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

roadburner · January 2018

The 1973 was my favorite C3- the smooth Mako Shark nose with the classic split bumper rear end. I still toy with finding a coupe and installing a serious crate motor.

ab348 · January 2018

uplanderguy said:
Speaking of seams--when my '81 Monte Carlo was stolen, I was given a rental car for thirty days before I settled with my insurance company. I had an '81 or '82 Mercury "Cougar", which at that point was really the Fairmont-based car that was sold opposite the Granada. It was a two-door.

At the time, compared with my Monte Carlo, I remember thinking it seemed incredibly cheap. It had a horizontal seam at eye level on the C-pillar, filled in with a piece of fiberglass or plastic trim. The car was a six-cylinder and had one wheelcover missing, where I could see that only four lugnuts held the wheel on.

I know it could be argued that Fords were mechanically superior then, but on first-impression stuff GM had it all over them I think. One thing outside that opinion is the no-roll-down back windows in GM intermediate sedans--inexcusably dumb.

The Fairmont and its derivatives were incredibly cheap-feeling. It really wasn't until the LTDII in '84 that Ford started to fix that tinny feeling. And the 4-lug wheels were used by Ford on '60s Falcons and some early Mustnags among other cars. I never felt Ford was mechanically superior in any way. GM interiors were almost always class-leading back then too.

uplanderguy · January 2018

I think GM's "Computer Command Control" was not all that great in '81 and '82, and you had 229 V6's and 267 and 305 V8's that were having camshaft issues then too. Luckily, I never experienced any of that. Cadillac had some shaky engine stuff going on then too.

But I just did not like at all Ford's midsizes then--or really anywhere until the Taurus--and also wasn't a fan of the slab-sided, blunt-front, flat instrument panel full-size cars of theirs then. Strictly personal opinion of course.

Starting in '77, GM started offering two-tone paint on their full-size cars,which carried into the mid-sizes the next year. I was a big fan of that and my '81 was a factory two-tone. But they used a decal stripe to separate the two, and where I lived, it wasn't unusual to see the decal stripe gone, most likely the victim of a high-power car wash.

ab348 · January 2018

texases said:
How does that front suspension work??

This intrigued me so I dug around online. Here's a better picture:

The Brits (where the first 100 examples of this were made, at Reliant) called it a "flailing arm" front suspension, which seems appropriate. The design was by a fellow called Les Ballamy. Reliant built their Sabre model from this though references talk of them redesigning the front suspension. I wonder why.

berri · January 2018

I'm not sure there was as much attention to 40's and early 50's cars in the latter half of the 50's and the 60's because there was an awful lot of style and design happening on current cars. Personally, I find it much harder to discern a make and model until it gets pretty close to me (and no, my eyesight has been recently checked

) .

uplanderguy · January 2018

Me too. Although the Taurus was revolutionary, I think we can largely blame it for all cars looking alike today.

omarman · January 2018

And maybe an honorable mention (or blame, either one) to Chrysler for the spindle grille mutations seen today.

berri · January 2018

Who new - the Lexus was out years back in '61

fintail · January 2018

I have yet to see a two tone Lexus LC, nice.

Michaell · January 2018

It was a classic.

A victim from the recent Montecito mudslides.....

PF_Flyer · January 2018

ab348 said:

PF_Flyer said:
Matinee movie iron

You seemed to stump us all with that one.

Oh, sorry... forgot that nobody chimed in with the movie... In Cold Blood

fintail · January 2018

Looks like a late 70s-early 80s era 911 Targa buried in the mud.

bhill2 · January 2018

Why couldn't it have been the 61 Plymouth in the mud? The looks would have likely been improved.

uplanderguy · January 2018

My Studebaker dealer friend was approached by the Dodge road man to take on the local Dodge franchise sometime in 1961, with promises of profits, etc. He was invited to go to Detroit with the road man to the dealer showing of '62's. When asked what he thought of the '62's, he replied "Those look worse than Studebakers". He didn't take the franchise (although he should have), LOL.

andre1969 · January 2018

Not exactly the Holy Graille, but on Sunday I spotted an '83-84 Pontiac Parisienne, out and about in Crofton, Maryland...

I always liked this style, which used an Impala rear end, with slightly modified taillights. For '85-86, the Parisienne got more Pontiac-ish sheetmetal in back, reminiscent of the '80-81 Bonneville. It had a stronger identity, perhaps, but unfortunately it seemed like most of them also had fender skirts.

fintail · January 2018

Nice to see you, Andre.

