Yvonne DeCarlo Lilly Munster and One Sweet Barris Ride
Posted by rariccardi in Kustoms, TV Cars on February 1, 2010
Yvonne DeCarlo became famous from her roll as Lilly Munster in the TV series, The Munsters. The series only ran for two years and spawned two movies, but the role of the sweet, yet sensible vampiress Lily introduced Yvonne to a new, younger audience and reignited her career.
Yvonne Decarlo With Munster Car
Not entirely unrecognizable from her full-tilt glam studio days, Yvonne wore green makeup and a long, black fright wig with a silver streak as the wife of Frankenstein’s monster-esque Herman Munster. In a way, (along with Carolyn Jones as Morticia on “The Addams Family,” which also ran from 1964-66) Yvonne De Carlo’s Lily may have helped to spawn early goth chic, introducing long black hair, flowing empire-waisted gowns, and bat necklaces to the mainstream public.
De Carlo’s Killer Ride
De Carlo relished the role, going so far as to have her black 1966 Jaguar sedan tricked out by Hollywood customizer George Barris with spiderweb hubcaps, gold coffin rails in place of a luggage rack, and coffin-shaped door handles. The pièce de résistance? The traditional Jaguar hood ornament was replaced with a brass wolf’s head with gleaming ruby eyes.
During the later years of her career, Yvonne used her Scream Queen status granted by “The Munsters” to propel her career towards a second wind in B-horror movies to help pay the bills. Quite often, she was cast in the role of a seemingly innocuous housewife. Lurking beneath the surface of her famous, sparkling gray eyes, Yvonne’s characters harbored a startlingly evil nature, capable of killing someone in cold blood.
Read the rest over at the Ghouls on Film blog.
The Car Room Magazine launches an all new web site
Posted by rariccardi in Car Shows, Events, Movie Cars, TV Cars on January 22, 2010
Watch The Car Room LIVE! Saturday night, 7:00pm ET on: The Car Room TV
By Jeff Glasson • January 21, 2010
The Car Room TV
Collectors now have an additional online resource for die-cast model information with the launch of the all new Car Room Magazine website. The site’s initial set of features offer information by scale and brand, a photo gallery, die-cast oriented videos and the ability to subscribe to the print version of magazine.
The site has launched with content that can be found in previous issues of the print magazine. Moving forward, collectors can expect to see a great deal of new information that goes beyond the printed page. In addition, a good deal of exciting new functionality is already in the works, and will be rolled out during the first half of the year.
This new site along with some “yet to be announced” surprises are just a part of what is looking to be a banner year for The Car Room Magazine.
An Afternoon at the Petersen Automotive Museum
Posted by rariccardi in Car Shows, Events, Kustoms on January 18, 2010
Mike Garrett over at SpeedHunters.com continues his tour of the Peterson Auto Museum in LA. See the rest of teh great phots he took over at SpeedHunters.
1967 Buick Gran Sport 400
Posted by rariccardi in Old Cars Weekly on January 18, 2010
Here is another great story by Brian Earnest over at Old Cars Weekly in their featured Car of the Week.
1967 Buick Gran Sport
Rick Rubis is a big believer in fate. In fact, he’s pretty sure that, like a woman, fate will change its mind every once in a while.
At least that seems to be the case for Rubis and his sweet 1967 Buick Gran Sport, who finally wound up together about 18 years ago after several near-misses. Three times Rubis tried to land himself a ’67 GS 400, and twice he missed out on chances to own the car he has now. But the two finally wound up together, and it’s been a happy marriage.
“I just figured it wasn’t meant to be,” said Rubis, of his earlier failings to buy a ’67. “I had sort of given up on it, but then things changed and maybe fate did mean for me to have it.”
Rubis had a new muscle car on his mind after he returned home from a tour of duty overseas in 1967, but he didn’t want to drive the same car that everybody else had. “Everybody seemed to get getting the Chevelle Super Sports and the GTOs at the time, but I like to be different,” said Rubis, a resident of Monroeville, Pa. “My dad and my uncle were both Buick guys, so when I spotted the first Buick Gran Sport on the street, I went to a dealer and investigated because nobody really had them.
