Saturday, May 17, 2014

Mixed Bag from the Nifty 50s

The Bronx Goes International
There are vehicles laying around this city in settings that make no sense whatsoever. Take this for example:
A very nice 1953 International Harvester R-Series pickup with appropriately muddy tires was waiting for me at a subway stop in The Bronx! I'm not a fan of goofy hot rod colors like this metallic tangerine but at least it's not chopped. It looked to be far along on a major restoration so I'm sure it'll be showing off at some of the mini car shows that pop up at Queens gas stations on Saturday nights in the summer (these shows can be great and are hyper-local. I would've never known about them if I hadn't tagged along with a neighbor who owned a '69 Cougar back when I lived in Greenpoint in the 90s).
Hood, door handles, and running boards off; maybe the paint was so fresh that it was curing outside for the afternoon?

On to the beautiful Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn:
The 2nd '57 Chevy on this young blog; this one an awesome 210 Beauville wagon! Beauville was the name given to station wagons that had the same trim level as the Bel-Air, so this was top-of-the-line for 4 door wagons (still below the fabled 2-door Nomad of the same year). Check out how the rooftop luggage rack has a pointed front like the prow of a ship!
The original Canyon Coral/Ivory White 2-tone paint scheme looks great on this totally unmolested ride. I love how normal it is, looking like it was built in the last decade as opposed to 57 years ago. One of my favorite features of these cars is that the exhaust comes right out of the bumper below the taillight. 

Back to the mean streets of Alphabet City in Manhattan:
Man the color on this is bumming me out a little in it's intensity, but this is a very nice 1962 Plymouth Valiant. This is a fragile car as all the chrome pieces (except for the bumpers of course) are made of aluminum. This saved a bunch of weight but made the grill & trim particularly susceptible to dents.
This was considered a compact car in '62 which is pretty remarkable today! I love the funky, quirky styling of these early-60s Mopars. This car was available with the now famous Slant-6; one of the most durable engines ever made,
I wish I'd taken a pic of the dashboard as it's got an off-center mod design, with the speedometer to the left of the steering wheel and a pushbutton transmission. Get in, start it up, push "D", and go!

No comments:

Post a Comment