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

ab348

uplanderguy said:

This reminds me of something one of the two best-known Studebaker writers in the international club wrote in the late '80's in an article he did on '65 Studebakers. His parents were almond farmers in CA and longtime Studebaker customers, cars and trucks. They were friends with, and loyal to, their local Studebaker dealer, J&B Motors. One of the two dealership partners left to sell Pontiac in '64, and with South Bend closing, the writer's parents were vascillating on buying a new '65 Studebaker Cruiser, built in Hamilton, ON. On their travels, they had toured the Lansing Oldsmobile plant, and also the Hamilton plant. The writer wrote that the parents were much-more impressed with what they saw and experienced at Hamilton versus Lansing, which I can only assume was that Hamilton was smaller and most assuredly slower-moving. The writer said that made it easier for his parents to buy the '65 Cruiser their local dealer had, and help him out as on top of the South Bend closure and his partner leaving, he was in failing health at that time. They saw it partly as helping a friend out. Can you imagine anyone feeling that way now? LOL

The writer still owns his parents' '65 Cruiser.

In 1997 I got to tour the now long-gone Olds Main assembly plant in Lansing. It was ancient even then. I remember the guide leading us through parts of the building that were no longer in use and very dimly-lit to get us to the assembly area. Those dark areas still had the original floors, which were square wooden blocks set on end and very uneven to walk over. I think it dated back to the 1920s. Wild.

The assembly line area was raucous. Lots of machine noise, lots of music being played along the line by workers, and it was set up in stations where groups of workers did a certain group of tasks as the vehicles came down the line. Each of the stations had wooden picnic tables where the workers could sit and eat, drink and smoke in between doing whatever task, which surprised me. It did not impress but I imagine it was protected by the UAW. Because they were building the unibody FWD cars like the Buick Skylark and Pontiac Grand Am there was no body drop, which I had been hoping to see based on old films I saw.

stickguy

Driving near my house a very nice looking mid-50s El Dorado. Burgundy. Looked like new.

Michaell

Not sure if we would consider it a classic, but I saw a RHD Stegea wagon yesterday. Very cool 80’s or 90’s JDM piece.

stickguy

out driving around today a sharp looking red Nova. about a 65ish square model. Lightly modded for performance.

and not a classic but definitely rare, a 2 door with the convertible top Geo Tracker.

fintail

On foot today, very clean early 90s Cavalier, yellow retro Bird, and while jogging a very typical Spokane street scene consisting of an Aurora, a 92-93 Accord, and the Topaz I see weekly.

thebean

Has anyone ever seen a Stutz Blackhawk from the 70’s-80’s. I am fascinated by these, even though the styling is definitely an acquired taste. Just the far out garishness of it makes me smile. Lots of celebrity owners, as I remember. I would like to see one in person, but I guess that would have to be in a museum.

andre1969

Those 70's and 80's Stutzes show up occasionally at the GM show in Carlisle, PA. I remember one year there was a bunch of them...must have been a club event. One of them was even converted into a hearse! I also saw a Stutz that was supposedly once owned by Elvis Presley, at the Das Awkscht Fescht car show in Macungie PA once.

They are pretty garish, but at the same time, in person they're pretty cool.

sda

https://youtu.be/SrDyPKW9d00?si=ifudNtv0MVZI4iCA
I remember seeing these in France and thought they were sharp. The C pillar reminds me of BMW. Very clean styling, attractive interior. It appears a bit of a gas hog and didn’t ride well when the road was less smooth.

kyfdx

That’s great looking.

kyfdx

Had my car in the shop, and saw this:

fintail

A friend spotted this parked on the street somewhere around Seattle, has to be uncommon:

sda

74 Grand Ville sans fender skirts. Optional cornering lights. Like the Rallye wheels, however.

stickguy

Not a classic but a sharp blue BMW Z3. Driving around top down. Looked brand new. I would enjoy one of those.

kyfdx

stickguy said:

Not a classic but a sharp blue BMW Z3. Driving around top down. Looked brand new. I would enjoy one of those.

My friend has a '98 with the bigger 6-cylinder. White with red interior. About 75K miles. It's gorgeous. If the rain holds off, we'll have the top down, tonight.

andre1969

I think that Grand Ville looks good without the skirts. It makes it look a lot less chunky.

imidazol97

That Pontiac is nice.

explorerx4

Check out the price on this 60 Ford.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-4q2vX3CEg

fintail

That's the "wife wants me to sell it" price.

andre1969

Good LORD!! Beautiful car, but too blue for my blood! Normally, I'm not a fan of aftermarket rims like that, but on the '60 Ford, I think it looks good. I think the design of the car, in general, lends itself pretty well to customization.

xwesx

andre1969 said:

Good LORD!! Beautiful car, but too blue for my blood! Normally, I'm not a fan of aftermarket rims like that, but on the '60 Ford, I think it looks good. I think the design of the car, in general, lends itself pretty well to customization.