“I actually wanted to order a ‘67 but wound up with a ‘66 4-speed car that had 12,000 miles on it. It was yellow with a black roof.”
Rubis, eventually swapped that car for a Super Bee, and then got into Corvettes. But he never gave up on the idea of getting another Gran Sport, and the next time around he hoped to finally find a ’67.
“I had that yellow and black one, so when I went out looking that’s what I was looking for,” he said. The closest thing he found was a solid-color Gold Mist hardtop in Pittsburgh that didn’t exactly blow him away.
1967 Buick Gran Sport 400
“When I first saw it didn’t have the black painted roof. It didn’t have red line tires on it. I wasn’t overly thrilled with the appearance, but I could tell it was a good solid car,” he said. “The seller was one of the guys that didn’t want people to know where the car was, so he met me in a section of Pittsburgh and I wound up making him an offer that he declined. I thought it wasn’t meant to be and that was the end of it.”
A year later, however, Rubis saw a newspaper ad for the same car. The Buick hadn’t sold, and the owner was again trying to find a buyer. “But I tossed the newspaper or lost it, or whatever, and I never got to call on it,” Rubis said.
“So finally, I had a friend who told me, ‘I have a brother-in-law who has a bunch of cars, and one of them is a ’67 GS. You should could go check it out.’ Turns out, the brother-in-law was the only guy that showed up to make an offer on the car I had gone and looked at, and he made the guy some ridiculous low-ball offer and the guy took it! So I wound up getting the car from my friend’s brother-in-law for $1,000 less than I had originally offered for it!”
1967 Buick Gran Sport 400
1967 was the first year that the GS 400 was in a series separate from regular Skylarks and Skylark GS 340s. The series included a coupe with a $2,956 base price, a two-door hardtop with a $3,019 sticker and a convertible that listed for $3,167. With 10,659 assemblies, the hardtop was the most popular. Only 1,014 coupes were made, along with only 2,140 ragtops.
A Gran Sport 340 was also offered in 1967 for those on a slightly tighter budget, or who were slightly less horsepower-crazed. The 340 was available only as a hardtop and was sort of viewed as the 400’s little sibling.
On the 400, special equipment included a hood with twin simulated air scoops, a rallye stripe, GS ornamentation, all-vinyl seating with foam-padded cushions, dual exhausts, White-Line wide oval tires and a heavy-duty suspension. Desirable options included the four-speed manual transmission for $184.31, limited-slip differential for $42.13, front power disc brakes for $147, a tachometer for $47.39, a full console for $57.93, a consolette for $36.86 and chrome-plated wheels for $90.58.
67 GS interior
Rubis’ car had about 35,000 miles on the odometer when he took the keys. He drove the car without doing much to it — aside from adding a vinyl top — “for the first 15 years or so,” but he has now turned the car into his vision of the ideal ’67 GS. The car has been repainted, given a new vinyl top, new headliner, seat covers and carpet. He kept the same gold paint color, but jazzed up the car’s appearance slightly with some aftermarket 17-inch Ion wheels and redlines from Diamond Back. “And we took the Buick wheel centers and jury-rigged them on the wheels so they fit. They aren’t original wheels, but they do fit with the car.”
Rubis also added a console around the car’s manual floor shift, and swapped in an aftermarket steering wheel. “It’s like a Corvette wheel. I put it on and I’m happy with it. The original wheel was cracked and needed to be replaced.. I like this one, even if some people say it wasn’t an option and isn’t original.”
The only real trouble Rubis said he has ever had with the car came one day “four or five years ago” when he took the car out for some exercise and ran into some engine trouble. “I was going out on one of my ‘blow out the dust’ rides and I blew out more than the dust,” he said. “I had the whole engine rebuilt at that point.”
67 GS engine
A new 400-cid engine in 1967 replaced the 1965-66 “401″ in the Gran Sports. The old engine design dated back to 1953. The new V-8 combined lightweight construction and better breathing characteristics to create a potent package.
The new 400 power plant had a 4.040 x 3.900-inch bore and stroke, a single Rochester four-barrel carburetor and a 10.25:1 compression ratio. It produced 340 hp at 5000 rpm and 440 lbs.-ft. of torque at 3200 rpm. It was also available with the variable-pitch-stator Super Turbine 400 transmission, a $236.82 option previously used only in big Buicks.
