Love letter to a neighborhood, bar, & truck

LOVE LETTER TO A NEIGHBORHOOD, BAR, & TRUCK

There are businesses around town that have a vehicle mascot parked out in front for eternity. The Caliente Cab Company in the West Village has a 1950 Studebaker Champion just like Fozzy drove in The Muppet Movie (it's by FAR the best part of the C.C.C.). The Green Space in Gowanus has a 1928 Ford pickup truck roosting out front. Today I'm featuring a vehicle iconic to weary Brooklynites looking for the Greatest Bar on Earth:

For some of you this is giving you a hangover just looking at it. For others it's making you feel like it's been too long since you've meandered out to this almost-inaccessible corner of Brooklyn. Regardless this is a 1953 Willy's 475 truck in Willow Green. It is permanently parked in front of Sunny's Bar in Red Hook.
In 1953 the number of horizontal bars on the grill went from 5 to 3 (this one is missing the lower bar). That combined with the smaller rear window on this truck pinpoints it as a '53 as 1954 would introduce a window that covered the entire rear of the cab.

If you don't know now you know; this is the Greatest Bar on Earth (or at least has a very strong contender). In the modern Brooklyn everybody knows and complains about this stalwart has soldiered on against true adversity. In 2012 Hurricane Sandy flooded the entire neighborhood with Sunny's having water almost up to the ceiling. It was closed for 8 months and it took volunteers and a benefit concert to reopen it. In 2016 the beloved owner Sunny Balzano passed away at age 81. After that most of the 18 (!) related owners wanted to sell the bar but it seems that his widow has won a chance to buy everybody out. Come and visit. Tip your bartender.

Back to the rig at hand; check this beast out! There's the speedometer but does it have a lens of even a needle? Nah! There's an extremely rare factory radio (to the left of the steering wheel no less). Before you ask if it works look at that exposed $3 speaker laying on the floor! The seat looks surprisingly decent and must have been redone at some point. For all I know this was parked in 8 feet of ocean water back in '12.

This is parked at the edge of the world a solid 25 minute walk from the closest subway station. the cobblestones are most likely here to stay.

Like the neighborhood around it this truck has seen some shit! This fender is doing its best to hold on but the rocker panel disappeared long ago. One look at that ancient wheel with the sort of tire you can't even buy anymore tells you everything you need to know.

The rear fender and lower bed are holding up remarkably well. This is my favorite spare tire placement for trucks. Those leaf springs are ready for hard work; this little truck was rated as a 1 ton when new.

I'm going to say that those taillights are from a mid '70s to early '80s Chevrolet. Rear bumpers were optional when this rig was built.

This is the classic Willys logo. Willys was started in 1908 and has been folded into and taken over a dizzying amount of other companies, currently a part of the greater Fiat-Chrysler corporation. Every body panel on this ride is simple stamped steel like this.

You can see the Freedom Tower in the distance which gives you a sense of this location. At one point this area of Red Hook was one of the busiest ports in the world. Originally called Roode Hoek in the 1600s by the Dutch, the name means "point" or promontory. There was a Revolutionary War fort here known as Fort Defiance which is memorialized today by a restaurant/bar of the same name. By 1990 Life Magazine called this one of the worst neighborhoods in the country and the Crack Capital of America. A lot has changed since! For those of you who constantly bemoan the loss of "old New York" I point out the fact that the principal of the local school was killed in 1992 when he got caught in a drug war crossfire. Change isn't all bad.

Back to this sweet rig. It seems to be always filled with fresh garbage so I'm assuming the sanitation guys pull bags directly from the bed. That little reflector is a sweet notion as I think this fender has been facing the building protected by benches for decades.

As I mentioned briefly the year after this brought a rear window that was expanded almost down to the top of the bed.

From this angle you can clearly see the handsome lines of this ride.

The split windshield lasted until 1959 when a single pane was used on a special model. In 1960 they started switching all Willys trucks over to the non-split windshield but the date isn't exact. They just kept building the splits until old parts ran out so 1960 models can be either way.

Well that's where I'll leave this beast with its homemade wooden bumper and incredible life story. I have a feeling that even if this doesn't move for the next 20 years there will always be a fresh inspection sticker in the window. I support that 100%. I also think that if a rookie cop wrote a parking ticket for this rig his hand would burst into flames.
I realize this was a long-winded post more about the neighborhood than this actual vehicle but to me the two are inseparable. Some folks who are so painfully cool that they're really no fun to hang out with might say things like "Don't tell everybody about this cool spot or it will get ruined!", but to them I say this; Sunny's has been here for just shy of 100 years. The world is unrecognizable now from when these buildings were built in the 1850s. I might be a romantic but I think this little corner operates outside of the normal constraints of gentrification. Hopefully anyway!

