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

sda

Pardon me not knowing but I’ve read tri 5 Chevy a couple of times lately. What does that refer to? 55,56,57 year models?

ab348

Yes, that's correct.

uplanderguy

"Sherman, fire up the Wayback Machine!"

I'd even take the paint-needy '53 Stude parked across the street.

andre, are you in?!

uplanderguy

This quarantine is affecting my wife in an unusual way. She reminded me that I had said that on her fortieth birthday, we could get her a Karmann-Ghia. Well, she is 55 on her next birthday. She was actually looking at ads, and videos, of them for sale last night!

Truth is, I'd probably have an easier time finding service for one than my Studebaker, which the mere name makes shops say "nuh-uh". I now preface service requests with "It has a Chevy 283", LOL.

kyfdx

I'll take the Jag..

uplanderguy

I love the Jag too, one of the only imports I love, but I do wonder why they did the windshield that way.

It seems the earliest this pic could be was 1961.

explorerx4

68 Hurst Olds video(Bud Lindemann narration).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpmxaamNwhw

ab348

Not sure what you mean about the windshield. It is a 1-piece glass but there is a tension rod from the top of the frame to the top of the dash. A bunch of British roadsters did that back then.

uplanderguy

Yes, I meant that it appears to be a split windshield.

fintail

I like those early E-Types on whitewalls, which I think were a factory option until maybe 63-64. Plenty of period photos showing them, even an ad:

uplanderguy

I like whitewalls against wheels too for cars of that period (Jags, Corvettes, Avantis, although I think only Jag had wide whites). We've had fifty years since of wheels with blackwalls.

andre1969

I wonder what state that Jaguar pic was taken in? In 1957, some states allowed quad headlights and some banned them, so that's why the '57 Chrysler, Imperial, and larger DeSotos were designed to take either 2 or 4 headlights. For '58, apparently the Feds stepped in and made quads legal coast to coast. I've always been curious, as to which states allowed quads in '57 and which banned them? All I know, is they must have been legalized in PA, as that's where my DeSoto came from.

What is that small car parked at the curb on this side of the street? The salmon-colored one with the white top. My first thought was something like a Ford Anglia, but I don't think that's right. It's something that looks familiar though, like once I know what it is, I'll be like "D'oh!"

explorerx4

How about a Hillman Minx?

fintail

Definitely looks like a Minx to me.

uplanderguy

I have no idea where the pic was taken; it was on Facebook this morning.

Today I spotted a '90 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan, silver, gasing up while I was. New York plates. Probably a twenty-year old kid gasing it up one row over, one pump back. I knew it was a very late one, as it had the bumpers that didn't wrap around at all; when I asked, he said "'90--Bought it from an old guy who quit driving--two grand". Someone had put a Mustang "5.0" emblem on the front fenders.

I told him I hadn't seen one in years.

He volunteered that he couldn't get home.

I said "Can't get gas?"

He said "The bridges in the city are only open one-way". Said he's staying with a friend at her place in Stow, near Kent where I live.

I guess that's all logical, but I hadn't heard about the bridges in/out of NYC.

When he started it up, it definitely needed exhaust work.

explorerx4

Yesterday, I watch Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz, centered around the Cuban missile crisis.
Lot's of good american and french vehicle's to be seen.
I liked the black Cadillac limo the best.

tjc78

Box Panthers are still a very common site here in South Jersey. When commuting it wasn't uncommon to see one a day in some variation.

Was never a huge fan of the 90/91. I think for the box years 88/89 was the best mix of the more rounded style and the older dash. Town Cars were revised for 90 with the aero treatment. Vics and Marquis didn't get that until 1992.

fintail

I like the 95-97 aero TC more than the original, the facelift sharpened it up a little and made it look lighter.

