Cars we drove in the 50s & 60's

[TearlessTom]

Pulled this off a Venture site,  Thought some here would enjoy it.

Hey RJ, how many of these did you have?
http://cruzintheavenue.com/CarsWeDrove.htm

[R J]

Pulled this off a Venture site,  Thought some here would enjoy it.

Hey RJ, how many of these did you have?
http://cruzintheavenue.com/CarsWeDrove.htm

Chevrolet.  = 1952 Hardtop, 1955 Bel-Aire hardtop, 56 Convertible, 57 Corvette, the a 1957 150 series with fuel injection, 1958 Hardtop, 1959 4 door hardtop, 1960 Nomad Wagon with 348 Cu inch, with 3 dueses and a 4 speed transmission,   All factory, ordered it that way, actually some other guy ordered it and when it came in he didn't have the $$$ to pay for it.   I lived neighbors to a Mercury/Lincoln dealer and a Chevy/Oldsmobile dealer.   Got some hellish deals from them.

Ford = 1949 2 door with a Mercury flathead motor, 1932 Model A Coupe with a Lincoln V-12 with a Power-glide transmission and  1955 Pontiac Safari rearend, with juice brakes.  1950 Mercury 2 door, with a bunch of offenhauser stuff on the engine.

Oldsmobile = 1957 J2 2 door hardtop.  1955 Hardtop 3 speed on the tree.

Pontiac =  1958 Fuel injection automatic.

Misc. =  1939 Chevy coupe street rod.   Lost this one in my garage fire along with the son's Mustang.  1940 Ford coupe with an Olds J2 engine, 1939 Plymouth coupe with a 1953 Dodge V-8 and Power-glide, 1950 Hudson with an Olds V-8 and Hydramatic.

I don't think there was ever a time there wasn't at least 5 or 6 vehicles in the garage and driveway.    Some of these units I bought from Police auction.  Confiscated vehicles by other LEO offices in the state.

[TearlessTom]

Wow and I thought I had a bunch of cars, None that nice though..

Okay I will show my ignorance again.

What are Juice Brakes?

[solo1]

Juice brakes? I don't know either.

here's a partial list of ones that i owned and I wasn't in the business.

1928, 1935, 1936 Chevys,     1838, 1953, 1955, 1960, 1963, 1967  Fords,   1942 and 1948 Pontiac,  1947 Buick, 1936, 1949, and 1953 Olds,   1955, 1963, 1977, 1983 Chryslers,    1983, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2005 Toyotas,  1953 Volkswagen,    1999 and 2011 Mazdas.

The first car, the 1929 Chevy, had brake shoes on the inside AND the outside of the rear drums. Neither were worth anything as they were mechanical.
The '49 Olds Rocket 88 would beat any stock production car that year including the Chrysler hemis as the Olds had Hydramatic drive and the Chyrslers had torquematic automatic  transmissions which was a waste of the hemi's power.

My '53 Olds was a manual shift using a Buick tranny since the hydramatic plant burned down that year. Unfortunately, the straight 8 Buick tranny was no match for the 324 CI V8 in the Olds.

[six2go #152]

Methinks "Juice Brakes" are hydraulic brakes, rather than the old fashioned mechanical ones.

[John Schmidt]

Juice brakes....Russ, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that referred to hydraulic as opposed to mechanical brakes. His '32 would have had mechanical originally, my dad's '34 did I know. Changing them over to hydraulics was a big deal back in the day, a major mod on the prewars.

The only car I had in HS was a '48 Dodge with fluid drive, but helped buddies build many a rod. We lived on a steep hill and dad's little 6 cyl. '53 Ford just wouldn't make up that hill in winter, snow was just to slick. I had an old '27 Model T truck engine & tranny I laid crossways in the trunk of my Dodge, mounted snow tires on it. I could back out our driveway, put the car in 2nd gear and it would idle right up the hill. Dad always had to go down the hill and take the long way to work. I traded for a '49 fast back Olds 98 the summer following HS graduation, for some reason it was exceptionally fast...even for those cars, and I picked up a few trophies with it. Lost it in an accident, T-boned a drunk that pulled across the road in front of me. Started looking around and found my old Dodge and bought it back for $50. Kept it until after I joined the USAF, then traded for a baby blue '50 Merc. Got married fairly soon after joining up, so that brought the  car buying grinding to a halt....was always a "family" car from then on. Until I picked up a '69 Charger R/T off a repo auction for $88 in 1978. Big old 440 w/straight H Hurst shifter, that was loads of fun. After getting laid off due to an injury off-duty, I sold it for $600. Love to have that thing today, all original, imagine what it would be worth now.

