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

explorerx4 · May 2018

Chevy version of the 7-UP Mustang
https://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/d/2015-camaro-2ss-convertible/6583517554.html

Nice Poncho. Where is the PHS documentation for this price?
https://westernmass.craigslist.org/cto/d/1965-pontiac-catalina-22/6581024832.html

Almost Famous but a crash and burn
https://newlondon.craigslist.org/cto/d/1985-volvo-240-wagon-v8-swap/6575364222.html

Literally looks sad
https://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/d/1965-anglia-panel-truck/6589031113.html

fintail · May 2018

The UK car looks like the Rebel alright.

That Anglia 105E van is quite a rarity on this side of the pond, too bad it is so far gone.

stickguy · May 2018

I would love that Volvo. If it did not have rust, was sorted, and had a 5 speed stick!

Mr_Shiftright · May 2018

Well that's 3 IFS it ain't got!

stickguy · May 2018

yeah, but at least he priced it cheap. Most CL sellers, if they even bother to acknowledge the issues, still price it like it was ready for a concours.

magnette · May 2018

sorry - I didn't come back to the computer yesterday.

The big red convertible is a Rambler Rebel - and it was RHD as they sold them here in the day although very rare.

The Lancia Fulvia was one of several and the big green D-type lookalike was an Aston Martin DBR1 or DB3S or whatever - but a replica I believe as there was a kit some time back to rebuild a tired Aston V8 or similar so I think it was one of those. There was also a Lynx replica Jag C type )both went up the hill...

PF_Flyer · May 2018

My brother had one of these, although not in yellow... or a movie

andre1969 · May 2018

uplanderguy said:
I wonder if 'Aquamarine' was a Pontiac-only color in '77? Sometimes that happened. Pontiac used that olive green they called "Verduro Green" in the very-late sixties, and I know that at least Chevy didn't use it, and I don't think the other divisions did either.

It looks like Chevy called it "Dark Aqua Poly". Here's a Camaro...

I wonder if that "Aquamarine/Dark Aqua" was only used on Camaros and Firebirds? I tried searching for images of '77 Chevies and Pontiacs in that color, but nothing else came up. Bigger cars would either be the "Bahia/Medium Green" or "Bershire/Dark Blue-Green", or a two-tone.

I did find a '77 Nova described as "Aqua", but it was modified, and could have been a repaint. It also doesn't seem as deep and rich as the Camaro or Firebird, but it could be the lighting...

andre1969 · May 2018

Also, here's the Pontiac and Chevy paint charts for 1977, side-by-side...

omarman · May 2018

In the background of that Nova looks like a 1963 Impala in Palomar Red (?) which looks similar to the later chart color "Firethorn."

stickguy · May 2018

PF_Flyer said:
My brother had one of these, although not in yellow... or a movie

That was my HS car (well, one of). Same color. Just need to add a sunroof (factory crank slider). And rusted out rear fenders that we pop riveted some sheet metal onto.

I liked that car.

texases · May 2018

Mine was a '72 Duster. Survived high school, college, and my first year of working, very reliable. Pulled a small trailer cross country, up CA route 1, the 198 slant six would not be denied! And no rust, despite being an Ohio car.

uplanderguy · May 2018

Excluding Corvette, it looks like Chevy and Pontiac both had 21 colors for '77, and they look like the same colors, with different names as was GM's norm then.

I was not a fan of Camaros and Firebirds by that time--how could such a long car have such a zero back seat and 7 cubic foot trunk? LOL--so I'll guess I just missed seeing turquoise ones. In '77 I was all about "The New Chevrolet" as the new big cars were called.

uplanderguy · May 2018

I used to love "Firethorn" but in my memory it seemed lighter than that '63 Chevy.

fintail · May 2018

Ah I remember that movie, and those houses are definitely in Florida. Lots of similar period cars in background shots there.

uplanderguy · May 2018

RE.: That Duster--a coworker had one that color in the early '80's and I used to tease him mercilessly about it. Truth is though, those were pretty decent cars at that price point, and in fact I want to say the Valiant line was the best-selling compact in that early '70's era--even outselling Nova. No small feat. Not bad looking, either.

