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

fintail · December 2021

And of course 66 Impala guy has a Chevy truck in the driveway

Music reminds me of the track from this sentimental one, about 20 years old now:

https://youtu.be/SR6eirhr1Eg

Andre's large cars fit in that garage with endless room to spare - maybe time to buy another car or three!

imidazol97 · December 2021

Nice.

uplanderguy · December 2021

If anybody's seen the Chevy commercial with the Marina Blue '66 Impala SS on TV, if you don't mind, could you let me know what network and/or program you saw it on? I'm curious more than anything.

If they put it on during sports programming, I'll never see it on TV, LOL.

stickguy · December 2021

Sunday football game. You can just watch through the link above though.

uplanderguy · December 2021

I was the one who posted the link here, but I was just wondering where they were showing it as I haven't seen it on TV yet and was curious of their marketing 'aim'.

I'm a sentimental old fool and I've probably watched it twenty-five times yesterday, LOL.

imidazol97 · December 2021

I saw it last evening during prime time. I don't recall the show. It might
have been the ABC football game because my switched it on and we watched
it for a while--I was reading a Michael Connelly book which was more
interesting to me.

That commercial still brings emotions to the top for me. So sad a story.

The write up about it says the car was supposedly restored overnight
in the time frame of the commercial. Overnight?

stickguy · December 2021

Even overhauling couldn’t do that!

Might get a nice detail and quick tune up type refresh.

andre1969 · December 2021

Oh, don't even get me started, on getting a car "restored" overnight! Heck, even after you've repainted a car, IIRC for best results, you have to let the paint cure for something like a week, before you can start re-assembling the car. At least, that's what the guy who painted both of my Darts told me. However, that was way back in 1990 (for my '69 GT) and 1993-1994 (for my '68 Dart 270) so I guess it's possible the process has improved since then?

ab348 · December 2021

Trust me, that did not happen overnight.

texases · December 2021

That's one reason I liked FantomWorks - they'd show the hundreds of days needed to complete a restoration. No one-week wonders!

explorerx4 · December 2021

@fintail,
Not sure if you have seen this video but I think you'll enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-Dg3XVdIo

uplanderguy · December 2021

A friend sent me this, the four-minute version of the '66 Impala SS commercial. Someone underneath it posted that they saw it in a movie theater. The writeup accompanying the clip indicates "Based on real events".

From this video, I can see it's a 4-speed, factory A/C, 427 car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4-oyBnknHk

stickguy · December 2021

that definitely took a while with full body work and repaint. Plus mechanicals.

explorerx4 · December 2021

Ford had Mustang short films, similar to the BMW films series.
About 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7_c7mVw-9s

The winner(my favorite)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2iwOzN0dZg

fintail · December 2021

Fun to see it at speed - we will never see new cars like that again (hell, we are lucky to get any kind of wagon in this market at all). Future collectible, already a special interest car. I only watched a portion, appears that car has an E63 front bumper/front clip.

explorerx4 said:
@fintail,
Not sure if you have seen this video but I think you'll enjoy it.

fintail · December 2021

I thought this was cool, saw it in a fintail group. This is a press release photo for the W110 fintail:

Someone in Germany recently tried to re-enact it - notice the background:

explorerx4 · December 2021

@fintail,
Not as much smog in the more recent picture.

Yes that E55 has an E63 front bumper. He did says it also had zenon headlights.

fintail · December 2021

Less of those lovely pre-smog cars on the road, I am sure mine cancels out every Tesla within a several mile radius

(not counting production-related emissions, perhaps).

I am pretty sure xenons were standard on USDM E55 wagons. Quite a few differences between Euro and NA spec cars then, ours tended to have much more standard equipment. I have to say, watching that driving segment makes me want to go back to Germany.

explorerx4 said:
@fintail,
Not as much smog in the more recent picture.
Yes that E55 has an E63 front bumper. He did says it also had zenon headlights.

xwesx · December 2021

uplanderguy said:
A friend sent me this, the four-minute version of the '66 Impala SS commercial. Someone underneath it posted that they saw it in a movie theater. The writeup accompanying the clip indicates "Based on real events".

From this video, I can see it's a 4-speed, factory A/C, 427 car.

Argh! We gotta let this darn tear-jerker go! LOL

xwesx · December 2021

fintail said:
Fun to see it at speed - we will never see new cars like that again (hell, we are lucky to get any kind of wagon in this market at all). Future collectible, already a special interest car. I only watched a portion, appears that car has an E63 front bumper/front clip.

explorerx4 said:
@fintail,
Not sure if you have seen this video but I think you'll enjoy it.

Incredibly cool car. I have to wonder how long it is for this world with that guy driving it, though; he was just a terrible driver (sorry, guy). I did like the driving POV he shared, though - very unique. It was as if we were seeing from his eyes. Enough so that I actually felt nervous as he was wandering around the road while he fiddled with the cupholder system in the center console area.

The moving cargo floor was hilarious. I share his viewpoint on that!

fintail · December 2021

He does seem a bit careless, probably not worried about high speed distraction due to being used to it. I am not sure if USDM cars had that same rear floor setup, but I am pretty sure they had the unusual cupholder, my W210 E55 AMG had that, so did several MBs in the late 90s and first part of the 00s.

This Youtube channel has similar POV videos showing high/top speed Autobahn driving in diverse cars, old and new

This one from the above channel is interesting, the E63 update to the E55 above (in sedan form), nice speed, especially impressive as this is an older (but very advanced) car:

https://youtu.be/6VV2D1kKmB8

xwesx said:

fintail said:
Fun to see it at speed - we will never see new cars like that again (hell, we are lucky to get any kind of wagon in this market at all). Future collectible, already a special interest car. I only watched a portion, appears that car has an E63 front bumper/front clip.

explorerx4 said:
@fintail,
Not sure if you have seen this video but I think you'll enjoy it.

Incredibly cool car. I have to wonder how long it is for this world with that guy driving it, though; he was just a terrible driver (sorry, guy). I did like the driving POV he shared, though - very unique. It was as if we were seeing from his eyes. Enough so that I actually felt nervous as he was wandering around the road while he fiddled with the cupholder system in the center console area.

The moving cargo floor was hilarious. I share his viewpoint on that!

andre1969 · December 2021

Another anniversary, of sorts. 12 years ago on this date, I bought this...

ab348 · December 2021

The long version of the Chevy ad suggests that the resto may have been close to a year since he only discovered the car when replacing the wreath.

stickguy · December 2021

That guy really didn’t like going into that barn.

ab348 · December 2021

stickguy said:
That guy really didn’t like going into that barn.

He apparently didn't like maintaining it either.

andre1969 · December 2021

I just watched the long version of the Chevy ad...umm...excuse me a moment, I think I got something in my eye.

uplanderguy · December 2021

The long version of the Chevy ad suggests that the resto may have been close to a year since he only discovered the car when replacing the wreath.

I hadn't noticed that; good catch.

All the times I watched the short version, I missed the 'Tam Tam' part said by the guys at the downtown cruise-in, implying her name was "Tammy". I heard it right away in the long version. When I went back and watched the short version, I heard it.

BTW, andre--I always liked those Park Avenues. They just look more substantial to me than the preceding ones. The added height is visible, and appealing IMHO. I've probably told you this before, but I always liked that bright green, like spring grass, that was available on those cars although I never saw many. That same color was available on '99 Venture vans when we leased ours, but my wife said things about that color that I could not print here.

imidazol97 · December 2021

I got the overnight timeline from the synopsis that was in the ispot
link from the original posting
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/q__0/chevrolet-happy-holidays-moms-car-t1

"On a chilly winter day, a man makes his way to the barn to retrieve some holiday decorations. He opens the old wooden doors and inside sits a dusty and broken-down 1966 Chevrolet Impala that belonged to his late wife. The man takes a moment to remember her smiling face behind the wheel so many years ago and sheds a longing tear. Touched by her father's love for the car and his wife, the man's daughter recruits a local classic car club to help fix up the Impala. The team works through the night to restore the car and finally completes the job by giving it a coat of dazzling bright blue paint. The man finds the car in the morning, and after exchanging a few heartfelt words with his daughter, takes it out for a memorable ride."

xwesx · December 2021

fintail said:
He does seem a bit careless, probably not worried about high speed distraction due to being used to it. I am not sure if USDM cars had that same rear floor setup, but I am pretty sure they had the unusual cupholder, my W210 E55 AMG had that, so did several MBs in the late 90s and first part of the 00s.