"AS ALWAYS - THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD!"

"AS ALWAYS - THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD!"

I was on a brief field trip to Connecticut when this ocean liner presented itself:

This is a 1953 Cadillac Series 62 sedan in (mostly) Black. Normally I would write that hood off as primer but I think it's the handsome factory color Court Gray. This car is basically a building.
I ran across the original salesman's booklet that Cadillac gave to their dealers so this post will be sprinkled with quotation marks. They copy was great!

Try to let it sink in just how much metal and chrome we're talking about here. The bumper is absolutely monumental! That V on the hood was originally gold in color. Those two chrome rockets jutting out of the sides are Dagmars named after a voluptuous actress of the same name who was basically a blonde Jessica Rabbit. Here she is singing on the Frank Sinatra show back in 1951. I always thought they looked a bit like cigars on the side of some old time gangsters snarl. 

There are styling cues here that will show up on other GM vehicles in the coming years. In particular this lidded headlights would be mimicked somewhat on the 1955-1958 Chevrolet Bel-Aire/Impala series. The Dagmars would appear in more modest form on the '57 Chevy.
What looks like turn signals are actually the newly optional fog lights bragged about in their sales brochure of the day. If the option wasn't chosen there would be a metal filler plate in that space with a small round turn signal in the center.

This stylized hood ornament is simply known as The Goddess.

When this beast was built it was the mountaintop for styling and engineering in a luxury car. Packard was still around and producing high end rides as well but there lack of innovation was starting to show. Chrysler was making Imperials and they were great cars but not produced on the same scale as Cadillac. If you were someone important or of serious means it was either a Caddy or a Rolls Royce.

The interior is nicely laid out and relatively free of flash for '53. A 331 overhead valve V8 engine mated to a 4 speed Hydra-Matic transmission was standard. I can't tell if this one is so equipped but air conditioning was available as an option for the first time. This one sports a clock and radio. Power steering was standard too. Check out the little crank for the vent window!

This funky little lens is mounted on the dash to the right of the steering wheel. It is the Autronic Eye! This device would sense oncoming headlights and automatically dim your brights for you. Remember that this was 64 years ago to get a feel for how futuristic this was at the time.

For an enormous vehicle this has great lines and nice proportions. The fins are still subtle compared to what was to come later in the decade. These smaller fins were first introduced in 1948 and were almost identical to these.

The exhaust comes out of those holes on the lower corners of the bumper. The brochure refers to the "big, husky rear deck" of the trunk which has a "luggage compartment of cross-country proportions."  

One of the coolest features of this ride is the location of the gas cap, which is hidden within the drivers side taillight! Press that small reflector button and the top lens pops up on a hinge, exposing the cap underneath. I explained this to a fellow gawker who was walking around the car barking out questions like "I wonder what this is?". I would answer each one of them and then I mentioned the gas cap. He pressed the button and it opened. I wouldn't recommend doing this without permission!

If this were the "magnificently luxurious" Fleetwood 60 Special there would be a series of chrome gills in front of the rear wheels. It's a shame the fender skirts are off the car because they add to the formality.

These hubcaps were optional in '53. Known as the Aerodynamic Wheel Discs, they were said to reduce wind noise and drag. I just think they're cool.

I'm including this interior shot because the floor is busy with switches. There is a headlight dimmer switch on the far edge and above that there ought to be the on/off switch for the Autronic Eye. There is yet another floor mounted button that's next to the brake pedal that activates the signal seeking Wonderbar radio. Again, in 1953 stepping on a switch to change the station was unheard of!

That vertical chrome bar at the front of the rear fender is marketed as a simulated air scoop gravel guard. Up close it does indeed have 10 little fins giving it the look of a huge intake.
"And here in this car is new massiveness, new strength, and new beauty for 1953" reads the copy of the sales book given to dealers for that year. Every page of that booklet boasts about the sheer size of the car, using the word massive at least 6 times.

