Hemmings Classic Car February 2023

“I was heartened to find so many vintage vehicles still running and reasonably attainable.” Winter tends to come on somewhat suddenly up here in Vermont—one day it’s a gorgeous “Indian summer” with autumn colors and light jackets and a few days later you’re scraping the windshield under a gray morning sky. Needless to say, the cool cars get tucked away quickly at that point, if you’re the sort who tries to make use every bit of the “good” weather. I had my ’67 Camaro out just a week or so ago as this is written and didn’t even need to slide the heater control over to “warm.” It snowed last night, so that ride was probably the last bit of vintage motoring I’ll get in before spring. But it’s exactly…

AACA 2023 Calendar THE ANTIQUE AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF AMERICA HAS RELEASED ITS 2023 SCHEDULE of national meets, tours, and conventions to take place around the country and Canada where the AACA Ontario Region will host the Founders Tour. For the uninitiated, the 87-year-old club focuses on preserving, restoring, and maintaining automobiles and automotive history. The Annual Convention features a trade show, seminars, and an awards banquet, while the tours are a great opportunity for owners to enjoy their vehicles along scenic and historic highways. The meets feature car shows, car corrals, swap meets, and tens of thousands of like-minded hobbyists and enthusiasts to exchange their knowledge and love of cars. The 2023 gatherings are as follows: January 26-28: MiamiFlorida February 9-11: WilliamsburgVirginia March 18: VeroBeachFlorida April 13-15: CharlotteMotorSpeedwayConcord, North Carolina April…

Bu-Bulance ROBERT MILENKOFF SAID HE WAS DRIVING NEW YORK ROUTE 104 OUTSIDE OF ROCHESTER A FEW YEARS BACK WHEN HE CAME ACROSS A 1940 Buick fire truck for sale and had to stop to take some photos. “The large hood is what caught my eye and I came to the conclusion that it was most likely an ambulance,” Robert writes. He then confirmed his suspicions afterward with a look through George Dammann’s Seventy Years of Buick, which noted that Flxible constructed ambulances on Buick chassis that matched the one that he saw. The one he spotted outside Rochester is long gone, but it does bring to mind another Flxible-built Buick we discussed a few years back (see HCC #160 and #162). That one, which started out as a later flower car,…

Dart Grilles CLASSIC INDUSTRIES • 800-854-1280 CLASSICINDUSTRIES.COM• $399.99 Brighten up your 1973-’74 Dodge Dart with a new reproduction grille. Each is manufactured in injection-molded ABS, complemented with silver accents, just like the ones that were installed at the factory. Further authenticity is built-in with the Pentastar markings in the correct spots as well as spacing for the parking-lamp lenses. These will fit all Dart variants from the base models to the Swinger. The lower grille molding is sold separately. Inquire about p/n 3691476 for more details. 1954 Buick Skylark AUTOMODELLO • 888-212-5160 • AUTOMODELLO.COM $299.95 (ENCOMIUM EDITION); $249.95 (STANDARD EDITION) When Buick’s flagship Skylark convertible returned for its sophomore season in 1954, the glamorous drop-top wore sportier styling and more chrome trim. This low-production two-door inspired a new premium collectible…

YOU DISPLAYED SOME VERY OUT-standing photographs of a 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door sedan in HCC #217—well done! I enjoyed the work of David Conwill as well; it’s a tale worth reading again and again. I owned a ’54 Chevrolet Bel Air purchased from a sweet, little old lady in Newport, Rhode Island, back in 1968. She had kept the car pristine, and it was just like the one featured. I hope to see Matthew and David working as a team again soon. Thank you both! Thomas Barlow Manchester, Connecticut I ENJOYED JIM RICHARDSON’S column in which he reveals his ideas about tackling a restoration the right way (HCC #217). My brother and I have restored vehicles over the years, including most recently a 1997 Dodge featuring a Cummins 12-valve…

“I turn to the pages of this title, where I briefly live vicariously through the adventures of fellow enthusiasts.” Monty Python sang “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” at the end of the comedic troupe’s controversial film, The Life of Brian. Ignoring the politics of church and state within the movie for a moment, if you took the song at face value—applying it to whatever happens during one’s day—the outlandish lyrics make some sense. Especially for those of us in the northern climate anticipating the season’s first storm system… of the frozen variety. The days of driving cherished vintage rides are officially suspended. Probably for the next six months. What’s one to do? Admittedly, winter weather driving can be entertaining. I honed my own car control skills courtesy…