[TearlessTom]

Yep I had to google it, Juice brakes are Hydraulic brakes rather than mechanical brakes.

They were also called "Squirter Brakes".

And that boys and girls is our history lesson for the day..

[TearlessTom]

Okay, RJ and Solo are both well abouve 20+ classic cars, anyone else want to compete...Not me I am way out of my league here.

[old2soon]

Not near as many as rj or solo1-first was the 1954 ford two door my dad traded in on a brand spanking new baby blue flat head six 3 on the tree with over drive rambler american.(You young uns google it). Gave the dlr $100 cash money and drove the ford home. It came with a ton of spares.lol. Next was my pride and joy A 1959 four door desoto(google again) 383b block with a two barrel carb-but that didn't stay a two barrel long. Also had that 3 speed push button torque flite tranny. Also had that straight across speedometer that changed from green to orange to red. 1959 very high tech.  After the navy 1970 dodge 3/4 ton p/u plain jane 318 4 speed manual-worked the dog crap outa that one. Found a really nice 1968 olds cutlass-buckets Had that 4 speed automatic-and someone had leaned on the engine a little before i got it. 1976 olds toronado 455 and a ball to drive. At one point in my first marriage-prior to the young uns showing up-a 1956 chevy two door with a 283 punched to 301. Bad a$$ to about 105 mph. 456 rear gears and a 6 cylinder 3 speed tranny. Oops-that rambler was a 1962 model. Everything alse since then family type transportation and really not worth mentioning here. The above named vehicles live fondly in my memory. RIDE SAFE.

[TearlessTom]

Well I will admit I am a bit younger so my 1st car was a 1964 Chevy Impala with a 283CI  Transmission was a 2 speed slush box. Next a VW bug. After my service time I got a 1976 MGB with dual water temp controlled Carbs. I forget the name of the carbs but they were a pain to keep running right.

Several cars and trucks not worth mentioning (like said above just cheap transportation) Later I had a Nissan 280Z , a 300Z, a Mazda RX7  1100cc engine. Those engines put out an amazing amount of power for their size as long as you don't over heat it. Over heating meant buying a new engine.

 Went from the 280Z to a Sentra after a very ugly divorce. Man that hurt.

Also had a Toyota Carina. No reverse gear but couldn't kill that thing no matter how hard I tried. Bought it from my brother in law for $50. sold it to my other brother in law who sold it to his brother in law who made a race car of some sort out of it.

[Valkahuna]

I am somewhat of a car nut, and always will be. While I have owned (and own) well over 60 cars, these are just those that I bought and owned since I got my license in 1962, and were either 50's, 60's, or 70's models.  

I have enjoyed every one of them for different reasons. Wish I still had them, but...
  
Plymouth: ’57 Belvedere (first car bought all on my own for $65 from school bus driver, filled it with gas, and drained a half of the tank on Dad's new asphalt driveway because gas tank was split. Filled in rust holes in head light brows with news paper and bondoed over the top).; '60 Belvedere (had so many rust holes that I patched them all with special metal tape we had to fix damage on aircraft sheet metal, car probably weighed an extra 100 pounds when done).

Dodge: ’62 Lancer, (got my driver’s License in this); ’65 Coronet 500 Hdtp (totalled when truck Jack-knifed and trailer ran over front end); ’65 Coronet 500 Convert w/ HiPo 383 (This car was a real sleeper. Had been bored to 413, and blue-printed. Regularily ran Hi 12's to low 13's at 115 MPH with street slicks)

Chrysler: ’72 Newport; ’78 Cordoba (yup, it had "fine Corynthian Leather"

Ford: ‘57 Fairlane 500 (had non-standard 312 cu T-Bird Motor); ‘67 Mustang Convert; ‘68 Torino GT (390 4-speed Fast-back); '75 Grand Torino Elite; ‘76 Grand Torino Elite, ‘78 Ford LTDII
 
Pontiac: ‘40 Deluxe 6; ‘78 Grand Prix; ‘79 Firebird Trans AM (T-Tops and HO motor)

Buick: ’62 Skylark Convert.; ’68 Skylark GS; ’70 LeSabre Custom
 
Mercedes: ’61 220SE (4 speed on the tree)

Peugeot: ’68 “404”

Chev: ’59 Bel Aire; ’66 Impala SS; ’68 427 Sting Ray (Tri-Power 400 HP, Hyd. Cams, had 2:78 rear gears & Stupid fast top end); ’70 El Camino SS454 (Put out over 600 HP)
 
Mercury: ’66 Comet Cyclone GT (met and started dating my wife of 41 years in this one); ’66 Cyclone 289 built (still own this one today)

International: ’79 Scout II (total resto with paint and big International truck motor - would go anywhere)

Datsun: ’65 Bluebird (owned while in Japan during Air Force - painted it purple with big wheels and tires)

Toyota: ’62 Publica (also in Japan); ’72 Corolla

VW: ’61 Bug (drove in high school - once had ten kids in this car and actually drove a short way - STUPID

[solo1]

I never heard the expression 'juice brakes'   Chysler was the first to use hydraulic brakes in 1927, followed by GM in 1936, i think.  Ford was last a few years later.

