How many us tv collectors have one of these?
this tv is actually tvtimeisfun's (no its not for sale ive tried :D)
this is a 1959 rca coffee table set
it works all the way...

I like it!

Is this the model that the screen part folds up & out of the way when its not being watched ?

It's got one of them new-fangled Visters in the frunt end!

Got one. Check out this old thread for photos. RCA Hillsborough TV

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=245978

this one powers up, and works all the way, i saw a picture on it myself!

Is this the model that the screen part folds up & out of the way when its not being watched ?

yes, it is the folding model

Here is mine.

I saw one of these in the house of a midcentury collector here in Sacramento and loved it!

What is the chassis# ? You can't have too many RCA Televisions!

TVTIME, you might need to re-do this in the classified ads.

A friend of mine had a set like this. One of the counterbalance springs broke, and when they went to lower the screen into the cabinet... WHAM! All I can recall was a loud WOOSH of air. I was around 14 years old at the time... a long long time ago...

Here is mine.

What was that episode of the Outer Limits? Was that the one where the TV Station Guys had trapped an alien with their broadcast equipment?

I remember it scared the heck out of me...:smoke:

"The Galaxy Being"! A good episode!

I think that was the pilot episode?

I think that was the pilot episode?

That was indeed the very first episode.

LOVE that one.....It's the very one the whole "...we control the vertical!' dialogue sort of COMES from..and that sound and sine-wave :-)

It's a very "television set centric" episode...where the TV plays a very central role.

It's also SCARY AS HELL when you see it and you are like SIX :-P

I was an adult the first time I saw "The Galaxy Being" uncut, unedited, on 16mm film, and it scared the crap out of me.

I loved the idea of the on-air talent being able to control the power level from the studio like that. Good 1960's Television!

Very cool TVs. I'm also big fan of the original Outer Limits. My favorite episode was "The Zanti Misfits".

The Outer Limits was/is my favorite sci-fi show by a wide margin. You guys are correct, this was the pilot episode.

Cliff Robertson "modified" his radio transmitter at his radio station, KXKVI, to send signals to outer space. It kind of worked like a prehistoric Skype except that his equipment could decode the aliens voice and his to the alien also. He had to go to a business dinner while he was in communication with the alien. His fill in disc jockey, I believe it was Gene Buddy Maxwell (love the name), saw the transmitter was turned down (he didn't realize that most of the power was being used to keep the alien in communication) and cranked it back up. This ended up sucking the alien through space and into Cliff's lab. The alien then had a interesting walk through town, to make a long story, short.

There was always a message at the end of each episode. Usually on how mankind could/should be better.

There was ONE "O/L" episode I can just BARELY remember- I was 6,7, maybe 8 at the time...But there were these pancake-like thingies that apparently jumped on yer back, made this incredibly AWFUL "Gushing" noise, & then turned you into Their Slave...I remember one of 'em jumpin' on the Heroine, her SCREAMING, & the Hero yankin' it off...Don't remember anything more than that...Anybody know which one I'm tryin' to describe ? My NOW fave episodes would hafta be "Zanti Misfits" & "A Feasability Study",'cause they have Suicide-Door Lincolns in 'em...(grin)

It's also SCARY AS HELL when you see it and you are like SIX :-P

The pilot debuted in September 1963. I researched it, then watched the pilot again, on Hulu.

I was seven at the time...:smoke:

I've known a few radio engineers, TV, too, and sometimes I was truly impressed with little electronic gagetry that they could just 'throw together.'

There was ONE "O/L" episode I can just BARELY remember- I was 6,7, maybe 8 at the time...But there were these pancake-like thingies that apparently jumped on yer back, made this incredibly AWFUL "Gushing" noise, & then turned you into Their Slave...I remember one of 'em jumpin' on the Heroine, her SCREAMING, & the Hero yankin' it off...Don't remember anything more than that...Anybody know which one I'm tryin' to describe ? My NOW fave episodes would hafta be "Zanti Misfits" & "A Feasability Study",'cause they have Suicide-Door Lincolns in 'em...(grin)

I think that's "The Invisibles" featureing Richard Dawson

http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/56713.jpg http://www.homevideos.com/freezes-outerlimits/OL-TheInvisibles13.jpeg http://apemania.com/RESTORATIONS/INVISIBLES.jpg

The Zanti Misfits were creating using stop motion animation by the great Ray Harryhausen.

http://membracid.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/zanti3.png

That thing looks like the game COOTIE......gone BAD!!!!

