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

fintail · March 2019

On my trip, I noticed Chevy/GMC and Dodge seemed to be the worst rusters, with plenty of "angry appliance" GM and 2003+ Dodge looking like Swiss cheese. Less severe on Fords, but some looked crusty too. Big vans also seemed to get it, and of course Sprinters are made from compressed rust to begin with, I have even seen local ones with visible rust.

Cars didn't seem to get it so bad, but I recall seeing it on some mid 00s models, and the early Mazda 3 seems to be a rust magnet.

ab348 said:

How much they rust depends largely on how they are cared for. I saw a work truck parked last week, a F-150 of the style that came out in 2009. It was suffering from rust around the rear wheel openings and elsewhere, and was dinged up with rust on those spots too. Obviously nobody was taking care of it and it was considered disposable, but that is a worst-case situation. Maybe 10 years ago you would see a lot of rust on truck boxes, especially where the inner wheelhouse was welded to the backside of the box sides. It was especially bad on Dodge trucks then. Chevys also seemed to require replacement boxes frequently. I don't notice it so much now.

kyfdx · March 2019

omarman said:
Maverick/Comet didn't come with 13 inch wheels/tires. None of these cars ever got 4-speed trans or limited slip either. And the automobile catalog site recorded a 12.7 zero to 60 mph time for a 1972 Comet 200 six with a 3-speed manual.

My oldest brother got a new '72 Maverick Grabber 302/automatic. SAE rated 143hp I think. Not a sports car but no way was it as slow as the Consumer Guide 4-door test Comet.

Okay... then three-speed automatic makes it even slower..

My '77 was only rated at 130 HP. Of course, a lot heavier emission regs, compared to '72.

xwesx · March 2019

So, definitely not a classic this morning, but obscure (so far!). I saw a new Jeep Gladiator pickup ahead of me on the morning commute. First one I've seen in the wild, and a fairly pedestrian-looking rig (not an eye-catcher at all!).

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

stickguy · March 2019

I did not realize they were even being sold already.

xwesx · March 2019

stickguy said:
I did not realize they were even being sold already.

I didn't realize it either, or even if they are. This one was dark colored, and it was not at all bright this morning, plus it was dirty and I was not close enough to see if it had plates on it (or what they were, if so). Many manufacturers do cold weather testing up here, so maybe it was a test mule of some sort, but it looked like it was just a guy-heading-to-work sort of thing.

ab348 · March 2019

Got several hundred slides scanned the last few days, and found car pics I never knew I had! So soon, once I do some cleanup on exposures and color fading (some non-Kodachrome slide films really have faded with time, wish I knew that back then), I'll give you some vehicle history of the Beaulieu family from the early '70s to early '80s.

uplanderguy · March 2019

Be sure to include cousin Priscilla in there!

I know, I know, I've asked you about that before.

uplanderguy · March 2019

andre..speaking of a Chevy 400 small block--there's a '69 Caprice on eBay now that the guy says was built with a 400 and the stamping no. confirms that it's a 400. The front fender emblems say "350". He says the codes indicate that both the engine, and car, were built in June '69.

I've seen my share of assembly line goofs, but I about lived at a Chevy dealer starting at about that period and absorbed all I could, and I don't ever remember something ending up in production before promoted. Remember that those were the days where they deliberately held new stuff off until the new model year.

The '70 "400" emblems were italicized--they were slanted--and there were no '400' emblems in '69. Weird.

ab348 · March 2019

uplanderguy said:
Be sure to include cousin Priscilla in there!

She never calls, she never writes.... 😉

berri · March 2019

ab, were those fading non Kodachrome slides Ektachrome, or a different brand altogether?

ab348 · March 2019

berri said:
ab, were those fading non Kodachrome slides Ektachrome, or a different brand altogether?

No, I should have stuck with Kodachrome as it still looks great. But I seem to recall that the fastest speed it came in was 64ASA back then and I wanted something faster. I used Fujichrome, Agfachrome, and even 3M brand slide film which I think all came in 100ASA. Maybe (probably) they were cheaper too. Anyway, the Agfa faded badly and I believe at least some of the Fuji did as well. On the Agfa, flesh tones have all gone to a deep rose, while on the Fuji (as you will see) blues predominate. Really disappointing.

ab348 · March 2019

OK, here we go. Keep in mind the film problems noted in my post above when seeing these pics. Also keep in mind that these are all pretty mundane cars you're going to see, but it's just nice to have pics from that long ago to share.

