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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've got a car that I knew I'd find in Alameda someday: a Chrysler E Body! Now, these things have become totemic worship objects for Baby Boomers who remember when they had hair, virility, optimism, etc., so just about all of them now spend their days locked in garages in between cruise nights and car shows, much like the equally seldom-seen first-gen GM F Bodies. I've seen this Sub Lime '70 around for years, but never parked on the street… until now! I found this car on the same block as a few other DOTS honorees, including the '57 Cadillac , the VW Transporter Syncro , and a couple you haven't seen yet. Hemi blah blah blah, that's all you hear about when folks talk about the '70 Challenger's engine choices. Fact is, the majority of these cars came from the factory with 318s (60%, according to the Standard...
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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 Maximum Minivan Day , I knew I had to prowl the streets of Alameda and find a first-generation Chrysler minivan for this series. Easy, right? It turned out to be the hardest DOTS search I've ever done, because I've tuned out minivans from my personal Cool Vehicle Detectors the way treasure hunters adjust their metal detectors to tune out bottlecaps; I just don't see them. Not that I'm anti-minivan, mind you- if every SUV owner whose lifestyle would be better served by a minivan… well, no need to go there, eh? Anyway, I figured I needed to find a Mopar minivan with some character , and that means we're looking at an example of the very last year of the first-gen Dodge Caravan today. You think an 18-year-old minivan doesn't qualify for this series? Sure, I could have shot any number of mid-80s examples, but come...
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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. 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...
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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 once again, and I've finally got a really old non-General Motors truck to show you- not that we don't love rattly old GMC and Chevy pickups with beer cans rattling around in the bed, of course, but we mustn't forget that The General had some competition back in the 1950s. From what I can tell, this truck could be a 1951, 1952, or 1953 model, so I'm choosing the middle year. Any of you who can find some distinguishing feature that nails down an exact year, please share it with us. We haven't had many Dodge trucks from the 1950s; just today's, the '50 , and the Air Force ambulance. Look, it's the '60 Cadillac just across the street! This block has been a real DOTS cornucopia, producing the '65 Mustang GT , '78 Datsun 280Z , and '86 AE86 Corolla . I might have to shoot the early-80s...
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For those of you who thought the last '69 Dart GT convertible we saw in this series was just too nice , here's one that's taken a much rougher route during its nearly 40 years. Looks like it already had quite a bit of Bondo-centric rear bodywork when it took some sort of impact above the left rear wheel and went from "slightly rough" to "beater" just like that. Still, it's a convertible and the top still looks intact, so it will stay on the road. Perhaps some ambitious owner will get the bodywork done at some point... or use it as a parts car for a nicer Dart convertible. The "GT" badging means this was the top trim level for the Dart in '69; the GT came standard with a Slant Six, though the dual exhausts on this example suggest the presence of a V8 under the hood. The '69 Dart GT with optional 273-inch V8 listed for $2,976 new. That was 39 bucks more than the 302-equipped '69 Mustang convertible and $330 more than the '69 Corvair...
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There was some grumbling about the first Chrysler K Car we saw in this series, but there's no way I can run across a Government K sedan and not share it with the world. The Taurus and Lumina elbowed aside just about all the "official vehicle" K cars way back in the early 90s (and, to be fair, the K wasn't the most reliable car ever made, especially when operated by lead-footed public servants), but this plain-gray-wrapper Aries managed to beat the odds and stay on the road. It appears to be owned by the same guy who owns the second-ever DOTS vehicle , and it looks like he's fixing it up. Those of you who feel strongly about the idea of DOTS K-cars (for or against) be sure to vote in the poll after the jump. The K platform was quite versatile, but Chrysler only seemed to show off "K" emblems on a select few vehicles. There's a Turbo Caravelle in my neighborhood that I might shoot as well, since those hood louvers are extremely Turbo Mullet Era-esque. The...
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The '65 Barracuda won our Favorite DOTS Chrysler A-Body Poll back in March, but since that time I've found this '75 Dart Swinger. Would the Swinger, with its name conjuring up images of Malaise Era key parties, have triumphed over the Barracuda? Perhaps I'll have another A-body poll, once we've seen a few more of them; until then, we can only speculate. The Swinger was the name Chrysler put on the 2-door Dart with the Custom mid-level trim package. The Special Edition series was the priciest Dart, though the real hot ticket was the $254 "Hang Ten" package, which got you surfer-esque graphics and tape stripes. The standard engine on the '75 Dart was the 96-horsepower Slant Six 225, though you could get the Dart 360 Sport with a V8 boasting 200 horses. This Swinger is in decent condition, with all four hubcaps still present and accounted for and no visible rust. The vinyl top is bad (of course), but other than that it's weathered 33 years quite well....
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With all the vintage GMC and Chevy trucks on the streets of Alameda, I need to be sure I don't neglect the Fords and Dodges when DOTS Truck Monday rolls around. We had a '64 Ford F-100 recently, but it's been several months since our last Dodge pickup. This '62 seems to be a work in progress, since it seems to alternate between being up on jackstands in the driveway and parked on the street with a drain pan under the engine. I'm not sure whether it moves under its own power or gets pushed between the two locations, but these trucks are so simple that it shouldn't take much longer before it's driving regularly. I'm not 100% sure that this Dodge is a '62; it might be a '63. Year-to-year changes were pretty subtle for work trucks back then. This example has the classic California body rust, which generally takes decades to get all the way through the sheet metal (unless you live right near the ocean, in which case the process happens much more quickly...
