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.

Tweet

1981 Subaru BRAT. Take That, Chicken Tax!

When I was a kid, I remember seeing this truck with its bizarre plastic jump seats in the bed, and thinking, "They've got to be kidding." Yeah, they actually were kidding. Subaru's expectation was not that Americans were clamoring to ride in hard plastic seats in the back of pickup trucks.

Those seats are back there to beat the Chicken Tax. As we discussed in my post about Volkswagen Type 2 trucks, in 1964 in response to a European tariff on American poultry the US introduced retaliatory tariffs including a 25% tariff on light trucks. By bolting seats in the bed, Subaru was able to classify the BRAT as a passenger car.  By the way, BRAT is an acronym for, "Bi-drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tweet

1981 Volkswagen Rabbit convertible - with ski rack!

Ski rack on a convertible. Gotta love the west coast.

Tweet

1981 AMC Eagle SX/4

When people think of the AMC Eagle, they mostly remember the station wagon version of what was at that time America's only 4-wheel drive car. But the Eagle was available in other forms, including two-door and four-door models. The SX/4 combined the new 4-wheel drive platform with the old Gremlin chassis (which dated all the way back to 1970) and the Spirit hatchback body (which was based on the Hornet/Concord body, which also dated to 1970). The Eagle 2-door was also available as a "kammback" which was a clever way of saying it had the old Gremlin body. I have seen one of these very rare Eagle-Gremlins in Seattle and hope to photograph that one as well.

Tweet

1981 Volkswagen Rabbit pickup truck

The Rabbit pickup is a vehicle I see from time to time in Seattle, though I haven't seen one in many years in other parts of the country. Most of those that remain appear to be the diesel-powered model (biodiesel is popular out here on the west coast), although this appears to be a gas-engine copy.

Built in the U.S., the economy-minded Rabbit pickup sold an impressive 37,392 copies in 1981, a year in which gasoline prices rose to an all-time high of $1.35/gallon, $3.51 in 2016 dollars. The Rabbit pickup's payload was a respectable 1,103 pounds. Unfortunately, VW's American plant closed in 1984. This resulted in all the tool and die equipment used to build American Rabbits being shipped to South Africa, where VW produced the original Mark I Golf-Rabbit as a pickup until 2007 and as a car until 2009.

Tweet

1981 Ford Courier pickup

Ford sold the Mazda B-Series pickup between 1971 and 1982 before introducing the US-built Ford Ranger in 1983. Like every other domestic automaker, Ford has now decided that America doesn't need a compact pickup and has killed the popular Ranger, but that's another story.

One of the interesting phenomena of west coast vehicles is how often you see a car or truck that's been parked outside for decades but still looks practically new. It's also interesting that at one time in America, yellow with brown and orange stripes was considered a tasteful color scheme.

Hopefully I'll spot a rotary-engine Mazda pickup some day, but I'm not counting on it.

Tweet