Vintage shots from days gone by!

Above assembly of CKD Simca Aronde, Moorabbin 1958 - how did that get here?

 

Hey FA,

Nice black Corvair Coupe. My wife's first car looked stock like your black one with the hubcaps and whitewalls, but, in a different color. When they came out on the market, it was labeled the "American Porsche," as there were many similarities. They were nice driving cars and were popular for a while.

There was a thread by JiveBomber about compact customs a while ago. One of the main cars was the compact, Corvair. Our neighbor in Long Beach had a 4 door Corvair as his first car similar in color and looks to the one in the photo from Hot Rod Magazine in JB’s post.

As teenagers, the custom car phase hit everyone. Our neighbor wanted a custom look, but was limited to what he could get for his car. It ended up with chromed wheels, a louder exhaust pipe courtesy of our local Moe’s Muffler Shop, a pair of fuzzy dice and those color matching (Lexan) plastic knobs we made in our Junior HS Crafts Class. He was several years older than me and in HS.

Jnaki

My wife drove to HS and to college every day. She was driving a 62 Corvair Coupe.

It was a shade darker than the one pictured from the Hot Rod photo.
That Corvair was her first car and she drove the snot out of it. When we met 4 years later, her Corvair was in pretty good shape, with the exception of the rear chrome bumper. The bumper was covered with road grime, oil, you name it and it was stuck to it. This Corvair was an oil leak specialist and kept the rear bumper very shiny, under all of that gunk.

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Battle of the Compact Customs: 1961:

Hello,

If our 62 Corvair looked like this in 1968, we certainly would have kept it forever. But, back in those days, it was the American version of a Porsche, so it had that going for it. We drove it as our low cost, stock, cool, daily driver. It got my wife through college and she had very few repairs if any during that time period. If you were to follow us on the road, you would have these mysterious spots appearing on your windshield. That was the ever-present oil leak being thrown rearward as we moved forward. We had the shiniest rear bumper in our neighborhood.

Regardless of what I did or fix, it still threw mysterious oil rearward. The local mechanics were also puzzled as to where this oil was coming from as it did not leave any oil drops on the street surface.

It had that unusual fan belt arrangement that occasionally threw the belt off as you were driving. We always kept a spare for such emergencies. Modifying the Corvair was not part of the equation as my wife wanted a reliable car that just got her to work and back. Her thought at the time was…it is just a Corvair. So, no, we did not make any custom changes to this car.

Jnaki

The only big problem was that it did leak through the side air vents below the dash when going through deep puddles. (even with the vents closed) Since the floorboard was about 2-3 inches lower than the door sill, the water gushed in and made your own lake inside the car. It took heaters, fans and many towels to dry out that car. Luckily my wife never drove it in the rain, so she never experienced that “Lake” effect inside of her Corvair.

Maybe she should have experienced that effect, then we would be driving something else instantly. Two years later, we sold the Corvair for $150.00 to a family friend in need. Actually, we only got $50 from him with the promise that the rest was coming later. Never got the rest...promises, promises...some ex-friend...

 

Some great shots of Duffy, Loudbang

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Usual culprit of oil leaks was pushrod tubes. Easy fix.

 

Oklahoma City’s Graden Miller, 26, was the first fatality at an NHRA National Event, and possibly the first since co-founder Wally Parks adjusted his focus from street to strip activity (1953).

According To DragStripDeaths.webs.com, An exploding clutch severed the fuel line At Approximately 100 Mph. Though Miller survived the fire and fall from the moving car, he suffered severe burns and succumbed 18 days later.

Understandably, none of these staff photos was approved for publication by Petersen’s Editorial Director a busy fellow named Wally Parks.

 

Watkins Bros Commander

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...m-days-gone-by.428585/page-4754#post-12220121

Could this be the same place?

 

No body runs dragster class







sbc head as ballast



Brown & Koulan



Bruno Gianolli & Sammy Hale Champion Speed shop

 

50's junkyard

 

Mission Chevrolet






Movie Car



New Vette Owner




Olds production line




Parts we got parts

 

Early Bean Bandits, both of them.

 

4dht Pontiac in film The French Connection (1971) ??

 

Actually been in that place.







[/QUOTE]

 

Rootie, I suspect Johnny White and AJ at Phoenix, they had twin 50's.

 

The second attached photo shows mechanic Floyd Trevis working on the McNamara Special at Indianapolis in 1951. Carl Scarborough was the driver.

And I'm drawing a blank on the first photo of a very sharp looking big car. Is there any info on this one, Rootie?

Thanks as always!

 

Freddie Agabashian and the Occidental Chrome Spl. circa 1938.

 

I'll bet there aren't 10 58 Merc 2dr posts left. Not that many made either.

 

They went to tattoo shops!

 

Looked it over 5 years ago on way to Baker,-----Could only imagine the tremendous noise inside!!!!

 

"DAMN"---That does it!!!----I'm inventing a 4WD!!!

 

This thread just gets better with time.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo