Cleverer?? Is that a real word? ... View more

Good News for dhomuth about his AMC trim issues. You can only see one side at a time. ... View more

Wagon's HO! I miss my 69 Buick Special Sport Wagon. (Vista Cruiser's cousin) Can't leave out all the cool US 4 door hardtop wagons from the late fifties & early 60's. Buick, Olds, Merc & ChryCo. ... View more

In 1966, the year I graduated High School, I had a good friend who was well over 6 feet tall. He had 2 cars. A 1954 Ford 2 door sedan with 390/4 speed and a Lloyd. I don't recall what model it was but it was SMALL! Did I mention it was SMALL!? Funny thing is, he fit in it quite well and we could navigate alleys and thoroughfares others could not even contemplate. I discovered entirely new routes in the Lloyd cutting drastic times off of travel to and from school. ... View more

Bond drove a silver C-4 Corvette in one of the mid-80's movies. ... View more

Never have I seen such response to an article. Electric? Cool! This is obviously as quality unit as the price range suggests. Me? If I was intent on going electric I would find a wrecked/totaled Tesla or some other wrecked fully electric vehicle and adapt my classic whatever to the existing wrecked electric chassis. Now you have all the required hardware including running your A/C. power steering and related items. Heck, you may even have semi-autonomous capability. That's what I would do. Just sayin'... ... View more

A small horizontal bar at mid-height across the gapping front grill would add the needed appearance of width while diminishing the gapping open mouth look. The rear seems a bit plain and overly simple. The rest of the car reflects true "Z car" retro styling. As a former Datsun parts manager from 1970, watching these cars become the icon thay are today has been a treat. A great replacement for the outgoing model IMO. ... View more

I've gone one step further. I use colored electrical tape on the tool AND the wrench to identify which wrench goes with which tool. Saves time when the twist tie fails or you have multiple wrenches which work with multiple tools. ... View more

In 1980 I found a 61 6 window sedan like the one in this article parked 4 Sale on the local K-Mart parking lot. Several phone calls to seller resulted in no answer. Over the weeks the price fell from $600 to $400. I decided it was time to get a hold of the seller anyway I could. One lucky day he answered the phone and the story behind the car was strange. He worked at the local Lincoln dealer. The Caddy was a trade-in he purchased. There were no whell covers on the car but the tires were near new radial white walls. In the glove box were the keys AND the title. (CA) I started the car and it ran horribly. In the trunk were the four original hub caps. I offered $300 an drove it away. I cleaned the sparkplugs, fitted the wheel covers and found the vacuum line to the transmission control unit was not connected. A thorough cleaning and some spot lacquer to the side panels and I had a very nice car. I drove it for two years and traded it for a 58 Chevy step side pickup owned by the Cadillac dealer's son. Only drawback was no A/C in So Cal. Would definitely buy another one. ... View more

The Willy's "Aero" appears to have wheel covers lifted from a 63" Corvair. Ford had a Three door Bronco in the 80's or 90's in Mexico. Full sized like a Suburban with three doors on ne side and one on the opposite side. AKA early an Suburban. That's what I'd drive in Mexico. ... View more

The Triumph GT-6 is cool but I never see anything regarding the MGC. A fellow sailor I knew brought one home from a tour in England in 1969. British racing green, 4 speed manual with electric overdrive, a soft and hardtop and wire wheels. I remember the MG dealer in San Diego kept trying to buy it from him as they could not get any equipped like his for inventory. I've not seen any for sale either. I had access to this car and it would cruise at 100mph all day long out on Interstate 8. ... View more

Hidden lamps came on the Pantera as well. Only problem was how goofy they looked open. Kinda like an overgrown Miata. ... View more

Even the C3's had pretty cool lamps. ... View more

While doing a stint as a Datsun parts Mgr. in 1973, a 1964 C2 in black Roadster was traded in. It was black with red guts. I had to wait until the clients 610 wagon arrived and it took forever so I did not buy the car for $1,100.00! Was I an idiot or what? The used car department sent it out for paint and it was done in white. I'll never forget how the body shop forgot to turn the headlights around and paint the back side. The car looked like a racoon when the lights were on. I purchased a 63 Riviera instead. Go figure. ... View more

Most are not aware of the Opel's mechanical linkage and how the lamps rolled over from side to side instead of front to back as most folks would think. First time I saw those in 1970 I was amazed.  ... View more

I have owned several Riv's all 63's & 64's. I had the opportunity to get my hands on a 65 in 1972 for $800 but the deal went south. Park a 63-64 next to a 65 and the subtle difference in how the front fenders slope towards the front is evident. A taller front peak was needed to clear the clam shell doors.  ... View more

Yikes! Mickey is cheering. ... View more

My first Riviera, a 1963 model, had no AC. In the Bay Area it was rarely needed. ... View more

