800 + 800 = Twofer Tuesday Truck Week edition!

DOMESTIC, YET INTERNATIONAL

The city streets are notoriously tough on vehicles. Potholes, large metal construction plates, sinkholes, errant delivery trucks, and of course all the other folks on the road parallel parking by sense of touch all contribute to enhanced wear and tear. I encountered 2 solutions to the hard life of a city daily driver recently:

This is an International Harvester Scout 800 from 1965-1968 in Metro White (as opposed to Whitecap White which was also available). Pinpointing the date beyond that is almost impossible without the stock bumpers or hubcaps present. That logo on the hood above the grill is a red I over a black H for International Harvester, but it is also a red man on a black tractor. This is fitting because these are little tractors that just want to work hard and forgive abuse.

Scouts are some of the hardiest, most utilitarian rides out there; super reliable mechanically in a slow-but-deliberate way. The frame and running gear are so overbuilt that it's a safe bet the body would dissolve into powder from rusting before the engine would need to be rebuilt. Seeing a rust-free example in the Northeast almost invariably means it came from somewhere out West.

ALL WHEEL DRIVE is how they describe modern computer-controlled versions that send power to whichever wheel needs it most, but this is some rudimentary stuff on the Scout! To go from 2-wheel to 4-wheel drive you had to leave the transmission in neutral, get out and manually lock the hubs by turning a dial in the center of each front wheel, get back in and shift a separate gearshift for the transfer case to either high or low 4-wheel, and then drive normally. Once engaged though these are some of the most unstoppable mules out there.

This pic shows the best part of Scouts (for me); the removable roof! To have a seriously capable truck that is also a full convertible from the windshield back is awesome. This thing is ready for the beach, the desert, the mountains, or the deep woods.

One more look at this scrappy little beast before we move on. You might've noticed a gas cap on each side of this ride. For whatever reason the 800s came from the factory with dual gas tanks. When you ran out of fuel on one you simply move a lever to the other side and keep going. What the advantages were over a single, larger tank I have no idea. The thought of filling up at a gas station, then turning around and filling up again seems like a pain, but whatever.

On to the Red Rocket!

This gleaming little freak looks more eager than the lounging, sedate vibe of the white Scout above. Maybe it's the red paint (officially known as RED in the catalog), or maybe it's the winch hanging off the front of it. Who knows? To me it just looks ready to pounce!

Let's take a closer look at that mammoth front bumper/winch combination. Obviously the winch cable is missing so it won't be coming to the rescue any time soon. However, in it's day I'm sure it could've pulled this thing out of a mud pit and right up a cliff if you asked it to! Not bad to have a park bench built on to the front of your rig when camping (or tailgating on both ends at the game).

While I love the canvas top for ease of removal this hardtop looks great in white over the red body. The chrome luggage rack and fancy wheels mean this thing is ready for a less off-road, more urban/suburban life.

At first glance I thought maybe those gauges were all aftermarket additions, but research proved me wrong as they're all stock.

Dual exhaust has me thinking there's been an upgrade under the hood from the standard 4 cylinder.

I love this truck, but the owners got to pony up for some new tires and an alignment ASAP! Still, there are few rigs on the road as versatile and fun as this one. If you're considering a classic truck I would highly recommend any Scout from any year. If it's running (which they almost always are), check for rust underneath and all around. If it looks solid, go for it!

TRUCK WEEK KICKOFF!

FORD vs ford

I realized lately that I've snapped plenty of trucks on my wanderings but have neglected to post them so they're stacking up. The answer is Truck Week! We'll start off with 2 Fords I discovered on the same early morning walk in Greenpoint.

First order of business is this 1956 Ford F100 in Fiesta Red.

This sweet ride was obviously restored some time ago in greaser/rat rod fashion. Due to the amount of rust showing up on the pinstriped finish I believe it was redone without a hint of irony years before the term "rat rod" was as common as it is now.

That classic V8 symbol in the middle of the grill means this is packing either the 272 or 292 Y Block engine. This was built a mere 4 years after the Sanford & Sons truck featured during the opening credits (with one of the best TV theme songs ever), but is still very similar to that 1952 model. Starting in '57 the Ford F-Series would look much more modern, with no more center bulge hood and a more integrated design overall.