Total destruction to anyone who invades our privacy! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyvR-lQwNzM)

Reminded me of the Star Trek original series episode with the flying amoebas
http://www.theviewscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/operationannihilate1-300x227.jpg "Operation Annihilate"

"The Outer Limits" is fun to watch. I have the first season on my iPod, and plug it into the TV collection. Looks like they had sort of a stock company of actors, and used guest starts to play featured characters. Good show! :thmbsp:
Also, would love to be a steward for a while of one of those RCA "table" TVs.

The "Outer Limits" was, at once, AWFULLY Good & AWFULLY Bad. Dark, murky storylines, dark, murky photography, hysterical music, "Horror Show" cliches, $1.98 props...You can make a good case for sheer awfulness or sheer GREATNESS using any aspect of it. Guess that's why, nearly 50 years on, all us 55-year-old, "7 year old boys at heart" STILL love it..

Very well put.

Remember though, they had to put together everything for a show in one week. Then completely start over, every week. Every show, every location was different, although I think I've seen the same 1958 Plymouth drive by on a number of different shows. I think, given the time restrictions, no computer generation stuff, etc, that they did an amazing job. All this was thought up and built from scratch, in a very short period of time. Some of the monsters look pretty hokey in today's world but at the time, it worked. And it's still great TV today.

Very well put.

Remember though, they had to put together everything for a show in one week. Then completely start over, every week. Every show, every location was different, although I think I've seen the same 1958 Plymouth drive by on a number of different shows. I think, given the time restrictions, no computer generation stuff, etc, that they did an amazing job. All this was thought up and built from scratch, in a very short period of time. Some of the monsters look pretty hokey in today's world but at the time, it worked. And it's still great TV today.

Yep...That's part & parcel of what I meant...The show just has this gritty, realistic, "Shirtsleeves" sort of feeling to it...The first season, when Leslie Stevens & Joe Stefano were running things has adifferent feel than when Ben Brady took over, but to say the Brady shows weren't as good as the Stevens/Stefano shows would be an injustice.. I never really bothered to try to catch the 1980s-90s versions...They, and virtually ALL the "Updated" shows miss the point of series like this...They try to bee TOO "Revelant", too "PC", too "Touchy-Feely" and all that other modern day sensibility garbage. The purpose of these shows is to CLEVERLY scare the living PHUCK outta little boys...Not show what a caring, wise & wonderful female Captain of a crashed spaceship can do for all the creatures around her..

I've got the entire set of three seasons on DVD. I remember watching the Outer Limits on my parent's old 23 inch blonde B&W set when I was 4-5 years old back in 62-63. It scared the Hell out of me, and I LOVED it. Actually, thinking back, I'm kind of amazed they let me watch. :scratch2:

The end credit theme song is, IMHO, the coolest one ever and takes me back 50 years whenever I hear it.

I watched Outer Limits on our Hoffman when I was a kid. I think Galaxy Being is my favorite episode.
I read where the network and the producers were often at odds about how scary to make the show. The network wanted the "guy in a rubber suit" type of monsters. They had to be scary, but not too scary; just scary enough. I guess a lot of the really good stuff was rejected because either it was too creepy, in poor taste for TV back then, or was too expensive.

I love the Control Voice intro in those early episodes

Every show, every location was different, although I think I've seen the same 1958 Plymouth drive by on a number of different shows.

You mean, one of these?:smoke:

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj7/300cSRT8_photos/Vintage%20Admiral%20TV%20-%20Childhood/scan0001-3.jpg

Paint it red and RUN LIKE HELL!!! :D

SR

Paint it red and RUN LIKE HELL!!! :D

SR

No! She's one of the Good Ones. And she's a real '58 Fury, not a clone.

And, she's just about perfect.:smoke:

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj7/300cSRT8_photos/1958%20Plymouth%20Fury/scan0001-4.jpg

There was a '58 Fury that lived across the street from me when I was a kid. Don't remember it ever EATING/KILLING anybody..

I LOVED the MoPar's with fins... I had a '57 Dodge, and the fins started in the middle of the back seat doors! Beautiful concept!!

Before the movie, I never saw a '58 Plymouth eat anything, besides gasoline.

I LOVED the MoPar's with fins... I had a '57 Dodge, and the fins started in the middle of the back seat doors! Beautiful concept!!

