Someone got it this far. Then, nature did what it always does: Its green tendrils reached out. With leaf and limb, it drew the machine close. Peeking from all this foliage is a first-edition Dodge D100 pickup. The D100 marked a styling departure from the mid-‘50s Job Rated machines – wider, not as tall, aContinue reading “No. 147: Hauler Of All”
Category Archives: 1960s
No. 141: Not Seeing the USA
Chevrolet turned its back on the tri-fives of the mid-‘50s and concentrated on a new machine – the Impala, a car as massive as its namesake was sleek. After one year, Chevy changed the design and produced a longer, lower car. Its trademark feature: twin rear fins that arched like angry eyebrows. The model hadContinue reading “No. 141: Not Seeing the USA”
No. 140: No Love for This Bug
It was called the “people’s car,” or volkswagen. Its origins date to the late 1930s, when a restive Germany and its fanatical leader dreamed of world conquest. In the early and mid-1940s, the rear-engine vehicle was part of that global war effort. In the late 1940s, the people’s car renewed life as civilian transportation. ByContinue reading “No. 140: No Love for This Bug”
No. 136: Something New!
It was time. As the end of the decade neared, Chevrolet’s tough-ass line of pickups, the 3100, had grown old. In 1959, Chevy introduced the C and K series of trucks. Owners reported it rode as much like a car as a truck. “C” meant light-duty, rear-wheel drive. The “K” designation meant four-wheel drive. IfContinue reading “No. 136: Something New!”
No. 128: No Power, No Worries!
The Rover. Most people see that name and think of the nearly indestructible 4-wheel drive vehicles that have bounced over every continent on earth. But the badge also came attached to other vehicles. This is a Rover P5, most likely a ’68. The first appeared in 1958; the last, in 1973. It was a bulbousContinue reading “No. 128: No Power, No Worries!”
Agrarian Edition No. 10: Power No More
If you didn’t recognize the beat of its four-cylinder heart, didn’t know the bellow from its steel throat, surely you knew its badge: art, meeting agriculture. It was a Fordson. The name came from Henry Ford and Son, shortened to Fordson. The tractors prowled the planet — plowed it, too. From African plains to AlabamaContinue reading “Agrarian Edition No. 10: Power No More”
No. 126: Raggedy-Ass Ragtop
“Galaxie 500.” Never mind that Ford misspelled a word when this big machine debuted in 1959. The car was a rolling homage to a budding space race, when mankind turned its collective gaze to the cosmos. Ford’s engineers turned their eyes to the engine. The first Galaxie 500s featured 352-cubic-inch V-8s. They pounded out 300Continue reading “No. 126: Raggedy-Ass Ragtop”
No. 117: Rust Never Sleeps
Most everything you need to get this ’65 Ford Fairlane running — carb, various wires and a tremendous air filter, among other things — is stacked atop a massive bench seat inside this coupe. The only thing missing is a mechanic. This would-be road-burner is losing the race against rust just outside McRae, Ga., 168Continue reading “No. 117: Rust Never Sleeps”
No. 114: Fixer Upper
He had good intentions. Whoever hauled this car into the shop, slapped on Bondo and primer, surely meant to put this erstwhile hot rod back on the road. Didn’t happen. Instead, this ’63 Ford Fairlane is settling into the sand between an antique emporium and a battered storefront selling bait and tackle. Carrabelle, Fla., 325Continue reading “No. 114: Fixer Upper”
No. 108: A Galaxie Far, Far Away
Decades ago, someone drove this ’65 Galaxie 500 XL, drove it hard, listening to eight cylinders banging away in a 352-cubic-inch block. No longer. The V-8 i is gone, the car resting in red dirt on a forgotten stretch of U.S. 1. Norlina, N.C., 435 miles northeast of Atlanta.
It Was Running When I Parked It 