I seem to remember reading that the early hidden headlight systems in the '60s and into the '70s were all vacuum operated among domestic makes, but they were spring-loaded so that the vacuum motor had to overcome that resistance. The reason being was that the springs were a fail-safe in case of a vacuum leak or vacuum motor/linkage failure, to have the headlamp doors open as a default position.
The '65 New Yorker had vinyl "ear muffs" standard on the C-pillars of the 2- and 4-door hardtops.
Funny you should mention the vacuum operated hidden lamps on Fords. Dad had a 77 Grand Marquis which had a small vacuum leak. The light doors would stay closed for about 5 hours and then one side would open with a squeak shortly after the other. With the car parked in the garage just outside the kitchen and den we would hear the squeak and knew what happened. One evening mom happened to step into the garage for something. The Marquis was directly in front of her. Perfect timing, squeak. Mom laughed, “the car winked at me. I wish dad would.“
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That would actually be a cool scene for a horror type movie. Someone out in the garage, oblivious to what's going on, and suddenly, one of the car's headlight covers drops down, with a suitable sound effect...
I was looking at old car brochures from the late 70s and was reminded that most entry level cars like the Malibu, Nova were sparsely equipped, real strippos. I also came across a 96 Audi full line brochure that was mailed to me. I must have requested it as it came with a letter addressed to me and offered me a 60 min pre-paid phone card if I would take a test drive and send in a survey. I did test drive an A4 but already had a 95 VW Jetta GLX VR6. The Audi was the better driving car but the GLX would smoke it.
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I remember when I was a kid, I used to think that vinyl was the bottom of the barrel, when it came to interior fabrics. I think I might get that because I liked the brocade stuff in my grandparents' '72 Impala, but the vinyl in my Mom's '75 LeMans would get hot as blazes in the summer. I really can't remember much further back than that. I vaguely remember Mom's '68 Impala 4-door hardtop, but can't remember which interior it had.
When I got a little older, and started getting into all the details and specs of various cars, I was a bit surprised to find that vinyl was usually the upgrade! On some cars, like my old '80 Malibu, there were two vinyls and two cloths offered, one for the base and one for the Classic.
On my old '79 Newport, fabric was the base, and vinyl was the upgrade as well, although there was a more plush, corduroy looking fabric as the top option, that came with a split bench seat. I was surprised on that one to learn that the base was actually fabric, because it looked pretty nice.
I like a dense high quality fabric, like brocade or old fashioned woolcloth. Some of the mouse fur stuff that started in the 80s and never seemed to fully go away, on the other hand - but I suppose the vinyl equivalent is just as bad, see older econoboxes.
I like a hard surface for easier maintenance - a good fake leather like MB and BMW have used, among others, can be ideal, some of it probably appears as actual leather to 97% of bystanders.
On my Cutlass, you could only get vinyl upholstery in ‘68, although you had a choice of 6 or 7 colours. But I like the vinyl because it isn’t trying to pretend it’s leather. It has its own unique pattern.
At GM for a long time, if you got bucket seats, they were all-vinyl only. First cloth bucket availability I can remember were the first-gen Monte Carlo and '69-72 gen Grand Prix.
Well into the seventies, at Chevy, vinyl was nearly-always optional at extra cost--$31 is a retail I remember seeing many times on window stickers for all-vinyl trim.
I like a smooth, somewhat shiny vinyl in cars back then--grained, or even perforated is OK. And really, it holds up better than buttery-soft leather then did. A woven vinyl was always a turnoff to me, even though it 'breathed', as I always link it in my mind to the very bottom-line Chevelle Deluxe and base Nova models of the '73-or-so era.
The entry-level Cadillac Calais models of the seventies, still a Cadillac, offered what they called 'expanded vinyl' which looked like soft leather to me, but didn't get all the creases in it after a few years. It was extra-cost over the cloth-and-vinyl interior.
Three of my Studebaker Daytonas had a nice-quality vinyl interior, but in my daily cars, I have never owned a single car with leather or even all-vinyl. Besides not wanting to spend the money, I like the warmth/coolness of cloth.
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A friend sent me this link yesterday, and I post it here since we were discussing this era car and this 'ilk' car. First off, the asking price is beyond-insane, but a 350 4-speed four-door '77 Nova Concours is a bit interesting:
I much-prefer the '75 LN to the later Concours. For one, how many times was Chevy going to use that name (not to mention, Cadillac later)? I didn't care for the wider taillights nor especially the pimpy wide chrome around the wheel openings and those scrolly nameplates. And while the '77 revised instrument panel top-half finally put gauges where they belonged, I don't like the looks of the panel as well as the '75 and '76! (I know, there's no satisfying some people!).
I do like the general size and shape of the car, and the cut of the rear doors.
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At GM for a long time, if you got bucket seats, they were all-vinyl only. First cloth bucket availability I can remember were the first-gen Monte Carlo and '69-72 gen Grand Prix.
Yes, cloth buckets were quite unusual until the mid-late '70s. I always found it odd how vinyl, even good-quality vinyl, seemed to disappear in the '80s and '90s among domestic makes, before "leatherette" started to make a comeback in recent years.I didn't mind good-quality naugahyde seats if they came in colors. The trouble with today's leatherette choices is that they attempt to match an accompanying leather exactly but often come up short. I wouldn't mind leatherette if it was offered in colors like red or blue but today's buyers would likely run away from that.
Look at this '68 Olds vinyl. Doesn't try to make you believe it's leather and instead it just celebrates what it is:
That's the same pattern in my college friend Candyce's '68 4-4-2. It is a nice look. Hers is red inside; the car is a deep burgundy outside with black vinyl top. It has the full wheelcovers. Walking up to it, it'd be easy to think "Cutlass Supreme" but the tag under the hood confirmed it's a real 4-4-2.
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At GM for a long time, if you got bucket seats, they were all-vinyl only. First cloth bucket availability I can remember were the first-gen Monte Carlo and '69-72 gen Grand Prix.
Now that I think about it, the buckets in Pontiac Grand Prixs from '65 could be had in cloth-and-vinyl, so I assume the '66-68 was the same.
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I like that Nova. Nice color. Just needs buckets and a sports steering wheel!
Actually, the version of that I really want is the short lived 1974 baby GTO, 350/4 speed, shaker hood. Really love those. Like this one, just with a stick.
I have always been a small/compact car fan. So those just seemed much more reasonably sized. The prior style had really gotten big and bloated.
though I also thought the Mustang II, while not exactly executed well (not that anything domestic in the mid 70s really was), was actually a lot closer to what a "real" Mustang (the original) was in size and function, compared to the 73 version which was more like a Torino at that point.
I'm not really a fan of the 6-taillight look on the Concours, either. Or the heavy-handed, pretentious grille. I do like the more squared-off, modern looking dashboard though.
I know the purists tend to hate the '74 GTO, but I actually don't mind it. Like the Mustang II, it was simply a sign of the times. The intermediate GTO had seen sales falling for a few years, and Pontiac overshadowed it with the Grand Am in '73.
It's too bad Pontiac didn't try to let the compact GTO run for a few more years. I liked the fact that it used a Pontiac 350, and one that was, for the time at least, fairly high-output, with 200 hp. I heard the main reason the '74 GTO was a one-year only thing is that for '75, to save money, GM wanted to start using Buick 350s in the Ventura as well as the Apollo/Skylark. And for the most part, I don't think Buick had designed their 350 with performance in mind. Especially, not by 1975!
That Concours has the velour bench seat which would have a fold-down center armrest--with that 4-speed sticking out of the floor!
That's a real oddball car. Ordering the bench seat with a 4-on-the-floor makes zero sense. GM should have made buckets a mandatory option if you wanted that. I also find it strange that all of the stainless bezels that snap into the vent holes in the wheels are missing. I had a set of those wheels until a couple of years ago when I sold them. They should look like this:
How well did the 60s patterned vinyl hold up at the seams or transition areas? I recall that being a problem in our 66 Galaxie, and similar in the 60 Ford - in the former it started splitting at the patterns, and in the 60, the insets were becoming detached. Of course, they were old cars even 25-30 years ago.
I have a few spots where the Tex in the fintail is starting to go at seams, I can mostly glue and patch it together for now anyway.
ab, I remember first seeing the chrome outlining on the Rally Wheels slots, in the '78 Malibu and Monte Carlo. Here's a page from the Concours brochure for '77 which doesn't appear to show them:
I remember seeing a new Firethorn '76 or '77 Concours with the narrow body side molding on one side of the car and the deluxe wide molding, on the other side of the car.
Our '73 Nova had a bench seat with 3-speed on the floor. I remember the center position meant your legs went over to the right passenger's footwell.
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I think a 3, or even 4 on the floor with a bench seat was pretty common, as a stripper model. Bucket seats add cost, and weight, and probably weren't that appealing to these types of buyers. They were buying these cars because they were cheap, not for any sporty pretenses.
As for having to sit in the center with your legs over to the right, I always remember that, as a kid, anyway, whenever someone had to sit in the center. It just seemed the thing to do, so you could still stretch out, rather than trying to fit into a fetal position with your feet on the transmission hump. With downsizing, it almost became mandatory, with larger transmission humps, more intrusive dashboards, etc.
When I got my '63 Lark Daytona at 86K miles and 25 years old, the seam on an insert in the back seat was ripped completely open. I had a local shop sew it, not very satisfactorily. That was before I knew I could buy NOS upholstery, and cheaply.
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How well did the 60s patterned vinyl hold up at the seams or transition areas? I recall that being a problem in our 66 Galaxie, and similar in the 60 Ford - in the former it started splitting at the patterns, and in the 60, the insets were becoming detached. Of course, they were old cars even 25-30 years ago.
And of course, they were Fords, so...
In the Cutlass the patterned areas held up fine. The only place the original upholstery had a problem was on the regular grained vinyl along the base of the drivers seat next to the sill, where it cracked on cold winter day. That has now been replaced.
