Text by Patrick Bell.
It is time for another round of convertibles, this time from the sixties. These will bring back memories for some, and all of us can choose one or two that you would prefer to own to make some new memories. So, take an extra dose of that allergy medicine and enjoy the wind!
Our first one today was a ’63 Chevrolet Impala with a ’63 Ohio license plate and snow tires on the rear. It was close to new and this may have been the first top down day of the season since it looked like a late winter or early spring day. I had one in black with a red interior that I bought for $170 in 1974. It was tired but all there, and ran and drove like the eleven year old car it was. I swapped cars often in those days and kept it for less than a month. It remains the only convertible I have owned.
Here is a ’61 Dodge Dart Phoenix from California. This was the best selling drop top for the year with sales of 3,878. That was over seven times the 512 Polara models sold, which was the other convertible available. Could the lady have been Barbara Eden?
A young family enjoying a sunny day at Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts, in their ’61 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88. The boy was ready for snorkeling and the girl was ready to play soccer. The Dynamic 88 was the least expensive way into a drop top Olds that year, and the most popular of the four offered, with over 9,000 produced.
Somebody’s ’61 Buick Invicta just received a bath. 3,953 of these were produced for the year putting it in third place out of the three convertibles offered. Parked across the street was a ’58 Plymouth Sport Suburban wagon.
This ’61 Pontiac Bonneville was the top of the line and the most popular convertible of the two available that year with over 18,000 sold. It was parked in a hilly neighborhood with a modified ’57 Chevrolet 4 door sedan across the street, and a green ’61-’66 Ford F-series in the background.
A pair of Mopars were out cruising on a warm winter day. On the left a ’61 Chrysler 300-G, and to the right a ’62 Dodge Dart 440. The 300 was the most expensive Chrysler for the year at $5841, and was more expensive than all the Imperials save the LeBaron. It was also the rarest with only 337 produced. Dodge did not break down production numbers by individual models during this period, but all three convertibles sold about 6,000 units total. This was the least expensive with a base list of $2945, about half of the 300 price.
What a beauty, a ’64 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray with Fuel Injection and a Wisconsin license plate. Corvette convertibles from ’63-’68 outsold the coupes every year. In ’69 that reversed, and stayed that way at least through ’90. And they were less expensive than the coupes, and remained that way through ’75 after which they were discontinued until ’86. Nearly 14,000 copies of the featured car found new homes that year.
Another red Chevrolet, this one a ’62 Chevy II Nova 400 with baby moon hub caps. This inaugural year compact beat Ford’s Falcon and Plymouth’s Valiant by a year for a convertible and hardtop body style. It sold well with over 23,700 out the door with a base list price of $2475. In the driveway across the street was a ’67 or ’68 Mercury Cougar.
Mid-year ’62 was when Ford introduced the Galaxie 500/XL in both Sunliner (convertible) and Victoria (hardtop) models. This Sunliner had spent some time in the sun when this image was shot, with faded paint and a pad on the driver’s seat cushion. It did well on the sales charts with 13,183 sold, and had nearly a $600 base price premium over the Galaxie 500 Sunliner, which sold 42,646.
Traveling in Colorado in a close to new ’63 Ford Galaxie 500 registered in Denver. The man at the wheel looked like he was patiently waiting for the photographer. A previous view of this car and roadtrip can be seen in a previous gallery HERE.
The most expensive Buick for ’63 was represented here with this Electra 225. It had a base list price of $4365 and was the second most popular in the full size drop tops with 6,347 units produced. It looked good in tan with brown top and interior, and three line whitewall tires.
A group of boys were stopped on a bridge for a photo shoot while modeling the lastest eyeware in a ’64 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass from Ohio. This model was the most popular Olds droptop for the year, besting its four big brothers with 12,922 units produced.
A smiling lady was ready to go for a ride in a ’65 Ford Galaxie 500, their best selling full size convertible. It was equipped with one of the base engines, most likely the 289 “Challenger” V8, power windows, and blackwall tires. It looked like a warm summer day.
And here was Chevrolet’s full size entry for ’65, an Impala from California. It was a V8 model, had whitewall tires with standard hub caps, and looked sharp in white with a red interior. Heading up the hill was a ’55 Chevrolet Two-Ten 2 door sedan, ’58 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan, ’50 Dodge Meadowbrook or Coronet 4 door sedan, looks like a ’48-’59 Studebaker pickup, and a ’59 Cadillac on the end.
Here was a sharp, close to new looking ’65 Rambler Ambassador 990 out in fresh snow. It was equipped with wire wheel covers, snow tires on the rear, and a license plate I don’t recognize. This was the most expensive and least popular of the three convertibles available that year, with 3,499 that found new homes.
This appears to be a Buick household with two ’64 Electra 225’s parked outside. A convertible with a bent front bumper in the driveway, and a coupe or sedan in the garage. The Riviera’s price jump for the new year was higher, so this convertible was the second most expensive Buick, and retained second place in the full size sales race with 7,181 out the door.
Our final image for the day was a ’69 Pontiac GTO with aftermarket wheels, hood pins, and perhaps a Texas license plate. The best year for GTO convertible sales was ’66, and this year’s number of 7,436 were down about 58%. They dropped another 50% in ’70, and for ’71 all but disappeared with less than 700 sold.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
The Dart 440 appears to have fender skirts; a capital way to make it look even worse.
