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1951 Ford – My Friend Danny’s Fathers Car

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During my senior year at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, my good friend Danny Coleman got his father’s car to drive around town. In fact, as I remember, his father gave him the car but there were some issues.

In New Jersey in 1958, the state ran the vehicle inspection centers you had to take the car through whenever the car title changed hands. That was a good thing except when the brakes did not function too well. The routine was to drive the car into the lane and first they checked all the lights and the tires and front-end alignment. Then came headlight alignment and then the brakes were tested. In preparation for the brake test, Danny was continually pumping the brakes until the inspector asked us to get out of the car. The inspector took his time getting in to the car and that was not a good thing. The process included getting the car up to about twenty miles an hour and then hitting the brakes on a big metal plate that measured side-to-side sway etc. When he did that, the car actually ran off of the plate missing it entirely. We failed inspection and were warned not to drive the car but to get it fixed right away. Somehow, I am not sure if Danny did have it fixed but I bet he wishes he had that car now, over fifty years later.

I found this information about the 1949-1951 Fords.

The Ford Comeback

As civilian auto production resumed in 1946, Ford found itself in third place behind Chrysler and was fading fast. Young Henry Ford brought in a team of outsiders who immediately embarked on a crash program to create Ford’s first new postwar car. That car was the ’49 Ford, and it was a huge advance over the previous model.

That style was continued through the 1951 model pictured here.
Have a look at a 1951 TV advertisement.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya1IRCw9agc]

1947 Chevy, Needs A Little Work

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Walking in The Castro District near our home, I spotted this gem. I believe it is a 1947 Chevrolet which was made right after WWII. This car looks to be in pretty good shape and given the age of the picture (November, 2003), it is probably restored or has gone to dust.

I found this bit of information on a website that seems to fit this car’s appearance. So, until corrected, this car will be known as a 1947 Chevrolet Stylemaster. If you know better, please post a comment.

BUSINESS COUPE
5-passenger, 2-Door,
5-window coupe with luggage compartment
in rear deck

More Information, click here

Some Year Checker?

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I was listening to Car Talk on NPR a few weeks ago and actually answered the Puzzler they have on many of their shows. The question, to make a long story short, was what US brand name car had the same body style from the ’50s through the ’70s? The answer was Checker. So, I have no real knowledge of the year of this particular car I photographed near Tucson Arizona. It was sometime from 1958-1975 or so. Any ideas are welcomed. Please leave a comment if you know.

I found this information about Checker.

ace it: From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, American automobiles hardly changed at all. Sure, designs gradually evolved toward sleeker, lower cars; safety equipment came around; a few economy cars shook things up here and there; convertibles disappeared for a little while. But by and large, the slab-sided, carbureted, rear-wheel-drive, perimeter-framed coupes, sedans and station wagons remained just as big, just as chiseled, just as Neanderthal in their design for those three or four decades. The rest of the world called them Yank Tanks and we Americans never once thought of that as an insult.

Checker might as well have taken that phrase as its slogan and worn it proudly. The company took that lack of change during this period seriously, almost to the level of religious zeal. When the hottest trend in automobile design was glitzy chrome and sky-high fins, Checker didn’t change. When square headlamps replaced round ones, Checker didn’t change. When high horsepower and then lower emissions had the automobile industry in a frenzy, Checker hardly changed. But when the automobile industry began a wholesale change toward unibody, front-wheel-drive, fuel-injected econoboxes, Checker looked at its options and shut down the assembly line.

More Information, click here

1987 Cadillac Allante

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This car was unique. It was built in two places in the world, the chassis was built in Michigan while the body was built in Italy at the Pininfarina plant. Here is a quote from Wikipedia.

The body of the Allanté was designed and built in Italy by Pininfarina (of Ferrari fame)[1]. The completed bodies were shipped 3,300 miles from Italy in specially-equipped Boeing 747s, 56 at a time[1], to Cadillac’s Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant. The bodies were then mated to the chassis[1]. This led to a few interesting nicknames, such as “The Flying Italian Cadillac” and “The world’s longest assembly line.”

More Information, click here

Also, I found another article with a conflicting story.

Interestingly, the Allante chassis was put together in Detroit, Michigan and then flown to Italy where the body was then mounted to the chassis! After this was completed the cars were put back on planes and shipped back to Michigan to be completed. Of course, being a luxury automobile made the Allante expensive, but the price tag rose because of the long assembly to about $54,000 the first year. This was the most expensive Cadillac ever. Because the Allante had to make two trips just to be put together there were only 21,000 units ever built.

More Information, from a Allante club click here

Either way, this seems like a lot of trouble to build a car.