Back in the day, did either of the big 3 have a rep for better interior quality? I know GM did a lot of nice stuff with colored vinyl in the early 60s, but Fords and Mopars could look pretty nice too.
Funny (well, not really), the fintail's one big noticeable dash crack also happened on a cold day, when the car sat in the sun for a few hours. Good luck finding that replacement part.
In the Cutlass the patterned areas held up fine. The only place the original upholstery had a problem was on the regular grained vinyl along the base of the drivers seat next to the sill, where it cracked on cold winter day. That has now been replaced.
Look at this '68 Olds vinyl. Doesn't try to make you believe it's leather and instead it just celebrates what it is:
To me, that particular vinyl pattern looks like it's designed to coordinate with both vinyl seats, and fabric seats. At a quick glance (or if your vision is starting to go), it almost looks like a fabric pattern.
Oldsmobile seemed to go for some pretty nice interiors in those days, often more upscale than a Buick or Pontiac. For instance, I know I've seen 88's (forget the series of 88 though) from around 1965 or so, where the door panels had fabric on them, and carpet on the lower door panels. You might get that treatment on a Chevy Caprice, which was positioned as an upscale car for those on a bit of a budget. But I think the only way you'd get something that nice in a Pontiac would be a Bonneville with the Brougham trim option. And I don't think I've ever seen a LeSabre or Wildcat like that, so I guess back then you had to go to an Electra if you wanted that kind of ritz on a Buick.
I know ritzy door panels aren't the be-all and end-all of a quality car, but I thought they were a nice touch on the Olds. I've also seen Cutlasses, of the '68-72 generation, that seemed to have more uplevel interiors than what you'd find with a Buick Special/Skylark or Pontiac LeMans.
I remember our low-mileage '67 Chevelle 300 Deluxe had maybe an inch separation at a seam, by the time we got rid of it at 30K miles in Oct. '72. It was a low-line cloth-and-vinyl interior and this was on the driver's seat. In my memory, on Chevys, the low-line trims tended to separate more than, say, the Malibu and Impala trims.
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Looking back at the Concours again, it is intriguing, but Chevy couldn't resist putting about a two-foot long block of fake woodgrain across the dash, sigh.
That car reminds me of Nova police cars, which reminds me that a guy posted on FB pics of his original '79 Caprice Classic, loaded with the luxury and appearance options, that had the 9C1 police package that he substantiated with a pic of the options label from the car. I was not aware you could get all that heavy-duty stuff on a non-police vehicle. I'd have definitely done that.
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I think that Concours dash would look better if it was equipped with a/c. Then it would have the upper ducts in that woodgrain, to help break up that vast swath of woodgrain.
I remember around 1981 or so test-driving a blue-on-blue civilian model police Nova, I believe a '77 or '78 model, at the Chevy dealer here who had taken it in on trade. The drive was nice enough though I didn't find it anything too special, but the interior was so low-line as to be intolerable. Flat bench seat with plain-looking upholstery, no creature comforts worth mentioning. I'm not sure it even had armrests, certainly not in the back seat.
I was looking through the '77 Nova brochure online, and one of the "comfort and convenience features" they list is "left front door light switch". Seriously? Does that mean that only the driver's side door will turn on the dome light, and none of the others?? I think I might have seen an occasional car where opening a back door would not turn on the lights, but as far as I can remember, the passenger side front door always did.
One feature I'm impressed with though, is that it looks like even the cheapest Novas had 14x6" rims, standard. I've actually seen a handful of big cars from that era listed with 15x5.5". I don't know what the norm was back then, although a 7" wide wheel was usually considered a pretty big deal...usually reserved for rally wheels, "road" wheels, police car rims, etc.
Also, I'm pretty sure the entry level Nova model did delete the rear door armrests for a few years in the 70's. I wonder, if there were ever any other cars that took the cost cutting that far? I could see Ford doing something like that with the Maverick, but not sure if they ever did. I think Dodge actually did it with the Swinger 340 hardtop when it came out for '69, in their attempt to make a musclecar on a budget. That was a 2-door though. I could see the manufacturers deleting armrests on a 2-door, but a 4-door just seems like it's taking the cost cutting too far. What would they give you to close the door, without an armrest? Just some kind of cheap pull-strap?
I have a 79 Nova brochure. The Custom was the top of the line that year, not nearly as nice as the Concours. And the basic Nova still listed only a light switch for the driver’s door. Cheap.
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Our '73 Nova was a cheapy, although had all the extra exterior moldings. What I always liked on early '70's Novas, and '70-72 Chevelle sedas and wagons, was you could buy the bright trim around the door window frames and to me that reallllyyy dressed them up. Ours had that.
Our Nova had no cigarette lighter, no day-night mirror, and I think only the driver's side switch to turn the dome light on (ours was a coupe). I'm pretty certain the base Nova four-doors had pull straps on the rear doors and no armrests, as well as no detents holding the rear doors open!
