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I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today!

29592 messages,  Last post on May 20, 2013 at 7:10 AM

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What is this discussion about? Classic Cars

Messages Page 2749 of 2960

#27478 of 29592 Re: For andre... [uplanderguy] by stickguy

Jan 07, 2013 (4:02 pm)

Replying to: uplanderguy (Jan 07, 2013 12:02 pm)
the car they restored was white. And very boring looking. Especially by the standards of the 1957 fin era!
 
might not be original, but I like the new color a lot better on that car.
 
must be a beast to drive with a stick and no power assist. Actually, I had a Duster just like that. And a Volvo. Both of which were considerably smaller than a Desoto!

#27479 of 29592 Re: For andre... [stickguy] by Mr_Shiftright HOST

Jan 07, 2013 (4:18 pm)

Replying to: stickguy (Jan 07, 2013 4:02 pm)
That's interesting. On a vintage Ferrari for instance, a color change doesn't matter very much to collectors. I think what's going on there is this---when a car is rare, you either take what you can find or do without.

#27480 of 29592 Re: For andre... [fintail] by jpp5862

Jan 07, 2013 (8:24 pm)

Replying to: fintail (Jan 07, 2013 11:15 am)
I really like the shade of blue on your car, very nice automobile!

#27481 of 29592 Re: For andre... [uplanderguy] by uplanderguy

Jan 08, 2013 (4:13 am)

Replying to: uplanderguy (Jan 07, 2013 12:02 pm)
One of the pics is on page 42 of the Feb. '11 Hemmings Motor News. They printed an article of my meeting the original owners of the car. I don't have a scanner. I'm a pretty low-tech guy. My brain gets so full of having to learn programs and such for work, that after-hours I just don't feel like learning more computer stuff!

#27482 of 29592 Re: For andre... [uplanderguy] by uplanderguy

Jan 08, 2013 (5:35 am)

Replying to: uplanderguy (Jan 08, 2013 4:13 am)
A couple questions for those of you who own old cars:
 
First, Andre, what model is your DeSoto? I know they usually started with "Fire..." those late'50's years--is yours one with the Dodge front clip or the Chrysler-look front clip?
 
Secondly--have you guys ever found anything 'old' inside of your car, a 'souvenir' so to speak? I found a 1967 University of Minnesota parking pass under the carpet of my '63 Lark when I was stripping it down to go to the restorer's, so to speak. It was sold new to a family in Moorhead, MN. A friend with a '63 big Studebaker truck, who worked for a Stude dealer in Akron, OH in his youth, used to say, "We used to sell Roy Hosee big trucks like this, I wonder if this is his". He was tearing into it once and found a pencil with "Roy Hosee Trucking" down the defroster vent! Similarly, I read online (don't know the guy) that he found a Goldwater button down the defroster vent of his Avanti.

#27483 of 29592 Re: Buick convertible... [uplanderguy] by blh7068

Jan 08, 2013 (5:58 am)

Replying to: uplanderguy (Jan 03, 2013 6:37 pm)
The '70 Electra was the last Electra convertible.
 
Then came the Centurion(replaced the Wildcat) for 71-73.
 
The mom of a long time friend of mine had a 73 that was bought new when we were kids...fully loaded 455 car. Very cool.

#27484 of 29592 Re: Valiant [ab348] by blh7068

Jan 08, 2013 (6:07 am)

Replying to: ab348 (Jan 07, 2013 4:33 am)
At some point Ford got rid of the under-dash shelf and added a glove box - our '74 had one.
 
My father had a 71 Mercury Capri that had an under dash shelf.
You didnt want to put too much into it as the radio speaker was located at the top of the storage space and pointed down. Made it hard to hear the radio otherwise, lol.
 
It was a cool, but very quirky car.

#27485 of 29592 Re: For andre... [fintail] by blh7068

Jan 08, 2013 (6:13 am)

Replying to: fintail (Jan 07, 2013 12:17 pm)
I can deal with repaints (especially as the preservation/patina idea is only about a decade old), but having a car as it was built is important. A white car stays white.
 
Im in that same camp. My restoration pet peeve is seeing a car thats basically been fully restored to factory delivered condition...only to see the dash has been cut to fit an aftermarket stereo...sigh.

#27486 of 29592 Re: For andre... [blh7068] by uplanderguy

Jan 08, 2013 (6:44 am)

Replying to: blh7068 (Jan 08, 2013 6:13 am)
Ugh, I hate that too.
 
Another HUGE pet peeve, for which I'm made fun of, but I stand my ground:
 
It isn't rocket science to figure out where the factory placed various nameplates and emblems on a car. Take a damn picture before you repaint the car!
 
I CANNOT STAND seeing cars that are otherwise painted beautifully, with an eye towards originality elsewhere, and a nameplate is in the wrong place, or even in the right general area but six inches or even a foot off!! Aaarrrrgggggh! That can't be easily fixed!!!!!!! Not doing this correctly is simply being lazy.
 
Off my soapbox now.

#27487 of 29592 Re: For andre... [uplanderguy] by andre1969

Jan 08, 2013 (6:45 am)

Replying to: uplanderguy (Jan 08, 2013 5:35 am)
Mine is a 1957 Firedome Sportsman hardtop coupe. Here's an old pic, taken back in 1990, probably a week or two after I bought it:
My '69 Dart GT, which was my daily driver at the time, is in the foreground, and in the back is my Granddad's '85 Silverado, which I still have, and my uncle's '76 Jeep pickup, which I think is still around, somewhere down in Appalachia. Whether it still runs is a different story, though.
 
The Firedome was the cheapest "Senior" Mopar, built on the 126" wheelbase shared with Chrysler. Base price was $2958 for the 4-door sedan, whereas the Dodge-based Firesweep sedan was $2777. Base price for my hardtop coupe was something like $3083 I think. However, even on a car like that ps, pb, auto trans, radio, and heater were all optional. I spec'ed it out in one of those American Standard catalogs once, and as equipped, it was probably around $3800 new.
 
Personally, I never liked the '57 Firesweep. It was on a 122" wheelbase, same as the Dodges (and Plymouth wagons). However, overall length was only two inches shorter, 216" versus 218". That's because the DeSoto grille didn't mate very well to the Dodge front clip, so it jutted out more.
 
If DeSoto wanted a lower-priced car, I wonder if they would have been better off just taking the big 126" body, throw a Dodge 325 poly in it instead of the DeSoto 341 Hemi, and be done with it? But, at that time they were experimenting with taking DeSoto downscale, so that Chrysler could move down a bit as well, and leave more room for Imperial to stand on its own more. And, for 1958, the Chrysler Windsor would also move down to the short 122" wheelbase.
 
Oddly, for 1958, I thought the Chrysler grille, as well as the DeSoto grille, mated to the Dodge front clip much better than the '57 DeSoto grille did. Another thing that might have improved its looks though, is the standard quad headlights, which the '57 Firesweep lacked. Even in states where quads were legal, '57 Firesweeps only had two.
 
For 1959, they actually went through the effort to make the Firesweep look like a DeSoto up front, as it used a shortened version of the DeSoto front clip, instead of the Dodge clip. That probably cost them more money to do, but maybe they had some economy of scale, because the fenders and hood were shared with the Chrysler Windsor?

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