Before the movie, I never saw a '58 Plymouth eat anything, besides gasoline.

continuing off topic but I can't help it...someone said the M-word
I had a Red Fury II, about 15 years newer with the 440-4BBL "U" code engine, that killed MANY gallons of gas.:sigh: When the secondaries opened, you could hear the entire Persian Gulf give a cheer! I safely hauled consoles in the trunk.:D There was a white one in the movie "Prom Night"

I LOVED the MoPar's with fins... I had a '57 Dodge, and the fins started in the middle of the back seat doors! Beautiful concept!!

Before the movie, I never saw a '58 Plymouth eat anything, besides gasoline.

Hehehehe...A couple guys here had one of the low-line 2 door sedans, painted it DAY-GLO orange, rigged it up where the steering wheel was in the back seat, & completely de-chromed it...They got away w/it until some little old lady tripped & broke her ankle while coming down the steps of the post office, trying to cypher it out...The cops told them to fix it back, which they did..

You mean, one of these?:smoke:

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj7/300cSRT8_photos/Vintage%20Admiral%20TV%20-%20Childhood/scan0001-3.jpg

It don't get much better than this. And if I ever get to Worcester, Mass, I will beg for a ride :thmbsp:

Yeah, that's the real deal...

No Lee, I think it was like a Savoy 4 door sedan with a dent in the door. Yours is much nicer.

Car crash scenes are funny sometimes on many shows as someone will be driving a 1962 that will turn into a 1955 when it goes off the cliff.....:smoke:

Or a Boeing 727...that turns into a 747...and then lands as a Tristar, and is later sitting at the gate as a 767 :-P

...Or the Infamous Ominous Big Black Mercury on "Hawaii 50" that magically "Time-Shifted" back 'n' forth between 1968 & 1974...THAT had to be an intentional "Goof" on the part of the show's producers..

In the pilot episode, Jack drove a 1967 Marquis fastback 2 door hardtop. After that he drove the 1968 Park Lane 4 door hardtop that most people remember, at least for the first couple of years. But every once in a while you would see a clip of that 67 go by and then he got out of the 68. The cars were very similar and only one year apart but the roofs were completely different. This was even in the first year. I heard it explained once that filming in Hawaii wasn't all that cheap so they cut corners when they could. Still, all in all, another great show from the past and that Mercury was a good lookin' car, both of em.

The episodes Sandy is talking about are almost comical. Completely different bodies, etc. The only things in common were both were made by Ford and both were black.

Hehehe...Yeah, I whined, wheedled, held my breath, & big-dealed my parents into a '67 Colony Park...I wanted a Lincoln, but my dad said "No Way," he couldn't afford a Lincoln...So he bought a '68 250 SE Mercedes instead...Hey Henry, DON'T try to bullshit yer Son..ESPECIALLY if he was a full-blown, consumate Car Nut, like I was...Anyhow, yeah, the 1967 & '68 full-size Mercs were very different...Even accounting for the Federal side-lites & stuff. We traded the '67 on a '71 Colony Park, this time they DID get the vinyl roof...I was somewhat mollified.

When you're a kid, watching tv shows and movies, and you know cars in detail, you can pick apart just about any continuity error.:smoke:

It don't get much better than this. And if I ever get to Worcester, Mass, I will beg for a ride :thmbsp:

Yeah, that's the real deal...

Sure. I'll treat you to a few 3-2 kickdowns, WOT.:smoke:

Absolutely! B movies were the greatest. Someone would be driving a 1953 Ford, lose control, and a 1937 Nash would go over a cliff.

Hehehe...Yeah, I whined, wheedled, held my breath, & big-dealed my parents into a '67 Colony Park...I wanted a Lincoln, but my dad said "No Way," he couldn't afford a Lincoln...So he bought a '68 250 SE Mercedes instead...Hey Henry, DON'T try to bullshit yer Son..ESPECIALLY if he was a full-blown, consumate Car Nut, like I was...Anyhow, yeah, the 1967 & '68 full-size Mercs were very different...Even accounting for the Federal side-lites & stuff. We traded the '67 on a '71 Colony Park, this time they DID get the vinyl roof...I was somewhat mollified.

