I had a pocket-full of hundred dollar bills after selling a high-end drumkit. What to do, what to do? Craigslist! Just days after selling the Ayottes, I spot a five-piece maple Pearl kit with cymbals and hardware and make an offer. They accept, and I fire up my Tercel and head south to Roseburg. Not really wanting an I5 repeat facing the North, I took an alternative route that soon had me in Sutherlin. It was a beautiful day out, so I parked downtown and took a stroll through the congested streets. Didn’t take long to find the first CC.
Sutherlin is a city in Douglas County, Oregon, United States. The population was 7,810 at the 2010 census. Nearby features include Cooper Creek Reservoir, the Umpqua River, a few golf courses, and numerous vineyards. And right in town there’s this fine gen1 Scirocco.
This good ol’ boy is a regional lifer. Hansen Motors in Roseburg is still in business. The yellow license plate puts this one from the 70s. Beyond that I am clueless.
Found this old horse out behind a Chinese restaurant.
You did WHAT to your Amigo?
Here’s something up Paul’s alley. The blue plates put this one into the wayback machine. Wiki says the gold on blue plates debuted in 1956, but I don’t think this old Ford is quite THAT old. Nerds?
I saw this one up a hill and had to get some shots. The logo leads me to believe that this is the vaunted GMC 250 Beaver Hauler. It’s parked at the high school, and seems to be in use. Wheel chocks notwithstanding.
Can’t have a walk-n-talk in Oregon without an 80’s Honda.
Or a Subaru, for that matter, although a 4WD four-door Justy isn’t exactly common, even here.
Looks like Julian just got out of jail again. Bubble’s shed is looking pretty sweet. No sign of Ricky.
A UMC Aeromate. To Wiki!
“Did you mean: UMC Automate? There were no results matching the query.”
Ok then, to Google!
“A van produced by UMC (Utilimaster).”
You’re welcome.
Now here’s a rare bird. A cherry 1943 Packenburg Continental GT SS 502 GT. Or so I thought.
Clearly this is a 1956 and not a 1943. Oh wait; those blue plates only started in ’56….
I did not expect to find a Zedyard, but there you have it.
From the inside looking outside.
I had put the camera away and was almost back to my car when I saw this SS in plain sight of the highway. At this point a client at our studio called and I agreed to meet them there in just over an hour, so I high tailed it to my car and headed home. Until I got really thirsty, so I exited in Curtin for a beverage and couldn’t possibly pass this scene up:
You did WHAT to your Mustang??
Excellent spotting, Mike! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
My favorites are the Chevy and Ford pickups and the white Chrysler in the last pic. (Looks to be a 300?)
The Buick is cool, but a little heavy on the patina for my taste. It’d help if it actually still had the Fireball straight 8, though.
Someone must explain “beaver hauler” (or do I really want to know?)
Brace yourself, this is a horrifying revelation:
They are Oregon State Beaver fans! *pukes violently*
On the driver’s side:
Oh. You must be a Duck fan *spews vomit*
I work at Oregon State.
You’re just jealous of our unbeaten footb… oh.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha! I’m just glad happy when our football team doesn’t stink.
I’m the copywriter for University Marketing, so most of my work focuses on Oregon State academics and research. I know very little about UO beyond athletics; I think UO did about $100 million in research last year; OSU did $263 million.
So there! :->
Here’s a picture of another Beaver Hauler. Says so right on the hood. From the All American Toy Company, “All American Toys for the All American Boy“
I simply must have that 62 Chrysler 300 hardtop! I don’t care that it’s probably doesn’t have a letter pin. With that window down, it looks like someone is still driving it. I’m jealous. I also don’t care that this was the most out-of-style roofline offered on a car in 1962 (at least one priced above a Chevy), I have always liked the look of that thin C pillar on these hardtops.
I’m glad I didn’t have a drink in my mouth when I saw that picture of the Camaro outside of the trailer – I would have spit it out all over my computer screen. So, there is at least one way that Oregon is like Indiana. 🙂
Thanks for a varied and fascinating tour!
I’ll arm wrestle you for the 62 Chrysler then 🙂 Failing that, I’d take the Buick, but only if it comes with a big bag of money in the trunk to pay for the resto.
I’m quite sure that Amigos came in that pink color from the factory.
The Utilimaster is a good find; they’re getting scarce. Another shot at building a fwd compact van, this one using Dodge Caravan drive train.
Every little town I’ve driven through in Oregon is chock full of CCs, thanks to low incomes and benign weather. If they have to commute far, there’s likely a little Kia or such in the driveway.
