My "G-Pa", like any self respecting gramps, drove a Crowne Vic:
Grandparents' cars.
- Thread starter imwjl
- Start date
Those cars should have come with skid plates on the front corners for when they fall over.
My grandpa drove steam locomotives.
Driver3
Tele-Meister
My maternal grandfather bought a 66 Mustang in Sauterne Gold, 289 auto.
Nice car. Grandma made him sell it because he drove it too fast.
He then bought a 67 Fairlane 500 convertible Red, black top, 289 auto.
Awesome car. The top was never lowered until they were visiting us in Florida.
I talked grandpa into lowering the top...grandma didn't realize it was a convertible till then. She about s..t!
Not his cars, representative examples.
Nice car. Grandma made him sell it because he drove it too fast.
He then bought a 67 Fairlane 500 convertible Red, black top, 289 auto.
Awesome car. The top was never lowered until they were visiting us in Florida.
I talked grandpa into lowering the top...grandma didn't realize it was a convertible till then. She about s..t!
Not his cars, representative examples.
Bob Womack
Friend of Leo's
My maternal grandfather drove a blue '54 Mercury Monterey for the entire time I knew him:
My paternal grandfather died in 1941 in a construction accident. He dated my grandmother in a buckboard pulled by a horse. My wife's grandfather dated her mother in his Stutz Bearcat.
I think my father and mother's first car together was a Kaiser Henry J. Whatever it was, after he bought it he discovered that it had cable-pull brakes, like a bicycle. He decided that simply wasn't reliable enough for his lovely new bride so he designed, built, and installed his own hydraulic brake system.
My dad was an absolute sports car nut. He had a knack for finding down-on-their luck cars and rehabilitating them. The apex of his madness was an Alfa GTV6 like this one that he bought for pennies on the dollar and rehabbed.
Bob
My paternal grandfather died in 1941 in a construction accident. He dated my grandmother in a buckboard pulled by a horse. My wife's grandfather dated her mother in his Stutz Bearcat.
I think my father and mother's first car together was a Kaiser Henry J. Whatever it was, after he bought it he discovered that it had cable-pull brakes, like a bicycle. He decided that simply wasn't reliable enough for his lovely new bride so he designed, built, and installed his own hydraulic brake system.
My dad was an absolute sports car nut. He had a knack for finding down-on-their luck cars and rehabilitating them. The apex of his madness was an Alfa GTV6 like this one that he bought for pennies on the dollar and rehabbed.
Bob
This is a rather long story about my grandfather's cars. My grandfather on my father's side started out as a Ford man. In fact, as a child he knew the Ford family and in his teens (1908) he went to work at Ford's Piquette Avenue plant as a draftsman. He then studied to be an engineer, came back in 1917 and and worked his way up in the company to supervise the construction of various manufacturing plants until Henry called him into his office on a Friday in 1928 and told him that he was sending him to Fordlandia in the Amazon on Monday. The assignment would have meant leaving my grandmother and his four young sons for a minimum of two years. He declined the assignment, and that was the end of his employment at the Ford Motor Company.
That's bit of background, now on to the cars. One of my grandfather's first assignments was drafting plans for the Model T. I have a copy of a blueprint on the wall next to me with his initials noting changes that he had made on various dates as the car was modified during the production run. I believe that my grandfather may have owned a couple of Model T's, and my Dad used to talk about one that they had at their cottage in the 1920s. My Dad also talked about the thrill of Grandpa bringing home one of the first Model A's in 1927, months before anyone else in Detroit had one. That may have been a company car, because Grandpa had a 1927 Buick. Henry would not allow him to park it outside the factory where people might see it, so he got a parking spot inside the building.
1927 Buick:
After his separation from Ford, my grandfather continued to be a loyal Buick man. The earliest Buick that I can remember was an early 1950s Roadmaster. He must have had that car when I was born in 1952 and kept it for a few years.
1951 Buick Roadmaster
I think I recall a 1959 Buick 4 door.