On the road today in the old car, spotted a maybe 64-65 Continental convertible, no other oldies other than me and a friend out for an essential drive.

benjaminh

I'm guessing that the prices of some classic cars are falling as the economic downturn continues....

imidazol97

What's behind the desoto in pic?

fintail

Red and black car looks like a 56 Olds.

imidazol97

Now I see it's an Olds. My phone is not as good because I can't blow up pictures on Edmunds.

uplanderguy

This pic was on a FB page called "Photographs from the '70's"--a '61 Lark Cruiser in front of a fintail. Newest car is a '69 Impala. I like the '63 Tempest, but it's not a LeMans so would have the goofy one round taillight on top of another, instead of the cool horizontal lights low in the panel.

Sheesh, that's some tight parking!

fintail

Looks like a college campus. Fintail is a later run W110, likely a 4cyl or diesel car, probably MY 1966 +. Fairlane behind the Impala also a 69?

stickguy

I always liked that design Fairlane. much nicer looking than the Chevy.

Dodge van in front of the Stude.

and cars those days had nice battering ram bumpers to aid with touch parking.

omarman

'63 Tempest in front of the '69 Impala sport coupe. Time traveler cell phone zombie on the right.

uplanderguy

I knew the Fairlane was either a '68 or '69, but I don't know them enough to differentiate from the front.

Much-better looking than the '70 and '71 IMHO.

uplanderguy

The Hillman Minx in the Jag photo--I always thought that in places, those resembled a shrunken '53 Studebaker. Someone else said the same thing under the pic on Facebook overnight.

ab348

omarman said:

'63 Tempest in front of the '69 Impala sport coupe. Time traveler cell phone zombie on the right.

If you right-click and blow up the pic you can see she is about to light a cigarette. I had that suspicion from the way she is holding her hands.

The other very apparent thing there is how the pontoon fenders on the '69 Chevy made the car look like the wheels were way too far inward. Surprised GM Design did that (or maybe not so surprised if GM bean counters at the time rejected a proposal to widen the track).

roadburner

I had a chance to buy a Talladega in the early '80s- I stupidly passed.

uplanderguy

A couple things I liked about the '69 Chevy (although I didn't love them), was you could still order them with the five-slot Rally Wheels, and bucket seats and console. The Rallys went away after '70 and the buckets and console after '69.

I always thought it was weird--in the Ventura and Bonneville for '69, Pontiac offered bucket seats, but no console or floor shift.

'69 Chevy dash--virtually every one I've seen after a few years old, the thin chromed edge above the speedometer either split in two, or if two pieces originally, the gap became much-more noticeable, LOL.

uplanderguy

RE.: That rope-drive Tempest--I particularly like the '62, and would've gotten the 215 V8 which was estimated as installed in only 1-2% of Tempests. I like the '63 also though. My long-time mechanic friend has told me I must be a masochist to have ever wanted one of those, LOL.

andre1969

Those bulging pontoons on the fenders were one feature I didn't like about the '69 Chevy. That, and Chrysler-esque loop bumper made the cars look chunky. But I do like the fact you could still get hidden headlights. Overall, I prefer the '70. I'm not a fan of the peaked fender/headlight look in general, like what Olds did for a few years, and Dodge tried in '73, but I think the '70 Chevy wears it pretty well.

uplanderguy

Two things I don't like about the '70 Chevy--those peaked headlights a la '63-64 Cadillacs and the Cadillac-y flourishy "Chevrolet" scripts. I plainly remember the first '70 Chevy I saw at our local dealer's before introduction day--light blue Caprice 4-door hardtop with the body-colored wheelcovers. Salesman said "A $5,000 Chevy, geezzzzzz".

uplanderguy

Those fender arches--both Chevy and Ford took the exact opposite approach for '71--wheel openings cut completely flat into the body sides. On the Chevys, I liked that in combination with the wide rocker trim.

omarman

While in HS a friend showed me his dad's Tempest station wagon with the Trophy 4 engine and 3-speed. His dad had parked the car "temporarily" in the early 70s when parts became hard to get. When my friend and I graduated 2 years later the Tempest was still waiting for repairs in the back yard.

