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

uplanderguy · July 2019

RE: That '57 Ranchero--nice vehicle for sure.

I love '56 Fords and also '57 and '58 Fords. I know some don't like the 'bugeye' look of the '57 but how lost is it on (probably) most people that it actually outsold Chevy that year?!

I always thought it was funny that the '58 Ranchero still had the round '57 taillights instead of the units used on all other '58 Fords.

uplanderguy · July 2019

RE.: That beautiful gray '68 Caprice coupe bench seat photo above....

I know anybody can do whatever they want to their own car, but who'd think that putting a 'necker's knob' on a car with such an original, luxury interior was a good idea?!

ab348 · July 2019

Just be glad he didn't drill the A-pillar to install a spotlight.

stickguy · July 2019

A prowler drove by this afternoon.

ab348 · July 2019

stickguy said:
A prowler drove by this afternoon.

Hope they didn't steal anything.

fintail · July 2019

Now that pics are back, I recall a couple of spots at the local specialty car dealership a couple weeks back:

John Voight was visiting:

Looks like a nice normal Fiero:

But I can suspect it can be a handful to drive:

imidazol97 · July 2019

uplanderguy said:
RE: That '57 Ranchero--nice vehicle for sure.

I love '56 Fords and also '57 and '58 Fords. I know some don't like the 'bugeye' look of the '57 but how lost is it on (probably) most people that it actually outsold Chevy that year?!

I always thought it was funny that the '58 Ranchero still had the round '57 taillights instead of the units used on all other '58 Fords.

I had forgotten the 58's having the 57 taillights. I knew I had seen 58 double taillights when I was browsing pictures.

Then I went back for a second look.

58 Ranchero. Right? Not.

It's a station wagon cut down. Compare the tailgates.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/looking-for-ford-experts-to-identify-1958-ranchero-rare.1076403/

berri · July 2019

Did they steal those blue dot lights off a 49 Mercury

sda · July 2019

What was the reason or appeal for the blue dot tail lights?

Michaell · July 2019

sda said:
What was the reason or appeal for the blue dot tail lights?

K-Mart company car?

imidazol97 · July 2019

sda said:
What was the reason or appeal for the blue dot tail lights?

Cool factor. They looked different from behind when the brakes were applied because the combination of the blue with the red was a purple effect. The color made the taillights stand out.

The trend matched the dice hanging from the mirror and the red bulbs for the interior lighting that was an occasionally popular thing to have in a car in the 50s and early 60s.

berri · July 2019

Just a fad like necker knobs, curb feelers, painted flames or fuzzy dice back then

omarman · July 2019

Michaell said:

sda said:
What was the reason or appeal for the blue dot tail lights?
K-Mart company car?

That would be special! The only specific purpose or "reason" I've ever heard for the blue dot tail lights was for making brighter brake and back up lights on vintage cars like Cadillac, Lincoln and Packard.

PF_Flyer · July 2019

I have been glued to a lot of the coverage the past few days just as much as I was at the time

ab348 · July 2019

I watched the CNN Films retrospective on the weekend and it was the best of those I've seen. Original NASA footage cleaned up so that it looked new. No actors recreating scenes like in the disappointing PBS equivalent. I'm sure they'll re-run it, worth a look.

When you think about what they accomplished given the level of tech and science at the time, and how any one thing going wrong could have not only wrecked the mission but quite possibly killed all of them, it really was incredible, something I did not fully appreciate at the time.

PF_Flyer · July 2019

I saw the CNN film as well. It was fantastic

uplanderguy · July 2019

We were on vacation to D.C. on July 20, 1969, staying in the Bethesda Motor Inn. I remember watching the TV coverage. I was more besotted with an enormous, multi-story Chevy dealer showroom directly across the street, but couldn't get Dad to go look there. It was called "Chevy Chase Chevrolet", with that written on the building in mid-fifties Chevrolet script font.

PF_Flyer · July 2019

uplanderguy said:
We were on vacation to D.C. on July 20, 1969, staying in the Bethesda Motor Inn. I remember watching the TV coverage. I was more besotted with an enormous, multi-story Chevy dealer showroom directly across the street, but couldn't get Dad to go look there. It was called "Chevy Chase Chevrolet", with that written on the building in mid-fifties Chevrolet script font.

Now THAT's a car guy!

This place?

PF_Flyer · July 2019

And today

ab348 · July 2019

Wow, @PF_Flyer , I just spent some time looking for a photo of that place but that one never popped up. Good sleuthing.

