|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » 1960s ( RSS)
-
|
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...
|
-
|
October is generally the warmest month here by the Bay, so that's when you get the big car shows on the island. On Saturday, Park Street was taken over by hundreds of chromium-dipped chariots ; the following day, a horde of Ferraris, Fiats, Lancias, Alfas, and the like swarmed across the bridges and set up shop on the soccer field of the junior high school at which I was forced to learn " The Hustle " in P.E. class, circa 1979. Sadly, the LeMons-veteran Ecurie Ecrappe Alfa wasn't there, but the presence of such jewels as a Fiat 2100 wagon, supercharged Lancia Scorpion, and SEAT 850 compensated somewhat. Jump, jump, and see all the purty cars! galleryPost('LHSItalianShowTop', 6, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow2', 50, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow3', 27, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1');
|
-
|
Every October, the old-time gearheads at Lee Auto Supply take over Alameda's main drag for the Park Street Classic Car Show. As we saw last year , I prefer obsessive close-ups of emblems and carburetors to shots of endless rows of 60s Mustangs and Camaros- hey, you can find that stuff anywhere ! Make the jump to see hundreds of photos of gleaming, chrome-plated goodness! galleryPost('ParkStShowTop', 6, 'Emblems And Hood Ornaments Of The Alameda Classic Car Show'); First, we've got a couple galleries full of emblems and trim. galleryPost('ParkStShow2', 50, 'Emblems And Trim Of The Alameda Classic Car Show'); galleryPost('ParkStShow3', 50, 'More Emblems And Trim Of The Alameda Classic Car Show'); Then we've got hood ornaments. Bring back the big chrome hood ornaments, Detroit! galleryPost('ParkStShow4', 50, 'Hood Ornaments Of The Alameda Classic Car Show'); I found a handful of DOTS cars at the show, including the...
|
-
|
Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Yesterday, we had the chance to choose between two potential moonshine runners, with either of which one might keep bread on the table during the coming Financiapocalypse , and the Mercury Maruader beat the BMW 850i like Junior Johnson beat the North Carolina Highway Patrol's '53 Ford Mainlines back in the day. However, some of you- I'm not going to use the word "whiners," though it did occur to me- complained that those two cars didn't rate high enough readings on the Hell-O-Meter™. In other words, Hell isn't hot enough for you! We aim to please here, so let's flood the garage with chlorine triflouride , park some more challenging projects inside, and slam the door on you… for eternity! We all thought it was a pretty good score when Seatbelt123 picked up two Alfa Romeo Milanos for his 24 Hours Of LeMons team for just $299...
|
-
|
newVideoPlayer("/82_DominionMotors_494.flv", 506, 423,""); Say it's 1982. Would you buy a '61 Studebaker Lark wagon with "family rust" and "factory air in the tires" from this man? By comparison, Dominion Motors in Winnipeg could give you a better buy on that car, and all with 6.25% interest! Actually, we'd really love to have that very wagon right now, but it's probably just a reddish stain in a Canadian field at this point.
|
-
|
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...
|
-
|
Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. DOTS Truck Monday is with us once again, and today we're going to check out a vehicle that qualifies as both truck and car: a '64 Ford Falcon with truck bed, aka Ranchero! Then, because polls lessen the sting of Simon Legree's workplace lash- which always seems to fall on one's back with particular malice on a Monday- we'll all vote on our favorite street-parked Alameda Ranchero. I found this customized Ranchero parked in front of Mel's Bowl, just after sunset on a Friday. That's right- the owner is rolling on shomer Shabbas! Then there's the additional blasphemy of a Maverick emblem on the tailgate; normally we aren't purists about such things, but Maverick? Still, this Ranchero is in good shape and the custom touches are fairly subdued for the most part. A 289 4-speed Ranchero! Of course, it might actually have...
|
-
|
Those of you who watch a lot of automotive TV shows are probably familiar with Year One's Keith Maney, who appears on My Classic Car, Dream Car Garage, American Muscle Car, Hot Rod TV, MuscleCar TV, Horsepower TV , etc. What you may not know about is Keith's insidious influence on this site; both yours truly and Andrew Stoy worked for Keith at YO (along with Driveshaft Through The Skull creator Walker Canada and military-vehicle expert commenter Clinto ), and he's a bad, bad influence on anyone who might want to retain some semblance of vehicular sanity. Naturally, I figured he'd be perfect for the 24 Hours Of LeMons , and he agreed that building a car for next year's LeMons South race would be a fine idea. The initial plan was to use "The World's Rustiest '78 Trans Am," conveniently sitting in the woods behind Year One's Georgia HQ, but that's not what happened… galleryPost('KeithDatsunHell', 3, '1969 Datsun Roadster Heading For...