Background: my father was a real estate agent from the early '60s until the mid-80s, and was hard on cars as a result. We managed with one car up until the time I turned 16 and got my license, at which time we became a 2-car family. Dad was driving a '68 Volvo at that point in 1973, which he loved but which was pretty miled up. He decided that since the '68 had treated him so well, he would get a new '73 144 and give me the '68 to drive to university. So this is what he bought:

This one had a brown woven cloth interior (no pics of interiors turned up). I remember we really liked it in the showroom. The '73 had a much more modern dash and interior than the '68 and just seemed better. We were quickly disabused of that notion when we took it on a trip to New England maybe a week after getting it, and it shook and vibrated badly on the highway. We made it to Bangor, ME the first night and the next day a dealership said the front end was so out of line that one of the front tires had worn down to the cord. An alignment and a new tire later, we were on our way. But the car had just a never-ending series of problems after that. Dad hated it so he gave it to me to drive and took back his trusty '68.

ab348 · March 2019

About a year or so later the '68 144 was about to give up the ghost. Dad could see the writing on the wall, but he didn't want a big car (he had sold our '71 Monaco and replaced it with the Volvo because he found the Dodge way too big to drive around town). That was when we ended up with the '74 Maverick I posted yesterday, which he traded the '68 Volvo in on. Here are a few more pics of that which I found today:

That first pic is it in front of our house around this time of year. The place in the background was a bit of a scourge (fairly low-end rental at the time) until it was sold and renovated.

ab348 · March 2019

As it turned out he didn't like the Maverick either (or more likely Mom wanted it more than the Volvo) so I ended up driving that to university and taking Mom on errands, etc in it for the next few years. Dad kept the '73 Volvo but still hated it. It wouldn't run right in the wet which drove him nuts. I don't recall what happened in terms of the deal, but one day he came home and announced he had a new car. Talk about mundane:

This '74 Impala was an ex-Budget rental he bought from his friend who had the Budget franchise here in town. Dark red metallic, black and white herringbone cloth interior, bare-bones. It was even bigger than his Dodge was I think but I guess he got a good deal on it. I didn't like driving it because it had a wicked hesitation from a standing start due to the leaned out carburetion, and of course it was a barge. It didn't stay long. Come spring he traded it in on a new '75 Hornet Sportabout, beige in color. No pics found of that.

ab348 · March 2019

The Hornet gave him good service for the next 3 years and I actually liked driving it too. Unlike the Maverick it handled a little bit, had decent steering and brakes, and was good on the highway. After about 3 years of use in his business it was getting a little tatty inside, which was not a strong point to start with. So he traded it in on introduction day in the fall of '77 on this:

He bought it without driving it or even sitting in it, since the dealership didn't have any yet. They were in transit, but had ordered one in the same colors the brochure featured, and they did have brochures to give him, so he bought the car pictured in the brochure. About a week after making the deal he took delivery. It would have been a good car for him in his work as it was roomy, rode nicely, handled well and had lots of room. But the build quality was atrocious, it rattled, stuff fell off or broke, and it was just annoyingly troublesome. But he kept it for a few years. Mom took ill during this period and passed away in 1982. That led to me staying at home for a while after graduating university to help them.

ab348 · March 2019

Meanwhile I was still driving the Maverick as it rusted away underneath me. I never saw a car rust as badly and as quickly as that. In '79 the hood skin started to peel away from the substructure due to rust and that was the last straw. He dumped the Maverick in a private sale and bought another ex-Budget rental from his friend:

I guess he liked dark red Impala sedans. This was a '79, only about 6 months old. It was just a great-driving car. About a year after we got it Mom's health really went downhill and she was put into a nursing home. By this time I was working full time and using the Impala to drive there. Given the situation, he and I talked about it and agreed that I could sell it for him, buy something cheaper for myself with the proceeds, and give him the remainder to help with expenses. I was sorry to say goodbye to the Impala but I was happy to do it.