ab348

At the time I preferred the '69 Chevy to the '70 - I thought the '70 front-end treatment looked a little too delicate and derivative. With time I came to think it looked OK but that took me years. Unlike Andre, I like the loop bumpers that were in vogue for a few years. One thing I didn't like about both the '69 and '70 was the dash. After the sublime '67 design and the step-backwards but still OK '68 version of that, the '69/'70 dash was a real letdown, taking the same idea as Ford of clustering everything in front of the driver and leaving about 2/3rd of the width just empty except for the glove box. I was surprised on our '69 how much painted metal it had too, with just a cap of padding and woodgrain/bright trim.

fintail

The peaked headlights on a 70 Chevy always make me think of this unusual car chase scene:

https://youtu.be/D3neQZqFP3M

Apparently their AC could be troublesome, too.

uplanderguy

Don't let anyone ever call you a Mercedes B******, LOL!

What movie is this I feel like I've seen it before but I can't pull up a title.

uplanderguy

Marathon Man! I saw that in my hometown theater!

fintail

I have yet to receive that insult lol. I can be jerky, but not to [non-permissible content removed]-levels of loathsomeness

I didn't realize heating oil could be so volatile, but good to know a stalled fintail can be revived with a rear end tap. That car is somewhat odd, appears to have the badge and rear bumper of a lowline 220, but has fin chrome and tail lights of a higher 220S/SE. Probably no newer than 1962.

uplanderguy said:

Don't let anyone ever call you a Mercedes B******, LOL!

What movie is this I feel like I've seen it before but I can't pull up a title.

ab348

We had been talking about the Fairmont/Zephyr here recently, so this is timely:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1980-mercury-zephyr-wagon/

The car looks good, but a 91-hp six and those taxicab seats do it no favors.

fintail

150 miles put on it by the seller, I wonder if that speaks more of the flipping industry or the driving experience.

My uncle had a Fairmont wagon for a short time when I was a kid, Dark blue with matching interior, pretty sure it was cloth, don't know the engine but I suspect a 6 - in the days of 55 I suppose it didn't matter.

stickguy

Now you sucked me in! I really like this but going to be way too much for a toy.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-jeep-wrangler-islander/

explorerx4

We had a Fairmont rental in CA.
Had good AC and got us across Death Valley(105-110 degrees during the day).

benjaminh

ab348 said:

We had been talking about the Fairmont/Zephyr here recently, so this is timely:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1980-mercury-zephyr-wagon/

The car looks good, but a 91-hp six and those taxicab seats do it no favors.

My parents once owned a 1978 Ford Fairmont wagon. Woodie. 6-cylinder. Loaded. Bought it new. Only kept it about a year because originally we were going to get rid of our 69 VW Bus after getting it, but my family loved the VW Bus so much we just couldn't do it. So we sold the woodie private sale, losing only about $900, and turned around and bought a new 1979 Datsun 210 base with the 1.2 liter engine for $3700.

andre1969

I'm surprised that straight six put out that much torque! Although, maybe that was about normal for something that size? I just looked it up, and the Chevy 200 V6 put out 160 ft-lb in '78 and 154 in '79. I wonder about that '79 number though. Usually by that time, weren't auto makers rounding torque to the nearest 5 ft-lb?

As spartan as that interior is, somehow I have a feeling Ford would have found a way to make the Fairmont version even cheaper. That red color might dress it up a bit, though. I imagine in a beige or gray, it would look pretty bleak. One thing I can't remember...was the upper edge of the door trim hard plastic, or bare metal? I would think bare metal would have been banned by this time, but you never know.

andre1969

I wonder what would have been slower...a 4-cyl Fairmont of the 200? HP was close, but naturally the 200 had more torque. But, the 200 would have been heavier, and they probably geared it taller.

sda

The 200 six was always a dog power wise, however smoother and quieter than the 2.3 four. I imagine it was marginally quicker and a tad thirstier but not by much.

maxspeed22

I just spotted my own mustang today. Still on quarantine