Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i Hemmings Classic Car

Argentine Dream SOMEWHERE EAST OF COLBY, KANSAS, WHERE THE FARM ROADS ARE NUMBERED AS WELL AS lettered, a family of three stopped for lunch at a small café and posed for a couple of pictures. Altogether a fairly typical scene, save for the fact that they drove from Argentina and likely had more than the American heartland to see before they headed back. Other than the make of the family’s car (a Lincoln), the details of the family’s trip — their itinerary, the time period, even their names — are lost to history. The photos, however, remain, but even their provenance is murky. All Jim Meister of St. Joseph, Michigan, could tell us was that a friend gave them to him many years ago. The backs of the photos give…

Turbine Tribute 913 - 268 - 993 WWW.DESIGNFACTORYART.COM  • $40 Few automakers have been as daring as Chrysler has been at various times in its history, and one of this Detroit firm’s most famous experiments of the mid-1960s was the Turbine car. A four-wheeled symbol of the jet age powered by Chrysler’s fourth-generation A-831 turbine, this Carrozzeria Ghia-bodied coupe caught the country’s attention. A total of 55 examples — each painted metallic bronze — were built, with 50 of them designated as test vehicles that were loaned to 203 American drivers between 1963 and 1966; all but nine were eventually destroyed. Noted designer and artist Jim Gerdom has created a beautiful rendition (item DF-9824) of the 1964 Chrysler Turbine, and is selling 1,000 signed and numbered prints of…

The last letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega, translates as “great O.” Arriving for 1973, Oldsmobile’s Omega was one of General Motors’ compact cars that satisfied the “N-O-V-A” acronym of Nova, Omega, Ventura, and Apollo. Given its upscale appointments, and the fact it was an Oldsmobile, the Omega was the “great O” of the X-body quadruplets. Offered in two-door coupe or hatchback, or four-door town sedan, the 111-inch-wheelbase compact was equipped with the standard Chevrolet 250-cu.in. straight-six or the optional Oldsmobile 350-cu.in. V-8. All told, more than 60,000 Omegas were produced that first year. Minor styling updates came for the 1974 model year, and a sporty S package for two-door Omegas was added to the options list. With the country in the throes of the OPEC oil embargo, and the…

Working with John was amazing. He immediately realized [the Playboy’s] place in history, its significance to our family, and that the car was truly special in so many other ways. John treated it like that from the moment it arrived in his shop. He was a one-man show and did it all, but John guided us through each step, making sure to point out things that I never realized when I first bought the car. You could see the dents, and all the cutouts for things like the headlamps and the optional radio in the dash, but I missed other aspects, like the parts of the unit-body chassis that were never finished, the cowl aside. He had all this passion and excitement for the car, and it showed in everything…

I APPLIED TO CHRYSLER IN JUNE 1970, right after graduation from high school, and was hired at Jefferson Assembly around the second week of July. At the time, Chrysler was hiring a lot, but I did not know they laid off all the hires 59 days later, before the 60 days when you became a union member. We built the 1970 Newport and Imperial there at the time, but my focus was the Imperial. Jefferson Chassis Assembly area was on the west side of Jefferson Avenue. When completed, engines, chassis, and bodies with dashboards and radios crossed over Jefferson via a covered bridge to the trim shop on the east side of Jefferson. If you drove an American car, you could park across the street from the west chassis plant;…

National Corvette Museum Wish List THE NCM IN BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY, IS ALL ABOUT THE CORVETTE — FROM ITS inception to the current-year models. To bolster its collection and enhance the visitor’s experience, the museum is asking for vehicle donations. In addition to Corvettes, NCM is looking for cars that have significant ties to the Corvette. There is currently an example of each ’Vette generation available for viewing, but the ultimate goal is to have an example of each year plus Corvette-powered Bizzarrinis, and Iso Grifos and Rivoltas. Even some of the competitors to the Corvette, such as the Thunderbird and Viper, would be valuable additions to the museum’s display. The older gaps at press time include the yeas 1955, 1960-’61, 1964-’65, and 1970. For the full list of desired…

Huge Hudson Haul ELDON HOSTETLER’S LIFELONG COLLECTION OF HUDSONS WAS SOLD earlier this month after the Hostetler Hudson Museum based in Shipshewana, Indiana, was forced to close down due to decreased attendance and rising debts. Worldwide Auctioneers had 69 vehicles cross the block featuring every kind of Hudson you could think of. Final sales reached $7.2 million with an additional $300,000 in memorabilia. The big sale of the day was Herb Thomas’ 1952 Hudson Club Coupe NASCAR stock car, which sold for a Hudson record-setting $1.27 million. The car served as Thomas’ primary race car in 1952 and 1953. He finished second in 1952 only 106 points behind winner Tim Flock, and returned to win it all comfortably in ’53 for his second NASCAR Championship. A full list of results…

Bowtie Bits THE FILLING STATION • 800-841-6622 WWW.FILLINGSTATION.COM  • $179.50 The Filling Station specializes in Chevrolet and GMC replacement parts, and it has announced new water pumps that have been cast from the originals. The pumps are made like the originals, but the bushings have been removed and sealed bearings added. Each pump is made to accept the original grease cup fitting, but will not need greasing or oiling, making this a no-maintenance pump. Two types are available: for 1929-’31 cars and trucks and 1932-’34 models. New Jacks HARBOR FREIGHT TOOLS • 800-423-2567 • WWW.HARBORFREIGHT.COM $119.99 (3-TON HEAVY DUTY); $129.99 (3-TON LOW PROFILE); $179.99 (4-TON HEAVY DUTY); $189.99 (3-TON LOW PROFILE); $199.99 (3-TON SUPER DUTY) Daytona Jacks are available at Harbor Freight with a new lineup of 3- and 4-ton steel jacks that…

Life, it is said, is what happens while you’re making other plans. As late as mid-1956, the 1959 model year was supposed to be a season of carryovers and facelifts for just about every American car company, lacking anything new or newsworthy. It wasn’t for Detroit’s engineers and stylists being lazy; it was the calm before the storm of the new-for-1960 compacts went all-out against the imports and beat ’em back across the ocean. While gearing up for the dawn of a new decade, and the crucial new models that were intended to shape those years, Detroit was also prepping to say goodbye to an era. Model year 1959 was the last year that things stayed simple, when volume car companies (other than Ford and Chevrolet, which had specialty cars…

I ordered the car with deluxe wheel covers, but changed to 14 x 6 Super Stock wheels. They were supposed to be body color, so I painted them gold. I noticed over the years that the paint wore off on the decklid of other cars like mine due to people slamming the decklid with their hands on it, and also by key scratches, so I decided to add a handle from a Datsun F-10 hatchback to the decklid. The mechanicals, including the exhaust system, are still in great shape. I would love to cosmetically restore my Omega, but the cost of paint alone is more than the worth of the car.…

Since the October 2004 debut of Hemmings Classic Car, a section of this magazine has been dedicated solely to vintage vehicle restorations. More than 140, in fact, spanning all species of the hobby: from Full Classics to economical compacts, stately sedans to fire apparatus. Despite the diversity of subject matter, there are several commonalities shared among these profiles: time, energy, budget, and of course the basic process that has returned each subject vehicle to as-new or better-than-new glory. We’ve had the privilege of talking to those who have experience in this field of work — from novices to experts — all of whom were willing to share what they’ve learned while undertaking what are sometimes epic efforts. As this publication enters its 15th year of circulation, let’s briefly review some…

From its origins in the 1890s, the automobile rapidly advanced from self-propelled vehicle with clear equine origins to something even the most uninformed modern observer would recognize as self-propelled: High points included pneumatic tires, the steering wheel, and the front engine with a recognizable hood (some cars even adopted hoods before they adopted front engines — simply because it was required by public taste). In the autumn of 1908, Ford Motor Company produced its first Model T, which was a car very much in the mainstream of styling at the time. This provides a good baseline, then, for comparison with the 1910 Sears Model P Business/ Pleasure Car (which everyone just calls a Surrey, after the carriage it replicates) on these pages. This Sears resides in the collection of the…

As automotive collectors and historians, it’s important to be familiar with the wide variety of terms that have developed to refer to coachwork and body styles over the years. Pre-World War II terms can be especially problematic, as manufacturers, coachbuilders, journalists, and, later, collectors often used different terms to refer to the same things. We hope that the descriptions and period illustrations that we present here will clear up some of the mystery and confusion. Not every type of body style and design is addressed, and I am sure there will be readers who think “they didn’t mention such and such,” but we have tried to identify as many popular body styles as possible. Bear in mind, some manufacturers used names that differed from the common terminology for certain body…

