October Auto Spotter

[G. David Felt]

2 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

w00t! I got a Camaro convertible for my rental car here in Texas. 

Pictures Please!!!

[USA-1]

9 hours ago, balthazar said:

Hot.

Nice patina too

3 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

w00t! I got a Camaro convertible for my rental car here in Texas. 

Go get some!

[Robert Hall]

Going out for taco Tuesday dinner earlier, saw out of the corner of my eye a black w/ white top '56 Thunderbird down the next street over as I drove past...alas, it was gone when I came home later. 

I did stop and photograph this shoebox Ford 2 streets over....same house where I photographed a rusty one a few months ago...wonder if that chassis and debris are what's left of the rusty one.

[balthazar]

This showed up at my buddy's shop the other day, owner wants to get it running. Obviously has been in a garage; last registered in 1974, the odometer shows 56,xxx miles. Stovebolt 6, 3-spd manual and zero rot.

[ocnblu]

I love that 2-door sedan roofline.

[balthazar]

I've heard it nicknamed 'batwing' by more than one source.
I prefer the bubbletop, of course, plus this has a B-Pillar.  ?

[Robert Hall]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

I've heard it nicknamed 'batwing' by more than one source.
I prefer the bubbletop, of course, plus this has a B-Pillar.  ?

Or flattop... the flattop would have made in interesting alternate 2dr ht roofline.   It's similar to the '59-60 4dr ht roof.   'batwing' I've heard used to refer to the finned '59 and '60 Chevy rear ends...

Edited October 25, 2019 by Robert Hall

[Drew Dowdell]

13 hours ago, balthazar said:

This showed up at my buddy's shop the other day, owner wants to get it running. Obviously has been in a garage; last registered in 1974, the odometer shows 56,xxx miles. Stovebolt 6, 3-spd manual and zero rot.

I spy some rocket power....

[balthazar]

1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I spy some rocket power....

See page 2...

[ocnblu]

6 hours ago, balthazar said:

See page 2...

Paragraph six, third sentence.  Fourth bullet point.

[Robert Hall]

Sitting in a parking lot, I noticed a small black CUV one spot over from me that I didn’t recognize.  Wasn’t until I backed out and saw the tailgate badging that I realized it was the new Escape.  Didn’t realize they were out already. 

[balthazar]

Very clean 2nd gen Aurora :

[trinacriabob]

On 10/24/2019 at 9:40 PM, balthazar said:

This showed up at my buddy's shop the other day, owner wants to get it running. Obviously has been in a garage; last registered in 1974, the odometer shows 56,xxx miles. Stovebolt 6, 3-spd manual and zero rot.

I'm going to say 1961.  What was the pecking order in the full size models?  I believe there were 3 of them.  Two were the Impala and the Bel Air.  The third one might have been a Biscayne, since there was definitely a Biscayne at one time. 

(Interesting - one is a rich suburb of L.A.; the other (Key Biscayne) is a rich suburb of Miami.)

[balthazar]

^ Correct on all points above.
Biscayne was bottom rung, top Impala got triple tails.

[Drew Dowdell]

10 hours ago, balthazar said:

Very clean 2nd gen Aurora :

That's not just any second gen Aurora. That's a Final 500 Aurora. Mildly collectible. 

You can tell from the special purple paint that all of the final 500s got, the wheels, and the badge on the front fender. 

[balthazar]

^ I figured that badge was 'something special'.
- - - - -
Working a theme :

 

Wonder what's behind Door #1 & #2??  I vote for a '69 Mk III and a '57 Premier coupe.

Edited October 31, 2019 by balthazar

[trinacriabob]

On 10/30/2019 at 12:24 AM, balthazar said:

^ Correct on all points above.
Biscayne was bottom rung, top Impala got triple tails.

So, then, Bel Air was the mid-line model (by deductive reasoning).

I spotted a lot of cars a short while back.  I was in a state/region that would be considered Appalachia looking at fall colors.  There aren't enough words for the wonderful scenery.

At any rate, I saw lots and lots of cars.  Sometimes 7, 10, or 12 of them on ONE property alone. (Notables include the '68ish Mercury Cougar coupe with hide-away headlamps and the sequential blinking tail lamps as well as the '77 Monte Carlo coupe, perhaps the most garish of all Montes and which, as big as it was, had a true bench seat WITHOUT an armrest in the base model.)  And most of them weren't, or didn't appear to be, in working order.  I would have taken some photos but (1) I may have been driving on a two lane highway, and/or (2) I didn't want someone to come after me with a rifle.

Happy Halloween, folks.

[Drew Dowdell]

On 10/24/2019 at 9:40 PM, balthazar said:

This showed up at my buddy's shop the other day, owner wants to get it running. Obviously has been in a garage; last registered in 1974, the odometer shows 56,xxx miles. Stovebolt 6, 3-spd manual and zero rot.

What's the etymology of "stovebolt" for this engine? I know why nailheads are called nailheads... but why is this called a stovebolt?

[Robert Hall]

7 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

What's the etymology of "stovebolt" for this engine? I know why nailheads are called nailheads... but why is this called a stovebolt?

Without googling it, I believe it dates to the 1930s...something to do with the head bolts on the engine resembling bolts on old stoves..a distinctive design..

[USA-1]

11 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Without googling it, I believe it dates to the 1930s...something to do with the head bolts on the engine resembling bolts on old stoves..a distinctive design..

Yep, Robert is correct he gets a gold star for the day ? ??? https://www.enginelabs.com/news/mighty-chevrolet-stovebolt-six/

Some guy on a Velocity car series show (MT TV now) was trying to say it was actual stove bolts used to fasten the heads. Technically they'd have the chemistry in the steel to fight a high heat environment and that type of hardware was probably hard to come by for early auto manufacturing so you never know, the first ones in 1929 might have been!