People think I'm not remembering this right, but I am--our '73 Nova coupe, six, only options floor-mounted three-speed ($26), Rally Wheels and whitewalls, Exterior Decor Group (those bright window frames and a wide body side molding), AM radio, including destination stickered at the bottom at $2,625.00. This was for a car with an 111-inch wheelbase and about a half-inch more rear-seat legroom than a Chevelle coupe. Novas were price-driven. Ours had a green cloth seating which was basic but not terrible. Thankfully, in '73 GM green interiors were a dark forest green, after a couple years of pea green inside.
While on that Concours, I like the four round instruments, I don't like the upper pad. I'd have preferred if they'd kept the upper pad right 2/3 portion, slanted towards the windshield so it didn't require any decoration there, like the '75 and '76.
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I was looking at Nova brochures and they were certainly cheapskate specials if you didn't order the Concours or several option packages. Aside from the Concours (which according to the pictures in the '76 brochure had a slightly different instrument cluster than the base car, though I don't know why), to get a RF door light switch you needed to order one of a couple of option packages. Same with things like a glove box light and a cigarette lighter. If you ordered a different option package you would also get rear door courtesy light switches along with some other things. Just baffling.
I had thought the Concours had persisted for longer, but in perusing my old car book, looks like it was only '76-77. Those two years, they just had base and Concours. The base was a real stripper, while the Concours looked really nice, so it seems like there should have been a trim level in between.
Now looking at the '78 brochure, it looks like they had Base and Custom. The Custom they're showing in the brochure has 6 taillights, and the more pretentious, Concours style grille. Although, they also show a Custom coupe with "rally equipment", which looks like the normal Nova nose, just with blackout trim...kinda "SS" looking.
They also brag about the Custom having armrests with built-in ashtrays for the back seat. And, the interior in general looks a bit nicer. The seats don't look like they came out of a school bus, at least. It looks to me like this '78-79 Custom is that mid-level model that the '76-77 had been crying out for!
I guess it made some sense to discontinue the Concours for '78, as it might have competed too much with the newly downsized Malibu. It wasn't really a huge seller, anyway. For 1977, the Concours sold about 73,000 units, but the base Nova sold about 292,000. But for '78, the Custom wasn't a hot item, either. They sold about 50,000 of them, compared to around 236,000 of the base model.
For '79, they only sold about 15,000 Customs, compared to maybe 81,000 base models. But, '79 was an abbreviated year, with the Citation going on sale in April of 1979. I always thought it was a bit curious that Chevy went through the effort to restyle the front-end of the '79 Nova, going to rectangular headlights, only to drop it midway through the model year. They probably could have just made do with the '78 style for one more year and saved a few bucks.
Chrysler did something similar with the Aspen and Volare, switching them to rectangular lights for the final 1980 year. And their restyle seemed a bit more significant, as it changed the hood, bumper, and even the front fenders. But, the Aspen/Volare design was sold in foreign markets for several years after they were discontinued in the States...maybe Chevy did something similar with the Nova?
My good friends' parents' '72 Impala was in a car accident and they had a rental '76 Nova strippo coupe, six-cylinder with Turbo-Hydramatic, power steering but no power brakes. He let me drive it once, and it was the first car I ever drove without power brakes at that tender age of 18--I thought it wasn't going to stop! But one thing both of us remember about that Nova is the cheapo plaid red cloth seats, which looked terrible but felt like a blanket.
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When the '75 Nova came out, I was intrigued, as it had been seven model years since so many changes in a Nova.
I can clearly remember a new '75 Nova Custom Coupe at our dealer's, and they had it awhile. It was a maroon color, red vinyl inside, Rally Wheels and whitewalls, the side molding and chromed side window frames, and 262 V8 and THM and PS and PDB. It was $4,163--prices went up a lot in those couple preceding years. But to me, even at 17, it was a perfect size, and the Custom's optional all-vinyl seating looked very high-quality--both the vinyl (which was perforated) with a button in each back section, and the Custom also had the smoked black panel in the instrument cluster, which I liked and like now.
Sixteen exterior colors, and ten of those available with a white painted top. Ahhhhhh!
Here's the LN interior page of the brochure:
I had a salesman friend at our hometown dealer, and I remember him saying he didn't like the '75 Nova brochure as it looked like the front page was missing. He was right.
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For '75, according to my old car book, they had the Nova S, Nova, Nova Custom, and Nova LN. The S was only offered as a coupe. The Nova and Nova Custom had a full range of coupe, hatchback, and sedan. The LN was just coupe or sedan. But then for '76 it contracted to just Nova and Nova Concours, each offering a coupe, hatchback, and sedan. The hatchback Concours, predictably, was a slow seller, as buyers tended to not associate "hatchback" with "luxury".
It is interesting that for '76-77, the dropped the Custom, only to bring it back for '78-79. I wonder if there was some kind mid-range trim package that stood in. For instance, instead of a "Nova Custom", maybe it was "Nova with Custom Trim Package" or something like that? So, even though it was offered, since it was an option rather than a trim level, they didn't break out production/pricing stats?
