Had a '64 Chevelle with the 155hp six cylinder. Only "high performance" six cylinder. Recognized by the chrome air cleaner and valve cover. One year only.
A lot newer than most, but I had a '75 Chevy Monza with a factory 350. One year only. Only available in CA or CO and less than 3000 built.
My dad would get a little over the top looking for car deals. He went to south Carolina and came home with a 53 chevy base model with only a defroster no heat ! We lived in NY . Me and my sister would get under blankets to ride in the back seat .
Ausco Lambert 4 wheel disk brakes 1949 - 1954 Chrysler $400 dollar option. And you thought Corvette was the first U.S. car with 4 wheel disks
My uncle had a '41 Chrysler limo. It had power windows. They were hydraulic. It had a pump under the front seat. And hoses running to the cylinders in the doors. Thick glass with a one piece windshield. And a secret compartment in the back of the front seat. He thought it was an old Army car.
My dad had a 64 Impala four door with factory tilt column. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
1938 - Cadillac introduces the first sunroofs in America: 'The Sunshine Turret Top' was a retractable metal panel above the front seat, a predecessor to the moon roof. Only 1500 Cadillacs and LaSalles were sold with the Sunshine Turret Top Roof from 1938 through 1941, when it was discontinued. Here's Buick with the rare option.
1962, Had a '56 Chrysler 300 B,some what a rear car, but the one I owned was a standard shift model. It was one of 8 built in 1956. ........................ Jack
Actually it must be the generic production model- it started out black but I painted it maroon to match the rest of the car-so all in all maybe not that rare Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
back in the '70s, i owned a 1958 Olds ,J-2 engine, and speed control. it had an adjustable needle on the speedometer that you set at any speed ypu wanted, then it would beep when the speed ometer needls matched the adjustable needle. It worked very well.
dad had a scotsman wagon[57?] when we were kids,not a bit of chrome anywhere.soon after that he found and bought a 60 buick 2-door sedan with a 3 speed manual trans,had never seen another.
I used to have a '65 Ford. Found the glass headlight bezels you described laying in the dirt in a wrecking yard. I bought them and put them on my Ford...Never seen them before or since.
In 1969 I traded for a very nice 1965 Buick Wildcat 2dr HT with bucket seat interior , vinyal top, AC, dual exhaust, 340HP, HD clutch and a 4-speed transmission. Maybe even more strange was it came with a non power assist brake system. I worked at a Buick dealership at the time so researched what parts would be needed to convert brakes over to power. With the 4-speed option, Buick did not offer power brakes as an option. We had to fabricate our own brackets and brake rod. It was a very heavy car and power brakes were very needed. It was no 1/4 mile race car but once you got a fire built in it, it would get on down the highway pretty respectably. One car I wish I had kept. I have seen a couple advertised in Hemmings over the years but have never seen another one up close in person. Not positive but I think 64 & 65 were the only two years full size Buicks were offered with the 4-speed. No idea how many Buick actually built.
63 Falcon Sedan Delivery with inline 6 and factory 4 spd. The one I wish I had kept. O/T, 70's Mercedes SL's had option to leave off the trunk designation. You could buy the low buck 280 and tell your friends it was the 500.
Update: I've since found out that the glass covers were standard on 427 cars for '65....They were also a $20 option .. Understand they bring huge money now...
Wow!! Wish I'd found the rest of that car. If I remember right I think I paid $5 for the pair in the early 70's.
Those 65 ford headlight covers are a super rare option. Check out the prices on the internet. If I remember correctly they were standard equipment on 427 powered cars.
For a brief time back in the very late 60's my dad took in trade from one of his used car customers a tu-tone cream and brown 1965 AMC Marlin, factory v8 with a 4 speed, console and buckets. He wholesaled cheap as it had a little skip at idle and believed it to need a valve job. $175. Was too much to spend on it he felt. I've never, ever laid eyes on another 4 speed Marlin. He also had a '70 AMX that had a brand new beautiful glossy black paint job on it. After he sold it to one of my friends we later discovered it was one of those Red, White and Blue editions before it's repaint. Almost considered redoing it but passed. Today they're stupid money at the big collector car auctions.
Those covers weren't standard on even the 427 cars as they weren't legal in all 50 states; some states wouldn't allow any sort of 'cover' over the headlights. Ford also offered these on the '7 Litre' big Fords in 66-67, again as an option. Specially made by Corning for Ford, and extremely rare....
My '71 Chevelle SS454 that I've owned for the past 26 years has the remains of the Liquid Traction system in it. The refill canisters are long gone but the holes in the top of the rear inner wheel wells, hoses and brackets still remain. Maybe the original owner used the plumbing to pump bleach onto his rear tires. The car has the optional light group which includes a micro sized map light inside the interior rear view mirror plus factory 8 track AM/FM radio and air. Goofy options for a 70's muscle car. Car was ordered as a stripe delete.
Have a 55 Cameo pickup with 235 , 4 speed hydro, air cushion seat, tinted glass, radio delete, and 16 inch wheels.
My dad had a rare one. A 68 Plymouth with three dark green armrests, to match the dark green interior. And one light green armrest. The dealer ordered three replacements at three different times.....all arrived light green, just as the original mismatched one. The car stayed mismatched. Didn't even cost extra!
In the early 80's GM delivered a brand new Buick Century station wagon to the the Waltham high trade school, a body in white car. Not a speck or trace of any paint on it. The car was for the schools Automotive Industrial Arts, auto body division. GM donated these naked cars to train future auto body technicians. The local Cadillac-Pontiac dealer where my brother worked showed me a new '71 Lemans Sport special ordered by a woman customer in PINK with a white interior and white convertible roof. We pulled back the weather strips and interior trim panels and discovered it was a white car, masked off and resprayed in pink. The firewall data tag had 2 dashes for a paint code. Stuff you could order back then!
I had a 1932 Hupmobile with free wheeling and a replaceable oil filter. It also had a switch on the dash that would switch the gas gauge to tell how much oil was in the engine. The gas gauge said Gas or Oil on it. 1950 Buick with a gizmo mounted under the dash, pushed a button and a sight glass would fill with oil. If no oil showed up, time to ad some.
Not sure it was a GM option, but there were a couple dealers where I grew up that would install rear wheel sand spreaders on cars. A buddy of mine had a 59 that had a switch on the dash that would open up a slide gate in a tube over each rear wheel, and drop sand onto the tire for driving on ice/packed snow. He learned pretty quickly that the sand had to be absolutely dry before putting it into the hopper, because it would freeze into clumps and be useless otherwise.
I didn't read all the posts, so this might be a repeat. Worked on a 53 Packard with hydralic power windows, worked off a starter type motor mounted under the hood. Dad had a 65 Pontiac wagon with the speedo buzzer.
How about the Oldsmobile 1970 W-27 aluminum differential option! Maybe 300 of them were made, all of them used a coil sprung 4 link setup.
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