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by USA-1

[trinacriabob]

@USA-1

Great link ... with a lot of history.

As good as GM V-6s are today, I did get to experience the odd-firing (Buick) variant back in the day ... and it was not pretty.  I'm sure the basic engine structure would go for the long haul but the timing chains would not.  I wonder how many of those V-6s of 1975-1977 vintage are still on the road today, even if with ridiculously low mileage.  I always look at the badging of the vehicle if I see one of these on the road.

The link lauds the Chevrolet in-line 6.  Our family had one.  I don't know what the moniker (not stovepipe, Fireball, Vortec) was for the 250 c.i., 1 bbl., L6 that was around in the '70s.  My dad had this engine in a base LeMans.  The sound was different than that of a GM V-8, that's for sure.  However, it seemed to be every bit as smooth and dynamically balanced.  My dad preferred Olds and Buick; however, this basic Pontiac was the most reliable car he had ever owned.

And, isn't it nirvana to look at an old inline 6 and be able to touch every spark plug ... with nothing in the way?

[Robert Hall]

I do like inline 6s.  Had really good experiences with 3 of them—Jeep 4.0, BMW 3.2 and Mercedes 3.0.   It’s nice to see them having a mini revival with Mercedes and others.  I’d love to see a new inline 6 from FCA for future Jeeps.  
 

I think my folks had at least one car with an inline 6 before I was born...an early 60s Ford Fairlane wagon when my older siblings were kids. 

Edited November 1, 2019 by Robert Hall

[USA-1]

41 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

@USA-1

Great link ... with a lot of history.

As good as GM V-6s are today, I did get to experience the odd-firing (Buick) variant back in the day ... and it was not pretty.  I'm sure the basic engine structure would go for the long haul but the timing chains would not.  I wonder how many of those V-6s of 1975-1977 vintage are still on the road today, even if with ridiculously low mileage.  I always look at the badging of the vehicle if I see one of these on the road.

The link lauds the Chevrolet in-line 6.  Our family had one.  I don't know what the moniker (not stovepipe, Fireball, Vortec) was for the 250 c.i., 1 bbl., L6 that was around in the '70s.  My dad had this engine in a base LeMans.  The sound was different than that of a GM V-8, that's for sure.  However, it seemed to be every bit as smooth and dynamically balanced.  My dad preferred Olds and Buick; however, this basic Pontiac was the most reliable car he had ever owned.

And, isn't it nirvana to look at an old inline 6 and be able to touch every spark plug ... with nothing in the way?

Thanks, although the article is wrong about GM V8's all being assembled in Mexico. The GM Tonawanda powertrain plant in NY has been assembling the V8's for some time and they have the contract for the 2019 5.3L and 6.2L engines. It's a pretty high tech. plant too. ???? 

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/05/2019-silverado-v8-engines-gm-selects-tonawanda-plant-to-produce-5-3l-and-6-2l-mills/

Edited November 1, 2019 by USA-1

[trinacriabob]

Since this was fall color season, I am behind the 8 ball in posting some sightings from that time.

Here's a Subaru (cough) of sorts on some side street in an eastern city.  It kind of reminds me of the old Subaru Brat, which I thought looked like a bathtub on wheels back in the day.

 

[riviera74]

4 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Since this was fall color season, I am behind the 8 ball in posting some sightings from that time.

Here's a Subaru (cough) of sorts on some side street in an eastern city.  It kind of reminds me of the old Subaru Brat, which I thought looked like a bathtub on wheels back in the day.

 

That is a Subaru Baja, the spiritual successor to the original BRAT from the 1970s.  Produced between 2003-2006.

[trinacriabob]

And here's one more.  This is the '82 to '8? Pontiac Firebird.  It didn't say how much they wanted.  Or if it ran.  Wasn't this platform the most troubled of any generation of Firebird?  I know that a rare few came with an Iron Duke 4 and that some came with a 2.8 V6?  That was nothing to brag about.  However, I definitely took notice of this nicely maintained '80s Firebird amidst the fall foliage.

3 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

That is a Subaru Baja, the spiritual successor to the original BRAT from the 1970s.  Produced between 2003-2006.

Ha.  Both 4 letter B words.

Edited July 17, 2020 by trinacriabob

[Robert Hall]

8 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

And here's one more.  This is the '82 to '8? Pontiac Firebird.  It didn't say how much they wanted.  Or if it ran.  Wasn't this platform the most troubled of any generation of Firebird?  I know that a rare few came with an Iron Duke 4 and that some came with a 2.8 V6?  That was nothing to brag about.  However, I definitely took notice of this nicely maintained '80s Firebird amidst the fall foliage.

 

With those rub strips on the front fascia, I'd say it a base trim '86-90.   Interesting how it's parked up on a raised platform...car dealer? 

[trinacriabob]

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

With those rub strips on the front fascia, I'd say it a base trim '86-90.   Interesting how it's parked up on a raised platform...car dealer? 

Used car dealer, IIRC.  I like the alloys on the front wheels.  I don't even know how to describe that color.  As for the engine, I don't know which engine it had.  I remember that, if they had a 4 cyl., they inscribed it on the door handles for a couple of MYs ?!?

[Robert Hall]

12 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Used car dealer, IIRC.  I like the alloys on the front wheels.  I don't even know how to describe that color.  As for the engine, I don't know which engine it had.  I remember that, if they had a 4 cyl., they inscribed it on the door handles for a couple of MYs ?!?

That detail I don't remember...the color reminds of Firethorn. I think they dropped the 4 after '85...late 80s-early 90s a 2.8 V6 was the base engine IIRC.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Robert Hall