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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. I know what many of you DOTS aficionados are saying now. You're saying "Hey, didn't we just have an old VW bus a mere two Truck Mondays ago? What about that '78 Power Wagon we still haven't seen?" However, the VW geeks out there are saying "Oooooh! The doors! " Yes, this here Alameda Transporter has the rare and sought-after "walk-through" door setup, which means we're doing VWs for two of the last three Truck Mondays. I found this bus in the same neighborhood as the incredibly low Transporter , but I'm pretty sure it's not owned by the same guy. For one thing, it could still be lowered another few inches and- theoretically- be driven; the Low VW Guy probably gets vertigo when driving a vehicle at such high altitudes. Some bodywork might be a good idea, but overall it seems quite solid. Once...
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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. I know what many of you DOTS aficionados are saying now. You're saying "Hey, didn't we just have an old VW bus a mere two Truck Mondays ago? What about that '78 Power Wagon we still haven't seen?" However, the VW geeks out there are saying "Oooooh! The doors! " Yes, this here Alameda Transporter has the rare and sought-after "walk-through" door setup, which means we're doing VWs for two of the last three Truck Mondays. I found this bus in the same neighborhood as the incredibly low Transporter , but I'm pretty sure it's not owned by the same guy. For one thing, it could still be lowered another few inches and- theoretically- be driven; the Low VW Guy probably gets vertigo when driving a vehicle at such high altitudes. Some bodywork might be a good idea, but overall it seems quite solid. Once...
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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. I know what many of you DOTS aficionados are saying now. You're saying "Hey, didn't we just have an old VW bus a mere two Truck Mondays ago? What about that '78 Power Wagon we still haven't seen?" However, the VW geeks out there are saying "Oooooh! The doors! " Yes, this here Alameda Transporter has the rare and sought-after "walk-through" door setup, which means we're doing VWs for two of the last three Truck Mondays. I found this bus in the same neighborhood as the incredibly low Transporter , but I'm pretty sure it's not owned by the same guy. For one thing, it could still be lowered another few inches and- theoretically- be driven; the Low VW Guy probably gets vertigo when driving a vehicle at such high altitudes. Some bodywork might be a good idea, but overall it seems quite solid. Once...
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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. Hooray for old Detroit station wagons! You don't see many small Detroit wagons these days, since the Vista Cruisers and Country Squires sold in such greater numbers back in the pre-SUV era, so I was very happy to spot this bright yellow, Moon disc-equipped Chevy II (or maybe it's a Nova- hard to say with the emblems removed) parked downtown. You could get your little Chevy wagon with a 153-cubic-inch four-cylinder- whoa, a four -cylinder in a 60s Detroit wagon? Call the HUAC! You could also get a 194-cube six-cylinder; sorry, V8 fans, you had to wait until '64 for an optional 283 in your Chevy II. Even though this wagon's owner is clearly a salt-flat-crazed hot rod hoodlum, the single exhaust suggests that he or she has kept the four or six under the hood. Parts runnner? Daily driver? galleryPost('DOTS63NovaWagon', 17, '1963...
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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. Since it's DOTS Truck Monday , let's have an old Ford! I found this '60 parked just across the street from the '70 Dodge Challenger and the '57 Cadillac , and it's one sharp-looking work truck. This truck is clearly a work truck, one of several associated with a Victorian under serious renovation, but it also appears to be in mid-restoration. Let's hope it doesn't stop going to work once it's fixed up. Check out this beautiful dash layout, with its Space Age decorative touches! The column-shift manual! I'm pretty sure this is an F-100, but the body emblems appear to have been removed for the new paint job. galleryPost('DOTS60FordTruck', 16, '1960 Ford Truck Down On The Street'); DOTS FAQ
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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. As I keep saying, the air-cooled VW Beetle is the most common type of old vehicle I see on the streets of the island. By far the most common. As an former (and probably future) Type I owner, I like the clattery little beasts- unadjusted valves, crazy handling, and all- but it would drive just about everyone crazy if we had the two DOTS Beetles a week that their numbers dictate. Since it's been almost a month since the last one , however, today is Beetle Friday! What model year is this car, really? I've arbitrarily selected 1964, but here's no way to tell from these photos, and I don't care how much of a VW zealot expert you might be. Oh, sure, the door handles, rear window, taillights, door handles, gas gauge… and you can cite chapter and verse about a hundred other details, et freakin' cetera, but this is no one-owner, all-original...
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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. Big 1960s Fords are always welcome here, and we've seen a couple on the Alameda street prior to today (a '65 Country Squire and a '67 XL ). Now I've spotted another '67, and it's parked right in front of a DOTS favorite: the Hot Dog Stand VW Bus! I spent a lot of my early childhood squabbling with my sisters- no seat belts, never mind child seats- in the back seat of this '67 Ford Custom , which had the extra-cool three-on-the-floor manual transmission, with overdrive . For this reason, I have a real soft spot for these cars, AM radio, terrifying handling and all. It seems likely that the Ketchup Und Mustard Transporter's owner also owns this car; once you've gone smog-check-free, it's hard to buy anything that must take the dreaded dyno test. galleryPost('DOTS67Gal500', 14, '1967 Ford Galaxie 500...
