Sweet sleeper of a grocery getter. Nova!

SWEET SLEEPER OF A GROCERY GETTER

I was biking through Clinton Hill one warm day when I passed this smart little number:

Clean as a whistle!
This is a 1977 Chevrolet Nova 4 door in Firethorn Poly. I love this era Nova and feel that it gets unfairly ignored in favor of the earlier models.

From a decade of garish excess this ride sports refreshingly clean looks. The grill is neat and straightforward with small Chevy bow tie logos embossed into the turn signals. The round peg in a square hole headlights are angled gently back from the grill.

*If this were the higher trim level Concours edition there would be a chrome band on the hood above the grill making it a bit glitzier.

This is a straight-up 4 door grocery getter for 1977. It was listed as the compact offering from Chevy as there was the subcompact Monza below it in scale and the Chevelle/Impala line being larger. This is a very usable car on modern streets and remains parkable when contrasted against the personal luxury land yachts of the day.

Much has been made of the hidden joke in this name. "Nova" in Spanish translates to "Not Going" in English; just the sort of thing you want to name a car! The Nova was originally known simply as the Chevy II until the late '60s when Nova was added as almost a dual name. Finally in 1969 the handoff was complete with the II moniker dropping and Nova remaining.

Believe it or not these dog dish poverty caps are original to Chevy from this era. I love the plain style of poverty caps and these are some of the plainest ever made.

The rear is very straightforward in its design. If this were the lofty Concours edition there would be a third taillight square on each side between these lights and the license plate opening. According to the sticker collection on the bumper there are several aftermarket performance parts on this beast. I do see dual exhaust poking out in a subtle hint of what may lie underneath.

Hi. That's my hand.

I'm assuming this little vent is the outlet for the cabin air circulation system but I can't find a single word on it.

The literature of the day boasts that the '77 Nova is only 1" larger than the 4 door from 1962. Their tagline was that they've been "selling the car of tomorrow for 15 years" and that they've had all this time to really perfect it. They are pretty basic and reliable rides for sure.

Whoa buddy! Looks like the cheese delivery came to the interior of this sedate-on-the-outside ride. Replacement 2 tone buckets and door panels accentuate how huge the transmission/driveshaft hump on the floor is. TAPOUT floor mats let you know this guy (I'm gender assuming here) drives and fights! We can see the am/fm 8 track stereo which is amazing when someone spends so much of decoration. The blue tree hanging from the mirror is the New Car Scent. Nice try!
As bad as this pic is it contains the clue that pinpoints the year. '76 and '77 Novas were identical except for the dashboard. The round gauges in this image confirm it as a '77.

Well that's where we'll leave this cool cruiser. I dig the sleeper vibe of this ride with its lack of engine badges and cheapo hubcaps. This is the sort of car you can pick up for peanuts and build how ever you want. 4 door examples are probably roosting in garages all over the country having made their last trip to church for the deceased original owner. Parts are so widely available that it's laughable. If you want to get some cheap classic wheels for Summer a Nova is a solid choice.

Keep on Vannin'

KEEP ON VANNIN'

Somewhere in the greater Bushwick area I found this Crayola-colored lunchbox. With its white outlined eyes and fun color it looks eager to please! Let's take a closer look.

This is a 1977 Chevrolet G10 Van in Tangier Orange. This style is known as the Shorty Panel since it's the shorter wheelbase and has no windows besides the cab and rear doors. This is the ultimate stranger danger model unfortunately due to its lack of side windows.

I love this van and for me a large part of the charm is the fact that it's the base model. Notice that the grill, bumpers, and mirrors are painted as opposed to chrome; every trim level above the base had those niceties as opposed to plain white.

This cool '70s logo was instrumental in pinpointing the vintage of this ride. This era of Chevy van ran from 1973-1977 but only in this final year was the number on top of a stylized sun. One thing that ran throughout the '70s on Chevy trucks is the use of that wild west font with the heavy serifs on the letters.

*The 10 refers to the load capabilities. Heavier-duty models were the G20 and G30.

I love how righteously plain this thing is. At first glance those square taillights seem to be the same as those used on Chevy trucks of the same vintage. However the truck versions are curved and wrap around the corners of the pickup bed slightly. This is a great example of lending continuity across different models from the same company.