I was going to remark about the lack of fender skirts on that Pontiac - the skirts are not a good look, and losing them makes the car look a lot lighter. For a car to be out on the road in that condition in that environment at ~35 years old, someone must be caring for it.

uplanderguy · January 2018

fintail, thought of you just now...on a Facebook page about memories from my old hometown, a family member posted a pic of the Dodge-Plymouth dealer from the thirties through '61. It was two doors down from my friend's Stude-MB dealer. Someone posted this:

" I remember that store, my dad worked part time at Filers next door, he cleaned and detailed cars and I always had a memory of cleaning cosmoline off Mercedes-Benz bumpers with kerosene. Studebaker was the dealer agent for MB after they started imports after WWII."

We know that Studebaker didn't start selling M-B's until 1957, but somewhere else I recall hearing about cosmoline on M-B bumpers. I only remember one M-B in my hometown, but I wasn't born 'til '58. Interesting memory.

fintail · January 2018

Yep MB used cosmoline, I have read about that numerous times. I think it was used for a long time, too, at least into the 80s.

uplanderguy · January 2018

Looks like a good buy at Mecum--reported sold at $4,950.00. At the time I didn't like the tapered B-pillar but that has grown on me.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0118-321968/1979-cadillac-fleetwood-brougham/

fintail · January 2018

Very nice, well-bought. I've always liked those - I remember riding in one when I was a kid (the light yellow on yellow combo that existed at the time) and it impressed me with the quiet smooth ride, a factor above my mom's T-Bird, which wasn't exactly a rough car. The tapered B-pillar is a fun quirky design element, too. White on white can be a tough one for some, but I like the contrast with blue inside. The plastics also all look good, nice old car.

ab348 · January 2018

I'm looking for a fuel gauge on the Caddy and am not seeing it.

That white/blue interior is schweet.

The B-pillar business in odd. My '79 Electra Park Avenue used the same C-body and did not have that. Very un-GM for the time.

andre1969 · January 2018

I'm not sure, but I think on the Caddy, the fuel gauge is up in that thin black strip that runs along the top of the dashboard. Also, it was just the '77-79 Fleetwood that used the tapered B-pillar. The Sedan DeVille had the normal B-pillar, shared with the Electra and Ninety-Eight.

omarman · January 2018

ab348 said:
I'm looking for a fuel gauge on the Caddy and am not seeing it.

Top left of center stack just above A/C vents.
Different car but it should be in same place:

andre1969 · January 2018

Yup...here is is on that '79 Fleetwood. You can barely make it out if you really zoom in...

fintail · January 2018

I wonder if the B-pillar taper is just to differentiate it? Or maybe as a reverse mimic of MB, who had been doing it (but wider at base) for some time, especially noticeable on the W116 that was big at the time.

uplanderguy · January 2018

For a lot of years, the Fleetwood was on a longer wheelbase than the Sedan deVille. In '77, that became no longer the case. Plus, from '71-76, only the Fleetwood was a pillared sedan, and had the vinyl roof go down the B-pillar (which was later aped by GM midsize sedans from '73-77). I think the tapered B-pillar was about differentiating the Fleetwood from the deVille.

Plus--I'm going to have to look into this--for some reason I'm thinking a prewar Sixty Special may have had a tapered B-pillar. Probably shouldn't have said it without looking first, LOL.

UPDATE: I take that back. But I can see why the '71 Fleetwood Sixty Special Brougham had the roofline it did, as that did indeed ape the first Sixty Special in the late thirties.

uplanderguy · January 2018

I like the white interior with blue accents, too. I guess probably all the domestic makers did something like this, but almost living at a Chevy-Cadillac dealer in the '70's, I saw my share of white vinyl (leather in most Cadillacs) with contrasting carpet, dash, and seat belts. Striking I think.

You need a white belt and white shoes to go with it!

roadburner · January 2018

fintail said:
Yep MB used cosmoline, I have read about that numerous times. I think it was used for a long time, too, at least into the 80s.

BMW used to spray a ton of the stuff under the hood, and it was almost impossible to remove.

fintail · January 2018

I've heard it is similar in MBs. I am not a big underhood detailer, I'd probably just leave it, if anything, for an air of originality.

