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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. We've seen a couple of Mercedes-Benz SLs here- this '82 380SL and this '87 560SL , but it's been a challenge to find a W113 on the island. Finally, I spotted this beautiful example parked in front of Pagano's Hardware, just around the corner from the '69 Chevy Nomad . I was buying bamboo stakes for the punji pits in my front yard at the time- hey, got to be ready for the Financiapocalypse- so I didn't have my good camera on hand. Fortunately, my cellphone has a not-too-crappy camera built in. Then the owner emerged from the store, but fortunately he was proud enough of his car that he was willing to wait while I photographed it. He'd been shopping around for a restored SL for a few years and he finally found the one he wanted. Yes, it's his daily driver. The 280SL roadster would have set you back $6,485 back in...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Can you believe, with all the first-generation Camaros built, that we're on the 327th Alameda DOTS car and we're seeing our very first one? Are they just too valuable to be allowed on the street? Or did they all go out in blazes of hoonic glory back in the day? If either is true, why do we see so many early Mustangs still on the street? I found this car parked at a meter in front of Jim's Coffee House downtown. Realizing I didn't have time to run home and get my good camera, I decided to make do with the camera in my cellphone . The General made 235,151 Camaros for the '68 model year, compared to Ford's 317,068 Mustangs that year. A V8-equipped Camaro hardtop went for $2,727, versus $2,708 for a V8 Mustang hardtop. With both cars offering roughly similar performance (i.e., terrible handling and braking, decent acceleration...
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Most of you approved of the super-beater '70 Skylark , with a small but vocal minority who felt physical pain at the very sight of the beat-to-hell Buick. I'm pretty sure that the approval rating of today's Skylark will be be fairly high across the board, given that it's a 40-year-old red convertible that lives on the street and all. This clean-looking Buick parks just across the street from the yellow '72 Beetle we saw last year. The Skylark Custom came with the luxury trim package, including fender skirts and plush padded vinyl interior. The standard engine was a 250-inch six, but just about all buyers opened their wallets for the 230-horse Buick 350 (and some went ahead and paid for the 300 horsepower 400). Mmmm, padded vinyl! This car listed at $3,098 new, which was 97 bucks more than the Fairlane GT convertible (and 700 bucks less than the '68 Lotus Europa). These photographs date from more than a year ago; it was actually one of the first cars I shot for this...
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For the first time, a single car part beat an entire car in a Project Car Hell matchup, according to the results of our most recent Choose Your Eternity poll . Today we're going to celebrate the Fourth of July, but not by getting all liquored up and firing large-caliber handguns into the sky. No, we're going to celebrate our freedoms by sentencing ourselves to years of thankless labor in the garage, on vehicles so patriotic that they're literally named after America. You superpatriots might be screaming about the inclusion of a British car in this matchup- especially on a holiday celebrating the day we told our cruel colonial masters to hit the road (thanks for the backup, France!)- but Britain gave us our language, the basis for our legal system, and Top Gear . And come on, how can you not love a car named for its target market? What if Chrysler had made a version of the Dart called the Dodge Deutschland and sold it in Germany? OK, we admit that argument isn't so compelling...
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While Alameda has a pretty nice beach on its Bay side (though with waves best measured in inches rather than feet), I haven't really been checking for interesting cars parked along the shoreline. That's because the section of the island near the San Francisco Bay is mostly landfill dating from the 1950s, which means the residents in the area tend to have garages for their collectible rides. However, you still see the occasional work truck parked in front of one of the big Polynesian-themed apartment buildings along the shore, and thus I was able to shoot this 40-year-old 3/4-ton survivor. As you can see, Alameda is quite close to downtown San Francisco; as the crow flies, it's about five miles away. If you're not a crow and decide to drive your truck over there, however, it feels like about 100 hellish bumper-to-bumper miles. Fortunately, there's a ferry from Alameda to SF, and they sell beer on board. In '68, you shelled out $2,541 for a base GMC 2500 pickup, versus...
