I once had seen a 32 dodge with cruise control. Have no clue if it's rare but I thought it was so cool
In 1957, my dad needed a station wagon to haul cases around town in SF. He had a 1948 Jeep wagon but it couldn't navigate the hills in the city. The Hudson dealer he was friends with told him to go to a Ford dealer and order a wagon with these options; 1957 Black 2-door El Rio Ranch wagon, a 312 T-Bird motor with Dual Quads and a 3-speed on the floor with bucket seats! I asked a Ford guy to look up how many were ever made and he said none. I guess the dealer installed all those cool options. It sounds like he had an R-Code T-Bird drive train placed in a 2- door wagon. I wish we could do things like that now.
The '72 El Camino I have as a driver came factory with bucket seats, console, horseshoe shifter, full instruments, 4.11 12 bolt posi but its NOT an SS. Another HAMBer I know bought a similar big block El new from a dealer in '68. Not an SS but set up like one. May not be really unusual but seems like a lot of options for a base model.
I had a '72 GMC Sprint rare in the first place with 4 speed, posi, and air bags in rear.. I also have a '34 Buick series 40, 3 window coupe with absolutely no options not even a right hand tail light.
not sure if rear defroster for package shelf mount 5along with rear wiper4-56 ford also 3 different heater options also as mentioned rear wiper vacuum lighter more I can not remember
Not Hamb friendly but, After a 20 year quest, I was granted the opportunity to finally acquire this original one owner, highly optioned #'s matching 1971 Monte Carlo 402 Big block / M21 4 speed /3:31 posi , buckets , tach & gauges, transistor ign, sport wheel , cruise control, am/fm stero 8 track, & more. Documented (1 of 80). A gm employee "corvette plant" worker. He sneakily decked her out to fly under the high insurance rates at the time. Mountains of documentation, build sheet, protecto plate, & every single small thing removed for maintence tagged, bagged & dated, down to the hose hose clamps. Came w/ Original muncie shifter removed within few days of arrival by owner n dealer installed a hurst, the muncie shifter is mint. Amazingly unusual car. He'd gathered lots of nos gm stuff to boot. I've been after it since 1987. Sold new in 1971 , 2 miles from my home. I asked him one day as usual & he said yes! Years of persistence paid off! I've had my 72 BB Monte 30 years this year. The 71s an awesome addition to the family. It sure ain't so slouch, & man it is sooo fun to row through the gears! Now back to the 53 project. Flux
Flux - That's 'effin cool! Holy grail A body there and a lot of ''experts'' would get shown up when they saw a documented 4 speed Monte.
Thanks! My uncles family owned local chevy dealership close by too across state line in ark & before my dad was drafted in late 68 they ordered some unusual stuff too. Dad "bookkeeper", spec'd out many owner & dealer oddities from 66-early 69. We've still got a small box of order forms & gm customer cards from the day "dad acquired dealership property after it closed in mid 70s. I love lookin at the records & muscle cars guys ordered. His 69 c10 3speed overdrive was kicked out 3 times before they said no 350 w the overdrive too much torque so a 307 it had to be, speed warning, tinted glass etc. Still got her n always will, draft notice & truck arrived on same day & he didn't know how he was gonna make those 30 buck a month payments without a job! Also Local sheriff speck'd out 4 door 63 impala w, highest horse solid lifter 327/4speed for his personal cop car, an early copo. A lot of self professed experts would have their socks blown off. Just goes to show many "not possible" things were actually possible then. But there'll always be magazine buffs that say nay, The guys who lived through these auto glory days know some weird n cool stuff came in to these dealers from the factory that way. Local friend also has 68 swb red/white top & blue interior also from my uncles dealership, Pop open glove box door & there it is! Flux
My 57 Vette had a 283 power glide 4 barrel carb and electric Windows! Early 70s AMC had Pierre Cardan and Levi Strauss interiors!
Flux that's awesome. My father had a 72 Monte that was Yellow. Sold it just before he had us Kids and regrets it to this day. I've always wanted one.
In the early days thru about 72 are so plus are minus a couple of years. If you knew the GM order books you could get almost anything on any body style. COPO was not a publicized part of the book. At the factory the sheet we saw to do our job on the car was on each side hanging on the door. Big letters COPO. You hurried to read the list of options. Some neat cars were ordered.
FOUND ON A USED CAR LOT IN BUHL IDAHO A 1967 CAMARO WITH A BENCH SEAT AND 6 CYLINDER WITH 3 SPEED ON THE COLUMN. PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT FOR THE $600.00 AND PUT IT IN A TIME CAPSULE. CRAB LOUIE
Flux, that is one Blues Brothers-type ride.. Check out this bitchin' '25 Hupp I shot a few weeks ago. That's the original paint- hood repainted in the 50's. Full import from Canada Works down under, it was the dealer principal's optioned- up ride at Phoenix Motors here in Adelaide. Has a Phoenix plate on the sill. Lotsa cool ex-factory stuff on it. That's the original top (don't touch!) with side glass in brass frames. Green glass sun visor. Lotsa lamps & stuff. But the coolest thing is the fat- man steering wheel.
