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

xwesx

Yeah, before that, they had collapsible sternums instead.

uplanderguy

Collapsible steering columns were mandated for 1967 models, one of the first required federal safety mandates.

Yep. I'm thinking some Pontiacs then--maybe andre can chime in--actually had "Energy Absorbing" written in the center of the steering wheel.

Like anything, it's all what you're used to, but the way Ford did '67 steering wheels was a total turnoff.

I also remember '67 being the first year two-door cars at GM had the little lever you had to activate on the back of the seat backs, to get into the back seat. I remember that on my grandparents' new Madeira Maroon '67 Impala Sport Coupe and my aunt's new light turquoise '67 Buick LeSabre two-door hardtop. Supposedly kept the seats from flying forward if someone in the back seat hit it during rapid deceleration. Not sure if that was a requirement or if something GM did on their own that year (not likely!).

Boy, instrument panels at GM generally moved downscale, but with more padding than past years, usually. The two biggest examples of that to me are Cadillac panels and Pontiac Grand Prix and Bonneville panels from '66 to '67. Bright metal and real woodgrain (well, veneer) went away from one year to the next. Though, the '66 Chevy panel was nothing special and to me, the '67 was the most-upscale panel ever put in a full-size Chevy. That lasted one year.

Funny, the bottom of the '67 Chevy panel, and glovebox door, are metal. Into the '70's, the full-size Chevy and Nova glovebox doors were metal, which at the time struck me as more substantial/not as cheap, but in hindsight, it's surprising they weren't padded.

ab348

In the early years of the safety mandates the automakers seemed unsure what to do. The ‘67 big Pontiacs just padded the dash top, while the ‘68s added some awkward looking padding to the top half of the flat part of the dash below that top pad. My ‘68 Cutlass dash was metal on the bottom, had a plastic center section and glovebox door, padding around the instrument openings, and control knobs that were flat and recessed. The next year the ‘69s had more conventional chrome knobs that protruded a bit. By ‘70 the Cutlass dash was much more conventional.

roadburner

uplanderguy said:

Collapsible steering columns were mandated for 1967 models, one of the first required federal safety mandates.

Yep. I'm thinking some Pontiacs then--maybe andre can chime in--actually had "Energy Absorbing" written in the center of the steering wheel.

Like anything, it's all what you're used to, but the way Ford did '67 steering wheels was a total turnoff.

I remember the 1967 Ford wheel; my dad bought a new 1967 Mustang V8- he called the wheel center "the flowerpot,"

andre1969

I'm too lazy to go out and look, but I'm sure that Catalina says "Energy Absorbing" somewhere on it! I looked up some pics online, and all I'm seeing though, is the center hub of the steering wheel showing the Pontiac arrowhead, with the words "Pontiac Motor Division" encircling it.

It'll be 30 years on Hitler's birthday that I've owned that car; you'd think I'd have every intricacy of it memorized by now! And no, I didn't plan on buying it that particular day. I just remember it, because I bought it on the birthday of a friend, and she said people always teased her about who she shared that date with!

As for the extra padding, I remember my '68 Dart 270 had a little rubbery "flower pot" hub in the center of the steering wheel, and also had this little padded tray that ran across the bottom of the dashboard. I'm sure it wasn't intended for this, but that tray was handy for gathering cassette tapes, pens, and other odds and ends. Go around a corner too fast, and the stuff would slide. One time, a couple of cassette cases got jammed under the cigarette lighter and pushed it in, and I didn't notice! Everntually it burned out the lighter and melted one of the cases. I'm lucky, I guess, that it didn't burn the whole car up!

ab348

andre1969 said:

I'm too lazy to go out and look, but I'm sure that Catalina says "Energy Absorbing" somewhere on it! I looked up some pics online, and all I'm seeing though, is the center hub of the steering wheel showing the Pontiac arrowhead, with the words "Pontiac Motor Division" encircling it.

