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We're the ones in the Imperial, and we're running last?! :shades:
A 1960 must be pretty rare today.
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That front seat upholstery looks all wrong to me, both in terms of pattern (the stitching pattern is too wide) and the fabric (looks like a velour material). Too bad.
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Here's the Imperial:
The Chrysler IP bowed out in the center while the Imp's did not, and the Imp also had a number of neat features like a pop-up vanity mirror in the glove compartment and a cover for the radio.
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2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
A "pop-up vanity mirror in the glove compartment"? Wonder where they got that idea? Same place they were able to pick up the "Challenger" and "Daytona" names!
Neat touch on that Imperial.
Is that vinyl or leather inside? If leather, it's avoided the wrinkly/lined leather look that seems so typical.
Here's a pic of the silver leather interior. Imagine how great it would look with the original Charcoal Gray Metallic paint on that '67.
Regarding rear-seat center armrests, I suspect GM did that because the top mechanism ate up significant width in the rear because the frames went into each side until '71, making the rear seat narrower than the coupes. Of course starting with the '71s the frame was different to alleviate that problem but I bet the GM bean counters wouldn't allow the armrest to return, as part of GM's continued cheapening up of their cars back then.
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I wonder what kind of gains GM saw when they went to the "scissors" type mechanism for 1971?
Awhile back, I took a tape measure to my '67 Catalina, and the way I measured its shoulder room, got 62.5" in the front seat, and about 56" in the back seat, measured between the narrower area in between where the top cuts in. Looking at the sales brochures, Pontiac didn't publish shoulder room, although they did show legroom and headroom stats. I just checked the 1970 Buick brochure though, and they're showing the LeSabre convertible as only having 52.3" of shoulder room in the back! So, I wonder if GM changed the top mechanism from '67-68 to '69-70? Or, maybe I just measured wrong?
I just dug up a '71 Buick brochure, and they're showing the LeSabre convertible at 61.7" of shoulder room! So, it looks like the big '71 GM cars got about a 10" gain in shoulder room, too!
I think the '71 full-sizers had something
What are the black fold/crease areas in the car seats? Are they black leather or vinyl, or a suede-like material, do you know? Interesting contrast.
http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3454361934.html
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Needs water pump=it over heats so could be more serious.
My grandma had a downsized FWD big Olds in the 80s, and she liked that car a lot, because the trunk was low, which made reversing easy. Her next cars (2x Taurus) always had her complaining about visibility.
Have some mercy - it was the fifties
I think that flat top roof line worked best on the Impala.
One of those vehicles some might say, "Who would want one?", but there it was, zipping up the salt-covered streets of Kent, OH, 50 years old or darn close.
Needless to say I passed him like he was standing still.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I'm old-skool, but I always hated numbers as a model name of a car.
To me, the worst was the Cadillac "Series 62". They used that up to the '64 model year. You go into the dealer and say, "I want a '61 62" or "How 'bout a '64 62?" LOL
LeSabres started getting pretty big, pretentious, and luxurious by the mid 70's, so it would be easy to mistake one for an Electra. Once the 5 mph bumpers went into effect, I think they topped out around 226". An Electra wasn't that much bigger...maybe 231"? I do remember there were a few years where the Electra was actually an inch or two longer than Caddy DeVille.
I always thought the '75 LeSabre convertible was a sharp looking car. Make mine baby blue with the Buick magnum wheels. And a 455. :shades:
I can just picture that LeSabre, andre--white top and white vinyl seats with blue dash, seat belts and carpet, right?!
I remember our local eye doctor buying a firethorn-colored '76 Eldo convertible when new...white interior with red dash, etc. When I was back in town visiting a few years ago, I saw a slightly beat-up looking Eldo pull up to the intersection, top down, and it was the good Dr.! Still owned it. He was a white belt and shoe kind of guy, and somehow that Eldo seemed just right for him! Before that he had a light blue '71 Eldo convert.
Flat gray primer, Crager wheels w white stripe tires, young guy driving it. Looked like a project car.
From behind, I could see the left rear tire was about 3"-5" to the right of the left front tire. Bent frame I presume.
Bent unibody, in this case. We had a '68 Valiant for 10+ years, that thing ran forever.
My oddball was a Mk. 1 Rabbit 4-door on the way home from work yesterday (unfortunately nothing special, not a GTI). Didn't stink, so I guess it wasn't a diesel, even more unusual...
I remember when Darts and Valiants were common sights on the streets, seeing that occurrence where it was going down the street at a bit of an angle (and it always seemed like the the rear was shifted toward the right, never the left) wasn't all that rare.
Darts and Valiants had a very narrow rear track, something like 55.9" compared to around 59" up front, so I think that helped make the most minor offset more noticeable.
I always thought the size was just right for a sport sedan Chrysler version, with upscale exterior styling and a luxurious interior. It could have been Chrysler's answer to the BMW 2002.
Yep, that would be it! For some reason, I always associated that light powder/baby blue as a Buick color. Even though Pontiac, Olds, and Buick also offered it, it just seemed like it was made for Buick. I guess for Olds I always think of burgundy, and for Pontiac, sort of a brown/earthtone color.
I wonder if, for whatever reason, that color was more common on Buicks than the other cars?
I didn't know it was unibody - I thought every before the mid 70's was BOF.
We had a '68 Valiant for 10+ years, that thing ran forever.
With a Slant Six it should run forever.
The 1960-66 Imperial used the 1957-59 frame, and while the body looked very similar, it was beefed up, so the car was sort of a hybrid of unit-body on top of a frame. Similar to a current-day Honda Ridgeline or Pilot, I guess.
I wonder if some thought a 62 was an old model in 1964, just because of the name.
About bumpers - the 70s railroad ties are ugly, but you could bump to your heart's content without receiving a $1000 repair bill.
That wasn't the case with the (optional) white leather sport seats in my '86 Mustang GT convertible. They never looked clean.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I remember in '72 visiting the Plymouth dealer here and he had a new 2-door Scamp hardtop in the showroom in a pale blue shade called "Blue Sky" with a white vinyl roof and a white vinyl interior. Sounds sort of feminine, but it really looked sharp. Back then it seemed Mopar had a lot of non-metallic pastel paints in their assortment - maybe their large taxi and fleet business required such shades.
Ford in the late '60s/early '70s sold a lot of cars in a very pale pastel blue they called Diamond Blue. I remember seeing that color everywhere, on Mustangs, Custom 500s, Fairlanes, you name it.
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My parents bought a new '74 Impala Sport Coupe (all four windows rolled down) in the last week of Aug. '74, when the dealer had received a few '75's by then. Dad wanted to avoid having to use unleaded gas. There were two '74 Impala Sport Coupes that were identically sticker priced ($4,408.00), but one was maroon with a white painted top and had the black and white herringbone cloth interior (like a nice sport coat!), and the other was a pastel light green (with white painted top) that resembled baby diarrhea to me. It had a nice pattern cloth light green interior. I wanted the maroon one so bad it hurt, but Dad picked the pastel green one.
Come to think of it, when he bought our '77 Impala coupe, I wanted the firethorn coupe in the showroom that was $200 more and had a 350 4-barrel instead of a 305. Dad didn't want four barrels or to spend $200 more (sigh). I guess I've become my old man.
That sports coat fabric on the inside didn't impress me much. We had previously owned '63 and '69 Impalas and their interiors were much nicer than the '74. By then GM was moving the Impala downmarket some and the Caprice was becoming their equivalent car to the older Impala. I remember thinking the fact that the bench seats didn't have a section of vinyl in the center of the seat seemed really cheap, like the older BelAirs and Biscaynes of the '60s.
We didn't keep it long and dad replaced it with a Hornet Sportabout. Later on he bought a '79 Impala 4-door, also from his friend at Budget, in Dark Carmine Metallic with red cloth inside, which was a much nicer car than the '74.
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http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Chevrolet/1974_Chevrolet/1974_Chevrolet- _Full_Size/1974%20Chevrolet%20Full%20Size-08.html
I liked the seats, especially the way the rear seat looked like a 'couch' in the coupes...large, full-length-and-depth armrests on the side panels and 'filler' panels on each end of the back seat back...but didn't like all the black plastic on the instrument panel that year. At least the steering wheel was color-keyed that year, unlike the older Impalas of that generation.
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I never liked on the '73 and '74, how the side molding went over top of the front wheel opening and right up to the front of the car.
BTW, the '74 full wheelcovers were the '70 wheelcover. I never knew Chevy to do that before. Similarly, the '75 Monza Towne Coupe wheelcovers were early-Corvair.
One thing I never realized is that when they killed off the BelAir in the US in '76 they introduced an Impala S stripper model that was much the same. Here in Canada the BelAir lived on for a few years more.
GM afflicted the Impala with that sport cloth material for years, starting I believe in '73. By '76 they had changed the pattern a bit and it looked like a Herb Tarlek sports coat.
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