From this angle the wraparound windshield is visible, confirming this as a '56. The years before had the more traditional sloped-pillar flat rectangle windshield.

That stretch of louvered vents between the front door and the hood are stock. Whoever redid this truck removed the large "F100 FORD" emblem that would normally have been on the side of the hood just in front of the vents. Also missing is a rectangular piece of chrome placed just under the middle of the door window that was purely decorative (or at least had no purpose I could figure). Those full size hubcaps are stock as well, probably part of a dress-up kit that included the chrome grill. If this was to be a work-only truck it would've come with a painted grill and small dog dish hubcaps. For that matter the passenger side mirror is an option too, as is the small antenna next to it, indicating a radio.

I love these factory stock steps attached to the running boards! Those running boards are dissolving pretty badly though so I don't know how much I'd want to try my luck standing on it.

The rear bumper is not only an option, but a relatively rare one as most of these trucks weren't ordered with them. That rear window is the basic version; a special big window option is very sought after by collectors today. Obviously the tailgate is not stock with those custom louvers and pinstriping. the original would say F O R D in huge block letters. Nice ride though, aging gracefully enough for daily use on the streets of the big city.

Now we'll move on to the smaller portion of the morning:

Here we have another Captive Import, meaning a foreign automaker-produced vehicle that was re-badged as a domestic model the moment it reached our shores to be sold new through a domestic dealership. This is a 1973 Ford Courier, otherwise known as a 1973 Mazda B-Series pickup with different emblems on it. There is one unique feature to this truck that make it definitively a Ford though; the grill with the single large headlight on each side was fashioned after the larger F-Series Ford trucks of the day (the Mazda B-Series had 4 smaller headlights, the innermost 2 placed within a smaller grill within the grill for a bizarre effect).

The color I believe is Durango Tan, but it looks pretty mustardy to me. The trucks came to the U.S. without the beds to skirt something called the Chicken Tax. Basically if the truck was complete upon arrival it would have an import duty of 25%. Attaching the beds here lowered that to just 4%.

The wording on the tailgate is the key to identifying this as a '73. This is the only year where the word COURIER is large and FORD is small. In '71 and '72 it said FORD COURIER in large letters. From '74 on it said FORD in large letters and COURIER in a smaller badge like the Ford one shown here.

This thing is just as plain as day! Look at the hinges and locking mechanism for the tailgate. Also, could the flat metal panel below the tailgate with the trimless taillights set into it be any more straightforward? Overall this looks like a childs drawing of a truck come to life. The most dynamic part of the entire design may be the 4 hexagons embossed into the front of the bed, which was likely done to get some rigidity out of extremely thin metal.

From this view we can see the monumental upside-down cross looming over the rear bumper, so I think I'll keep my insults to a minimum (The blue dog on acid staring at it is a pretty good bit of accidental placement as well). This thing is pretty damn cute actually, thrifty with the MPGs, and in totally immaculate condition, so it's hard not to smile when encountering it. Tomorrow we'll leave Ford behind as we continue our Truck Week journey through the streets of NYC.

Show Car Sunday returns with a 4-wheeled vase!

GOIN' OUT IN STYLE

On a Gowanus dead-end street so insignificant that it still wears it's cobblestones from 100 years ago I recently found this: 

A Cadillac El Camino? Kind of, sort of; this is a 1979 Cadillac-based Flower Car! Everyone knows what a hearse is, but this is a much rarer funeral vehicle meant to transport all of the flower arrangements from the service to the burial. Flower cars would start out life as a regular 2 or 4 door car (usually a Cadillac) which would be sent directly to a company that specializes in professional car conversions. The cars would then be converted to either a hearse, a flower car, and ambulance, or a motorhome. The company that made this conversion is the now-defunct McClain Sales Inc.

From this angle you can see this started out as a 4 door. The rear doors are still functional, usually with a spare tire behind one side and storage for all of the various flower stands, signs, or astroturf you might need when setting everything up on the other.

