I really like taking photos of interesting old cars. So when a car show takes place within walking distance of my house, I was obviously going to check it out. The event was part of a neighborhood celebration & parade for the 82nd Avenue area of Portland Oregon. This isn’t the most avant-garde or hipster kind of Portland neighborhood you might expect. My neighbors are regular working class people who collect more Mustangs and Camaros than European exotics.
It’s always fun to see what the local enthusiasts have tucked away in their garages. Obviously, this kind of show is no Pebble Beach Concours, but it is perhaps a more genuine look at the kind of cars many middle class Americans are working on and collecting. So grab yourself a greasy cheeseburger, a can of Budweiser, and a slice of apple pie. It’s time to enjoy a typical American neighborhood car show.
This is the kind of car I was expecting to find and I was not disappointed. These aren’t probably the cars you dream of owning if you hit the lottery, they are the ones you actually can afford if you have a few extra bucks and do much of the work yourself. The owner must be very proud of this beautiful Firebird convertible.
This Plymouth Road Runner is beautiful. I’m guessing this modified one might be a clone, because original cars these days are so insanely expensive.
This is a Hillman Minx convertible. I don’t think there are many of these in Oregon. I had never seen one before. In this bright yellow it almost looks like little Checker cab.
Hot Rods like this aren’t necessarily my cup of tea, though this one is quite tastefully done, and must be ungodly fast. I always wonder what Henry Ford would think of a creation like this.
This 1961 Plymouth Fury 4 door sedan was my favorite car of the day. I love the over the top styling, the push button transmission and those crazy tail lights. 1961 was the last year of Virgil Exner’s “Forward Look” designs. This one looks very original and in pretty good shape.
This Camaro drag racer was all motor.
Someone must be a pretty big Scooby Doo fan. This 1973 Econoline van would draw a crowd wherever it goes.
This Cadillac hearse is kind of interesting. It goes to show, there is a collector for just about any car. Give this one another 20 years and it will be a bit more unusual.
The Chevy pickup was beautiful, but I was smitten with the BSA 441 Victor in the bed. This is a terrific combo.
What car show would be complete without one of these?
I can’t tell you much about this old DeSoto, but it looks positively huge with that little child’s head in the rear window.
This beautiful old Ford Falcon is owned by a retired mechanic that built the car almost entirely by himself.
Hey look, it’s a movie star! This 1947 Buick Road Master was in the movie “Imaginary Crimes”.
It looks like yellow is a popular color with the local builders these days, but I’d like to see what this Mercury looked like when it left the factory.
These are the kind of car shows that are held in small towns and big city neighborhoods all over our country. People don’t bring their cars to shows like this to make money or get famous. They simply want to show their cars, that they have spent so much time and money on, to people who might appreciate their hard work.
I am a photographer who enjoys posting my car photos on the internet so more people can see them. The people that build and maintain these old cars enjoy having them posted online so more people can see their cars. That is a text book definition of a symbiotic relationship if there ever was one.
You guys keep fixing up cool old cars and I’ll do my best to take a few good pictures of them.
Wow, so much goodness here. I like a lot of them but the Falcon stands out.
That whimsical Model T phone booth in the lead photo sure is cool. I’ll bet the owner is a real character too.
What I love about car shows like this is the variety. Great job!
Yes, the Superbird is a clone. It doesn’t have the headlight “buckets” in the nose cone which flip up when the headlights are turned on or the stainless steel A pillar covers. I owned one in the early ‘seventies. I wish I could have kept it, but it wasn’t a very good car.
There was a guy in my small town that had 3 or 4 of those winged Superbirds in various stages of restoration. He apparently never got 1 into a condition nearly half as nice as the green one here.
I think of the cars pictured, I would want the 55 Ford. My family had a 55 Ford,a Country Sedan, and 1 of my uncles had 2 Ranch Wagons.
Good posting. I think I recognize a car or two in that group. The Falcon’s my favorite.
Looks like a nice show! Agreed on the Superbird (per Evil Ron’s note)- it appears to be “made” as it doesn’t look like it has headlight doors.
love the look of the original patina..on the 47 Buick.
The “in your face”, head on picture of the 61 Plymouth really shows off where Lexus got its inspiration from on the grilles of their current models.
That Fury looks to be in pretty nice condition though, doesn’t it?
Plymouth’s “spindle grille” was ugly then, and the current Lexus grille is no prize either.
A face only a mother could love, for sure, but at least this Plymouth doesn’t have that crazy reverse concave swirl on the sides of the front fenders.
The taillights on the ‘61 Plymouth seem like an afterthought, especially compared to the grille.
