A Biscayne 2dr pillared coupe with manual tranny and basically no options perhaps other thanthe v8 instead of a 6 . Surprised it survived https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...place_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks
Here's one you don't see much of anymore
- Thread starter petek
- Start date
49,529 km (30,775 miles) and garaged its entire life definitely helps.
What year? I cant access Facebook so I am unable to see it.
My sister's first car was a '65 Biscayne in dull metallic aqua with 6 cylinder and 3-speed column shift. A family friend worked for GMAC and the Biscayne came in as a repo. My dad got it for like $250 or so in 1969. It was so stripped down that the AM radio didn't have any selector buttons. I suppose that was a step up from no radio at all. I learned to work a clutch in that car. It was much more forgiving than my dad's '50 GMC.
someone please post a pic of the vehicle. My aunt had a very plain Biscaynw.
phillymatt53
Well-known member
It's a 1969 model
Yes, Ralph those old American cars with a 3 on the tree manual trans were very easy to master the clutch on. Much easier to drive than a Volkswagen with a 4 on the floor and their terribly temperamental clutches. The older more expensive cars in the 30’s and 40’s had so much torque that you could drive all over town in 3rd and never lug the engine, rich folks and women drivers in those days didn’t like to shift any more than they had to. With a 3 on the tree unless you came to a full stop you really only needed to shift between 2nd and 3rd during most driving, easy peasy. I’ve never personally driven a manual trans car with more than 5 speeds. But I’ve seen that there are now manual trans cars with 6 or more forward gears. That’s just too damn much unnecessary shifting for moi.
Eddie
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Wow, I love the loop-pile carpet... And it's a coupe, not the typical hardtop...
Must it gotta be a manual tranny? Oh well, the opportunity to learn & I think three forward-gears...
Must it gotta be a manual tranny? Oh well, the opportunity to learn & I think three forward-gears...
Glenn, thanks for posting the photos. That was a special order ‘69 (maybe a ‘70 they look almost the same) Chevy Biscayne if I ever saw one.
That’s a 427 V8 390 hp, paired with it looks like a 4 speed, I can’t see the shift knob. With the special order of the 427 engine I’m pretty sure they sprung for the performance 4 speed trans too. The rest of the car is pretty much like company or salesman’s coupe would have looked other wise. But the standard power train woulda been a 250 inline 6 with a three on the tree. It’s really in pristine condition and I’ll bet it goes like a bat outta hell!
Eddie
That’s a 427 V8 390 hp, paired with it looks like a 4 speed, I can’t see the shift knob. With the special order of the 427 engine I’m pretty sure they sprung for the performance 4 speed trans too. The rest of the car is pretty much like company or salesman’s coupe would have looked other wise. But the standard power train woulda been a 250 inline 6 with a three on the tree. It’s really in pristine condition and I’ll bet it goes like a bat outta hell!
Eddie
I bet it was originally made as a Police interceptor. Biscaynes were all dark colored but they were right there to catch the bad guys.
Thanks for posting the pics.. I've been having puter problems with downloading and/or uploading pics lately. Glen 
It just came to me that my first partner way back in the 70s bought a used old 68 or 69 Biscayne 3 on the tree. I don't remember though if it was a 2 or 4 door sedan only that it was a light blue. I only drove it a handful of times as I had a 72 Centurion for a bit and then the 75 Electra coupe. You could pick up old cars back then for a few hundred bucks in fairly nice shape seeing as in Vancouver they didn't salt roads so rust was never a problem like it was back here. Biscaynes were popular as taxicabs.
I always thought the 1969 full size Chevys were the nicest looking. My neighbor (our pastor) had a light green wagon his son learned to drive in, and I rode shotgun in it for many hours before I got my license. This was from a time when GM was actually trying to build worthwhile products, as compared to today's $50k and up fiascos... And I agree, rust was the universal enemy. Nearly all of these are gone in the northeast, where I grew up, but they still turn up on a regular basis in the southwest. Sometimes with no rust at all -but unless they lived their whole lives in a garage, the interiors are usually burnt to a crisp.
Well, looking back, I realized my sister's first car was actually a '56 Bel Air 4-door sedan with 3 on the tree. It was shared with her best friend who lived next door. It was a German-made car and the speedometer had KPH instead of MPH. AAA cut them off because they had called in for tows and jump starts way too many times. It used so much oil that my dad would give it the drained stuff from our family car.