Wasn’t too hard to find a pic.

andre1969

Okay, I was curious to go out to the garage and look, and sure enough...
Mine is a bit more low-rent looking, just being a Catalina. Maybe they used nicer center hubs for the more expensive models?

Here's one that has the "Pontiac Motor Division" on it. It's from a 2+2...

uplanderguy

The 2+2 panel reminds me, seeing the "Pontiac" nameplate in the middle of the panel, top, on this non-AC car, how in '66 and '67, only the Ventura and 2+2 got that nameplate instead of the actual series name. Apparently volume of those two weren't big enough to make the individual series' nameplates.

stickguy

In Portugal, a few oldies. Including a very nice restored and a bit modded Renault 5. I really liked it.

ab348

But you really liked the Twingo too, so…

fintail

Out in the old car today, hoping for oldies cruising on Easter, only saw a hot rod shoebox Ford and a late 60s GM pickup in very original condition with a driver who could be original and in similar condition.

andre1969

Happy Walter P. Chrysler Day, everyone!

Walter P. Chrysler was born on this day, in 1875.

fintail

Hydraulic brakes!

Out on the road today saw a 240Z, 70s Ford pickup, Ciera with a "Olds Cadillac Isuzu" dealer sticker.

uplanderguy

Don't know why I thought about this--and I know I'm older than some here--but anybody remember the clunker TV show, "My Mother The Car"? Ran one season and is considered the worst sitcom ever made, and the second-worst TV show overall, after 'Jerry Springer'.

I'm old enough to remember it and did watch it back in that single 1965-66 season. I remember a good chunk of the theme song too.

I guess ratings were acceptable, but critics slaughtered it. Someone affiliated with the show later said, "Is the concept worse than a talking horse? A flying nun? A jeanie in a bottle?".

Apparently, yes! LOL

I remember that comedian Avery Schreiber played a character who was a car collector and was trying to underhandedly get the car.

So, within a year, Schreiber was in the most famous clunker sitcom of all time, and his comedy-team partner, Jack Burns, played 'Warren' on "The Andy Griffith Show", one of the most-maligned, short-lived TV characters of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_3jcDKUBtQ

kyfdx

The Jerry Springer show was terrible.

But, Jerry himself? He's a great guy! RIP

andre1969

Antenna TV used to show "My Mother the Car" reruns a few years back, and I have to admit, I found it enjoyable. You just have to accept it for what it was, in an era of mixed marriages betwixt mortals and witches, astronauts with genies, talking horses, Martians with all sorts of magic powers stranded on Earth, and so on.

I have a feeling "My Mother the Car" was a somewhat expensive show to produce, because they did a lot of indoor and outdoor shooting, and since cars were a substantial part of the story, the indoor sets probably took up a lot of studio space.

On the subject of those old fantasy sitcoms, one thing I'm wondering...at some point, did "Bewitched" get remastered? I can remember watching reruns of it as a kid, and you could almost always see the wires whenever they did the effect of someone flying, or an object levitating. But these days, when I watch it, I'll be damned if I can see any wires at all!

One of my friends got to be in the audience for "The Jerry Springer Show" years ago. He was really looking forward to a shlocky, over-the-top, drama-fest. But instead, they did one of those "Very Special", heart-grabbing episodes dealing with disabled children or something like that. Probably like tuning in to "Little House on the Prairie" and hoping to see Mrs. Oleson sit on a beehive, but instead getting the one where Mary goes blind, Pa has to shoot Laura's horse because it's mortally wounded an in horrible pain, or a tornado hits the Ingalls farm and drives a 2x4 through their cow, making the milk taste like PineSol for the remainder of the season!

uplanderguy

I do think years passing and the 'pile on' aspect of human nature make things seem much better, or much worse, than reality sometimes. As a kid, I enjoyed the show.

