Dosmo

Is the rear bumper on the OP car different than this one?

I would think a '57 Merc with manual transmission would be a fairly uncommon commodity. From what few photos are provided, this seems like a pretty nice Monterey.

I am envious of the great time you appear to be having on this trip. At the end of every long day, I would probably pat the car affectionately, saying "Well Done!".

Items circled in red are non-original to this car. The little molding behind the front wheel belongs to a 1954 Chrysler. Not sure if the chrome "fins" on the rear fenders are Chrysler items - regardless, they are incorrect for this car. More than likely, the sun visor is not the original type for this car, either. With that being said, I do think it is a nice-looking Windsor.

All right – I’m bored. The wife & I are taking care of her 93 year-old mother who can do very little for herself. We’re sort of stuck at home at this time – I’m not much help with her mother, but I stick pretty close to home base, in case of emergency. I hate to be one of these people who tries to start one of these long “do you remember” type threads, but I’m going a little batty. There’s very little programming on TV these days that captures my imagination, so I’m starting this string of thoughts in the hope that there might be a few who find that this strikes some sort of resonant chord. My parents were living in a small travel trailer in my maternal grandparents’ back yard after they got married in 1947. After about 5 years, my father built a small cottage on the same lot, and the trailer left the premises. My mother’s twin brothers graduated high school in 1953, the same year I came along. Right after they graduated high school, they started to accumulate a collection of old, ragged-out cars from the 1930s and ‘40s. I have often wondered if the car collection might have been one of the reasons my parents moved to a house across the street in 1954 – I guess I’ll never know. I was at my grandparents house a lot, because both of my parents had day jobs, and babysitting duty fell to my grandmother. There was a full view of the back yard from the window over the kitchen sink. The yard was bordered with a hedge. There were 4 or 5 cars sitting side-by-side, nose toward the hedge. By the time I was about 5 years old, I had grown very curious about these cars, but I can’t recall the exact make & model of a single one of them. There were driveways on either side of the house, and I knew about the cars occupying those spaces. In the left driveway - a ’36 Ford 5W coupe with a ’48 Mercury flathead in it, along with a ’49 Studebaker Pickup. In the garage on that side was a ’51 Mercury Monterey, sitting up on stands of some sort. Sometime after the '51 Monterey left, it was replaced by a '34 Ford Phaeton. My grandfather's '53 Olds 88 sedan was the daily driver for my Uncle Joe. In the right driveway – a yellow ’46 Plymouth convertible with a new white top, creamy yellow paint, fender skirts, and new leather interior. Inside the garage on that side – a ’36 Ford 2-dr sedan with a ’55 Chevrolet V8 hooked up to the original 3-speed transmission via one of those transmission adaptors from Honest Charley. The inside of this car was gutted – no floors, no seats. It sat in the garage unmoved from 1958 to 1972, when it was sold. I loved being over at my grandparents house during the day, because it just seemed like so much fun. I peppered my twin uncles with questions about all the old cars, probably to the point that grew tired of me. It just seemed so interesting and different to the environment at my parents house. When they got home from their day jobs, they were pretty worn out. I’m pretty sure I wore them out talking about the cars, too. They were completely uninterested in the cars. That is a sample of the environment where I grew up. By time I was in the 3rd grade or so, and to the amazement of some of my classmates, I could identify just about any car that traveled up & down my street. I would imagine some of these same circumstances might apply to a good number of those on this forum. Hope some of you will chime in.

A nice variety of cars - thanks for posting the photos.

And, does this car really have power disk/disc brakes? If it does, I'm thinking they've been added, along with the vinyl top. With all that being said, I like the car, weird color and all, just not $35,000 worth.

Dang - I'm so sorry - I enjoy checking into this thread every day or two to see what is happening with this car. I'm so fond of this era of Pontiac. Maybe it won't be as bad as it seems that it could be.

Ouch! Sorry to see this - guess it could have been worse.

The "fins" on this Packard remind me of those on the '57 Dodge. They seem so similar, especially when viewed strictly from the rear of the car. I think Duncan McRae was the lead designer at Packard during the last years. I wonder if he was thinking about Exner's Mopar designs when he came up with the Packard fins?

Nice survivor! I like the looks of this car, and, I personally prefer the looks of the white "spats" with black tires over actual wide whitewalls.

