(Submitted by Dan Cluley)
After one of the worst winters in recent years, we are finally starting to see signs of Spring, and in the middle of Michigan, these include lots of classic cars. Not surprisingly, snow, slush & salt keep most of the really nice rides in storage for five or six months every year. On the other hand, there are a surprising number of older vehicles that brave the elements year-round and there seems to be a bit of a pattern to the ones I have shot this year.
Ex-police cars aren’t exactly unusual, but it’s not everyday you see Crown Vics in this color, especially not with those holes in their hoods, identifying them as former State Police cruisers.
Firm believers in tradition, the MSP has used the same basic color, graphics, and light package on their cruisers since the mid ‘50s. They restored this Fury for display, but the current fleet seems to mostly be Chargers and Tahoes.
This remarkably clean Citation has been parked in various student housing areas the last couple of years. It seems to be a 1980 model, so is probably about 15 years older than its driver.
To make it even more unusual, while not an X-11, it is the uncommon notchback. Judging by the paint and the whitewalls it looks like it gets washed regularly, so that should help it get through a few more winters.
Geographically only a few blocks away, but lightyears apart designwise, this ’79 Dodge St Regis represents an uncommon the alternatives to the Caprices and LTDs of the era.
Room enough for 6 full sized adults, and a trunk for a couple more, plus fabulous headlight covers that let you know for certain that it isn’t a LeSabre.
Even in Michigan, not every car comes from Detroit, and another alternative around 1980 might have been a Mercedes like this 300D. I’m not an expert on these, but a little googling suggests that the combination of turbo diesel and clear driving lights make this one a ’79 (the turbodiesel wasn’t available on the sedan until 1982 -ED).
It is particularly well optioned for year round use, with both a sunroof and a block heater.
The interior seems quite well preserved after 35 years, and is nicely color coordinated as are the wheels. No shortage of Cobalt-hue here.
When this Mustang II showed up at a red light, I was only able to grab one quick shot, but then spotted it parked a few days later.
Based on the V8 emblems and the bumper trim it seems to be a 76-78. Opinions on these seem to run from “deadly sin,” to “the design that saved the Mustang.” I mostly like them, but do think they are more successful as a cute coupe like this one than as a muscle car wannabe. If nothing else, they had some of the best bumpers of any Ford in the mid ‘70s.
For a different perspective on the Mustang, here is the view from the headline car, my 1974 Dart.
I have been driving this Dart since 2007 and while theoretically it should be a horrible winter car, it has actually been quite satisfactory. While front or all wheel drive would certainly provide more traction, the extra ground clearance and higher profile tires seem to make it pretty capable compared to small modern cars.
In 2008 it still had most of the factory paint, but to cover the sunbaked hood & trunk I gave it a quick rustoleum spray. After 5 years it needs to be redone, but has held up pretty well for a $50 paint job.
There is actually another blue & white four door compact around town, and even compared to a 40 year old Dart it is a bit exotic.
I don’t know how often this ’64 Corvair gets driven, but I have seen it three or four times since the first of the year. The rear engine should certainly give it plenty of traction, but I’m less sure about the heat situation.
It seems to be nicely trimmed, and even has a passenger door mirror, but I would want a radio and a clock in any sort of daily driver.
Even a Winter as bad as this last one couldn’t last forever and finally, the snow piles are melting, and baseball season has started (and the streets are full of potholes). If that’s not enough to shake this case of the blues, I have not only seen the first robin of Spring, but also the first Hornet.
What a remarkable coincidence — at the exact time that I log in to upload photos of the oddly large population of blue Dodge Darts within a radius of a few miles from my house in Virginia, I see your article about the odd abundance of blue classics, including your own Dart, as winter daily drivers in Michigan. The pattern clearly is not exclusive to one region!
The interesting thing is that the Dart is a reminder that, at one time, the majority of Americans drove big, RWD cars that required a seasonal change of snow tires to make it through the winter. Now, FWD proliferates and clever marketing makes an AWD SUV/CUV seem mandatory in some areas.
I really love the nighttime shot behind the wheel which highlights the old-school way instruments were lit back then.
The local Subaru dealer’s tagline around here is “in this area, it just makes sense”.
But I’ve never thought full time awd makes much sense.
I agree. Full-time awd is ok if it were snowing 365 days a week, but I can’t imagine it doing that, unless it’s Antarctica.
Brings back memories of living in Cleveland for five years (1997-2002). The winter ‘work cars’ or winter-beaters, except lots of these are older never-say-die cars. Even the cleaner ones show the characteristics of wheel arch/rocker and rear fender rust, but they ARE winter cars and they get the masses to and from work, school, errands and so on . . . .