Probably just as well though, since the inferior pic I found was one I could not post since the pulldown was non-responsive again.

fintail · July 2019

I visited with my mom over the weekend, and the Moon Landing came up - I asked her where she was, and then rubbed in that it was "a half century ago"

She remembered it, she was at a fair in Walla Walla, didn't watch it on TV but remembers hearing about it everywhere. At the time she was driving a 61 Impala convertible, white on red, which would be replaced in 1970 by a new Beetle. My dad had a light yellow 67 Galaxie convertible at the time.

sda · July 2019

We went to a friend’s house to watch the Moon Landing. I was 9. They had a larger TV and it was color. Dad begrudgingly bought a Zenith console color TV in ‘71, and our black and white that was on a cart with rollers was put in the study. Mom was driving her 63 Olds Dynamic 88 Holiday coupe, and dad had a 66 Galaxie 500 sedan as his company car.

xwesx · July 2019

I love the memories. Thanks, guys!

We had a Zenith console TV when I was a kid. Color, seems like it took about five minutes to warm up. It had a turn table on one side with storage for 33s, and a stereo on the other with 8-track (and storage for such) on the other. Good old days?

When our other 70s-era 19" television, our "main TV," finally gave up the ghost in 1991, my father replaced it with a 27" Magnavox. That set seemed like such a revelation at the time! I recall my TV time increasing dramatically in concert with that acquisition.

berri · July 2019

I remember the early Zenith remote control TV's with the "clickers" because they made a clicking sound when used. Zenith was an upscale brand.

As I recall, Chevy Chase, MD was (or may still be) considered a more upscale town, so it is kind of funny to see that big, rather upscale Chevy dealership back in those days. You'd have thought it should be a Buick or Cadillac dealer.

The moon landing; I was a cadet at summer training. They brought an extra TV into one of the day rooms. Pretty impressive accomplishment for the days that spurned a bunch of new technological gains.

pensfan83 · July 2019

Saw this at the grocery store, very clean. I appreciate the simplicity of this design, especially in light of some of the current offerings. *cough Chevy *cough*

ab348 · July 2019

Heh, TVs of my youth. I was born in ‘56 and my early memories are of an old ‘50s GE tabletop set from the early ‘50s most likely, which wouldn’t work half the time, and a tallish larger floor model (might have been a CBS) that we had until the mid-60s when the folks splurged on one of those large combo TV-stereo consoles. Ours was a DuMont! That served us until we got out first color set, a 25” RCA with a metal wood grain cabinet, in the early ‘70s. We also had a mid-60s Westinghouse 19” portable B&W set that lived in a bedroom on a wheeled cart (useful things but likely made obsolete when cable arrived) which got lugged to our cottage on weekends.

berri · July 2019

Old TV's and stereo's - sticky tuner problems, tubes burning out, and antenna's sometimes needing an extra kick with some carefully placed aluminum foil

uplanderguy · July 2019

That Ford truck--the bed is from a different generation than the cab.

That is DEFINITELY the dealer as I remember it, and it was smack across-the-street from the Bethesda Motor Inn, which I'm thinking would probably no longer be there (local motel and pool). I find it sad that the place isn't a Chevy dealer anymore, sigh. I want to say the town is Bethesda since the motel was called that. I remember walking to a place to eat with my parents that looked like a Howard Johnsons' but it was called "Hot Shoppes".

explorerx4 · July 2019

@pensfan83,
Looks a lot like a truck I once owned.

PF_Flyer · July 2019

ab348 said:
Wow, @PF_Flyer , I just spent some time looking for a photo of that place but that one never popped up. Good sleuthing.

Probably just as well though, since the inferior pic I found was one I could not post since the pulldown was non-responsive again.

I landed in an article from 5 years ago that was about their 75th year in business. Had a whole bunch of photos over the years

PF_Flyer · July 2019

uplanderguy said:
That Ford truck--the bed is from a different generation than the cab.

That is DEFINITELY the dealer as I remember it, and it was smack across-the-street from the Bethesda Motor Inn, which I'm thinking would probably no longer be there (local motel and pool). I find it sad that the place isn't a Chevy dealer anymore, sigh. I want to say the town is Bethesda since the motel was called that. I remember walking to a place to eat with my parents that looked like a Howard Johnsons' but it was called "Hot Shoppes".

We used to go down to DC all the time from from northern NJ when I was a kid. I am VERY familiar with Hot Shoppes

ab348 · July 2019

IIRC the Hot Shoppes in the D.C. area were the seed from which the Marriott hotel chain sprouted.