However GM was the first to use an all steel body in 1935 called the turret body (body by Fisher)  Does anyone remember the term 'knee action'.  that was GM.s name for a weird front suspension.

Ford went to conventional springs in 1950, got rid of their transverse springs.  Ford was also the last holdout for a six volt positive ground electrical system.

No I didn't Google anything so my memory is probably wrong.  Whaddya expect from an old duffer.

[R J]

I never heard the expression 'juice brakes'   Chysler was the first to use hydraulic brakes in 1927, followed by GM in 1936, i think.  Ford was last a few years later.

However GM was the first to use an all steel body in 1935 called the turret body (body by Fisher)  Does anyone remember the term 'knee action'.  that was GM.s name for a weird front suspension.

Ford went to conventional springs in 1950, got rid of their transverse springs.  Ford was also the last holdout for a six volt positive ground electrical system.

No I didn't Google anything so my memory is probably wrong.  Whaddya expect from an old duffer.

Pretty much right on there old timer.

If memory serves me correctly this happened in 1934 or 35.

All the other car companies were going to hydrallic brakes.   Management was trying HARD to get Henry Ford to follow suit.    After much pressure put on him, Henry Ford said okay.   Take 5 cars off the line and apply hydrallic brakes, we will terst them on Monday.   The story went that 5 cars has hydrallic brakes added on.   Monday came and Henry was ready for his demo.    2 of the 5 cars had hydrallic leaks and lost the brakes.    Henry Ford vetoed the hydrallioc's as they were not safe.

I think I heard that from my Unccle who was a Ford dealer from the Model 'T' Depot Hack days.

Okay, someone tell me what a Depot Hack was.    NO GOOGLING THIS ONE.

[solo1]

This months Reminische magazine shows pics of model T's at a railroad siding dock .  Evidently the cars were shipped chassis only without bodies and the bodies added later either on the dock or?

Does that have anything to do with Depot hack?

[R J]

Nope Wayne, not linked together.

Someone in town was usually the railroad freight manager.

He usually had a Model "T" with some type of panel sides and once in awhile a top.    He met the train, loaded up the wares that came in and took them to town for delivery.

The old saying goes that this is where the wood panel station wagon originated from.......

Grandpa had a Hack and he made good $$$$ during the depression hauling freight from the depot.   When he retired so to speak, well the hack gave up the ghost, she had a Babbitt rod go out, so it got parked.   When I turned 14 he gave it to me with one understanding, I had to fix the engine.   Like any 14 year old, I jumped at the chance and said OK.

This is not the correct time and or day of the week, but we will use Noon Friday as the starting time.     9:00 AM Saturday the 'T' made it maiden voyage with a repaired engine.    Dad's brother told me what to do and I did it according to him.  We fixed the rod with a piece of leather off of a saddle strap.  Cut it to length, folded it around the crankshaft, trimmed as needed and stuck the cap on it.   Tightened it down and twisted the crank.  It about broke my arm when it backfired. someone fur getted to set the spark back for starting, trust me, never did that stupid stunt again.    Set the spark back, I was afraid of it, and my uncle gave it a whirl, she popped off and set there and cackled on all 4 like it was supposed to.   When I went in the service, at 17, we parked the truck behind the barn, where it had been parked before.  In that 3 years grandpa has passed so grandma made sure I got the registration switched over.  Went off to the service, and never touched the old girl until January 1954.     Mom said a guy had contacted her about it and wanted to buy it.   Called him, he came over, we fired it up, pumped the tires up, and drove it around the feed lot.  He asked if I would take $500 for it.     Couldn't get that $$$$ out of his hands before he changed his mind.    Last I heard of the old truck was in 1960, it was still being driven, had been repainted nd the wood redone, but nothing else had been touched, like  the engine, to change out that leather bearing.   If and when they ever did pull the bottom off, someone was in for a wild surprise, I'm sure.   Would love to have the old girl now just for parades.

[R J]

Here is the Google evolution of the station wagon.

I'd forgot about the passengers they hauled.

Grandpa didn't have any seats in his, anyway they weren't in there when I got it.

http://www.woodyguy.net/evolution.html