JamesR

Like Route 66 and the Lincoln Highway, the Alaskan Highway is one of those iconic North American roads I'd love to travel someday...but only in JULY. 😉 Thanks for posting the great postcard.

This '55 is a presentable driver, and if it runs/drives good, would make a fun boutique store promotional vehicle to park out in front of the shop or something. My RW isn't as practical as a four door wagon or a van, but still has some utility. Unfortunately, I never had the time to refurbish it while I had my business...I had to retire first. As much as I've loved two door wagons all my life, my dream wagon now would be a '57 Buick Caballero or something. Or maybe a Country Squire version of this Ford. I think this RW is cool, but will likely end up selling for several thousand less than the asking price.

Old architecture often makes old cars look more appealing, even if it's not from the same era. Love the house!

Some other revolutionary American cars: -The Model A wasn't as revolutionary as the Model T, but I think it's really important because Ford came up with a second home run in a row. -The first gen. T-Bird was revolutionary; it showed how appealing the two seater format could be to the US public at large. Not everyone could buy one, but everyone wanted one. -1955 Chevy because of the small block. -Oh, and the '32 Ford for obvious reasons.

Yes, I also hope the VW was unoccupied. How terrible.

I liked the word "container" 😄. That's a new one on me. I think the Plymouth convertible is cool and I like it, but the speedometer shot of him doing 53 mph is about right.

Frank, when I say leave it in the cooling system a while, I mean longer than a week or two. Ed suggested all season long. My location gets colder than the place you list as your location, so I always make sure I have antifreeze protection in winter, and that means removing and flushing out EvapoRust before putting in antifreeze. Where I'm at that means getting cars antifreeze protected before November at the latest. So it is kind of a hassle having to change out coolant for an EvapoRust treatment. It's my impression that it helps noticeably with water jacket rust, though. I haven't needed to do the treatment for a few years now. BTW, EvapoRust makes a product specifically for cooling systems in cars...I think it's formulated for shorter use time. I just use regular EvapoRust over longer periods.

Imagine William Shatner looking out his plane window and seeing one of these. Horrifying!!

I used EvapoRust at Ed's recommendation a few years ago on the rusty water jackets of my '54 Ford and it seemed to work well. I haven't noticed much evidence of rust in the coolant since then, but you have to keep EvapoRust in there for a while and run the car regularly. I'll probably flush the rad and block and try the treatment again in a few years to keep on top of things.

Warning: replacing vinyl tops on these cars is deceptively complicated. Requires disassembly of much of the rear part of the interior, and the shop manual provides little guidance. Don't ask me how I know this.

I bought a running driving '68 Dodge Charger for $87.50. Actually, my brother and I each paid $87.50 for a total of $175. It was rusty with bondo, and barely ran, but it did run. This was back in the early '80's. I thought we held the record for the lowest priced running non-gifted Dodge Charger of that gen, but recently I saw on the youtube channel "Uncle Tony's Garage" that Tony bought one for 20 bucks back in the day. People forget how common, beat up and even undesirable these cars used to be in the eyes of the general population. Speaking of my brother, he bought a two door '55 Chevy for $60 in 1969 - his first car. It had dents and a straight six, but he drove it to high school. Same deal as the Charger: once tri-fives got to be 10 - 15 years old and well used, they lost most of their value to most people.

Yes I do. And maybe also a little Chrysler Airflow in there, at least visually.

Thanks for the education, folks. Like Andrew, I was unaware of this. I think Chevy did a similar thing with pickups in '55. Are these delayed introductions due to supply chain issues? Retooling issues? I like the car, too, though I'm not crazy about the simplistic two tone paint scheme. Seems like a good price for a running example of this fantastic body style.

Yes, I haven't had the oil bath air filter on my '54 for close to 20 years. Oil was leaking out of the original, and the non-original replacement gives full access to everything on the engine without removing the filter. Sometimes practicality determines your path. The paint on this sedan looks to be a very nicely applied Highland Green over very straight body surfaces. It's a big part of the reason the car looks so good. My '54 was originally this color, but the guy who repainted it used an approximation. My wish is to get it repainted in the original color some day. I'd say the new buyer got a good deal if it was as the seller said. The only thing I'd prefer is a manual transmission with overdrive.

Love the photos. Thanks! The last photo in this group (of the Shell station) shows a style of station that, while old, is recent enough for my city to still have a few of examples in existence. They're either owned by independent auto repair outfits, or sell some sort of specialty product that can't be purchased at your typical convenience store gas station. (One of them in my city sells 100 octane racing gas.) There are also a few abandoned stations in this style which will probably be removed before long too. I don't think much about them when I drive by, as they honestly aren't much to look at, but when they are all torn down it'll be the end of an era, and that's sad.

Amazing about the Plymouth in the cold case. I'm glad that justice prevailed. Another good reason not to crush old cars...which is a crime in and of itself! 😉

Bidding got up to $9800. Auction was ended because seller apparently sold the car to a local buyer.

Thanks for the post, Rocketraider. Did any of you ever have this option back in the day? Did it work? (I.E., was it effective at all in snow?) I like how the rear tire she's spraying it on isn't even a snow tire. 🙂

I agree. I didn't want to present the ad in a negative light - it's a cool Chrysler - but there are too many sellers who believe their somewhat unique old vehicle will sell itself, so they don't have to do much. I'll NEVER understand the strategy of not telling prospective online buyers whether an antique car runs or not. It's my impression that that approach is more frustrating than enticing, but maybe I'm wrong. And again, why are doors and hoods left slightly open in some ads? Is it to show they aren't rusted shut or something??? This car is remarkable in some ways, but the seller is unremarkable in many ways. Sorry, but it needs to be said. My guess is that most of the bidders are local folks who've seen the car. I wouldn't bid on it without inspection.

I was expecting most of the responses on this thread to be "run away screaming from such products" or something. Over this summer or last, my '54 was exhibiting signs of a rear main seal leak in the engine. The leak was always there but it seemed worse at the time, then got better. I bought the two products shown below (Bars and Blue Devil) for rear main seal leaks, but never got up the nerve to use them. (I think I'd heard Ford still used rope seals on the rear main in '54, and didn't know how these products would work on rope.) Has anyone tried them before? Do they work? If not, do they make the problem worse?

Prayers sent to Trey for his recovery.

That's amazing. What an incredible perspective to get from such a directly connected historical figure. Have you ever written any articles about this? I don't necessarily mean car related. It may be a bit OT, but I don't see Urrutia's post-Batista role as being sinister. He saw the bad side of the revolution earlier than many, and Batista himself was very flawed. Even our own President at the time (Ike) was fooled by Castro early on.

Very interesting and radical. If the ad hadn't revealed the car's origins I never would've guessed it was a '55 Chevy. The dashboard is the only conspicuous clue, at least to my uneducated eyes. I wouldn't be surprised if the Barris connection gets the asking price, but like I said, I know little about this stuff.

Great car. I love '54 Skyliners, too, but the Sun Valley really was a cut above the Ford, at least in some of the styling flourishes. The steering column control panel screams, "I'm an airline pilot!" 😄

Speaking of which, here's a pic of the rear air conditioning housing. It also looks to be in great shape. I'm pretty sure the '61 Dodge wagon we had when I was a kid didn't have one of these (but it did have A/C.)