I have a 65 Marlin. I shaved all the emblems off, except the fish on the deck lid. So of course it's a Barracuda. The other choices are Charger, Torino, Malibu, very few get it right. The deck lid is only about 2 ft. square, people say " that don't have a very big trunk" I tell them it's just the lid that's small, " I can get 5 bodies in there if I cut 'em up". It's tubbed, and a bit noisy, I pulled into a gas station in a small town one day to fill up, a kid comes up and says " you didn't drive that here, did you?" I said "How do you think I got it here?" He says " on the street I mean" Another car I drive a lot is a 34 DeSoto Airflow coupe. Everybody looks for the cut lines, they don't believe Mopar made them.
"Nice Edsel." The best one was from my friend's mother-in-law. "I spent a lot of nights looking at the headliner in one of these."
Actually, have seen photos of 50's California Highway Patrol cars that were two-doors, one year they were Buicks that were built different, some combination of Century nose and Special 2dr post body that you couldn't buy. Up through about '58 or so before 4drs became the norm. Some folks probably can't tell a 2dr from a 4dr though. Would imagine other states had similar stuff, saw a post on an e-mail list a guy has a chance to get a couple '57 Dodge D-500 2dr sedan ex-state patrol cars, didnt mention the state though. Don't forget those Camaro and Mustang highway speeder patrol cars too - The only thing worse than know it alls who know nothing about cars are the know-it-alls who tell you all about how lousy your car is based on two photos, and all the things wrong with it.... I get those usually with all the cars in pieces. I can't remember any weird guesses as to what my '60 Pontiac was, even with the Pontiac letters taken off the hood. Got plenty of stares and thumbs-up from people though.
Most people call my Fairlane a Falcon. (oddly enough, many people on HERE do that! ) I'm not getting the Falcon comment so much now that its got the axle under the front....Now I get a lot of "What the HELL IS THAT?" and...."make it bounce" comments. On the flip side, I DO get a lot of people making gasser comments, which I think shows some hope for human kind. I think there must be a school for dumbass comments though. There has to be! Most of the comments are the same. hmmmm....Must be TELEVISION. It makes everyone a dumbass. Worse yet, it makes everyone into a dumbass that thinks they KNOW something. I don't watch television....haven't for about 7 years now. Guess I'm just a dumbass, cause I KNOW I don't know anything.
Best comment came from a little old lady about 90 at a rest home. Our club had brought our cars out to do a little show and shine for them. This little old lady checks out my buddies car and then says nice paint. After that she bends down and eyeballs the car from the front 3/4 and says pretty straight too. We almost fell over. She must have been a body man in her day. Pat.
I can't count the number of old guys that have told me that they took their first date out in a car just like that. One old guy explained to me how he had to keep the vent open on dates cause the motor smoked so much. Some of the guys tell you some amazing stories about how it was. Mostly I love the fact that people you run into in parking lots want to talk to you about your car. Occasionaly I will avoid folks because I don't feel like talking for twenty minutes or need to get going. Old dudes really light up when they see you in the parking lot and stuff. I dig it.
'54 Ford Mainline [/QUOTE] Hey, I can't tell from the pic really, but do you still have the keyhole on the doors? I wanted to do a manual (no electric) door pop on Jeepers and hadn't thought about just leaving the key hole, so you can still lock it.
You bunch of little rich kids! I always wanted a BMX but my parents bought me a banana seat- right when banana was on it's way out and BMX was coming in- huffy space invaders bike. I used to tell all the little punks with BMX's that they were yuppies! One of the best I hear at car shows it, "Why don't you just DROP a chev in it?" Just like if you let it drop in it'll work just fine.......
Back in the early 90s, I used my 70 AMX as a daily driver. The identifications ranged from 'Cuda, Mustang, Camaro, Pinto(!), etc... For some reason a lot of people thought it was some kind of Buick(?). When you tell them AMC made it, invariably they had never heard of them, even though they went out of business only 5 or 6 years before. I also had one guy argue with me for 1/2 hour that my car was NOT built as a 2 seater, that I had in fact removed the back seat! Karl
heeeehehheehhheee. Just saw this. Man I've had to refrain from comments like that a few times for fear nobody would get it. So just for you.... "you got like...3 feet of air that time"
Have a 51 Nash and most people call it a hudson, but the weirdest one was when it was parked at my shop and a customer comes up all exited and tells me he hadn't seen one of these in years and his brother died in one. while he was telling me this he was still exited and still had a smile on his face
I had a guy who owns a body shop & has built a few rods look at my 48 Plym. 2 dr. sedan tell me he was building a car like mine,but the roof looked different for some reason. I'd seen the car. It was a 48 Plym. coupe!
After reading this post yesterday I headed home from work stopping at a gas station for a pack of smokes and at the gas company to pay a bill then home. In that one short 5 mile trip I had 7 people comment on the car. 4 at the gas station, 2 more at the gas company, 1 who rolled down his window alongside at a red light and a couple that honked and waved as I went by. All positive. Not all informed, but it's nice to know you make people smile just by driving your car home from work. I get tired of answering the same damned silly questions all the time, but I can live with it. Maybe we should just send some old cars over to Iraq and Afghanistan for our troops to drive instead of hummers. Let the guys get high fives instead of suicide bombs for a while...
about my model A; 1, is that a kit? 2, My brother/father/uncle/grandpa.... owned one 3, That was my first car..... 4, is that the original engine? (2.3 4 popper) I swear, if I had an old lady fetish, I would be getting lots of action. about my Ford Ranger; 1, Nice Toyota. 2, do ya take it off-road? 3, betcha those tires cost a fortune... about my SHO; 1, nice Accord. 2, nice Bimmer 3, is that a Taurus? 4, that's just like them Mustangs only with more doors... 5, nice v8...is that a 5.0l? (3.0l v6, FRONT driver) 6, aren't those all supah-charged? about my 58 Ford; 1, nice Chevy. 2, is it on on hydraulics?
I'm snapping a picture of this nice old Cord when a young couple walk up next to me. They notice the vanity plate and he comments, "I didn't even know Honda made cars back then!"
Came rumbling into the mall in my straight piped, blown flathead pickup. Got out and a kid says to me "Hey is that electric?" Sign of the times I guess.
Clarification? Are you talking bout resurrecting a thread? Is that wrong? Should they not have done that?
The Jalopy Journal