YES!

I couldn't find a current listing for PAUL Chevrolet in Brooklyn but it's surprising that this vehicle still resides in its hometown. Being a base model van in the sort of garish color favored by municipalities makes me think this might have had some official use originally. Everything about this van screams FLEET VEHICLE. This is the sort of vehicle that brought road cones to job sites back in the day.

Plain white wheels and budget hubcaps complete the zero-frills look. That single exhaust makes me believe this ride has the stock inline 6-cylinder under its stubby hood. If it's really as basic as it looks it has a three-on-the-tree manual transmission too.

Someone added a little tinted window to the side in a crude manner.

How basic is it inside? Well there was never a radio installed which jibes with the fact that there's no antenna on the outside. Above the heater controls are two more blank squares where optional equipment would be. From here the floor looks to have a black rubber mat as opposed to carpet. Even the door panels look to be pressed metal.

This is 1977 though so even the base van has cool brown plaid seats!

Well we'll leave this orange lunchbox to roam the streets of its native borough. Evidence of a break-in on the top center of the grill probably stems from someone looking to lift the battery way back when. The customization possibilities are endless for plain panel vans like this so it's remarkable to see one so normal and untouched. I've had a few vans in my time and would gladly roll around town in this beast given the chance.

Twofer Tuesday returns with Two Twos

THE TRAVELER AND THE TOMATO

These Twofer Tuesday posts usually happen after I encounter a vehicle and remember that I took pics of a similar one months before. However this time I passed these 2 rides within days of each other. Without further ado;

High up on the hill in tony Park Slope I ran across the least expected vehicle ever for its surroundings. This is a 1977 International Scout II in Fire Orange. 

International got its start back in 1902 making agricultural equipment such as tractors and threshers. Soon after it began manufacturing trucks for farm and commercial use. Finally in the '60s it came out with the original Scout, meant to compete directly with Jeep. This is the larger, second evolution.

I owned a '79 that looked identical to this, save the color and condition. They are fantastic trucks!

These trucks want to rust so bad that it's almost impossible to hold it off. This one is pretty cherry and obviously well loved by someone.

No "shift on the fly" 4-wheel-drive here! To engage the 4x4 you need to get out of the truck and manually lock each front hub before jumping back in and using the separate transfer case shifter to select either 4 High or 4 Low. I only engaged 4 Low once in my old Scout to make sure it worked but it was basically undriveable with a top speed of something like 20 mph. Good for pulling stumps maybe.

This entire roof comes off making for a hilarious summer vehicle. The roof is metal and weighs plenty I can tell you from experience.

These beasts are super basic. From this angle you can see the front door glass is just a flat square.

The drivetrain on the Scouts is bulletproof, befitting a company that made its reputation building tractors. The engine blocks are some of the heaviest ever produced at 800lbs! They never bothered with any technology to lighten the motor so it never wears out. Scouts are known to go 300,000 miles as long as their body holds up.

Looking bizarre in a neighborhood of brownstones and mansions.

Inside we can see that this is a manual 4 speed like mine was. This one also has air conditioning as shown by the vents under the dash.

The ride height is only a touch higher than factory. Combined with the larger tires you can see how this towers over the Honda behind it.

The "Town of East Hampton" sticker on the bumper goes a long way in explaining why some colossal beach cruiser is parked in Brooklyn.

I had to get a close up of the winch, not because I know anything about winches, but because you never see one in NYC.

Now on to a more laid back version . . .

Sweet! This beast is dressed down and ready for action. What we have here is a 1976 Scout Traveler in Winter White.

You just saw how East Hampton rolls, but this is what an honest Scout is supposed to look like; rusty as hell, topless, and parked just anywhere without a single thought to security.

The Traveler is a full 18 inches longer than the Scout II. You can see the extra space between the door and the rear wheel well. The top for the Traveler is fiberglass with a slanted hatchback but who needs that on a hot week like this?

My Scout came with a full roll cage built into it and it's rare to see one without even a roll bar. They are so capable off-road but if you manage to flip it over only the puniest of windshield frames will be there to try and save your head.

There is a backseat in this ride but it's basically a flat bench with zero headrests. 

