By Brian Earnest

Seventeen years into their marriage, Michael Brown’s wife, Sandra, figured he was going through a typical mid-life crisis. He had been longing for a 1963 Corvette since he was a kid, and since not many things are better remedies for such a condition than the iconic “Split-Window” Corvette, Sandra generously consented.

That was 27 years and more than a dozen Corvettes ago, and while Brown isn’t sure he was ever really suffering from any crises, his fixation with the ’63 Vettes hasn’t waned a bit. He’s still got his first one, and he has no problem picking it as his favorite among 13 fabulous Corvettes of all vintages that he keeps stored in his “man cave” in Arlington, Texas.

via Car of the Week: 1963 Corvette coupe | Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

Carl Laska laughs at his own contradiction. In one breath, the Rudolph, Wis., resident claims he’s too long in the tooth to be a “hot-rodder.” In the next breath, though, Laska admits he recently bought a new Dodge Challenger, then confesses to turning his gorgeous 1952 Hudson Wasp into a bit of a custom creation.

The wonderful Wasp looks all-factory from the outside, and it even might appear that way when you look under the hood. But Laska has actually turned the Hudson into a combination Wasp/Hornet, thanks to an engine swap. He’s also added the Hornet gauge  cluster to the Wasp’s dash and made a few other invisible changes. That makes the shiny Hollywood hardtop a bit of a crossover vehicle — part, Wasp and part Hornet, but definitely all Hudson.

“You might say it’s my ‘rod.’ My Hudson hot rod,” Laska jokes. “There is nothing in there that isn’t made by Hudson, other than the ignition system and the electric fuel pump, and it’s got halogen headlights. But I did those things just to make it safer to drive.

“It’s still all-Hudson. That’s the only kind for me.”

via Car of the Week: 1952 Hudson Wasp | Old Cars Weekly.

Jill Helmke has a few simple criteria for her collector cars, and the standards are pretty much non-negotiable.The cars have to be relatively easy to drive. They have to be old – nothing after World War II, thank you.And they have to be, uh, aesthetically pleasing. “For me, cars are either pretty, or cute. This one is a pretty car,” noted Helmke, of her stunning 1934 Buick Victoria coupe. Helmke has had her Buick for a little more than a year, and so far it is exactly what she was looking for. It’s a car that’s easy for her to handle. It’s fun to take to shows, and it’s got enough room in the back seat for grandkids.“My husband and I have been into [Ford] Model A’s, and I wanted something that was easier for me to drive than a Model A,” Helmke said. “And this was drivable for me.“We have a ’35 [Buick] at home, too, that I have driven before, so I knew I could drive this one… It’s so much easier to start. You don’t have to play with everything. You don’t have the gas to turn on. You don’t have the spark, the choke — you don’t have any of that stuff. And you don’t have to double-clutch it. It’s just a lot easier. I call it a ‘girly’ car.“Its name is Chloe. I give a name to every car I have, and this just looked like a girl car.”

via Car of the Week: 1934 Buick Victoria coupe | Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

Sigrid Shaw of New London, Wis., remembers vividly when her husband John told her that her beloved 1959 Rambler was no longer road worthy. Shaw was a school teacher at the time, and she had really grown fond of her unique sedan.“I drove it to school because it was a fun thing to drive. Even back in the ’80s, it was unusual,” she recalled. “The color was so unusual … Then when John said I couldn’t drive it any more, that was disheartening.”Over the years, the Rambler’s unibody had become weakened underneath, and John Shaw didn’t trust the car anymore. So it sat — for more than 10 years, before Sigrid decided she wanted to investigate the possibility of getting the car restored and back on the road.That effort didn’t turn out well, though, and it looked like the pink sedan — officially, the colors are Hibiscus Rose with Catillion Mauve — would be relegated to a never-ending retirement. But Sigrid wasn’t ready to accept that fate.

via 1959 Rambler Custom Sedan | Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

He wasn’t sure whether he was getting a steal of a deal, or whether he was going to get robbed — literally. But Scott Dohnal knew one thing — he was going to roll the dice and try to buy the car of his dreams: a 1958 Buick Special Riviera.

The decision didn’t come without plenty of hand wringing, and some concern for his own safety, but all’s well that ends well when it comes to old car deals, and Dohnal’s gamble has certainly paid off.

“Well, the car was pink and black, and it was the guy’s wife’s car,” Dohnal recalled. “And it didn’t run at the time, and I could only see the car on Sundays, and I could only pay for it in cash! So I was wondering what I was getting myself into. A buddy and I went to get the car, and we had 12 grand in cash, and we’re thinking we’re going to get rolled or something!