Eddie, I know what you mean about the older cars. My friend in Sebastopol let me drive his '27 Lincoln that had only like 8K miles on it, and not only did its huge wheels make railroad tracks barely noticeable, but yes, you could slow down to just a few miles per hour and still not have to shift down from 3rd to proceed. The torque on those big engines was really something.
Eddie, I know what you mean about the older cars. My friend in Sebastopol let me drive his '27 Lincoln that had only like 8K miles on it, and not only did its huge wheels make railroad tracks barely noticeable, but yes, you could slow down to just a few miles per hour and still not have to shift down from 3rd to proceed. The torque on those big engines was really something.
Ralph I remember that when I first started to drive most service stations kept a barrel of used motor oil that they collected from oil changes and they sold it to drivers of oil burning old heaps like your sister’s ‘56 Bel Air for something like 10 cents a quart. Back in the late 60’s I think you could buy a new quart of oil for less than 50 cents. My first car was ‘69 Volkswagen and my step father taught me how to change the oil and I believe that I paid 32 cents a quart for Castrol.
Eddie
Eddie
Yes, I agree… When this era faded, what happened?
With just about every car maker at this time, the quality went in, before the vehicles hit the road…
I wish today, for the thousands you pay just for leasing, the cars you get today would be like that…
Instead, I’ll have to look forward to trading in what I have now, to driving something else just for a few more years, just to mostly get rid of that…
Then drive something else that shortly after, has to be replaced, but paying for twice its actual ownership!
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phillymatt53
Well-known member
And "Here's Another One You Don't See Much Of Anymore.....
In ‘70 when I moved to Petaluma, Calif. for my first job out of Beauty College I worked with a woman that owned a ‘69 Impala that she bought new. Cheryl was a very good friend of mine and I had occasion to drive her ‘69 Impala many times. It was a wonderful car to drive. It had a 327 V8 with Powerglide and had lots of power, handled with great ease and held the road solidly. And our boss, the owner of the shop we worked in had a ‘70 Chevrolet Station wagon, light metallic green and I drove it several times too and it handled just as nicely as Cheryl’s ‘69 2 dr HT. Chevy’s in the 60’s were excellent cars!
My Mom had a ‘63 Impala 2 dr HT with a 327 V8 and Powerglide when I was learning to drive and the neighbors car that I took my driving test in to get my first DL was a ‘61 Chevrolet Nomad with a 348 V8 with Turboglide. In fact that Nomad may have been one of the reasons I got 100% on my behind the wheel test in Point Arena, Calif. on Jan, 8, 1968. The examiner was fixated on that car. He told me that he’d owned one and was sorry that he ever got rid of it. He paid more attention to the Nomad than the fact that I was doing 40 mph in a 35 mph zone, He told me, “Kid, I like the way you drive, most of the folks up here just dawdle along, take me back to the office, you got 100%!”
My second car was a ‘64 Chevrolet Impala SS 2 dr HT with a 327 V8 and Powerglide and it rode like a dream, and had lots of power to spare just like all the 60’s Chevys did.
As Archie and Edith Bunker used to sing at the opening of each episode of “All In The Family” those were the days!.
Eddie
My Mom had a ‘63 Impala 2 dr HT with a 327 V8 and Powerglide when I was learning to drive and the neighbors car that I took my driving test in to get my first DL was a ‘61 Chevrolet Nomad with a 348 V8 with Turboglide. In fact that Nomad may have been one of the reasons I got 100% on my behind the wheel test in Point Arena, Calif. on Jan, 8, 1968. The examiner was fixated on that car. He told me that he’d owned one and was sorry that he ever got rid of it. He paid more attention to the Nomad than the fact that I was doing 40 mph in a 35 mph zone, He told me, “Kid, I like the way you drive, most of the folks up here just dawdle along, take me back to the office, you got 100%!”
My second car was a ‘64 Chevrolet Impala SS 2 dr HT with a 327 V8 and Powerglide and it rode like a dream, and had lots of power to spare just like all the 60’s Chevys did.
As Archie and Edith Bunker used to sing at the opening of each episode of “All In The Family” those were the days!.
Eddie
You're right Eddie, those old cars were great. Unfortunately, my first car was a 63 Rambler Wagon with a gutless 196-6cyl. It used more oil than gas .And after 41 vehicles later I still have my 13 Silverado and my 81 Corvette.
phillymatt53
Well-known member
"Gee our old Lasalle ran great!...... those were the days!
