Vintage Snapshot: Two Very Different Wagons in the Driveway
– Posted on July 18, 2019
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1963 or ’64 Buick full-size. I’ll go out on a limb and assume the Morris is from the 1958-59 import boom so it may have been their only wagon until the Buick was bought, which would make more sense than paying extra to have your small car in wagon form when you already have a big wagon. It may have been dirt-cheap used too.
Looks like a 1963 Buick Invicta Estate Wagon, as it has the body length side molding. I’ll defer to my fellow CC’ers regarding the woody.
Guessing the picture is considerably newer than the cars. The 1960 house has quite a bit of wear, and the Morris has a CV license, probably Collector Vehicle.
In other words, all three objects were treated as mid-century collectibles when the picture was taken.
I suspect in this case “CV” is a random/sequential letter sequence. The Morris is old enough for its’ red rear reflectors to have faded (those aren’t backup lights) but not so recently snapped and cherished that new ones have been ordered from the Moss Motors catalog.
I forgot how those add-on reflectors used to fade.
I’ll bet that the Buick didn’t see the inside of that garage much. Tight squeeze.
Agree! The Morris maybe.
Wooden you really rather have a Buick?
Oh, you didn’t.
Having been awarded the Internet by a commenter just a day or so ago, today you become the first of ever to lose it (unless there’s a so-dad-it’s-good category).
Pure corn.
That garage probably wasn’t used much to store a car. I grew up in a split level house built in 1959. It had a 1.5 car garage- room for a biggie & a compact car, but more likely (and in the 20+ years my dad own the house) one car, a riding lawnmower, bicycles, and various other crap.
I’m pretty sure that due to it’s side trim the Buick is a 1964. GM didn’t change the big Buick & Olds wagons much from ‘61-‘62 and ‘63-‘64. Its probably why they dropped them (again) from ‘65-‘71 (Buick Estate brought back in 1970).
I’m not 100% sure on the id of the woody wagon, but a Morris makes sense.
Morris Minor 1000 Traveller (double L, we’re British). 1000 version ran from 1956-62 and known officially as Series 3. But we call them Minors.
Probably Britain’s favourite car, even more so than the Mini
We called them the Woodie Minor.
(For reasons that it sounded far too much like an obscure part of the Public Offences Act, we did not call them the Minor Woodie).
Can we see the date on the license plate?
I wanna guess 1954-55 on home construction, and photo late 1960s.
I’m not sure where the photo was taken, but to me it looks like a 1968 Oklahoma license plate, which was orange with black letters, and used a sequence with two letters followed by four numbers.
If that’s the case, the “CV” on the Morris’s tag would correspond to Cleveland County (OK still used County codes through the early 1980s).
Just a guess here, but the plate does match, and the photo could have been taken in 1968.
Ironically the Morris 1000 Traveller was still in production (up to 1971) so potentially could be the newer car in 1968. Then again, it could be a decade old too.
Good spot – definitely a ’68 Oklahoma plate.
Morry thou woodie rare as nowdays
A local guy has a traveller same colour but with the wider van wheels, twin carbs and header it also has an overdrive Triumplh gearbox hes had it over 30 years, his only car
Alright, falls to me then.
You buy the Morris, you lose the Buick.
Alt: At least the Morrie will be rusted to a pile by next week, and we can use the Buick.
Alt: It’s snowing! Snow is frozen rain. Don’t tell the electrics in the British car there’s rainy stuff….oh.
Alt: Your turn, CC
Those Morries are unquestionably good little rolly-polys to roly-pole about in at suburban speeds, even with the standard Wand of Wherever gearstick and Stop-Me-Not brakes. Easy to park too, useful when an important part of the structural wooden bodywork rots off and you find yourself in an inadvertent partial convertible.
But if it was snowing like this, I think I’d just reverse the Buick Bargeass right over the broken Moz, and have a fast, a warm, a comfortable, and, most of all, a guaranteed return-home drive to wherever, which is probably the point of Cars In One’s Driveway.
I picked out the 68 Oklahoma tag immediately. I remember them as a kid growing up in the Okc area. Cleveland County is just south of Oklahoma County and part of the Okc metro area. Here’s a ‘68 tag I have on my garage wall. LN representing Lincoln County.
The house definitely has a southern mid century feel to it. I was guessing 1963 on the Buick wagon.