Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Hemmings Classic Car

DAN BARKER RECENTLY SHARED SOME PHOTOS OF AN UNUSUAL homebuilt trike that his friend, Joel Munger of Oxnard, California, recently restored. While most Seventies and Eighties trikes simply made do with a fiberglass body bought out of the back of a kit car magazine or Popular Mechanics, this one’s a bit different. According to a newspaper clipping that Barker also sent, Munger’s trike was the work of a tinkerer named Ace Allen from Carpinteria, California. Allen, a traveling mechanic for local ranches, spent his free time scouring Southern California aircraft wrecking yards in search of old airplane parts with which to make his creations—11 of them by the time of the article, apparently. The trike reportedly used some of the fuselage and tail section from a Piper Aztec E (possibly…

SPECIFICATIONS WHAT TO PAY LOW $3,900 - $11,000 AVERAGE $12,000 - $24,000 HIGH $25,000 - $32,000 PRICE BASE PRICE $1,830 OPTIONS Powerglide automatic transmission; radio; heater; white-sidewall tires; reversing lamps; directional signals; bird-type hood ornament; radio antenna; no-mar fuel-door trim ENGINE TYPE Chevrolet Blue Flame overhead-valve straight-six, cast-iron block and cylinder head DISPLACEMENT 235 cubic inches BORE X STROKE 3-9/16 x 3-15/16 inches COMPRESSION RATIO 7.5:1 HORSEPOWER @ RPM 125 @ 4,000 TORQUE @ RPM 200 lb-ft @ 2,000 VALVETRAIN Hydraulic lifters MAIN BEARINGS Four FUEL SYSTEM Single Rochester Model B one-barrel carburetor; mechanical pump LUBRICATION SYSTEM Full pressure ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Delco-Remy 6-volt, negative ground EXHAUST SYSTEM Fenton dual manifold and pipes; glass-pack mufflers (orig. single manifold, pipe, and muffler) TRANSMISSION TYPE Powerglide two-speed, torque-convertor automatic RATIOS 1st/1.82:1 2nd/1.00:1 Reverse/1.82:1…

Anyone interested in the old-car hobby knows well that we all have our preferences: groups of enthusiasts are dedicated to various niches, some based on era, some on manufacturer, others focusing on the vehicle’s intended purpose. You never know when circumstances will arise to introduce us to something special from another realm of the hobby, or what sort of lasting effect that discovery may have. Everett Kirchmer was one such veteran enthusiast. The New Jersey native had a deeply rooted preference for late-Fifties styling, particularly the design executed by Chevrolet on its line of 1958 passenger cars. But that didn’t seem to faze his pastor in 1984. “He was retiring and knew that I was ‘interested’ in old cars, so he called me over to his house one night, opened…

It was the 1970s, and the light-duty American pickup was transforming into something far beyond the dented, dusty workhorse that had defined its social status since the first cargo bed was haphazardly bolted to a car frame. Arguably started when Chevrolet first introduced its decidedly upmarket Cameo in the late 1950s, pickups had gradually made their way to a new level of comfort and appointments ever since. By the decade’s midpoint, the Big Three had transformed their trucks into cruisers that were more about ponying up profits than packing in a payload. Ford had the Lariat option package for its F-Series, and a C-K pickup from Chevrolet could be had as a Cheyenne (or from GMC, as a High Sierra). Order one of these trucks and you received all of…

HEMMINGS AUCTIONS IS OUR LIVE, ONLINE AUCTION SITE STAFFED BY customer service professionals ready to help bidders and sellers with any questions. A wide variety of classic and specialty vehicles from all eras are up for bid. Auctions run for two weeks, and qualified bidders place their bids electronically. Once a vehicle is accepted into the auction, the seller pays only a $99.95 listing fee. The winning bidder is responsible for a 5-percent fee on all completed auctions. The following are examples of auctions that transpired during the month leading up to press time. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, email Director of Auction Operations Terry Shea: terryshea@hemmings.com. 1936 CHRYSLER C9 AIRFLOW Reserve: $107,500 Selling Price: $112,875 Recent Market Range: N/A It took decades, but Chrysler’s Airflow is finally…

THE MEMBERS 1ST Gallery at the AACA Museum is proud to be displaying The Jenkins 1966 Volkswagen Type II Deluxe Station Wagon Microbus through the holiday season. The vehicle played an important role in U.S. civil rights history, with original owners and civil rights leaders Esau and Janie B. Jenkins using it for various causes. The Jenkins would transport children to school and workers to their jobs, plus it was a popular venue for teaching adult passengers how to read and write to facilitate their path to obtaining voter registration while en route. The Microbus gave a lift to some recognizable names among South Carolina civil rights leaders, including Septima Clark and Bernice Robinson. The Jenkinses also met with Martin Luther King, Jr. to further advance their cause. The motto…

Spit Bits MOSS MOTORS ● 800-667-7872 ● MOSSMOTORS.COM $349.99 (EACH, PAINTED) $449.99 (EACH, CHROME) Painted and chrome wire wheels are now available for the 1962-’80 Triumph Spitfire. The 60-spoke 13 x 4.5-inch tube-type wheels have a high resistance to corrosion and will brighten up your Spitfire’s appearance on the show field and in the street. The painted wheels are primer coated using e-coat or Cathodic Electrophoretic technology and the silver-grey paint and primer give the wheels increased resistance to salt spray: 840 hours’ worth, according to testing. The chrome wire wheels feature a rim and hub that are polished by machine, then hand polished by skilled manufacturers. Microporous nickel plating is done before the chrome plating to increase resistance from corrosion. Spokes and nipples are chrome-plated stainless steel for long-lasting…

Development on Detroit’s 1960 compacts started in mid-’57, ahead of the 1958 recession, but that year’s economic woes certainly helped justify Detroit’s decision to go small. The popularity of Renault, VW, and a scattering of British outliers, combined with a 31-percent year-to-year drop in domestic car sales, surely helped popularize the push for the compacts that were due in 1960. Thing was, Rambler was already there. The Nash Rambler (and its 100-inch wheelbase) was around from 1950-’55, and took a breather before AMC relaunched it as the Rambler American in 1958. When it returned, Rambler couldn’t have hit the growing compact-car-zeitgeist bullseye any harder than it did. A new marque forged from the ashes of Nash and Hudson, Rambler always stressed economy and value. Rambler’s three-model lineup from 1958 included…

Inventors and engineers had long been intrigued by the idea of front wheels driving a vehicle, imagined in the same manner as horse-drawn carts—in which horses pulled, rather than pushed—the advantages seemed obvious. Placing the weight of an engine over the drive wheels improved traction, while combining the engine, transmission, and final drive in one unit afforded a more compact chassis layout with improved space efficiency. Though simple in concept, the mechanism necessary to transmit power to the front wheels must also steer the vehicle, which perplexed early developers. Solutions were both complex and expensive. Meanwhile, having the engine power the rear wheels was uncomplicated, so pushing a vehicle, rather than pulling, became the norm for production motor vehicles. Credit for transferring front-wheel drive from theory to execution goes to…

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room right up front. Ed “Junior” Furman wanted to buy a new 425-hp, 396-cu.in. V-8, four-speed, 1965 Impala Super Sport with a Mist Blue exterior and white interior. Still in the Army and stationed in San Antonio, Texas, at the time, he planned out the entire purchase process to the last detail, yet he still didn’t receive the hi-po engine. He sent the money to his father, Ed Furman Sr., back home in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and asked him to place the order for the car at Marhefka Chevrolet in nearby Windber. While acting upon his son’s wishes, Ed ran into a roadblock when the dealer balked at processing the order with the hot engine. Mr. Marhefka reasoned that placing a 425-hp Impala Super…

WE’VE ALL SEEN PHOTOS OF THE WILD DOUBLE-DECKER GLASS-ENCASED CITROËN U55-BASED CITYRAMA SIGHTSEEING BUSES THAT PACKED THE streets of Paris in the late Fifties and Sixties. Or, for those of us who’ve seen Zazie dans la Metro, we’ve seen them in action. But exceedingly few people have actually seen one in person for a few decades—or, at least, they hadn’t until the last surviving Cityrama bus emerged from its long-term hiding place. YouTuber The Tim Traveler has been digging into the history of the sightseeing buses recently and, as a result, got to see the last remaining bus when it appeared at a car show in Normandy, France, apparently not far from its still-secret hiding place. (It later made an appearance at this year’s Le Mans Classic.) Much of the…

AFTER READING THE COLUMN BY Matthew Litwin, “How About Canadian Brands,” (HCC #214, July 2022), it brought back memories of my father’s 1965 Meteor Montcalm. It was a turquoise four-door with power windows, a 390, and I believe a four-venturi carburetor. At that time, my family lived in Drummondville, Quebec. Besides the Montcalm and the Rideau, there was the Rideau 500! Thank you for the memory—that was the car I learned to drive and received my driver’s license in. Serge Marcoux Richford, Vermont I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU HOW much I enjoy reading the I Was There feature. I hope submissions continue to come in. I just reread issue #77 (February 2011), in which the writer told of his observations at GM/Pontiac circa 1970. Remember “GM Mark of Excellence?”…

People like driving this car. We liked driving it. Odds are good that if you find yourself a ’53-’54 Chevy in the same shape, you too will enjoy driving it. There’s a reason, after all, that Chevrolet’s supposedly staid six-cylinder cars routinely sold in larger numbers than Ford’s excitingly V-8-powered ones and Plymouth’s outstandingly engineered offerings. They’ve got just the right mix of looks, power, convenience, and comfort that still works today. As evidence that folks enjoyed driving it, we offer that it was built new in 1953 or early ’54 in Tarrytown, New York, an assembly plant supplying the Northeast United States. We know it’s an early-production car because it has a lot of 1953-style elements on it, despite the overall appearance and serial number confirming that it’s a…

Chevrolet’s top models have long offered a lot for relatively little, even stepping on the toes of products from more premium GM brands. In the mid-1970s, the Caprice Classic shared many features with its Buick Centurion and Le Sabre Custom, Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale, and Pontiac Grand Ville Brougham B-body siblings, including a handsome open body style. That full size convertible would be the last of its kind for Chevrolet; nearly 50 years on, it has proven perennially desirable to enthusiasts from all walks of life. Notable updates in safety and tailpipe emissions regulations affected U.S.-market cars for 1973, a year when Chevy shuffled its model range. Prior to that point, it had offered convertibles in the small Corvette, midsize Chevelle, and full size Impala lines, but the soft-top Chevelle…

Thirty years ago, preserving or restoring a collector car required complete disassembly, prep of each part, and reassembly back to like new spec. The cars were simple, and the components primitive and plentiful. Fast forward to today, the complexity and lack of replacement parts create an entirely new challenge. The 70’s, 80’s and 90’s era cars collectors are chasing today utilize complex electromechanical systems that require a completely new approach. Plastic materials, delicate computer modules and special coatings from these eras will not survive the harsh chemicals and cleaning methods used in the past, not to mention the current desire to preserve these artifacts instead of taking them apart risking witness marks and/or damage in the process. How will we clean, preserve, and protect these collectibles? Fortunately, preservation technology and…