1957 Ford Fairlane convertible, 1961 Ford Thunderbird and other clean used cars

 The '77 Malibu from my last post was from the Shoreline used car dealer who happens to sell a lot of vintage cars. Don't know where he gets them.

 

Ford sold more cars in 1957 than Chevy, but a '57 Bel Air convertible is worth three times as much as the Fairlane convertible from that year.

 

There's no mistaking a Thunderbird for any other car.

 

More from the bigger is better era: 1962 Chevrolet Impala with 283 v-8.

1977 Chevrolet El Camino. If the classic car-truck is your jam, and you're on a budget.

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1962 Mercury Comet, 1964 Ford Ranchero

Another example of there being so many 50-year old cars in Seattle, I can shoot them two at a time. 1962 was the first year that the Comet was a Mercury. Originally planned as an Edsel, it was sold as just "Comet" in 1960-61. This car and the Ranchero were based on the same platform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1962 GMC Pickup Truck

 In the early 1950s, Chevy and GMC pickups were different in name only. GMCs were Chevy pickups sold in towns without a Chevy dealer. In the 60s, GMC was still the same basic truck as Chevy, but with a significantly more powerful standard engine. The base engine in the Chevy was a 235 c.i. straight six good for 135 horsepower and 216 pound-feet of torque. The GMC however came standard with a V6 of 305 c.i. (bigger than many V8s) producing 150 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque.

 

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Land of the Giants: 1962 and 1973 Lincoln Continental in the Central District

There's plenty of parking in Seattle's Central District, and it's where I spot a lot of vintage Detroit iron. The older car pictured here appears to be a daily driver, but it looks like the later Lincoln hasn't moved in a year or three.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1962 Studebaker Champ pickup truck

 

From Hemmings.com: "Faced with certain extinction near the end of the 1950s, Studebaker clung to solvency by building new cars and trucks out of the stuff already in its parts bins."

"Without the resources to design an all-new truck, Studebaker passed the ball to the Lark. Using the front half of a Lark sedan body with a unique grille and bumper, South Bend created a pickup cab that fit remarkably well with the edgy styling direction Detroit had taken. Inside, the Lark's dash added a civilized touch to the workaday hauler. Unfortunately, almost everything else about the truck was still very much a rolling representation of a bygone era.

While Detroit's haulers rode on independent front ends, two-wheel-drive Champs used straight front axles with leaf springs as well as leaf springs in the rear. In 1960, Studebaker's six-cylinder truck engines were still flathead designs dating back to the 1930s. The Champ's box, too, was a throwback to the previous model, and those pontoon rear fenders that looked so right on the 2R in 1949 didn't blend well with the Lark-derived Champ cab. Even the Champ's brake and clutch pedals seemed old fashioned poking up out of the floor, as swing-style pedals had become so common everywhere else. 

For 1961, Studebaker did its best to bring the Champ into the modern age. The flathead six-cylinder engines were discontinued and the smaller 170-cu.in. six was brought back with overhead valves. (Both V-8 engines remained in the lineup, the 259 as well as the 289.)

The most visible change was the addition of smooth bedsides, but rather than design and build its own bedsides for the Champ, Studebaker purchased tooling that had been used to make Dodge's "Sweptline" boxes. Studebaker's Dodge-derived "Spaceside" box was more modern looking than the old fender box, but it was disproportionately big for the Champ's cab. The body creases in the Champ's doors didn't jibe with the Dodge's bedsides either, further making the combination look cobbled together.

If the Champ had an advantage in the light-truck marketplace, it was its low price. In 1962, the Champ half-ton, with a 6.5-foot box and six-cylinder engine, was the most inexpensive hauler in its class, weighing in with a base price of $1,870.

The Champ soldiered on, more or less a footnote in South Bend's proud history, until December 27, 1963, when Studebaker pulled the plug on civilian truck production."

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1962 Dodge Dart 440

Dodge used the Dart name on four different cars between 1960 and 1963. From '63 on, the Dart was a compact; we spotted this '65 in Fremont last year. For '62, the Dart was a near copy of the original Plymouth Valiant, one of which we spotted in SoDo. This Dart is for sale - the owner wants $25K! Wishful thinking I'm afraid.

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Magnolia Car Show: 1962 Chevrolet Corvette fuel-injected

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1962 Ford Falcon Futura

At a time when Detroit was making impossibly huge, ridiculous gas-guzzling cars, Ford President Robert McNamara envisioned transportation that was more practical, more economical and a lot smaller. That's a good thing, according to most people anyway. An associate of McNamara's once said that McNamara, "wore granny glasses and he built a granny car."

Observations:
* This Falcon is equipped with a theft alarm. I don't know who'd steal it, but I know they wouldn't get away very fast.
* I could make fun of this car, but the truth is, beneath the skin it's the same platform as my '67 Mustang.

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1962 Pontiac Tempest LeMans

This '62 Tempest marks the second time we've spotted one of GM's unique front-engine, rear-drive, rear-transaxle cars made only between 1961 and 1963. The first was an Olds made the same year.

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1962 Oldsmobile Cutlass F-85

Welcome to the premier post of Seattle's Old Cars. On this blog I'll be talking about the amazing old vehicles one can see in a city that has never seen road salt and that adopted an interest in imported cars a little sooner than most of America.

My special thanks to other web sites that inspired me: Seattle's Parked Cars, Portland's Old Parked Cars and Jalopnik.com's Down on the Street series.

We'll start with a favorite of mine, this 1962 Oldsmobile Cutlass F-85 2-door hardtop. The Olds F-85 first made its appearance in 1961, along with the very similar Pontiac Tempest and Buick Special. It was different from anything buyers had seen before, in that it was a front-engine, rear-drive car with a rear-mounted transaxle in place of a front-mounted transmission.

The '62 Cutlass was also the first mass-produced car offered with a turbocharger. Known as the Jetfire engine, it produced 215 HP from an engine of only 215 c.i.. The turbocharger required its own liquid-fueled cooling system. According to an article on ebay stories blog, the cooling system required, "a combination of methyl alcohol and distilled water, and was dubbed "Turbo-Rocket Fluid" by the marketing geniuses at Olds.  The fluid was actually used to cool the intake charge, and was instrumental to the proper working of the turbo-charger. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for collectors, as the case may be), many consumers were unaware that they needed to keep the resevoir filled with fluid, leading to both mechanical problems with the car, as well as some cars being retrofitted with a conventional carburetor and manifold". A '62 Cutlass with Jetfire engine in good condition sold at auction for $42,100 in 2014.

The Cutlass pictured appears to be largely original, aside from the rims and the addition of a 4-speed transmission. In the ten years I've lived in Seattle, I believe that, alas, it has not moved from this spot.

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