The front is all executive-looking Caddy. These cars are super rare from any era, as they were not only more scarce than hearses, but designed to hold cargo that was wet. No matter how waterproof the cargo area was when it was new a couple of decades of hauling flowers and soil around will invite corrosion.

Alices car in the movie Alice's Restaurant was a 1953 Cadillac flower car. Similarly, the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters was a 1959 Cadillac converted into an ambulance by one of the same companies that made these. 

I like how how they reattached the Cadillac symbol to the upper rear stainless steel band above the license plate area. On most flower cars that top curved section is either stationary, or hinged in the front and can be lifted a bit, but is separate from the tailgate itself which would open down to allow access.

From this angle you can see the double use these cars offered; those rollers are meant for caskets! Occasionally the casket would be driven to the cemetery under all of the flower arrangements. Other times there would be a plain cover that would keep a casket out of view if it were being transported empty, or from a morgue to the funeral home for preparation. Everything is stainless steel to fight rust.

Like most funeral cars this looks to be in immaculate condition! Chances are excellent that it spent most of it's life within 10 miles of the garage it lived in, driving short distances when needed. Even a 35 year old example such as this might have 20,000 miles on it.

Well there we have it! A very classy, somewhat morbid, useful yet useless vehicle for Show Car Sunday. Hearses always have a second life waiting for them in retirement as a band tour vehicle, advertisement, goth dream car, etc, but finding a purpose for this is a little tougher. Either you're that guy who collects professional cars, or you want a gargantuan El Camino that gets horrible gas mileage and has relatively restricted cargo area access. Regardless I'm happy to have found it half a block from the canal.

Post-apocalyptic Wayne's World

THE SKY HAS FALLEN

Imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner and caught a glimpse of this:

A completely dismantled 1978/1979 AMC Pacer! This thing is destroyed; not really a car at all currently. It has a roof and wheels, some BIG windows, and lots of scorn. It's always a perfectly-delivered punchline when you run across these in the wild though so I had to take a closer look.

Taking stock I see that the taillights and bumper are gone, what looks to be rust is spreading like mold across the body. ROUGH.
Pacers were advertised as the "wide small car", boasting that it was wider than a Rolls-Royce! This marketing angle sounds odd today, but in 1975 when the Pacer was introduced it was meant to reassure those folks wary of tiny rides like VW Beetles and Honda CVCCs which were perceived as unsafe. 

Not that you can tell through the tornado of calamity in this picture, but a major design feature is on display here. The passenger door was 4 inches longer than the drivers to ease entry and exit from the rear seat. Once you were sitting in that rear seat you were at the mercy of the sun and all that panoramic glass though; reports of feeling like an ant under a magnifying glass were common.
That original AMC color is known as Powder Blue (of course).

Man this mess is ridiculous! You can see from the doorjamb how pronounced the egg shape is in the middle. With all that glass there was concern that a rollover would easily kill all the occupants, so a roll bar was integrated into space between the rear edge of the door and the quarter window that ran over the roof, adding much need rigidity to the shell. From this angle it's apparent that the rust is actually just light surface corrosion where someone made the effort to sand those areas down to bare metal but neglected to primer them. Did somebody actually start to restore this car?

Those are the original seats just dumped in there, complete with the addition of shag carpet to the seat back (In case the car wasn't '70s enough)! Up on the dash it looks like the complete taillight assemblies are resting behind years worth of dust. The keys are in the ignition like a false promise.

Alright wait a minute! The piece below the grill is freshly painted in the original color! This Pacer actually seems to be getting a complete restoration right now at this shop. Every journey starts with the first step, and this is what it looks like.
All I can think about with that grill design is Butthead from Beavis & Butthead with his gummy snarl. The reason the grill looks like that is to fit an optional V8. The extra power was just about cancelled out by the extra weight in those sad late-'70s days of low horsepower.

After seeing that freshly painted lower valance I can only imagine that the doors and fenders are getting the same treatment.

I LOVE these hubcaps! I remember seeing them over the years, and their design certainly fits the quirkiness of the Pacer, but I don't know if they're original or not. I did spend an embarrassing amount of time checking though.

You can almost see the half-witted kind of smile of this little punks face, saying "I can't believe they're restoring me!" Neither can I frankly, but I'm excited to one day see this thing rolling down the street like a brand-new Easter egg.

