 'an upside-down Frisbee'). I remember seeing some new with a credit on the window sticker for that.

The Lumina coupe was the last of the GM-10 coupes introduced and I liked the styling better than any of the others with the possible exception of the '88 Cutlass Supreme International Series (still had chrome; before the line went all 'mono').

Sign on windshield says 117xxx miles but no price. Interior shot is lame; you can see more of our white Equinox than inside the Lumina. Sorry. It does have the round, full instrumentation.

Back when GM still did family-size coupes. I do miss that.

fintail

Those must be the flattest hubcaps/wheels ever. There was a well preserved Lumina Euro coupe on local CL for some time, but is gone now. Here's a cheaper one in the land rust forgot

Years ago, my brother had a Lumina Euro sedan, white with the ubiquitous burgundy (I think) interior. I remember the 3.1 noise too well.

tjc78

Popcorn popper engines!

uplanderguy

Yep, there's the 'frisbee'! Trying to read what somebody added to the rear quarters--writing of some sort--but can't decipher it.

The 2.8 and 3.1 were raspy as we've discussed previously, but seemed decent on power for the FWD-time IIRC.

ab348

I remember when shortly after the Lumina was introduced that I got one as a rental. I had previously gotten the Buick Regal coupe version as a rental and it seemed pretty good aside from the door handles being on the B-pillars. The Regal's dash design went off in a new direction and was quite different but I didn't mind it (that seemed a rather bizarre time for GM Design in general) and overall I liked the car. The Lumina just totally underwhelmed, from the engine to the interior to the blandmobile styling. The fact that it lasted as long on the market as it did, and was then replaced with the 1st-gen FWD Impala which looked even worse to me, spoke volumes about the decline of GM and Chevy in that era.

uplanderguy

I think the Regal would've had the 3.1 also--I believe they all did. At some point the 3.8 became optional I believe. The only Lumina I liked was the Euro coupe with aluminum wheels. Luckily it had round analog gauges instead of the digital stuff GM was infatuated with then.

Regals around here were usually seen with whitewalls and wire wheelcovers; the Grand Prix looked like 'SpiderMan' to me outside and the gimmicky instrument panel, yuck; the Cutlass Supreme was I think the sporty/European look but had digital gauges too IIRC.

fintail

I've seen 3.8s in 2nd gen Luminas.

When I was in maybe 7th grade ca. 1989, someone in the neighborhood had a new Grand Prix, and I would see it driving every morning as I walked to the bus stop. I think it was a 2.8, and it had both rasp and popcorn popper, it kind of bugged me even then.

tjc78

The 3800 was such a better choice in anything at the time.

In all honesty it could be one of if not the best longest lasting V6 ever. It wasn’t super refined, but durable, efficient and powerful. If it wasn’t for GM using deathcool in them I’m sure many would have soldiered on even longer. Many people probably abandoned the car when the intake gaskets went depending on how high the mileage was.

uplanderguy

The Dexcool thing was supposed to be death to 2.2 liters too. I had two with a combined 242.6K miles and zero issues. As usual, customers are like 'Wha? I'm supposed to change coolant at a certain interval?", LOL.

Dexcool was long-interval, but not forever.

uplanderguy

I'm thinking where I've seen a wheelcover as plain as that particular Lumina's. Although not nearly as flat, original-iteration Tauruses had them about equally plain. Yuck.

fintail

Yep, the early Taurus L had a flat plastic wheelcover:



My uncle had one of these, a 1986 L, basic spec (but at least had the Vulcan V6 and not the 4cyl) with manual windows and those wheelcovers, what I called "frisbee hubcaps". Even in this spec, it still seemed like quite a car back in the day, I remember it had a kind of cool backlit digital clock, and the upholstery was simple but seemed high quality. I was riding in the car when the transmission failed - no reverse. He had it repaired, but it was later stolen. He replaced it with a 91 Taurus LX, which IIRC suffered an engine fire when parked.

I don't think those wheelcovers look too bad, they match the style of the car, and somewhat remind me of those on a basic early model MB W126.

I also found an early Taurus with these, which I don't recall seeing in the wild:

ab348

The 1980-85 Olds Delta 88 came with a wheel cover that got the name "space disk" due to its simple design but it looks positively ornate compared to those.

fintail

That Olds wheelcover might even be a better frisbee, smoother.