“But we went up and got it. We closed the deal and we had a trailer and a come-along and that went wrong real quick. The come-along broke right away … It was a quite a day.”

via Car of the Week: 1958 Buick Special | Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

Some guys sell a car, get a case of seller’s remorse, and hope that someday they might be able to get the car back.Gert Gehlhaar’s case was a little different. The retired Lompoc, Calif., resident always knew he was going to get his 1932 Buick Special sedan back, it was just a matter of time. As long as his handshake agreement with friend and fellow old car buff Bill Martin held up, Gehlhaar knew his Buick wasn’t gone, it was just sort of “on loan” to somebody else.Looking back, Gehlhaar insists he was never worried when he handed over the keys to Martin in 1988.“We were good friends and it wasn’t going to leave the city. We had an agreement and I figured he’d honor it,” Gehlhaar said. “And I was into Model A’s and Model T’s at the time — I can restore a Model A or Model T in my sleep. That’s what I was doing at the time, and I was also into vintage racing so I had plenty of things to do. I’d say it was in good hands and good storage, but I always loved it and I always knew I was going to get it back.”

via Car of the Week: 1932 Buick Model 57S | Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

For a few weeks, Vickie Johnson figured the gold 1970 Pontiac GTO was “the one that got away.”

Now, 42 years later, it’s the car that will seemingly never leave her.

For Johnson, it was “love at first sight” when she first laid eyes on her classy Granada Gold convertible “Goat.” Trouble was, the car was still sitting in a Pontiac showroom in Oshkosh, Wis., and somebody else had beaten her to the punch.

“I used to drive by the car every day… and finally one day I went in there and told them I wanted to buy it,” said Johnson. “Well, they told me I couldn’t buy it because someone else had put an offer in on it. They couldn’t sell it to me. They told me, ‘You can’t even test drive it.’

“So I left … but I went by about three weeks later and the car was still sitting there. They hadn’t sold it. Their financing fell through, so then I got to buy the car.”

That was the start of a long and faithful marriage between driver and automobile. Johnson used the car for daily transportation, even through the harsh Wisconsin winters, for about 17 years. Eventually, the car was semi-retired, partially restored, and reserved for only warm weather travel and occasional car show duty.

via Car of the Week: 1970 Pontiac GTO | Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

Arthur French has owned his 1951 Mercury convertible for nearly three decades, and sooner or later you have to figure the novelty will wear off a little bit.So far, though, his love affair with the ’51 Mercs hasn’t cooled a bit.Actually, though he’s owned it since the early 1980s, the ragtop is the newbie in French’s garage. He also has a ’51 Mercury mild custom coupe as a companion to the convertible, and he’s had that one for 40 years. It’s clear when French starts gushing about his Mercs that his passion for the cars will never die. The Sheffield Green convertible, in particular, has French’s heart racing again these days. After leaving it mostly untouched for all these years, he finally had it repainted and restored this fall.He got the car back in late November, looking better than ever, and the honeymoon with the Merc began all over again.“It’s such a sweet car. I just feel very lucky to own such a car,” admits the gregarious French, a resident of Wainscott, N.Y. “The car is just outstanding. There is not a rattle in the car. No noise, nothing, which I cannot figure out to beat the band.”

via Car of the Week: 1951 Mercury convertible | Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

Rick Zierler’s 1950 Buick Super convertible somehow managed to survive 35 years of neglect inside a barn.It couldn’t survive its first big night of freedom, however.Zierler, a resident of Menasha, Wis., figured his stepson’s wedding would be an appropriate occasion to get his barn find Buick back on the road about five years ago. The lovely ragtop was far from perfect, but it was an unrestored survivor and Zierler had every intention of keeping it that way.Sadly, an unlucky deer had other ideas.“This one wasn’t even slated to be worked on,” Zierler joked. “I was working on a ’58 Buick Limited, which was my first car, but my wife said this one would be good to have for the wedding, so I quick got it together.“I got it all buffed up and looking nice, and it was looking good enough, I thought, for the wedding, and then that night coming home from the wedding I hit a deer and wiped out the whole driver’s side.”

via Car of the Week: 1950 Buick Super | Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

American Motors Corp. was clearly looking for bigger oceans to swim in back in 1965 when the company unveiled its mid-size Marlin hardtop coupe. At the time, the company had rarely strayed from its blueprint for small, practical, inexpensive — and some would say boring — compact cars.For three years, the Marlin lived as a curvy, handsome hybrid — a cross between a family car and the sports and muscle cars of the era. It was impossible not to compare it to the Charger. Both cars had the calling card fastback roofline. Where the Charger quickly became associated with performance and muscle, however, the Marlin never truly found its own identity. It was a little bit of everything, but maybe not distinct enough to make a serious statement of its own.In the end, only 17,419 Marlins rolled off the assembly line of the AMC plant in Kenosha, Wis., including just 2,545 of the 1967 versions

via Car of the Week: 1967 AMC Marlin | Old Cars Weekly.