|
-
|
Technically, this isn't a barn find; it's the collection of a lifelong racer in Southern California who is now retiring from the sport and plans to get down to just one car from his fairly extensive collection of race machines, classics, show cars, and projects. There's some painfully cool stuff in this dusty warehouse, including a couple of Alfas, a very clean '51 Ford, an Austin Healey 100-4, and more. Bring A Trailer has obtained some photos showing the details of a few of the cars, so check 'em out! [Bring A Trailer] galleryPost('BATDustyWarehouse', 9, 'Dusty Warehouse Hides Treasures');
|
-
|
Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Yesterday, we saw the "Bentley" (actually a Rolls with Bentley grille) beat the "Rolls-Royce" (actually a Vanden Plas Princess with a Rolls grille) in the Choose Your Eternity poll in a 59/41 vote. Today we're going to contemplate the concept of fame . Now, none of us can afford to buy JFK's Continental or the Gremlin from Wayne's World , but that doesn't mean we don't have a shot at a famous car- we just need to aim lower! And today… well, we're aiming really low! When you want to drive a car that was once owned by a famous actor, you can expect to pay big bucks, and when the car is a vintage Italian machine with suicide doors? Forget it! Hold on, though, because we work miracles here at Project Car Hell… and we can put you behind the wheel of this 1960 Lancia Appia (sorry, the ad got pulled from Craigslist, so...
|
-
|
Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Last time we stepped into the garage in which the gentleman with the pitchfork conducts his business, the choice had to be made between two 1973 PCH Superpower machines, one Italian and one British. Only one car can win, and this time Italy triumphs, with the $2,500 Pantera beating the Lotus Elite, with 70% of the votes. Today we're going with a topic that's been on everyone's mind lately: what will you drive after the Fianciapocalypse? The vehicular options readers suggested were sound, but, in my opinion, the best way to ride out hard times is to become the unquestioned leader of a powerful religio-militaro-pharmaceutical cult, complete with desert compound and "soldiers" on dune buggies… and for that, you must drive a car whose mere presence shouts "Warlord Prophet approaching!" For that, only vintage British luxury will...
|
-
|
Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. The island has several old Suburbans still racking up the miles; we've seen this '63 GMC Carryall and today we'll be looking at an equally weathered '65 Chevy. This truck parks about a half-block from the '65 Thunderbird and just around the corner from the '87 Mercedes-Benz 560SL , with at least a dozen Alameda DOTS cars living within a couple blocks. Sometimes you need to do a little Field Expedient Engineering to keep your doors shut, once you've turned over the odometer a few times. This truck has plenty of harmless surface rust, with every indication being that it's still about as solid as it was when LBJ was president (though the interior was a lot nicer back then). Why did this truck's original buyer decide to go with The General's two-door rather than International Harvester's four-door , in spite...
|
-
|
We've reached yet another milestone in the Down On The Street series- that's right, the 1960 Triumph TR3A was the 350th street-parked Alameda vehicle that we've seen here. Those of you who are new to the series should check out the Down On The Street FAQ before you blow the rest of your work day checking out all 350 machines; that's right, every single one of those little images after the jump is a link to a bunch of car photos. What the heck, it's Friday- you gonna let The Man keep you down? 1932 Ford 1937 Cadillac 1939 Chevrolet 1941 Chevrolet 1942 Pontiac 1943 IHC 1945 Ford 1946 Chevrolet 1947 Plymouth 1948 IHC 1950 Dodge 1950 Ford 1950 Ford 1950 Plymouth 1950 Pontiac 1951 Dodge 1952 Dodge 1953 GMC 1952 Dodge 1953 Packard 1954 Chevrolet 1954 Ford 1955 Mercury 1955 Plymouth 1956 Chevrolet 1956 Imperial 1956 Volkswagen 1956 Morris 1956 Willys 1956 Ford 1957 Volkswagen 1957 Cadillac 1957 Chevrolet 1957 Chrysler 1957 Pontiac 1958 Mercedes-Benz 1959 Porsche 1959 Morris...
|
-
|
Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Dodge Darts are very common on the Alameda street; we've seen a '64 coupe, a '64 wagon , a '69 convertible , another '69 convertible , a '70 sedan , and a '75 Swinger so far, and that's not even counting the Valiant siblings. By comparison, Falcons and Novas are quite rare. Clearly, that Slant Six is an engine to be reckoned with! I found this car parked between the '69 Olds Cutlass convertible and the '56 Morris (all three cars are owned by the same person), and right across the street from the '54 Ford and '47 Plymouth . Yes, it's that kind of block. Two doors, vinyl top, original black plates- great to see this car still going strong. While it most likely has a Slant Six, it was possible to buy this car new with a 383 or 440 big-block and experience the joys of zero header clearance. galleryPost...
|
-
|
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 been a while since we've had a British sports car in this series (I believe the last one was this '71 MGB-GT ), so let's celebrate this year's final stretch of open-air motoring weather with this nice Triumph I found parked in one of Alameda's wealthiest neighborhoods. As for this car's model year, I've chosen 1960 pretty much totally arbitrarily; the TR3A was made from 1957 through 1962. This might not even be a TR3A, since Triumph put the TR4 engine/transmission in the TR3A and called it the TR4B in 1962. If you're a Triumph expert and you're reading this, take a break from grappling with The Prince Of Darkness and let us know how we might identify the year of this car from the photographs below. If this car is a TR3A with the original engine, then we're looking at a 2,016-pound car with 100 horsepower;...
|
More Posts Next page »
|
|
|