This Youtube channel has similar POV videos showing high/top speed Autobahn driving in diverse cars, old and new

This one from the above channel is interesting, the E63 update to the E55 above (in sedan form), nice speed, especially impressive as this is an older (but very advanced) car:

Holy heck. Impressive speeds, for sure, but so incredibly dangerous with the speed differential to everything else on the road. I think the tires starting to beg mercy as he was taking a long curve at around the midway mark of the video put it into perspective. For a moment before that, I started thinking I was watching Forza, and I kept expecting him to start peeling up barrier and harmlessly bouncing off other cars.

fintail · December 2021

That's Germany! In some ways it can be a little surreal. The car in that video is also likely de-governed, I think the top spec model was governed at 300 kmh.

It's much less common for a dope to aimlessly veer into the left lane there, so although that driver was a bit dangerous, much less so there than here. I've never taken a car above 250 kmh on the Autobahn, always enough traffic to make me feel risky doing more.

xwesx said:

fintail said:
He does seem a bit careless, probably not worried about high speed distraction due to being used to it. I am not sure if USDM cars had that same rear floor setup, but I am pretty sure they had the unusual cupholder, my W210 E55 AMG had that, so did several MBs in the late 90s and first part of the 00s.

This Youtube channel has similar POV videos showing high/top speed Autobahn driving in diverse cars, old and new

This one from the above channel is interesting, the E63 update to the E55 above (in sedan form), nice speed, especially impressive as this is an older (but very advanced) car:

Holy heck. Impressive speeds, for sure, but so incredibly dangerous with the speed differential to everything else on the road. I think the tires starting to beg mercy as he was taking a long curve at around the midway mark of the video put it into perspective. For a moment before that, I started thinking I was watching Forza, and I kept expecting him to start peeling up barrier and harmlessly bouncing off other cars.

tjc78 · December 2021

This guy must be the village idiot.

kyfdx · December 2021

tjc78 said:
This guy must be the village idiot.

It's the Family Truckster!

tjc78 · December 2021

Yeah a completely wrong one!!

mrwhipple311 · December 2021

kyfdx said:

tjc78 said:
This guy must be the village idiot.

It's the Family Truckster!

The attention to detail is staggering, wrong car, horrible overspray. Not sure I can blur my eyes enough not to look at it and say its bad.
Not even sure that is pebble beach demo derby quality

texases · December 2021

For the $50 spent, pretty good to me...

stickguy · December 2021

The missing hubcap is a nice touch.

andre1969 · December 2021

If the car was a beater otherwise, I'd say no harm done. But, if it was a nice car to begin with, I'd call it a bit of a travesty. Shame, because those Colony Park wagons were nice cars.

It's a bit curious, I think, that GM never really seemed to get into the "luxury" wagon market back in those days. Chrysler's Town & Country wagon was pretty nice, as were the LTD Country Squire and the Colony Park. But with the GM Clamshells, the interiors always seemed rather basic to me. Even the top trim levels still seemed like they were putting utility first, with not much in the way of luxury car aspirations inside.

uplanderguy · December 2021

Funny, andre. I had a high school friend whose parents had a '72 Buick Estate Wagon, beige with woodgrain, and another with a '72 Town and Country, beige with woodgrain. I much-preferred, then, the Buick, in and out. The Buick had a saddle-colored vinyl interior with fold-down armrest in front, and the Chrysler had green cloth and vinyl 50/50 front seats with dual center armrests. The Chrysler just seemed so bloated to me, had an instrument panel and door panels that didn't do anything for me, and had fender skirts on a wagon! I know, Olds did that too.

Door panels with pull straps would have upped the interior IMHO, but the Town and Country didn't have them either.

I have less memories of Ford wagons then. I only really recall riding in a new Colony Park in '76 with the daughter of the owner, as our team won a school magazine-selling contest and our prize was dinner at a restaurant thirty miles away. She drove. It was maroon with woodgrain, but I don't recall the interior.

This was the Buick interior I remembered:

We've talked about this a bunch of times, but even though the Buick had plastic lower door panels, I liked the integrated armrest, versus the screw-on armrests the others were using at the time.

andre1969 · December 2021

Hmm..I'll say that Buick does look pretty nice. Maybe I just keep thinking about the Caprice wagons that had Impala interiors, and was thinking that applied across the whole line?