Yesterday I watched the first part of episode one, and I did remember it some. I had to laugh--Jerry Van [non-permissible content removed] is sent out to look for a used station wagon and is on a lot where most of the cars were '65 models, LOL. He sees this beat-up, black "'28 Porter" and climbs in and his mother, Ann Sothern, starts talking to him through the radio speaker, which would light up when she spoke. The radio didn't look like I remembered it when she spoke, LOL. We still had a B&W TV in the '65-early '66 period so I don't remember the car in its post-restoration bright red, as in the show opening I posted earlier, but I am pretty sure I had the "My Mother The Car" model, MPC if I'm remembering right.

uplanderguy

I always liked "Bewitched" and of course enjoyed the Chevy commercials and the pre-introduction-day peeks they'd give you of the new models there.

I think the Aunt Clara, and especially, Gladys Kravitz (the original, anyway) characters were great on that show. And Agnes Moorehead was great as Endora.

No idea if "Bewitched" got remastered. I do think I read someplace that the first season has been colorized.

uplanderguy

Way to go, edmunds....Jerry Van [non-permissible content removed]'s name gets censored here, sheesh.

andre1969

uplanderguy said:

Way to go, edmunds....Jerry Van [non-permissible content removed]'s name gets censored here, sheesh.

You think that's bad, I wonder what it does to his brother! Dick Van [non-permissible content removed]. Oh, how's this for nanny-state censoring...


**Edit. Wait, why did it let that word slip by for Jerry's brother, but not Jerry himself?

uplanderguy

Yeesh.

andre1969

Yeah, the first two seasons of "Bewitched" got colorized, years ago. One of my friends got me the first season on DVD years ago, and it was colorized. Antenna TV had been showing the first two season in B&W for years, but on this last cycle, switched to the colorized ones. They did the same thing with 'I Dream of Jeannie," where the first season was B&W.

Oh, awhile back, I remember catching "Bewitched", but on Logo instead of Antenna TV, and I finally got to see Derwood's Sequoia Green '72 Impala convertible! It was part 1 of the "George Washington Zapped Here" episodes where Esmeralda accidentally zapped him up. Basically, a re-hash of when Aunt Clara did it with Benjamin Franklin! I recall George even commenting on the Impala, something like "Goodness gracious, what kind of monstrous beast is that?!"

I guess there are several different syndication packages around, as I don't recall ever seeing it before. Only on the imcdb...
Next time that episode comes around on Antenna TV, I'll try to make a note and see if it shows up.

If I'm not mistaken, didn't Chevy actually stop supplying cars for "Bewitched" around 1969 or 70? They still tended to use them, although the Salem episodes had them in Pontiac Bonneville convertibles. But I do remember an occasional '71 Bel Air or Biscayne being used as a taxi, or police car.

kyfdx

If you'd see what people will post on here, you'd know why the words are censored.

andre1969

Oops...just noticed that NOW what I typed got censored. Is it some kind of manual thing done after the fact, or does the software catch it and delete it?

I don't post much on Edmund's anymore outside of this thread, so I guess I got spoiled by how civilized we are, over here! But I guess on some of the other threads, things might be a bit heated and colorful!

uplanderguy

That Impala convertible shows me something that I really disliked about '72 Impalas....no rocker molding, not even optionally!

Biscaynes and Bel Airs had them, but not Impalas. Go figure.

The wheel opening moldings, optional on Impalas in '72 except standard on the Custom coupe, was required buying IMO. Too bad this particular car doesn't have them.

I did like where the "Impala" nameplate was on the convertible. Unusual.

fintail

Automated software like that usually runs on a "garbage in, garbage out" ideal

I never really got into Bewitched (still in constant reruns when I was a kid), but I am still a little sad that the entire backlot with all of the houses (including the Christmas Vacation house, Dennis the Menace houses, etc) has been razed. When I was a kid, I saw I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched as kind of the same type of humor, and for whatever reason, I liked the former more. A substantial amount of 60s-70s TV was still broadcast widely in the 80s and 90s.

uplanderguy

On "Bewitched", the implication was that Endora and Maurice were divorced...or at least didn't live together. Unusual on TV then!

andre1969

I've seen Maurice and Endora's relationship referred to as tv-land's first "Open Marriage!" Endora would certainly get ruffled whenever Maurice hired some hot looking assistant "Efficiency Expert" or whatever, to accompany him, though. Although, I can't recall Endora ever having a fling.