ab348 · March 2019

I put an ad in the newspaper and sold the Impala for only about $500 less than he had paid for it. From that same newspaper classified section I found this, and bought it:

This was a '77 LeMans sport coupe with about 30K miles on it. This drove very much like the Impala but it had a white vinyl interior with blue dash and carpets, seemed a more appropriate vehicle for a young guy like me at the time, and the girls liked it a lot better too. I kept it for 5+ years and it was a good car. In '84 I had it painted and it turned out great. I thought I remembered taking some pics of it after getting it back from the body shop, but none tuned up in this bunch. Of course the door scrape got fixed during that.

sda · March 2019

Is that a 76 LeMans? I believe it is the same color as my 76 Sunbird.

ab348 · March 2019

After Mom passed away Dad was devastated for a while but after a while got back to a more normal routine. He traded the Grand Lemans Safari in late '82 for the car you see in this pic, the only image I have of it. I had borrowed it for a weekend road trip with some folks from my work when this pic was taken.

An '82 Olds Omega Brougham 2-door with the V6, it was a very posh car inside and really drove well until he ran it into a telephone pole a year or so after the pic. He was fine, the car was a write-off.

A few months after I took that pic we decided it was time for each of us to go out on our own. He sold the family house and we each got our own places at that point, which is where the story of our family's cars ends. Hope it wasn't too mundane.

stickguy · March 2019

My parents had a 1969 Volvo 144 that I learned to drive on. They sold that and bought a new Omni in 1979, at the tail end of HS for me. No clue if I have any pictures of either one. My family was not much for pictures in general, and must really not liked having pictures of cars!

I actually had a 1975 Hornet sportabout for a while too, when I was in college.

Nothing else close to your list though!

ab348 · March 2019

sda said:
Is that a 76 LeMans? I believe it is the same color as my 76 Sunbird.

Oops. forgot that. It was a '77.

explorerx4 · March 2019

@ab348,
Quite a good family car anthology you posted.
Enjoyed every picture.

sda · March 2019

Pontiac changed

the color slightly from 76-77. The 76 Sunbird was Athena blue, and had a bit more blue in the color, which you could see when it was waxed and pristine. The 77 color was a bit more silver. Same color combination in the interior, which I thought looked great, but white is hard to keep unless you wipe it down frequently.

And both are similar to the color on my grandmother's 68 Cutlass S, which I have fondness for.

fintail · March 2019

Fun pics. I wish my parents or myself had documented the cars of my youth so thoroughly. The most I have is a car in the background here and there.

tjc78 · March 2019

Really cool! If I dug around I could probably do this too from the late 70s when I was born to the mid - late 90s when I got my my first car. I know I have pictures of every car my parents owned in albums.

Funny, I know I’m actually missing some of mine. No pictures exist of my 93 Taurus, 79 Continental or 98 Olds 88.

uplanderguy · March 2019

I too wish we had more family car photos. I have pics of our '74 Impala Sport Coupe, '77 Impala Coupe, '80 Monte Carlo, '81 Monte Carlo, and '82 Monte Carlo (the last two were mine, not my parents').

Thanks for sharing, very interesting!

RE.: The '79 Impala--I liked the grille and taillights of the '79 a lot better than the '78. The '79 was actually closer to the '77 than the '78 was.

uplanderguy · March 2019

Seen on Facebook this a.m. My favorite-year Impala in Evening Orchid, a one-year-only color. A classmate of mine's family had one back then with no vinyl top though; he couldn't believe I remembered it when we were talking at a reunion a few years back.

berri · March 2019

Friends of ours had a Pontiac wagon just like that picture, even the color and wood applique. I like the lines on the 68 Cutlass S.

fintail · March 2019

IMO that 65 Impala would be better as a single tone car, but I know in 65 the black vinyl top fad was in full swing.

uplanderguy · March 2019

I want to tell that model, "Quit leaning on that door!"

berri · March 2019

Personally, I was never fond of vinyl roofs. I purchased my 76 Olds Cutlass without one during the height of the vinyl roof craze. But I did have the fake mag wheels

omarman · March 2019

I want to tell that model, "Run away with me!"