CAR: 1958 BUICK SUPER RIVIERA AUCTIONEER: MECUM AUCTIONS LOCATION: HARRISBURG, PA DATE: AUGUST 2, 2018 LOT NUMBER: T6 RESERVE: NONE AVERAGE SELLING PRICE: $15,000 SELLING PRICE: $15,950 BUICK SAW A LOT OF CHANGES IN 1958,AS did everything else that was produced by General Motors. The vaunted ventiports were nowhere to be found, and the complete redesign was an attempt to revive sales for the fledgling Super line that was now reduced to just two body styles. With an excessive amount of ornamentation and chrome, the new Buicks were received with mixed reviews. This car was one of 28,460 four-door sedans produced that year. This Super Riviera was finished in two-tone mauve and white exterior and was powered by the 300-hp 364-cu.in. V-8 and Dynaflow automatic transmission. The car was largely…

When design and style giant Harley Earl retired from General Motors in 1958, he left a parting gift for generations to admire: the 1959 models. Longer, lower, and wider than previous efforts, the 1959 models from all of GM’s divisions proved a high-water mark for several years. From “flat-top” four-door hardtops with expansive wraparound backlites across all of the lines to the massive, era-defining fins on the Cadillacs, the final designs created under Earl’s aegis resound to this day. Fortunately, despite some similarities in scale, GM had the resources and market share in 1959 to create distinguishing features for each division. While the designers took Cadillac on the high route — literally — with its tall tailfins, the guys who penned the Chevrolets went in the other direction, not 180…

RICHARD, WHAT A RICH TREASURE you’ve discovered at the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage. Please continue mining Nicola Bulgari’s impeccable collection in order to bring them before the eyes of grateful HCC readers. I believe that I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Bulgari’s 1940 Nash Ambassador Eight convertible coupe in the unrestored state at Hershey in October 2013. That’s the year that Hershey was inundated with 10 inches of rain over three days. The Nash looked incredibly downtrodden at the time, with a tarp and its sagging convertible top doing their best to keep several gallons of water from inundating the car’s interior. It was a heartwarming relief to see the car in its beautifully restored condition in HCC #168. I’m left to wonder what it looks like…

Within the first few weeks of 1949, the Playboy Motor Car Corporation’s assembly line was shut down. Despite best efforts of company founder Louis Horwitz (HCC #127) and his closest colleagues, attempts at raising funds intended to propel the company into full-scale automobile production had been thwarted by the nervous atmosphere surrounding the investigation of another start-up company: Tucker Corporation. Sitting on the Tonawanda, New York, plant floor was car #102. It was, like its 94 predecessors (the prototype and two station wagons excluded), a compact car, one designed to be a “second car” for America’s growing families that would have been affordable to buy, easy to work on, and economical to operate. Capable of accommodating three people, the Playboy’s other selling point was its folding hardtop: a two-piece roof…

The rolling hills surrounding Pittsburgh came alive July 23-28 with the unmistakable six-cylinder sound of Corvairs. Chevrolet’s air-cooled marvels gathered together to take part in the CORSA club’s national convention, its 48th year. With well over 100 Corvairs in attendance, plus several dozen competition-prepared cars that took part in the road-racing competition, there was an endless array of things for everyone to see and do. During this six-day convention there was an autocross, concours, rally, Funkhana, economy run, numerous tech sessions, valve-cover races for the kids, and several excursions in and around the city of Pittsburgh. There was even a movie night, and with PNC Park within earshot of the convention site, on Thursday evening, participants were able to take in a Pirates vs. Mets baseball game. On Monday, at…

In April of 1954, Briggs Swift Cunningham II graced the cover of Time magazine, a position normally reserved for the likes of a Roosevelt or a Rockefeller. Cunningham’s impact on the racing scene in postwar America, and Europe, too, cannot be overstated. His team’s professionalism, preparation, and thoroughness ushered in a new era in motorsport. Born in 1907 to a very wealthy Cincinnati industrialist, Cunningham chose many competitive pursuits, gaining fame racing cars and boats, in addition to having been a skilled golfer and tennis player as a younger man while attending Yale. By his 1954 Time cover appearance, he had also established himself in the automobile business, producing Italian-bodied, Hemi-powered grand tourers and dedicated sports racers in Florida. Cunningham married his first wife, Lucie Bedford, the daughter of a…

I WAS RAISED IN THE SIXTIES IN A sleepy little central Mississippi town called Crystal Springs. My mother, sister, and I moved there from Texas in 1957 after the death of my father in a car accident that year. Crystal Springs was my mother’s hometown, and she had a sister and brother there. It was a wonderful place to grow up. I was much interested in automobiles and the muscle-car era of that time. In 1963, my mother told me that I needed to “get to work” and she had some ideas about how to go about doing just that. The grass grew good in Crystal Springs and Mama knew folks would pay to have their grass cut, so we went to our small hometown bank and talked with a…