10 minutes into Netflix and Chill the Caddy leans over and gives you this look.
This is where I respectfully back away from this majestic craft. Sales were fantastic for Cadillac in 1953, with a record-breaking 85,446 Series 62 cars sold. These heady times wouldn't be gone anytime soon as the prestige of the brand continued through the '70s unabated while other historical marques continued to fold. Hudson, Packard, Rambler, Nash, Kaiser, and DeSoto would all be gone by the turn of the next decade. Ford tried to crack into the luxury market with the Continental Mark II in '55-'56 but they lost money on each one and surrendered quickly. Imperial would become a stand alone brand from '55-'75 but the numbers could never quite compete and they, too, went back into their parent company. Somehow Cadillac soldiers on as the top of the heap in the domestic market to this day. 

Show Car Sunday gets its due with a knockout punch of a classy classic!

THE CLASSIEST UNICORN IN THE FORM OF A WASP

Take a minute to soak this all in.
Here I am standing between Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO with a classic in front of me that's so rare I can't even find production numbers. This is one of the only things I've ever Googled that wouldn't eventually auto-fill what it thought I wanted to search. Just like you never know WHAT is gonna come through that pawn shop door you never know what is lurking behind a closed garage door in Brooklyn.

What we have here is a 1953 Hudson Super Wasp 5C Brougham convertible in Honey Cream. It is just so damn beautiful in person that it's hard to imagine that somebody needed to drop it off at the shop to get inspected. This car is registered and ready for daily use right now. Where exactly do you drive this? To a palace?

Hudson was an innovative automaker known for unique advances in technology that placed them at the head of the pack in many ways. The bodies of this era are what they called Mono-Bilt. The frame wrapped around the lower perimeter of the car where the rocker panels usually are and the floor pans are set down in between the rails. This allowed for a low center of gravity and vastly superior side impact protection (just about every other vehicle was a box sitting on top of the frame). It is also referred to as the step-down chassis because you literally step down into the car as opposed to climbing up into it.

This car was built solidly in the Jet-Age era. We can see from this angle that the mock hood scoop approximates a jet taking off with the dreaded chemtrails beneath (contrails for you level-headed folk). I wish I'd taken a better pic of the grill emblem as it's like a piece of jewelry.

The most famous of all Hudsons was the mighty Hornet. It looked much like this but a bit bigger. Powered with the the inline 6 cylinder engine and Twin-H-Power (dual carbs) and with the cornering help of its low center of gravity it dominated Nascar for years.
In 1952 they introduced the smaller Wasp (replacing the former smaller offering called the Pacemaker). However if you ordered the Super Wasp you got the larger Hornet 6 cylinder in the lighter body, making this one of the first factory muscle cars. This one was also ordered with the optional Twin-H-Power so it's a true screamer! This drivetrain combination proved at least as powerful as the top of the line Hudson Commodore Straight-8 cylinder engine in '53.

Everything was just about perfect on this ride. You could easily fix your hair in the reflection.

That chrome molding on the lower edge of the body is about where the frame is. The fit and finish of the top could be improved if you were headed to Pebble Beach but that's about it.

It was a brilliant bright blue autumn day and I was conscious of the mechanics watching so I just snapped a quick interior pic. It looks to me like we have a 3-on-the-tre manual transmission and a radio from the factory. The door panel is off for some reason.
The '53 Hudson brochure is online and through it I discovered a sweet detail; the Steering wheel itself and the glass covered centerpiece are color coded to match the interior!

The one thing the brochure failed to mention was the existence of a Wasp convertible at all. I know they were built in their Detroit factory because others are around with flawless provenance but production must be truly minuscule. As an example they only built 30 Commodore convertibles in 1952 but that made the brochure!

That TWIN H-POWER emblem let's folks know you mean business. I like how the Super Wasp badge is only on the front near the engine much like the engine badges of the '60s and '70s while the trunk just gets Wasp.

Well there you have it; a real deal stunner of a classic ride. The license plates, inspection sticker, road tires filled up to the proper amount, and the fact that this was sitting at a mechanic all point to this beauty being driven. I can only imagine putting the top down and going on a lazy drive through the upstate autumn leaves (with the heater on your feet of course).
Recently Hornets have been gaining real value on the auction block. A beautiful 1953 Hornet Twin-H-Power Brougham convertible recently sold for $187,000 (more than 50% over the high estimate!). That is still the rarity with most Hudsons selling under $30,000. When you think of all the hugely mass-produced Mustangs and Camaros that sell for much more than that it's a wonder these classier rides don't get all the attention.