The way the interior fresh-air vents had doors that opened, reminded me of an easy-bake oven. I kidded my friend about that, as well as the aftermarket rear-window defroster his had that I used to pretend was an electric razor when I rode in the back seat. It sounded like one.

uplanderguy · May 2018

RE.: Pontiac PHS documentation--I'd definitely want it if I had a Pontiac, but it used to be you couldn't tell what the dealer's name and location was--only a dealer code. I wonder if someone there has figured a way to reveal that information. That's interesting to me.

With Studebaker, we're lucky that production orders are available back to the thirties, and drive-away shippers are available from '60 to '66, which show the dealer's name and street address and city and key numbers and vehicle weight as equipped. From '60-66, names and addresses of original purchasers are available, and from Sept. '63 to the end, the name of the salesman and occupation of original owner are available, as is what was traded in. Plus, by state and town, names of dealers are available with span of ownership.

I love all that stuff.

andre1969 · May 2018

I just noticed, and that Firethorn uses the same code (2811) for 1976 and 1977, so I guess it was carried over. That's the color my '76 LeMans was, originally. Interestingly though, I tend to see a good number of '76 cars wearing it at car shows, but the '77's seem rare. I wonder if the color's popularity faded for '77? I think that pale, washed out 2815 blue might be a '77 only color, as well. For some reason, I always associate it with a Firebird Esprit.

There was a nice light blue offered in '75 that was similar, but much more tasteful IMO. I've seen it across the Chevy/Pontiac/Olds/Buick lineup, but tend to think of a full-sized convertible with a white interior sporting it. I can't remember if it was offered in '74, and it wasn't in '76...at least on a Pontiac. But for that one year, it just seemed really common, and it seemed most prevalent on Buicks.

uplanderguy · May 2018

I know Firethorn was available in '77 because our local dealer had a new Impala Coupe in Firethorn with a 350 engine in the showroom when my Dad was shopping for an Impala. I wanted it very badly but Dad didn't because it was $200 more than the bright red car he ended up buying, and he thought the four-barrel would suck gas. In the long-term, it was a better-engine and transmission, although we never had any issues with ours.

I remember that light blue you mention. I call it kind of a 'powder' blue, non-metallic. I remember a fair number of '75 Caprice convertibles in that color, with white top and interior, over the years--same with the other final-year big GM convertibles. I don't remember that color in '74 or '76.

I don't know why, but lately I've been thinking how I could've enjoyed a new '75 Impala Sport Coupe; last year of the true hardtop styling on a Chevy. Very conservative styling, but with some of the extra exterior optional moldings (like wheel opening trim), and with the white vinyl interior with 50/50 seating, that was a fairly nice car.

We had a '74 Impala Sport Coupe. It was that light, non-metallic baby doo-doo green with a white painted top. I despised the color. Our dealer had the exact car, same bottom window sticker price, sitting next to it that was a dark maroon with white painted top and the black and white herringbone interior. I lobbied hard for that one, but lost that discussion too.

andre1969 · May 2018

I'll have to dig through my pics I took at Spring Carlisle, but I remember seeing a burgundy '75 Impala sport coupe for sale that was in really good shape. It was monotone...no vinyl top or roof contrast at all. For what was really just a fairly basic full-sized coupe back in the day, it was actually pretty stunning, I thought. It had a nice, upscale look to it, but without being pretentious, if that makes sense. And I think the proportioning on it was just about perfect.

I'll confess that I actually like the B-O-P hardtop coupes that tried to combine "Colonade" and "True Hardtop", but I like them because they're weird...not necessarily because they're tasteful!

