Coulda been a Rebel!

COULDA BEEN A REBEL!

Contributor Max encountered a film shoot on the island of Manhattan recently. Waiting for its cue was this sweet little jukebox:

Every car from the '50s should be a shade of aqua!
This is a 1957 Rambler De Luxe 6 in Bermuda Green. This was the lowest trim level, most economical car Rambler produced in '57. In fact the Rambler 6 boasted the highest MPG of any domestic car that year.
*In New York State you can register your classic ride with a matching set of license plates as long as they're from the same year as the car. Since the ride is wearing 1958 plates it must not have been titled until the turn of the calendar year. This is definitely a '57 as opposed to '58 though as the newer cars had quad headlights. 

This car is in perfect shape! Every inch looks like it just drove off the dealership floor. Those are the poverty caps you got if you went for the cheapest car they make.

The huge wraparound back window made visibility some of the best in the business. Dig that R gas cap! Boo hiss on the 1980s-era rear deck speakers.

This car was smartly designed in that it is a unibody. Unlike a traditional body on frame the unibody incorporates the metal shell into its structural makeup. The result is increased rigidity and (they claim) safety. Side impact crashes were helped by the door pillar being a part of the overall frame. The rocker panels were referred as Battleship Box Girders! Sounds safe anyways.

Everyone's always talking about the '57 Chevy but there was a hardtop version of this exact ride called the Rebel that was the fastest American production car that year! The Rebel was a lightweight 6 pillarless body outfitted with a 327 V8. Every one of them had a gold accented side trim piece and metallic paint. Being a big block in a mid size body meant that the Rebel makes a good claim to be the very first muscle car (I know you Buick Skylark and Olds 88 fans will say different but those were huge cars).
I love the unique frumpiness of the '50s Ramblers. To have a single car that claims highest gas mileage and top speed for the year depending on the engine alone is remarkable. The fact that there are no fins and barely any chrome made this perhaps the most subtle car for 1957 as well. To have a base model grocery getter in such spectacular shape after 60 years is just insane. Hats off Rambler!

Today I'm featuring THE automotive icon for my 300th post

THE QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN CAR

I was walking near Smith Street the other day in Boerum Hill when I stumbled upon what is perhaps the most famous single model year of automobile ever produced:

Ladies and gentlemen, you know what this is already! This is a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air in the two-tone combination of Sierra Gold with an Adobe Beige roof. I've never seen this color combination before and think it looks fantastic even in this condition.

The Model T, the VW Beetle, and the '57 Chevy are arguably the 3 most well known cars of all time. Only the Chevy hales from a single year (yes of course the '55 Chevy starred in 2 Lane Blacktop with Dennis Wilson and James Taylor and a '58 Chevy was the main car in American Graffiti but this is way more famous).

A huge part of the '57s success is the distinctive front end. The grill was meant to emphasize the width of the car, and incorporated those pointy Dagmars (named after a notoriously busty film and TV star of the era - really). The three little gills above the side trim also added a bit of jewelry along with those Jet-Age spears emerging from the hood.

One distinctive feature of the '57 is the air intakes which can be seen here above the headlights. I've always loved these hooded headlights which, to me, looked like the covers of traffic signals. Only recently did I find out that the design was functional as scoops to collect fresh air for the cabin!

Here is the classic definition of a factory hot rod. The overall look of the 2 door coupe is tall and stout with a low roof and that sweet side trim that opens up near the rear. It just looks ready to drag race.
The condition is actually excellent too. There is no rust to be found and really only flaking paint can be counted as demerits. 

The trailing wheel wells also imply movement. That little bump up in the middle of the rear side window was carried across all body styles in '57, and there were many. In addition to the coupe you could order a 2 door hardtop, 4 door coupe, 4 door hardtop (very rare in itself), convertible, 4 door wagon, and the classic 2 door Nomad station wagon.

That trunk lid is incredible! Almost straight back and then straight down. This would all look very blocky and clunky if not for those famous fins.

The fins and rear bumper mesh beautifully in 1957. If you look closely you can see a couple of horizontal lines in the chrome of the fin edge between the taillight and fin top. On the drivers side this is a flip-open door that conceals the gas cap!