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Is it really possible that it's been two months since our last Mopar A-body in this series? Like air-cooled VWs, Chrysler A-bodies are so plentiful in Alameda that I tend to lose track of when the last time I DOTS-ized one (also like air-cooled VWs, I've owned a few Slant Six A-bodies and feel much affection for them). So here comes a nice solid 4-door Dart, which lives on the same block as the Mercedes-Benz 280SEL that came in second in yesterdays DOTS Benz poll . The Dart is one of the few vintage Detroit cars in which I prefer the six-cylinder engine to the V8, but then the Slant Six makes even the 318 seem flaky. Of course, a 340/4-speed Dart might convince me to give up the Leaning Tower of Power. This Dart gets driven every day, and there's no telling how many times its 5-digit odometer has been turned over. Check out those Buick hubcaps, which actually look pretty good on a Dodge. This car parks in front of a house in which a high-school girlfriend lived back in the day...
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Even though we saw a Dodge truck just a couple weeks back , it's been much longer since we saw our last Dodge pickup . That means it's time for us to feast our eyes on this industrial-strength Power Wagon. The grille design means it's either a '70 or a '71, but once again I'm (mildly) ashamed to admit I can't figure out the exact year of a DOTS vehicle. Power Wagon experts, fill in the blanks! In any case, this is one of the last of the original American Power Wagons. What a name: Power Wagon! Too bad there's no reactor in the bed, because then it could be the Nuclear Power Wagon. This truck lives on the island's East End, in a parking-challenged neighborhood, and it's clearly someone's daily driver. Must be fun parallel-parking this brute! Sure, it gets 8 MPG and the ride feels like a shopping cart in a rock quarry, but the driver of this truck can snort in derision at drivers of luxurious modern pickups. galleryPost('DOTS70PowerWagon'...
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DOTS Truck Monday has worn enough of a groove in our routine to become sort of a tradition, but so far we've just seen pickups. What about vans? It's been half a year since we saw our last DOTS van , so this nice specimen of a forward-control Dodge fully deserves its day of glory. This Tradesman is Job Rated! With a Slant Six under the hood next to the driver, you know this van really can get the job done. I have a friend who drove one of these (which cost him $100) from Los Angeles to Guatemala and back, and the only problem he had was a sidewall puncture caused by a huge thorn. Surfers like these vans, too, because the engine cover makes a nice warm seat when you're all cold and wet. The forward-control Econoline gets all the press, but I've always liked the A100 just as much. Looks like this van's owner uses it to haul motorcycles, if we are to judge by the stickers. galleryPost('DOTS69DodgeA100', 15, '1969 Dodge A100 Van Down On The Street'); First...
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It's been several months since the last time we saw a Colt down on Alameda's street, so I was happy to discover this '78 Colt wagon parked on the same block as the '66 Volvo Amazon . These rebadged Mitsubishis used to be just as common as Corollas, Chevettes, Pintos, or any other Malaise Era economy car. These days, though, almost all of them have gone to The Crusher. With a few decades between us and the time of Malaise econo-cars, it becomes possible to notice the goofy little Japanese styling touches that are lamentably absent from most Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere machine these days. 1978 was the last year of the Galant-based rear-wheel-drive Colt. Bumbeck claims the Astron bolts right in to the RWD Colt, and we're all for that idea! It's hard to make out the text on the warning label affixed to the rear glass, but it seems to be along the lines of "You'll suck carbon monoxide if you drive around with the hatch open, fool!" Oh yeah, it's...
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We've seen a couple of GMC trucks recently in this series, plus a Ford-badged Mazda and a Datsun , but we haven't seen a Dodge truck for months. Here's a work truck that parks in my neighborhood; usually it's full of ladders and lumber, but I managed to catch it in an unladen state. As far as I can tell, there's no difference between the 1965 and 1966 Dodge D100s, so I'm arbitrarily choosing the former year. Anyone out there who can point out the identifying features that can be used to ascertain the exact year, please do so. I'm going to have this problem with most Detroit trucks of this era, since they tended to keep the same design for multiple years. In any case, the 100 was the half-ton version. Standard engine was the good ol' Slant Six, but you could get one with a 318 (power-crazed hoons opted for the 426 wedge, of course). Judging from the sound this truck makes in action, I'd say it's a Slant Six machine. This truck has been working its...
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When we saw the '73 Plymouth Scamp last week, I promised we'd try to put a dent in the unfortunate deficit of Chrysler A-bodies in this series. So, reaching into my stash of DOTS photos (I ain't sayin' how many I have, but you can count on seeing an Alameda street survivor each day for quite a while), I'm presenting this proud '64 Dart 270. Sometimes it seems that the 1964 -66 Mopar A-bodies get overlooked, being overshadowed by the wonderfully nutjob toilet-seat-on-the-trunklid styling of the early 60s Darts and Valiants and the angular look of the ones that followed. Still, they weren't exactly wallflowers. The 270 was the mid-priced Dart for '64, placed between the cheapskate 170 and the upscale GT. Standard engine was the 170-cube Slant Six, and you really couldn't go wrong with that engine choice; generally the engine was the last thing to die on these cars. Of course, some opted for the 225 six or the damn-near-as-reliable 273 V8; yes, you could get one with a 4-speed! Those headlights...
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