PF_Flyer · July 2019

Hot Shoppes did have that HoJo mojo

omarman · July 2019

Spotted on the far north side Columbus a late 80s Bronco in the lunch time traffic mix. Looked stock in white and had a mild exhaust burble. Nice truck and looked well kept.

Was looking for a pic online similar to the one I saw but got distracted by this thing instead:
1974 Ford Bronco Woody

PF_Flyer · July 2019

Must be Drive Your Oddball to the Gym month here

Not a "classic" license plate, but a 1958 "vintage plate

explorerx4 · July 2019

Maybe that LR got pushed there as a warmup.

uplanderguy · July 2019

Thanks for confirming my memory of "Hot Shoppes" and Chevy Chase Chevrolet. Somewhere in the house there's a color photo of 11-year-old me and my parents in front of the pool with Chevy Chase Chevrolet in the background. We're in our bathing suits and it's not pretty!

The pic above looks like '67-model Chevys in the showroom.

I also remember a place around the corner and down a hill called "Stan's Tastee Diner" where we ate breakfast. I'll have to Google that.

andre1969 · July 2019

I was sitting next to an Olds Intrigue at a traffic light this morning. Alas, it was not in the most flattering of positions...

I have a feeling it was being towed off to be junked. The base of the back seat had been pulled up, the result of a scavenge for loose change and other trinkets. I've noticed that this is usually a sign that a car is about to head off to its final resting place.

ab348 · July 2019

My buddy up-country finally sold off his 2002 Intrigue GLX that he bought as a dealer demo in the fall of that year. He had taken scrupulous care of it and it had a little over 100K miles. He dealt with the usual problem areas like wheel bearings and ABS sensors but really had few issues considering the length of ownership and the mileage. Finally one of his front coil springs broke and the end poked out, wearing into the tire and causing a blowout. Further investigation revealed some considerable rust in that area and he decided it was time. He sold it to a local who said he was going to fix it up. Yeah, suuure.

andre1969 · July 2019

On the subject of ABS sensors, my '03 Regal LS has been pulling a few tricks lately...I wonder if it's similar to your friend's Intrigue? Sometimes when I start the car, two or three idiot lights refuse to shut off. One is an ABS light, and I think the other is "Traction Control" and I forget what the other one is. But, after I turn it off and back on again, it usually turns itself off.

Another little trick it's been pulling, is with the dual zone a/c. Sometimes, the passenger side will start blowing hot air, even though I have it set to a/c, and both sides set as cold as they'll get. Usually, turning it off and on again, and flipping the two temperature levers all the way to hot and then back to cold again will cause it to fix itself.

Still, I can't fault the car, considering it's now 17 years old (build date 6/02). Mileage isn't particularly high, at around 89,000, but these days I think old age is more of a problem than it used to be on cars, even when they're well-maintained, simply because of all the plastics and electronics in them.

stickguy · July 2019

Finally nice at the beach so toys coming out. Rich old couple in a white 60 corvette, top down. And parked a very clean looking 1st gen bronco, top off. No flares either.

imidazol97 · July 2019

andre1969 said:
On the subject of ABS sensors, my '03 Regal LS has been pulling a few tricks lately...I wonder if it's similar to your friend's Intrigue? Sometimes when I start the car, two or three idiot lights refuse to shut off. One is an ABS light, and I think the other is "Traction Control" and I forget what the other one is. But, after I turn it off and back on again, it usually turns itself off.

Another little trick it's been pulling, is with the dual zone a/c. Sometimes, the passenger side will start blowing hot air, even though I have it set to a/c, and both sides set as cold as they'll get. Usually, turning it off and on again, and flipping the two temperature levers all the way to hot and then back to cold again will cause it to fix itself.

Still, I can't fault the car, considering it's now 17 years old (build date 6/02). Mileage isn't particularly high, at around 89,000, but these days I think old age is more of a problem than it used to be on cars, even when they're well-maintained, simply because of all the plastics and electronics in them.

The 3 dash lights would be stabilitrak, ABS, and traction control because they all rely on input from the sensors for the ABS. If the lights don't come on while driving but only at startup, I'd think of a bad battery that's dropping voltage when sitting a long time so that the control computer for those items loses its place.

The problem with the hvac actuators sounds like what they do when doing a reset after a battery has been disconnected. The controller (programmer) sends all the way to one extreme and waits to sense that the blend door has reached that limit and then goes to the other full extreme and senses it's there. The programmer then knows the boundary for the movement of the actuators for max and minimum.