Rubis figure he puts between 1,000 and 1,500 miles a year on the GS these days, splitting his car hobby miles between the GS and a slick, custom 1970 Skylark convertible that once belonged to his mother. “It’s just a fun car to drive,” he said. “I don’t think those early GS’s were super fast, like the ’70 GSX or some of the others that came later. I’m sure there were a lot of cars that could blow the GS’s off the road at the time. But it’s really a fun car to drive.”
67 GS wheel
And driving is Rubis’ main hobby activity. He has done the car show circuit with pristine cars, and says he much prefers having a “driver” car that he can take to cruises with his hobby brethren. “I had a ’64 Corvette one time that I turned into a show car, and that was a big mistake,” he said. “It ruined the fun of the car for me. But back at that time, nobody was doing cruises. All you could do was go to shows. But I much prefer the cruises. These cars were meant to be driven.”
Ironically, Rubis lived not far from the first owner of his car, but says he never noticed the car on the road. “I originally lived in Latrobe and the car was originally from Greensburg, which is only like 10 miles away,” he said. “I never remember seeing the car in those days. That’s another thing made me think by fate I was meant to have it.
“It’s funny, I originally was looking for a ’67, and I eventually wound up with a ’67 years later. I figured fate didn’t want me to have it. But then fate turned around and maybe I was supposed to have the car after all.”
1967 Buick Gran Sport 400
George Barris Sold Weirdo Shirts and Sneakers
Posted by rariccardi in Kustoms, Pinups, Ratrods on January 18, 2010
weirdoshirts
weirdo_shirts
weirdo_shirts
Sanderson’s C & C Garage News
Posted by rariccardi in Kustoms on January 18, 2010
sanderson_garage_strykers
Well everyone knows how the economy was last year. Let’s hope that this year is better. We are gearing up to take 2 of our cars to Barrett Jackson in Scottsdale, AZ next week. Hopefully it will be good to us this year. We are also looking forward to a new project with George Barris the King Of Kustomizers this year. It’s a secret so I can’t tell you anything about it. Let’s just say that it will be exciting and Generally Motivating.
I don’t know when it will start but keep checking back.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.
Here some news from Sanderson’s C&C Garage. Check them out over at HubGarage.com
The History of Lowriders
Posted by rariccardi in Kustoms on January 18, 2010
Richard Gazzo in the Lowrider-Desgn blog, gives us little history of Lowriders and how the Barris Brothers influenced what has become one of the most creative areas of car customizing.
George Barris became the early face of lowriders by combining his creativity with his passion for cars and developing one of the first businesses to customize lowriders for sale. George and his brother, Sam, used their expertise in body work to straighten fenders, bolt on accessories, and use paint schemes that were unheard of during that time. Lowrider creations from the Barris brothers flourished into a very lucrative business. George used his business sense to introduce lowriders to Hollywood which resulted in not only the use of lowriders in many well known movies such as High School Confidential, but it also helped him “become the person” to contact when Hollywood stars wanted to transform their personal vehicles into lowriders.
Read the rest of the story at Lowriders-Design.com
Richard Gazzo is a successful writer offering advice on where to buy cheap rims, custom wheels including custom chrome wheels, spinning rims, wire wheels, automobile rims, alloy wheels and more.
Tucker Convertible on Auction Block at Russo & Steele
Posted by rariccardi in Old Cars Weekly on January 18, 2010
Brian Earnest over at Old Cars Weekly has a timely story about a pretty rare car, a Tucker convertible.
tucker-group
Justin Cole could live to be 99, and still be sure of one thing: He never had another year quite like 2009.
Back in December of 2008 when Cole took the gamble of his young lifetime and purchased what was billed by some, including the seller, as the only Tucker “convertible” in existence — i.e., a car that was born at the original Tucker factory — he knew he was embarking on a mammoth undertaking in more ways than one.
He would be attempting to finish a rare, orphaned and high-profile car that was a long ways from complete. The car was a one-off — the only Tucker that wasn’t a sedan. But perhaps equally daunting, Cole was going to face an unrelenting chorus of doubters and critics who insisted the car was a hoax.