When I pulled up to the pump in Delaware in the early 1980's in my '73 Vega, the attendant wouldn't ask how much, he'd ask how many... quarts. It would only run until it burned about 2 of it's 4 quarts of oil capacity, then the fuel pump would shut off when it lost oil pressure. Yeah, they knew!
phillymatt53
Well-known member
The Vega was Chevy's answer to Ford's Pinto.
The very first time I ever drove in LA was in a ‘71 Vega that belonged to the friends that I was visiting in Eagle Park. They both had to work one of the days I was there and Jeff loaned me his Vega to drive and see the sights. Armed with a AAA map I drove that little Vega all over LA. It really handled nicely and was easy to maneuver in the heavy traffic.
But in the end the Vega was really a throwaway car like the Ford Pinto, lots of mechanical problems. People just drove them into the ground.
Eddie
But in the end the Vega was really a throwaway car like the Ford Pinto, lots of mechanical problems. People just drove them into the ground.
Eddie
phillymatt53
Well-known member
The Chevy Monza was another piece of garbage that they wasted time building.
I borrowed one from a friend back in 1976, and the window cranks were falling off, the doors were loose, the engine sounded like crap and burned oil, and it handled like something that a kid would build in his basement.
And...... they even dared to put opera windows on that hunk of junk!
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Gee our old Lasalle ran great!...... those were the days!
When my parents got married in 1948 my Dad had a ‘39 Lasalle coupe. They spent 4 days honeymooning on the Russian River in Gureneville, Calif. When they got home my Mom told me that they had $14.00 to their names and no pay expected for two weeks. So, my Dad sold the’39 Lasalle for $250.00 and they bought a ‘29 Model A Ford for $50.00 and had money to live on until their next paydays.
My Mom taught herself to drive in the Model A, with no one else teaching her. The linkage to the carburetor would come loose and she learned how to reattach it, all 4’9” of her got under the hood with a screw driver and got ‘er done. They also had a Skye Terrior that shed all over the seat.
Well when Bettie thought she could pass the DMV test she drove over to the Richmond, Calif. office and the examiner wearing a Navy Blue suit got in, dog hair and all. Well, shortly after the test began while stopped at a light when Mom tried to start off the car went dead, so she leaped out, got under the hood, reattached the linkage, got back in and the examiner said, “Lady, if you can drive this you can drive anything, take me back, you passed”, as he was annoyingly brushing off the dog hair. I remember her telling us kids this story after a Sunday dinner when we were teens and she was so proud of herself. She never let obstacles stand in her way.
Eddie
When my parents got married in 1948 my Dad had a ‘39 Lasalle coupe. They spent 4 days honeymooning on the Russian River in Gureneville, Calif. When they got home my Mom told me that they had $14.00 to their names and no pay expected for two weeks. So, my Dad sold the’39 Lasalle for $250.00 and they bought a ‘29 Model A Ford for $50.00 and had money to live on until their next paydays.
My Mom taught herself to drive in the Model A, with no one else teaching her. The linkage to the carburetor would come loose and she learned how to reattach it, all 4’9” of her got under the hood with a screw driver and got ‘er done. They also had a Skye Terrior that shed all over the seat.
Well when Bettie thought she could pass the DMV test she drove over to the Richmond, Calif. office and the examiner wearing a Navy Blue suit got in, dog hair and all. Well, shortly after the test began while stopped at a light when Mom tried to start off the car went dead, so she leaped out, got under the hood, reattached the linkage, got back in and the examiner said, “Lady, if you can drive this you can drive anything, take me back, you passed”, as he was annoyingly brushing off the dog hair. I remember her telling us kids this story after a Sunday dinner when we were teens and she was so proud of herself. She never let obstacles stand in her way.
Eddie
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I had both a Vega and a Pinto. Both used oil, Vega burned it, Pinto leaked it, both POS.
Sunday afternoon I went to a car show at my sister's church. They had about 60 cars on display, mainly from the 50s to 70s, but a few as old 1927, and new as 2000. Saw a really nice 68 Chevrolet Malibu, a 66 El Camino, and a 57 Bel Air. Also saw a 56 Chevrolet Townsman station wagon, but it was in rough shape. One of the most unique I saw was a 40s Crosley pickup.
vacerator
Well-known member
The sub compact rear drive H body cars from GM weren't so bad. Once the Vega got the Pontiac Iron Duke 4. I drove a '79 Skyhawk V6 that rode and drove nice. You could get a small V8 in a Monza too. Most rusted out in 5 years in a winter salted roads state. The next gen. J cars weren't much better.
GM still had a seat for most every person and purse.
GM still had a seat for most every person and purse.
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