Photo Source: Trelleborg Sealing Solutions
I love period photographs of parking lots. Is there a better record of the automotive landscape of a particular era? Here we have an aerial photograph of W. S. Shamban & Co. of Fort Wayne, Indiana that was taken no later than the summer of 1969. How do I know this? Because that was when my father replaced the white 1966 Country Squire that is shown parked next to the sidewalk leading to the front entrance of the building. I was amazed to find this picture while noodling around the internet. How often do you find a photo of a parking lot from years ago and recognize one of the cars parked there?
Shamban was a manufacturer of industrial seals that still exists as a unit of Trelleborg Sealing Solutions. The company still makes and sells Turcon (R), which was developed at Shamban as a proprietary PTFE-based seal material in the early 1960s. My father started there as a sales engineer in 1958 and was the general manager of the Fort Wayne plant in the late 1960s.
This picture solves a mystery for me: I see that the Squire lacks a fender callout for one of the big FE engines, which means that Dad made do with the basic 289. The car had no air conditioning either, which meant that I spent quite a bit of time frying my young legs on those sizzling-hot black vinyl seats. Other than the Squire, I may have ridden a time or two in that light blue early Valiant, which looks like the one owned by one of the engineers who was a family friend. He was one of the few people I knew at that young age who bought Mopars.
Here is a better view. Most of the American cars are easily recognizable, but can anyone help with the gray import next to the Valiant? Looks like a VW Type 3 to me, in a very uncommon body style.
It does look like a VW notchback! Can’t see what else it would be. No other foreigners, I see….
Yes, almost all American iron – pretty much the way I remember the midwest in 1968.
I grew up in Oregon in the 70’s, there were always oddball European and Japanese cars around but they were in the minority.
Mostly all American iron, and mostly cars/wagons as well. The great truck/SUV epoch had yet to begin.
After quite a bit of looking at this, the only ones giving me any trouble are the reddish convertible parked next to the building right beyond the blue 68 Ford Country Sedan, and then the small white car three cars this side of it.
It’s interesting how popular baby blue was – there are several of them there. Also, the only 50s cars still in service are GM – I see 2 55 Chevys and a 59 Pontiac. And other than one white Mustang, I don’t see a single thing that would show up at your typical car show.
Yep, nothing fancy just basic American iron transportation of the 60’s. One sees nothing but muscle cars at shows but in reality they were not all that common back then in the general automobile population. That is why I love that shot since it represents that time so clearly and accurately. Looks just like the parking lot picture of my high school in 1970. I wouldn’t be surprised if all those cars pictured have been crushed. I know all those in my 1970 picture have been except my car.
We went on holiday to America and Canada a lot as kids in the 60s and we saw cars like this mostly,plain vanilla 4 door sedans with a 6 or a small block 2 barrel V8.My nephews think everyone drove Mustangs,Camaros,Chargers,GTOs and the like
Great photo! I believe that the reddish convertible is either a 1964 or 1965 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass convertible, while the white car is a 1965 or later Corvair sedan.
Yup. Those pre-import Type IIIs were rare overall, but they were NOT rare in places where engineers worked or studied. I grew up around Kansas State, with lots of foreign and domestic engineering students. Type III notchbacks and Type III Ghias were often seen there… along with more obscure imports like Messerschmitts and Goliaths.
Not really surpising to see the VW Typ II ‘ Notchback ‘ (Called ” Variant everywhere but America”) as they were a popular Canadian import from 1961 when the Typ III series were released and most American Dealers still had waiting lists…
I find all manner of Canadian cars in the middle of America junkyards .
This photo takes me back to younger dayze .
-Nate
Typ III Limousine. Variant is Volkswagen-language for a wagon.
Cars sure dripped from their engines quite a bit back in the day. I’ve notice on old pictures and TV shows, the parking lots always have oil stains, even the roads have that dark trail down the middle. There’s not much of that today.
Before PCV valves were added, not sure the date, motors had ‘road draft tubes’ which emptied oil fumes, etc.
Was one of the first anti-pollution control devices added.
