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Comments
Looks like a good survivor, but a bit steep I think
And that '67 Fairlane is a good example of how Detroit regularly messed up clean designs through yearly "facelifts." Take the nicely restyled '66 Fairlane and tinker with the grille and headlight surrounds, and voila -- not so pretty anymore.
Reminds me of that car Chevy Chase drove in National Lampoon's "Vacation" movie.
The 'family truckster'
I never really was all that turned on by Fords 60's intermediates anyway, although I do have a soft spot for the '62-63 Meteor and '63-64 Fairlane. They were attractive little cars, especially in 2-door hardtop guise.
Still, there's something about that '66 style that, I dunno...it just seemed kind of like a wallflower I guess. GM's mid/late 60's intermediates were usually drop-dead gorgeous, while the Mopars just had a sort of no-nonsense brutality about them.
I wonder if having to make one platform suffice for both the Falcon and Comet/Montego/Fairlane/Torino, from 1966 onward, had something to do with it? Instead of having one dedicated compact platform and one dedicated midsized platform, it's like Ford just sort of split the middle with this one. Or maybe these '66-67 intermediates were just trying too hard to ape the style of the bigger cars? The '67 Galaxie/LTD got fussier in '67, although it was still good looking IMO. But maybe that's why the Fairlane got fussier looking, too?
I do kinda like those later Fairlane/Torino fastbacks though...the ones that had the beltline kick up like a Barracuda. I think that was '68-69? And for some reason I like the '70-71 Torino, mainly the hardtops and convertibles, but here I think even the other models looked decent. Maybe because they were making them a bit wider, and they just looked more filled-out. Although I guess some people may say, fatter!
I once had an elderly neighbor who had a '64 two-door Fairlane hardtop. It was light yellow with a black top and one sweet automobile. It passed on to a grandson when he died. I'm sure he never cared for it the way his grandfather did.
Maybe that's one reason I don't like the '65 Fairlane. That year, the full-sized cars were all-new, and had more squared-off, chiseled bodies, and stacked headlights. Ford tried to take the existing Fairlane and square it up and chisel it off, but it just made it kind of bulky looking. And they kept the headlights horizontal instead of stacked, but moved them inboard a bit. I guess it's possible that it would've been too expensive to redesign the front to accept stacked headlights for the final year of that body style, as an all-new one was coming for '66. But now that I think about it, the '65 Comet, which was the last year for that compact style, went to stacked headlights that year, and I thought was really attractive.
"Please come save AMY the convertible!"
"a growling demonic beast of a car"
71 chrysler "muscle car" ---well I see that the term "muscle car" has been rendered as meaningless in the car world as the word "genius" is in Hollywood.
$6000 51 Ford---try $2,500 and be happy.
I've actually seen a color close to that "Metallic Pea" on some GM cars in the 80's, but I dunno if Ford actually offered it. Scarily enough though, I have seen Crown Vic and Colony Park wagons with the same taillight treatment as what the Wagon Queen Family Truckster had. Y'know, where they basically just doubled up the taillights on the tailgate, putting a right-side taillight on the left of the gate and a left-side on the right. I wonder if that was actually an option for these wagons, or if people did it to pay homage to "National Lampoon's Vacation"?
When the Navigator came out, I thought its taillights looked vaguely like the Truckste's, too, with the extra lights doubled up on the tailgate in an attempt to differentiate it from the Expedition.
Here's a '64 Fairlane for comparison. Again, not exactly a beautiful car, especially in 4-door form, but I just think it has a bit more flair to it than the '65. Ditto the '63 Fairlane. I like that front-end with the concave grille.
From what I read you're correct, an '83 modified by Barris Customs.
My hubby is taking offense to you guys calling a 65 Fairlane ugly, lol. He had one that was his pride and joy, a 2-dr that he fixed up nice, wide tires on the back, nice wheels, jacked up the back a little, and changed the interior a bit. He'd love to get his hands on another one, he had nothing but compliments on his first one which was totalled by a stupid driver in CA.
http://www.ferraris-online.com/pages/carintro.php?reqcardir=BU-VEYRON-040
Regardless of Shifty's disparaging remarks about forecasting future value of an as-yet unrestored "classic" (old car), one must admit that a convertible Skylark has more upside potential than the semi-sporty hardtop intermediates (read 1967 Olds Cutlass Supreme 350) that they had been looking at. :P
I'll let you know if they buy it. - james
"The Wagon Queen Family Truckster: If You Hate It Now, Wait 'Til You Drive It." Sad thing is, the preignition/dieseling condition the car had when Mr. Griswold shut it off reminded me of my Dad's equally crappy 1972 Ford LTD Country Squire. I think Clark Griswold originally wanted the Sport Wagon in Blue Frost. Does anybody recall that the car he was trading was a 1972 Olds Vista Cruiser that was flattened by the unscrupulous dealer?
Anybody recall where the fuel filler was on the Truckster?
It just struck me as absurd to present the car as "appraised".
james
The Truckster fuel filler was on the top of the front fender near the hood I think. Not discovered until you rip off the rear plate and make it land on an AMC Eagle, of course.
When your car diesels at shutoff, just say "all new cars do that". And we can't forget "hey look, an airbag" which was really a household trash bag coming from under the steering wheel.
I thought for 4 grand that old ebast looked like a decent deal.
Sorry Charlie, it's not enough anymore.
Looks like about a billion dollars has been spent on this thing...
note the ad copy: "July 20 1995 at 178,240 - Metric Long Block Engine "
Mercedes 280SE 4.5 == time for the wrecker on this one.
Yep, same place it was on the Corvair. :surprise:
When your car diesels at shutoff, just say "all new cars do that".
My truck does that after it warms up, but I think the timing is so far off it's in a different time zone.
Actually, the radiators on these cars are only given a lifetime of somewhere around 150-200K miles, I think.
But even good W111 fintails bring more than those things, both here and there. I do know of several fintails that have made it back to Germany, and that will likely increase with currency trends.
Switching it off in Drive helps.
Not a bad looking old tank
Switching it off in Drive helps.
I remember trying that with my pickup a couple times, and that would usually kill it. Isn't that bad on the engine, though?
Now that I think back on it, I remember the fast idle on my '68 Dart would sometimes stick in cold weather. Giving it a good, fast, hard stomp on the gas pedal would usually make it kick down, though. I remember one cold morning, pulling into a gas station on the way to work, and doing that to make it calm down before turning it off. This old guy walked over to me, feeling sorry for the car I guess, and asked me "How much would you take for it, so I can keep you from tearing it up?" :surprise:
I thought those LeBaron GTS/Lancer cars were pretty sharp looking when they first came out. Pretty good evolution of the K-car. I still remember the commercials for them where they had the audacity to compare them to Audis and BMWs and Benzes while that WW-2 tune "Over There" was playing in the background...as if these spiffed up K-cars had a chance of beating the premium European cars off our shores! I do remember one rag calling these things "What the Tempo/Topaz SHOULD have been". In retrospect, not the greatest cars in the world but hey, it WAS the 80's.
Oh I wouldn't shut it off WHILE it was revving fast like that. I'd just give it a good stomp to try to make the fast idle kick off, and then once it slowed down, shut it off.