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Offline BattleHymn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #25 on: July 08, 2011, 08:10:39 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 08, 2011, 08:04:14 PM
I knew some concours weenie was going to come along and point out the spare tire was pointing in the wrong direction. :-)

Somebody had to do it.   :tongue:
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Offline FreeBorn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #26 on: July 08, 2011, 08:10:57 PM »
Quote from: franksolich on July 08, 2011, 07:39:29 PM
You know, I've always wanted to ride in one of those, a prop-job.

Alas, all I've ever ridden in were jets.  One doesn't even know one's up in the air.

<<has never even been through an air-pocket, not even once.

I've always dreamed about riding over the Atlantic in a Constellation (I think that's the right name) from the early 1950s, or one of those Pan Am "clippers" from just before the second world war.  Either one would be a trip.
Franksolich would love a flight in a light aircraft. You are absolutely right about the jet airliners. It's the difference between riding in an open top two seat British sports coupe and schlepping along on a city bus, no comparison.
The first time I ever flew was in a Cessna 150 when I was 9, I didn't want it to end. A plane like that is so small all one has to do is slightly lean left or right to have a great view either way. Nothing like flying coach on a 747 stuck for endless hours between a fat guy with rancid B.O. on one side and a DUmmy with an epic life story on the other. They don't even give you peanuts anymore! (but you do get a free colonoscopy). I once had the great fortune to score a ride in a Stearman biplane over Niagara Falls too. I probably had that "just lost my virginity" look on my face for a week! Being a helo mech in the Marines I logged about 1700 hours on Hueys, nothing like it. Sitting on the deck in the crew cabin with the doors wide open and your feet out on the skids is the greatest ride on the planet (all over the Hawai'ian Islands no less).
Franksolich should most definitely head down to his local airstrip and go flying in something small. It is surprisingly cheap and you don't have to commit to anything with an introductory training flight.

http://www.pilotjourney.com/pstore/buy-certificate.php

If you go down to talk with the folks at your local field and explain you just want the experience of going up in a light aircraft once I'm sure they will accommodate you.  :)
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Offline franksolich

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Re: car identification
« Reply #27 on: July 08, 2011, 08:12:58 PM »
Quote from: BattleHymn on July 08, 2011, 08:09:16 PM
Probably in the neighborhood of $1100 back in the day, or roughly double the cost of a typical Ford or Chevrolet.

The father was an engineer--civil engineer, not locomotive engineer--for a coal-mining company, and I suppose he made good money as compared with what the miners made, but he had an enormous family.....but admittedly, 1938-1939 was when the older ones had grown and moved on.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #28 on: July 08, 2011, 08:15:57 PM »
Quote from: BattleHymn on July 08, 2011, 07:53:05 PM
1936 Chrysler C-7 Touring

Many years ago, Cadillac had a sister division at General Motors called LaSalle, similar to the way the Japanese have set up Nissan/Infiniti and Toyota/Lexus.  The LaSalle was intended to compete down-market from Cadillac (this was at the same time Lincoln was created and run by Edsel Ford).



The Crysler's big nose reminded of the LaSalle.  I bet if you dig up a picture of a contemporary Lincoln Zephyr, it would look much the same.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2011, 08:19:16 PM by chris_ »
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Offline BattleHymn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #29 on: July 08, 2011, 08:18:49 PM »
Quote from: franksolich on July 08, 2011, 08:12:58 PM
The father was an engineer--civil engineer, not locomotive engineer--for a coal-mining company, and I suppose he made good money as compared with what the miners made, but he had an enormous family.....but admittedly, 1938-1939 was when the older ones had grown and moved on.

My grandfather was a coal miner in the Pennsylvania during that time.  I'm not sure how much he made in the 1930's, but we have some of his pay stubs and tax returns from the mid 1940's.  I think he was bringing in ~$6500-7000 a year.  His real payoff was dying in his 50's from black lung.
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Offline franksolich

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Re: car identification
« Reply #30 on: July 08, 2011, 08:19:10 PM »
Quote from: FreeBorn on July 08, 2011, 08:10:57 PM

Just as with airplanes, I feel the same way with automobiles.