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Wouldn't you know it, the 60s BMW coupe beat the 80s one in our last Choose Your Eternity poll . Sure, the 633CSi is more complicated, but you might be able to find a parts car or three in your local wrecking yard... and where's the Hell there? Today we're going to return to the perennial France-versus-the-world battle for the All Time Global Project Car Hell JiggaChampion Trophy (which leaks rusty water and has to be jump-started), and- just because we love an underdog- we're going to let Japan take on the mightiest of PCH Superpowers! We really dig the Dangel 4x4 conversions for the Peugeot 504, and we'd totally drive one... but we Norteamericanos can't get them, thus sparing us the agony joy that is French four-wheelin' action. Or so we thought, prior to Kleinlowe sending us the tip on this Dangel-ized 1981 Peugeot 504 wagon (go here if the ad disappears). As Kleinlowe says "check out the angle of the Dangel," and we have to agree there's something...
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If and when I ever run out of Down On The Street cars in Alameda, all I'll need to do is head across the Bay to find another vast storehouse of old street-parked machinery. San Francisco is rough on cars, but that just means that the old veterans boast that many more character-building battle scars. Take, for example, this 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, shot in North Beach by AlfaDog . It's got the kind of rust you get from parking too close to the ocean (prevailing winds tend to blow the salt spray quite a distance inland), and the boat marker light as a hood ornament really adds that special nautical touch. Make the jump to read AlfaDog's desciption. galleryPost('DOTSBESFCaddy', 6, '1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Down On The San Francisco Street'); Taken last week in the North Beach area of SF, all I can find out is that I think its a Series 5 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham (1965-68?) and has current tabs, so I guess it's a daily driver... and a boat navigation...
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Sometimes months can go by between my photographing of a DOTS car and posting those photographs. Today's car is a good example; I shot the original photos last August, but the island is overflowing with air-cooled Beetles and I have a glut of photos of such cars (yes, Beetle fans, I know I should be posting more of them... and I will, promise). But this particular exposed-engine Beetle, which I'm arbitrarily calling a '69 (though it could be from any year during the 68-72 span), got in some sort of messy collision in the meantime and then moved across town. At first, I thought I was looking at a different car, but checking plate numbers told the whole story. So what we have here is your standard mildly hot-rodded late-60s/early-70s Beetle, with exposed engine but retaining the factory wheels and hubcaps. This could easily be the original engine, or the 15th, and the displacement could be anything from 1200cc all the way up to a stroked "How much money you got?" mill...
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We took a break from the PCH Superpowers and watched the Rotary Honda 600 pound on the Rotary Starlet in yesterday's all-Japanese Choose Your Eternity poll . However, Britain's defeat of Italy last week can mean only one thing: Britain must now take on PCH SuperGigaPower France in an attempt to claim the rusty, oil-leaking PCH Intergalactic Superchampion crown! Why the heck didn't Jaguar put truck beds on their cars straight from the factory? Take the XJ-S, for instance: V12 torque, comfy leather interior, beautiful lines- in short, everything you want in a cartruck! Obviously, it falls to the Jaguar owner to deal with this shortcoming. Those of you who have been planning to build your own XJ-Schero can save many months of hard work by starting with this Rancheroized 1990 Jaguar XJ-S as the basis of your project. For some inexplicable reason, this car failed to sell for the chump-change price of two grand, and that means the seller is likely ready to deal! The seller, clearly...
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How is it that I've only had one Mercury Cougar in this series so far, and that a Malaisemobile? Even worse, we forgot about all about the 40th anniversary of the Cougar last, in spite of repeated reminders from the Colorado Cougar Club ! Maybe the problem is that the bloat-o-riffic Farrah Fawcett Cougar managed to obscure our mental images of the sleek 60s cats. Anyway, I've photographed several of the sporty Mustang-based Cougars on the island and you'll be sure to see them in this series, starting with this '68. This Cougar lives in the East End, not far from the 1950 Pontiac Chieftan , and it seems to get driven regularly. The 210-horse 302 was the standard Cougar powerplant for '68, but you could get it with a 390 or even a 335-horse 428. Judging by the lack of badging on this car, we can assume it's probably a 302 machine. It's a little bit battered, but it looks to be in good original condition and still getting its owner around in old-school Mercury style...