Now, as he and his crew at Benchmark Classics in Madison, Wis., put the finishes touches on the Tucker as they ready it for its big night on the auction block, Cole is able to admit that both challenges — building the car and dealing with the hurricane of attention and controversy — have been every bit as daunting as he imagined.
“Man, for a few months there it was definitely pretty overwhelming,” said Cole, who will be front and center in Scottsdale, Ariz., Jan. 23 when Russo & Steele rolls the Tucker across the auction block (on reserve) in what will surely be one of the most-watched moments of this year’s annual car hobby extravaganza. “I carry a Blackberry, and I have all my appointments and reminders and stuff on it. If I didn’t have that thing, I don’t know what would have happened.
“Some days I’d have like 80 different appointments and reminders. The vast majority of my time for about three months was dedicated to that car… We’d have production meetings where we’d have a list from the ceiling to the floor of things that needed to be done. It was just crazy.
“It was definitely a massive project. I don’t know what could compare to it out there.”
Tucker
By now, the saga of the car has been well documented. The story goes that the car was started in secret as either a prototype for a future production convertible, or a special one-off car for Preston Tucker’s wife Vera, and that when things began to fall apart for Preston and his company, the car was ushered out the back door and wound up at the Lencki Company headquarters. From there, it apparently sat largely untouched for many years until a retiring employee took it with him when he left. The car changed hands one more time and ultimately came to the attention of Wisconsin collector Allen Reinert in the early 1980s. Reinert bought the rolling chassis and hoped to finish the car himself, but the project languished and he made many attempts over the years to sell the car. Reinert and Cole met at a show in 2008 and Cole soon put together an expensive deal that included trading several cars and cash for the controversial Tucker.
Old Cars Weekly ran a cover story about the car (Feb. 5, 2009 cover date) and it wasn’t long before the media attention began to snowball. The New York Times and a long list of other print and online media outlets began running stories on the car, and the debate that had raged on and off over the years over the car’s legitimacy reached new heights.
Everybody seems to love a good mystery, and Cole soon found himself not only in charge of figuring out how to finish a car that had no blueprint, but he was also thrust into the role as curator, caretaker and defender of the car’s legend.
“It’s the talk of our showroom, that’s for sure. So many people want to talk about the car,” he said. “The vast majority are just people interested in the car, and it’s a fascination for so many people because of the history of the Tucker automobile. And the story was really brought back to life with the movie and a whole generation of people not old enough to have seen a Tucker when they were made back in ’48 — they know it from that movie.”
“It’s just such a unique car. I would have to say the vast majority of phone calls and e-mails we get about the car are positive.”
Not long after starting work on the Tucker, Cole launched a Web site, www.tuckerconvertible.com, to help him fight the P.R. battle. On the site, Benchmark has posted photos of the car during the build and made public much of the evidence that Cole insists back the claims that the car was a factory project. For all his efforts, Cole knew that he would never convince everybody of the car’s pedigree, however. Front and center in non-believer camp are a group of vocal doubters with ties to the Tucker Club of America (www.tuckerclub.org)
Tucker
The fact that Cole is an affable sort who is clearly long on patience has certainly helped him survive his roller-coaster ride. He has heard every possible criticism, accusation and pointed question imaginable when it comes to the legitimacy of his Tucker, and he doesn’t fluster easily. There is no hint of doubt in his voice when he states his case. He has clearly done his share of homework and compiled as much proof as he can that the car was started in the Tucker factory. He believes what he believes, and doesn’t back down.
“I get things from people or in blogs where people are attacking the car or me personally,” Cole said. “For people to say things about me and my business that have never even met me or been in my shop … People hide behind some screen name and write stuff – I’ve got no respect for someone like that. But that kind of stuff has probably taken about one-half of 1 percent of my time. Overall, it’s been a very positive experience, and I’ve learned a ton going through the process.
“I could probably write a book about the experience, because it’s been a full year now.”
Tuckerinterior
Cole laughs when thinks back to his original plan to have the car completed by May of 2009. That was the month when the car made its first truly “public” appearance at the Keels & Wheels event in Seabrook, Texas.
