In my first installment of Trail Side Classics we were traveling along the GAP Trail. For this ride, let’s visit some possibly more interesting finds along a 13 Mile section of the Montour Trail in the southwestern suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA.
The Montour trail is a multi-use Bike way Rails-to-Trails where abandoned industrial rail beds have been converted for biking and other recreation. The areas accessible from the bike path are out of the way and generally seldom seen whilst traversing the greater Pittsburgh area by car, truck, or public transport. This due to the many, many, many hills, valleys, streams, creeks, rivers, etc., that one must drive typically through. Because of the tight and varied topography of the region, most inter and intra-county travel remains on the high traffic, large, state-maintained US routes.
As I began the ride, there were many trailheads to cross near Bethel Park and Library, PA. I took the section of the trail that heads due south to Clariton, PA. First, at a trailhead parking area was this clean and well preserved 2006-2010 Ford Explorer with black trim and large factory alloy wheels;
A few more miles down the trail presented this well preserved example of a Chrysler LHS at another trailhead parking area;
We can see the cab forward styling cues and other early nineties inspired aero sculpting around the edges and surfaces in these shots.
These full sized front drivers had a cavernous truck and somehow remind me of the cloud car Neons….. “Hi!” from Chrysler, Tom Gale, and Bob Lutz.
About 5 miles of this section of the Trail is on the Road, before it crosses State Route 51 at Large, PA (which is really small!) Near that un-large location, there were some FoMoCo’s! Lots of them. Buckle up Ford fans!
Behold the Early 80’s Trailer Special:
A Single Cab, 1 Ton Custom F350, built to do one thing! Tow!
It has a 400 under the hood.
It is for sale as well.
A few more shots of this interesting run of the mill pickup truck:
Nearby at the same property was this mid 80’s Lincoln Town Car Signature Series.
Heavy padding on the Landau top is reminiscent of the Brougham and Malaise era.
This Lincoln is not aero sculpted yet.
A few more feet down the “non trail” section of the road, there are more FoMoCo examples to be sighted.
I happened on this duet of late 70’s Broncos that seem to have been heavily enjoyed in the past with lifts and Giant 15″ Mud / Trail tires.
The blue one has definitely seen some rough country over the years.
Parked behind the blue Bronco is this square headlight version finished in red and grey.
Both examples chimed in as a Bronco Ranger XLT – Likely the top trim and price points for these twins that were produced for just 2 years from 1978 -1979, before getting a redesign that mimicked the design language of Ford’s F150 line.
This custom antenna is great for any die hard Ford fan. Nothing a trip to the blast cabinet and chrome shop can’t fix!
A last look at our late 70’s Bronco twins. The red one might not have a hardtop?
Did you want more fords? Well, CC fans will be happy to know this moderately well preserved 1967 Galaxie 500 4 door sedan is nestled at the same property as the Broncos.
The yellow reflective face with blue alpha numerals in the Pennsylvania plate takes me back to my childhood. This one was likely last registered in the late 8o’s or early ’90’s; I forgot to check the registration or inspection stickers for a hard “Last on the Road Date”.
No giant smashes or dents on the fenders or the double stacked headlights above the bumper.
Let’s look inside. It is very well preserved in here.
Very nice, save for a few scattered papers and the ashtray on the front bench seat.
It has a 390 callout on the front flanks. My lack of knowledge on things Ford cannot hazard a guess if it should sport a 4 or 2 barrel under the air filter housing.
As I reached the end of the trail in Clairton, just outside the gates of the Clairton Coke Works, I snapped a few more CC’s. The Coke Works, is a relic of the steel industry that is still going strong, and is also likely diluting the air quality of the Monongahela River valley.
I snapped this GMC truck and Monte Carlo a block up from the US Steel property.
The GMC seems to be stagnant as of now.
With its copper paint and Sierra 15 badge, it reminds me of many of these that were common on the roads around these parts in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
The Monte Carlo also seems not to have been operating much recently.
I would be willing to bet the dual exhaust was added after it left the factory.
On the return trip, I saw a late ’50’s fin poking through the spring green foliage! It was well masked, so I thought it was a Cadillac or GM Product of some sort. I was wrong!
To my Amazement it was 2 DeSoto Firedomes! I assume these vehicles have been here for many decades, likely serving as parts cars for one roadworthy DeSoto somewhere else.
For now, let’s enjoy the 2 defunct DPCID MoPars in their elegant state of decay as their metallic bits slowly erode away into the earth and waterways.
Who knows how long those DeSoto Twins have been at this spot? I bet they are not going anywhere soon, and they are flanked by the Bike trail ~10 feet below and with a steep grade and a storage trailer on the other side. I predict they will continue to return to mother earth for many more moons!
Last stop on the trail today is this 1967-72 GMC Truck in mostly orange.
The badge calls out 2500 (likely a 3/4 Ton by the 8 Lug / 16″ or 16.5″ wheels) and a V- Eight.
That wraps up the finds from the trail proper, but we’re not done yet.
On this particular ride, I did not drive to the trailhead. I biked from my in-law’s house to the trail. So this Autozam AZ-Wagon 5 door was there to greet me on the road ride to the trail.
A local JDM enthusiast must have imported the 5 door, or recently bought it from an importer.