It’s funny, I don’t mind some “resto-mod” mechanical mods … slightly wider tires, more modern wheels, better brakes etc … but I think the colors should remain era-appropriate. The otherwise very nice Comet and Falcon lose a few points there for me. And the ‘55 Ford, not usually a car I care about, looks very nice in that Tu-tone. Thanks for sharing these photos!
Is that a toilet paper roll on the rat rod in the first photo?
I had to go back and take another look, this time with a magnifying glass. Behold….not only a TP roll, but a water spigot next to it. Then I started wondering if he had any more “related equipment” and ….there is a “tool box” on the running board right below. hmmmmm.
You had me at DeSoto! 🙂
Something for everyone at this show and great pictures!
I do like that Firebird; nice colour too.
Interesting ‘lead grey’ effect on the Minx brightwork. I guess it goes with the obviously non-period seating.
The 139.5 inch long wheelbase Desoto is a ’51 or ’52 Custom series 8-passenger sedan with the 250.6 c.i. six cylinder engine. These were built for the livery market; railroad station/airport buses, funeral mourner coaches, taxis. As such, of the 1,369 built, they have a low survival rate given the rigors of their original service. Within the 1,369 was a variation called the Suburban, a nine passenger with roof rack and vinyl interior for private sale.
In the early 1950’s, all medium-priced marque LWB eight passenger sedans and limousines below the Cadillac 75 range were a diminishing segment. Mopar was a last holdout through 1954 for Desoto and Chrysler, Dodge quit after the ’52 MY. Only Packard and Imperial tried to compete against Cadillac 75 for ’53-’54 to no avail. Imperial continued to with miniscule numbers for ’55-’56, by the handcrafted Ghia limousine thereafter. LWB sedans built from medium-priced sedans would become the business of aftermarket stretched limousine coachbuilders.
That Hillman Minx is a rare thing. It remains me a Cuban style restoration. Paint the chrome, slap on some modern seats and rims.
What a great show! Thanks for sharing the pictures.
That Superbird clone is pretty weak. Building one without the hidden headlights definitely has to be the cheapo way out. Yet another tip is that it’s missing the thin rubber ‘bumper’ on the leading edge. I’m guessing that the hood, even though it lines up, is wrong, too (originals were from a Coronet with a filler piece). But he does have what appears to be the correct Coronet front fenders with the extensions to match the nose cone. Likewise, I’d be willing to bet that it doesn’t have the correct modified rear window, either. Someone declining to do the correct nose cone surely wouldn’t pop for the more extensive rear window modification. The silliest thing might be what appears to be…rear mudflaps…
As to the pricing of these Mopar wingcars, yeah, some are outrageous, but a run-of-the-mill Superbird with a 440-4v engine could be potentially obtainable, probably for not much more than recreating a tribute car, which is what this appears to be. As one might imagine, the most salty are the Hemi-powered cars, with a 1969 Daytona being the pinnacle. They made four times as many Superbirds, and most of them had the 440. In the words of a Chrysler product planner at the time, “[Chrysler] quickly found out that there was a market for 500 cars, and they had all bought Daytonas”. New Superbirds sat on Plymouth lots for long periods of time, sometimes years.
That Caddy hearse shape works – weirdly. But 47 Buick for me. Cheers
I’d have been all over that 61 Plymouth too. So bizarre, so completely (angry) alien. Love the DeSoto too.
Pfft, that Nader fellow. Why, I can see nothing on the dashboard inside Planet Fury that could possibly cause any injury in a smash. What was he smoking?
Whatever it was, he didn’t have nearly as much of it as Exner…
It was that interior that made the car my favorite. It makes today’s cars look sooo boring.
Oh, absolutely.
I struggle to think of a more outrageous dash outside of a few French efforts. Marvin The Martian’s home made real.
As simply something to stare at, it’s quite glorious.
I don’t know who you are, but we certainly are on the same wavelink. If I had lottery money, this would be my daily driver with a modern turbo 4 cylinder engine and a six speed auto, and disc brakes. If John Waters was a car it would be this one.
Love that 61 Plymouth!
As for the Superbird, I too assume it’s a clone. I can understand the paint color and I can understand the “43” decals. I just don’t understand them on the same car because everybody knows that Richard Petty’s Plymouths were blue. Or at least everybody used to know that.
Yeah, the combination of Sublime and 43 is pretty silly, even on a Superbird clone. Another faux pas I just picked out was the Superbird decal on the nose cone black-out panel is too small, as well as an incorrect location for the quarter panel ‘Plymouth’ decal.
OTOH, I just saw a new Mustang convertible with a big ’43’ on the doors. At least the blue color Ford is currently using seems to be close to the correct shade of Petty blue.
Just wanted to say thanks for taking the trouble to take the pics etc…