Wood sides and the third seat too??........:D

Wood sides and the third seat too??........:D

You KNOW it...The '67 had these 2 "Jump seats"-they were OK for little kids, but that was about it. I was 10 when they got the '67, it had "Power Locks" on the doors. Kewl ! It was in the summer when we got it, Vacation Bible School time. The preacher's son, Johnny Rhea, was my buddy, I couldn't WAIT to show off "My" new car...We got in it, & ran the locks back 'n' forth,like 2 little boys would, well, they quit workin...Oh, SHIT ! Tore up Mama's Bran-New Car, & it not even a WEEK old...We put our tails between our legs, went in & told Johnny's daddy, the preacher...Dr Rhea became like an Old Testament prophet, full of Fire 'n' Brimstone...We then told Mama-I KNEW I was gonna DIE... A quick call to the Ford dealership assured ua that we'd just run out the vacuum, it would be FINE as soon as the car started up...Which it was. But, OMG, was Yr Humble Narrator sweatin' Bullets there for awhile...Preacher was MAD, Mama was MAD, & HENRY, my Dad, would have, Well, I don't wanna THINK what The Big H woulda done...

Too funny. Wonderful story.......

Our neighbors had a Country Squire with those little back seats and the tailgate that opened like a door. Quite the thing in the sixties.

I like how this thread has gone from an RCA end table TV to "The Outer Limits" to 1958 Plymouths to late sixties Mercurys to Ford wagons....:D

Yeah...We're a Wide-Rangin' Sort,ain't we ?!? Hell, I'm a MODERATOR...I'm SPOSED to be stoppin' this stuff..But its been INFINITELY interesting, y'know ?!?

Yes it has. It's surprising what we can remember sometimes (if we want to, like my wife says).

..And when you have 55 years of memories stored up,its DIFFICULT to keep 'em from comin' out..That 1967 incident seems like it happend LAST year..

1 ranch wagon and 2 LTD country squires back in the day :D


SR

Fiddling with vacuum power door locks...hmmm.

If my father ever knew half the horrors I put his '71 Dodge Polara Brougham 2 Dr Ht through, he would have had a stroke.

His had the 383 4V motor, and I used to thrash it regularly.

I'll never forget the time I got a 4-wheel droop out of that chassis while flying off the end of a dropping street. I was racing my friend Joey, he in his father's Oldsmobile 98 with a 455, and we were neck and neck. Then he braked short...

I looked ahead. Too late. The road just sort of dropped off, cliff-like. I flew over it, and with the aforementioned 4-wheel suspension droop, bottomed the car when I landed some 40 feet later.

The car bottomed on the front K-member, and the impact blasted the ashtray out of the dash and flung it into the back seat.

It drove ok after that, but I took it to Arthur Groves Mobil in Waltham, Mass. I begged him to put it on the lift and check it out. Arthur was an old-timer, and a legend in Waltham. F.Lee Bailey used to pump gas for him when he was a kid.

He looked at the scuffed K-member and skid plate and said: "You've been rat-racing in your father's car again..."

He checked the alignment and for possible damage. The car was ok. Lucky me, all he did was give it a minor alignment tweak, sprayed some undercoating on the underside to hide the scuffs, and sent me on my way. No Charge.:smoke:

Well, I wanted to show off that snazzy Tailgate/door thingy, but I'd had to ask Mama for the keys,& there was NO WAY she'd let me have those...A 10 & 12 yr old couple of boys w/the keys to her new Car ? No way, Jose'..Ford just seemed to have the wagon market down pat in the Sixties & Seventies better than GM or Chrysler did..Ford wagons weren't any better, or cheaper than their GM or Mopar counterparts, but for every GM or Chrysler wagon, you'd see 2 or 3 Fords/Mercuries..The street right next to my elementary school looked like an ad for Country Squires/Colony Parks when the kids got let out at 3.15 pm every day.

When we lived in Texas, my folks had enough with the 64 BelAir wagon (283) we brought from PA that started overheating after adding the AC unit under the dash that sprayed water out when you made a hard left. Traded it on a New yellow 1969 Dodge Polara wagon (383-2V) with the "super light", an added light next to the LH headlights in the grille. I swear it dint work.

After church, my brother and I waited in the yella' submarine while the grownups chit-chatted, my dad wouldn't give up the keys so we couldn't play the MoPar-Motorola car radio with the thumbwheel dials. We figgerd out that if you kept your foot on the brake and fiddled with the turn signals, the radio would play. Chryslers wiring is legend, and that starter's dino-like sound!:D

Yeah Sandy, we wanted a 1972 Torino with woody sides and the dome-mount spotlights. Those Fords and Mercurys were damn nice looking!:drool:

Oh, yeah..We had a '64 Mercury Villager wagon...It had the dealer-installed A/C, a big chrome plated doohickey that hung under the dash..It DID cool the car off, for the most part, but it also would freeze up after about 45 minutes...

The only funny wagon story I have was in my grampas 1954 Plymouth.

My grampa never took care of his vehicles. Grammas was another story but the ones he drove were always filthy. Washing them was a waste of time and never bought anything that wasn't already 6 years old. He had this old rusty Plymouth wagon and him and I were out at the sod farm and cut some rolls of sod which we placed in the back of the wagon. He even set a couple rolls on the tailgate and I sat in the middle. When we were coming back to the road, he hit a small bump and the TAILGATE COMPLETELY FELL OFF, with me on it of course. He immediately turned around and came up with a very stern look on his face and his ever-present Camel hanging out of his mouth. He then laughed harder than I'd ever heard him laugh before, picked me up and asked if I was alright. We then drove home, placed the sod, and went to the Tastee Freeze for ice cream, in grammas mint 1956 Crown Vic. The Plymouth then went to the boneyard and he got another not quite so old wagon which he didn't get to drive much at all before he passed away from a bad fall, falling off the roof of our house while installing gutters. Live can be short, but the memories stay.

My Grandad had ONE vice that he allowed himself-He drove Cadillacs. I can BARELY remember a 'blue '56 Sedan De Ville, I LOVED the tan '60 SdV, didn't care for the avocado '68 SdV, & I still have his Pride 'n' Joy, a '73 Fleetwood Brougham. He bought it In Louisville,Ky, WITHOUT consulting my Granmaw...Who was a VERY suspicious, TIGHT woman. She squeezed every dime she got. If you DIDN'T save a dollar & a dime outta every dollar you made, you WERE Going to Go To Hell, no doubt about it. Well, they were in Louisville, Fritz comes tootlin' up in that big Brougham, that kinda set the War Clouds up...Then, she saw the Window Sticker...$10,243, & some odd cents...THAT did it. "FRITZ !! Are you out of your MIND ?!? Ten Thousand DOLLARS for a CAR ?!?" She was Fuzzed Up, as we say down here, for about a month over that..But Grandaddy LOVED that car, even tho we took his keys away about 2 years later...That car was simply too big for him to handle.

OK, here's one of my station wagon stories. We had a '66 Plymouth Fury 3. (It got totaled in '69 when someone turned in front of us on a red light.) I remember like it was yesterday; Dad gassed it up on the way home from the dealer, and it cost $7 to fill it. Mom was so horrified that it cost so much that she almost made my Dad take it back. As we all know, these days 7 bucks barely fills the lawn mower

OK, here's one of my station wagon stories. We had a '66 Plymouth Fury 3. (It got totaled in '69 when someone turned in front of us on a red light.) I remember like it was yesterday; Dad gassed it up on the way home from the dealer, and it cost $7 to fill it. Mom was so horrified that it cost so much that she almost made my Dad take it back. As we all know, these days 7 bucks barely fills the lawn mower

Wow...Yeah,I can sorta remember those days...Gas wars...Full service-they'd come out, pump yr gas, wash yr windshield, etc..Bet that Fury had a 383 in it...MAYBE a 318, but I'd gone for the 383...

Wow...Yeah,I can sorta remember those days...Gas wars...Full service-they'd come out, pump yr gas, wash yr windshield, etc..Bet that Fury had a 383 in it...MAYBE a 318, but I'd gone for the 383...

I don't remember which engine that one had. The '69 Custom Suburban that replaced it had a 318 with a 2 barrel Carter BBD and 727 Torqueflight behind it. They sold that one in the early 90s, still going strong, which is amazing considering the way we abused it. We would put as much as 10k miles on it in a single summer trip. Think San Diego to Miami via Seattle and New York. 500-600 miles in a day was nuthin' for us. Often used as a pickup truck, hauling drywall, cement, lumber, and anything else we could cram into it. I learned a lot of the mechanic stuff I know by practicing on that car.