Agreed. Corvairs are similarly complimentary to such mods.

fintail

Some kind of obscure material I thought some here might find interesting, found in a MB group, a poster's father bought a new 190 (4 cylinder gas) fintail in 1964, and wasn't afraid of options and accessories. Interesting to see the cost of AC, and what was used as a trade-in:





Paint code DB 334 is the same as my car.

explorerx4

Gederal Excise Tax - Was that a tariff?

fintail

explorerx4 said:

Gederal Excise Tax - Was that a tariff?

A quick google tells me there was a federal excise tax on all new car purchases at that time, and was eliminated in 1969.

uplanderguy

That '66 Chevy convertible is in one of my absolute favorite colors of that time period. It looks refreshing, like a spruce, or menthol, or something. I think all the Big Three then had very similar colors.

When I bought my '81 Monte Carlo, I bought a two-tone Light and Dark Jade as the darker color reminded me of that earlier color. It had been a long time at Chevy there was a color like that.

Also, just to clear the air, and I'm not asking for comments by doing this, but my sister was murdered in Sun City, AZ last Sat. by her 82-year old husband, who then turned the gun on himself. We are largely in shock and while I never liked the guy even though I tried, I never thought this would happen. We are slowly getting through it. They were both originally from my hometown and I simply don't wish any communication between our families.

uplanderguy

RE.: The M-B--

I wondered, and looked at the running list of Studebaker dealers. RBM Motors in Griffin, GA was also a Stude dealer. Not at all unusual at that time of course.

kyfdx

@uplanderguy I am so sorry. Obviously, I have no words. I'm hoping you can get through this.

uplanderguy

Thank you.

sda

Very sorry to learn. My condolences.

Michaell

I am so sorry about this tragic news.

texases

I’m so sorry to hear of your tragic loss.

andre1969

Uplander, I'm sorry to hear of your loss. That has to be a horrible thing to go through. You're in my thoughts and prayers.

explorerx4

@uplanderguy,
It's sad enough when someone feels like the only solution is to take their own life but taking someone else's too, is just terrible.
Condolences to you and your family.

fintail

My condolences, @uplanderguy . I know it can help just to say it.

fintail

For RBM who sold that MB, they appear to have also picked up Porsche, I wonder if many other Stude dealers did likewise.

On the Impala note, here's one I think I have mentioned in my car spotting. This car has been sitting adjacent to a maybe third tier arterial street maybe a mile and a half from where I live I think at least since I moved to this house in 2021 - it's not in the streetview image for 2016, but it is in 2023, and is there right now, catches my eye whenever I drive by. Seems pretty crazy to me that a convertible in what looks like decent condition is just sitting out there - pic from streetview:

andre1969

On the subject of excise taxes back in the day, here's the sales receipt for my grandparents' '57 Ford:
No line item for an excise tax, but I wonder if it was baked into the base MSRP of the car? According to my auto encyclopedia, the base MSRP of a Fairlane 500 4-door hardtop was only $2404, but this one's showing $2899. That's an awfully big spread. The base engine in these cars was an inline 6, and my grandparents' car had the top-shelf 312 V8. A 272 was the base V8, with a 292 being optional.

Still, I don't think a 312 would have added almost $500 to the price of the car, just by itself, would it?

One thing that's interesting, is the $69.98 Title Tax, which is a fancy way of saying Maryland sales tax. On a ~$3500 car, that comes out to about 2%. Nowadays, our sales tax is 6%!

I'm also a bit surprised that the car didn't have power brakes, at least according to the options shown. Granddad did most of the driving, but still, I wonder how Grandmom felt about that on the rare occasion she did the driving.

fintail

A Town Victoria no less, pretty uncommon today. I can't believe a V 8 would be a nearly $500 option then either,.

explorerx4

Maybe they didn't show the ADM sticker.

uplanderguy

Thanks all for the kind words.

explorerx4

I'm pretty sure I poated the video back SMC got ths car.
Now, its prettied and for sale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpkqEHROF-o

roadburner

@uplanderguy I'm sorry that you have to go through all that; murder/suicides are particularly horrible.

uplanderguy

Thank you all, again, most sincerely.

uplanderguy

That Caprice is appealing to me, although I thought the 'Landau' extra trim was a bit much. I like the scooped plastic pseudo-wire wheel covers a lot better than the 'real' wire covers. The Motor Trend Car of the Year Caprice was trimmed exactly as I would've wanted, other than I'd have wanted a coupe. No optional body side moldings, upper body pinstriping, no vinyl top, no bumper guards, bumper strips, the scooped wheel covers, pinstripe whitewalls, G-tires, F-41 suspension.