My preference leans more towards "Bewitched", but I think that's just a result of what I was exposed to as a kid. "Bewitched" has been in endless reruns for as long as I can remember, but they didn't start showing "I Dream of Jeannie" reruns, that I can remember at least, until the summer of '85, when I was 15 years old. So, one of them, I grew up with, whereas I wasn't introduced to the other until I was a teen, and I think that might sway my preferences a bit. Still, I enjoy both of them.

uplanderguy

I prefer "Bewitched" too. Some of it, even then, was probably due to the Chevy commercials, but also it was first and even as a kid it seemed to me that 'Jeannie' was derivative of it.

Both were shows that would elicit the same response from my Dad: "Do we have to watch this?".

ab348

uplanderguy said:

Way to go, edmunds....Jerry Van [non-permissible content removed]'s name gets censored here, sheesh.

Well, you probably had it coming for posting about “My Mother The Car”.

imidazol97

I never liked either of the two shows Bewitched and Jeannie.
I don't recall the Mother the Car series.

Someone mentioned Ann Sothern's being in My Mother the Car. I did love Ann Sothern in
Private Secretary. That and I Love Lucy. Simple tastes.

And for Chevy commercial lovers there was the See the USA in Your Chevrolet in the
Dinah Shore Show commercials.

Maybe someone has links for some of these.

andre1969

Sometimes I would use "My Mother the Car" as a sly way of saying that I could not care less of whatever the big event of the moment people were getting excited about. For instance, if someone asks "Did you see the Grammy Awards last night?" I'd be like "Nah, I was watching a 'My Mother the Car' marathon."

Most people wouldn't get my sarcasm though, and would tend to think I'm just out of touch

kyfdx

@andre1969 I'm sure our platform has a standard list. But, Edmunds can add to it. Mostly to deter spammers.

But, it's automated.

fintail

I don't think I've ever seen an episode of My Mother the Car, although it may have been on Nick at Nite, later at night, in the 80s. However, I do remember avidly watching I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Dennis the Menace, sometimes shows like Donna Reed, My Three Sons, Car 54, etc too. Goofier shows like Gilligan's Island or Green Acres were in wide syndication then too.

roadburner

uplanderguy

One thing that even as a kid didn't make much sense (OK, only one?!) to me about 'My Mother The Car':

She was reincarnated as a 1928 car.

Seems to me she would be reincarnated as something not built until after she passed.

Investing way too much thought into that!

Well, somewhat exciting day coming up...we're in the path of 'totality' for the eclipse, and I'll watch last night's final episode of 'Curb...' which I fell asleep before the 10 pm showing last night.

uplanderguy

BTW, Jerry V. was offered 'Gilligan', supposedly, but turned it down for 'My Mother The Car'.

uplanderguy

RE.: The posters who would use bad language here....hard to imagine, and as andre says, not on this particular thread or the 'Postwar Studebakers' thread I post on. I really don't post on any others. I can imagine the guy probably still complaining about his '95 Neon might use such language.

Worst I ever posted was "Calling Dr. Phil!", about some of the guys who posted constant hate on a "GM Fans" forum. There are a lot of cars I dislike--I don't post on those forums, duh!

laurasdada

fintail said:

Automated software like that usually runs on a "garbage in, garbage out" ideal

I never really got into Bewitched (still in constant reruns when I was a kid), but I am still a little sad that the entire backlot with all of the houses (including the Christmas Vacation house, Dennis the Menace houses, etc) has been razed. When I was a kid, I saw I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched as kind of the same type of humor, and for whatever reason, I liked the former more. A substantial amount of 60s-70s TV was still broadcast widely in the 80s and 90s.