The littlest options can make the biggest difference to my fussy eyes. I would have had to order my LN with the optional wheel opening moldings (which were thin), not shown on the maroon coupe on the '75 cover photo.
I'm thinking there was a Custom Interior option in those interim years, but not sure. I'll go to the brochure. But you're right; that's a huge difference between a base Nova and a Concours. Sort of like the '74-77 Malibu and Malibu Classic needing a mid-level model between them to my eyes.
I don't know why they photographed the LN interior on the brochure cover with the glovebox open...to show off that it has a glovebox light? LOL
Two smallish things I wish they'd have done with the '75 Nova refresh--give it flush door handles and an inside hood release.
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Thinking of interiors and the mention of carpeted lower door panels, our Tempo had carpeted lower door panels, as it was a highline (GLX) model. Over time, the fibers on the driver's door stretched out a little and became kind of wispy, I'd call them Chewbacca hair.
For obscure cars, saw the Opel Catera again, definitely lives near me. I notice there's a solid looking but apparently non-running ~63 Dart sedan a couple blocks away, along with a mid 80s Laser/Daytona.
The littlest options can make the biggest difference to my fussy eyes. I would have had to order my LN with the optional wheel opening moldings (which were thin), not shown on the maroon coupe on the '75 cover photo.
Yeah, I've noticed that about you. But, once you make mention of it, then it's usually a little detail that I can't un-see, and start to notice it more, myself!
They probably were showing it with the glovebox open, to show off that light. That was probably a pretty big deal in those days, especially for a compact. As for door handles, they tended to be a curious mix in those days. I prefer the more flush style where you can simply pull the handle and it opens, versus the older style where you have the handle you can grab, and the button you push. My '76 LeMans has the more flush-style, but something like a '76 LeSabre, or Cadillac, uses the more old fashioned style.
I wonder if you could get an inside hood release as an option, at least? I wonder when they finally started making inside releases standard across the board? My '76 Grand LeMans has an outside release, and I think I've seen Aspens and Volares with an outside release.
It really was a kinder, gentler, more trusting era, if you didn't have to worry about people ripping something off from under your hood. Or, even stealing your car, entirely.
There was a Custom interior option, just not a separate model as in '75, in '76 and '77:
'77 Custom interior in cloth: '76 Custom interior in vinyl (this is the exact seating I remember but in red, on the '75 I drooled over at our dealer's; it had the thin strip of woodgrain on the door panel though, like the '77 pic above shows--which actually I like (you heard it here!):
Too bad there wasn't a Custom interior option on the Chevelle Malibu from '74 to '77.
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No inside hood release available on the Novas in '75 (and I'm nearly certain, after).
I had forgotten about the 'S'. They also offered a Monza 'S' midway through the year. In the Nova line, the 'S' didn't have the radials that became standard in all models at the beginning of the '75 model year, but it and the 'regular' Nova shared the same unfortunate interior trim.
The '69-76 Nova, bottom-model, black plastic instrument panel cluster often looked 'wavy' even when brand-spanking new--the horizontal lines of it, I mean. In the '73 and '74 Nova Custom model, with those horizontal lines 'chromed', those were wavy too! I hated that, LOL. The '75 Custom and LN had that smoked panel that covered up a good bit of that.
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Cool...good to know they at least had a step up in '76-77, to make the car at least liveable. I could deal with the Custom coupe in that light blue, pictured at the top. While still fairly basic, at least it doesn't scream "I squeeze nickels til the buffalo poops!"
I still don't care for that overall dash design, though. It wouldn't be a make-or-break decision, if I was shopping for a new compact back then, and liked the car otherwise, but it's just not one of my favorite features. I think part of the problem is that, the way it's rounded off, seems out of date, compared to the rest of the car. And, I also don't like the placement of the HVAC ducts. The center ducts just seem stuck on as an afterthought, and then with the way the one all the way to the right is dropped down low, there's just something about the placement, the feng shui, or whatever you want to call it!
I think that dash works fine from '68-74, but with the '75 restyle, it just looks out of place. One other nice thing that the '68-74 had, that was given the axe for '75, was roll-down rear windows in the 2-doors. But, at least the '75-79 did give you the option of rear windows that flipped open.
Thinking back, I also seem to recall that for '73-74, on the 2-doors at least, the door panel was a large, one-piece design with an integrated armrest, and the whole thing was soft-touch? That must have been nice when it was new, although I wonder how it held up, long term.
For a Mopar guy, you have a good memory! Yes, even in the base model Nova, the '73 and '74 door panel was all-soft vinyl, integrated armrest, with a pull strap. We only had ours a year and eleven months so I don't know how they lasted long-term.
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Thinking about hood releases - I recall all of my dad's old Fords had an exterior release, but fintails and I believe even earlier cars are all inside release.
