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!

Dogged, rugged, loyal donkey

DOGGED, RUGGED, LOYAL DONKEY

I've been walking Brooklyn neighborhoods scouting for potential places to move and have encountered some cool vehicles on the way. This rough and tumble beast was roosting on an overpass above the BQE at the edge of Bay Ridge recently:

This is a half destroyed wreck that continues earning its keep after decades of abuse and neglect! More specifically this is a 1962 Willys Jeep Truck in President Red (how presumptuous and sadly true at the moment). 

Here is its face which has probably been covered up since the '80s. This has a current inspection sticker in the windshield which really pushes the envelope as there are no turn signals at all! I've gotten an inspection sticker with broken reverse lights and a horn that didn't work but you could always claim they just went out if you were pulled over. When there isn't even a signal housing present it shows faith in the local cops.

These hardy beasts grew out of the standard Willys-Jeep CJ in 1947 to widen the market in the post war vehicle shortage. They sold well to returning G.I.s and the general public alike. In the late '40s Jeep as a company was regarded fondly as another U.S. soldier who helped win the war. Luckily the durability matched the patriotic enthusiasm.

This truck is so basic it might as well have been built in the 1920s. The body consists of stamped steel bolted to a sturdy frame. Along with this pickup body it could've been ordered as a station wagon, flatbed, or just a cab on the frame ready for you to complete however you want.

Somebody has been painted black rust proofing wherever it emerges. There has also been a replacement piece of metal welded onto the rocker panel below the door. Random moments of Bondo are also visible in some precursor to restoration.

Rugged durability was what they were selling with this vehicle and its existence in Brooklyn after 55 years is proof that it has fulfilled its promise.

Everything you need to know about this ride is in the above pic. The gas cap is duct taped on to a fuel filler neck sporting brown tape of its own. The taillight is a cobbled together mess with two hand-twisted pieces of soldering wire replacing the lens as protection for the naked bulb. The tires are in great condition but everything else is well worn.

This side of the bed is collapsing in the front due to a fatal amount of rot. Seriously - take a look at the line of the bed where it meets the cab compared to the cab accent lines! Some might ask what's the point? Our intrepid owner has more immediate fish to fry such as the missing passenger side window.

Not entirely missing actually as a piece of plexiglass is resting across some of the opening. I peeked around the protected baggie to snap a quick interior shot. It looks like this was originally painted Foam Green which was an awesome aqua/teal color. The three gearshifts you see are the transmission, the transfer case to engage 4WD, and the rear end for High and Low.

Well that's where I'm leaving this hardy little trooper who seems perfectly content to be a plow donkey. These are as much utility appliance as vehicle; meant to work hard for a living and ask little in return. There is an identical truck to this parked in front of the famous Sunny's Bar in red Hook. Stay tuned for that at some point in the future!

Vehicle as rugged appliance

VEHICLE AS RUGGED APPLIANCE

When I was visiting my sister in Oregon I snapped so many cool old rides that I've been doling them out slowly so as not to have an Oregon Month (not that that's a bad thing but I'll let some proud Oregonian take that on). Today we'll focus on this beasty:

This is a 1960 or newer Willys Station Wagon (officially listed as model 6-226) in what I believe to be the faded factory color Redwood. 

One look tells you everything you need to know about this rig. Your first impressions probably go something like this: "dirty, big, old, sturdy, truck". Exactly!

This beast is actually the first all steel station wagon ever produced with all previous wagons having rear bodies made at least partially, and many times entirely, of wood. Today we would think of this as an SUV but 70 years ago when first introduced it was closer to a car than a truck. This really is the first crossover as well.

Pinpointing the date on utilitarian rigs like this can be tough to do. Sometimes a change will be made mid-year with no real announcement. Other times a change might be made for one market but not the other. Things I'm going by when declaring this as a 1960-1965 model ('65 was the end of production) are the 3 horizontal grill bars (down from 5 in 1954), single windshield (from a split unit in '59) and the large back window which definitely wasn't around in the '50s yet seemed to remain optional for a bit while 2 smaller rear windows remained available.

I can tell you that this is not a Deluxe model as there would've been a fat chrome stripe following that horizontal belt line that bisects the door. *I want to point out that shelf located just behind the front fender which is replicated on the other side. These are for spare gas cans. The owner of this rig is ready to head off on epic adventures away from society and it looks like they already have!

This design is a stroke of genius by industrial designer Brooks Stevens. His landmark design achievements are numerous but let's just highlight the fact that he is responsible for the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile!

Everything about this says rugged and capable. It has big wheels but not huge and the tread is pretty well worn from use. The back window is long gone, being somewhat replaced by wire fencing material. I don't know what that grate would protect against besides a bird or racoon invasion (though it looks like something got in on the left side).

The true genius behind this design is the body itself, what it consists of, and who made it. In 1946 when the first Willys Station Wagon was released automobile bodies were in very high demand. WWII halted auto production in the States from 1942-1945 and the pent up demand for vehicles combined with the glorious national mood of victory meant everybody wanted a new ride now. Brooks Stevens with his background in Industrial as opposed to Automotive design came up with a matter-of-fact solution: the body would consist of metal typically used for household appliances that could be fashioned and assembled by sheet metal fabricators. This truck is therefore more of an appliance than a passenger vehicle which is fitting for such a no nonsense ride.

Let's give a shout-out for how beautiful an Oregon summer day can be! It was almost exactly 100 degrees this entire week though which was blowing the minds of the locals.