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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. It's Truck Monday again, and we're overdue for a Ford F series pickup; the last one was nearly three months ago. How about this no-frills F100 I found parked a little ways down from the '62 Falcon ? This thing is just concentrated essence of truck. Oh, sure, the original buyer splurged on the optional chrome side moldings, but we can assume the standard 240-cube inline six engine is present; why pour money down the drain for the 300 six or the 360/390 V8s? Or carpeting, air conditioning, AM radio, or anything else. This country is getting soft , by damn, when pickup trucks are seen as comfy commuter appliances! You should be able to spill a five-gallon bucket of paint in your truck's bed and not care! OK, requisite 2000s truck rant over with. Back in '69, the price tag on this truck, with no options, was $2,393. That was about...
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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. Even though we had a GM A-Body here just last week , I liked the look of this Skylark so much that I just can't wait to share it. This could mean that Chrysler A-Body fans might feel slighted (yes, nearly a month has gone by since our last one ), but not to worry- there's a Valiant in the queue now! When you go to car shows full of Detroit machinery, you'll probably see more of the Buick GS than you will of the regular Skylark, much as you do with the GTO-versus-LeMans situation. Here's a Skylark owner who took the best-looking feature of the GS (the hood) and kept the rest of the Skylark badging and trim, which I think works pretty well. This car isn't perfect by any means- in fact, it's a little battered- but it's in excellent shape for what it is: a nearly 40-year-old car that parks in a busy downtown urban area and...
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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. Today we're going to head over to the former Naval Air Station Alameda, where the Enterprise , Coral Sea , and Carl Vinson have been replaced by companies that make movies and absinthe. While the ex-base (now known as Alameda Point) is miles wide, it doesn't have many streets intended for parking and hardly anyone lives there full-time. That means the DOTS pickings aren't as good as the rest of the island, but I was still able to find this daily-driven '65 Comet parked near the old Officers' Club. We've already seen a 1965 Comet in Alameda (the Bechtle Mercury ), but that was a bottom-of-line 202. The Caliente, on the other hand, was the luxury version of the Comet, selling for $2,352 versus the $2,108 that penny-pinchers shelled out for the 202. Keep in mind, however, that the mechanically identical Ford Falcon coupe was just...
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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. Today we're going to head over to the former Naval Air Station Alameda, where the Enterprise , Coral Sea , and Carl Vinson have been replaced by companies that make movies and absinthe. While the ex-base (now known as Alameda Point) is miles wide, it doesn't have many streets intended for parking and hardly anyone lives there full-time. That means the DOTS pickings aren't as good as the rest of the island, but I was still able to find this daily-driven '65 Comet parked near the old Officers' Club. We've already seen a 1965 Comet in Alameda (the Bechtle Mercury ), but that was a bottom-of-line 202. The Caliente, on the other hand, was the luxury version of the Comet, selling for $2,352 versus the $2,108 that penny-pinchers shelled out for the 202. Keep in mind, however, that the mechanically identical Ford Falcon coupe was just...
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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. It's Truck Monday again, and we might as well make it Chevy Truck Monday while we're at it! I found this work truck parked on a busy East End street, quite close to the '65 Thunderbird , and it's still earning its keep well into its fifth decade on the planet. There's something so right about a camper shell on a truck like this, though all the paint buckets and ladders I often see in the bed indicate that Travels With Charley style adventures aren't in the offing for this camper. Would anyone have imagined, back in '66, that this truck would still be relevant more than 40 years in the future, with its lack of nuclear reactor? Back then, a 42-year-old truck would have been a 1924 model- ancient! Of course, with its gas-swilling I6 or V8 powerplant, this truck's relevance may finally meet a challenge it can't surmount...
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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. Today we're going to look at an example of the kind of car that dominated my early gearhead experiences on the island: a beat-to-hell big-block 60s muscle car! There was once a time when primered-out Chevelles, Satellites, Fairlanes, and the like (along with hooned-up Beetles and 510s) could be found lowering property values on just about every block of Alameda… but most of those cars have been hooned into nothingness or restored to gilded-cage, car-show-only condition by now. Just a few survivors, like this '69 Chevelle, remain. First, let's get in the right frame of mind by listening to a song that captures the wholesome appeal of the SS396: Well, maybe this car is a little more menacing than what those Wonder Bread-eating boys had in mind when they wrote that song. I talked to the owner's father, who verifies that it is indeed a...
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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. I've been thinking about the Imperial quite a bit lately, since there's a very clean hardtop '71 Imperial Le Baron now sitting in my driveway. We'll get the story on that car a little later, but for today I've got some photographs of a vast, angular '64 Imperial Crown four-door hardtop that I found parked right around the corner from the 1942 Pontiac Torpedo . First of all, when we're talking about an Imperial, we need to reiterate this important Imperial fact, lest we enrage the purists: this is not a Chrysler Imperial; Imperial was its own marque during the 1955-75 period, so referring to such a car as a "Chrysler Imperial" is like calling an Eldorado a "General Motors Cadillac." No wonder these things were outlawed at most demolition derbies! Everything seems to be cast out of great slabs of solid...
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