Tried to find a pic of a '73 Nova interior door panel, and came across this link for a '73 for sale. Holy smokes, the whole car looks like our old one! Ours had whitewalls, and this guy says 'radio delete' (that bugs me; radios were never standard then). I've never seen one that looked more like ours. Where this one for sale is, is about an hour from where we lived. Ours took a pretty good hit around the right "B" pillar at 12K miles and my Dad got nervous about that.
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The '65 New Yorker had vinyl "ear muffs" standard on the C-pillars of the 2- and 4-door hardtops.
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But, only had the '72 for four years. My mother drove the '76 for ten years. Of course, by then the headliner was draped on her head...
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When I got a little older, and started getting into all the details and specs of various cars, I was a bit surprised to find that vinyl was usually the upgrade! On some cars, like my old '80 Malibu, there were two vinyls and two cloths offered, one for the base and one for the Classic.
On my old '79 Newport, fabric was the base, and vinyl was the upgrade as well, although there was a more plush, corduroy looking fabric as the top option, that came with a split bench seat. I was surprised on that one to learn that the base was actually fabric, because it looked pretty nice.
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I like a hard surface for easier maintenance - a good fake leather like MB and BMW have used, among others, can be ideal, some of it probably appears as actual leather to 97% of bystanders.
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Well into the seventies, at Chevy, vinyl was nearly-always optional at extra cost--$31 is a retail I remember seeing many times on window stickers for all-vinyl trim.
I like a smooth, somewhat shiny vinyl in cars back then--grained, or even perforated is OK. And really, it holds up better than buttery-soft leather then did. A woven vinyl was always a turnoff to me, even though it 'breathed', as I always link it in my mind to the very bottom-line Chevelle Deluxe and base Nova models of the '73-or-so era.
The entry-level Cadillac Calais models of the seventies, still a Cadillac, offered what they called 'expanded vinyl' which looked like soft leather to me, but didn't get all the creases in it after a few years. It was extra-cost over the cloth-and-vinyl interior.
https://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/cadillac/72cad1/bilder/9.jpg
Three of my Studebaker Daytonas had a nice-quality vinyl interior, but in my daily cars, I have never owned a single car with leather or even all-vinyl. Besides not wanting to spend the money, I like the warmth/coolness of cloth.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/11/11/option-laden-four-speed-canadian-1977-chevrolet-nova-concours-remains-neat-as-a-pin?refer=hccweekly&utm_source=hccweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020-11-11
I much-prefer the '75 LN to the later Concours. For one, how many times was Chevy going to use that name (not to mention, Cadillac later)? I didn't care for the wider taillights nor especially the pimpy wide chrome around the wheel openings and those scrolly nameplates. And while the '77 revised instrument panel top-half finally put gauges where they belonged, I don't like the looks of the panel as well as the '75 and '76! (I know, there's no satisfying some people!).
I do like the general size and shape of the car, and the cut of the rear doors.
Look at this '68 Olds vinyl. Doesn't try to make you believe it's leather and instead it just celebrates what it is:
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Now that I think about it, the buckets in Pontiac Grand Prixs from '65 could be had in cloth-and-vinyl, so I assume the '66-68 was the same.
Actually, the version of that I really want is the short lived 1974 baby GTO, 350/4 speed, shaker hood. Really love those. Like this one, just with a stick.
https://www.autabuy.com/details/?vid=68125809&Year=1974&Make=Pontiac&Model=GTO&ref=search
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That Concours has the velour bench seat which would have a fold-down center armrest--with that 4-speed sticking out of the floor!
though I also thought the Mustang II, while not exactly executed well (not that anything domestic in the mid 70s really was), was actually a lot closer to what a "real" Mustang (the original) was in size and function, compared to the 73 version which was more like a Torino at that point.
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I know the purists tend to hate the '74 GTO, but I actually don't mind it. Like the Mustang II, it was simply a sign of the times. The intermediate GTO had seen sales falling for a few years, and Pontiac overshadowed it with the Grand Am in '73.
It's too bad Pontiac didn't try to let the compact GTO run for a few more years. I liked the fact that it used a Pontiac 350, and one that was, for the time at least, fairly high-output, with 200 hp. I heard the main reason the '74 GTO was a one-year only thing is that for '75, to save money, GM wanted to start using Buick 350s in the Ventura as well as the Apollo/Skylark. And for the most part, I don't think Buick had designed their 350 with performance in mind. Especially, not by 1975!
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I have a few spots where the Tex in the fintail is starting to go at seams, I can mostly glue and patch it together for now anyway.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Chevrolet/1977_Chevrolet/1977_Chevrolet_Nova_Concours_Brochure/1977 Chevrolet Nova Concours-03.
I remember seeing a new Firethorn '76 or '77 Concours with the narrow body side molding on one side of the car and the deluxe wide molding, on the other side of the car.
Our '73 Nova had a bench seat with 3-speed on the floor. I remember the center position meant your legs went over to the right passenger's footwell.
http://tenwheel.com/imgs/a/b/p/w/j/1975_chevrolet_nova_ln_coupe_2___door_5___7l_8_lgw.jpg
As for having to sit in the center with your legs over to the right, I always remember that, as a kid, anyway, whenever someone had to sit in the center. It just seemed the thing to do, so you could still stretch out, rather than trying to fit into a fetal position with your feet on the transmission hump. With downsizing, it almost became mandatory, with larger transmission humps, more intrusive dashboards, etc.