We can see from this angle that the quaint original taillights have been replaced with small red lights screwed directly into the body. Small mailbox reflectors have been added to the tailgate and rear quarter panels.

Even though this is the first steel bodied station wagon the design of the body mimics that of a wooden bodied car. The dark painted panels in the door illustrate this well; if you were to paint the recessed rectangles brown and the raised portions more of a blond tan color it really would look like wood. Painting the roof a dark color would also approximate the cloth tops of the wood frame wagons. In a more practical sense those ribbed portions add rigidity to the body side which would otherwise be vast sheets of metal prone to warping.

You've gotta love the interior of this simple beast!
A centrally mounted gauge contains only the speedometer, temperature, and fuel level. Below that you have an ashtray (of course!), and knobs for choke, lights, and the wipers. That fan mounted over the right shoulder of the driver tells you all you need to know about climate control.
*Dashboards with central gauge clusters are a stroke of genius for vehicles meant for the worldwide market. All you have to do for this to be registered in New Zealand is move the steering wheel and pedals to the other side as everything else is the same.

Here we have either a charming lie or a thorough owner who is updating their emblems as the vehicle evolves. When first built this truck had a 4 or 6 cylinder in either flathead or overhead cam design. The 327 is a Chevy small block V8 engine introduced in 1962. With the trailer hitch and signs of modern use I'm guessing there is a 327 under the hood.

Well that's where we'll leave this eager mongrel. The Willys station wagons are some of the most widely available "ran when parked" classics out there, usually advertised with caveats like "haven't tried to start it" or more threateningly "please understand that this is a classic project and if you think you'll just buy it and drive across the country don't waste my time!". To see one on the move is extremely rare which is a shame as their basic makeup and legendary capability make it a cool cruiser. The ultimate version of this is the late '40s Willys Jeepster which is a 2 door convertible with the same front end as this ride. Regardless that fact that this thing could be 40 miles off road in the woods somewhere even as I type this makes me smile.

Show Car Sunday returns with a sweet Art Deco masterpiece!

IMPOSSIBLY COOL ART DECO MASTERPIECE! 

On a recent beautiful day I borrowed a friends car and drove out to the Delaware Water Gap. This little number had me jerk an egregious u-turn on the spot. Check this thing out!

It's all on the sign in the window, but this is a 1931 Willys Overland Sport 6 Coupe. When you go this far back it's a bit more difficult to pinpoint the color (not that this is original and who would know it it was). I managed to find a "Color Schedule" for Willys in 1931 and they list 4 different greens; Noblock, Russell, Aball, and Beach. Whatever, this car is awesome!

Try to imagine the world when this came off the assembly line 85 years ago! Prohibition still had 2 years to go. The Empire State Building was just being completed. Hoover was president and the Hoovervilles that bore his name were sprouting in Central Park as the Great Depression was in full swing. In fact, this car was barely built by a company that was struggling to survive by selling off plants and equipment.
*Let's just agree to forgive the owner for adding that modern side mirror, alright?

The turn signals will have to be forgiven too as this was built with none.
The headlights though are made of thick glass. I find the grill to be one of the most beautiful of the era with its double arches and scalloped details. The side louvers add to the Sport feel.

That hole in the bottom of the radiator is for the crank in case your ancient battery failed to do the trick. When this was made batteries needed constant maintenance such as topping up of the fluids, etc. Failure was common and service stations infrequent so knowing how to start your car with the hand crank was essential.  

This straddles the line between the spindly primitive cars of the teens and twenties and the rounded, voluptuous auto bodies of the late '30s.

To find a relatively untouched and wholly uncustomized example of a 1931 domestic car is remarkable. This was the sort of cheap used car available to the first hot-rodders and most of them were treated brutally. Any '30s coupes that survived were snatched up by Baby Boomers for customization later. To see this sitting pretty with its original stance and wheels is like finding a 1950 Mercury that hasn't been chopped.

This body style could be had with either a trunk such as this or a rumble seat. If it were fitted with the rumble seat there would be an actual trunk attached to the outside of the car much like a steamer trunk. There were convertibles too and they can get seriously expensive.

The gas tank is located below the trunk. That is the gas cap on the lower right above the bumper.

The name Sport 6 refers to the 6 cylinder engine under the bonnet. There was a Sport 8 as well but it would be a few years until they released a 4 cylinder.

I can't say they did a very good job of matching the paint as the rear edge of the door seems to be a demarcation between a bright grass green up front and a deeper hue in the back. Who cares though when you're rolling in a '31 Willys? Those massive running boards are functional by the way.

Who knows? Maybe an interested party will see this posting and contact the seller. I'm posting this on 6/26/16 but the pics were only taken on 6/19.

The interior looks pretty darn good and honest. I love how tall the gearshift is on this ride. The gauges are centrally located. It actually looks like there is a heater under the passenger side of the dash which in itself is pretty rare.

These whitewalls are wizened with age. The original Willys 6 emblems are awesomely Art Deco.

It was common in this era for the windshield to be hinged like this for hot days.
From this angle you can see the single windshield wiper motor. Originally I believe this would operate off a vacuum hose connected to the engine.

Well there you have it; an 85 year old car built by a company teetering on the edge of insolvency. Who would've guessed back in 1931 that this company would go on to design one of the most iconic vehicles of all time; the Jeep. Needless to say their troubles ended after WWII with Jeep production ramping up for civilian use but at this point there were no guarantees of their survival.