(first posted 9/1/2011) Must finish what I started…Ok, so I showed you the Corvairs in Part 1. Oh, and we did do the Sunbeam Imp. But that’s only a small sample of the sad delights resting in the CC Graveyard. I’m headed up to Portland to see some well -preserved automotive delights, so the commentary is going to be a bit sparse, from me anyway. But help yourself…and I’m just going to show the shots in the order as I took them.
The cars have pretty much all be grouped by manufacturer, sometimes in more than one batch. Here is the intersection of a GM and Ford cluster.We’re way overdue for a Chevy II CC, and I have one shot, so hang on a bit longer.
We also haven’t had a CC of the ’63 – ’64 Chryslers yet either. I bet jpc would do one justice.
The sole Packard in the place (a ’55 Clipper) has to carve out a spot next to a similar-vintage Caddy.
That hood ornament has got to be one of the best of the era.
And since it’s been a while since I laid eyes on Packard’s big V8. What a waste of effort, given that it was only built for two years (’55 and ’56). The ’55 Clipper used a 320 inch version, but it also came as 352 and 374 inchers. By 1957, the Packardbakers were using the Studebaker 289.
Plymouths of this vintage have become pretty rare. This ’54 is a hardtop, no less, but not a pretty dowdy one. It used the same roof as the two door sedan, but without the windowframes and pillar.
Here’s the Edsel section, represented by two first-year ’58s. This Citation was the top of the line.
It shares that bigger body with the senior Mercuries.
There’s that gaudy Edsel dash, and the transmission push buttons in the steering wheel hub. A better idea, for sure!
In case you couldn’t make out that little sign in the glove box, here it is…maybe it should have said “Designed in Dearborn by IDIOTS”?
The world is a richer place for Ford’s misadventure.
It’s hard to imagine a world where this trademark grille didn’t ever exist.
The sole Studebaker here is this Wagonaire.
The proprietor obviously had a soft spot for T-Birds.
And more T-Birds.
The famous C-pillar that made Ford in its time.
The older Fords are bringing up the rear.
Here’s a study in contrasting approaches to roofs and C-pillars.
We’ll stop for now and take a breather, but here’s a fine mixed-message shot until we come back. There’s some exotics hiding in the weeds, as well as vintage Japanese bikes. Back soon…
Continue to Part 3 of the Tour
You are right – I have been on the lookout for a 63-64 Chrysler. I spent a lot of time in a friend’s 63 Newport during my high school years.
As for that ’54 Plymouth hardtop, well . . . I’m a Mopar fan and a function-over-form kinda guy, but I would have had an awfully hard time convincing myself to buy one of those when new. Uggggghhhhhhly.
It strikes me that a good number of these cars have already been the subject of the Curbside Classic treatment. But the good news is that there are so many yet to do.
I realize that this isn’t something we would normally do around here, but I know where I can get some good shots of a 63-64 Chrysler that’s in decent shape up here in MI. If you like, I can shoot it and let you do a CC on it and use the pics. Let me know…. 🙂
-Richard
Now THAT is a junkyard.
I think that Pacer had beer goggles.
Brillant!
Thats my kinda car show I see interesting things just out of shot easy to spend hours wandering in there.
That Packard hood ornament is quintessential Space Age. Looks to be in perfect shape too, must be Packard-quality chrome. You could mount it on a hardwood base and get a high price in one of those ‘mid-century’ decor shops.
Yeah…[sigh] Packard. The most tragic of the tragedies that surrounded the New Studebaker Corporation. I will NEVER…EVER…understand why in HELL they didn’t just move the Packard tooling over to South Bend, and then use the Studebaker plant to start making the bodies Briggs had discontinued for them?
Packard’s production was smaller; but they were making it…debt-free and, aside from supplier and plant issues, sustainable. But…as the whole S-P merger was Packard buying Studebaker…it seems that the Packard people weren’t able to think outside the box. Not willing or able to find a creative solution to their woes. And no, the Packardbaker was not “creative.”
Today, we can list a whole host of solutions: Keep the companies separate; bankrupt Stude and then set up the plant with Packard people, Packard lines and the Packard V-8s. Maybe keep the Canadian plant pumping out Studebakers for people who wanted them, as long as they did.
But it didn’t happen. A shame…
Studebaker-Packard got the Mercedes-Benz distributorship in 1958, says the Wikipedia M-B article. Just as the last bubbles were rising from the bathtub they drowned Packard in. Probably just a way to give Packard dealers something to sell, so S-P doesn’t get sued. But it can be seen in hindsight as an early case of US business outsourcing high-quality product manufacturing overseas.
In fact, Portland’s prosperous Mercedes dealer (two locations) was once Rasmussen Studebaker. Some of those dealers did a lot better than S-P did.
The Mercedes dealer in Nashville when I was a kid had been a Packard dealer at one point, IIRC.