1941 Chevrolet Special DeLux (The Contest Winner)

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Correction, one of my readers notified me that this is a 1941 Chevrolet, not a 1942 as was originally posted. Thanks go out to “Guru” for pointing this out. Here is a link to a similar 1942, Two things caught my eye, the grills on the two cars and the way the front fender is carried through the door on the ’42.

To see a 1942, click here

Thank you Peter, you guessed the “Mystery Car”. This car is beautiful. I wish I knew who the driver was. I’d love to photograph this car at less than 65 MPH.

In 1942 the Chevrolet Master DeLuxe and Special DeLuxe models were almost identical to the 1941 versions. Chevy introduced a new two-door fastback called the Fleetline Aerosedan, their best-seller that year with 61,855 produced. With World War II underway, production numbers of 1942 Chevrolets saw a sharp decline of approximately 75%. On February 1st, the government ceased production of all American cars.

1959 Dodge Custom Royal

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1958-1959, what years they were for the U.S. auto industry. Really, we should say what years these were for the chromium suppliers. This 1958 Dodge was really decked out with fine lines and big bumpers that gave it that ” Swept Wind look”.

I got this picture one fine afternoon as we were driving south on RT 280 near Palo Alto California.

Have a look at this 1958 T.V. advertisement for the 1858 Dodge.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJK5bUV0bY8&feature=related]

Custom Royal

The flagship model was the Custom Royal. It came with the 350 in³ (5.7 L) Super Red Ram hemi-head V8 with a standard two-barrel carburetor, but the optional four-barrel carb delivered 300 hp (224 kW). One unique feature of the Custom Royal was its bumper-mounted exhaust.

More Information, click here

1956 Packard, It’s Almost Over

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Tens years after the war, the U.S. car market was more than the “Big Three” There were other manufactures trying to compete with GM, Ford and Chrysler. Kaiser Frasier, Willies, Studebaker, Packard, Crossly, Rambler and probably a few I don’t remember. This 1956 Packard was really the last of the big car models released by Packard. They did have 1957 models but only sold about 4700 cars in 1957. Packard had already merged with Studebaker by that time but Cadillac had really taken over the luxury car business and it was too late for Packard in 1956.

For 1956, Teague kept the basic 1955 design, and added more garish touches to the body. Headlamps were hooded in a more radical style in the front fenders, slight shuffling of tinward distinguished the ’56. “Electronic Push-button Ultramatic,” which located push buttons to control the automatic transmission on a stalk off the steering column, proved to be trouble-prone, adding to the car’s reputation as a lemon which would soon become an orphan. Model series remained the same, but the V8 was now enlarged to 374 cubic inches for Senior series. In the top-of-the-line Caribbean, that engine put out 310 horsepower. Clippers continued to use the 352 engine, however.

More Information, click here

Mystery Car, To Be Revealed In Time

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This time it is up to someone else to fill in the information on this car. If you guess the make, model and year, I will fill in the other data. Really, this will be amazing if someone does guess because I only get about 15-20 visitors each day, but we will give it a try. I’ll reveal more photos and clues as we go along.

I took this shot in 2005 near Monterrey California. It was a beautiful day and the driver of the car was smiling brightly.

My first clue is that this is an unusual car because it was produced as we entered World War Two.
This car was “Special”. In fact, this is the only one I’ve seen since I am in California. Here is a wider angle picture.
This brand of car was the sponsor for a TV variety show hosted by a woman in the 1950s.

Well, that clue gave it away. Peter said “Could it be a Chevy? “See the USA in a Chevrolet …” Dinah Shore.”

Have a look at the full spread. Click here to see the 1942 Chevrolet

1962 Studebaker Lark Station Wagon

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This car and the photos are a bit different than the others in this collection. I know the person who owns this car and he sent me these pictures in 1999. I believe this car to be a 1962 Studebaker Lark station wagon. Also, these photos are over 10 years old so please excuse the quality.

The 1962 and 1963 Studebaker Lark

Turning his attention to the upcoming 1962 and 1963 Studebaker Lark models, Stevens — sensing that the public had tired of the car’s stubby appearance — stretched the wheelbase of all four-door cars to 113 inches.

More Information on the Studebaker, click here

1956 Cadillac Series 62

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The cost of chromium during the 1950s must have been really inexpensive. This 1956 Cadillac Series 62 two door sedan is verification. Cadillac in 1956, updated the same basic car it introduced in 1954 but used a lot of chrome in the grill and elsewhere. I found this car last week in lower Pacific Heights in San Francisco.

At his point in time (1956) Cadillac was selling a great deal of cars to the luxury audience.

Despite an all-new ’56 Lincoln and revitalized ’57 Imperial, Cadillac remained America’s luxury sales leader by far. Combined Lincoln/Imperial volume never exceeded 40,000 cars a year in this era; at Cadillac, that was good quarterly output.

More Information, click here