It's kind of interesting that, in '75 GM big cars, it was the cheapest coupe that gave you the biggest roll-down windows. The Impala Custom/Caprice coupes were stationary, while the Catalina/Delta/LeSabre had fairly small roll-down windows. And the Bonneville/Grand Ville and the C-body coupes were all stationary by that time. I guess with air conditioning becoming so much more common by then, nobody really cared anymore, but I still prefer a true hardtop.

PF_Flyer · May 2018

stickguy said:

PF_Flyer said:
My brother had one of these, although not in yellow... or a movie

That was my HS car (well, one of). Same color. Just need to add a sunroof (factory crank slider). And rusted out rear fenders that we pop riveted some sheet metal onto.

I liked that car.

Ah, the days when you could get through inspection with pop rivets and duct tape

explorerx4 · May 2018

I had a 74 Duster that I bought after I got out of college.
Had no money, parents said we will lend you the money to buy this car. Done!
It was a rebuilt wreck from Vermont.
Metallic blue with front half black vinyl roof and big black side stripes. Blue vinyl interior.
Slant 6, of course. 17 mpg on the highway.
Put over 63k on it in just over 2 years. The stories, many of which cannot be mentioned here.

iluvmysephia1 · May 2018

I bought Dad's '73 Plymouth Gold Duster in 1985 and drove it four more years. Very dependable slant 6 and fun to drive. I liked that Mopar product, too.

andre1969 · May 2018

explorerx4 said:

Slant 6, of course. 17 mpg on the highway.

That made me think of a conversation I had with a guy at the gas station, back in the 90's. I was driving my '68 Dart, which had a rebuilt 318 in it. I pulled up next to a guy who had a '74 or so Valiant, and we started chatting. He said he had a slant six. I mentioned that sometimes I wish I had a slant six, because this V-8 is a guzzler. I only get about 17 on the highway. He responded that that's all he got!

At the time, I thought it was a bit odd. Before the '68, I'd had a '69 Dart GT with the 225 and a/c, and it could get 22-23 on the highway with ease. But, I didn't take into account all the emissions crap...guess that's the difference between the 60's and the 70's!

I actually thought my '69 Dart had a good blend between power and economy, at the time. It was quicker than the '80 Malibu 229 that I had before, and while it wasn't as quick from, say, 0-60, as the 318 Dart, once you got up to highway speeds, the slant six actually seemed almost as responsive. Sometimes the 318 would get to that point where I'd stomp on it and it would downshift, but didn't really seem to get any more power...almost like it would've just been better off staying in Direct Drive.

ab348 · May 2018

andre1969 said:

There was a nice light blue offered in '75 that was similar, but much more tasteful IMO. I've seen it across the Chevy/Pontiac/Olds/Buick lineup, but tend to think of a full-sized convertible with a white interior sporting it. I can't remember if it was offered in '74, and it wasn't in '76...at least on a Pontiac. But for that one year, it just seemed really common, and it seemed most prevalent on Buicks.

Code 24, Chevy called it "Medium Blue" which it really wasn't. I found it had a bit too much gray to it for my liking. I still remember visiting the Chevy dealer on a Sunday in the fall of '74 to see the new models. They had a bunch of new cars in that color and I found it really odd, and quite drab. Looked like a color a government fleet order might come in. But like you I still see it more than I'd expect, and a full-size Olds convertible with white interior is often in shows around here in that color.

uplanderguy · May 2018

Here's a Firethorn '77 Impala coupe on eBay now. I wonder what it will eventually sell for. I'd have to say I probably haven't seen this decent of an original driver of one in awhile.

The Impala instrument panel is dismal, IMHO. Very similar to ours inside, although we had no clock.

Like ab348, someone raided the chromed-plastic door handle escutcheons from another GM full-size of that era. On a Chevy, only the Caprice Classic Custom Interior option got you those. Someone also installed the woodgrain center panel section, around the climate control and radio, from a Caprice Classic.