If the road's rough, I want to know the road's rough.

It makes one more aware of the real conditions of the road, and because one then handles the vehicle differently (knowing the road is rough), it saves wear-and-tear on the automobile itself.

If the road's rough, I don't mind a rough ride; it's reality.

Ditto for flying.  

I assume that even though I've been on rough stormy seas (the North Sea in winter a few times), I've never been sea-sick, and so I think riding in a bouncing airplane wouldn't upset the gastric juices either.
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Offline BattleHymn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #31 on: July 08, 2011, 08:26:53 PM »
Quote
I bet if you dig up a picture of a contemporary Lincoln Zephyr,

Oh, buddy.  One of my favorites.  It is a privilege to dig one up. 




The Street Machine Nationals are held in my town every year.  Every year, somebody drives a mulberry colored Zephyr.  Every year, that is the only car that I am anxiously looking for, getting my panties all up in a wad, until I spot it.  I have a picture somewhere of where it drove right in front of my home, and I took a picture of it from my porch.  My home is on one of the main drags that the drivers use to go between the fairgrounds and the areas of town that they cruise.  For a couple of days a year, most of what drives by is stuff that most people only see very rarely.   

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Offline franksolich

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Re: car identification
« Reply #32 on: July 08, 2011, 08:29:43 PM »
You know, some of these photographs show cars where the tires are half or two-thirds covered.

Didn't that make tire-changing a pain?
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #33 on: July 08, 2011, 08:31:51 PM »
Fender skirts are removable.  They look nice, but they're probably more trouble than they're worth.
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Offline BattleHymn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #34 on: July 08, 2011, 08:36:49 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 08, 2011, 08:31:51 PM
Fender skirts are removable.  They look nice, but they're probably more trouble than they're worth.

Isadora Duncan would probably disagree with you.  :-)
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Offline CG6468

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Re: car identification
« Reply #35 on: July 08, 2011, 08:37:12 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 08, 2011, 07:05:58 PM
The white car with the red top... I have it on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't place it.  I'll have to track it down.

Looks like a 1954 Mercury.

I believe the commercial airplane is a DC-3.

The 2nd photo looks like a late 1930s 4-Holer Buick.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2011, 08:40:12 PM by CG6468 »
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Offline franksolich

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Re: car identification
« Reply #36 on: July 08, 2011, 08:40:57 PM »
Quote from: CG6468 on July 08, 2011, 08:37:12 PM
Looks like a 1954 Mercury.

But Mercury was Ford, sir, and the family only ever owned cars made by companies that ultimately formed American Motors (as far as I know).  In fact, I know my father and the local Ford dealer didn't get along too well when I was growing up.
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Offline CG6468

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Re: car identification
« Reply #37 on: July 08, 2011, 08:41:53 PM »
The Caddy-LaSalle transmission was favored by hot rodders back in the 1950s.
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Offline CG6468

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Re: car identification
« Reply #38 on: July 08, 2011, 08:43:16 PM »
Quote from: franksolich on July 08, 2011, 08:40:57 PM
But Mercury was Ford, sir, and the family only ever owned cars made by companies that ultimately formed American Motors (as far as I know).  In fact, I know my father and the local Ford dealer didn't get along too well when I was growing up.

My first real car was a 1954 Mercury; the tail lights really look like that Mercs's.
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Offline BattleHymn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #39 on: July 08, 2011, 08:44:16 PM »
Quote from: CG6468 on July 08, 2011, 08:37:12 PM
Looks like a 1954 Mercury.

I believe the commercial airplane is a DC-3.

The 2nd photo looks like a late 1930s 4-Holer Buick.

You might want to hop back up the thread.  I think the only thing we don't have nailed down is the exact model of the Farmall, and the year of the Model T.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #40 on: July 08, 2011, 08:46:10 PM »
Quote from: franksolich on July 08, 2011, 07:04:08 PM
Yeah, it was George Romney's company, I guess, American Motors.

It always ran fourth in the Big Three.

George Romney ran American Motors until he was elected governor of Michigan.  The guy that replaced him at AMC didn't do such a good job.  Romney had carved out a niche for AMC by focusing on small, economical cars and did a good job of it.  Roy Abernathy tried to compete with the Big Three on their own ground and failed.
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Offline BattleHymn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #41 on: July 08, 2011, 08:47:19 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 08, 2011, 08:46:10 PM
George Romney ran American Motors until he was elected governor of Michigan.  The guy that replaced him at AMC didn't do such a good job.  Romney had carved out a niche for AMC by focusing on small, economical cars and did a good job of it.  Roy Abernathy tried to compete with the Big Three on their own ground and failed.

Didn't AMC have a car that used an engine that was comprised of welded together sheet metal?  I'm too lazy to look.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #42 on: July 08, 2011, 08:49:01 PM »
Quote from: BattleHymn on July 08, 2011, 08:47:19 PM
Didn't AMC have a car that used an engine that was comprised of welded together sheet metal?  I'm too lazy to look.

Not to my knowledge.  Maybe you're thinking of a Trabant or something from Hindustan Motors?
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Offline BattleHymn

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Re: car identification
« Reply #43 on: July 08, 2011, 08:50:27 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 08, 2011, 08:49:01 PM
Not to my knowledge.  Maybe you're thinking of a Trabant or something from Hindustan Motors?

Crosley Cobra!  For some reason, I thought it was an AMC something-or-another.
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Offline franksolich

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Re: car identification
« Reply #44 on: July 08, 2011, 08:51:21 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 08, 2011, 08:46:10 PM
George Romney ran American Motors until he was elected governor of Michigan.  The guy that replaced him at AMC didn't do such a good job.  Romney had carved out a niche for AMC by focusing on small, economical cars and did a good job of it.  Roy Abernathy tried to compete with the Big Three on their own ground and failed.

I'm hoping to find (tomorrow) photographs of the vehicles the family owned during the 1960s, all of them American Motors.

I don't think it was so much the brand, but more so business associations, that made my parents always choose American Motors.  In small towns where everybody knows everybody else, and a car being the second-largest purchase one could make (after a house), that was an important distinction, where one purchased a car.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #45 on: July 08, 2011, 08:57:05 PM »
Quote from: franksolich on July 08, 2011, 08:51:21 PM
I'm hoping to find (tomorrow) photographs of the vehicles the family owned during the 1960s, all of them American Motors.

I don't think it was so much the brand, but more so business associations, that made my parents always choose American Motors.  In small towns where everybody knows everybody else, and a car being the second-largest purchase one could make (after a house), that was an important distinction, where one purchased a car.
I imagine there may have been some horse-trading going on if your parents ran the hospital.  Maybe the car dealer had some outstanding medical expenses or a large family.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #46 on: July 08, 2011, 09:00:42 PM »
Quote from: franksolich on July 08, 2011, 08:51:21 PM
I'm hoping to find (tomorrow) photographs of the vehicles the family owned during the 1960s, all of them American Motors.
Now those should be interesting.  I'm looking forward to it.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #47 on: July 08, 2011, 09:03:53 PM »
Quote from: franksolich on July 08, 2011, 08:29:43 PM
You know, some of these photographs show cars where the tires are half or two-thirds covered.

Didn't that make tire-changing a pain?
On some of these economical-car enthusiast sites, I've seen people create their own body and fender skirts to make their cars more aerodynamic.  Granted most of them look like crap, but fender skirts could make a comeback for the penny pinching crowd.

The Prius has a low skirt-line on the rear wheels.
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Offline franksolich

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Re: car identification
« Reply #48 on: July 08, 2011, 09:04:24 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on July 08, 2011, 08:57:05 PM
I imagine there may have been some horse-trading going on if your parents ran the hospital.  Maybe the car dealer had some outstanding medical expenses or a large family.

Possibly, because two of the town's three physicians had American Motors vehicles too.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: car identification
« Reply #49 on: July 08, 2011, 09:07:35 PM »
My insurance agent will give me $50 of free gas for every person I recommended to him.  Money talks.
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