I saw a 959 locally that was coated with the original paint preservative, I wonder if that's a similar substance.

roadburner said:

BMW used to spray a ton of the stuff under the hood, and it was almost impossible to remove.

roadburner · January 2018

It was all over the engine of my M6; if I had kept it I was going to pull the valve cover and have it powder coated.

ab348 · January 2018

omarman said:

Top left of center stack just above A/C vents.
Different car but it should be in same place:

What an odd/bad place for a fuel gauge!

stickguy · January 2018

they did not want owners to focus on how fast it was going down.

fintail · January 2018

I thought I had pics, here's the 959, I believe still wearing its cosmoline. This was a very low mileage car that was never really driven:

This was quite a sighting, I happened on it by chance.

tjc78 · January 2018

uplanderguy said:

I like the white interior with blue accents, too. I guess probably all the domestic makers did something like this, but almost living at a Chevy-Cadillac dealer in the '70's, I saw my share of white vinyl (leather in most Cadillacs) with contrasting carpet, dash, and seat belts. Striking I think. You need a white belt and white shoes to go with it!

Lincoln did it too. 80s Town Cars could be had with white leather with Red, Blue or black carpets. The blue always looked great with a white exterior.

fintail · January 2018

Blue interiors are still fairly extinct, but I have noticed a few cars with white or near-white seating lately. A nice change from black or beigegrey - just don't carry kids in the car.

fintail · January 2018

Here's a fun Instagram - cars parked on the street in Seattle. A little snapshot of some of the oddballs hanging around this area, maybe interesting for people in harsher climates. The most recent pic is a good one:

https://www.instagram.com/parked_in_seattle/

stickguy · January 2018

Some interesting stuff. I love the dark red wedge celica. And the beige 70s Toyota PU. Back when compact meant small!

stickguy · January 2018

Oh, is that your car? Or a twin.

kyfdx · January 2018

fintail said:
I thought I had pics, here's the 959, I believe still wearing its cosmoline. This was a very low mileage car that was never really driven:

This was quite a sighting, I happened on it by chance.

I wonder if it's real?

texases · January 2018

Boy, if it's not a real 959 it's a great copy.

kyfdx · January 2018

texases said:
Boy, if it's not a real 959 it's a great copy.

Parked outside... no hub covers.. wet..

It's a $3 million car..

kyfdx · January 2018

By the way... I knew I should pick one up for $500K, back in the '90s. I'm kicking myself..

fintail · January 2018

It was real. At home I have a pic with the engine cover open. It wasn't wet, that's the original paint protectant still on the car. I think it had something like 100 miles on it.

kyfdx said:

I wonder if it's real?

fintail · January 2018

Completely different car, but very similar in initial appearance to mine. I've never seen it before, I hope the guy shows up to a MBCA event sometime.

There are some fun cars on that site.

stickguy said:
Oh, is that your car? Or a twin.

kyfdx · January 2018

I saw one at LeMay, in September. They had a special Porsche collection on the top floor. Didn't say who owned them, though.

kyfdx · January 2018

fintail said:
It was real. At home I have a pic with the engine cover open. It wasn't wet, that's the original paint protectant still on the car. I think it had something like 100 miles on it.

kyfdx said:

I wonder if it's real?

Okay.. the ground is wet, though.

fintail · January 2018

I got it

I was stoked to see that car - it was at a detail shop adjacent to an indy MB mechanic. I happened to be there, and the proprietor asked if I "wanted to see something rare". Of course I did, and that's what I saw. Nice surprise.

I saw a 959 exhibit at the Porsche Museum in 2015, including competition cars, a prototype, and a cutaway. Fantastic. I loved that car when I was a kid.

kyfdx said:

Okay.. the ground is wet, though.

kyfdx · January 2018

The 911 was always my dream car, from the time I was in high school ('70s). When the 959 came out, I thought it was the greatest vehicle ever made.

Bought my 911 (used) about 3 years after the 959 debuted.

I think I'd still rather have a 959, than any other vehicle on the planet.
Just can't take the tax hit for cashing in my 401K

fintail · January 2018

959s seem to all be listed at 7 figures now - there might have been a time when my 401K would have bought one, but not in 2018

When I was about 5, I got a ride in a white 911 with sheepskin seat covers - I remember it pretty well, I think it had a whale tail too. Of course, I was impressed. When I was a kid in the 80s, I wanted a white 911, but as it was the time, I wanted a whale tail, and wanted a cabrio. I had a couple models of 959s, and remember driving it in a video game Always been a favorite along with what I see as the Ferrari equivalent, the 288 GTO.

uplanderguy · January 2018

That Caddy's instrument panel reminded me that at the time, I thought it was sort-of a weird panel, not even taking the location of the fuel gauge into consideration! The way that center section stood out more than the area directly in front of the driver was a bit different at the time. Of all the big GM's that came out in '77, I like the Buick's panel the best--the instruments sort-of reminded me back in the day, when people had barometers mounted on wood in their offices, etc. I probably like the Caprice panel next, only because of that shiny black panel above the glove compartment. The Impala panel was awful. We had one.

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

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