San Jose Street Sighting - 1930 Chevrolet 3 Window Coupe

If you go to your average car show, you'd think that every car made circa 1930 was a Ford. But that's not true. Ford built a ridiculous number of Model As during this time, but Chevrolet was just as big a player in the market. It's true that Ford built a good half million more cars in 1930 than Chevy, a reversal from two years before when Chevy outsold Ford by half a million. The two rivals seesawed back and forth like this for years, even the now vaunted '32 Ford outsold by 50 percent by Chevrolet. Where the heck did all the Chevys from this era go?

Well, here's one.

San Ramon Street Sighting - 1939 Nash Lafayette

Welcome to another edition of Independents' Week, one of my favorite series of the year. It's where we commemorate the 4th of July with some automobiles produced by independent American automakers. That means nothing from Ford, General Motors or Chrysler.

Danville Street Sighting - 1931 Ford Model A Pickup

Autumn is in full swing and it's almost Halloween, so how about a vehicle that reflects the colors of the season? This 1931 Ford Model A pickup in cheerful yellow, orange and black is downright cute.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1934 MG PA Midget

It takes a hardcore British sports car enthusiast to own a pre-war MG. They're small, crude, slow, unsafe and probably leak fluids from every conceivable place. But I imagine that they are one of the purest forms of motoring in a world dominated by modern Suburbans and F-150s with power steering, power disc brakes, automatic transmissions, dual-zone climate control and other such luxuries. A car like this 1930s MG PA Midget has a four-speed manual transmission, non syncromesh. Cable-operated manual drum brakes. Manual steering. Your dual-zone air conditioning is to lower the fabric top and/or hinge down the windshield. And as for power windows... what windows?

Danville Street Sighting - 1938 Dodge Brothers Fire Truck

May 4th is International Firefighters Day. I felt this was a good time to feature this classic Dodge fire truck in honor of the day and the men and women who serve.

Danville Street Sighting - 1931 Ford Model A Pickup

A few years ago Ford killed off the Ranger pickup and a lot of people lamented the disappearance of one of the last true basic, compact trucks. For owners who want a very compact, even more basic truck, there's always one of these.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1939 Ford V8 Panel Truck

Ahh, patina. One man's restoration project is another man's rat rod. Coming to Alameda from Barn Fine Classics in Washington state is this '39 Ford panel truck with not very much paint but a whole lot of character.

San Ramon Street Sighting - 1932 Cadillac V-16 Dual Cowl Phaeton

There is something of a mythical quality about the Cadillac V-16. These were some of the greatest luxury cars in their time, comparable to contemporary Duesenbergs, Pierce-Arrows and Packards as ultimate symbols of wealth, power and opulence. They were always limited-production, built to order and built to specification for clients in a number of body styles. It is estimated that domestic GM affiliates Fleetwood and Fisher Body built as many as 70 different body variations on the V-16 chassis, and other coachbuilders produced their own around the world to order. The V-16 was offered for eleven model years from 1930 to 1940, and only 4,076 were built. More than half of these were made in the first year alone.

Berkeley Street Sighting - 1937 Plymouth P4 DeLuxe Touring Sedan

In the mid 1990s some of the best-selling models made by Chrysler Corporation were the Chrysler Cirrus, Dodge Stratus and Plymouth Breeze, collectively known as the "Cloud Cars". Well, here's a cloud car, and while it isn't a Cloud Car, it is still a Plymouth. It's a 1937 Plymouth P4 DeLuxe.

Livermore Street Sighting - 1930 Ford Model A Rumble Seat Coupe

The Ford Model A is surprisingly well represented among classic cars in the Bay Area. From time to time I'll see one on the road, or tucked away in a parking lot on the day of a local special event. At least one usually appears at a car show. Very rarely do they show up just on the street on a typical day.

Danville Street Sighting - 1937 Ford V8 Coupe

Few classic cars in my area are daily drivers, let alone to the point of being a sort of local landmark. This very blue customized 1937 Ford V8 coupe frequently parks outside a sports bar across from my local In 'N Out Burger. The 1932 Ford roadster I featured back in March sometimes hangs out with it. Usually it's parked off the street or moving when I see it, so catching it stationary on Hartz Avenue in downtown Danville on an average day after work is rare.