The other answer is, of course, that if everyone used Shamban Turcon oil seals in their engines, we wouldn’t have had this problem. 🙂 Really, the way I remember it, even the nicest cars always dribbled a bit out of the engine or transmission seals.
The standards certainly have changed. My 2002 Durango leaves a quarter sized spot on the garage floor every once in a while. Three years ago, the dealer suggested I get some seal replaced for hundreds of dollars. I declined, and the leak has not changed. My dad used to regularly sweep the garage floor so sand from the winter streets could be ground into the oil spots on the floor to clean up after our ’68 Impala. He had a bag of sand for the summer months.
Before PCV valves, engines had breathers on the valve covers connected to “draft tubes” which vented the crankcase vapours right onto the ground.
EDIT: tomcatt630 beat me to it!
I’ve seen those on our tractors from about the same time period. Luckily, I’ve never been on the receiving end of them.
Rule #1 of tractor repair: Don’t sit under the draft tube until 20 minutes after shutting it off.
As young kid, I didn’t have the fondest memories of cars from this era. I remember so many cars burning oil and so much bad air, especially in city cores. And from a young person’s perspective, many of the boats were as generic as the Camrys and Corollas seem today. Admittedly, I did enjoy the trend to smaller cars. And used to enjoy seeing the first Vegas, Hornets, and Pintos.
Cars and tractors have nothing on radial piston aircraft engines when it comes to oil leaks. If they’re not leaking, they’re out of oil!
The best illustration of just how much those monsters leaked are two photos of Houston International Airport (now Hobby). Here’s the current terminal as it was originally built in 1954, just prior to opening….
Here it is in 1955…..
I don’t believe any of these cars would have had radiator catch cans, either.
Those didn’t come along (from the factory, anyway) until the mid ’70s. I remember my Dad putting an aftermarket coolant recovery kit in our ’72 LTD.
I’m a fan of vintage parking lot photographs as well. They really do seem to capture the vehicular era more than anything else in my opinion. (Let’s see more of them…hint, hint). Can’t put my finger on why, but even “recreated” street and parking lot scenes in movies and on TV just never look or feel authentic to me.
My main take away from this shot is that compared to a contemporary shot from now, how few of the vehicles are trucks. There’s only a few trucks in this shot, and not even that many wagons, the vintage equivalent of the SUV. I know….back then, you only drove a truck if you were going to use it as an actual truck. That’s certainly not the case today.
Trucks weren’t DD’s outside of rural areas mostly because they rode like trucks. And wagons were more often the second car (if they had a second car) kept at home for the weekend/summer road trip.
Trucks as daily drivers were the result of CAFE. Until then, people could buy cars that suited their needs.
Yep, everyone sure needed a RWD, BOF carbureted-V8-powered sedan that got 20 MPG on a good day.
Don’t act like it’s a bad thing that today’s 1/2-tons ride better than almost all the cars in the original pic.
That’s not necessarily so. By the mid to late ’60s the Big 3 were all heavily marketing pickups as a second car for suburban families. This was during the RV/boat boom so the idea was to have something to pull the weekend/vacation toys, but still act as a comfortable and practical weekday grocery getter.
Ford had their Ranger package, Chevy had their CST and Dodge had the Adventurer. All of them had car-like interiors with full carpet, extra sound insulation and upgraded trim. Bucket seats were even available. (Ford’s came straight out of the Mustang) With their new 1967 models, Ford and GM had made great improvements in the ride of their trucks. Ford’s ever-present slogan for much of the ’60s and early ’70s was “Works like a truck, rides like a car.”
With power steering and brakes, factory a/c and an automatic even the missus could drive one!
Even IH got in on the action promoting their trucks as easy enough for Aunt Martha to drive https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/IH-1969-International-Ad-03.jpg
” Trucks as daily drivers were the result of CAFE. Until then, people could buy cars that suited their needs.”
Way wrong .
The big three was doing market research and realized that 92 % of all pickups were being used for non Commercial duty and began adding the comfort and accessories previously only found on cars and pickup sale took off like a rocket .
