John_Maine

Agree, it took awhile for the field to fill up some, but it was an excellent show. Lots of nice cars. I got there at 9:00 and stayed until 1:00 then went to the Museum for the rest of the afternoon.

I didn't make it last year because of all the rain. Hopefully, the weather will be better this year - long range forecast does look good.

I agree, it is disappointing. However, it isn't just Saturday. Through the last 10 years I have been attending, it seems like a lot of the vendor spaces have been taken just for parking. I find it rather disconcerting to walk down an aisle and find one whole side used for parking. I guess Hershey Region doesn't care because the spaces are rented.

One week from today at this time, I should be at the T/A in Maybrook, NY for lunch. I don't sell anything and am not bring my LTD this year, just coming down to wander around and take everything in. Hard to believe a year has gone by.

My elderly cousins in Canada had a '68 Belvedere II sedan, slant six, automatic, white walls, wheel covers, radio, dark blue with blue interior. They traded their '52 Chevy Styline Deluxe with 100K on it. I loved that Belvedere for some reason and would love to find one today. They kept it until 1981 when the rear spring shackles rusted off the car and it would no longer pass inspection.

Many years ago, I purchased a paperback book "Canadian Cars" by M. Perry Zavitz. I still have it somewhere. Very interesting. It describes all the differences between Canadian and US models from WWII up, make by make. I was disappointed it did not have many illustrations but very informative nonetheless. There was recently a picture of a '55 Canadian Dodge convertible posted on FB (in Cuba). Dodge front, Plymouth rear. I was a car geek from day one and remember seeing Canadian cars that I found really confusing. At the age of 4 or 5, I remember seeing a '54 Canadian Pontiac or what I thought was a '54 Chevy with silver streaks on the back and asking my father why that Chevy had them.

Just got my issue today. Have only had time to thumb through it. I was pleased to see Brian is president again.

6 weeks from this coming Tuesday, but who's counting?

Backing up a bit, when I was a kid I remember watching Highway Patrol with my mother every Friday night. I always loved the show because of the cars they used and had been checking the internet for years trying to find it on video. I found the first season on HULU a couple of years ago and last year, my wife found seasons 2-4 on DVD on Amazon and got them for me for Christmas. I have enjoyed watching them particularly for the police cars. In season 1, they primarily used the '55 Buick with the 4 portholes although I remember seeing some 3 port hole models. From the sound they made, I believe they were manual transmissions. In the very first shows, they also used a '54 Oldsmobile with a manual trans and a '55 Mercury 2 door sedan. In season 2, they graduated to the '56 Buick, '56 Dodge and '56 Mercury and late in the season, '57 Buicks started showing up. Season 3, which is where I am now, they are using '57 Buicks, '57 Mercurys and '57 Dodges. I love hearing those Dodges start up and move out. I believe they must have had the D-500 package. I wonder how many of each car they actually had, can't be more than 2 of each. One episode I watched last night combined stock footage -Dan Matthews left headquarters in a '57 Dodge, was shown on the road in a '57 Mercury and arrived in a '57 Buick. Of course, the "bad guys" have their own cars some of which have been used in multiple shows and also as "undercover" cars - particularly a '57 Ford Fairlane, '56 Ford Custom sedan, '57 Plymouth Plaza, '56 DeSoto wagon, '56-'57 Mercury convertibles, '57 Olds 88 sedan, etc. The shows are kinda corny now - and "innocent" as they sometimes don't even handcuff the bad guys - but I love seeing the cars.

I agree with what's been said, find something simple and economical to start with. You may not have the coolest car around for awhile, but you can work your way up as time and money permit.

I won in HPOF last year for the first time and did not go to the banquet. I have been disappointed with myself ever since so I would say GO!

I look at it a few times a year but mostly it annoys me because cars are just listed willy-nilly.

I think the car next to the '53 Plymouth is a '62 Rambler American or perhaps a '61 Rambler Classic. I can't see all of the taillight so it's hard to tell but the rear fender line and what I can see of the c pillar look Rambler to me. Went back and looked again - the more I do, the more I think it is a '60 or '61 Rambler Classic.

