And you can probably tell where Eric Clem found and shot it.
Cuba, where all sorts of strange mutations are to be seen on the streets, especially ones that can haul more than the normal sedan’s worth of passengers. Wonder what’s under the hood; a Russian diesel, most likely.
mn
What I am trying to figure out is . . . why? It does not look like they lengthened the car so I can’t imagine extra seats in it. My best guess is that the rear window broke and being completely unobtainable, the next best option was to fab up a new rear roof around a piece of glass that they could get. Not a terribly satisfying answer, but it’s the best I got.
The doors appear to be original, but all the side windows and their frames are totally different, as is the roof of course.
I would expect to see that the rear seat has been moved back,right up against the rear window, and that there’s seating for more passengers as a result. Squeezing in more fares was a major objective of many of these body hacks.
I’ll venture to offer a theory, assuming there are 3 rows of seats. Thanks for the original car pic, Paul.
Step 1, extend the roof to the back. Shorten the decklid and move its mounting ‘bulkhead’ back. Now you have free & flat space between the inner rear fenders
Step 2, reverse the rear seat (or fit a different one), making it rear facing. The back of the second row will match that of the first one
Step 3, fit a narrower rear seat, forward facing, in the space created in step 1
Step 4, rear suspension needs to be beefed up. A live axle from a truck, complete w/leaf springs and full floating axle will work a charm here. Otherwise, stiffer coil springs or… use whatever is at hand
Conclusion: there’s still a somehow useful boot and more seating space and now 8 people can go in there (assuming a front bench seat). 2-3 more could be squeezed, with some cooperation.
I’m just impressed at how much trunk length there still is.
The proportions look rather Studebaker-like now.
One of the things that impressed me about Cuba when we went 10 years ago were the hundreds of people waiting at bus stops in the country. Waiting for a bus, car or anything they could get a ride from. I’d suspect this conversion was done just to pack more people in.
Could it be folding jump seats like Checker cabs had in Chicago ?
Wow. I wonder where they got the roof from – it looks like a whole unit – some kind of suburban-like truck, maybe?
Wouldn’t be surprised if the whole chassis, and not just the powertrain is from a newer commercial vehicle – it’s definitely riding higher than normal. They do that fairly often, especially in recent years as the original components wear out.
My first guess would be the entire chassis is from a modernish (say, 80s/early 90s) Japanese pickup truck, or a Chinese clone thereof.
I disagree with your guesses, and it undoubtedly has its original frame and chassis, except possibly engine and transmission. That is typically the case in Cuba. Why throw out a perfectly good solid frame and suspension? Where would a donor, and one that just happens to fit perfectly, readily come from?
You guys, the Cubans are not resto-modding these. The whole point is that cars are of course scarce and worth keeping on the road. And the frames and chassis on these cars are tough. Only the engines are sometimes swapped out for more economical diesels.
I kinda doubt that the suspension is original, it would have to be completely worn out by now. And where would your average Cuban mechanic get direct replacement parts? Autozone 🙂 ?I’d bet that car has some Russian car or truck suspension adapted to it by now,
Have you done some extensive research on Cuban cars? I’ve done a fair amount. There’s little shops that have been manufacturing/remanufacturing all the essential wear items on these pre-’59 American cars for decades. it’s a whole industry. The guy in the picture below is making brake cylinder seals, out of old tires. What needs to be replaced in a suspension? King pins? no problem. Bushings? No problem.
Look at those rear leaf springs. They look like the originals, with shackle extensions for the extra weight and to compensate for some sag.
Those lug pattern of those wheels DO NOT look like they’re from “some Russian truck”.
Please know that the Cubans are extremely resourceful at keeping these old American cars running. And yes, some parts have gotten smuggled in, in suitcases and such. It’s a whole industry that supports them. And many have their original engines, although many that are in hard taxi use have had diesel engines swapped in because fuel is very expensive.
The only main Russian cars are Ladas (Fiat 124), and I sincerely doubt that its front suspension is up to the task of this rig. And if it were a truck suspension, the wheels would be different.
If you have it on good knowledge to know it has a different chassis/suspension, I’m prepared to accept that possibility. But if you’re just going on your hunch, that’s not good enough, and the evidence strongly suggests otherwise.
I’m going to side with the chassis having been upgraded.
Rear Spring – Rather than the usual Lincoln (FOMoCo)
eye-and-shackle at the rear, the Lincoln shows a slipper arrangement that would be more typical with a “third-world” truck chassis.
Rear Hub – The rear hub shows bolts in the axle flange. The bolted flange indicates that this is a full-floating hub, per truck, and definitely not per Lincoln.
Front Hub – The large portion of front hub protruding through the wheel seems to indicate that it houses a matched pair of large tapered-opposed bearings, per trucks, particularly trucks that offer an option of either 2×4 and 4×4 configuration. The hub is definitely not of Lincoln heritage.
Front Brake – Light seems to shine through the wheel holes in an unequal way. The wheel probably covers a disc rotor with caliper located in a “busy” portion of the assembly, and just a bit of smaller rotor allowing light through the rest. The shine-through does not appear to be consistent with covering a large concentric Lincoln drum.