Oh yeah....Remember when they would give you dishes with every fillup? And trading stamps too

Found a sales flyer for the '69. Even the same shade of blue!
http://www.fuselage.de/ply69/69ply11b.jpg
http://www.fuselage.de/ply69/69ply10b.jpg

My parents never owned a station wagon, but when I was a kid I always wished we had one. So much room in the back to play! I did get a short taste of one - sometime in 1981 a truck driver had a heart attack at the wheel and took out an entire line of company cars parked in front of Dad's office - his '79 Malibu had the honors of first hit. The company borrowed or leased an '81 Caprice Estate that Dad drove for 3-4 months until they bought a fleet of Chevy Citations.

My Grandmother never pumped her own gas. I remember reading with horror a receipt in the coinholder from Driftwood Texaco: $1.61 per gallon for full service (this was probably in the mid 90's.) The last few years she drove the furthest she went was two miles for her yearly fillup at that station.

My Father owned two station wagons - well, tecnically only one, the other I would barely catagorize as a car.

The first was a '61 Peugeot 403 wagon. It was tan. If it was 25 degrees F outside it wouldn't turn over. He wondered what the 2" hole in the front of the car was, low towards the bumper, and a crank in a trunk. That's what Peugeot provided to start the car under those conditions. You cranked it like a Model T Ford.

To jack the car up to change a flat, you had to insert the Peugeot-provided metal bars in the front door openings so the car wouldn't fold like a jackknife when you jacked it up.

Once underway, the car had the acceleration of a Trabant, with the torque charateristics of a sewing machine. At 55 mph it sounded like a tortured lawn mower.

He traded it in on a big, white '62 Chevrolet Bel-Air wagon, with a 283 and THM trans. He loved that car. We loved it, too. Roomy! Compared to the Peugeot, that Chevy was a muscle car.

He wouldn't buy another "foreign car" until 2002, when he got a Lexus.:smoke:

Ze French, they follow No One Else's lead on car design..

For a short period of time, I actually owned a Citroen DS 21 because I loved the way it looked. It was just too odd and was leaking stuff (mostly hydraulic fluid for the suspension I think) in about 12 spots so I sold it to another brave soul. A few years later, I had an ID 19 for a while that wasn't quite so complicated, looked the same though. French, very weird, but really cool looking.

I figured we have gone at least 6 posts on the same topic, might as well change it again..........:D

Not just car design, Sandy. Isn't SECAM alleged to actually mean "System Essentially Contrary to the American Method"? :D

Not just car design, Sandy. Isn't SECAM alleged to actually mean "System Essentially Contrary to the American Method"? :D

Uhh, yeah, I think so...Reading between the lines in several histories, both PAL & SECAM were developed out of spite to keep from having to use the hated Yankee system...

Wow...Yeah,I can sorta remember those days...Gas wars...Full service-they'd come out, pump yr gas, wash yr windshield, etc..Bet that Fury had a 383 in it...MAYBE a 318, but I'd gone for the 383...

The 383 in the Yellow submarine pinged like a marble fact'ry if you dint run hi-test, a whole 3 cents more in those days. Dad could always tell when Mom bought gas, she would just say fill-it so she always got reg'lar. We traded that beast on a 75 Fury (R- line Satellite, not Gran Fury) that had a 318, which also had a short piston stroke and seemed to climb the mountain roads upstate, heavily loaded with camping gear, without much protest. The rear quarters rusted bad and were fixed twice. Mom got an 83 Reliant and my brother then ran the Fury another few years then traded on a low-miles 78 LeMans (malibu, 305 V8 with the bad camshaft) That 75 Fury was MoPars last good one before the Aspen-Volare debacles. They continued buying Mopars until their tiny Gas & Garage dealer lost the franchise a few years ago.:tears:

BTW - Despite all the other issues, the French did make comfortable cars. This is just too fun:D

The 383 in the Yellow submarine pinged like a marble fact'ry if you dint run hi-test, a whole 3 cents more in those days. Dad could always tell when Mom bought gas, she would just say fill-it so she always got reg'lar. We traded that beast on a 75 Fury (R- line Satellite, not Gran Fury) that had a 318, which also had a short piston stroke and seemed to climb the mountain roads upstate, heavily loaded with camping gear, without much protest. The rear quarters rusted bad and were fixed twice. Mom got an 83 Reliant and my brother then ran the Fury another few years then traded on a low-miles 78 LeMans (malibu, 305 V8 with the bad camshaft) That 75 Fury was MoPars last good one before the Aspen-Volare debacles. They continued buying Mopars until their tiny Gas & Garage dealer lost the franchise a few years ago.:tears:

BTW - Despite all the other issues, the French did make comfortable cars. This is just too fun:D


Oh yeah...A frat brother in college had a Renault, the one AFTER the Dauphin, but NOT the R16, & it had INSANELY comfortable seats...I've even heard that the 2CV Citroen was pretty comfy for what it was-The original design spec sposedly was to be able to be driven across a plowed field at 40 Km/H w/a basketful of eggs on the front seat, & have none of 'em break..