Yes Paul,
You are quite right, I believe that is the coral color that the Amigo offered for a couple of year or so in the 1990’s, along with turquoise if I recall.
I think this one has faded some over time, judging by how much lighter it is on top, than towards the bottom.
Too bad about all the “Congestion” It must have been hard to get these good shots
Zedyard – lol.
Love the Accord. That generation’s hatch was underrated.
I’m not a big Honda fan, but I always liked the Accord hatch (not many left here in Ontario thanks to the salt). I like the Zedyard as well – the owner likely has the makings of two or three cars from the parts on them. I’d take either of the trucks and leave them as is -patina and all. I like that old Buick – hopefully it still has the straight eight. It’s a toss-up as to whether I’d restore it or paint it flat black and make a rat rod out of it. It could be a battle for the Chrysler. There’s a black four-door of about the same vintage cruising our neighborhood once in a while, and the sound from that V8 is impressive. I wouldn’t mind one of those myself.
I cannot express my gratitude for my morning CC fix. Between you guys and the daily Hemmings, I am lucky enough to get one hour of pure enjoyment to start my days. No politics, no grief, no helpless/hopelessness, just pure nostalgia. I have been very tardy with my own contributions, but plan to remedy that this week. Thank you again for the shared happiness.
I’d take the Buick it would probably go with some encouragement, I’d like to hear the reason it was parked and left mechanical parts arent hard to find but that coupe body is I’d tow it away with the Chrysler hardtop it looks like it was just parked there last week, there are a few Chev pickups that shape here getting around in good shape too they seem to last well.
I’m glad to see there’s another drummer on the board, I’ve spent years cramming drums and hardware into (relatively) small cars. I managed to cram a whole 5 piece Ludwig Accent (jazz sizes) kit, with hardware and my stage monitor into the back half of my dear departed 1995 Sunfire GT. It was a bit of full size game of Jenga but I always managed to get it all in there and leave the passenger side front seat open. Sometimes, if I was lazy my Roc-N-Soc throne would be there, but I generally didn’t take it to gigs.
Of course, I finally give in to my wife’s insistence we get something “bigger”, ostensibly so I can load the kit in and out more easily (among other things), aaaand my group splits up!
Now I have an Aztek that is very easy to load everything into, but no place to go. Ah well…
BTW, I’d take the Camaro. I’d take it out of the trailer park, actually. 😉 It looks like a late model RS. What fun that would be with the appropriate SBC in it…
The best rig I ever used for hauling drums was a giant, garish 72 Tradesman Chi-Mo van. Easiest to load and unload, I should say. My Tercel is roomy enough to fit a whole kit with hardware and accessories and still leave the passenger seat vacant.
I’ll go with the Chrysler,the Mustang would have been my choice but that paint job hasn’t worked.A panther pink/moulin rouge A body or Superbee/Coronet has long been a car I wanted.
Upon a second glance at that 1st gen Scirocco at the top of the post, I see the sunroof appears to be sealed with plastic or something. Additionally, it looks as if the front seats are covered in a diver’s suit like material.
I had a buddy back in the day who had one just like this, with the same leaking sunroof. Of course, this was in 1980 and a three year old Scirocco that always smelled of mold was a much less than pleasant experience. Add in some fuel injection issues (I no longer recall what they were) and my buddy was ready for something different.
He traded it for a 1976 or 77 Olds Starfire (H-body) with the 3.8 Buick V6 with a 5 speed stick. It was a rattly pile of parts, but it was a lot less trouble than the Scirocco had been.
I had an A1 Scirocco (no sunroof nor fuzzy dice) in the early 80’s…I couldn’t tell if this one has a sunroof or not for sure, but that cloth material appears taped to the front of where a sunroof might be,so likely it does. I had a metal sunroof on my A2 GTI, it never leaked for me (currently have an A4 Golf with glass sunroof). I think it had Bosch K-Jetronic injection (mechanical injection) starting in 1976 Yes, it did have its issues (I had lots of problems with the “5th” injector…but I loved the car despite its foibles . I kept a spare fuse and relay for the fuel pump handy. This one looks like a later (’78 to ’81) to me. The wheels look to me like off an ’81 to ’88 though, I don’t remember those on the earlier Sciroccos.
I never had a Honda, but I looked at this model Accord hatchback in ’86 when instead I bought my GTI…I was disappointed when in the late 80’s they discontinued Accord hatchback, I loved that style (no wonder, to me it is reminiscent of the A1 Scirocco). Back then, I think the Accord I wanted with fuel injection also came with power windows which I didn’t want (the standard model was carburated) so I went with VW instead. My best friend had an Accord Hatch, but unfortunately it was totalled in an accident not long afterward.
