New Find! Checker Marathon!

You can have twice the fun by finding the Airport Limosine version of that cab with 6 or 8 doors!

 

That's a surprising statement coming from a guy in Kalamazoo! They were MADE there!

 

Has the HAMB completely given up on being a traditional hotrod website?

 

I always thought the wagons were very cool too:

 

How much for a ride to the airport??

 

I'm envious. That would be an awesome DD.
Always heard that the control arms were Ford stuff. 1954?

 

Just to give an idea how tough the frames are, I found one in a junkyard a few years ago that they'd cut the body off behind the front doors and put a flat wood bed on as a sort of half-assed truck conversion. It was still straight, sitting there rotting.

 

Sure, it's an 80 model. That's too new. But it looks like an old car, like a car that would be old enough to be HAMB friendly.

Lots of T's and A's and whatnot are made of lots of parts that are way newer than 1980...

Kinda wierd. Like when my 54 Chevy isn't old enough to get into a street rod show, but it has more 48 model parts than any of the glass bodied or S-10 framed rods I see in there.

It's antique, he plans on hot rodding it. Sounds like a traditional hotrod to me.

 

I worked for a place that converted vans etc for wheelchair use. We got a new Checker in the late 70s' and RAISED the roof 6 inches. We also hooked one up with dual steering wheels, brake, etc down low on the passenger side. It was used in a Muppet movie (?) I believe. In that Checker we found enough change in the back seat to buy a dozen donuts for the shop.

Nick

 

Hmmm...all I found so far are used condom wrappers....

Thanks Butcher's, appreciate the comments. This thing is a dinosaur, noone would believe it was an 81, not with a X frame....

I talked to a body guy I know today, next week he will fix the hood and trunk lid, I'm not good enough to do what they need, Gonna get it a new coat of yellow paint, my very favorite finned aluminium valve covers ( with offy side draft brathers) and a cool scoop I'm waiting for from a Hamber....

drove it all over today, gets lots of smiles and pictures....This is gonna be a killer DD car!

 

Not two people on here would know the difference either. There used to be a guy around here who had a field full of those things. Mostly private owner ones that he had picked up for little or nothing.

 

It looks pretty much like the one I drove in Boston for Town Taxi ('67-'68).

 

Buddy of mine had an 8 door Poncho Limo WAGON!! I'll ask him if he has pictures.

BTW, Love the Checker! What a great candidate for a heavy cruiser long distance traveller with a stout diesel, mid 20's mpg and roomy!

 

My brother in law worked for Checker until they closed the plant. He helped assemble the last one to go down the line. He and a buddy put some scratches on one of the tail light lenses so they could confirm the last one if they ever saw it again. A few years ago, at the Gillmore museum in Hickory Corners, Mich they had what they claimed was the last one built on display. My BIL told the worker there the story of the scratches on the tail light. The Gilmore employee told him to go around the ropes and take a look. Sure enough, there were the scratches, it's the last one ever built. Not many guys get to see their handi work on display in a museum.

 

They had the continental engines until 1962 after that they went GM.

 

I want to hot rod my '86 Buick hearse be cause by this reasoning it would be ok. Next year it will be an "antique". I would have to agree that the HAMB may be starting to lose it's way. New folks get on here with rr's, checkers, internationals, and what not and expect it to be ok.

 

I think it needs a early '80's gold Cadillac grill molded to the hood and a Mr. T shaped light bar.

 

I was going to say I thought that they went to GM drivetrain in '65 or '66.

It would make a great "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" taxi clone.

 

Continental I-6 up to '65, then Chevrolet 230, 283 or 327; later still 250, 350, and 305 cid sixes and eights.

Use the Checker Taxistand website for contacts. There is a club with a proper newsletter and annual meets.

Although the body styling was very consistent from '58-82, the innards changed, depending on where parts could be found.

The HAMB should probably be friendly to Checker owners - heck half you folks were conceived just before getting into a Checker, while inside a Checker or shortly after getting out of a Checker. By the way - check out the back seat in the sedans!

The extended version with six or eight doors and either a sedan or a wagon tail end was known as Aerobus. I prefer the wagons myself. Aerobus looks too hard to park!

Cheers and congrats on the find!

 

They sold a few to private owners. I remember a Checker dealer on National Avenue in Milwaukee. The non-fleet cars were called Superbas I think.

 

Hey there, I'm curious as to whether you can still run them properly. Are there still parts available for the checkers? They've stopped making them for more than 20 years right? All I know that Checker makes before they finally closed were parts for mopars.

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Doesn't think Checker auto parts are still available anymore

 

I don't know fellas? Really! A Checker Cab. I think it's time for bed.

 

I have a 61 Checker cab. Runs great and has the original Continental 226L six...with factory AC

 

Putting in a 6/71 blown 392 hemi with a Lenco 4 speed