This is the W126 plain wheelcover:



(I believe this is an original press release photo from 1979, 40 years old now, pretty modern for the time)

uplanderguy

For some reason I thought some early Tauruses had a silver painted wheel with a small center silver-painted hubcap but I'm going from memory, and we know how that can be!

thebean

Today, on the way to work out, a black Saab 9-7X, aka Saablazer. Didn’t look too beat up for 10+ years old. I assume Chevy dealers can service these.

uplanderguy

I remember those simple metal full wheelcovers on a lot of Delta 88's in the early '80's. It's simple but elegant I think.

My '81 and '82 Monte Carlos had fairly simple, bright metal full wheelcovers...considering Rally Wheels were in my budget but the cars I bought just didn't have them. A friend kidded me, saying the Landau wheelcovers looked so much better. I remember replying that at least they were metal instead of plastic like the Landau covers.

fintail

This might be the wheel you are thinking about, uplander:



I think these were on 86-88 cars.

laurasdada

thebean said:

Today, on the way to work out, a black Saab 9-7X, aka Saablazer. Didn’t look too beat up for 10+ years old. I assume Chevy dealers can service these.

Not aka a "Blaab?"

tjc78

fintail said:

This might be the wheel you are thinking about, uplander:



I think these were on 86-88 cars.

Still a good looking car IMO, especially in that LX trim.

texases

There's a handful of cars that, when released, I just had to look at, constantly. The Taurus was one of them.

uplanderguy

When I first sat in the backseat of a rental Taurus, I was impressed with the spaciousness.

The only downside to me, is all cars jumped on the jellybean bandwagon after that. It was a brave departure at the time for Ford.

I have looked at '86 and '87 Taurus brochures online and I can't find a hubcap like the one in my mind. I think the silver pained wheelcover fintail first posted is the one I must be (generally) remembering.

sda

fintail said:

This might be the wheel you are thinking about, uplander:



I think these were on 86-88 cars.

fintail said:

This might be the wheel you are thinking about, uplander:



I think these were on 86-88 cars.

Wow! That is the exact car that mom had, same color, trim, wheels, cornering lights. It was an 87 LX, with sunroof, upgraded premium sound, but oddly, standard gauges, no tach. Otherwise loaded. She drove it for about 10 years before buying a 98 Aurora. That solid cranberry color oxidized easily and required frequent waxing. The wheels were steelies with a poly urethane molded into them with center caps giving them an alloy look.

fintail

I remember the first time I saw a Taurus wagon, I must have been 9, and it looked like a spaceship, more radical than the sedan, to my eyes. Ford warmed people up to the jellybean with the aero Bird and then the Tempo, but the Taurus seemed a step ahead of both, probably due to being launched with flush/composite lights. Headlights were a big deal to me. When we got a 1985 Tempo in my family, I thought it was a pretty modern car, but the Taurus was a level ahead. I remember being impressed by uncle's car even at a young age, it was almost like just a slight breath of the future.

Speaking of jellybean cars, I recall I loathed the "whale" Caprice when they were launched, but I kind of don't mind the design now.

uplanderguy

I can only tolerate the 'whale' Caprice in a '91 Caprice Classic, dark color. I liked the lacy aluminum wheels and the gloss black around the side door windows, which went away for '92. That was back when Ford still copied GM but a couple years later, LOL. The Mercury Marauder is a perfect example to me--total ripoff of Impala SS, only several years later.

I typically don't like droopy rear wheel openings a la '91-92 Caprice, but what they did to open them up for '93 (and I owned a new '93), was a bargain-basement fix if there ever was one. The wheel opening molding in the back was signficantly wider than the front, with most of the added width blacked-out...almost like the cutout in the rear was a saw job, LOL.

tjc78

Yes the Marauder was a “copy cat” to the SS but they have one heck of a following and a decent amount of aftermarket support.

I’d take a Marauder over an SS on looks alone... of course I’m the sites only Panther fan so that’s to be expected.

fintail

I like to think the copying goes both ways. Without Ford dragging GM and Mopar into the aero era, a 2019 Malibu would probably look like a Celebrity with a higher beltline - GM LOVED those angular designs for a long time, and it took awhile to move on from that aesthetic. Would the whale Caprice exist if the Taurus hadn't been a success? Back in the day, I thought that design was far too flamboyant and bulbous, but now it looks daring and modern for the time. My opinion of the Previa has aged the same, I appreciate it more now.

For Panthers, I always thought the smoothed out 95-97 Town Car looked decent, even if it lost the practical soft pillar in the rear doors.

tjc78

Yes the 95-97 Town Car is one of the best looking Panthers.

IMO - 88-89 Town Car is the best
92 Crown Vic P75 (Touring Sedan, rare) is also a good looking boat.

berri

I thought the Grand Marquis tended to look a bit better than the Crown Vic. The wagons were nice looking as well.