RE.: Andre's grandparents' '57 Ford 4-door hardtop--I remember Iacocca's book mentioning that the "'57 was a styling gem that sold like hotcakes". I agree. I think it's handsome in its general simplicity and I'd take it over a '57 Chevy any day. It outsold the '57 Chevy although that's lost on most people. But I remember Iacocca mentioning a Ford district guy driving a '57 four-door hardtop and had the rear doors tied from inside, between each other, with rope to keep them from flying open!

uplanderguy

fin, that RBM Motors--I saw a license plate from them online that said "Volkswagen", but I can't tell the era. I doubt many Stude dealers, if a single one, added Porsche. RBM probably added Porsche after Stude was gone. It looks like they are still M-B dealers in general Atlanta and appear to be more than one location.

ab348

explorerx4 said:

I'm pretty sure I poated the video back SMC got ths car.
Now, its prettied and for sale.
https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpkqEHROF-o

My buddy back in the late '90s, before he moved up-country and abandoned the suburban keeping-up-with-the-neighbors suburban lifestyle, picked up a low-miles 1-elderly-owner '79 Caprice 4-door in those exact colors. For a 20 y-o car it was in outstanding condition and drove really well. His had the F41 suspension which made it surprisingly nimble. The one for sale appears to have that also but strangely Anthony didn't mention it. The bordello red interior color is very period but man, they were really bright. It became a more muted darker red later on. I'm surprised he was able to source the brighter red headliner material since that stuff was unavailable for a long time. My buddy's had one cosmetic flaw which was that one of the wheel opening moldings was wrinkled and scuffed from what was likely a parking lot incident and was unavailable, which drove him crazy. I found a NOS one on early ebay which was claimed to be the last one around still in the GM packaging and gave it to him for a Christmas gift, which thrilled him. Anthony loves to describe all the bright trim on these as "stainless" but it isn't. It is mostly anodized aluminum which was cheaper than stainless but which scratches and fades too easily, is very thin, and is difficult to restore properly without a lot of work.

The other thing about these is that the seat foam and cloth upholstery deteriorates badly over time, not just color fading due to UV, but also losing its resilience and shape. This car appears to be verging on that judging from the drivers seat cushion where the upholstery is getting baggy. The plastic interior trim around the doors and with things like armrest bases also fade very badly when exposed to the sun. This one avoided that so far but you need to be very careful. I have no idea about his asking price being realistic or not but given that number I'm amazed he couldn't source a heater control knob or find a place to refurb the original radio. I know there are/were places that did that when I was active in the hobby. I stopped watching his videos because I find them tedious, taking a half hour to point out every stone chip on a used car which to me seems ridiculous, while glossing over other things.

uplanderguy

Here's the level of trim I'd have absolutely loved on a coupe.



For lack of a better word, the late '70's and early '80's GM 'knit cloth' seemed to wrinkle. I've seen it across divisions, on 'near-luxury' trim levels. Seems in my mind, anyway, that the heavy velour trim, like the optional interior on Caprices, didn't do that.

andre1969

I've occasionally wondered why that particular Caprice was somewhat slow, at 10.8 seconds from 0-60, despite having the quicker 3.08:1 axle. I'd have to go dig for it, but I could have sworn I've seen a test of a '77 Caprice with the 350, but the 2.56:1 axle, and it was around 9.6 seconds.

But, there was a lot of variation in engines back then, so maybe this particular one stumbled a bit on takeoff? Or, perhaps the test with the 2.56:1 involved "power braking" or some other launch techniques to get a better time, and the 3.08:1 was more of a normal "real world" kind of launch?

Other details, like how hot/humid the weather is on the day of the test, can also make a difference.
**Edit: just found the test. It was Car and Driver, October 1976. And 0-60 was 9.8, so I was off just a bit. 0-90 was 25.4 seconds, so it looks like the 3.08:1 was starting to catch up at the higher speeds.

fintail

I think those scooped wheelcovers look better too. I am not a fan of wire wheelcovers, IMO they look best in few applications.

Sightings today - the Alliance convertible was not there, Aurora has a flat tire, and I spotted the pristine early Lumina sedan owned by an old couple not far from my house (garage door was open).

stickguy

a 75ish Caddy Coupe d'ville parked outside the AAA office. Black. Looks a little shabby so probably original.

ab348

uplanderguy said:

That Caprice is appealing to me, although I thought the 'Landau' extra trim was a bit much. I like the scooped plastic pseudo-wire wheel covers a lot better than the 'real' wire covers.

OK, please educate me here. What are the "scooped" plastic wire covers? I assume those on the car in the video are the the real wire covers? Confused.

uplanderguy

The ones on the 12K mile car are the real wire wheel covers; the covers on the Motor Trend Car of the Year, the black sedan, are what I call the 'scooped' plastic wheel covers. Chevy called them "Sport Wheel Covers". For a cover, they have some depth.

They were also available on '77 Chevelles and Monte Carlos, and are my favorite wheel/cover application on those cars too, although rarely seen.