I had a new Scirocco in 1980 same dark blue color, factory smoked glass moon roof and tan vinyl seat. Never had mechanical problems you mentioned, it drove fast (remember this was 1980), handled great and only failed me once, FWD would not get me up a steep snowy hill to Timberline Lodge . But it was a great car with many fond memories.
1962 300 2-door hardtop for me too, please. I did have a Newport hardtop with a factory 3-speed floor shift though.
On the license plates: The yellow on blue JDP plate on the red/white Ford pickup would date back to 1967 or maybe 68. The HTD plate on the blue Chevy pickup is from about 1987. The wide trim with black paint on that truck, I think, dates it to 1980 or 1981. The 56-dated plate on the Buick coupe has a low enough number to be an original 56 issue. It’s clearly never had a sticker on it, which means either that it hasn’t been licensed since 1960, or that the 61 and later stickers were all pasted on the now-removed 60 tab. Yes, some people did that.
I think those plates on the Ford truck are from 1964-69. I know Oregon went to blue and gold plates in 1956, then for the centennial in 1959, we had the Pacific Wonderland plates, which lasted into 1964. I didn’t know about the Pacific Wonderland plates when I moved to Oregon, but they were perfect for Betty. I paid ~$200 for a set from a collector in Portland. Pricey, but they were pristine and even had a December 64 validation sticker.
I don’t know if it’s just an urbane legend, but supposedly, people in Eastern Oregon didn’t like Pacific Wonderland on their plates since they were nowhere near the coast, and that plates were phased out after only a few years. However, Oregon brought back the Pacific Wonderland plate as a special order for the sesquicentennial. I like having the originals.
The truck itself is pre 1967. 66 was the last year for the arches on the fenders; the 67 lines are straight, front to back. The 67 was always my favorite since I saw my first one, on vacation with my family in Maine as a car-crazy 6 year old.
Maine is rather a lot like Oregon with the woods, rocky coast, and less-than-affluent small towns.
It’s a ’66, like my own.
I’m a license plate collector and have a lot of Oregon plates. My estimates of the year of issue of the plate are based on single-sticker “natural” plates in my collection.
The original Pacific Wonderland plates:
Those plate are so much better than those insipid “Doug Fir” trees on the present plates.
I agree. I think any license plate design can stand to be changed every twenty years or so just because it’s time. Washingtonians got sick and tired of the green on white 63 plates – our last general issue – that were issued in quite a few different variations until we went to the more generic red/blue/white ones we have now. These came out in 1987 and although they’ve gone through several facelifts they’ve become even more boring.
Am I the only lunatic who had Z’s back in the 80’s for projects? My fondness for the first gen cars, especially the little bumper ones (70-72), became a semi-lucrative hobby that exploited the ridiculous discount of Canadian money. There seemed to be a Z specialist in every major city, and at the time they had a fetish for the lowest serial number cars. I still can recall the sequence 30 years later – HLS30. I think. Seeing the passel (gaggle? posse?) of Z’s brought back some mixed memories. Several times my anxiety with shippers caused me to give the car a basic check – valve lash, compression, synchronize the carbs, fuel filter and top up the third member, a quickie pad change and off to the southern locale of the buyer. Almost always the purchaser had several “friends” in various condition waiting for it. As time passes, the rust worm is not kind to the early Japanese cars, so we see less and less of them. I had no idea Sutherlin was such a bucolic place. Looks like many fellow travelers there.
Thanks for the pics Mike.
That Fox Mustang is a very early one.
It’s at least 30 years old.
Especially impressive that the turbine wheel covers look original.
This is my hometown! Quite cool that our little stop off of I-5 catches a few eyes. As for Oregon license plates: 56 style 1A-2345 was issued 1955-1959. Pacific Wonderland 1959-1964. ABC 123 gold on blue 1964 through 1973-4. ABC 123 blue on gold 1973-4 through 1988.
Small world, especially on the internets. I walked around for probably and hour; I didn’t venture across the river to that side of town at all, but I covered a good portion of the north side of town up and down the hill.
Grab your camera and add a part 2!
Nice pics, that UMC is a bit out there and more then a bit ugly. It looks like UMC tried to reinvent the stepvan.
I think those UMC’s were Caravan based, so they were a FWD step van, one of the few, I imagine.
What a cool collection of vehicles. Anyone else notice the first photo shows some mailboxes sprouting out of the asphalt? Weird.
The Chevy pickup with the HTD license plate is probably a 1984 model as the license plate was issued in August of that year.
~Ben