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The Bonus Edition DOTS cars just keep coming in. Today we're heading down to San Diego, where Brian B captured a very Jalopnik-centric pair of vintage cars: a 1968 Buick LeSabre and a 1972 Triumph Stag. One is a vast sedan with styling that may have been aimed at old people, but at least they were hip old people (like retired mobsters, etc). The other is a sporty British V8 machine with a reputation for unreliability so awe-inspiring that you can't help but admire its owner. Good finds! Make the jump to read Brian's descriptions. galleryPost('DOTSBESanDiegoCars', 6, 'Stag and LeSabre Down On The San Diego Street'); (Buick): I saw this lovely ol' gal docked in Pacific Beach and thought you might enjoy. She appears to be original and the relative lack of rust tells me she hasn't spent her whole life in CO. I'd peg it as a '68, giving it the 2bbl 350, right? (Triumph) I saw this beautiful Stag, replete with removable HT option, when I went to my...
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After seeing a Peugeot , a Triumph , and a BMW down on the junkyard, we're going to return to good ol' Detroit Iron today. This '68 Olds Delmont 88 convertible still has plenty of good parts, including the no-doubt-hard-to-find convertible-top gear, which probably fits many other full-sized GM convertibles. The Delmont was made for only two years, and its claim to fame was as the car Teddy Kennedy drove off the Chappaquiddick Bridge . Make the jump for an additional gallery. galleryPost('JunkDelmont88Top', 6, '1968 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 Down On The Junkyard Part 1'); galleryPost('JunkDelmont88Jump', 9, '1968 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 Down On The Junkyard Part 2');
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Big, heavy-duty trucks usually manage to evade The Crusher's jaws for more years than most cars, but eventually some expensive problem or accumulation of parking tickets catches up with the best of them. Such is the case with this 1968 Jeep Gladiator J-3000 pickup, which I photographed at a local wrecking yard last weekend. The junkyard marked it as a 1968 model (and an "AMC Commando" as well), but I believe it's actually a '66. Check out that AMC 327 engine, which is not to be confused with the Chevy engine of the same displacement. galleryPost('JunkGladiatorTop', 6, '1968 Jeep Gladiator Down On The Junkyard Part 1'); galleryPost('JunkGladiatorJump', 20, '1968 Jeep Gladiator Down On The Junkyard Part 2');
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I've come up woefully short in the Saab department in DOTS, with the oldest Born From Jet car I can find in Alameda being a 30-year-old 99 . Fortunately, we have Oregonian PaulN doing his part to remedy the Saab Shortage, and he's caught this rough-but-proud '68 parked on the street in Eugene. Be sure to make the jump for more photos, but not before you read some of PaulN's Auto-biography series on TTAC ! galleryPost('DOTSBEOregonSaabTop', 6, '1968 Saab 99 Down On The Oregon Street 1'); galleryPost('DOTSBEOregonSaabJump', 13, '1968 Saab 99 Down On The Oregon Street 2');
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Since we had a Plymouth yesterday, we need to have an Oldsmobile today. I dug through my stash of DOTS car photos and could find only one Olds ready to go (and we've only seen two of them prior to today: a '64 Jetstar 88 and a '77 Custom Cruiser wagon ). Does Alameda have an anti-Oldsmobile bias? Such are the mysteries of the Island That Time Forgot. Anyway, here's a 1968 (or maybe it's a 1969- damn if I can tell the difference; Olds experts, please tell us what we have here) Cutlass convertible, to bring our total count of Alameda Oldsmobiles up to three. I found this Cutlass on the same block as the 1954 Ford Mainline and the 1947 Plymouth (and, yes, that's an old Dart parked behind the Olds). This East End block features two old-car aficionados living across the street from each other, each with quite the impressive stable of street-parked classics. This Cutlass doesn't seem to move much, but at least the shady trees keep damage to the convertible top to a...
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