Yeah, the French cars had long suspension travel for their size. And remember the Citroen "shark" with its load-leveling system coming to a stop: instead of a dive it performed some sort of gravity-defying floating antics to stay level. I've driven modern Citroens, Renaults and Peugeots in Europe over the past few years and they seem solid like most any other car today.

I've only seen a "Goddess" one time, it was in Knoxville in '66 or '67 at a car show. Think the one they had was the wagon version. Other than I remember it as being kinda ODD looking, I don't remember much else.

Talking about cars, we had my grandma's '57 Ford Fairlane 500. Two tone yellow and purple. With fins, though not as tall as in the pictures earlier this thread. V8, and it got around 10 MPG. No radio. Thing is, we had it around 1968 or so, and it was too new to be a classic, but old enough to look outdated. It got in a few mild accidents, and I think we ended up selling it to a car collector who probably parted it out.

The EARLIEST car was my Mom's 1958 Impala.. Tu-Tone blue & white, Post.. I thought it was a "Banda-Lay", I took an ink pen & went over the head-liner goin' "Banda Lay ,Banda Lay.." After I did the same on my mom's leather beige Car Coat,I had my crayons/ink pen taken away..Amazin' how that works..(grin)

I started out riding in the back of a black and white '54 Chevy. It got traded in for a '62 Chevy Nova-2. Dad hated that car. That got traded in on the previously mentioned '66 Fury wagon. When it got totaled we got the '69 Custom Suburban. In college I got my own, first car, a '74 Dodge van; it had a 360 with 4 barrel Thermo-quad, headers, Edelbrock manifold, 50 series tires all around (steered like crap with those), and of course all of the college guy stuff such as the "rain roof". That thing went way too fast for a van! Dad got a 77 New Yorker with a 440 and everything else that Mopar could think of to bolt onto a car. My '74 has gone to the great crusher now, and I now drive a '83 Dodge van with a 225 slant 6, 904 automatic, and a teeny-tiny 1 barrel carb. My lawnmower accelerates better, but the van is 30 years old and looks almost like new, and runs great. There have been a few other cars, but my Wife drives those, so they dont really count.

That concludes my automotive history. There will be a quiz on Friday.

But I forgot to take notes!!!!! what did you say????

Talking about cars, we had my grandma's '57 Ford Fairlane 500. Two tone yellow and purple. With fins, though not as tall as in the pictures earlier this thread. V8, and it got around 10 MPG. No radio. Thing is, we had it around 1968 or so, and it was too new to be a classic, but old enough to look outdated. It got in a few mild accidents, and I think we ended up selling it to a car collector who probably parted it out.

Those were nice. Especially with the 312 T-Bird V8.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Who produced the most cars in Model Year 1957, Chevrolet, Ford, or Plymouth?

That would have been Ford. They and Chrysler had all brand new bodies when GM vehicles used the 55 body one more year on Chevy and Pontiac. Buick, Olds, and Caddy were new though.

I now drive a '83 Dodge van with a 225 slant 6, 904 automatic, and a teeny-tiny 1 barrel carb.

My God. I didn't think anybody drove a Slant Six MoPar anymore as a daily driver. Time for a new ride, maybe?:smoke:

That would have been Ford. They and Chrysler had all brand new bodies when GM vehicles used the 55 body one more year on Chevy and Pontiac. Buick, Olds, and Caddy were new though.

That is correct. Ford, with 1.49 million to Chevrolet's 1.45, was the top seller for Model Year 1957. A surging Plymouth produced 731,001 cars in 1957 to surpass Buick for third place.

Most people think the '57 Chevy was the sales leader. Ford was, in '57 and in 1959.:smoke:

Yeah, they had planned to use the 58 Chevy and Pontiac bodies for 2 years but that spooked them so much that they came out with another brand new body in 59. The 1958 Chevy and Pontiacs are a one year only style.

