Automobiles you don't see everyday...

Love those 455s. Had one that I wanted to put in a fiberglass 1932 Ford sedan street rod. Moved and sold them. Some pics of a few cars I made over the years if I did not show them here already. 1932 3 window coupe (little deuce coupe} 32 Austin Bantam. Had the mold and made a few.

Beautiful picture of the blue '32 - sunrise/sunset really sets it off.

Spinster sisters in my little home town of Raymond owned a Bantam. Drove it in town at least once a week to get an ice cream cone at Candyland. Even as a kid I wanted that car.

roddie wrote:

rsv1cox wrote:The vanishing diversity of the 1950's.  Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Nash, Kaiser/Frasier, Willys, Crosley, DeSoto, Dodge and Plymouth as we once knew them and countless others.

Oh yea Robert. I know that you know very well!!

The Oldsmobile 88 WIKI

Even today roddie. When was the last time you saw a first generation Mazda RX-7 on the road.

As always very cool to see another beautiful car being restored I don't know if this model really exists but it would be cool to find one to restore

davidll1984 wrote:As always very cool to see another beautiful car being restored I don't know if this model really exists but it would be cool to find one to restore

Hey, I saw that car at the Melbourne International Motor Show.  I remember it vividly, and being a Toyota (which our family have driven since the mid 60s) I took a special interest in it.  The cool green colour really caught my attention.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/remembering-the-72-toyota-rv-2-the-hip-wagon-camper-that-was-ahead-of-its-time-174576.html

Looked like my 1995 Volvo 960.  A love/hate relationship.  Best car I ever bought, worst car I ever bought.  Purchased new I loved the car then within a year troubles arose.  First the air conditioner went out, then the battery (Son and wife taking it to Disney World),  then the brakes, then the motor mounts, then the suspension.  Most covered by warrentee.  

Then I got T boned right in the B pillar by a lady that had her turn signals on long before she intended to turn.  I thought she was turning into my road so i pulled out.  Big mistake and my fault.  I got the citation even though she had no registration or drivers license with her, and I explained the turn signal thing.  No mercy and I didn't deserve it either.  

Drove it home and to the auto body shop.  GEICO picked up most of the tab.  

I still love that car and continue to look for one.

It's not a real one but with this engine really starts to be more real
I'm working on this project and wanted to share with you telling me that others here would find it cool

Roddie,

Pretty car!

While the hard-facing is a recommendation, it is really only needed for engines that get high rpms operations or have really aggressive cams.. If this is a "jaunt around town" car, I'd replace the valve guide seals with the head on the car. Then perform a valve adjustment and compression check, with a follow-up compression check shortly after 300-500 miles). Good compression twice in a row is time for celebration.

"Powder" blue chrome bumper MGB, doesn't get much better in MG world. Beautiful car. I had a 1950 Plymouth convertible in that exact same color. Wish I had kept it and stuck it in a garage for 45 years.

Had one of those around 72, knock off wires and all. Came with a brass hammer in the trunk. The hood latch had no safety catch so the hood could fly up. Running about 70 on an open road at night and the hood flew up and ripped off the hinges. It happened so fast it took a few seconds to realize what happened. Took me 30 minutes to find it in the weeds and shoved it behind the seats sticking up and drove into town. I went to the junk yard to get another and they had four or five that all had a crease where they had come loose and hit the windshield. Tell him to secure the hood somehow. I had two six volt batteries behind each seat under the floor and positive ground, go figure. I just hooked my radioes up backwards. Mine liked to blow head gaskets but was easy to fix those. It was a blast to drive and wish I had that one. when it rained I would hold the tonneau over my head, it zippered down the middle so you could cover half to cockpit. Never put the top up.

crankbndr wrote:The hood latch had no safety catch so the hood could fly up. Running about 70 on an open road at night and the hood flew up and ripped off the hinges. It happened so fast it took a few seconds to realize what happened. Took me 30 minutes to find it in the weeds and shoved it behind the seats sticking up and drove into town. I went to the junk yard to get another and they had four or five that all had a crease where they had come loose and hit the windshield. Tell him to secure the hood somehow.

Ouch! Like you say, an aftermarket fix with some form of latch or retainer chain (yes, I know, violates OEM purity ) is a car saver.

Did Lucas Electric also make bonnet latches?

A couple years ago maybe more, I happened on an auction site auctioning several hundred cars in a collection from a European eccentric wealthy person, who passed away and left a couple warehouses of now abandoned collector cars, abandoned for years. (Did I learn of this collection from a CEF post?)

I guess in his later years he couldn't keep them cleaned and repaired, didn't will them to anyone, discovered by happen chance by others. There were a few weird rear engine cars of European manufacture from the 1950's in the collection, similar to this one.

Overall, I did not know that such even existed. We were I guess, sheltered from seeing such, being across the pond here in US. They were never imported to US, as far as I know. (Parts would be hard to obtain for such an uncommon car here.)

I don't know, but I'm in love. Make that 9,444!

Probably 1960's height of the Jet age styling rampage. Similiar. A 1963 Ford Thunderbird that my wife and I kept for a couple of days just like this one only a hardtop.



Funny story that I have told here before but worth re-telling.

Car salesman told us to keep it for a couple of days to see if we liked it. Sure........

Next morning my wife was taking the kids into daycare at the Jacksonville Florida Naval Air Station taking the Thunderbird, I took the old 1952 Chevy. It was at the height of the Cuban missile crisis and everything was locked down. Selective shake-downs at the gate. Naturally, the Thunderbird had no gate pass sticker yet they waved my wife right through. Beautiful woman driving a beautiful car. Same thing on the way out. Later we realized it and laughed about it. She dropped the T-Bird off later that morning. I still regrert not buying that car.

It always bothers me to see a car like that going to waste, rusting away. It's in me. Like beat up model engines, if I had the money and the storage space I would buy everyone that I could get my hands on.

Oh I do love a mystery.  



It doesn’t appear to have provision for a number plate which possibly indicates it could be a discarded or rejected concept or prototype design. It has some similarities to the Fiat Supersonic of the fifties


which was used as a basis for the 54 DeSoto Adventurer II Concept car built for DeSoto by Ghia of Italy,



both close but no cigar.    
The only other slight clue is the wrap around rear screen which was a style common with Chrysler cars of the fifties and sixties but it’s all just speculation on my part. I just hope somebody saved it and didn’t leave it rusting away.

Beautiful cars Dave.

I remember in 1955 when all the new styles came out, a bunch of us kids got together and went to every new car showroom within 25 miles and ogled. Just look at the pictures above, today we have these styless lumps of sedans and SUV's that a safer but leave me cold. Mirrors of one another.

This is the Cadillac that I though roddie was refering to. Love that style.

Roddie, my mind just clicked. That photo you show of the abandoned 1950's European fastback sedan with rear engine cooling grill was from that auction sale several years ago, pre-Covid. Most of the cars were inside warehouse like buildings, but a few were outside also. I don't remember exactly which EU nation it was. Think the guy passed away in the 1960's, property was hidden away until someone checked it out and found the stash, then reported it to the auhorities.

Wish I knew more.

Quite a mystery!

To me it looked first like some kind of a turbine car concept, definitely American with a Ghia vibe. Something like this, but older:



But then again, look at the doors. Front door is suspiciously small, and the rear door window… Well, how will the door open? The chrome fins near the center of the rear lid are not symmetrical, and something is off with the inboard side of the right ”jet exhaust” too. The front wheelwell looks like it’s completely empty.

Some kind of prop for a movie, or maybe even an AI creation?