Castro Valley Street Sighting - 1934 Chevrolet 3-Window Coupe

Hot rods are a mixed bag for me. They're built to the taste of the owner, which is fine, but they can go two very different routes to get there. One is to start with an original vehicle, ranging from a rusty junkyard shell to a nice clean car. The other is to build a brand-new replica from fiberglass or steel in the style of the car you want. The increasing availability of fiberglass bodies for custom cars over the past few decades calls into question the provenance of many of the rods and customs one sees at shows nowadays. Several of the most common replicas include '32 Fords, '33-34 Fords, Shelby Cobras, 1941 Willys Americars and, to a lesser extent, the Beetle/Chevette/Pinto-based 1929 Mercedes SSK ("Gazelle"), Beetle-based Porsche 356 Speedster, and any number of Italian exotics mimicked poorly on the long-suffering Pontiac Fiero chassis. One of the cars I didn't previously know is available as a fiberglass replica, though, is the 1934-1935 Chevrolet 3-window coupe.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1939 GMC AC 1-1/2 Ton Stakebed

Patina is an interesting thing. Some vehicles don't look right unless they have some degree of wear and tear, while others don't look right unless they appear brand new. What is it about an old faded, scratched, rusty work truck that makes it cool? Perhaps it's the way that it tells its own history in every bit of oxidation, discoloration and indentation.

Danville Street Sighting - 1937 Packard 120-C Convertible Coupe

This is the kind of car that makes readers say, "Come on, dude, you took this at a car show, it doesn't count!"

...Well, you'd be close. This lovely yellow 1937 Packard was parked two blocks from the Danville d'Elegance car show last year. I assume it was a spectator's vehicle and was parked in front of the restored Southern Pacific railroad station that now serves as the Museum of the San Ramon Valley. I'm a sucker for classic Packards because they're such classy, beautiful cars. This one appears to be a Model 120-C convertible coupe.

Danville Street Sighting - 1932 Ford V8 Roadster

Were this '32 Ford roadster not a local car that I see on a semi-regular basis, I might consider it cheating to have photographed it half a block from the barricades of a car show. The town of Danville holds two 'Hot Summer Nights' car shows every summer, where they close off the main drag for the afternoon and evening and a few hundred cool cars roll in to be viewed by the general public. It's fun and free. Well, free for spectators, that is. Those who get there early can park their special rides just outside the boundaries and avoid the $15-20 or whatever the car entry fee is.
So technically this Deuce isn't a show car. Technically it's a spectator's car (and is parked in almost the same spot where I photographed the 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC). Note the car behind it. That's the 1963 Buick Wildcat convertible I photographed several blocks away on the 4th of July. This mint-colored hot rod is frequently driven and often parks at a sports bar in my town. I had photographed it once before in the parking lot at the bar, but this was the first chance I'd had to find the car parked on a public street. So here it is.

Santa Cruz Street Sighting - 1934 Ford V8 Pickup

It's late December, winter has officially begun in the northern hemisphere and for many of you, a look out your window yields a view of snow. As you don your foul weather gear to go shovel the front walk and scrape the ice off your windshield, think of how lovely California is this time of year. Ha! It's storming and cold as I type this. But I digress. Let's pretend the weather's still nice and take a look at this 1934 Ford V8 pickup from Hula's Island Grill in Santa Cruz, photographed on a beautiful day back in October.

San Jose Street Sighting - 1937 Ford Fordor Touring Sedan

You see them at every swap meet and cars for sale corral: The project car. Frequently it's something covered in dirt and leaves that someone lugged out of a barn after thirty years. Sometimes it's a wrecked vehicle that needs a rebuild. And sometimes it's a car that runs but is ugly and someone either ran out of time and money or simply realized they were in completely over their head. I suspect this car is the latter.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1939 Plymouth P7 Roadking

You've probably noticed that the majority of the cars featured here are 1960s and newer. Pre-1960 cars are harder to find, harder to care for, harder to get parts for, and probably less reliable than more current iron. As such, the older it gets, the less likely it is to have remained factory-stock. Certain older cars were never particularly sporty, so they lend themselves to being modified and used as cruising cars. And still others never became super-rare or valuable, so they can still be had on a budget. Case in point: this 1939 Plymouth P7 Roadking sedan in the Mission District. It appears to be a sort of low-budget hot rod or cruiser.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1936 Ford Pickup

Back in the 1970s, my dad owned a 1936 Ford pickup. He bought it for $20 as a basket case and restored it himself.

This is not that truck.

I've only seen his old truck twice in my life, and it looked nothing like this one (his was Corvette Elkhart Green, all stock except for a Mercury flathead V8 and chrome simulated wire wheels). But it should give you a clue as to why I have a soft spot for 1936 Ford trucks.