I used to work at a shop where we specialized in 67-69 camaros, but like most places.. we would work on whatever paid the bills. One day we were working on the P/S on a '57 T-bird. It was lunch time and so as part of the test-drive, my boss/friend and I took it to Taco Hell. Of course two guys riding around in a bright red t-bird is pretty gay so we tried to remain as anonymous as possible. Well as soon as we sat down in taco hell these two guys at the table next to us, that by the sound of it really should have owned a red t-bird together, started commenting on the car. One guy turns to my friend and says "Nice Mustang man. What Year?" My friend says "1957, rare year for mustang" guy at TB "cool!, how many were made?" Friend "oh just a few, you probably won't ever see another mustang that year.." this went on for 15 minutes or so... then finally my friend tells him he's just fucking with him and it's a thunderbird.. The guy wasn't too happy after that and quit talking to us altogether..
68 to 74 Novas are about the same chassis. 75 was all new with subframe from 70 up camaro. Better handling potential but more weight and lower horsepower.
We drive a 59 Edsel and a 53 Studebaker, we get this stuff ALL the time..the 53 has all the emblems shaved and hardly anybody gets it right..a surprising amount of people think it is Italian, like old Ferrari or something...
59 Cadillac Coupe deVille 2 door hardtop.... "Is that the Batmoblie?" The Batmobile was made from a Lincoln concept car....yeah, cuz they look the same...WTF? I just tell 'em "Yeah, the baseball bat's in the trunk."
I picked up my little cousins from school the other day in my bagged 62 cadillac coupe deville and some kid shouted out "dang look at that 64 Impala" it was so funny because he was so sure of it. I just kept on driving. Kids theyll never learn.
its ok cause from my understanding My '63 FORD Ranchero is an El Camino, cause everybody seemed to have had one back in the day
47 Stude trucks will get you funny looks also....................or the old"Studebaker didn't make trucks, looks like Ford." Yes they did, "Well I have never seen one." Well now you have.
I always got this at school, "hey nice car, isn't that from ghostbusters?" and my teacher asked who was driving the old car in the parking lot. I was driving our white 62 country sedan. Thats not even close to ghostbusters. But my teacher asking me if that was my car made my day, but then again im the only guy at school that had the old stuff. lol
I argued with some fool that my 59 Morris woody wasn't a VW kit car. The fucker never did believe me.
the other day i was gassin up the old vette, when i came out a guy in his 50's was staring at it. he asked if it was a corvair! right after that a pt cruiser drove by with the corvette side cove and trim airbrushed on it. after that we were both confused!
MY bro and I were at a gass station fillin up his 63 falcon hard top and i shit you not about 3 people came up to us asking us what year impala it was?? and I get asked all the time what year elcamino i drive (61 ranchero) the damm thing says ford acrossed the hood!
It's not always,the general public though.On set up day at local indoor car show,a bunch of "Oldtimers"were standing around the 29 Model A coupe i was helping set up.As a joke,the owner had installed a 28 Chev front rad shell emblem,because of the sm blk chev engine.These guys,who were all long time Hot rodders, we're discussing how nobody ever builds early Chevies.
Ha Ha...you know, they'll NEVER cease to amaze you, either! When DIRTYT and I used to rat around in our old 49 & 50 Chevys, the "common folk" would always ask about our "old Mercurys"!! Now that I drive a 51 Mercury, people call it everyhting BUT a Merc! (With Hudson being the most common!) Ha Ha...shit, my nephew was looking at a picture of a Torino today and thought it was a Maverick! Nobody is immune!!!
I've gotten to where I don't mind trying to educate the people who are curious and willing to listen. It's the ones who insist that YOU don't know what kind of car you're building that get me to walk away.
You wouldn't believe how many people think the Henry J is a Stude or a ford of some sort. also was call an Opel at one time YUK!!
[quote I got married because of one of those damned things! Now I've got 18 grandkids! I shoulda slapped George back in 55! Then she grins again and says..."Let's go!"[/quote] That`s funny right there... When I first got my `53 on the road here in Japan I drove her into the hobby shop to swap out headlights (and to show her off abit) THis guy walks right up to the car and lookin real hard at her and says. Man I used drive a `55 just like this in highschool. I didn`t stay long Now the only thing I get is when the Okinawan gate gaurds ask " No Mercury today?" I just smile and say nah no mercury today.