In the Cutlass the patterned areas held up fine. The only place the original upholstery had a problem was on the regular grained vinyl along the base of the drivers seat next to the sill, where it cracked on cold winter day. That has now been replaced.
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Funny (well, not really), the fintail's one big noticeable dash crack also happened on a cold day, when the car sat in the sun for a few hours. Good luck finding that replacement part.
Oldsmobile seemed to go for some pretty nice interiors in those days, often more upscale than a Buick or Pontiac. For instance, I know I've seen 88's (forget the series of 88 though) from around 1965 or so, where the door panels had fabric on them, and carpet on the lower door panels. You might get that treatment on a Chevy Caprice, which was positioned as an upscale car for those on a bit of a budget. But I think the only way you'd get something that nice in a Pontiac would be a Bonneville with the Brougham trim option. And I don't think I've ever seen a LeSabre or Wildcat like that, so I guess back then you had to go to an Electra if you wanted that kind of ritz on a Buick.
I know ritzy door panels aren't the be-all and end-all of a quality car, but I thought they were a nice touch on the Olds. I've also seen Cutlasses, of the '68-72 generation, that seemed to have more uplevel interiors than what you'd find with a Buick Special/Skylark or Pontiac LeMans.
That car reminds me of Nova police cars, which reminds me that a guy posted on FB pics of his original '79 Caprice Classic, loaded with the luxury and appearance options, that had the 9C1 police package that he substantiated with a pic of the options label from the car. I was not aware you could get all that heavy-duty stuff on a non-police vehicle. I'd have definitely done that.
Here's a pic from the '77 brochure, that shows most of the dash, although it's cut off on the right.
It looks a bit plain and cheap to me, without the woodgrain.
Here's a pic of a non-Concours I snagged off the net.
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One feature I'm impressed with though, is that it looks like even the cheapest Novas had 14x6" rims, standard. I've actually seen a handful of big cars from that era listed with 15x5.5". I don't know what the norm was back then, although a 7" wide wheel was usually considered a pretty big deal...usually reserved for rally wheels, "road" wheels, police car rims, etc.
Also, I'm pretty sure the entry level Nova model did delete the rear door armrests for a few years in the 70's. I wonder, if there were ever any other cars that took the cost cutting that far? I could see Ford doing something like that with the Maverick, but not sure if they ever did. I think Dodge actually did it with the Swinger 340 hardtop when it came out for '69, in their attempt to make a musclecar on a budget. That was a 2-door though. I could see the manufacturers deleting armrests on a 2-door, but a 4-door just seems like it's taking the cost cutting too far. What would they give you to close the door, without an armrest? Just some kind of cheap pull-strap?
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Our Nova had no cigarette lighter, no day-night mirror, and I think only the driver's side switch to turn the dome light on (ours was a coupe). I'm pretty certain the base Nova four-doors had pull straps on the rear doors and no armrests, as well as no detents holding the rear doors open!
People think I'm not remembering this right, but I am--our '73 Nova coupe, six, only options floor-mounted three-speed ($26), Rally Wheels and whitewalls, Exterior Decor Group (those bright window frames and a wide body side molding), AM radio, including destination stickered at the bottom at $2,625.00. This was for a car with an 111-inch wheelbase and about a half-inch more rear-seat legroom than a Chevelle coupe. Novas were price-driven. Ours had a green cloth seating which was basic but not terrible. Thankfully, in '73 GM green interiors were a dark forest green, after a couple years of pea green inside.
While on that Concours, I like the four round instruments, I don't like the upper pad. I'd have preferred if they'd kept the upper pad right 2/3 portion, slanted towards the windshield so it didn't require any decoration there, like the '75 and '76.
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Now looking at the '78 brochure, it looks like they had Base and Custom. The Custom they're showing in the brochure has 6 taillights, and the more pretentious, Concours style grille. Although, they also show a Custom coupe with "rally equipment", which looks like the normal Nova nose, just with blackout trim...kinda "SS" looking.
They also brag about the Custom having armrests with built-in ashtrays for the back seat. And, the interior in general looks a bit nicer. The seats don't look like they came out of a school bus, at least. It looks to me like this '78-79 Custom is that mid-level model that the '76-77 had been crying out for!
I guess it made some sense to discontinue the Concours for '78, as it might have competed too much with the newly downsized Malibu. It wasn't really a huge seller, anyway. For 1977, the Concours sold about 73,000 units, but the base Nova sold about 292,000. But for '78, the Custom wasn't a hot item, either. They sold about 50,000 of them, compared to around 236,000 of the base model.
For '79, they only sold about 15,000 Customs, compared to maybe 81,000 base models. But, '79 was an abbreviated year, with the Citation going on sale in April of 1979. I always thought it was a bit curious that Chevy went through the effort to restyle the front-end of the '79 Nova, going to rectangular headlights, only to drop it midway through the model year. They probably could have just made do with the '78 style for one more year and saved a few bucks.
