Hemmings Classic Car December 2021

A few years before the muscle car era officially kicked off, the Big Three auto manufacturers in Detroit were already competing in the horsepower wars. The full-size cars of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s brought along large-displacement engines that rocked the automotive world with stout compression ratios, solid-lift camshafts and multiple carburetors. The example shown here is a 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air, which is actually one of Chevy’s lower trim models, compared to the highly-optioned Impala. These stripped-down cars were often equipped with six-cylinder engines, but a select few left the factory with Chevrolet’s top-performing engine, the illustrious 409. This beautifully restored 1962 Bel Air bubbletop features a set of 14-inch OE steel wheels, which are painted body color and equipped with original dog dish caps. The tires come…

“By the time I was old enough to be conscious of popular music and cars, both the Beatles and the Mustang felt like very familiar elements…” I was watching a documentary on the Beatles recently and it made me realize that I’ve been hearing their music for my entire life. It’s quite possible one of their songs may even have played on the car radio as my parents drove home from the hospital after I was born, given that it was New York City during the late ’60s; in that time and place, the sounds of the Fab Four were somewhat ubiquitous. In a sort of similar way, I’ve been seeing Ford Mustangs my whole life—something else that was introduced to America in 1964 and an integral part of the…

New AACA National Headquarters Opens THE BRAND-NEW AACA NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS AND LIBRARY RESEARCH CENTER in Hershey, Pennsylvania, has officially opened its doors to members and the public. After years of planning and construction, the new facility includes club records, memorabilia, trophies, merchandise, donated cars, and more. AACA Speedster Editor Stacy Zimmerman said, “I think it would be safe to say that this project has been a labor of love for everyone involved. I also think it would be safe to say that this building—your new National HQ—is something to be extremely proud of. This building will represent our beloved club and this amazing hobby for the foreseeable future and beyond. It is the beacon that will call you home to Hershey every October. It will be looked at by other…

Namor’s Ford SOMEWHERE DOWN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE THAMES RIVER NEAR CHATHAM, ONTARIO, LAY A CAR. NO BODIES IN IT, NO SORT OF FOUL PLAY, JUST a car that had fallen in around 1965, after a young man driving on the river’s embankments rolled it into the water. The property owner hadn’t even considered recovering the car from the river—it was just an old used car, nothing special, he thought—until the township officials ordered him to do so. Frank Hawkes owned a towing company and had become known in the area for underwater recoveries. Only when he finished dragging the car out and flipped it onto all four wheels did he discover that he’d hooked a 1936 Ford cabriolet with rumble seat, one of 4,616 cabriolets that Ford built…

Spray and Play TP TOOLS & EQUIPMENT • 800-321-9260 TPTOOLS.COM/HCC • $399 If you’re looking for a professional spray gun that will save time, TP Tools’ new kits will deliver top results. The gun is easy to use, weighs only 13.3 ounces, and has high transfer efficiency, a large fan pattern, and smooth trigger pull. The kit features an integrated system that uses quick-change replaceable atomizing heads, and also includes a disposable cup arrangement to allow for faster cleanup, paint changeovers, and improved cycle times. The quick-change atomizing heads come in different sizes, allowing for use of automotive finish coats, solids, pearls, metallics, and clearcoats. Larger atomizing heads are available separately for sealers and primers. Each gun requires 13 cfm @20 psi and a ¼-inch air inlet at 145 psi…

EMAIL YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS TO: tmcgean@hemmings.com I ENJOYED THE BUYER’S GUIDE article on the Chrysler 300F and 300G in the October issue. Although I have never actually owned one, these cars have long been a favorite of mine and I’ve learned quite a bit about them over the past 49 years of owning Chrysler products from the “Forward Look” era. Since 1974, I’ve never been without a Forward Look Mopar. There were a couple of minor errors in the article: The transmission in both the F and G was a TorqueFlite A-466 cast-iron unit. The A-727, a completely redesigned unit in an aluminum case, didn’t come out until 1962. Also, power windows were standard equipment in both the F and G. Alternators also were standard equipment by 1961 in…