That pic just makes you long for the days when new cars had color.
The convertible with turquoise paint, brown carpet, white upholstery and all standard factory options I think.

ab348 · March 2019

uplanderguy said:

RE.: The '79 Impala--I liked the grille and taillights of the '79 a lot better than the '78. The '79 was actually closer to the '77 than the '78 was.

The '78 Chevy front end never looked right to me. I always thought the '79 was the best of those 3 years, with '77 in 2nd place.

uplanderguy · March 2019

The '78 Chevy front end never looked right to me. I always thought the '79 was the best of those 3 years, with '77 in 2nd place.

All true especially in Impalas, I think.

xwesx · March 2019

@ab348 Great write-ups! Thanks for sharing them.

explorerx4 · March 2019

Here is a picture of me with my first new car.
Kind of an attempt at humor. Also, notice the duct tape on the front air dam.

texases · March 2019

explorerx4 said:
Here is a picture of me with my first new car.
Kind of an attempt at humor. Also, notice the duct tape on the front air dam.

How'd you get my car?!? I had a black '79 Scirocco with silver stripes and a red band. Only difference is the silver stripe also followed the hatch line up the C pillar. I lacked the fog lights, and the duct tape. I also am 'headroom challenged', my seatback nearly touched the rear seat. Wish I had a pic.

I found this on the web, pretty close to what I remember:

stickguy · March 2019

I loved those Scirrocos.

bhill2 · March 2019

I had a '79. Good reliable car. Good performance. Even good fuel economy. Never really liked it. Somehow it just didn't fit me. When I went back to school, I traded it for a diesel Rabbit to a dealer who was going out of the new car business and transitioning to rebuilding classic Bugs. He was trying to get rid of his inventory. He couldn't make the trade fast enough. As it turned out, I developed quite a fondness for the Rabbit. It was the most straightforward car I ever owned; totally dependable, great fuel economy, couldn't have pulled a champagne cork out of the bottle. About 6 years later, having acquired a wife who didn't share my affection for it, I sold it to a co-worker who had a long commute. She loved it.

xwesx · March 2019

My best friend in high school had a '79 diesel Rabbit throughout our school years. Five speed; fun little car in its own right. Built like a tank. It took out animals, fences, and even flew once, and one would probably never know if they were ignorant of the events themselves....

kyfdx · March 2019

stickguy said:
I loved those Scirrocos.

Ditto... I bought my first new car in '77, and I wanted one of those bad! $5250 MSRP and no discounts, though. Ended up buying a Cobra II for $4400.

Just one of a litany of bad decisions.

uplanderguy · March 2019

I've mentioned this before, but a guy I worked with, two years older than me, was appalled that I bought a new '81 V8 Monte Carlo that stickered at within $100 of his new Scirocco S. We carpooled. I hated the back seat and ribbed him about the one windshield wiper, but of course those aren't things one bought a Scirocco for! He ribbed me about being behind-the-times with the Monte.

tjc78 · March 2019

I’m with you Uplander ... I would have taken the Monte too.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

Drove this yesterday: optioned with "Super Wildcat" engine 2X4bbl. Great MPG I'm sure!

kyfdx · March 2019

uplanderguy said:
I've mentioned this before, but a guy I worked with, two years older than me, was appalled that I bought a new '81 V8 Monte Carlo that stickered at within $100 of his new Scirocco S. We carpooled. I hated the back seat and ribbed him about the one windshield wiper, but of course those aren't things one bought a Scirocco for! He ribbed me about being behind-the-times with the Monte.

Was that a 2nd gen Scirocco? I liked those a lot, too.

roadburner · March 2019

By the early '80s I was just about done with domestic cars- aside from the Mustang 5.0 and Z28, nothing from the Big 3 interested me. In 1993 I bought a 1984 T Bird Turbo Coupe with the five speed manual to keep miles off the M6. In 2002 I bought the Wrangler and still have it. Today on the domestic front only the Wrangler and the V8 ponycars really move the needle for me- although I would consider a hot hatch like the Fiesta ST as a work beater(a job currently held by the Clubman)

kyfdx · March 2019

Shockingly, I could see myself in a late model Mustang GT.

Mr_Shiftright · March 2019

Yes but only if you wear your Reds baseball cap backwards.

uplanderguy · March 2019

Other than the best '65's, those first-gen Rivieras are surprisingly affordable in nice condition, IMHO.

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

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