In the early 70's I worked in a auto parts chain store similar to Pep Boys. One of our best selling items was a cooler which fit over the trans hump in the front seat. Ice was placed in the cooler and a fan, powered by the cigarette lighter circulated the ice-cooled air in the car. Basically a swamp cooler. Personally i didn't think it worked all that well. ... View more

Rolls used AC components from GM. Easy to service. ... View more

I remember those vents. My 63 Riviera had them. ... View more

Soooo...our 66' Merc Park Lane/428 and our 69 Sedan Deville, both with excellent functioning AC are rare? The Merc still has R12 in the system. Yikes! ... View more

Wow! I forgot how many of these mini's were in our family. Dad had a red 72' Datsun 520. My late father-in-law had a Chrysler store in No. Cal. and he always had a Dodge D-50 with the 2.6 4 banger. Quite quick. My son-in-law had a Rampage. I had a 74' Toyota long bed with Chevy 350/350. Kept the sleeper camper on the back with the steel wheels and dog dish hubcaps. What a sleeper. A friend who owned a body shop had a early Chevy LUV with a Mazda rotary in it. Unbelievably quick but he later replaced that with a 350 and added 4WD. That made the cover of Off Road Mag in the mid-70's. During my stint as a Datsun parts Mgr. in the 70's we had a couple of early 620 pickups. Those were fun and looked great too! There was a guy in town who had a early courier with a 302/C4 combo for pulling toys to the desert. I recall the exhaust manifolds installed backwards with the pipes coming forward than wrapping down and back due to a lack of room for conventional mounting. It worked very well. Ah...the good ole' days with V-8 powered mini trucks. Before S10's with LS kits. On a strange note I remember the early Datsun's were shipped to the US without a bed. The beds were shipped separately and painted here then installed on the pickups at the docks. It had to do with taxation at the time. A different paint was used on the beds versus the cabs. That's why the older pickup beds never matched the cabs over time. Taxation was also responsible for dealer only installed AC in pre 1974 imports. Shipped with AC pre 74" imports were taxed as luxury vehicles. The hot rod crowd used the tail light assemblies from the 520  (68 to 72) pickups for numerous applications.  ... View more

I bought a new 77 Ford F-150 with a package similar to the Free Wheelin' Bronco. It was a red long bed 2WD with a 460/AT.  Individual side stripes covered the entire body below the side chrome going from gold to navy blue. A stout front factory push guard was mounted on the black  front bumper. Anson style slotted mag wheels were fitted and the interior featured a black vinyl bench seat with silver inserts and red piping. The door panels and dash had similar themes. Fun truck as it would smoke the rear tires. I remember in 1978 the side stripes were blended and created a fading effect instead of the individual stripes.  ... View more

Really? Why is everyone soooo angry? Must be cooped up Covid anxiety. Chip's drawing reminds me of a 540 Mercedes. If someone really had the money and a derelict Duesy to resto-mod than go for it. Fabricating one from scratch would be preferred as even derelict Duesy parts are worth salvaging. In my artistic career, many times have I drawn modified versions of timeless and irreplaceable classics. Let it go. Nice work Chip. Always fun to watch a master at work. ... View more

All good ideas. For more permanent projects I have discovered a product called ZIP Tape. It is to seal the exterior joints of plywood sheathing. It's costly but you will want to add this to your duct tape collection. Be careful...it is quite permanent and does not deteriorate like duct tape after exposure to the elements. My wife absconded with my garage roll once she has discovered it so now I have get my own for the garage. ... View more

Sadly only the Eldorado Brougham, which we all know was much smaller than a Deville and had an Italian influence was the only model from Cadillac in 57 which came with the four lamp arrangement. The rest of the Caddy line up received four lamps beginning in 1958. ... View more

By 58 all states had approved of quad lights and Plymouth did have four 5" round lamps beginning in 1958. ... View more

All 48 states had not approved of the 4 lamp arrangement by the time the 57 models came out and many manufacturers who had 4 lamp designs had to make last minute changes. Plymouth was ready with four lamps but arrived with two headlamps and two smaller fog lights. The Lincoln in the article picture does not have 4 headlamps. Only two are headlamps. The other two are smaller units like fog or driving lights similar to the Plymouth. Most 57 Mercs had single headlamps. I don't know if the two lamp versions were late production after all 48 states voted for approval or are only on upper scale trim levels. As a kid in the third grade where nothing mattered more than the new cars coming out in September. one of my first pre-built model car requests (dealer promotional units) was of the 57 Plymouth and only because of the 4 headlamps. Big disappointment to discover all 4 weren't actually headlamps, even on the model by AMT. ... View more

Agreed. That wheel showed up in many, many hotrods of the era.  ... View more