And his last car was a 1961 Electra that he owned when he moved in with us after Grandma died. That is probably the only one of his cars that I ever rode in. All I remember about it was the smell of his pipe and the burns in the front seat.
1961 Buck Electra
These are not actual photos of his cars, of course. I'm enjoying looking at them, though, and thinking about him. He has been gone for almost 60 years.
That's bit of background, now on to the cars. One of my grandfather's first assignments was drafting plans for the Model T. I have a copy of a blueprint on the wall next to me with his initials noting changes that he had made on various dates as the car was modified during the production run. I believe that my grandfather may have owned a couple of Model T's, and my Dad used to talk about one that they had at their cottage in the 1920s. My Dad also talked about the thrill of Grandpa bringing home one of the first Model A's in 1927, months before anyone else in Detroit had one. That may have been a company car, because Grandpa had a 1927 Buick. Henry would not allow him to park it outside the factory where people might see it, so he got a parking spot inside the building.
1927 Buick:
After his separation from Ford, my grandfather continued to be a loyal Buick man. The earliest Buick that I can remember was an early 1950s Roadmaster. He must have had that car when I was born in 1952 and kept it for a few years.
1951 Buick Roadmaster
I think I recall a 1959 Buick 4 door.
And his last car was a 1961 Electra that he owned when he moved in with us after Grandma died. That is probably the only one of his cars that I ever rode in. All I remember about it was the smell of his pipe and the burns in the front seat.
1961 Buck Electra
These are not actual photos of his cars, of course. I'm enjoying looking at them, though, and thinking about him. He has been gone for almost 60 years.
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The only car I recall him having was an Austin Morris 1100 (this is someone else's gramps in the photo)
More interesting was some of the planes he flew.
Vickers F.B.5
The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8
BE2E
Avro 504
Sopwith Camel
And, as noted on his R.F.C. record book, about a dozen others up to July 1918.
Like me, he was never too interested in automobiles.
More interesting was some of the planes he flew.
Vickers F.B.5
The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8
BE2E
Avro 504
Sopwith Camel
And, as noted on his R.F.C. record book, about a dozen others up to July 1918.
Like me, he was never too interested in automobiles.
teleforumnoob
Friend of Leo's
Maternal side:
50 something Ford stepside pickup.
Paternal side:
Studabaker Lark, then a Ford Maverick.
50 something Ford stepside pickup.
Paternal side:
Studabaker Lark, then a Ford Maverick.
imwjl
Doctor of Teleocity
The '59 is what my grandmother had before those Wildcats. I remember it visually but not the way I do the later models.
Until 1972 my parents would buy the dealer demos or cars that were dealer owner family and that included a 1962 green Electra 225.
Not long ago I caught the Rare Classic Cars YouTube guy mentioning Oldsmobile as having better or more advanced suspension than Pontiac in the '60s and some of my elders' contemporaries had that as their favorite but I was also certain the '73 Grand Am was a first for "radial tuned" suspension. The Grand Am started out as a pretty cool car vs the versions with most recognition that were poster children for GM's craptacular mediocrity.
These days other competition including the Koreans makes me wonder if GM will ever get back to product quality, innovation and design that can rival their past. I applaud Mary Barra regardless.
Very similar to the first car my maternal grandfather had, when I was born.
In Niagara County, at the International Crossing, we saw vehicles all but entirely dismantled, all the time. The most obvious target was the VW Microbus. The joke was, my schoolmate and great friend Mark bought a "Bus" because he didn't wanna be the guy driving across the border on the many, many day trips we took over into adjacent Canada. None of us wanted to test the odds, that we'd lose the entire day to reassembling that VW. But I don't know; given that we were local kids, they probably would have left us alone anyway.
GM has come a long way back already. I first became aware of it when I bought my first Volt. There is no question about the level of innovation involved, and while they had to cut some corners on that car to keep costs in line, I was impressed by fit and finish and reliability of both Volts. I saw the same thing when I began shopping for C7 Corvettes and compared them to the C6. My impression continues to be positive with my Cadillac ELR. It's just a fancy Volt, but the paint quality is beautiful and the interior is as good as most expensive imports of that year (2016.) And of course, it beats Telsa by a wide margin for fit and finish.