I'm not gonna address the original subject of this thread, which asks the question of whether or not I would convert an old car from ICE to electric or hybrid. But, I am gonna address the above quote. I keep hearing people saying that hybrid vehicles are slow to accelerate. My wife was talking to a guy who worked at the grocery store, who was bitching about the price of gas, along with everything else. She may not have used the best judgment when she mentioned that she drives a hybrid and doesn't have to fill up with gas as often as she did when her car was powered only by an ICE. This guy went off, telling her that she'd better watch it in that hybrid or she'd get run over by a real car, since hybrids are so slow. She told him that her hybrid was faster by a good bit than the gas-powered car she'd driven previously. For the last 5 years, we've driven a 2015 Toyota Camry Hybrid. We love the car, and one of the things we love is how quick the car is from a dead stop. It's got an amazing amount of torque when required to accelerate quickly, especially when merging into traffic. I can't speak to how other hybrids perform, but I can definitely attest to being very pleased with the performance of this Camry Hybrid. My one issue with this particular car is that the drive train seems noisy.

Here you go....

Here you go.....

NP ad from 1970

From 1953, "Angel Face" starred Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons. Simmons' parents drive a '51/52 Chrysler convertible. She fiddles with the transmission linkage on the Chrysler, so that when her father puts the car in gear to go forward, he doesn't realize the transmission is in reverse, and the car goes backwards off a steep cliff. The only thing is, as the car goes backwards, it changes from a '51 Chrysler to a 47/48 Buick convertible as it goes off the edge of the cliff. Looking at some still photos of the footage, one can see that the Buick has had the "V" trunk emblem added from a Chrysler, as well as different tail lights in an attempt to mask the fact that it is not the same car as the one at the beginning of the scene. It surprises me that the studio would have taken even these measures to try to fool the audience.

Is this shade of green a factory color? I’m thinking I’ve seen Mopars from this era in a hue very similar to this one. I like the way it looks on this particular car, but then again, I’ve always liked dark green.

This looks like a nicely preserved wagon, though I wish a little more background/info had been provided. The seller states the car has less than 37,000 original miles. I wonder if that is accurate. Would the material on the side of the transmission hump next to the accelerator pedal be worn this much with so few miles? Would the ribbing on the brake pedal be showing signs of wear on the bottom right with such low mileage? I guess it's possible. Sun and heat can go a long way towards causing the material on the hump to dry up and come apart. Regardless of whether it is 36,937 or 136,937 miles, these photos show what appears to be a well maintained, everyday workingman's station wagon from the '50s. It would be interesting to see some closer detail photos of the interior and the underneath. I'm quite taken with the looks of this car.

The appeal of this Dodge could be somewhat enhanced by putting the original wheels & wheel covers back on the car. It does seem to be in fairly good shape. However, for $15,000, more photos of possible problem rust areas should be provided. Speakers in the rear floorboard? That sounds like something I did when I was 18 years old. For some reason, I'm a little leery of this beast.

In the early '90s, there was a '51 Chrysler Imperial Station Wagon advertised in a publication, possibly Hemmings Motor News. At that time, I didn't know much about these cars. I showed the ad to my uncle, who ended up buying the car. Shortly afterwards, we realized that someone had mounted a Chrysler Windsor Station body on the Imperial frame, and advertised it as an Imperial Station Wagon. I don't know the circumstances that led to the station wagon body being attached to the Imperial chassis and drive train. The car had been assembled for some time when we bought it circa 1991. For whatever reason, the entire chassis & drive train of this particular Imperial was chosen as a platform for the station wagon body. It stung, but it was a valuable and instructive lesson. I learned to consult automotive reference books BEFORE buying cars.

Nice mix of cars!

Putting aside the issue of provenance, I like the looks of this truck and I would be proud to own it. I prefer originality in most vehicles, but these body modifications appear to be well done.

1940 Ford Standard. Standard has a 1939 type grill, where 1940 DeLuxe is quite different.

Enlarging the original photo, as you can see, causes it to distort and become blurry. The original poster mentioned spending time pulling the finish off the rear bumper. Here is a view of the rear end of a '38 Lafayette. Credit for the photo goes to Velocity Automotive Journal.