1952 Chevrolet 3100 Advanced Design Pickup Truck

This is a very nice truck, and the original license plate is a nice touch. The asking price on the For Sale sign is $30,000. This seems a bit steep to me. It is not the more desirable 5-window cab. The license plate is the only thing to clue me as to the year this was made. These trucks were identical from 1947 to 1953.

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1947 Willys Jeep CJ2A

It's not WWII surplus. The Willys script on the hood and the tailgate tell us this is the first civilian Jeep. There's a myth that after the war military Jeeps were available as surplus for as little as $44. It's true that surplus Jeeps were sold to veterans, but in good condition the government demanded $975, almost as much as a brand new Jeep from the factory in Toledo. This Jeep also has an original 1947 license plate.

The government also sold as surplus, "150,000 rubber life rafts, recouping $3 million on an equipment that originally cost $30 million. Each raft was sold as part of a $105 package containing 143 items, which included a bible, 12 signal flares, a bilge pump, a gallon of massage oil, a checkerboard, and back issues of Fortune, Esquire, Reader’s Digest, and The Saturday Evening Post." As Major Kong from Dr. Strangelove would say, "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."

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1953 Dodge M37 Ambulance

A common site during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, about 115,000 M37s were built between 1951 and 1968. Hard to kill, many were sold by the government as surplus to public.

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2026 Greenwood Car Show: Chrysler

The red car is a 1970 or 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible, the orange car is a Dodge Challenger R/T from the same years. Both are powered by the legendary 426 hemi. These have got to be "tribute" cars. If they were original hemi convertibles, they'd be worth seven figures.

This 1966 hemi-powered Plymouth Satellite is at the show every year. I always love seeing it.

A rare 1971 Plymouth Road Runner.

A very nice 1969 Plymouth Road Runner. This one is the fixed-pillar coupe, not the hardtop.

This rare 1956 Dodge Royal Lancer is remarkable is that it's one of the few smaller Chrysler cars powered by the original hemi-head engine series made from 1951-59. In this case it's the 315 c.i. The hemi engines powered nearly all the Imperials, Chryslers and DeSotos in the 50s, but only a handful of Dodge cars and no Plymouths.

Another very nice 'Cuda convertible.

A very original Doge Challenger.

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2026 Greenwood Car Show: General Motors

It's my biggest car spotting day of the year, the Greenwood car show. Let's start with GM.

With GTOs, you may be looking at a "tribute car" which is a polite name for "fake". Take an ordinary Pontiac LeMans, update the engine and the badges, and you've got a much more valuable GTO. Both this 1969 GTO Judge and this 1968 convertible appear authentic to me, though the Judge doesn't have the correct air cleaner to make the ram air induction system work. Fun fact: When the Judge was first offered, it only came in this color.

I've posted this incredible car before, but there's nothing more amazing than seeing a fuel-injected 1963 Corvette split-window.

Restored 1957 Bel Air convertibles like this one sometimes go for over $100K now. The hardtop coupes aren't much less. Always interesting to compare them to a car that's never been restored, like the sedan here. That off-pink color looks odd today but was popular in the 50s.

Very nice 1966 Sting Ray.

The 1970 Chevelle Super Sport is considered the pinnacle of GM muscle. This one has the 396. The truly legendary examples have the 454.

This 1964 Pontic LeMans coupe has 326 badges, but it appears the owner has dropped a 389 tri-power engine under the hood.

This 1948 Buick is just a great looking car.

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Restoration Shop in Ballard

It's easy enough to sink tens of thousands of dollars into your classic car. When I checked out these vehicles at the restoration shop in Ballard, it struck me that each had some good points and some bad points for your restoration dollar.

1951 Chevy 3100 Advanced-Design truck
Pro: Everybody loves it. Easy to maintain.
Con: Hard to drive.

1962 Ford Thunderbird
Pro: Well-built and powerful. Makes a statement.
Con: Old man's car. Kind of tacky.

1982 Jaguar XJ-S
Pro: It's a V-12 supercar. Surprisingly affordable.
Con: It's surprisingly affordable because it's impossible to keep running.

1981 Fiat 124 Spider
Pro: Fun.
Con: Not very reliable.

1980 MGB
Pro: Fun.
Con: Not very reliable.

1958 Cadillac Coupe DeVille
Pro: Wow power, easy to maintain the drivetrain.
Con: Kind of a money pit - it's got power everything with 1950s wiring.

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In traffic behind a Porsche 914

This will not happen again. Someone has actually taken the insane amount of time and trouble required to restore a Porsche 914. This is a really, really bad car. I've discussed it before when I saw one in Ballard a few years ago. But there's a funny article you should read about the 914 on Hagerty.com: "A few things to know before stealing my 914."

"Once you are ready to again try for second, I can offer some advice. One trick that works is to declutch the transmission, pull the lever from the first-gear position, enter into the aforementioned neutral zone, and then rapidly wig-wag the shift knob side-to-side along a lateral axis. If you move the knob quickly enough, the transmission will be out-smarted and cannot anticipate your next move. It is at this time that you should re-attempt to enter second, and most likely you will do so. Surprise is your best weapon against this transmission."

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