Some nice cars, Bob!My maternal grandfather drove a blue '54 Mercury Monterey for the entire time I knew him:
My paternal grandfather died in 1941 in a construction accident. He dated my grandmother in a buckboard pulled by a horse. My wife's grandfather dated her mother in his Stutz Bearcat.
I think my father and mother's first car together was a Kaiser Henry J. Whatever it was, after he bought it he discovered that it had cable-pull brakes, like a bicycle. He decided that simply wasn't reliable enough for his lovely new bride so he designed, built, and installed his own hydraulic brake system.
My dad was an absolute sports car nut. He had a knack for finding down-on-their luck cars and rehabilitating them. The apex of his madness was an Alfa GTV6 like this one that he bought for pennies on the dollar and rehabbed.
Bob
The Henry J had hydraulic brakes, just like every other model that K-F sold. Only the emergency brake was cable operated and yes, those could slow a light car like that if you lost a master or wheel cylinder. Same master cylinder assembly as the full sized Kaisers.
I restored a number of these Kaisers - I was even in the Kaiser Frazer Owners Club for over a decade and attended the annual convention in 1972 in Anaheim and another in Dearborn, MI in 1976 I think.
Was it a Crosley, instead? Think about it: Henry Kaiser wanted to offer this compact car on the cheap, and so he used as many vehicle systems from existing Kaiser models as he possibly could. It would've been a bear to reverse engineer the hydraulics out of a car that in many ways was just a decontented Kaiser Special or Manhattan.
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Muddyshoes
Tele-Holic
I had a 64 Buick Wildcat in 1977 to 1980 just like your picture but in blue. I was 18 at the time, best party car load up and off we go.
My Grandparents couldn't afford cars, even though I grew up in a city where vehicles were built and ownership was unusually common.
My Father didn't learn to drive, until he was 52. I didn't drive regularly, until I was in my late '30s. I guess we all had better uses for our savings. I still think of a car as a convenience, rather than a prize, or status symbol.
My Father didn't learn to drive, until he was 52. I didn't drive regularly, until I was in my late '30s. I guess we all had better uses for our savings. I still think of a car as a convenience, rather than a prize, or status symbol.
My maternal Grandfather was a Plymouth man. The car I remember the most was a huge boat of a 1970's Plymouth Fury, kind of like this:
Big 383 propelled the green sled pretty well. Chrysler AC would freeze your toes off.
I remember driving the car and almost getting it airborne off a sudden drop in the road.
Paternal Grandmother always had to have a Chevrolet Caprice, like this one:
Pathetically underpowered as all 1980's cars, it at least rode nicely.
Paternal Grandfather usually drove a farm truck - I remember an old 1949 or so GMC and later a Dodge with a 318.
Big 383 propelled the green sled pretty well. Chrysler AC would freeze your toes off.
I remember driving the car and almost getting it airborne off a sudden drop in the road.
Paternal Grandmother always had to have a Chevrolet Caprice, like this one:
Pathetically underpowered as all 1980's cars, it at least rode nicely.
Paternal Grandfather usually drove a farm truck - I remember an old 1949 or so GMC and later a Dodge with a 318.
Where's the sad imogeeeee?
The Kaiser Darrin was essentially a Henry J with a cute little fiberglass body, wasn't it?
Those vehicles don't belong outside of the carnival.
My paternal grandmother took me everywhere in her ‘55 Plymouth Savoy.
It looked very similar to this:
It looked very similar to this:
My grandfather also had a Model T he made into a pick up of sorts. He used to drive my brothers and cousins around the farm in it.
My dad’s parents cars don’t really stick out in my memory. They may have had a yellow Rambler at one point.
My dad’s parents cars don’t really stick out in my memory. They may have had a yellow Rambler at one point.