During my time in the Forest City, one of my Celebrity wagons was a winter car and it pulled nicely through the snow and started quickly even in the coldest, iciest weather (’88 Eurosport Wagon with the 2.8 FI V-6).
Nice ’64 Corvair! When the cars are well-maintained, and the factory thermostat aneroids are working, heat comes up fast and has a good volume of air. Because Corvairs have a direct-air heating system, any oil or fuel leaks back there do contribute to smells (or smoke!) inside, but if you keep on top of the oil leaks and fix ’em (pushrod tube o-rings, oil cooler seals rubbers, and blower housing gaskets are the most heinous offenders), a Corvair’s stock heating system works rather well.
It’s rare, but the 1960 Corvair’s stock gasoline furnace heater (stock for the US market, anyway: for export, the heater was optional) became a factory option through 1964, so while unlikely, it’s possible that that ’64 has a gasoline furnace in the trunk 😉
I once had a whole row of those Corvair gasoline heaters, and installed one in a ’66 Bug once. Heat in seconds! Heat while riding the ferry! Nice units, and especially reliable once I converted the points ignition system (they used a set of points that were driven from a cam on the combustion blower fan) to capacitive discharge ignition.
Ah, those were the days . . .
In that case, the Corvair may warm up faster than Dan’s Dart. 🙂 Mine with the slant 6 was a very cold-blooded car. Even with a 195 degree stat, I had to cover 2/3 of the radiator with cardboard to get anything resembling real heat in the cabin. The flipside, though, was that the car never, ever even came close to overheating.
Mine has the 318. 3-5 minutes until the temp gauge starts to move, and after a couple more, you could just about roast marshmallows in front of the vents. 🙂
The only time I’ve had trouble with overheating was a couple of summers ago when the radiator needed replacing. It didn’t leak a bit, but the cooling fins were rotting off.
Had two friends with Corvairs. One a ’60 with the gasoline heater and one a ’64 without. The ’60 gasoline heater was amazing – plenty of instant, very hot heat. The ’64, not so much. Tepid flow not much better than a Beetle of the era, and all the fumes you mention. I heard that the drawback to the gasoline heater was it cost 4 to 5 mpg when in use and it just “sounded dangerous” to the ill-informed public.
Old timers had grown up in the 30s with the gasoline-fueled South Wind heaters. My mother grew up in the backseat of a 35 Ford V8 which came built with either no heat at all or the wimpiest heater ever. She recalls snuggling under a thick blanket with her sisters in the back seat of the freezing car. After a couple of winters, her father installed a South Wind heater in the car and life was much better. In the 70s, I came across one while browsing through a Salvation Army thrift store. The thing was brand new, still in its factory packaging. I have no idea why I didn’t buy it and re-list it in Hemmings or Cars & Parts.
I still subscribe to the “new”Cars & Parts but I miss the old one. I suppose that Amos Publishing is doing what they can in the current environment. I guess that, essentially, the troubles with print media started at about the same time that Arch Brown passed away. We all lost an Icon of the old car hobby. At least we have the option, almost every Sunday, of reading one of his SIA articles on Hemmings.com.
+1 on the Corvair heat. In college I had a ’62 4-door Monza like this one, except mine was a 3-speed. I never had a problem with heat…fast and plenty of it. When one of the thermostats failed and left one of the damper door wide open, cabin heat dropped to zip. Those thermostats had to be adjusted properly….too little tension and there was no heat, too much and the engine would overheat.
The Corvair radio was in a pod that was suspended from the middle of the dash. It was very easy to add the “factory” radio as the necessary wiring was already in the body harness. I added the radio to mine.
The 4-door rear seat back folded flat, and between that and the front “trunk” you could get a ton of stuff in that car.
Well done Dan!
This winter I’ve seen an early IH Scout and a 1969 Dart in the snow regularly. Pretty hard to believe, given that both these vehicles have a reputation for enthusiastic rusting.
Great finds!
A Dart or Valiant of similar blue hue moved into my neighborhood recently. It is parked deep into a carport and seems not to move. But if it ever does hit the street, I’ll absolutely photograph it for CC.
Love the dash shot of your Dart – it caused a flashback here to the 5 years I spent behind an identical dash in my 71 Scamp and my roommate’s 3 different Dusters. The only difference is that your Dart has air and a center armrest – such luxury!
That St. Regis is quite a find, as is the early Citation. In fact, your entire montage of blue CCs is first-rate. Not sure how, but blue has been very underrepresented in my own car history. I need more blue cars.