The taillight is obviously that red lens. Below that is the reverse light if the car was so equipped, otherwise it's a metal blank. Below that the piece of metal mirroring the taillight shape was originally painted flat black. The Ford Thunderbird of the mid '50s had the exhaust coming out of the bumpers in openings much like these reverse lights but the Chevy never did.
*A detail for the '57 Chevy fanatic: this car is from the 2nd series of production for 1957. If it was the 1st there would be a tiny raised ridge on the chrome between the bottom of the taillight and the top edge of the reverse light opening.

I love the wrap-around rear window with that low rear roof treatment. The license plate light is just a rectangular lens set into the bumper.

There were 3 trim levels for the '57 Chevy; the 150 was the stripped-down base model which you could get as sparse as you dared. There was even a Business Coupe version which was this same body but the rear windows were fixed in place and there was no rear seat! The 150 side trim was just a single chrome spear that went from the fin to the rear wheel well before turning up to rear side window.
The next level of trim was the 210 which had most expected creature comforts such as mirrors, ashtray, and carpet. The side trim was the same as this car but the chrome on top of the fin only went from the rear edge to about a foot forward on the quarter panel.
The highest was the Bel Air which we see here. In addition to the full compliment of chrome trim the names and some of the emblems are anodized gold. You can just make this out in the Chevrolet writing above the V on the trunk.

This Bel Air has gone through a few adjustments over the years. Under the dash there are aftermarket gauges. That is a floor mounted automatic transmission, and I believe the bucket seats aren't original. The factory radio is in the dash though with its center mounted speaker above it on the dashboard.

This car offered so many firsts when it came out. This was the first domestic production car to offer tubeless tires which the public had a hard time trusting at first. While the first production auto to offer fuel injection was the '55 Mercedes Benz 300SL, Chevrolet was the first domestic company to do so in 1957. A 150 coupe from '57 with the larger V8 and fuel injection was the very first car Nascar made illegal because nothing could remotely compete with it!

This tank is wearing Rally wheels up front and some generic rims on the back. The tires on the back are Hoosiers who are famous for making racing tires. They make drag radials which you can drive daily and use on the track on the weekends (or at any red light). I think these are them.

Well that's where we'll leave this beast almost. I do have one aside though:

I first saw this thing sitting on flat tires a couple blocks from my shop!

It had the back window covered as if the top was getting touched up or chrome trim installed. The lighting and shadows were too harsh for me on this day so I made a note to return later. That night as I sat in the shop it drove by me (the license plate light works great). Damn! I missed my chance and was so frustrated. Imagine my excitement when I happened to walk by it on the street a mile away weeks later.
Thus concludes my 300th post for the NYCHoopties blog! I'll have to start looking for something for 400, 500, and hopefully 1,000 soon. Thanks for reading!

Show Car Sunday returns with The Classiest Roadster You Will See All Day

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS DROP TOP

You really never know what you're going to get in this city. Somewhere out on the warehousey edge of Greenpoint and Queens sat this stunning little lady right here:

This is a 1955-1958 Mercedes Benz 190SL convertible with the optional removable hardtop. If this is close to the original color it was listed in the charts as Weiß (white in German), while the hardtop is Feuerrot (Fire Red). This is about as classy as a car can get!

From this peek inside the interior we can see it's pretty well equipped with the original Becker radio in the dash and a Kienzle clock mounted on the glove compartment door. The seats are out which makes sense as this seems to be going through a complete restoration.

In 1959 the hardtop window was enlarged from this size to a full wrap-around version which helps us to round down the year. The 190SL was introduced in 1955 and was built for 8 years with very little in the way of changes. These were meant to be the more manageable little sibling to the larger 300SL (which of course includes the famous Gullwing). Where the 300 series had a big straight six these had a smaller 4 cylinder.

The color matching hubcaps lend to the class on this sweet little ride.

While the mighty 300SL gets the multi-million dollar auction money these smaller cars are starting to catch up quick. In 2014 one of these sold at Sotheby's for a cool $341,000! Regardless, here it was parked amidst minivans and Mustangs above the oil slick that is Eastern Greenpoint. Glad I found it when I did!