-Nate
Today we look at the 1959 Pontiac hardtop coupe in the front row of the main parking area and think, “What a cool car,” but by the late 1960s it was just another old car and hardly anybody would have been proud to drive it.
I have been wrestling with which one I would choose today. I keep going back and forth between 2 cars in the middle row – a bluish-gray 66-67 Dodge Coronet 2 door hardtop with the black vinyl roof and the baby blue 63 Newport 4 door hardtop right next to it. The 66 T-Bird is not bad, either. I would pick the Squire, but I have already spent a lot of time in that one. 🙂
Progress – a car park full of trucks and a company with “Solutions” in its title.
Great period feel though – I’d go with the VW type 3 but have to pass on the other queries!
great photo! I enjoy looking at old parking lot photos too. Neat to see the gold ’68 Polara parked next to the side door. Is that a ’58 Fairlane next to it? Love the ’61 Valiant too.
The gray one? Looked to me like a 60-ish Rambler.
It’s also interesting to note how many cars are parked with their windows down, also unusual compared to “lock it and lock it and triple lock it” that seems to be common today.
Where is the business owners Cadillac or Electra 225? Or was he perhaps driving the snazzy 66 Thunderbird Landau by the Country Squire?
I honestly don’t remember what the owner drove. I vividly remember the car his son had, which Dad got to borrow when the guy occasionally needed to borrow the wagon – a dark green 65 or 66 Mustang fastback with black interior, V8 and 4 speed. THAT was a cool car.
When A/C was a luxury, you kept the windows down until it was about 60 degrees outside. As for theft–why would anyone want to steal a car in Fort Wayne?
One of the advantages of driving a gray-on-gray blahmobile pedestrian CUV with a damaged title in MN is that I could concievably leave the doors unlocked, with the keys in the glove compartment, and no thief would even give it a second look.
I’ll bet some of the cars even have their keys in the ignition! Most of them probably have an ashtray full of butts, too.
These cars are definitely ‘adult drivers’. No pony cars or sporty coupes. And certainly no factory ‘muscle cars’. The red ‘vair in back is a plain looking one, not the sporty Monza.
Even if you find a period HS parking lot picture, most cars are hand me down sedans, not all ‘muscle cars’ as legends suggest.
Well, the rocker trim on the Corvair identifies it as a Monza most likely, the 500’s didn’t have any trim at all.
There does appear to be at least one Mustang on the lot, in between the 1959 Pontiac and the 1959-60 Chevrolet 2 door sedan.
I am surprised that nobody has latched onto the dark green (?) 63 Impala with the white convertible top that is two cars beyond the white Mustang (which I believe is a hardtop). If I were a fan of the 61-64 Chevy, that one would be my choice hands down.
Hmm, there seems to be a 2 dr. 1966 Fairlane coupe on the right in burgundy poly with hood bulges. That would be the first car I’d pop my head into along with the Mustang convertible. That is assuming I walked into the lot back in 1969. Today I would pop my head into all of them before buying the lot complete with the cars.
The Fairlane GT caught my eye as well, but it is in Vintage Burgundy Iridescent. Ploy is a aftermarket term to indicate something that isn’t a standard paint w/o infringing on the trademarked names for metallic paint like Firemist and to have continuity between the different brands.
I guess I’ll take the ’68 Polara sedan, gold with a black roof, in the left row, or the dark blue Coronet with the black vinyl roof if JPC doesn’t want it. For a moment I thought the maroon coupe near the front was a Plymouth Satellite, but on closer inspection realized it’s a Ford.
I’ll take the red Corvair! Sad to see Mercs, Olds, Pymouths, Ponti’s and Ramblers in their heyday, with no clue of what was to come…
D-uhh … I don’t see no Maverick … Where’s the Maverick? I thought that was supposed to be one of the most popular compact. Or how about a Pinto? … That was also popular.
This photo is too old for the Pinto to be out and if it was late enough for the Maverick to be available it was just barely out then.