“The organizer there called and said, ‘This is the date of the show, and we want that car here.’ I told him I didn’t think we’d ever have it done by then, and they said, ‘Well, bring it in whatever condition it’s in…
“At that point we had a rolling body. It was painted in primer, but you could get a real good idea of what it looked like. We were probably only 60 percent done with it, but it was the star of the show … Of course, 1 out of every 15 or 20 people would say something under their breath. ‘It’s the fake Tucker convertible, or ‘They made that Tucker up,’ but overall it was a very positive experience.”
The car’s next appearance came at the Auto Historica show in Highland Park, Ill., in July, then it was at the center of a whirlwind trip to Connecticut for the Fairfield County Concours in September.
“Our goal was to have a finished car for that show. Well, we didn’t quite have a finished car, but we certainly tried as hard as we could,” Cole said. “We had people working on that car ’round the clock. We actually had three different shifts at one point. I was out getting pizza and energy drinks to keep people going.
“We kept it [at home] until the last minute, then the guys went from Madison to Westport, Conn., straight through stopping only for fuel… It was crazy, because they got there, and said ‘We still need to adjust stuff’ and this and that. ‘We forgot extension cords and we need to buff it out again.’ I actually met everybody at a shopping center and went and bought extension cords. So here we are 30 minutes from the show, getting it as ready as we can. Then we finally roll in and they open the gates as soon as we get the car in place. And it was the star of that show there, too. It was nonstop.”
Then came a stop in Hershey, Pa., in October, where Cole thought he actually had the car sold to an East Coast collector. The man and his wife told Cole they wanted the car and negotiated a price, but the deal fell through a few days later when the couple apparently couldn’t get their finances arranged.
“I was just like, ‘Oh my God,’” Cole admits. “I really thought we had it sold. I’ve gotten pretty good at gauging people. If I spend a little time on the phone with someone I have a pretty good idea if I’m going to wind up selling a car to them. I really had a good feeling about this guy, but sometimes things just don’t work out.
“I thought there was a chance we’d find a buyer in Hershey, and we did find a buyer, it just didn’t work out.”
Cole can’t be certain there will be a buyer stepping forward in Scottsdale, either. By then, he estimates he and his crew will have 4,000 man hours into the car and the night will be bittersweet whether the car sells or not.
“I’m confident it will sell on the block at Russo & Steele,” he said. “They think it’s going to sell, too. They are very confident it will. The literal million dollar question is exactly how much is it going to sell for? Their estimate is somewhere more than a $1 million. But beyond that, who knows? Some people are saying that it could set a record for an American-built car.
“It’s gonna be a spectacle. I think anybody who is anybody in the classic car business when it comes to collecting high-dollar cars, selling high-dollar cars and buying high-dollars cars is going to be there. I try not to ever get exited until a car is sold, I have the money and see the taillights going down the road… But I do catch myself daydreaming about what could happen. I’d be lying if I said I don’t get excited thinking about it.”
Regardless of what happens on that fateful Saturday night, Cole knows his shop definitely won’t be the same if the Tucker leaves Arizona in somebody else’s trailer.
“I’d love to hold onto the car because of what it is. There isn’t a collector out there that I know that doesn’t want 1-of-1 cars,” Cole said. “I’d like to have it as our showroom centerpiece for as long as possible. So on that side I won’t be too excited to see it go.
“But on the other side, I’ve put so much time and effort into it, and so have my employees. It will nice to finally be paid for that.
“I’ve thought from Day 1 if we brought that thing to our shop and completed it properly and it looked as good as it possibly could, it would do good things for not only my business, but for the hobby in general. Benchmark Classics as a business was only nine months old when the Tucker rolled into our restoration shop and that was absolutely going through my head [when they bought it]. I was thinking, ‘This car is a piece of history, no matter how you look at it. ’”
So would he do it again? If another automotive unicorn or Holy Grail opportunity came up, would the guy who made the Tucker convertible come to life be willing to go through the headaches, heartaches and insanity all over again?
“Oh yeah, I definitely would,” Cole said. “I undershot my estimate on how long it would take, but I definitely wouldn’t trade it.”