Yeah. Not a good look.
Never seen one with skirts before. Hope to never again!
Who buys a sharp Impala convertible and gets the cheap hubcaps?
Think those were the same ones that were on out “65 Biscayne”.
Possibly the nicer ones were kept off to avoid being stolen?
Used for certain occasions.
Those were the correct deluxe, full wheelcovers on a ’63 Impala. An Impala SS would have had the ‘spinner’ type. This is not an SS. I don’t think they look cheap at all. (Dogdish would look cheap.)
I think he meant the white ’65 model in photo #14.
My bad! I didn’t catch that Impala!
Figured you were not referring to the white one.
It always surprises me how few American convertibles were sold. Experiencing the US by TV and the silver screen I assumed thet were far more common.
Have you ever sat in the back seat of a convertible at 60-70 mph? If so, you would understand their limited appeal.
They’re for “40-45 mph”, and under for sure. In any seat.(cruisers, not flyers)
Yeah, +1
Driving at not much more than trolling speed, in comfortable weather, is the only positive to me.
Too many other disadvantages: Less rigid body ( shake shudder shudder ), heavier, all too often flexible plastic rear backlights that with age mimic that of toenail fungus, in the case of slick hardtop coupes with fetching rooflines, replaced with a rumpled frumpy formal roofline. The ugly spartan unfinished look in the interior with the top raised, looking more like the ceiling in a warehouse.
It’s been my experience over the decades that most enamored of the drop-tops and longing for them are more in love with the _image_ of them than the reality of living with them.
Nope. Many people that long for drop tops are the same ones who grew up with and love driving them.
lololol I know. Even my small, “wstrn PA”, hometown had a goodly # roaming the roads.
Of course, rarely spotted one with the top down. lol
Lots of “rickety, weathered”, tops. ((as I recall))
The cars were older models , often.
Hard to believe that “61 Dart”, was the best selling , “drop top” of that year. The “61 Pontiac”, “65 Rambler”, “62 Nova” are my fav’s here.
The “Cougar” across the street from the “Nova” is an eye catcher.
I think he means best selling Dodge convertible.
t/y Got it.
Nice pictures and shows the wide variety between the various makes styling .
I wonder, my love of convertibles was definitely because of the _idea_ of how they looked, I had import rag tops so every one had a full headliner but like so many others after a few months I tired of the excessive buffeting by the wind and sun burn and sold each one on, after my very last one, a ’79 VW Super Beetle I promised my self to never make the mistake again, so far so good =8-) .
-Mate
My father carried a torch for the Plymouth Valiant convertible for years, possibly inspired by his friend’s Dodge Dart convertible. Then he transferred his allegiance to the Triumph Stag, and was probably lucky he never bought one. The only convertible my parents ever owned was my mom’s 82 Rabbit Convertible, which was actually pretty good for wind handling.
In the model car world hardtop kits outsell convertible kits of the same model of car simply because modelers consider the hardtop better looking and a better representation of the what the designers were after.
The ’63 Impala was a crib of the ’61 Cadillac regarding the grille and the ersatz skeg lower fins.
I’m a big fan of convertibles and have owned quite a few, a ’64 Cadillac was a favorite in the old days. I prefer them to a car with T Tops. I’ve had a Mustang convertible for the last 15 years, a ’96 for most of that time, and now an ’06. The best time for them is in the Spring and the Fall, too hot in the Summer.
Here’s a pair for sale at a recent car show.
The b/w shot of the boys and the Oldsmobile reminds me of my brother and me with Mum’s Morris Minor. We would fold the hood and play in it outside the house, much to her annoyance because she thought we would damage the hood, and it was a pain to fold and put back. I only remember one short journey when we went in the Minor with the hood down.
I went on to have an MG Midget, several rag top Citroens and a Mazda MX5. MX5 was the only one that got driven top down much as it was easy to open and close the hood, essential with the UK weather.
I feel fortunate to have grown up in the era of 1950-60s convertibles. So many choices in different sizes and prices. I grew up in the backseat of convertibles, no seatbelts, and lived to tell. Of all the places we lived when I was young typically had short winters, if any winter, so convertibles were not an uncommon sight. Mom loved her convertibles and always kept silk scarves in the car to protect the hair style. That was in a period when ladies went to the beauty salon weekly. The one item of note that I keep my my current convertible is sun screen as I am fair in coloring but that doesn’t stop me from driving top down every chance I get. Mom would keep the top down on her convertibles even with frost on the ground and I remember the coldest drive I experienced was with my older brother and his MG, mid 60s. Driving at highway speeds, roll the windows up and leave the top down. Too hot, leave the top down and turn on the AC. When traveling with pets and I had little dogs, they liked the top down. My cats preferred top up and liked the recessed top well to cat nap. Best time to drive a convertible with top down is a cool night and stars above. Granted you don’t drive a convertible to be practical, its about the open air driving experience. Unfortunately, I am now too old to finish the last item on my bucket list. Drive cross country in a rented convertible, top down, visiting places I experienced in my childhood. But never go back, just remember the memories. And keep some sun screen in your convertible.
Re: Barbara Eden. Yeah, that’s Barbara. She was under contract to 20th Century Fox from 1958 to 1963, and that’s the studio’s wardrobe department. The telltale sign is the star above the door in your shot. You can see them repeated above the lower windows in this picture.
Thanks, Mike!