Tag: Classic Cars.com

AutoHunter Spotlight: 1934 Ford De Luxe Coupe with Rumble Seat – Diego Rosenberg @ClassicCars.com

AutoHunter Spotlight: 1934 Ford De Luxe Coupe with Rumble Seat – Diego Rosenberg @ClassicCars.com

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Featured on AutoHunter, the online auction platform driven by ClassicCars.com, is this five-window 1934 Ford De Luxe Coupe with rumble seat. Though with the current seller for 28 years, it was restored under previous ownership. Of course, this Ford is powered by a flathead V8 backed by a three-speed manual transmission. Features include simulated woodgrain dashboard, tilt-out windshield and four-piece hood. Finished in black over a tan cloth interior, this Ford coupe comes with a clear Texas title.

The Black exterior is highlighted by chrome grille, headlight buckets and horns. Additional features include dual cowl lamps, brown vinyl rumble seat, tan accent stripes, color-matched rear spare tire cover and rubber running board flooring.

The interior is upholstered in tan cloth. Features include simulated woodgrain dashboard panel, window reveal moldings, vintage AM radio and floor-mounted three-speed manual transmission shifter.

The instrument panel includes a 90-mph speedometer, and gauges for the fuel level and amps. The true mileage on this vehicle is unknown.

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AutoHunter Spotlight: 1936 Ford Deluxe Roadster -David P. Castro @Classic Cars.com

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Featured on AutoHunter, the online auction platform driven by ClassicCars.com, is this 1936 Ford Deluxe Roadster.

The maroon lacquer with red pinstriping exterior was reportedly repainted several years ago. It features a 4-piece hood, chrome bumpers, a chrome grille, dual headlights with body-color buckets, and a tilting windshield.

It rides on black steel wheels with V8-logo center caps, trim rings, and whitewall bias-ply tires.

“The bench seat, interior trim, and door panels are upholstered in brown vinyl,” the listing states. “Features include a tan vinyl floor mat and a floor-mounted manual shifter. Additional features include a keyed steering wheel lock, an original AM radio with a speaker, a body-color steel dashboard with a simulated woodgrain fascia, and a brown 3-spoke banjo steering wheel. The seller notes that some seams on the base of the driver’s seat are coming apart.”

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Pick of the Day: 1935 Jensen-Ford woody wagon, only surviving example – Bob Golfen @ClassicCars.com

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Most of us remember the Jensen brand from the 1960s and ‘70s, when it was equipping its British grand touring cars with American V8s, as well as providing the bones for the Jensen-Healey sports car. 

But the Pick of the Day, a 1935 Jensen-Ford Shooting Brake, is a rare oddball that shows Jensen’s ingenuity from the prewar era.  While the appearance seems like the kind of woody wagon that might have been built on a Rolls-Royce or Bentley chassis, a peak under the hood reveals a Ford flathead V8.

“This exceptionally rare Jensen-Ford Shooting Brake is the sole surviving example of an estimated two or three built in 1935,” according to the St. Louis, Missouri, dealer advertising the wagon on ClassicCars.com. “Based on a Canadian Ford Model 48 V8 chassis, it is one of the twenty-odd Fords imported and bodied by Jensen in the ‘30s.

“However, Jensen did much more than simply tack a new body onto the existing frame – to achieve their desired look and lower center of gravity, they repositioned the engine and lowered/raked the radiator, resulting in a dramatic and sporty appearance.”

This unusual shooting brake, as the British call 2-door wagons, was nearly lost to the ages after being stored away for more than 20 years.

“In the early 1980s, the car resurfaced via a Jensen Owner’s Club UK newsletter article, describing a wood-bodied Jensen in a complete but rather sorry state, lurking in a garage in Dorking, Surrey,” the seller explains. “With the threat of the car being sent to the breaker’s yard, the author issued a plea to save it.

“Help arrived when the owner contacted a fellow Jensen Club member for a valuation. When he saw the car sitting in the junkyard, he immediately decided to buy it and bring it home for restoration. A piano restorer by trade, the new owner painstakingly refurbished the ash framework, taking great strides to preserve as much of the original wood as possible.

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Pick of the Day: 1941 Ford 2-door coupe with classic car finance lesson – Tyson Hughie @ClassicCars.com

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Restoration expenses once again far outstrip the value of the finished product

If there’s anything that owning a “project vehicle” has taught anyone, it’s that restoration work almost always ends up being much-more expensive than originally anticipated.  And while it’s rewarding to be part of an extreme makeover, sometimes it means taking a loss when it comes time to part ways and offer that vehicle up to the collector marketplace.

Many classified listings these days include some variation of the phrase, “You can’t build it for what I’m asking.”  And that statement rings painfully true in many cases

A private seller on ClassicCars.com in Longview, Texas, is offering an 80-year-old custom Ford at a fraction of the investment that it took to restore.  The Pick of the Day is a red 1941 Ford Super Deluxe two-door coupe complete with receipts totaling $100,000 and a selling price that is significantly lower.

“The price to build was right at $100k,” the listing states.  “Invoices are available which will list all of the individual components plus the shop labor hours.” 

The rebuilt Jasper flathead engine alone, now having accrued only a few hundred miles since installation, reflected an expenditure in excess of $10,000, according to the ad.

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Pick of the Day: Toronado was another Olds innovation – Larry Edsall @ClassicCars.com

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Ah, Oldsmobile, how we miss you… Pity that when General Motors decided to pull the plug on one of its brands, you had the fewest dealers to pay off, so it didn’t matter that you also had a better fleet of vehicles across the board than any of your fellow GM divisions.