I can think of a reason: Barbara Eden!

fintail

Out on foot today, looked over the E36 M3 sedan I see on my route - automatic! Also a pop up lights accord and a Cordoba.

uplanderguy

CAUTION: Not car-related, except this guy had a '74 Fleetwood Talisman, four-seater, first of only two I've ever seen in my life.

I remain pretty amazed at the six-degrees-of-separation stuff from my little, old hometown, but I'll not comment on this one. I find it interesting and everyone in town knows this fellow, and he has been good for the town with his generosity and keeping the headquarters in town.

He drew the line once at bailing out Noriega.

https://www.sharonherald.com/news/retired-greenville-bondsman-childs-had-ties-with-o-j-simpson/article_e0bcfc80-f851-11ee-8610-9bda66a8562f.html?utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0ODAGaRd44DhMI7NafjvyobNXV0FfbBm2Hh1g8UrqH5-XNIf6MQiMYrtk_aem_AahfZo1l5VwXTeNekrbc3-k7XwsNotvOVcRIDlzXYPvHKIpRSiZL6SC4oF5Ti4wXGOawYS5Uzzer4Fr9JRbd6Tsk

andre1969

I've seen a couple Talismans over the years I think, but only at car shows. At least, in my mind, I'm picturing a brown one and a navy blue one.

Oh, I just realized, I guess it's about time to throw it out there. Car show season is coming up upon us again. The Spring swap meet in Carlisle PA is next week, already!

uplanderguy

His was dark blue with blue interior and white vinyl top. The other one I saw was probably twenty years ago behind a Mopar dealer here in Kent, on their "Make Us An Offer"-type lot. It was brown, really beat up, and had a stick of some kind holding the driver's seat (back?) up. I'm thinking GM didn't do reclining seats, at least much, at that point, but I don't know.

The '73 and '74 are my least-favorite Cadillacs of that generation, I gotta say.

For the most part, I think the '66 Fleetwoods, including the Eldorado convertible, are truly the last great Cadillacs. Just really magnificent interiors, all pre-safety-standards of course.

andre1969

Thinking a bit more about it, I'd say the '73-74 are my least favorite of that generation Cadillac, as well. I used to not be a fan of widely spaced quad headlights, but like a lot of things, I've softened my stance on it in later years, and think the '71-72 handled the look nicely. The '73 though, just looks a bit heavy-handed, especially with the bulkier bumper. And '74, while the headlights are now together, something about the front end still looks heavy. And, at the same time, Chevy-ish. I know it was in fashion back then, to give Chevy sort of a "Baby Cadillac" look, which gave Chevy buyers something to aspire to. But it's one thing when a Chevy makes you think of a Cadillac. Something entirely different, when a Cadillac makes you think of a Chevy...that's the wrong way to go!

I think the '75-76, look nice. With these C-bodies though, my preference just runs more towards the Ninety-Eight and especially the Electra.

uplanderguy

To me, nothing 'above' a Chevy should have a wide eggcrate grille texture, so Caddys with that are a turnoff!

I can't find it now, but yesterday on FB I saw a '79 four-door Impala, clean, optional wheel opening and body side moldings, full wheel covers, whitewalls, 50/50 front seat with dual fold-down armrests (very rare in an Impala; I've seen one in person), and a six-cylinder! What an odd car.

In Impalas, I like the '79. The detail styling is closer to the '77 than the '78.

I'd never really have shopped for anything like an Electra, Ninety-Eight or Cadillac back then even if I could have, just ostentatious, but that said, I get the appeal of Cadillacs then. The whole division was full-size cars. In the Buick and Olds, I can see in the front fenders and instrument panels, and also engines, the LeSabre and the Delta 88. That's not a bad thing, but there's nothing at Caddy to see something like that.