Chrysler did something similar with the Aspen and Volare, switching them to rectangular lights for the final 1980 year. And their restyle seemed a bit more significant, as it changed the hood, bumper, and even the front fenders. But, the Aspen/Volare design was sold in foreign markets for several years after they were discontinued in the States...maybe Chevy did something similar with the Nova?
I can clearly remember a new '75 Nova Custom Coupe at our dealer's, and they had it awhile. It was a maroon color, red vinyl inside, Rally Wheels and whitewalls, the side molding and chromed side window frames, and 262 V8 and THM and PS and PDB. It was $4,163--prices went up a lot in those couple preceding years. But to me, even at 17, it was a perfect size, and the Custom's optional all-vinyl seating looked very high-quality--both the vinyl (which was perforated) with a button in each back section, and the Custom also had the smoked black panel in the instrument cluster, which I liked and like now.
Sixteen exterior colors, and ten of those available with a white painted top. Ahhhhhh!
Here's the LN interior page of the brochure:
I had a salesman friend at our hometown dealer, and I remember him saying he didn't like the '75 Nova brochure as it looked like the front page was missing. He was right.
It is interesting that for '76-77, the dropped the Custom, only to bring it back for '78-79. I wonder if there was some kind mid-range trim package that stood in. For instance, instead of a "Nova Custom", maybe it was "Nova with Custom Trim Package" or something like that? So, even though it was offered, since it was an option rather than a trim level, they didn't break out production/pricing stats?
I'm thinking there was a Custom Interior option in those interim years, but not sure. I'll go to the brochure. But you're right; that's a huge difference between a base Nova and a Concours. Sort of like the '74-77 Malibu and Malibu Classic needing a mid-level model between them to my eyes.
I don't know why they photographed the LN interior on the brochure cover with the glovebox open...to show off that it has a glovebox light? LOL
Two smallish things I wish they'd have done with the '75 Nova refresh--give it flush door handles and an inside hood release.
For obscure cars, saw the Opel Catera again, definitely lives near me. I notice there's a solid looking but apparently non-running ~63 Dart sedan a couple blocks away, along with a mid 80s Laser/Daytona.
They probably were showing it with the glovebox open, to show off that light. That was probably a pretty big deal in those days, especially for a compact. As for door handles, they tended to be a curious mix in those days. I prefer the more flush style where you can simply pull the handle and it opens, versus the older style where you have the handle you can grab, and the button you push. My '76 LeMans has the more flush-style, but something like a '76 LeSabre, or Cadillac, uses the more old fashioned style.
I wonder if you could get an inside hood release as an option, at least? I wonder when they finally started making inside releases standard across the board? My '76 Grand LeMans has an outside release, and I think I've seen Aspens and Volares with an outside release.
It really was a kinder, gentler, more trusting era, if you didn't have to worry about people ripping something off from under your hood. Or, even stealing your car, entirely.
'77 Custom interior in cloth:
'76 Custom interior in vinyl (this is the exact seating I remember but in red, on the '75 I drooled over at our dealer's; it had the thin strip of woodgrain on the door panel though, like the '77 pic above shows--which actually I like (you heard it here!):
Too bad there wasn't a Custom interior option on the Chevelle Malibu from '74 to '77.
I had forgotten about the 'S'. They also offered a Monza 'S' midway through the year. In the Nova line, the 'S' didn't have the radials that became standard in all models at the beginning of the '75 model year, but it and the 'regular' Nova shared the same unfortunate interior trim.
The '69-76 Nova, bottom-model, black plastic instrument panel cluster often looked 'wavy' even when brand-spanking new--the horizontal lines of it, I mean. In the '73 and '74 Nova Custom model, with those horizontal lines 'chromed', those were wavy too! I hated that, LOL. The '75 Custom and LN had that smoked panel that covered up a good bit of that.
I still don't care for that overall dash design, though. It wouldn't be a make-or-break decision, if I was shopping for a new compact back then, and liked the car otherwise, but it's just not one of my favorite features. I think part of the problem is that, the way it's rounded off, seems out of date, compared to the rest of the car. And, I also don't like the placement of the HVAC ducts. The center ducts just seem stuck on as an afterthought, and then with the way the one all the way to the right is dropped down low, there's just something about the placement, the feng shui, or whatever you want to call it!
I think that dash works fine from '68-74, but with the '75 restyle, it just looks out of place. One other nice thing that the '68-74 had, that was given the axe for '75, was roll-down rear windows in the 2-doors. But, at least the '75-79 did give you the option of rear windows that flipped open.
Thinking back, I also seem to recall that for '73-74, on the 2-doors at least, the door panel was a large, one-piece design with an integrated armrest, and the whole thing was soft-touch? That must have been nice when it was new, although I wonder how it held up, long term.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2019/06/this-super-clean-1973-chevrolet-nova-is-for-sale/