In hindsight, they may have done better using the original plan. Both Ford and Chrysler stayed with their old bodies for one more year although both were heavily facelifted in all brands. The 59 Chevy would have sold a lot better with different fins and grill as the 1960 proved when they took over the #1 spot again.

Ford had a LOT of trouble w/the '57s, IIRC...They were one of the first cars that were made w/a new "Deep Draw" technique in stamping the body panels, & the metal could be thin in places, & they had a lot of trouble w/rustouts.

Up here with the road salt we use in the winter, the main problem was around the headlight surrounds on the front fenders. They would completely rot out and it was hard to fix and make it not noticeable. The 57's and 58's were the worst. The 59's were much better. The rest of the car wasn't much worse than anything else of the time as I recall.

Yep-Believe it or Nutz, WE use a LOT of salt on the roads here, too. Mud would also pack in 'em, & rot 'em out pretty quick, too..

Not to change the subject or anything, but does anybody remember the Ford (cars and trucks) with the manual 3 speed transmission with OVERDRIVE? They had a handle under the dash that you could use to operate the transmission as a regular 3 speed which was a better choice for driving up and down hills; ESPECIALLY with a load. If you were driving a pickup with a heavy load you had little control on hills if you were in overdrive mode because once you started going down hill it was like you were in neutral until or unless you gave it gas which would not help matters in this scenario. I believe the gods of safety outlawed these transmissions in the 70s for issues like this AND the fact that when parked in overdrive mode the only gear that held the vehicle was reverse; the rest were like neutral! Add this factor to that of human nature and you have (and probably had) disasters in the making.

I have a 1965 Ford Custom Cab with this transmission and I learned quickly that you simply must realize the mechanical nature of the "beast" and you will do fine and get to trip people out who don't believe that you have an extra gear that you shift by letting off the gas for a second. If anyone is interested in owning this truck, PM me. I recently put it up for the "s" word. Don't want to get this whole thread moved to another website! LOL! But since things went this direction I figured I could tell an interesting story along with potentially finding someone interested.

Lots of cars and trucks used overdrive in the 50's and 60's. Ford even had a two speed rear end that they used in the thirties and fourties.

Overdrive allowed use of a higher geared rear end so low powered cars could have some snap, then overdrive allowed decent highway mileage. Some brands such as Studebaker and Nash got very acceptable gas mileage using overdrive and promoted it heavily.

Use dropped because manual transmission sales, even in trucks, dropped to a fraction of what they were. Big commerical trucks continued to use two and three speed rear ends to accomplish the same thing.

I knew a guy in high school who drove a '54 Ford wagon with O'drive and remember how it shifted into O by lifting the right foot.

It's real interesting I think how Ford engineered the manual overdrive. There is a lot more going on there than one might assume. There is a speed sensing device on the extension housing of the transmission that must send a signal to a relay when the proper speed has been achieved in order for the overdrive to function. There is a switch mounted to the gas pedal which is used for more or less a passing gear function. Interestingly, it kills the ignition for a split second to allow slack in the drive-train which is necessary for the planetary gear-set to disengage (or something like that). When I first bought this truck I was a bit weary of all or the quirky aspects of having this setup work properly, or the roll away issue, but after some time I feel very comfortable with the truck and with the price of gasoline I am glad to have it in working order. Inversely, if something goes wrong I can always lock OD out and use what is essentially a normal transmission.

The 57 Ford Fairlane 500 I mentioned before had overdrive. My brother was driving it on the highway, and he decided to give it a try. And it worked! "We have overdrive!" At the time I didn't understand what that was, but I didn't ask as I didn't want to risk being called an idiot... He was my older brother by 6 years. As I now (mis)understand it, overdrive is when the car tires rotate faster than the engine crankshaft. Which makes sense to do only at highway speed.

As I now (mis)understand it, overdrive is when the car tires rotate faster than the engine crankshaft. Which makes sense to do only at highway speed.

No! you neglected the final drive reduction ratio, on the order of 2.5 to 4 :1. Do the math... If you have a tire that is 2 feet in diameter, the circumference is about 6.3 feet... if it was turning, say 2500 R.P.M. , that would be almost 16,000 feet per minute, or about 3 miles per minute!

jr

No! you neglected the final drive reduction ratio, on the order of 2.5 to 4 :1.

DOH! :D Looks like I misunderstood it... :D