Pick a Rocket to fit your Pocket !!!

[firedome]

our current '58 being worked on...

by me... 1958 Chrysler Windsor hardtop, no rust New Mexico car, finished color yet to be determined, pink & gray a strong candidate. No black here!

 

[firedome]

rear driver side...

'58 Windsor. Ths car has 354 Polyspherical V8 and TorqueFlite push button automatic.

 

[firedome]

In the previous pic...

that's our '64 Dodge to the left of the Chrysler. Will be my next daily driver, not quite as flambouyant as the '58, but less rare and more practical.

Here's the '58 DeSoto we had just before the Windsor... this also went to Sweden. They love fin cars there!!

 

[firedome]

Olds correction:

I must be getting old - my '56 + '57 Olds converts were both Super 88s...Dynamic 88 didn't come until 1960.

 

[toploader55]

I Love the Older Cars.

I think 1972 was the last great year for my taste in cars. Once they started to put those "5 mile an hour bumpers" on the cars, I lost interest and found them ugly.

Tom, we also had the Blue and White Super 88. Definately falls into the "Land Yacht" category.

The pics are not the one we owned. but the same model and features.

Ironically this one is from New Jersey. That's where I grew up.

 

[toploader55]

All that Steel...

And Metal and Chrome.

 

[toploader55]

No Padded Dash Yet.

Actually No Seat Belts

I always loved the Instrument Cluster on this Olds. With the Speedometer that turned different colors the faster you went.

Love the White Painted Steering Column

And don't forget "Summer Ventilation"

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Those '70's Chryslers.........sigh.

I tried to get my dad to buy a '76 or '77 Newport (less expensive version of New Yorker) but I failed. :-(

He did buy a 1974 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser (built on the 98 chassis). 127" wheelbase, 455 4bbl carb, 233' length, seated 9 with 3rd row facing forward and still had room behind for luggage. It had a clam-shell glide-away tailgate and window. It got 10-12 mpg. The record was 15.....once. Driving it in and around suburban Boston during and after major snowstorms? 8mpg, yes eight miles per gallon! To be fair, it was unstoppable in the snow. Driving it you'd swear it had AWD. It was that good in the snow. Here it is, in the color we had, too!

 

[warmsecondrinse]

My absolute favorite car was my grandparents' 1963 Pontiac Catalina. 4 door sedan (not hardtop) with a 421 4bbl V-8. No power steering, no power breaks, and NO SEAT BELTS! Transmission selector ran P-N-'D-D'-L-R. 'D was 'drive'. D' was 2nd, L was 1st. The owner's manual (which I have, somewhere) specifically states that L and R were deliberately placed next to each other to make it easier to rock the car effectively when stuck in snow. I think it also provided specific instructions on how to do so.

Here's a pic of a 2-door coupe version. It's the same colour as my grandparents', though.

 

[frigilux]

My parents drove me home from the hospital in one of these: A 1959 Chevrolet Impala.

So many beautiful cars pictured in this thread. Most of them wouldn't fit in the downsized parking spaces of today's grocery store parking lots.

 

[rinso]

We had a rather docile-looking 1957 Olds gray 2-door sedan. Only a small J-2 logo gave away what was under the hood.

 

[abcomatic]

1959 Lincoln Continental Mark 4

This is not my car in the video, but mine is just like that except for a different colored interior. Love this car. Gary

 

[whirlcool]

I believe seat belts became standard in 1965, front belts only and in 67' belts came for all driving positions. GM belts had the "GM Marque of Excellence" as the push button to release on them.

 

[toploader55]

Oh, That 59 Mark...

Did that clean up well.

Sigh... just beautiful cars back then.

 

[hydralique]

Seat Belts . . .

Seat and front shoulder belts were required in the US by federal law starting with the 1968 model year. '68 was the first year for comprehensive federal safety and emissions legislation to become effective. Side marker lights were required that year also, not a bad thing but unfortunately already outdated headlight requirements became even more restrictive and thus a whole generation of cars sold here had some of the worst headlights in the world.

 

Before '68 any requirements were the result of a patchwork of various laws as the US government hadn't been very concerned with either safety or emissions.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

seat belts

According to the owner's manual, the '63 Pontiac Catalina had lap belts for all 6 seats as an option.

My parents' '65 Plymouth Sport Fury had lap belts in the front, but none in the back and there was no latch on the front seat backs so if there were an accident, the rear passengers would fly forward to crush the front occupants.

Our neighbors had a '68 Catalina with lap belts in all 6 places. My uncle's '68 Rambler American coupe had lap belts only.

Oldest car I know of with any kind of shoulder belt was my grandparent's '71 Dodge Dart with these weird contraptions that you had to unfold from their brackets on the ceiling of the interior. I never did figure out how to use them....and I tried! The owner's manual was of no help at all.

The '74 Oldsmobile had conventional 3-point shoulder belts for the driver and front right passenger. The other 6 positions had lap belts only.

 

[whirlcool]

Chevrolet started with the 2 piece seat/shoulder belt in 69. High seatbacks came along with the shoulder belts. If not higher seatbacks, you had an adjustable head rest.

When it comes to seatbelts, they were often optional equipment before they became standard. My 66' Corvair Corsa only had front belts. But my 67' Chevy Impala SS had all four seat belts.

I don't think I've ever encountered an American 68' model car with front shoulder belts. I think some European companies started with the high seatbacks and shoulder belts, like VW.

 

[hydralique]

For a number of years American manufacturers loved those separate shoulder belts that clipped to the roof of the car where they were hard to see and harder to use. My parents had a '68 Ford with those, we never ever used them due to the PITA factor. Eventually the laws changed to require conventional three-point belts. The oldest car in my family with three point belts was my first car, a '69 Citroen ID19, though I'm pretty sure the '68s were identical. Our '67 ID just had lap belts. None of these had automatic locking retractors so you had to manually adjust the buckle, but once adjusted they were pretty easy to use.

 

The pictured car is almost a dead ringer for my '69. Originally it was off-white but during the summer between my junior and senior years in high school I repainted it a medium metallic blue and left the top white. It wasn't until a few years ago while perusing the 'net that I found a list of '69 colors and discovered the color I chose was virtually identical to Bleu Andalou, an authentic '69 color although the latter wasn't metallic.

 

That old ID was a fine car, it took whatever punishment a teenage leadfoot could dish out. I drove it until halfway through college when my dad found a '70 DS21M for me - almost the same as the ID but with a larger engine and nicer interior. Either one was capable of seriously quick trip averages on poorly surfaced rural roads in central Texas while the cops stayed on the interstates.

 

[tomoldcars]

Things hidden in dark places

My son builds movie sets. At times he has to go to remote or unused studios. He called me today from a large building in Glendale where he found an interesting collection which apparently has been neglected for at least thirty years. A very original 1957 Eldorado brougham, a 55 Packard Clipper, very like ours but more presentable, a late 60,s Pontiac GTO convertible and several more the he didn’t have time to describe. I will try to go there as soon as possible and get some pictures.
Might be interesting, Tom

 

[112561]

My favorite Impala

And can you identify the woman sitting on the rear deck?