One night in 1974 my car broke down about 10 miles north of my hometown. A guy picked me up in a late model 4 door Mercury Marquis. I got in the Marquis and it was a 4 speed. I asked the guy about it and he told me he ordered it that way new because he hated automatics.
NOT EXACTLY H.A.M.B. friendly, but rare!!. The "rare" part is the special order "Carolina Blue" paint, but most '68 Chevelle SS 396s did not come with factory AC, AM/FM radio w/rear seat speaker, DeLuxe seat belts, vinyl top, front & rear bumper guards, tinted glass, floor mats, door guards, power dual piston disc brakes, power steering, TH400 transmissions & wire wheel covers . Sold new by Alamance Motors, in Burlington, NC .
There's a lot of BS in this thread..... Like the 'Factory 351'-powered '67 Cougar; good trick, seeing how the 351 didn't appear until '69. How about a documented one-of-one? A '67 Ford Country Squire 8 passenger wagon, with bucket seats, console, and a 428/4-speed combo? Needing special dispensation from none other than Lee Iacocca to be built (as Ford didn't offer buckets or the 4-speed in wagons), the owner needed 'family room' but wanted some excitement too... http://www.chevyhardcore.com/event-coverage/top-picks-2013-muscle-car-and-corvette-nationals/
I am kicking my self in the ass for not buying that 67 country squire,I ran into the owner buying some parts off a 67 he was parting and wanted 3000 dollars for that wagon. In 91 that seemed like a million dollars so I passed on it,in 2000 after buying a 65 C/S I ran buy the owners house and that 67 was sitting in the same spot where I last seen it in 91 and had thoughts of yanking the drivetrain for my 65 but never stopped in to talk to him and it was gone when I decided to go back and see if the price was still the same.
I started working for Buick Motor Division of GM in 1970 as a GMI (now Kettering University) co-op student. One of my first work assignments took me to the Engineering Building #78. I saw the mock-up technicians working on a 1970 full-sized Buick station wagon. I thought it was odd because they were building the new 1971 (clam-shell) models by then. I asked and was told they were retro-fitting a manual transmission to the car because of an error in the order guide. An automatic transmission was listed as an extra cost option and I guess the marketing guys figured everyone would want an automatic with their new Buick Estate Wagon. One guy didn't want to pay the extra pop and took Buick to task legally. I think the story was if they gave this guy a free automatic he was going to press them to refund the optional auto trans cost to every other customer. Rather than admit defeat Buick built a one-off stick shift '70 Wagon to make this guy go away. The reason why the work was being done in the Engineering Building was because the engineers never spec'ed out parts to fit a manual trans into that kind of Buick. Oops! Wonder where that car is now???????
In 1973 I bought a 1969 SS396 Chevelle for $1300.00, the only options were the SS396 package and a AM radio. It had a bench seat, 3 speed floor shift, 12 bolt rear with 3.23 gears. The base 325 horse 396 engine and power front disk brakes, HD suspension, 14 inch SS 5 spoke wheels. I have never seen another one like it. The factory cam had a lobe go flat with 52,000 miles on it, just past the 50,000 mile power train warranty. The owner put a Crane Fireball cam & lifters in it (300 degrees duration & .500 inch lift. The only thing I added was a set of Hedman Headers and a Sun tach. I surprised a lot of people with this car,. The 3 speed had lower 1st gear than a Muncie 4 speed. It would come off the line hard like a 4.11 gear but would be 3 or 4 car lengths ahead at the top of second gear and would bury the 120 mph speedometer at 5500 rpm in high gear. I tried to sell the car in 1974 ( oil imbargo, long lines at the gas stations for 10 gallons, rations, 60 cents a gallon etc.) you could not give a muscle car away. I ended up trading it for a 1959 Harley Pan Head Chopper. I wish I had them both back!
the car i learned to drive on--dad's '62 chevy ss--had a/c (under-dash). i think it was factory, but it may have been a dealer-installed gm unit. it had a knob you would pull out when the a/c was used. it was basically a throttle cable that would raise the idle speed so the engine wouldn't stall under the load of the compressor. i've had cars with aftermarket a/c units, but i've never seen the throttle-cable arrangement since then.
There used to be an exact twin of this car running around Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in the early eighties. First and only stick shift Monte Carlo I had ever seen.