62 year old Gowanus cheapskate

BUDGET RIDE FROM THE EISENHOWER ERA
America in the post-WWII era was at the height of optimism. Every country in the world looked on in awe of the productivity, technical prowess, and seeming wealth of each of its citizens. However, even in the midst of such unprecedented good fortune some people just needed basic transportation. I present to you the following example:

What we have here is in many ways rarer than the much more popular '57 Chevy. This is a 1953 Chevrolet 150 4 door sedan. The 150 was the bottom of the barrel price wise, and just about as frugal as a domestic car could get. The only car more single-minded in its thrift was the Studebaker Scotsman which sported cardboard door panels, rubber mat flooring, and painted bumpers instead of chrome to go with its racist name ("frugal as a Scot" was the slogan!).

At least Chevy offered the dignity of shiny chrome bumpers and at least a little bit of trim on their lowest priced ride. The dimensions of the '53s are very balanced, with a hood only slightly longer than the trunk and plenty of passenger room in both the front and back.

The easiest way to identify the vintage of '50s Chevys is the grill which changed every year of the decade. Some of my favorite tidbits of this overall design are on display here; the body line crease that starts on the headlight surround is a nice touch, as are the bullet turn signals and fat chrome grill bars. 1954 would see the addition of 2 more of those bars for 5 total.

Those 4 holes in the middle of the rear door represent a missing piece of trim; there was originally a gravel/chip guard that protected the lower half of the rear fender bulge. It was really the only trim on the side of the 150 (besides the gas door spill guard), whereas the midrange 250 and top of the line Bel Air would've had a body length chrome spear. Unfortunately all it took was this 1 piece of trim for water and salt to collect, rotting out the rocker panel.

From this angle we can see that the roof is painted flat black while the body is mostly glossy. It seems this is midway through a restoration. Overall it looks pretty damn good for 62 years old!

That single exhaust pipe is connected to the 235 Thrift King inline 6 cylinder engine, which in 1953 was only available with a 3-on-the-tree manual transmission. In the following years you could order a number of different power trains but in this, the inaugural year for the 150, you got what you got.

From the back there is no way to differentiate between the trim levels.

This rear light housing was shared on all trim levels in '53. The top light is strictly a running lamp while the middle is the turn signal and brake light combo. The bottom lens would be a reverse light which was still an option and not standard equipment. My guess is that the lens contains nothing as someone opting for the 150 line is going for cheap.

It's a bit faint in this pic but you can just see the roof gutter line where it curves up and over the door openings from behind the rear door windows. The blank triangle of space between the rear door and the gutter would've been filled with a decorative chrome piece in the nicer models.

This interior is as plain as Chevy could make it for '53! Every other GM car had a chrome horn ring but the lowly 150 gets a horn button in the center of the steering wheel. That gauge cluster contains the speedometer, turn signal indicator light, and fuel gauge only. The circle to the right of the speedometer is where the clock would be if it was ordered, but what is there is just the blank. The expanse of chrome in the center of the dash would contain the speaker for the optional radio if they went for the extra cost. The radio was a tall tube model that had the speaker built in to the top.

If you haven't seen one before this is what a three-on-the-tree gearshift looks like. They are a bit strange to drive at first but easy enough to get the hang of. That little handle sticking out from under the dash where the reflective glare is is the parking brake. The lighter and even the ashtray were options!

This is the hubcap you get for being a cheapskate. This is also the hubcap you get on fleet cars which represented the lions share of 150 sales. Police cars, taxicabs, and companies that had dozens of workers or inspectors on the roads would order the 150 in quantity. Cops of this era spoke about brand new cruisers that came without even a heater being installed (which was actually an option too!).

Who needs a heater when you have good old 1950s optimism? Here's a stylized jet hood ornament for your troubles.

All it takes is the omission of a headlight surround to make this thing look like a wide-eyed dolt with braces wandering the streets.

The Chevys of '53 were all 6 volt cars which made for dim headlights. For this reason the lenses on the turn signals have magnifying facets like miniature lighthouses for better visibility.

We'll leave this hearty little stalwart shown here on a warmer day in Gowanus. Due to the lighter overall weight of a car so sparse that it was built without carpet or sound deadening material these were the choice for hot rodders looking to go fast while looking plain-Jane (this is even more true of the 2 door models). The fact that they were incredibly spartan, and were delivered mostly as cop cars and taxis to be chewed up and spat out, they are very rare today. I was pretty excited to see one parked in Brooklyn, as you might see 20 Bel Airs before seeing a single 150. If you wanted a classic that gets decent mileage, has available parts, and is a good conversation piece this is an excellent choice. Try finding one though!