So, I watched American Graffiti last night and.....

I really paid attention to the other cars in the movie other than the obvious ones. I like EVERY car in it. What was it like for you guys who were alive back then? Did you like every car on the road or were there cars that were not cool but are cool now? Back then did you like wagons etc ???

 

How about the Mustang or 65ish Chevy? In the movie I mean..........kinda a continuity type FU

 

heh...this'll be fun....

I know that 15 years later, there definitely were a lot of cars that you didn't want to be seen in, but are cool now. The family wagon comes instantly to mind.

 

Ya ! there was one I would not want to be seen in a
1958 Cadillac Hearse

 

4 doors.

 

Citreon.... wouldnt want to be seen in that

 

I wasn't around then, but I know for sure that 4 doors and family wagons weren't exactly the cat's ass back in the day. 4 door sedans have become acceptable now, and with the right treatment can be outright cool, whereas the family wagon is just plain cool now regardless of how many doors it has.

That said, I won't buy a 4 door sedan now, and would only take a 4 door hardtop for the right car.

 

I think that was suppost to be set in 62,I was just 7 years old then but I remmember nobody wanted wagons or 4 doors,or 30's and 40's cars unless it was a coupe or roadster,and you could buy them for about nothing,but $100 was a lot of money then.

 

Not to hyjack this thread::
Nash & Ramblers.. tho , 20-20 hindsight what it is - I sure would be cool to visit all the different showrooms with all those shiny new cars..& OH THAT New Car Smell---
It seems if 'your family was Ford/ Chevy/Chrysler etc.. ' no reason to look at anything else...The funny thing is I don't remember trucks ever in showrooms - just usually line up in back of the lot or facing a side street...
We were International Harvester & Ford-- weirdos of the block

-41-

 

There's a blue and white '56 Nomad and of course the brown '55 Nomad that caught my eye back then, but of course I have Nomad disease.

After seeing the movie six times in the theater when it first came out, I wanted to build a 32 Ford coupe. Then after realizing 32 Ford coupes, even then, were pricey compared to other choices, I built a 30 Ford coupe, back when they were cheap and not nearly as desirable as they are now.

 

The cool young guys had their own car (two door hard top w/white walls) If you had to drive dad's car it probably was a sedan with black walls.

 

Ok, back then the cars were new (or newer), and I myself could not give two shits about new cars nowdays but back then it must have been incredible.

 

Never a four door, never ever a citroen, what I remember from being a little guy back then was the excitement my dad had when the new cars hit the showroom and you would see the transports rolling into town (Fort Wayne, Indiana for me) and the cars would be under tarps...my dad always got the clear plastic seat covers that were so effing cold in the winter time and you would slide back and forth (we didn't wear seat belts back then we only dicked around with the buckles until it drove our dad crazy with the clicking sound)...you would drive home and all of the neighbors would come over and admire your new ride...unless it was a wagon

 

Oddly enough, I disliked the '57-'60 F100 trucks back in the '60s. I thought their ass-ends were ungraceful.

Guess what? I drive a '59 F100 now and think it's pretty cool.

Nothing is constant except change.

dka

 

4 doors werent cool parts cars at best , anything less than 400 cubes was not good for me, I owned 1 wagon, 66 Tempest was ok but not as cool as now, but even in the late 70's here in Michigan there was a ton of buildable iron

 

If fact, in the fifties, very few cars had blackwalls. Maybe a salesman car like a Chevy 150, but most family cars and almost all cars had whitewalls. The size of the whitewall was changing and the big whitewalls disappeared and the modern smaller whitewalls took over. Every Saturday I literally scrubbed 16 whitewalls and made $4.

 

Seems to be a lot more "field cars" on the road now than back then...

....maybe it's just my neighborhood!

 

I wasn't alive then but my Dad said it was Desotos and 4-doors no one wanted to be seen in. So he is surprised when we go to shows and cruises and he sees them all fixed up. He always says "Man I would have never thought that someone would put the time into fixing up that car. That was a old person's car back in the day."

I remember even as a kid in the 70's when someone got a new car it was a big deal and all of the neighbors would come to see it. That doesn't happen to often now. I'll usually go over if someone in my neighborhood gets a new car or truck...depending on the car or truck. If its a Honda or Hyundai I usually don't. They usually say we were waiting for you to come over, being one of two car guys in the neighborhood. If new cars come out at a dealership I'll usually stop by and look.