The Auburn (WA) Studebaker dealer in a converted service station morphed into a big-ass Mercedes dealership in Tacoma, which later also took on a Toyota franchise. Quite a few smart guys did very well from that Studebaker/Mercedes-Benz tiein.
The Packardbaker was really an afterthought. They had originally been planning to discontinue Packard entirely, but they found they could cobble together the Studebaker-based version for only about a million dollars — not a lot for tooling, even in 1957.
At one point, S-P had more elaborate plans for shared bodies, essentially an A-B-C body scheme to be shared with Studebaker, Packard, and Clipper. As planned, there probably would have been some similarity, but more akin to the resemblance between Buick, Olds, and Pontiac. Unfortunately, S-P was unable to raise the money to implement it, which directly triggered a lot of what followed.
It’s pretty amazing that Stude was able to come up with a million dollars in their sorry financial state in 1957 – and even sadder that this development money seemed largely wasted as they didn’t really change the outer body panels, where customers could see it and it would have made the most difference overall to visually differentiate the two brands
Lincoln made the same mistake with the Versailles and Caddy with the Cimmaron. Lessons not learned?
> I will NEVER…EVER…understand why in HELL they didn’t just move
> the Packard tooling over to South Bend, and then use the Studebaker
> plant to start making the bodies Briggs had discontinued for them?
The Studebaker assembly line was supposedly not able to handle the wider Packard bodies. I think they should have just found some unused space in their (still-extant) main E. Grand Blvd. complex to make their own bodies.
As for the two-year Packard V8 being a near-wasted effort, at least it found its way not only into Packards but also Hudsons, Nashes, Studebakers, and some boats.
Never seen a Packard with power steering AND a WCFB 4BBL carb at the same time!
It’s a bit surprising that someone hasn’t pulled those two ’56 Chevys out to resurrect them. Restoration is probably economically feasible given the values of any Tri-Five. Like a lot of sedans and wagons, they were probably junked when collectors were still focusing only on the coupes and ragtops.
And on that Clipper, how about the grille emblem. Was there ever a car more suited to being called a land yacht?
This yard looks to be one of those that is not currently crushing cars to send scrap to India or China, thankfully. Way too much nice stuff in there.
I’ve been in love with the original Mercury Cougar about as long as I have been alive. Will we see a CC on those?
So many cars I’d love to have.
Is the Coug a GTE or just has a JCW hood scoop? Either way I’d take it. I’ll also take the Edsel and a bunch of the T-birds.
Not a GT-E. The GT-E had a horizontal trim piece on the grille, and a different twin-nostril scoop. That scoop looks similar to the 69-70 scoop.
Thanks, I knew something didn’t quite look like a GT-E but I couldn’t put my finger on it and the scoop looked like the 69-70’s I’m more familiar with. Either way it does look like it might be worth saving.
Actually, GTE’s had 2 scoop styles, the nostril type was used with 427 engines,
after it was dropped and they switched to the 428 CJ, they used the type seen here. Point taken though, unless the grill was swapped I doubt it’s a GTE.
I just noticed the floor shifter on the Edsel. I wonder how old the car was when the owner gave up on the Teletouch pushbuttons in the steering wheel hub.
That Edsel is probably a Corsair, not a Citation. They both used the Mercury body, but the Citation had a grooved aluminum trim panel in the rear quarter cove. The Ford based Edsels were the Pacer and Ranger. There was an Edsel Club meet here last summer. Amazing to see 100 or more Edsels in one place! And did anyone else notice the early ’70s Ambassador behind the ’54 Ford?
Edit: I think that is actually a 1970 Rebel SST, not an Ambassador.
It appears to have a Corsair fender nameplate too
Sniff.
Where’s the LaFrance firetrucks hiding?
i’m mystified as to how this junkyard works. some of these cars are very rare. how can it make sense for them to be outside rotting away? don’t people pay top dollar for edsel & packard parts?
Deceased hoarder, used to run a towing company. Everything is for sale (whole car only), contact me through Paul if you want to know more…
Man, I’d love to see the tag on that Cougar !
That’s the best looking Pacer I’ve ever seen.
Hardboiled Eggs and Nuts ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, MMMMMMHHHM !
That “Made in Detroit by IDIOTS” seems to have been a thing. I first encountered it in Dymo-tape label on the centre dashboard trim piece of a ’65 Dart. Then I think I saw it a few times in cars that went through the yard. And a few years ago I was down in the basement of my grandfather’s (now my) house going through the copious papers my father fastidiously generated in high school, university, and law school, and I was oddly shocked to find “MADE IN DETROIT BY IDIOTS” in blue ink with a box around it at the top of a page of otherwise studious notes. I don’t know what to make of it; he only ever had American cars (except for a regrettable ’90 Jetta) and so did his folks, and he was the opposite of a car guy, so it wasn’t like he pined for a bimmer or something.
I have no idea what the origins might be of the phrase, but it seems to have been around awhile; I find this which is said to be a circa-1940 item.