Show Car Sunday returns with the true king of 1957

CALIFORNIA DREAM MACHINE

What else is new? I was driving along some street in Alameda with an old friend when we passed this majestic beast, long-extinct on the East Coast:

I mean really California, do you have to be so smug about how your cars don't rust? This is a 1957 Cadillac Series 62 Sedan De Ville in Tahoe Blue. An amazing and luxurious beast of a ride!

When I was a kid the '57 Chevy was the most iconic of all the classics (these days they've been toppled by Muscle Cars and European Sports Cars). This is the vastly superior older brother of the Chevy, being the top of the GM heap. This car is dripping with ostentatious styling.

The front is just beautiful in my opinion. The hooded headlights are similar to those of the Chevy from that year, but just about everything else is unique. This large conical points jutting out of the grill are referred to as Dagmars after the stage name of the rather busty first female star of television Virginia Ruth Egnor. The wraparound mesh detail between the headlight and the bumpers are strictly for show. The dual round light on the lower bumper corner are the turn signal and running lights. Sedan de Ville is written out in full, though de Ville would be combined in the '60s to become DeVille.

Everything is swoopy and ready for launch in this Jet Age cruiser. The Sputnik was launched in October of '57 which heralded the Space Age, making this the last gasp of Jet Age design. Styling cues abound from the wings and chrome spear on the side to the full-on jet hood ornament. Notice that this is a true hardtop, meaning that with all the windows rolled down there is no pillar between the front and rear opening.

A rip on the seat is about as much damage as this car seems to have sustained in its 58 years. The interior looks much like interiors would through the end of the '70s with that clean speedometer, column shift automatic, central radio with ashtray below, and clock on the far side. However since this is a Cadillac there is a fancy bit of lined chrome trim adorning the footwell!

Classic Jet Age action; chrome spear and a faux vent with chrome gills. Looks like 3 of those gills have gone missing and good luck finding those!

Not only does this Caddy have all its original hubcaps but she's rolling on vintage look wide whitewalls complete with the old Firestone lettering. Cool! 

This car is enormous but manages to keep it together in a tidy package. The dynamic rear window shape goes a long way I think.

Look at that Caddy symbol which is as stylized as the Batman symbol in Frank Millers Dark Knight. These fins are pronounced but still nothing compared to just 2 years later when the Ecto-1 was built.

I really love everything about this car which is unusual for a 4 door. My ultimate favorite "if I actually won a hundred million Powerball jackpot" car is a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible which shares many of the styling cues of this ride. 

The way to fill 'er up on the '57 Caddy is amazing; that little red reflector between the round lights is actually a button. Press that button and the chrome housing that holds those 2 lights swings up on a hinge, exposing the hidden gas cap inside! Had I thought of it at the time I would've taken a shot.

By the way the exhaust comes out of those vents on the bumper corners!

How much could you fit in the trunk? Probably a full size Weber gas grill no problem, or a mid-size refrigerator on its side.

*That's my buddy Daves unbelievably sweet Scout sitting up there at the stop sign. I jumped out on the spot and ran around this Caddy while he idled.

When you take a step back and see some other cars parked near something like this it makes them all look so terrible. The Scout is definitely holding its own, but that Dodge crew cab? Puh-leeze! The Caddy's standing around the party in a tuxedo while everyone else is wearing shorts.

This long hood contains a 365 V8 mated to a 4-speed Hydromatic transmission. Cadillac had the same mission for the entirety of the last century; the engine should be powerful enough to do whatever you asked of it but do it in a silent, effortless manner. They succeeded. 

Air conditioning became an option starting with the 1953 Cadillacs, and this one most likely has it assuming it was originally sold in California. The a/c unit was built by none other than Frigidaire. 

We'll leave with a close up of the mighty Caddy schnoz. The 2 tall chrome spears standing tall on the hood are meant to mimic the tails of a jet. The crest refers to the family coat of arms of the Cadillac division namesake Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, a French explorer who landed in Detroit which at the time was located in New France. When the emblem was redesigned in 2002 the small ducks sadly disappeared. The large V under the crest generally refers to cars powered by V8 engines.

Next up; something less luxurious!