1957 Dodge Royal Lancer D-500
Posted by rariccardi in Old Cars Weekly on January 18, 2010
Brian Earnest of Old Cars Weekly Car of the Week brings us the story on a 1957 Dodge Royal Lancer D-500 owned by Wayne Maddox.
1957 Dodge Royal Lancer
Wayne Maddox knows the 1950s Bel Airs and the Cadillacs and the finned Chrysler Letter Cars of the day hog a lot of today’s collector spotlight. In fact, the Westminster, Co., resident has owned some of those high-profile cars himself.
But Maddox still hasn’t seen a car that surpasses his 1957 Dodge Royal Lancer D-500 hardtop when it comes to combining sweet, swoopy looks with neck-snapping performance.
“It’s just amazing. It’s a time capsule,” he says of his 37,000-mile Dodge, which is largely untouched from its original factory condition. “When you talk about 1957, the car that immediately comes to everbody’s minds is the Chevy Bel Air. And I still own a ’57 Bel Air that was our family car when I was a kid. But when you put that ’57 Dodge up next to the Chevy, the Bel Air just seems so frumpy and so high.
“A lot of people think that Dodge pulled off the fins the best, and it’s hard to argue that … And with that Hemi in her, boy I’ll tell you, she just cruises!”
57 Dodge-back
Over the years, Maddox, who operates a small salvage and parts business, has assembled an impressive array of vehicles in his collection. Joining the Royal Lancer D-500 and Bel Air are about 20 other cars ranging in vintage from a stunning 1949 Plymouth convertible to a 1984 Chrysler limousine. But Maddox claims he’s “not one of these ‘big buck’ high-roller type of collectors which now, seem to dominate the hobby. While I have a lot of cars, I have been lucky to be in the right place at the right time to obtain them. My garage is not one of these mini mansion warehouse garages. It is a simple two-car garage out back of my house. About eight of my cars are stored in an old turkey barn north of town, and some, regrettably, are sitting outside.”
But the ’57 Dodge definitely gets its share of TLC. As was the case with many of his purchases, Maddox came across the Royal Lancer largely by accident.
“One of my dad’s buddies knew this woman, and he had been after her to buy it for years,” he said. “Finally, in ’78, she was at a point where she had to go in a nursing home … So she called [the friend] up and said, ‘Are you still interested in the car?’ He said, no, but that he had a buddy who was an old Chrysler guy and he might be interested …
“So he called me and said, “How’d you like ’57 Dodge with 15,000 miles?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d be interested.’ I thought it would probably be a stripper Coronet, dark green sedan with a flathead six and three on the tree. I wasn’t expecting much.
“So we made arrangements to see the car and he picked me up and we went to (Colorado Springs). We pull in and here comes this sweet little old lady saying, ‘Oh, you must be here to see the car.’ Well, I just about fell over backward when she showed us the car. Here was this two-door hardtop, two-tone paint and that neat D-500 badge on the deck lid!”
The odometer at the time ready 15,200 miles. Then came Maddox’s favorite part of the story.
57Dodge-interior
“I thought something must have been wrong. I couldn’t believe it. So right away I asked, ‘How much do you want for this car?’ And she waved a finger at me and said, “I want $500 and not a penny less!”
Suffice it to say no price haggling ensued and Maddux became the vehicle’s new owner in short order.
Turns out, the car had sat for 20 years after the woman’s husband had died. The couple had bought the car new, but the woman didn’t drive and the car sat untouched after she became a widow.
57Dodge-backseat
Under a layer of dust was a car that needed very little work. By the time Maddox had driven the car home, “I had left most of the exhaust on I-25,” he said, but the car was otherwise still very drivable. It still wore its original wide whitewalls tires. The interior was in splendid shape, and even the original floor mats were in place. “You could still see little half moons in the mat from her high heels,” Maddox said with a chuckle. “The only bad thing was a wiper scratch on the windshield. And I’ve left it that way, because it’s original and that’s the way I got it.
“I’ve put on new tires and hoses, and I’ve done a few small paint touch-ups. And I’ve had the exhaust tips taken off, because every steep driveway I went in, those tips were scraping. And I also put a clear plastic seat cover over the bottom of the front seat.”
