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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1971 Ford F100 Pickup Truck

The Ford F100 with a straight 6 engine and a three-on-the-tree transmission was as basic as a truck could be. The only factory option I see here are the upgraded side mirrors. There's a Ford from the 70s on just about every block in Seattle, but this one is particularly nicely restored.

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1955 Chevrolet Pickup Truck

Known as the 3100 and as the Task Force, this was GM's first new pickup since 1947. V-8 engine, 12-volt electrical system and all kinds of other new stuff. Note the wrap-around glass on the front and the back of the cab; GM was very proud of being the king of glass technology. This truck was introduced in March of 1955; for the first half of the model year, Chevy and GMC were still selling the old Chevrolet Advance-Design Series truck.

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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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1952 GMC Advanced-Design Series Pickup truck

Sold at GM dealerships in towns without a Chevy dealer, the GMC at this time didn't really have a model number. It was just the "General Motors Truck". This series was built from the spring of 1947 to the spring of 1955, and it's virtually impossible to tell the earliest and latest trucks apart. The Chevy version got a new grill in 1954, but the GMC did not. A chrome grill was a option on this truck. It could also be ordered with a black or white grill or one color-matched to the body.

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1941 Chevrolet Pickup Truck

The 1947-1955 Chevys are better known, but this one is my favorite.

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1961 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Rampside Pickup

Too many people either love or hate Chevy Corvair cars for them to ever be forgotten, but Corvair trucks and vans have mostly faded from memory. These odd vehicles got pretty good reviews from the car magazines, and copies in good condition command high prices today.

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1973 Toyota Corona Mark 2 pickup

Another right-hand drive import.

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1949 Chevrolet 3100 pickup truck

This is our third example of the 1947-55 Chevy Advanced Design Series pickup. Click to see the 1950 5-window we spotted last fall, and this rare 1955 made only during the first half of that model year.

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1956 Ford F-350 pickup truck

Makes the F-250 I spotted last fall look small.

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1954 International (IHC) R-120 pickup truck

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1966 International (IHC) 1100 pickup truck

There are a lot of IHC vehicles running around Seattle. Old IHCs seems to be extremely rust-prone, but that's less of a problem out here on the coast. IHC stopped making pickups in 1975, and stopped making the Scout SUV in 1980. Too bad - they halted production of consumer vehicles just when pickup trucks and and SUVs were becoming more popular. In the mid-2000s International actually tried selling its big commercial trucks to consumers, but the Great Recession killed that plan the same way it killed Hummer.






























   

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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.

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1955 Chevrolet 3100 Series 1 pickup truck

We've already spotted one copy of the Chevrolet Advance-Design Series pickup truck, made between 1947 and 1955. The truck pictured is interesting because it's a (comparatively) rare 1955, made only until March of that year, when Chevy introduced a completely new truck.

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1963 Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter flatbed pickup

You might not associate political controversy with old Volkswagens, but there's a reason why there are many VW microbuses built between the 1970s and the 2000s on American roads, but the only air-cooled VW trucks you see date from the mid-60s or earlier.

From Wikipedia:

"Certain models of the Volkswagen Type 2 played a role in a historic episode during the early 1960s, known as the Chicken War. France and West Germany had placed tariffs on imports of U.S. chicken. Diplomacy failed, and in January 1964, two months after taking office, President Johnson imposed a 25% tax (almost ten times the average U.S. tariff) on potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and light trucks. Officially, the tax targeted items imported from Europe as approximating the value of lost American chicken sales to Europe.

In retrospect, audio tapes from the Johnson White House, revealed a quid pro quo unrelated to chicken. In January 1964, President Johnson attempted to convince United Auto Workers' president Walter Reuther not to initiate a strike just before the 1964 election, and to support the president's civil rights platform. Reuther, in turn, wanted Johnson to respond to Volkswagen's increased shipments to the United States.

The Chicken Tax directly curtailed importation of German-built Type 2s in configurations that qualified them as light trucks – that is, commercial vans (panel vans) and pickups. In 1964, U.S. imports of automobile trucks from West Germany declined to a value of $5.7 million – about one-third the value imported in the previous year."

The Chicken Tax is still around. Ford has been importing its Transit Connect vans from Turkey in passenger vehicle configuration to get around the tax, then ripping out the extra seats to put the vans into cargo configuration.

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1950 Ford F-1 pickup truck

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