My sister's next door neighbor has a 1970 Monte 402 /4sp his dad bought new. Met a guy through the NCRS with a base model 1962 Corvette that was original "Heather Metallic" paint. (1962 Cadillac purple) with a red interior. Took him years to find out it was ordered as part of an eleven car fleet for some Midwest Shriners as parade cars. My boss has this 100 point 1941 Chev Cabriolet with every option and accessory for that year except a set of license plate reflectors for the front. One unusual option is the vacuum parking brake warning that whistles when the car is running with the e-brake on. Also has a vacuum assisted column shifter and "shoe scrapers" to get the mud off your shoes. A friend's 57 Ranchero E-Code (dual quad 312" engine) w/ 3sp o/d trans and 4:11 gears. Granted it's in a million pieces right now but he has everything. Maybe a dozen of these cars built. The '57 Caddy Brougham at work on the rack has a magnetic strip on the inside of the glove box lid to hold the factory supplied metal "bar glasses" when the lid is open. Been working on the problematic factory air ride suspension, what a nightmare. Plenty of switches, solenoids and air valves that a few people have worked on over the years. The frame-on Lincoln in the foreground we're reassembling now is loaded with stuff but most Continentals are. It does have a correct dealer accessory TV that hangs off the back of the front seat and a "hump mount" 8-track tape player to be installed. A coworker's low mile 63 Vette FI car from his grandpa. Very rare 2-bar knock offs. I take care of a collection of highly optioned rare cars and work on other people's from time to time. Couple others: 60 Chrysler 300F convertible on the left with a long ram 413 and A/C. This car honks it on. T-bird Sports Roadster with tri-power 390 and A/C. 413 390 I'm firing this one up on Thursday to move under it's own power for the first time in many years. 1957 F-Code T-Bird (factory supercharged). 211 made. Oh, I almost forgot that car with the V4 Chrysler Hemi............ Had ya goin' for a minute.... Factory cutaway engine from back in the day for educational purposes. It has an electric motor hidden inside the transmission that turns the engine over slowly so you can see all the moving parts.
Lowkat - Damn nice boost to the thread. "Shoe scrapers''. Love it! Cutaway engines are hypnotizing. There ought to be a thread
``...There used to be an exact twin of this car running around Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in the early eighties. First and only stick shift Monte Carlo I had ever seen... I worked on a 400 (small block) factory 4 speed Monte with crappy factory shifter back in the day. Dark green with a vinyl roof, black buckets and totally stock IIRC. In 66 a local GM store had a new Chevelle 4dr mid line 283 4 speed in the back row. When asked, the sales droid showed me a new 2 door hardtop, 396 powerglide Chevelle with buckets and a column shifter that came in on the same truck. Secretary screwed up the orders, was the story. Buddy worked at a Dodge truck store. One day when we were looking for rust-row deals he showed us 2 brand new Ramchargers, just off the truck. Loaded with every option, except they were 2WD and 3 speed trans, and with no back seats ordered the carpet ended right behind the seats. Seems the sales manager knew he was getting fired... Another time I was there, this new ( this was back in the 80s) Dodge 3-4 ton 4x4 long box club cab with a humungous camper pulls in. The owner was pissed off big time. Useless truck had no power. No surprise, it had a slant six. Suddenly buddy says I remember you, you tried to get us to order a truck with a slant 6 and we told you to forget it. Owner then admitted he went to the car part of the dealership (miles away) and they were glad to order it. When he went back to the car guys to bitch after the camper was on, they said, hey we`re car guys, go see the truck guys. Maybe it needs a tuneup.Nyuck, nyuck. Guy would not admit that his idea was dumb, claimed mopar had screwed up his engine. Back when I had my tranny shop, a friend who was a mechanic at the local mopar store showed up driving a new Dodge pickup. This was long before they put diesels in pickups and this one had a small mitsu in it. Guy ordered a new truck with a slant 6 to ease the swap. However, the truck had a killer vibration and noise when it was driven. He put a vertical exhaust out between the cab and box and put a bend in the top to keep the rain out. To deal with the noise, he put another bend on top of the first one. Then another, and another. Next he found some very expensive dense foam with lead foil bonded onto it to use to cut the noise. It was under the hood, on the inner fenders, all over the firewall and I dunno how far underneath it went. Anyway, when he put the diesel in his setup he had the bellhousing wedged tight against the body, which was causing the problem. He absolutely would not admit that that was the problem and left in disgust at the stupid mechanics. A buddy at another mopar store invited me over for beer at quitting time on Friday. After a brewski or nine a few of the guys took the shop mule for some fun. It was a `70 lime green cuda 440 6 pack with the Dana 60 4.10 package. After about 6 or 7 passes at the test road it started to slow down. Oh, dear, I guess this thing is seizing a piston someone said...next week it was in the shop and they put yet another piston in it. This, it turns out had been going on for quite a few weeks. Lost track of it, but years later I saw it parked every day in the employees parking at a big, local wrecking yard. Good thing 440s can`t talk, I guess.
Ordered a 1967 442 convertible stripper, only option was a AM radio. Three speed with a Hurst shifter. 2.73 gears. After many thousand miles towing a travel trailer it needed a clutch. No surprise, but the trans was a Ford top loader.
The Jalopy Journal