The Canadian Pontiac from 1955-the late 60's were basically shortened Pontiac bodies on Chevrolet chassis with Chevrolet engines, transmissions, steering wheels and steering columns, the one exception being the 6 cyl. models which used the GMC truck 261 CI straight six instead of the Chevy 6 at least through 1962. This Pontiac is a '58 but it does have a '58 Chevy front clip which I would think would have bolted right on. It is not a Parisienne. All Parisiennes were completely Pontiac bodied. I believe the Parisienne was GM Canada's original answer to the Bonneville. Like the Impala and Bonneville, it became the top line model in 1959.

Re: the Pontiacs above - I'm pretty sure the Pathfinder is the base model, followed by the Strato-chief and Parisienne.

None of them look like they'd be very practical in the SNOW!

I don't remember if I answered this or not so will again - took my test on December 21, 1966 in my parent's mist blue '66 Impala sport sedan. It was the first and only new car my father ever had. They still owned it when he passed away in November 1973. My mother traded it for a '74 Dodge Dart Custom sedan in May of '74.

I have a chance to pick up a '67 Monza 4 door hardtop. It is going to auction because the owner has not paid the storage fees for the last 3 years. The person who owns the storage place is a personal Rotarian friend of mine. He has had no contact with the owner for over a year. My friend got the car out of the garage, got it running and has sent out the front bucket seats to have the seams repaired. It is silver with a black interior and was painted just before it was put in storage. The car is totally complete and shows 50,486 on the odo but there is no way to verify it although it looks like it could be original. There is no rust anywhere that my friend or I can find and I know these cars rusted around the front and rear window moldings. There is no sign of oil leakage on the engine or underneath but again, it has not been on the road for 3+ years. It has the 110 engine and powerglide. I would not take it on any long trips, just want a neat little car to putz around town with and I have always loved the second generation 4 door. Once my friend goes through the proper legal steps - which are not too complicated for this in Maine - he will put it up for bids. I don't know that he wants to make a huge profit on it, but wants to recoup the storage fees and $$ he has put into it. I'm thinking if I could pick it up for $2000-$3000 it would be a decent buy. Is there anything about these cars that I should be aware of/look for?

When I first saw this thread, my first thought was Saturn. If GM had put the billions they put into Saturn into their other divisions, they would have been far ahead of the game. I would also add the second round of downsizing of the generic full sized Buick, Olds, Pontiac and Cadillac as too much. While they were decent cars, it was the beginning of the end for Olds and Pontiac. Cadillac and Buick kind of separated themselves from that debacle in the early 90's.

It's been awhile, but I have RW, Disney World in July. We stood in line for the haunted house at 98 degrees. On the way home we stopped to visit my cousin in Moorehead City, NC and I thought it felt hotter there than Florida.

The media carries on like this has been an unusual winter. Maybe in some places, but compared to the winters I remember as a kid in the 50's - 60's, it hasn't been that bad. It's just that winters like this one have become more and more unusual over time so when we have one, everyone goes nuts over it. When we left Maine two weeks ago, we had about 2' of snow in the yard according to my measuring stick. We had had a few good snow storms, but then it would warm up and rain so we'd lose a lot. We'd have a few days of temps below zero then it would warm into the 30's before dropping again. I am glad to be in Florida for a couple of months, though.

We finally made it to Florida - plan to stay through the end of April. Absolutely beautiful today, temp around 70 and bright blue sky. I love it here, just wish I could convince my wife to stay longer than 2 months. That's her limit. Only problem is my old cars are back home in the garage in Maine and I'm not here long enough to warrant buying another to have here. I still don't understand why anyone wants to stay up north in the cold. We may get to the point that I will come down here in the fall, go home for Christmas and then come back with the wife after New Year. If I had my way, I'd sell the house in Maine, make Florida my residence and rent something for he summer in Maine.

I was going to say watch some episodes of "The FBI" with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. I believe the show was sponsored by Ford, so all the cars they used were basic Ford Galaxies and Customs, some had dog dish caps, some had full wheel covers, but I imagine they were fairly typical for the times. I always thought most "undercover" cars were whatever they had on hand that blended in for their location.

We had a heating oil delivery on December 31st - 209 gallons costing $794. They came again on February 2nd and left another 164 gallons for $667. Will probably have another delivery in April that will last until October. I figure it's going to cost us about $3600 for heat this year.

And nobody had FWD or AWD and we made out just fine,