That would be quite a trick before either of them came out. I see nothing in this lot newer than a 68, and if I had to bet, summer of 1968 would have been when this photo was taken. I know that the Squire was gone by August or September of 69. But, I would expect to see at least 1 1969 model so late in the model year, with the 70 models right around the corner.
I think that must be a nice new ’68 Dart at the extreme lower right….
did the ’67s have those in-fender marker lights?
Leaks? Of course they leaked. Studebakers still leak
from their rear mains to this present day.
Why? ‘Cause they’re made out of rope.
I guess you can get a new fangled one put in when you
rebuild the engine nowadays….
Small world. What are the chances you would find a 35 year old picture on the internet with your Dad’s car? VW Notchback for sure. I had at one time a 63 VW 1500S Variant Sunroof. It was basically a Squareback without the front disc brakes, The S was the optional dual carb, the standard had a single carb. All the US 66-67 models were dual carb and front disc brakes with a few other small differences. The one I had was a rustbucket, I got it in California in the early 80’s in trade for my 70 450 Honda. It may have come from a rust belt state originally. Or possibly Canada. I needed a car but I wish I kept the motorcycle, it was perfect and only had 15k miles on it, but I got a job that was a 90 mile a day drive and had to have a car. That old rustbucket leaked oil like crazy, if you tried to use the heater your eyes would water, but it held together for 2 years until I was able to upgrade. One blown wheelcylinder and a gen belt that only turned the generator so I made it to work both times were the only failures. Out of the 35 cars I count, the VW is the only import. Indiana in around 1969. How times have changed. And the oldest cars there are only about 13 years old, and most are 1960 or newer except for a couple of around 1956 Chevys. Nice find.
Very sad to see a picture of a Ft. Wayne parking lot w/o at least one International in the shot, I would have expected at least one Travelall or Scout in the mix. The large number of Fords is also very surprising as is the relatively small number of GM vehicles.
Probably a small sample size. No Studes either. Actually, I don’t recall a lot of retail Internationals before the 70s. The new Travelall and the Scout II seemed much more common than the older ones.
Just a guess, but I wonder of Shamban did any Ford business? No idea, but that might explain the high concentration.
If that’s a Valiant next to the VW, I’ll take it. I’d imagine that body style Valiant as old as it was at the time would have been one of the least desirable cars in the lot.
Although it has the wrong hubcaps, that F-100 with topper could be the twin of our ’69 F-100.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/coal-requiem-for-a-truck/
I saw one of those notchback Type III VWs in Portland just last week.
…and an hour after posting that a green Type III Notchback crossed right in front of me at a light. CC Effect!
Where did you find this? Google Earth Time Warp Edition?
I think I see a 1966 T-Bird Landau and if so that would be my favorite. That Imperial sure stands out.
Small world indeed. I’m an ex-Pat Brit and I’ve worked at this facility since 2001. This building still stands, though it’s been heavily extended and we put put up another building to the North. International (Navistar) were our neighbors for years, some say they were the reason Bill Shamban chose Fort Wayne for his Midwestern plant, but they finally moved out the last few folks to Chicago last year. We still have an occasional employee classic car show and it’s great to see the range of vehicles that people bring in. Wish I had some pics to share.
Wow, that is a small world. I thought that i remembered that this place was just beyond the back of the International property, but I have not been there since I was maybe 10 years old.
I don’t suppose that the nose cone from the spacecraft/missile is still in the outer lobby? 🙂
Re your observation about the Squire being a 289-I’ve always regarded non-FE equipped Ford full-sizers as “lame ducks” of a sort. They just do not make a good home for a little Windsor the way and FE does. And on non-wagons, you also got the weak little Dana WER rear, not a beefy 9-inch.
I’m a bit late to the party, but I couldn’t help myself. I tweaked the second image a bit in Photoshop, in a bid to restore the colours to something closer to reality (e.g. green grass, grey asphalt). I also sharpened the image slightly. It only took a couple of minutes.
I really wish I could find some pics of Brown Chrysler-Plymouth, Portland, ME when my Dad worked there. Alas.