A mighty 2-tone Lincoln with unexpected racing credentials

GREEN CAPRI IN RED HOOK
I was riding the bike home from work one beautiful evening when I took a side trip through Red Hook. I'm glad I did because look what was waiting for me out by the docks!

This mighty vision is a 1954 Lincoln Capri. Built to compete with Cadillac and Packard, the Capri debuted in 1952 and quickly became the top selling Lincoln.

This car is dripping with style on every surface! Just look at the lines on the side of the headlight surround. This was a very classy car when it rolled off the assembly line.

This Capri still wears most of it's 2-tone paint; Canterbury Green on the bottom and Empire Green on the roof. Most of the chrome is present too, leading me to believe that somebody's restoring it.

One tiny detail that is missing is the Lincoln crest featuring a knights head clad in armor. These knights are all over the car though, so stay tuned. I love how the chrome band wasn't enough so they just added a slab to the front under the Capri emblem.

The overall shape on this behemoth is rounded with very few edges anywhere in the design. Show-car examples with perfect paint are truly dazzling, but the soft contours highlight any flaw in the finish (not that it matters with this primered, rusted, patina'd beast).

These taillights look like the sort of light you'd see on an ocean liner, which is appropriate enough. Details like the taillight/reverse light housing are more architectural than automotive. There are more skyscrapers with this sort of detail than cars.

Here is another knight, this one protecting the keyhole for the trunk lock. The next generation of Lincolns had the knight covering the keyhole as well, but the access was so much cooler; you had to lift up the visor of the helmet to expose the lock! So cool it seems almost impossible.
*By the way that faded coat of arms evolved over the years to become the Lincoln star logo which is still present on the current models.

So many details are almost lost in the beat-up condition of this ride. L I N C O L N embossed into the rear bumper, with the letters filled in with black. The really fussed over the brass tacks.

From this angle the ocean liner vibe is in full effect. The chrome band wrapping around the base of the cabin is repeated twice below giving the impression of movement, something that was missing from the slab-sided disaster of the final 1959 Capris.

It's been a long time since cars had their names written out in such classy fashion. This car has all the style of a movie palace from the '20s.

Imagine trying to find one of these! Yes, this Capri has a matching original set of Lincoln hubcaps from 1954 on its body-colored wheels.

In 1954 the 5th and final Carrera Panamericana road race was held. This race is legendary in that it ran 1,900 miles across Mexico, mostly on completely underdeveloped dirt tracks barely more than paths between villages. Out of the 150 cars that started the race only 85 finished. 2 of the top finishers were brand-new 1954 Lincoln Capris! Imagine taking this luxury barge and pressing it at an average of 93 miles per hour across nighttime deserts and along cliffside trails for over 20 hours! The overall race was won by a Ferrari that managed the distance in only 17 hours 40 minutes, but the Capri showing was incredibly strong as they finished #1 and #2 in their class.

As this was built during the Jet Age there is a stylized plane for a hood ornament.

The interior on this car is pure awesome! Air conditioning was offered by Lincoln in 1954, but I couldn't discern if it was installed in this car. Just about every other option seems to be present. That pushbutton radio has 8 tubes in it, and the speaker is located behind the subtle screening just above it. In the top section directly above the radio you can just make out the square clock. To the right of the clock is the all-important lighter since 99% of the people buying this car new would've smoked.

Before air bags you could really summarize your overall vision with the design of the steering wheel. The center horn ring is like a fighter jet coming at you, with the stylized Lincoln cross above a V looking like some religious iconography. The chrome circular grid behind the horn ring has no purpose other than looking cool. 

Here we can see the awesomely deco numbers on the speedometer. The gas gauge is on E, which is the least surprising thing about this 2+ ton cruiser. The knobs emerging from the rounded white screen are mechanical, controlling vents and heater temp by cable.

There are even little knight heads on the leading edge of the front fenders.

The sun was setting rapidly on me that evening so I feel lucky that I encountered this Lincoln when I did. If it were mine I'd be compelled to paint it in the red body/white roof colors of the original Panamericana racer which had "Saludos Amigos" written across the front in white script!