Still, I'm a sucker for these cars in profile and I like the scooped-out plastic spoked wheelcovers.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-Chevrolet-Impala-Sport-Coupe/282962211091?hash=item41e1dcb113:g:X2MAAOSwB4ha9Izt&vxp=mtr

berri · May 2018

The car sure didn't improve its looks with subsequent design changes. The original was clean, yet the profile a bit unique looking. Down the road I thought the profile got too squared and lost its attractiveness a bit. Personally, I always felt the 77 GM big car design downsizing was not only successful, but an impressive engineering effort for the times. But my favorite of those were the original Buick and Pontiac sports roof coupes with the larger, angled rear windows.

ab348 · May 2018

Nice car for what it is, bid to $7100 and reserve not met, wow. Don't get me wrong, the downsized full-sizers were really well done, smooth and quiet, but the Chevy in regular Impala trim was really pretty basic. The added interior trim pieces mask that somewhat (I bet that clock came out of the junkyard Caprice also). I find the seller's proviso that he will provide additional printed materials for an extra $100 pretty crummy. Just include it for the kind of money this is bringing.

uplanderguy · May 2018

The Chevy's exterior is my favorite of all the big GM's that year. I probably like the Buick's instrument panel best though. The coupe lost all panache with the '80 revision, IMHO. On the other hand, I think the midsize cars got better-looking, mostly, with the '81 reskin.

BTW...that '71 Riviera in turquoise sold for $17,600 today, according to a Riviera Facebook page. No reserve auction.

UPDATE: My friend who was there just called to tell me about the car and the price. He thought it was a nice, honest driver. Hammer fell at $16K with 10% premium.

uplanderguy · May 2018

RE. The '77 Impala on eBay--I can actually specifically remember a new '77 Impala Sedan at our dealer's, sold to Greenville Steel Car Co. apparently as a company car of some kind. Light blue metallic; vinyl top; digital clock; optional gauge cluster (ribbon speedometer replaced with round; four circles in the cluster); and the split 50/50 seats with dual folding center armrests. Even then I wondered why didn't they get the Caprice? I will say sometimes I like the Impala's simpler grille and smaller rocker moldings.

fintail · May 2018

All of those blanked out spots on the Impala gauges really hurt. I am surprised it has a radio. Nice looking car otherwise, great if you like really red interiors.

uplanderguy · May 2018

Ours was that interior but in fuzzy cloth. Bright red out, bright red in.

fintail · May 2018

The cloth was more posh, no doubt. I suppose red wasn't too garish relative to everything else in the mid-late 70s

One of those "sport coupes" is probably the first car I can remember that was owned by a neighbor. I was pretty young, maybe 4, so I don't know if it was an Impala or Caprice, but I recall the rear window.

ab348 · May 2018

fintail said:
All of those blanked out spots on the Impala gauges really hurt. I am surprised it has a radio. Nice looking car otherwise, great if you like really red interiors.

Our '79 Impala had a red cloth interior. It didn't seem too bright at the time. But years later (late '90s) my buddy found a mint-condition '79 Caprice Classic, 2-tone black and silver outside with a red cloth interior, and that red seemed really intense.

uplanderguy · May 2018

The Impala cloth interior I thought bettered the Catalina's--seating, anyway. The Catalina's instrument panel was the same as the Bonneville's and was much-nicer though.

I can remember riding in an '80 Impala with my Dad, test-driving it before he bought a Monte Carlo. The Impala was a silver 6-cyl. coupe. Man, am I glad he didn't buy that! It had a dark maroon interior. By '80, the plastic on the top 1/3 or so of the instrument panel was now black, no matter what color the rest of the panel was. On '77-79 that portion was all color-keyed. Not sure which is better (or worse, LOL).

ab348 · May 2018

Yeah, the '77-'79 used a finely textured color-keyed plastic on some parts of the dash where the Caprice got woodgrain. Don't think it looked good in any color.

uplanderguy · May 2018

I did always like the Caprice's gloss black, with gold outline pinstripe, panel above the glovebox. I always thought that if you pried that off, you probably saw "Impala" in relief in the plastic underneath, LOL.

magnette · May 2018

Sorry - my previous post just got deleted

Anyway as commented on earlier there is some great information out there about some makes like the BMC B Leyland companies who have heritage certificates available to say where your MG or Austin etc was made, when, and what dealer it ent to - plus original colour etc.