57Dodge-engine
The 1957 Dodges were totally face-lifted from the previous year and showed off the “Forward Look” Chrysler styling. They were longer, lower and wider than any previous Dodge and hugged the ground on 14-inch wheels. Front torsion bar suspension was new, and headlights were deeply recessed below large headlight “brows.” The grille featured a gull-wing-shaped horizontal bar, which dipped in the center and surrounded a large Dodge crest All models used a single horizontal chrome strip along the bodyside and chrome trim along the base of the large rear fender fins. Chrome trim surrounded the headlights and grille opening.
The Dodge name, in block letters, was spaced along the front and the grille, directly below the hood ornament.
57Dodge-badge
The Royal was once again the intermediate trim level in Dodge’s lineup and included two- and four-door hardtops, a two-door convertible and two-door hardtop.
The D-500 was a performance option available in all Dodge cars that year and was even more muscular than the year before – growing from 315 to 325 cid and jumping from 260 hp to 285.
57Dodge-Trunk
Maddox’s Hemi-powered Dodge has made appearances at Meadowbrook and a number of other hobby events, including several Walter P. Chrysler Club (WPC) national meets. He has rolled up about 22,000 miles since taking the keys and title, and had a close call a while back when an inattentive motorist dinged the car’s front end. “A gal ran a red light one time and clipped the front end and knocked a piece of molding off,” he said. Still, he doesn’t shy away from taking his beloved Dodge anywhere, anytime. “These cars are meant to be driven. If it’s one thing I abhor, it’s a trailer queen,” he said. “If you have a 1910 Maxwell, that’s one thing, but if you have cars that can drive at highway speeds, c’mon. A car like this is meant to be driven. And it’s got a Hemi!”
It addition to its calling card fins, 325-cid Hemi and two-tone Glacier White and Turquoise paint scheme, the Dodge has plenty a few other niceties and options. Among them are dual exhaust, power steering and brakes, Torqueflight transmission, twin outside mirrors, push-button AM radio, clock and emergency brake warning light. And then there are the twin rear-mounted antennas – maybe the crowning touch on the car, at least when it comes to grabbing attention. “Yeah, people just go nuts over those twin antennas,” Maddox says. “They are so long! I have to pull them back down before I can get it into the garage.”
He also gets a kick when people ask him about what he did to restore the car. “One thing people always say is ‘Wow, who did your paint?’” he said. “Nobody! Look at it, it’s original.”
57Dodge-side1
Yes, this 1957 is definitely original. It belongs to an owner who loves and appreciates it. It’s cool. And it was a bargain.
1974 Chevrolet Camaro
Posted by rariccardi in Old Cars Weekly on January 18, 2010
1974 Chevrolet Camaro
{Editor’s Note: Since Tim Reid can certainly tell the story of his 1974 Camaro restoration better than anybody else, here is his tale behind this week’s OldCarsReport.com “Car of the Week}
By Tim Reid
In 1974 I was 12 years old. I had watched my dad buy many cars over the years, have a little paint and body work done to them, clean them up, drive them for a while and sell them. Being in this environment every since I can remember has given me a love for cars (old and new).
I have many work-in-progress projects (1964 El Camino, 1965 Chevy Truck, 1947 Ford Super Deluxe, 1952 Chevy). I also have many completed projects (1974 Camaro, 2006 Corvette, 2008 Cadillac CTS, 2008 Silverado Z71 crew cab, 2007 Chevy Avalanche, 1998 Corvette, 2004 Hyundai Tiberon). The inventory changes constantly.
In 1974, my dad was looking for a car to fix up for my older brother to drive when he got his driver’s license. We made the trek down to Indianapolis to a place we had been many times before, Wrecks Inc. Their saying was “We Meet By Accident”. We spent a couple of hours looking over the hundreds of cars they had. My dad had settled in on a 1974 Camaro that was hit in the front. As usual, it took about an hour of wheeling and dealing for them to come together on a price. We loaded it on the trailer and headed back home.
74 camaro
Once we got a car home, the norm was to tear it down to see exactly what parts were needed, then start calling the local salvage yards for parts, and decide whether we would be better off buying new parts or used part. The tear-down was complete within a day or two, but that’s where the process came to a screeching halt. While looking for parts, another deal was found, and the ’74 Camaro got pushed back in priority. After all, it was two years before my brother would get his license. The car was eventually pushed to the back of the priority list over and over again.