I'm confused by something on this rig which maybe somebody can help me with. From this angle it looks to have 2 gas tanks; not uncommon on a truck from the age of very low mpg. However, the front gas cap is mimicked on the passenger side as well. While there were a few trucks built in the '70s with a 3 gas tank option I couldn't find any reference to it in Scout literature. This is the sort of thing you want if you're going on some mammoth off road adventure and you need a 500+ mile range. Were the fronts actually antennae mounts or something? Who knows!

Straight-up basic Scout interior with no radio and an automatic trans. This, too, has the air conditioner though. The passenger is lucky as they get the only visor.

"Better than the floor" is how you'd describe this seat if you were in it. 

This proud donkey was flouting the law out in Red Hook where parking is such a non-issue that only sheer absent-mindedness gets you a ticket. Then again, whoever owns a convertible with no roof in sight must be pretty relaxed.

That about does it for the Scout roundup today. It is almost impossible to discern the vintage of Scouts except for the grills, which changed almost every year. the Traveler was introduced in '76 so this is the first. In 1979 International went through a debilitating strike lasting over a year which brought the company to its knees. By the time it was over they basically assembled the 1980 Scouts with parts they'd already made and closed their light truck division for good. If you see a Scout with square headlights you're looking at a rarity as it is the fabled 1980 model.

Kraut Rocked

ALL HOPES DASHED

There's a stretch of Atlantic Avenue on the way to the Prospect Park Shuttle that's gamey and forlorn, populated mainly with restaurant equipment refurbishment places and mysterious nightclubs. One day I happened to be walking by when I encountered this unlikely little punk:

This is a 1976-'77 Volkswagen Dasher in Polar White. In every country but the U.S. this was known as the first Passat. In addition to being a Dasher it's a sad and mysterious story as I'm 99% certain that this is the very car somebody else posted pictures of to their blog in 2012 when it was in great shape. Here's our hero before the fall as seen on the Street Peep.

This FUEL INJECTION designation tells me that our Dasher is at least as new as '76 because the previous 2 years were carburetor only. In 1978 the Dasher went through a comprehensive redesign so we know it can only be '76 or '77.

She's dirty and neglected but far from a lost cause. These cars are crazy rare on the East Coast these days so I'm surprised to see it left for dead. Make no mistake this car has been left for dead in hopes that it will just be carted away; it's sitting in front of a hydrant with no plates (though on this block it might remain here for months).

All Dashers at this point were fastbacks with identical profiles but bizarrely they were either hatchback or not. Everything about the shape of this car says hatchback but if you look closely it's just a trunk and there's no line above the rear window.

From the side everything seems to be in order with the exception of a missing hubcap and some filth. *This side view holds the definitive clue for me confirming that this is the exact car from Street Peep; the red side marker light on the rear quarter has a bit of white on the lower left corner on both cars.

Once you come around to the front things get really mysterious though. Look how far out of the wheel well the front wheel is. Also, did they really need to tear the center of the formerly beautiful grill out just to add an additional cooler? Terrible!

If you haven't seen this car on the link I posted above to the Street Peep go check it out. This car was really nice just a few short years ago with an unbroken grill and overall great presentation. Whoever did this hack job should be punished by the car gods into driving PT Cruisers exclusively for life!

Poor dejected little VW just wanted to be loved.

All I can figure is some misguided attempt was made to hot rod this car by shoving in an engine that was way too big for it. Maybe it was en entire front wheel drive unit for a wider car and that's why the wheels are jutting out? Maybe no matter what they tried it overheated constantly so they added this cooler? Who knows but it's a damn shame.

The final indignity is being dumped in front of an auto parts store like an old man dumped in front of a medical supply shop. Did the owner run in one last time to see if they stocked that magic cure?

Well this had my curiosity going! Too hard to open the hood when you need to top something off? Who had this car since 2012?

The interior (with the exception of all the bagged piles of garbage in it) looks to be as nice as ever with a perfect dashboard, seats, door panels, and original cassette player.

I love junky cars and beaters but somehow this one affected me. Maybe because you just don't see VWs from the '70s that aren't Beetles, Buses, or Rabbits. I think what really got me was discovering that this ride had been documented so recently looking smart as can be. Either way I hope against all odds somebody buys it from the impound auction and gets it going again, but that's a long shot.