You introduced the Hydra-Matic transmission way back in 1940, and the Rocket V8 soon after World War II. In 1995, you gave us the Aurora, perhaps the last great American car design. And in 1966, you introduced the Toronado, the first full-size American car driven by its front wheels since the 1936 Cord.

The Pick of the Day is a 1969 Oldsmobile Toronado. The car got some styling updates that year and a power upgrade with an optional 455cid V8 rated at 400 horsepower

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My Classic Car: Restoring Mom and Dad’s original ’65 Chevelle – @ClassicCars.com

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On July 8, 1965, my Dad purchased a brand new 1965 Chevelle Malibu SS. This was his first new car purchased off the lot and, oddly, has been the only new car he has ever purchased. He paid $3,262.45 for the car.

He then married my Mom in November of that same year. This car was very special to my Dad and Mom and we have great pictures of their adventures.

Shortly after their honeymoon, my Mom became pregnant and my oldest brother was on the horizon. He was born in ’67 and soon after, Mom and Dad learned of twins coming. The discussion turned back to the two-door coupe, and my Mom and Dad decided to sell the Chevelle to accommodate the future family.

My Mom shared with us kids growing up that she saw Dad’s emotions only a few times. One of those times was the day he had to sell his Chevelle.

As it often happens, life throws a few curves at families. My Dad’s youngest brother Paul was killed in a car accident in 1970. This event, and a few others, changed my Mom and Dad’s lives and began to shape our family’s future in ways we had yet to understand.

By 1971, our family now had three boys and one girl. My Dad was working a solid career with a Minnesota-based company and had the typical Minnesota family.

My parents attended a Lowell Lundstrom religious crusade, and through the message they heard, they committed their lives to serving God daily and through ministry. In 1974, my Dad left his job and moved the family to Dallas, Texas to attend Bible college and become a full-time pastor. He arrived back in our hometown of Sunburg, Minnesota, in 1976, and pioneered Sunburg Community Bible Church.

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Pick of the Day: 1931 Packard 833 phaeton ready to drive – Tom Stahler @ClassicCars.com

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“Ask the man who owns one,” rang the famous advertising slogan for Packard, in testament to their value and reliability.  Cherished by many collectors today, Packard reminds us of simpler times and automotive amenities for those who truly appreciated them.

The Pick of the Day is a 1931 Packard 833 phaeton advertised by a dealer in Macedonia, Ohio, on ClassicCars.com. The car appears to be a lovely tourer, and as the seller declares, “this is a car to drive, not to show.” I have always believed cars were meant to be driven, and this ancient example from Detroit’s golden age would be quite fun.

In the 2000s, when I still lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago, I was privileged to meet and get to know a local guy who had amassed quite a car collection. Packard people know him well. His name is Paul TerHorst. He inspired my appreciation for Packard and other prewar cars. He too liked to drive and he gave me the opportunity to drive some of his fabulous cars, including a completely original (patina and all) 1957 Corvette, an unrestored 1932 Auburn phaeton and numerous Packards.

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It’s the roads, not the vehicle that make the trip worth taking – Larry Edsall @ClassicCars.com

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This may seem strange coming from someone who has made his living for the past 30-plus years writing about cars, but while working on Our Favorite Roads series, I realized that what makes the trip isn’t the car you’re driving but the roads you’re traveling.
In most cases.
Certainly, there are exceptions. There are roads best-appreciated in a sports car, or at least in a convertible with the top down. There are roads you best not even consider unless you have a serious sport utility vehicle, I’m talking here about the likes of a Jeep Wrangler or Hummer H3 or a Land Rover or at least a 4×4 pickup truck, and perhaps the next-generation Ford Bronco, though that is yet to be determined.
There also are exceptions involving traveling companions and destinations, or in some cases the people awaiting your arrival at your destination make the drive worthwhile regardless of the roadways

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Meet the Father of NOS: Mike Thermos – Tom Stahler @ClassicCars.com

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Nitrous Oxide (N2O), has been a performance enhancer to piston-driven engines going all the way back to World War II. The guy behind the widespread use of Nitrous Oxide in dragsters and street racers with NOS is Mike Thermos. While Mike isn’t a household name, in the car world, his contribution is revered.

Consider the scene in the very first The Fast and the Furious where we are introduced to Brian O’Connor, who working as an undercover cop out of a speed shop. The youngster needs an add-on edge in street racing. “I need NOS!

He tells us his story…

“Well, nitrous oxide was, was kind of an underground trick for some of the guys. They had learned that you can squirt a little bit in, and it picked the car up.  In NASCAR, they used the stuff for many years.”

“It came from the Germans actually, during World War II, where they’d put it in the planes that would go high altitude, they needed oxygen. But then the jet came in and the jet took over and all the technology kind of just fell by the wayside for propeller type of plane. The Americans did it too. I read all that history on it. At the time, I had a tune-up shop and a funny car. I had been through the whole gamut and it was eating me out of house and home.”

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Pick of the Day: 1928 Pierce-Arrow Series 80 rumble-seat roadster – Bob Golfen @ClassicCars.com

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Pierce-Arrow was one of the greatest luxury brands from its start in 1901 until its demise in 1938, building a succession of advanced automobiles of all kinds, as well as trucks, buses, boats and motorcycles of the highest order.

The Buffalo, New York, automaker was in its heyday when it produced the Pick of the Day, a 1928 Pierce-Arrow Series 80 rumble-seat roadster.  This sporty number would have been the cat’s pajamas while touring speakeasies, impressing the sheiks and flappers alike.

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