 

I was a teenager in 1962
I remember going to the Chevy dealership in 1957 and looking at a black 57 Chevrolet convertible with red interior. My Dad bought a new 57 red Chevrolet wagon. He bought a new car every year from 1955 to about 1964. Some years he bought two. He would get the first new one of the model run and by the end of the model run, he would have 50/60/70 thousand miles on it and then get another one the same year and model ... just a different color. It was a big deal when the new models came out back then because they looked so different ... each year.

In 1962 ... 55/57 Chevys were the big thing. They were the hot rod of choice for most guys. There were some cool Fords also ... but the 55/57 Chevrolets the " In crowd " favorites. By 1964/1965, the 390 fastback 63/64 Fords had gained a lot of popularity. Deuce coupes and 40 Fords were not that common, even in the South. Now in the 56/57/58/ years ... you saw a lot of 39/40 Fords.

A few Cameos pickups and F-100's were popular for shop trucks ... and some were pretty fixed up. A upholstery shop just down the road from my home had a real cool red 56 F-100 Big Window. It has a rolled and pleated insides and a set of chrome reverse wheels with wide whites. Dual exhaust and some fancy lettering on the door. I thought it was the coolest F-100 I had ever seen.

4 doors, regular stations and such were just " mom and pop " rides. No one Cool had those ...

 

In '71 we had a 4 door 210
wagon like yours that my dad sold for $125.00 and a
nice '56 Nomad, red, black diamond tuck, 327/4speed
steelies w/'59 caps and beauty rings w/redlines that he
sold for.., gulp.., $250.00! He always says, bet you wish I woulda kept the nomad and I say HELL YES, but I'd be happy with the 210 4 door.

 

not to far from your story....I dare to say one of my uncles sold his 57' Bel Air so he could be the first in town to have a AMC Pacer " the car was ahead of it's time" he always said.....he begs me not to remind him today....and of course I always do.......

 

...That edsel..I was nine in '62 and even then I knew no one wanted to be seen in an Edsel. Ramblers and studes were dork cars too. Guess what my dad bought as a second car for us five kids to go to school in...first a Rambler, then a Stude; he said they were "sturdy" cars. He was right My older brother could NOT kill that stude!

 

lol, When it came time for a new set of tires, my Dad sure didn't pay the extra buck for the whites regardless of whether it had 'em new or not.

The biggest difference in rodding and customs back then was that no one was using weird or unusual cars as a basis. I had a hand-me-down '52 Buick for my first High school car in the 50's and the Ford and Chevy guys laughed at me when I "showed bad judgement" by adding custom touches to it.

Later in the '50's-early '60's after high school, it was cool to be able to buy a new car every year 'cause they only cost about three grand.

By my senior year, I had a few bucks and succombed to peer pressure. This is what $600 would buy in '62.

 

haha!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong , but I think George actually matched the "coolness" or "un coolness" of the cars according to the social status of the people in the movie. Couples in the movie rode 2 door, popular cars. 2 buddy's would ride a 2 door popular car. A group of more than 3 single people would be driving 4 door "mom or pops'" car. Nerds and eggheads (intellectuals) drove vespas and Citroens.

In answer to your question, yes, some cars you wouldn't want to be seen in back then are now acceptable.

 

I liked the Citroen the best. Impress all the ladies with my gas mileage.

 

In Socal in the early 60's 2 door wagons especially 55 to 57 chevys & 55 to 58 ford ranch wagons were real popular "surf wagons" no matter how far you lived from the beach. Usually had chrome reverse wheels & hawaiian print curtains and couple of Hobie or Dewey Weber surfboard decals in the back windows.
And the beach boys on the AM radio

 

Music's been going downhill since Buddy Holley died.

 

I was 6 years old in the summer of '62, I liked the loud ones........ somethings never change.

 

I was 7 yrs. old in 62',my Dad always had Caddy's.I thought those were the dumbest lookin' cars/tanks...boy have I come full circle since then.I'd love to have just one of his old Cads now.I wish Ol' Dad were still around so he could see how I've changed. Giz'