Oh man thats great...just great. But my friend who is black did the same thing at a car show. Yep I have never let him down about that one. Once I had to pick my father-in-law up in NYC. So we are driving back to NJ and get stuck in a shit load of traffic and every 10 feet.."hey what year is that car" gets yelled at the car. Without me saying a thing my father-in-law says 1953. So we keep going and he is getting annoyed with the question so he just starts yelling any year. I think my car was made in every year from 1890-2009. Freaken great.
I've had a lot of these comments made to me over the years and just take as something to laugh at. Some people think they know and just want to be involved - it's the real know it all jackasses that burn me up. I had an insurance salesman stop by the house one day when I had my chopped Deuce pickup and my kid's V8 '82 S 10 puckup in the driveway - he started telling me how great the 57 chevies looked painted the same color! Man! how different can 2 vehicles look from a 57 Chev? I always had guys calling my 60 ElCamino a Ranchero and just grinned and said thanks, but since I sold it, the new guy has a Cadillac restorer who approaches him every cruise night and threatens him with violence because he won't tell him what the car really is. He insists that Chevrolet didn't make ElCaminos until '64 even though Don has showed him factory brochures and a pic of his original Elky he owned back in the mid 60's. Crazy people! Best one I ever had was an old couple that came over and leaned on the rumble seat of my Deuce hiboy roadster. They just looked at each other and at the rumbler with huge smiles on their faces - never said a word, but it was pretty obvious what they were think'n! "Course I wasn't too happy when a couple of people asked me if I bought that Deuce new.
I walked out of a auto parts store to find 2 middle aged guys just drooling over my flathead. First words out their mouth's were, "man its been a while since I've seen a Hemi." When I told them that it wasn't a Hemi they just walked away looking at me like I was crazy.
great stories! most people's comment on my '63 bel air is "wow, look at that nice Caddy!" But I was surprised several times when 10-year old kids in baggy pants asked: "excuse me sir, does your car have hydraulics?" or just say "cool lowrider". I guess those hip hop videos have had some influence...
That car was made by GM in Germany, Opel. And like the much later '70's Opel GT / Opel Manta type1 who had many design lines from Corvette C3, The first Kapitän model borrowed lots of design from the 55 Chevy. It was smaller tow. Just to inform... No need to get drunk in other words!
When we got to LA on our Rt66 tour, we got lost and tried to ask around for direction. As we got up to a wino he yelled " Nice Cadillac man" my buddy Klaus yelled back" Thanks man, its a Lincoln". We were driving a Bel air...
What kind of car is that? It's a Studebaker Lark. So who makes that....Ford? No...Studebaker used to make them. So who makes them now? No one since 1966. So Ford made them until 1966? No Studebaker made the Studebaker. Oh...Ok so what kind of motor does it have? A 289 V-8 (with a grin on my face). Oh so it does have a Ford motor. No Studebaker made a 259 and a 289 cubic inch V-8 for the Larks. So did they buy them from Ford? No Studebaker built the motors themselves in Indiana.... (and I couldn't refuse at this point)...but they only built them until 1964. In 1965 and 66 they had Thunderbolt motors built in Canada by Chevy. OH... So Chevy made the these cars? Sorry, I had to walk a way after that. Of course that was calm compared to the 34 Studebaker I used to have until the divorce made me sell it. The guy was at the point of fighting... telling me that I didn't know what kind of car I had...The title and evey piece of paperwork I had for the car from the beginning of the build said Studebaker...That wasn't good enough....Damn it, it's a 32 Ford and that is all there is to it.....this guy just wouldn't quit, so I just walked away with him yelling I was an idiot and didn't know anything about cars (of course this exchange took place at a car show with lots of other people around and even though some of his own friends were trying to talk to him he wasn't going to have any of that from anybody...he knew it all). Here's what this jerk insisted was a 32 Ford....not even close...
The Jalopy Journal