I wish I could export our Spring from the Northwest. Washington, Oregon and Idaho seem to be blessed with beautiful Spring weather. And hopefully we’ll get some more nice weather. You have some neat cars, cars you don’t see very many of on my side of the country. My favourite is the Dodge Dart. I’ve always liked police cars, so this Plymouth Fury cop car is awesome looking. I’ve always liked the Mustang II of the 70s, probably more than the 80s Mustang. Sweet looking Corvair. I haven’t seen one of those in a long time.
Dan, these are some truly outstanding finds, especially the St. Regis. There are still a few Darts and Valiants around here, with this particular one usually parked under a tarp across the street from the old state prison. You might like the color.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1974-dodge-dart-custom-a-body-in-motion-tends-to-stay-in-motion/
I remember reading that one and being surprised by the similarity. I don’t think the black top works as well with the light blue. Mine got painted after removing the remains of the original white vinyl.
Is that Saint Regis just rotting away between two houses? Chill neighbors if that is the case. The plastic around the bumpers actually looks horrible and does not line in a good way. GM did a better job with their B-Bodies. It is a bummer seeing these vehicles rot away, but oh well. In Central New York most vehicles still on the road are late 1990s or newer.
I spent a bunch of the 90s in a 70 Dart growing up in Central New York and when it got down to -20 F it would not start. The Dart did a pretty good job in the snow (I assume mama had weight in the back) and was about as good as the 95 Voyager, but our 87 Saab 900 was our best snow cruiser until dad bought a 93 Legacy.
It’s a college town, I suspect as long as the St Regis isn’t drunk, disorderly or setting fire to something, nobody’s too concerned. 😉
I’d guess the coldest I’ve dealt with is 12-15 below and haven’t had any trouble with starting, but it sure does crank slow those days.
Good to see the old blue Dart! In that first picture, she’s a freezin’, but her bright headlights show she’s alive and well, albeit aged. 😉
Dig the aftermarket car stereo (brackets? how?), and is that an Airtemp factory aftermarket A/C (bet it’s no longer working)? My childhood church had no A/C growing up, but later put in ones on the front wall of the congregation area that my brother said looked like an old ChryCo Airtemp setup.
That is actually the factory A/C setup for the Dart/Valiant (and no it doesn’t work) Those 3 vents are part of a big housing that feeds back to the center of the heater box.
As for the stereo, it and the speakers came from the 93 Aerostar that the Dart replaced. They are just L brackets from the hardware store attached to the bottom of the A/C duct with expanding wall anchors.
Great finds! Amazing cars of that era have not crumbled to rust in that climate and some are still used as beaters to this day. The 73 Sport Bug I had heater worked well, but then that was in southern California where 40’s and 30’s in the mountains were about all it had to deal with. I did go through deep water fast once and steam poured out and fogged up the windshield instantly. And I do wonder about carbon monoxide fumes. For sure you need good heaterboxes, gaskets, and no oil or exhaust leaks to be safe.
I’m amazed by the St. Regis simply because I was convinced that every surviving example had been blow up or crashed on 80s cop TV shows and movies.
Dan – You actually use that Dart as a daily driver?? Brave guy you are! 🙂
By the way, that Mercedes W123 300D is most likely an ’82 thru ’85 model. Turbodiesels came out for 1982.
That’s the second Mustang II V8 survivor we’ve seen this year and it’s a rare non-Ghia V8 to boot. I can’t believe I’m saying this about a Mustang but the notchback looks better with the half padded vinyl roof and opera windows. Miss the sport mirrors too.
Keep ’em washed! Some of these cars are actually in pretty good shape considering they’re getting coated in salt. I kind of dig the Hornet…how did that thing last?
Do I see UofM Flint in pic 13?
13 is downtown Lansing. These were all seen there, East Lansing, or the South suburbs
Dan – spectacular job! Not sure which CC I’d grab first – the II, the Dart, the Benz or the rare notchback Citation!
BTW the top pic is the most beautiful piece of art I’ve seen at CC…even better than the Grand-Prix-at-sunset one (sorry Paul).
Nice photos Dan, a world away from the winter we are heading into. Some ice on the windsheld and black ice on roads in some parts does not compare!
The weather in this side of the world is quite mild at the moment, however my aunt in tropical Queensland has had 50″ of rain in 3 days last week!
That 1974 Dart brings memories of better times flooding back. This car’s tall non low profiles tires is proof that today’s engineers and buyers have no clue when it comes to Winter driving and today’s absurd rubber band over sized and priced tires on ever increasingly smaller cars. I used to get by just fine driving RWD cars like these plus GM A-body Cieras and C-body downsized Park Aves. Those cars were snow bunnies and it seemed like nothing stopped them. A rental Camry SE and Malibu 2LT with 18″ tires were positively terrible in comparison.
Here’s a pic of my winter beater: