Leave it to a teenager to look for an easier way to get a job done. This ’50 Mercury from South Carolina was 6 years old in this photo and it still looks good at least from this angle.
This man knows how to properly wash a car, and he may be a professional. He has the fender skirt removed for full access to the wheel and tire of this ’53 Cadillac Series Sixty-Two Sedan from New York. It was three years old and the paint still has a nice shine, possibly due to this man’s efforts.
At first glance it looks like this gentleman stopped along the side of a road to wash his car. Apparently it is a long driveway and he may have chosen this spot for the shade. He is washing a sharp looking ’55 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight DeLuxe Holiday Coupe from California.
A young man washing a ’56 Dodge Coronet or Royal 4 door sedan in front of the Smith house. This image was probably shot in at least the mid-sixties since the car has one double stripe whitewall. I am unsure of the car under the carport on the right, and the white pickup in the left background looks like a sixties Dodge with the Utiline bed.
Convertible owners can be hard core about driving with the top down. We may have one here. He is wearing a sweater, so it is a cool day. His hair looks messed up, so it may be windy as well. The windows are up but the top is down on this close to new ’57 Ford Fairlane 500 Sunliner from Ohio, so turn up the heater and let’s go for a ride. In the carport on the right is a ’50-’52 Nash Rambler convertible, on the street a ’55 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe 4 door sedan, and above it in the carport may be another ’57 Ford. They are all in a fairly new subdivision with similarly styled homes.
Daddy’s little helper is learning how to take care of those whitewalls on a early sixties Volvo PV544. A ’61 Rambler Classic Custom from California is in front of it. The window unit in the house looks rather large compared to today’s versions.
This may be a band of brothers washing a ’60 Ford Galaxie Town Victoria with the youngest one in the supervisory position. They did a good job, the wheels and tires look clean, and they appear to be in the final rinse cycle. All this is taking place in a neighborhood on a hill.
A rough looking ’61 Pontiac Catalina Sports Coupe was getting a serious clean up. The back seat cushions and a floor mat were out, and the old vacuum cleaner was plugged in and ready to go. It had some crash damage on the right front, a rusty quarter panel, and what appears to be a boat trailer type of tail light mounted on top of the quarter panel which may have been a cheap fix for a no longer functioning tail lamp. Behind it is a ’66 Plymouth Belvedere I.
Here we have a blue car family. The gentleman was washing a pristine ’70 Dodge Monaco 2 door hardtop, an ’80-’82 Datsun 720 pickup with a toolbox was parked to the right, and in the garage was an ’84-’88 Chrysler New Yorker. The Monaco was at least 14 years old in this photo and looked quite nice.
I’ll admit it, I haven’t hand washed a car since high school.
So much easier to hit the drive thru car wash, especially since paint seems to hold up somewhat better in the last few decades (with certain exclusions).
Rich and Patrick, you are both mastering producing the ‘Vintage Snapshots’ series. Thank you.
These are amazing images. They really do convey the chore of washing, and waxing. Whether it was a pleasure or pain, for the owners. Lots more elbow grease, required back then. As waxes were not formulated for easy removal. I tended to overapply wax as a kid. So, I’d have great work afterwords, removing all the white powder residue of the wax.
My parents lived on a small farm, in the country. And we had a dedicated well, specifically for washing my dad’s cars. An ancient pump, appearing from the 1930’s or ’40’s, powered by a small electric motor. It was a very deep well, and the water was utterly frigid. Even in the middle of summer. Water was so cold, I could only wash the car, during the hottest part of the day in July and August. Rest of the time, I’d use a bucket, rather than a hose.
I loved going into Canadian Tire Saturday mornings, to pick out car care products, with my dad. I’m sure they added fragrance to liquid and paste wax, as their smell was so intoxicating. lol
PS: An automatic car wash story. My friend and I went through an Esso automatic car wash, with her then brand new Ford Contour. The Contour was so new in fact, that the car wash blew off her rear licence plate in the wash tunnel. When we arrived at work, I noticed she had no rear licence plate. Luckily it was early in the day, around 6:30am, and I was able to drive back to the Esso. I quickly scanned the was tunnel, and her plate had been blown by high pressure water, up against one of the side walls. We were fortunate to get it back.
Got this Canadian Tire rig for Christmas one year, back in the 1970’s.
Great pictures. Growing up in The Bronx, believe me, people somehow extended hoses from their apartments, out the window and down to the street. The, the car was washed. Let us not forget car washes that are fundraisers…
And how about the topless car wash fundraiser?