This website lists prewar cars still registered on British Licence system and includes "age related" ie historic plates for pre war cars too

http://historicvehicles.webs.com

It is good although not totally infallible covers most things - cars motorcycles lorries etc up to 1939 WW2...

fintail · May 2018

On the road yesterday: Continental Mark IV, big 77-79 Buick coupe, 59 Ford retractable, hot rod 38 Ford, ~60 Beetle.

ab348 · May 2018

Next to me in traffic yesterday, a 1980 Monte Carlo with original light beige paint (able to tell by the dealer badge on the trunklid), a few visible flaws (the plasti-chrome bumper rub strips looked fried) and somewhat faded but very solid and reasonably well-kept. The only mod I could see was a set of Covette-style "derby-cap" wheels.

magnette · May 2018

Seen at Prescott Hill climb in Gloucestershire last week.....

ab348 · May 2018

I believe the very pretty car in the top picture is a (1937?) Riley Kestrel.

magnette · May 2018

Yes that is indeed a Riley Kestrel, and they made several versions of it so I do't know which one - a really lovely looking car too....

Here's the front

roadburner · May 2018

Where were you in '82?

Mr_Shiftright · May 2018

Buying foreign cars!

fintail · May 2018

I was 5 in 1982.

Maybe as malaise has become nostalgia of late, I don't mind some of those cars, at least not looking at them. K-Car woody is cool in its own way, bustleback Seville would be something with a different engine and wheels (but at least has no vinyl top), Country Squire Family Truckster probably wasn't a bad car, I remember my aunt had a Fox bustleback Continental when I was a kid that I don't recall being troublesome, the Cutlass Supreme coupe looks trim and modern compared to some of those others.

That was when grey market imports were thriving, time to bring over an AMG W126.

Mr_Shiftright · May 2018

1982 was an interesting time of change for the automobile industry. The Big 3 were kind of flailing around, the British were dying on the vine, and Honda and Toyota were just revving up to market larger cars and their small pickups. Mercedes was really muscling in on the luxury car market by this time. BMW has some hits and some misses but was finally going mainstream with a larger product line, VW had the Rabbit and the Jetta after the death of the Bug. Audi had yet to debut the Quattro coupe over here, so the brand was a rather obscure novelty.

Michaell · May 2018

I graduated HS in 1982. Living in SoCal at the time, we had our fair share of foreign makes already.

I remember that one classmate got a 320i, and another an RX-7.

I was driving a '79 Pontiac Sunbird at the time.

omarman · May 2018

1982 Mustang GT was looked at like a muscle car revival - even with a 2 bbl carb on top of the 5.0 V8.

I liked the new Eagle SX4 back then but a lot of them came with the base GM sourced 2.5 L4.

But I was still in my Delta 88 phase back then. For a big part of the 80's I drove a '72 Olds Delta 88 hardtop coupe with the Rocket 455, then a '73 Delta 88 hardtop coupe Rocket 350 (not a rocket, but smooth), and my last Delta 88 was a '78 town sedan 350/4bbl.

I drove the '78 Olds until 1989 and even at +10 years old it was still a solid comfortable car. The carb was getting troublesome and a new rochester quadrajet was expensive, so my mechanic suggested an engine swap. A year later, I gave it to a relative who totaled it the following year after. Driver walked away without a scratch. And despite all the collision damage to the body, the Olds started and ran after the accident. I was told that the Toyota which hit it was hauled away in a leaking fractured heap.

kyfdx · May 2018

I bought an '82 Accord hatchback in 1982!

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

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