Folks Of Interest CUBA ~ Any decent cars left?

Hey everyone. Just wondering how many of you have an insight on all of the vintage American cars in Cuba? Anything decent? Post pics if you have them.

 

i don't know for sure since i've never been there , so i won't speculate.....but i did recognized your avatar as being Robert Johnson

 

Yes, it is he. Back to Cuba. I have seen pics of an early Ford 3 window, a 59 Impala 2 door hardtop, and a Cad convertible . I realize there's a ton of 4 door Chev's , but there was some neat stuff too.

 

There are tons of them there from what I've seen. Some have been taken care of, some are piles of rust. Cubans have been very resourceful keeping them running for decades.
http://www.cars-show.org/cars/cars-on-cuba.html

 

Only thing I wonder about is how have they been maintained? Weren't parts unavailable to them? Also being an island surrounded by ocean isn't always good on a car...I've worked on rusty turds bought buy people going to Florida to buy their dream car...salt sucks..be it salt water or thrown on the road by a plow truck

 

Anyone remember this a few years back? '59 Buick floating enroute to Florida.

 

Here's one I just found online. Mercury!

 

True

 

Check out the documentary Yank Tanks, about American cars in Cuba.

 

There have been a number of threads on here with tons of pictures. Hit that search button.

 

I saw them first hand in the late '80s. Some really nice cars and some not so nice, they run the gambit.

 

As far as maintained , I read a story a long time ago that Cubans made parts to adapt forklift carburetors to stock intake manifolds - just to keep cars / trucks running.

 

Hell, they would not hesitate use the whole forklift engine and run propane through it, if it would keep a car on the road.

There haven't been any new cars in Cuba (except Soviet castoffs) since the revolution in 1962. Most of what's left is used up junk, as you'd expect from a third world nation, without a source for spare parts, where a car was continuously used as a primary means of transportation, for over a half century.

The poor desperate bastards turned Buicks into boats, for crying out loud...

 

That's not entirely true. The embargo with Cuba is only with the US. I was there 10 years ago and there were your typical econo boxes from Japan , Korea and France. There were several Ladas that I recall too. We were in Havana and caught a taxi that was a 58 Caddy. The owner had converted it to a diesel from a Russian truck. It still had the truck transmission with the long handle shifter....looked kinda custom except for the diesel sound and smoke. The cars there seem to have an altitude problem. They all look like 4X4's

 

I remember seeing a photo of a 58 Olds 4 door hardtop, with a truck straight axle and rear end. Probably had some oddball power also. I guess they have to get created in order to keep their cars running and driving. I can't really imagine what the salt air and exposure has done to them. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Thanks. Will give that a watch

 

This whole Cuban car deal keeps popping up everywhere. Since we've decided to play nice with Castro, everyone thinks all these cars are suddenly available. It's still a commie country. Whoever owns the cars (the State??) is not going to begin selling them off. If anything, they are probably National Treasures. Most are junkers. There are better and more cars right here in the US. Who, in their right mind, would spend thousands and jump through endless bureaucratic hoops to import a rustbucket with a Lada engine? I'm sure there will be the occasional jewel that was stashed away. There is a nice Gullwing in Cuba, but it isn't as if you will be able to buy them for a song. They may have been issolated from us, but they're not dumb

 

They have been working on them over there with lack of anything even close to right parts for a long time,so most are a fungy by now,but loved in most cases.

 

I like to hear about them not because I want to buy one, but because I think it is a super cool bit of history and culture. I read an article about someone finding and restoring a 55 Chrysler convertible owned by Ernest Hemingway a couple years ago.

 

Years ago one of my sisters was working resettling refugees and for awhile it was all Cubans coming out of Guantanamo placed there by the US during one of the mass departures out of Cuba. Since I was off work (on strike) she asked me to help them get settled in. Rides to their apartments, first grocery trip, establish bank accounts etc... all those normal things people do when they move. They were overwhelmed every where I took them. What we consider a long wait in line was to them efficiency at its best. The fact that ''anyone'' could shop anywhere was mind blowing.

But back to the cars a few of the guys I met worked doing auto repair at home. The stories about Lada 4 bangers in Chevies, making brake lining out of cow hides, all sort of homebrew replacements for things like brake fluid, body filler made out of rice flour and on and on. Anything to keep cars running. There is on the island a craigslist type of site (Revolico.com) where among other things cars can now be sold. And the prices in US$ are not cheap. What most people don't realize that often that American car is not just a car but a business. And that makes them valuable to the owners. And if you visit Cuban blogs, as I do , you'd know they understand our car culture and believe their cars are worth way more than most of us would be willing to pay. I heard stories of cars put away in 1959 right after the revolution and maybe there are a few of them there. Cuba's version of the barn cars.

Unknown to many here but in the 90s during what is called the special period
many Cubans were talked into trading their American cars for Ladas. Those cars were sent to Mexico where they were given new titles and over a period of time brought into and sold in the US.

My feeling from talking to those guys and how incredible they all thought my 51 ford coupe was is that what is left there is a lot worse than most anything we can buy here with a lot less hassle.

And good luck trying to haggle with those car owners, they might be poor but they are far from being stupid. They've spent decades surviving by their wits and wheeling and dealing is not a game for them but a valuable survival skill.

 

LOL I got the ambulance he drove in France now. I had a chance to buy an old Mercedes that belonged to Zapata when I was in mexico.

If you want to know about Cuba you really need to look at more than one documentary. Most of what we get is a little slanted. It is an interesting place cars and otherwise.

 

Nowhere in my initial post did I insinuate that I had plans to fly out there tomorrow and bring a few cars back. Im simply intrigued by all of the iron that is still on the road, and what is actually there!

 

Exactly. ;-)

 

There has been a bunch of thread posted on the Hamb about cars in Cuba.

There is 189 threads so this should keep you busy for a while. HRP

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/search/15540397/?q=cars+in+cuba&o=relevance

 

When Communism came in (1959) they made it illegal for a private citizen to own a car. If you had a car OK you could keep it but no new cars were sold and of course, there were no car dealerships or auto parts stores. All cars and truck belonged to the government except for the ones that were there before the revolution.

Some put their cars away to wait for better times. Some continued in everyday use, with makeshift repairs (no parts remember?) and are pretty well run into the ground by now.

In recent years things have loosened up a bit and you can buy new cars but they are expensive and hard to get. The old jalopies still change hands for very large amounts of money.

Frankly if you want a pre 59 American car you can probably do better at your local junk yard. Chances are what you find there will be more complete, in better shape, have less miles on it and certainly cheaper.

 

You got that right,the cars have been patched up with whatever they could find on hand,the Cuban's have had to be creative with their cars and really love them.

There are still thousand of cars here in the States that can be purchased for much less that what it would cost going through all the import problems ,If you could by one from Cuba. HRP

 

Nowhere in my reply did I insinuate anything. Just stating facts, as I know them

 

yes...there are some finds in Cuba....300SL's and the like....guess what - they're not for sale....and if they were....they know what they are worth....

 

A lot of bondo. Lots of Russian engines under the hood. Lots of mcgyvered cars in general. Probably wouldn't be worth the hassle of getting them here