I’ve never been to a topless car wash (really!) but some of my friends have. What they described was nothing like what is pictured.
I do want to give the guy in the picture a big “attaboy”.
I do hope the parking brake was on in that ’60 Galaxie.
I wash our cars less than I used to, but still try and give them a nice hand wash every two weeks or so. Kind of enjoyable on a nice warm day. Only use commercial car washes in the winter, usually after a snowfall melts. There have been some new, high tech washes open recently, but 30 bucks is a bit pricey for an inside and out cleaning.
I also used to give the cars a good waxing twice a year, using a paste wax. The polish on, polish off was tedious and tiring. I recently discovered a spray ceramic product that is much, much easier to apply. And, you can spray it on glass and trim with no problem. Pretty good results. Hated removing that annoying white paste wax residue.
I never was a fan of the bloaty 1971 era B-Bodies. But I give credit to GM, adding rectangular headlights and C-pillar windows to the Caprice, near the end of their lifecycle. It added a touch of modernity, and sharpness, to their looks.
I sense a little “bada bing” with the gentleman washing the 1953 Cadillac….I washed cars at 13 years old to earn a quarter (1964 and 1965) which bought a can of soda and a bag of chips. At age 72 I still wash our cars in the driveway except during the winter where I use our local self- service car wash if it’s in the 40s (Southern Illinois). Rarely do I use the driveway. Our 2013 Cadillac SRX still looks new as does our 1993 Nissan 240SX, both garage kept.
Before spending a few bucks at the car wash joined spending a few bucks on coffee every day became the norm in the US, what family didn’t make it the kids’ job to wash the car. My parents did and so did we. Now I just pray for rain, though I do use the self service “Magic Wand” car wash occasionally, especially on our high roof van. Great photos of a bygone era.
Gotta love the ’55 Olds 98 —
Had to look 3 times to see if that was my dad in the photo.
The car is identical, and so is the stance.
Kind of a typical 1950’s pose.
Thanks again, Rich, for all these terrific photo series!
As I love these car wash pictures, I’m tempted to post an image of that infamous car wash picture from Cool Hand Luke.
But I’ll refrain.
LUCILLE!
Have a friend who just “loves that movie”! I haven’t looked at it in “thirty some, years.
It’s been on the various movie channels about eight times since new years too.
Carwashing was always my chore as a kid. I didn’t enjoy it much except for the ’63 Olds. It had a midnight blue finish with some ‘depth’, that rewarded careful washing, chamois drying and waxing.
The 57 Fairlane convertible photo could have been taken right here in Houston in Sharpstown or many other neighborhoods. Flat terrain, new contemporary starter homes, many sold to WWII or Korean veterans using VA financing, many more sold using FHA financing, and the builders were building them as fast as they could. Air conditioning was just starting to be standard in new homes here in 1957 but many still just had window units.
The story I am telling myself is that the guy washing the new car has just signed a mortgage note and a car loan note and hasn’t really realized what making payments every month is going to be like. Hope I am wrong!
I can’t see Dad being impressed with the top photo, I realize cars had more metal then but sitting on the roof with the metal bucket on the fender? Lol
Here’s a clip from the 1920’s. It is a device for your garage. I knew a family in Bridgeport, CT who had bought a home so equipped.
The car in the carport looks like Nash or Rambler.
I too love all these pictures .
It looks like the hillside subdivision with the ’60 Ford is still under construction, the house behind the car has open rafters…..
I try to only wash in the cool mornings before the sun comes up, I gave up waxing my vehicles a couple years ago after hand polishing then waxing my ’85 Mercedes Benz long room I felt like I’d been victim of a “sock party” after for a week .
-Nate
We lived for 30 plus years in a home with a double garage and driveway.
I washed many a car on that driveway during those three decades. Sometimes my young kids helped. After many years the grandsons would enjoy helping out. I started the first grandson at a young age one summer day. He had a great time.
We had the same “cannister vac”, as the one next to the “61 Pontiac”. I believe it lasted about “25” years.
I love that first shot – we see lots of photos of the fronts of peoples houses from back then, but almost never do we see a photo in an alley. And I’ll bet those 55 gallon drums are the burn barrels for three families. I knew lots of folks in small towns who had a burn barrel in the back yard for getting rid of burnable trash.
I washed my parents ‘57 Chevy Wagon when I was 12. One time I took the car keys and drove it around the corner. My dad came outside when I returned and asked what was I doing. I told him I was blow drying it. lol
I really enjoy these trips down Memory Lane. Thank you for putting them together.