Based on your points of observation, I would agree that it appears to have a different rear axle and disc brakes. There’s a lot of changes made to these cars over the decades, and just about yachting is possible, especially the ones used in heavy commercial use.
I was mostly responding to the assumption that it had Japanese truck frame under it; If I had to guess, most likely the frame is original. But it’s speculation as to the specifics.
“Yank Tanks” is a brilliant film about these guys and some of the astonishing things they’ve done to keep their cars on the road. You can watch it on YouTube.
The same was true in the Philippines, at least in the late 80’s. I once saw a Dodge Coronet 4 door with a Nissan diesel. They are resourceful, hardworking people.
I’m thinking that the roof might be off of a station wagon, but shortened. The suspension has been modified. 56 Lincolns never rode that high.
I applaud the ingenuity of the creator of this vehicle but it looks absolutely hideous. The color certainly doesn’t help.
The back end leaves no doubt it is a Lincoln but look at the front fender profile and tell me if you don’t see a bit of contemporary Packard which we all “know” was copied by the designer of the Soviet Zil limousines.
A Lincoln Bitsa, Possible ungainly, disproportioned Russian wheels and tires–from a truck? Clever, those Cubans, it seems!
Russian wheels? These are a “thing”, aftermarket steelies with these round holes in them. I’ve seen local trucks with them. The attached image is similar, but not quite the same.
The can be easily manufactured for any kind of offset, as the flat center section can be welded wherever on the rim as needed. Its a way to get replacement wheels with the right offset without trying to find perfect original replacements.
Now THAT is truly a “one size fits (nearly) all wheel.
Curious oversized wheels. On the Lincoln Bitsa it appears that there are five lug bolts/nuts. On the RE wheels there are 8 lug bolt holes, so I doubt RE is the source.
Given the Cuban government importation restrictions, I doubt that the wheels are of US origin. So where, or where have they come from? Likely the resourceful Cubans have developed imaginative,interesting and atypical supply lines to keep the bitsas running. Oh well, you have to admire the ingenuity and local brilliance. That’s all that I’m saying.
I’m with Paul on this. Those are not Russian wheels. I have never seen such wheels on any Russian car or truck (unless of course they have been imported from the west).
As for the possibility of other Russian bits, the only vehicles I can think of which would have axles big enough (but not too big) for such a car are either the UAZ 452 van, the GAZ 13 / M14 Chaikas (the 13 looks very much like the Lincoln) or the GAZ 24 Volga. The Chaikas however would have been reserved for functionaries so I doubt available for cannibalization.
I agree with Paul also on the Chassis being original, but I have seen pictures of cars where they used a solid front axle instead of the original IRS.
… adding I left the ZIL out. ZILs were for heads of state and I somehow doubt you’d be able to dismantle bits from Fidel’s ride without having your health severely compromised.
Looks a little like an old ZIL from the Soviet Union. Fitting.
If anything, it’s more like the smaller GAZ 13 Chaika. ZIL was more “Packard inspired” back then; later models looked a bit like Chryslers.
I have been to Cuba several times and have looked at many cars up close. Paul is right about the cottage industry built up around keeping these cars running. Most of the nostalgia for the cars seems to come from the Americans and Canadians of a certain generation. Many have the original engines; many have transplants. All of the old cars are running due to the amazing ingenuity of Cuban mechanics.
I saw a picture of a Cadillac pick-up truck that someone took in Cuba. I thought about printing out the picture, taking it to a Cadillac dealer, and telling them that I want a Cadillac truck.
About 15 years ago, the last time I flew anywhere, I swiped the airline magazine because of an article on life in Cuba – specifically, the photo of a pink ’57 tail-fin Chrysler sitting in an alley, up on blocks with the wheels off. It was one of those “what’s-wrong-with-this-picture” moments, where a front disc-brake was plainly visible!
And before some Mopar trivia buff responds, I’m aware Chrysler offered a unique disc-brake option on Imperials in the early ’50s. But those were no longer availible by ’57.
The brake on this one looked like a modern 1970s sliding-caliper design.
Happy Motoring, Mark
Am I the only one who’s noticed the rear doors are from a 1960s Mercedes sedan? That roofline was fabricated to fit those doors, and to make use of a backlight from something that someone had kicking around.
Weird, but in a weird, surreal country it kinda works. Toss in some jump seats from a Checker Marathon or an early 1950s DeSoto 8-passenger long-wheelbase sedan (America’s Checker cab, before Checker took over the role) and you can haul seven or eight people in it. Who knows WHAT the drivetrain has become after all these years. Probably the Mercedes diesel from the donor car that gave up its rear doors.
At first glance, I thought it was some Opel Kapitan’s doors.
But it seems it’s neither Mercedes nor Opel, entirely custom-built.
While there is no telling how this car came to be, I’d speculate that the greenhouse was done in the 1980s – if only because of the common design ascetic on large American cars at the time.
The design approach makes it very unlikely the was customized for diplomatic duty or anything like that when it was new. Pretty amazing customization considering the complications of the rear doors and integrating a sharp rectangular rear window into a rounded 1950’s rounded roof.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw that bolt upright rear window was Reagan’s presidential limousine……….
Aesthetic. Gotta love spell-check. But, ascetic does fit this roof just a bit.