On the leSabre 1998, the large plastic gear inside the actuator could crack and that meant it wasn't swedged onto the axle tight. The actuator lost its position. I glued mine back into place with superglue.

But I wonder if your problem is battery. You might try putting a trickle charger on at night and seeing if that maintains the two controls.

ab348 · July 2019

pensfan83 said:
Saw this at the grocery store, very clean. I appreciate the simplicity of this design, especially in light of some of the current offerings. *cough Chevy *cough*

I always liked that generation of Ford trucks. The front end design was better than what preceded it and what followed it.

stickguy · July 2019

Outside a hotel, a red corvette coupe. 65 or 66 I think. Looked nice. Big block hood. And rolling on Steelies with no hubcaps. Odd to see, but looked sharp.

xwesx · July 2019

ab348 said:
I always liked that generation of Ford trucks. The front end design was better than what preceded it and what followed it.

Mmm.... disagree. I've never been a fan of the square body era (for Ford or Chevy), and feel the designs that bookended the era were better on both counts. However, in Ford's case, I DO like this design better than the 97+ F150 generation, as well as the 98+ HD generation.

andre1969 · July 2019

ab348 said:

pensfan83 said:
Saw this at the grocery store, very clean. I appreciate the simplicity of this design, especially in light of some of the current offerings. *cough Chevy *cough*

I always liked that generation of Ford trucks. The front end design was better than what preceded it and what followed it.

I agree with you on that one, although I'll profess a fondness for the '78-79 Ford trucks, where it looked like they gave the front-end a sturdier, tougher look. From '80-86, I think I'd still take a Chevy or GMC truck over the F-series overall...maybe it's just my upbringing and some GM marketing "brainwashing"...but I do think that generation of F-series was a handsome looking truck. I like the slight wedge/prow shape of the front, slightly reminiscent of a '75-76 Caprice, in my opinion.

When Ford went to that restyle for 1987, that somehow managed to be a contradiction of "Aero" and "Blocky" at the same time, I didn't think it was attractive at all. The '92-96 was a nice update, though.

Meanwhile, when Chevy and GMC went to rectangular headlights, it seemed like it took a few years before they were very attractive, in my opinion. They just seemed a bit too "flat-faced" and had sort of an unfinished look to them. Especially the cheaper models that didn't have the stacked headlights.

Also, I always forget...what exactly, was the timeframe for GM switching their trucks to rectangular headlights. My great-uncle had a 1980 Chevy 3/4 ton, a really attractive 2-tone dark blue and white, that had round lights. I thought it looked really good. But I've seen some '80 models that had rectangular lights...to me they look a bit like a ripoff of the 1980 F-series, just with a flat front.

I wonder if the transition happened at mid-year? Or, maybe it was the Silverado trim level that got the rectangular lights, and the cheaper versions got the round? Someone on Edmunds actually answered this for me once before, but I have to confess I'm having a Ronald Reagan moment

fintail · July 2019

I want to say the big facelift for GM squarebodies was for MY 1981. That facelift, along with the 1992 Ford facelift, really worked to keep an ancient design relevant.

Funny, for the 1988+ models, the earlier ones with the individual lights on top and flush lights on bottom have always kind of bugged me - to me, it looked much better when the whole lighting unit became flush. And the base models with recessed lights always looked cheap to me. The steering wheel in earlier models also looked off to me.

uplanderguy · July 2019

I think you're right....I'm a Chevy guy but by '81 I'd finally become an adult with a real job, LOL. I think the '81 was a slight reskinning with a slightly-more aero hood, etc.

I liked the '88's when they had four square, small headlights. I really haven't liked a Chevy truck styling since then, but I'll say I like the new Silverado when it has a chrome grille. I like how the nameplates are on the side of the hood. For tacky looks, MHO only, the award goes to Toyota for busy grilles--the one reminds me a of '61 DeSoto. The big belt-buckle Toyota emblem doesn't do anything for me either, but as you all know I'm an old-skool guy.

uplanderguy · July 2019

RE.: That Ford truck in the pic--the bed is from another truck. Note it has round wheel openings.

uplanderguy · July 2019

I went to a local cruise-in with my Stude and had dinner with the owner of the only other Stude there, a gold six-cylinder '63 Lark four-door, whose name is also Bill although he's a good 25 years older than me.

I'm not a Sting Ray fan typically, but there was a stock maroon '66 coupe with 427 (replete with the correct front-fender emblem), knockoff wheels, and a gold-pinstripe on the tires--like a narrow whitewall, but gold. It was gorgeous. I told the owner's wife that too.

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

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