Fast forward to sometime around 1999, my dad was selling his house in the Chicago area and didn’t have a place to keep the Camaro so he sold it to a friend of his who had a body shop.
Fast forward again to 2004. My dad called me one day and said his friend with the body shop was retiring and wanted to know if I knew anyone interested in buying the 1974 Camaro for $1,500. The car was still not finished. I talked it over with my wife and 14 year-old-son Tyle. I told Tyler if he would help restore the car, it would be his driver when he turned 16. We traveled to the Chicago area to pick up the car. Little did I know my dad’s friend would also give us plenty of extra GM parts. We had the back of the truck, the inside of the Camaro, and the trunk of the Camaro filled up with extra parts that he had accumulated over the years.
We got the car home, and started the tear-down all over again. There had been some work done, but during the long trip home, I had decided we would do a complete restoration on the car. We removed all the interior, glass, doors, trunk lid, front-end, bumpers, engine and transmission from the car. The car had been stored inside most of its life, so it was in excellent shape for a 30-year-old car. It still had the original Uniroyal Tiger Paw bias ply 14-inch white lettered tires, with the Rally wheels. Surprisingly, they weren’t dry rotted at all. The wheels had a little surface rust in a few places.
74 camaro
We tore into the engine. Once the heads were off, I was glad we decided to go through the engine. There were mice droppings on top of most of the pistons. I sent the engine off to be checked and rebuilt. I also sent the transmission off to be rebuilt.
While those jobs were being done, we started on the bodywork. We stripped the car down to bare metal, and marked the imperfections. The doors had a few door dings from sitting in the garage at home but, amazingly, there was not one bit of rust on the car. We did what little bodywork there was and primed, blocked and sealed everything. We decided to do something a little different with the hood, so I took it and the two mirrors to a friend of mine in Piedmont, Ala. I told him to surprise me, with some flame/fire on the hood and mirrors. He did just that. He put the Chevy bowtie in each of the valleys in the hood, and has fire rolling out from under the bowties all the way up the hood. He also put some ghost flames in the center of the hood. The mirrors look like they are literally on fire. He did an amazing job.
We started assembling the engine after it came back. We decided to paint it the original Chevy orange color, but then we clear-coated over the orange. We painted all the brackets with high-gloss black, and the master cylinder with cast blast paint.
74 camaro
I painted the car with the front-end, doors, and trunk lid off. We painted the firewall the same color as the car (it normally was a flat black). While that was drying, we stripped all the inner structure of the front end and painted it high-gloss black.
74 camaro
Then came the long, slow process of getting the car put back together and lining everything up. We finally got it all put back together, and started the most enjoyable part of restoring a car — wet sanding (anyone that has done this knows I am lying). A little side note, when I was 13 years old I would wet sand complete cars for $6. No wonder the owner of the body shop kept me busy.
74 camaro
It was this time when Tyler informed me that he wasn’t going to drive the Camaro every day. He knew we had gone way overboard for this car to be a daily driver.
We got the engine and transmission put back in the car, installed the windows, and buffed the car. That is truly the point where you can see the results of all the work put into restoring a car. We left the original Tiger Paw tires and wheels on the car. We only drove it to the close car shows (10 miles or less), and trailered it to the rest. We’ve won many trophies over the last few years, but it has really been a topic of conversation at the car shows. Just this last year we replaced the original tires and wheels with some Foose wheels and Firestone tires.
74 camaro
Today, we have ‘74 Camaro with 5,000 original miles. It has original interior, original glass (except the windshield), original weatherstrip (except the trunk), original wheels and tires. The car has ceramic headers and stainless steel Magnaflow exhaust. The bumpers were sent off to be re-anodized. We upgraded the windows to power windows and the door locks to power door locks.
I would like to say I completely restored this car by myself, but I had help from many friends in the areas I’m not as comfortable with. Steve Baskins of Baskins Tire did the wiring, Magnaflow exhaust and installed the Firestone tires. Cecil Bing rebuilt the transmission, Frank Morgan assembled the engine, and Al Marion did the flame work.
74 camaro