As mentioned earlier today, Ralf K has uploaded some new finds in Everett, Washington. First up is this Cordoba, which doesn’t look too far gone, but sporting terrible wheel covers. Ugh. The Ford F-1 panel van behind it has been working on its sun tan for quite awhile.
A Dart that’s lost its wig.
Great color for this big Lincoln.
Fine old T1 VW pickup.
A ’66 T-Bird with a sign of the times. Eugene now has 54 recreational/medical cannabis dispensaries, with 14 more in the works. I guess they want to make sure everyone can walk to one.
The final shot is of this fine classic ’55 Ford “Vicky” Crown Victoria, which has become almost as iconic as a tri-five Chevy Bel Air coupe.
No offense, but that Vic is a 1955 model. Round front turn signals and sweepspear trim Vee’d beneath the vent windows, dead giveaway. Beautiful car, nonetheless.
Thanks for the views! Looks like Highway 99, Broadway and the waterfront neighborhood just off of there. Remember it well, from when we lived in Lynnwood and went yard-saling in Everett on weekends.
That Vic is also a genuine Crown Victoria, which employed that unusual chrome B pillar and over-the-roof trim. The regular hardtop was the plain vanilla Victoria.
A beautiful design and the chrome roof treatment was also repeated on the interior. The Skyliner version had the green plexiglass roof on the forward portion. Never popular as it cast an eerie green color and made the interior unbearably hot in the summer. Beautiful car though and perhaps more striking and ambitious than any tri 5 Chevy. The Y block was a bit of a slug however, and the new small block Chevy V8 was a far better choice.
Of course it is. Fixed now.
Nice shots! That opening picture makes it look like times are tough for veteran actors, with Herb Tarlek having to move in with Sanford & Son.
Loving the Dart. To my midwestern eyes, a (former) vinyl roof like that is always accompanied by gaping rust holes in the rear quarters.
The quarters weren’t too bad on mine. The trunk floor and inner wheel wells on the other hand…
The rub strips are trying hard to negate all those straight lines, to no avail!
For a split second those wheel covers looked like Shelby Cragars on my small screen, drat!
Does the legal marijuana explain that SUV’s parking job?
“Hey man, am I driving ok?”
“I think we’re parked, man”
The main image reminds me of a pic I was enjoying the other day. Three of Chrysler’s biggest sellers of the 70s parked in front of Canada’s National Aviation Museum in 1980. The National Aeronautical Collection was housed in three WW2 hangars until the 80s, when the decrepit facilities were replaced by a new museum.
Seems like another lifetime when the Cordoba, Duster and Volare were everyday workhorses on US/Canadian roads.
State and local legislators are sure that Florida’s legal medical marijuana will result in deaths and rampant lawlessness so they are keeping their feet clamped firmly on the proverbial brake pedal when it comes to implementing the law. Yet, for some odd reason, they have been EXTREMELY slow when it comes to slowing….much less stopping the over prescription of “legal” pain pills.
Lately, it seems like any cars more than 5-10 years in my area have either disappeared or are just hiding. I did see a 78 Cordoba on my local Craigslist this past week, but finding a 55 anything is extremely rare here about.
I can’t remember the last time I saw any kind of real panel trunk and not a similar looking cargo van.
Isn’t florida doing some kind of deal where local jurisdictions get to override the state medical marijuana law if they feel like it? Seems hokey, to me, but then, that’s florida.
The front end of the original Cordoba was the prettiest face to grace a ’70s personal luxury coupe. Elegant, classical, but not overdone or baroque. The ’78 restyle with the faddish stacked rectangular headlights has got to be one of the worst automotive facelifts ever; even the guy who designed it thought it was tacky.
Love the color effects Ralf K has been doing on some of these. Ralf, mind sharing some of your secrets?
I’m still holding a candle for a T top Magnum GT…
Aaaahhh… good ol’ Everett. Always been a car town. They love old American machinery. They were the heaviest of the runners in the street race scene for quite a while (’80’s-’90’s when I knew.) Not surprising they still keep old Mopars in their yards.
And of course Colby Ave was the place to take your car to cruise and maybe find a race in the 70’s and early 80’s until of course they shut it down.
That Lincoln in particular looks to be in fine shape, and that particular shade of gold is so very 70’s. Nice spots on the others too, especially that fine Crown Victoria and the T1 pickup. I can probably count on one hand how many of those pickups I’ve seen on the road in my 36 years–were they more popular on the west coast perhaps?
I’m on the West Coast and I see several regularly in our town. Perhaps more now than 40 years ago, in fact.
Eclectic collection, nicely set photos.
Chrysler may have been late to the heart of the personal luxury market, and have cribbed GM mercilessly, but they sure did pull together a good looking car, sans those wheel covers, of course.
I want that Cordoba. It needs a 490ci 400 stroker…
Great photos! I lived in Seattle in the early ’90s had such a great time car spotting. Having
grown up in the Midwest – it was Nirvana – Falcons, Valiants, Darts, Studebakers, ’66-’70 Mopar ‘B’ bodies, Gen 1-2 Riverias, ’67-’68 Cougars, first siting of the gorgeous ’66-’73 Mazda Luce/1800, as well as, the first Kia brand car sold in the US. Always found it curious how few big/standard cars driving about and a real lack of cars from the 1970s (which was actually fine). Will always miss how beautiful springtime and car spotting is in the Pacific Northwest.
Nice collection of oldies.
The Chrysler Cordoba is the only other Automobile I have ever discovered that uses the same front shock absorbers as my Metropolitan Nash . this makes getting decent quality gas charged front shocks a breeze =8-) . .
That Crown Vic. looks pretty ! .
I thought the ones with the green Plexiglass roof were called ” Sun valley ” ? .
EDIT : I had to post & go back to be allowed to click the notify boxes .
-Nate
“I thought the ones with the green Plexiglass roof were called ” Sun valley ” ? .
The Sun Valley was the Mercury version. I forget if the Sun Valley made it into the 1955 line, and if it did, they made very few of them.