I thought the addition of the extra little quarter window in four-door hardtops at GM in '75 was a good touch. I didn't so much like them on the Chevy, Delta 88, or LeSabre as they were 'squarer', but in the Bonneville and Electra and Ninety-Eight and Cadillacs, I like the look a good bit. I found out only a year or so ago that there wasn't a Catalina four-door hardtop in '75 or '76.

andre1969

I think Pontiac's full-sized cars got hit harder by the first Arab oil embargo and recession, than Buick and Olds, so they started paring their model lineup a bit. For '74 the lineup stood pat, as those cars were already in production when the market crashed. But for '75, the Catalina lost the 4-door hardtop. Meanwhile, the Bonneville lost the 4-door sedan. However, for '75, the Bonneville coupe and hardtop sedan also got moved to the same roof structure as the Grand Ville. And the top-line wagons were moved from the Grand Ville to the Bonneville.

And then, for '76, they consolidated a bit further, dropping the Grand Ville name entirely. The Grand Ville convertible went away, and the coupe and hardtop sedan were now called "Bonneville Brougham."

I've always admired the big Electra and Ninety-Eight, but as far as new-car buying goes, they were before my time. By the time I was old enough to drive, they were on the shrunken FWD C-body. And by the time I bought my first new car, my 2000 Intrepid, there's no way I could have afforded something like an Aurora or Park Ave. Although I guess it's a bit ironic that, 10 years later, I did end up with a used 2000 Park Ave.

And, by the time I got to the point I could afford something like that, there was just nothing out there that turned me on enough to make me want to blow that kind of money on a new car.

It's probably saved me a lot of money over the decades, not buying a new car every few years, but I gotta say, sometimes I wish the new-car excitement was still there, where you could look forward to something new (or at least new looking) almost every year.

I've heard there's supposed to be a new Charger coming out soon, that's powered by a "Hurricane" inline-6 or something like that, and I think even in base form it's quicker than the Hemi. That might be kinda cool, but not cool enough to make me trade my '23 Charger anytime soon.

sda

For years I was excited to discover the new cars and changes when they were typically introduced in September or so. Not so much anymore especially with the current focus on CUVs, SUVs, EVs and trucks. The domestics have pretty much abandoned sedans and coupes.

uplanderguy

I absolutely loved new-car time in September. Now, meh.

The most-excited I can remember being, to see new Chevys, were:

1) Fall '72, when the '73 Colonnade cars came out, because I knew my Dad was looking to replace our '67 Chevelle (he bought a '73 Nova instead), and

2) Fall '76, when the new, downsized full-size cars came out. Six years on the '71 styling (basically), the longest up to that time in a mainstream GM line in my memory. The '77 was a good launch.

The '78 midsizers startled me at introduction time, LOL.

sda

1971 stands out to me. GM came out with the new full size cars and clam shell tailgate on the wagons. Dad took me with him to shop for his company car. It would be the first new car I would experience. His boss told him to choose a Pontiac Catalina. We went to several dealers in the New Orleans area and he picked out a Catalina coupe. Dark metallic brown, darker brown vinyl top and Rallye wheels with thin double stripe whitewalls, 350 2bbl, ac, am radio. I was so excited when he arrived at home with it days later. I can still smell the engine burning off the exhaust manifolds and that glorious new car smell of the interior. His boss was not impressed he got a coupe instead of a sedan. His next Catalina in 73 would be a sedan.

andre1969

I tend to think of the '65-70 GM full-sized cars as the same basic generation, but even there, 1967-68 and 1969-70 seemed to be major enough changes that the cars gave you the illusion of being all-new. If you put, say, a '65 Impala up next to a '70, probably the only thing that would look the same is the windshield and A-pillar area. Lower volume models, like the wagons and convertibles, would probably have more commonality in the rooflines. And I'm pretty sure with convertibles, the '65-70 all use the same top.

But with the '71-76, the changes seemed much more subtle from year to year, and nobody was going to mistake the '76 models as being all-new, compared to the '71.

I was actually surprised when I learned that the full-sized Fords were basically the same car from 1969-78. I used to think that the '69-72 and '73-78 were two totally different designs. Although, even if not all-new, the '73 still seems like a pretty serious restyle.