It's a shame that Chrysler never put that Imperial/New Yorker Brougham front-end on their wagons. Some people have done it, after the fact, and I think it looks pretty sharp...

I'm really not a fan of the fender skirts on these wagons, though. While the Olds did it too, I think they look better on the Olds...they make it look less fat, somehow.

With the Mopar wagons, I actually prefer the Dodge and Plymouth versions, because they look a bit slimmer to me. I think the '74-75 Fury/Gran Fury, with the quad headlights, is especially handsome.

fintail · December 2021

I am a bit of a map geek, and like to explore on streetview. Wandering around my own city, I found these interesting scenes in the same spot.

2011- an unrestored looking Fairlane and a nice looking 64 Galaxie 4 door post:

2013: Only the Galaxie is there, and it looks like a beauty, the deluxe wire wheelcovers work:

2019: Galaxie is there on different wheelcovers and has found a new friend, a "sleeper" looking 2 door post:

I should drive by this house and see what sits out there now, by its condition, I assume the Galaxie is a sunny day car.

ab348 · December 2021

It seems extremely odd that such a nice old car would always be parked at the curb.

fintail · December 2021

Only thing I can think of is maybe the car isn't as perfect as it looks? Looks pretty nice though. Fintail can also do that trick of looking showroom fresh.

Reminds me of some I posted awhile back, this is the same house that had a Lark hardtop parked at the curb for long periods. I never saw the sedan, but I saw the bulletnose and the 60 parked outside a lot in the non-snowy season. They were average driver quality cars, presentable enough but not concours:

2007:

2008:

2016:

xwesx · December 2021

how do you change the years on these?

fintail · December 2021

Clock shaped icon at upper left. Click on it, and it will show the archive of past images, click on a "point", and it will give a date and the thumbnail will change, click on the thumbnail to view that image. Of course, it doesn't work if the location has only one image:

xwesx said:
how do you change the years on these?

xwesx · December 2021

Great; thanks for pointing that out!

andre1969 · December 2021

Wow...here's a weird one. I was just starting to type that I finally saw that nostalgic '66 Chevy Christmas commercial on regular tv. It came on TVLand, early this morning, during "The New Adventures of Old Christine". And, as I was typing...damn if it didn't come on again!

That '64 Galaxie does look too nice to be sitting outside on the street like that. But, maybe the owner is religious about keeping it clean? I really like that color.

Edit: I really zoomed in on that '64 Galaxie, and I have a feeling that in person, it doesn't look quite so perfect. The hood is a slightly different color, and there's a blemish on it, back towards the fresh air intake in the cowl, where it looks like that pinkish primer they used to use is poking through. And the paint on the trunk lid is very faded and cracked. The fading just looks like reflections in that picture.

Still, a pretty cool car. I've seen worse. Much worse. And owned a few, too

andre1969 · December 2021

At the local BJs gas station today, this rolled up behind us...

Here's a better shot...

imidazol97 · December 2021

The wheel covers aren't stock from what I can tell. I hate them. Everything else is great.

uplanderguy · December 2021

I'm not certain about the spinners, but otherwise those are '57 Chevy full wheel covers.

Those, and '65 Mustangs, to me are the most cliched old cars out there so I wouldn't want either myself, but on the other hand, I can enjoy original/authentic restoration and that Chevy does look like that.

uplanderguy · December 2021

That '64 Ford--while I like the '63 a bit better, I always thought the '64's must've sold well and also been pretty durable. I'd see them around here being driven daily, 25 years ago.

That's a '67 Fairlane 500 in front of it.

RE.: big Mopar wagons of the '70's--I was generally happy with the '74 redesign. It lost the enormous look IMHO. I didn't care for the later ones with hideaway headlights and such, but I remember when they came out, the Dodge brochure saying they were a result of consumer surveys, resulting in things like the center glovebox and coin holder in the glovebox door.

I always thought the '74 Monaco exterior was largely influenced by the concurrent big Chevys--crowned front fenders, large curved windshield with narrow pillars covered completely with bright metal, and the rear door cut of the 4-door sedans also reminded me of concurrent Impalas.

The two-door hardtop was a nice-looking car for the time I think, and a true hardtop. Though, I can't recall when I've last seen one.

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

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