The AZ-Wagon is a JDM vehicle that is now old enough to be imported and legally registered in the US.
I hope you enjoyed our morning bike ride today. There are so many more CC’s to find out there, even if you are not looking for them, they are looking to find you!
DeSotos are 1956.
That Autozam was an unexpected surprise!
Thank you for the DeSoto model year ID.
There are a lot of automotive surprises out there to be discovered.
Interesting finds! The orange GMC looks to be a 1968 model by the style of the trim and the side marker lights. I would love to save that one and get it back on the road!
Some great finds there. The ’67 Ford is in quite good shape. In ’67, the 390 came in both 2-barrel (270 hp) and 4-barrel (315 hp) versions. Given the car it’s in, my bet is the 2-barrel version.
Thanks for the Ford information Paul.
Curiously, good shape indeed.
I love the cute little Autozam .
I used to find rusted out hulks like those DeSotos and get very good engine blocks, cranks and cylinder heads for pennies or free…….
Finding good ‘hard parts’ , even cores to rebuild is always a challenge and often a reasure hunt .
-Nate
Great finds! And thanks for prompting me to look up the Montour Trail. I so like Rails to Trails routes and I always like the idea of hitting up a bunch of them once I retire.
Almost all of the long bikable routes around these parts are rail to trails. There are quite a few to choose from.
I have biked many, but not all of them.
One of my favorite & simultaneously bizarre sections on the GAP trail is when in is literally in between two opposing directions of traffic of 5/6 lanes of I376. Yes, it is essentially in the median of sorts for a few thousand feet.
The general topography and lack of flat open spaces makes any other public- private venture for these trails as such largely unattainable and unrealistic in my opinion.
I am loving the 67 Ford. I keep forgetting how attractive the sedan roofline was on that car – a big improvement from 1965-66.
There is no way to tell whether it is a 2bbl or a 4 bbl without looking under the hood (or maybe looking at the data plate on the door). This seems like a fairly well-equipped car. It has air conditioning (not all that common on 67 Galaxies where I come from) and also carries the two little lights under the dash for parking brake and seat belt warnings, so maybe someone popped for the 4 bbl in this one.
Equipped like an “LTD”.
One of the little details I used to see a lot in Pennsylvania were cars with the Pa. State Seal as an embossed, pewter-colored front license plate, like what’s on the Town Car.
I have no idea where people bought those, but they were very common. I’ve never seen state seal booster plates as popular in any other state.
Thanks for this tour! That Galaxie looks remarkably similar to the car my mom had when I was a kid.
I believe those types of plates are sand or die cast Aluminum or pot metal.
I’m not sure how authoritative my old Standard Catalog of Ford is, but it shows three 390s for ’67. The first and definitely most likely is either a Y or H code. I’d bet even most Thunderbirds came with that in ’67. Next are the 4V version, code Z, with a point higher compression (10.5:1) and forty more HP. Then a “GT” 390 with 11:1 and yet another 20 HP (I’m guessing special-order only on that one) – code S. I have to wonder if a 4V 390 at a typical dealer in a Fairlane or Galaxie was a rarity; mostly a special order thing. I’d think the T-bird and certainly the Mustang had a decent chance of being a 4V, but I’d be willing to bet finding a Fairlane or Galaxie with a 4V is fairly rare.
We were limiting our discussion of those versions available on the full-size Fords, like the one in this post.
All T-Birds came with minimum 4-barrels. This was true until the ’77 models.
One exception was 2006 early 1972 models built with the 400, before they went back to the standard 429.
The lights were 2 separate option. The Seat Belt light was part of the “Deluxe Seat Belt” option that included push button buckles instead of the plain lift-up release.
The parking brake light was included with the “Visibility Group” which gave you that plus a remote mirror, rear door courtesy switches, under-dash courtesy lamps,
and on sub-Galaxie models where not standard, ash tray, glove box and trunk lights
The blue-on-yellow plates could be as late as 1999. That’s when PA fully replaced all their plates with the “URL” plate, called such because it was the first state to put its website on the plate. At first with was mostly white with blue numbers with a faded-in stripe at the top and bottom.
Interestingly it looks like PA is moving to a red, white, and blue plate with “Let Freedom Ring,” on it, which I gather is their current state motto and probably aligning to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
I see. That Galaxie could definitely have had one of the first two motors; I guess what I’m wondering is if the 4Vs were mixed in with typical inventory at any appreciable rate (leaving out the T-birds and Mustangs). Most 390s were 2V by a big margin, so it wouldn’t surprise me if 4Vs were more likely to be special-order – which I hear was more common back then.
Now, the 2-barrel makes little sense to me because a big motor like the 390 is choked by a 2-barrel and is no more efficient than with a properly-sized 4-barrel (let’s not get started on the guys swapping a 750 double-pumper on an otherwise stock 390). It does come into focus from the manufacturer’s side: they’re happy to save $5 per car, and then turn around and charge another $80 per car (according to my book) for the people who demand it. And you have those buyers who live off grandpappys “wisdom” – mostly the thrifty types, whose first words when they saw a 4-barrel under the hood were “that’ll burn twice as much gas.” So I understand the why, but if I were in charge, there would never have been a 2V 390.