Danville Street Sighting - 1962 Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special

These pictures were taken with an old phone camera but this car was cool enough that I still wanted to share. It's a 1962 Cadillac Fleetwood.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1962 Chrysler 300

I have a difficult relationship with early 1960s Chrysler products. I grew up loving the Forward Look cars penned by Virgil Exner. But after 1958, things started to get weird. For your consideration is our second 1962 Chrysler 300 hardtop.

Danville Street Sighting - 1962 Triumph TR3B

I've never really known what to make of most older Triumph sports cars. The 1950s and 1960s TR2 and TR3 roadsters have a certain bug-eyed look to them. The TR4 was starting to evolve into a modern sports car and eventually turned into the pretty TR6. Then everything went to hell with the wedge-shaped TR7 and Rover V8 powered TR8 in the late 1970s. (I'd love to feature a TR7 or TR8 someday, but they're hard to find.)

Danville Street Sighting - 1962 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan

It's been a good four years since I last photographed a '62 Chevy Impala for a feature here. I've previously mentioned that old Impalas are such a fixture in California's car culture, I tend not to pay much attention to them. However, they are still historic and still special even though GM rolled out nearly 705,000 of them for 1962. What clinched it for me to shoot this one was its relatively stock appearance and the story it tells.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Plymouth Fury

Ever have those times when somebody needs help parallel parking? I've been there, on both sides. As a suburbanite I don't get a lot of practice parking parallel and certainly not often in the tight spaces in San Francisco. So I cringed when I saw a car put on its turn signal while I was photographing this 1962 Plymouth Fury sedan and start to pull in front of it to park. I stopped taking pictures and helped the lady avoid damaging the classic car with her Jetta. I've seen this Plymouth around the city multiple times but have rarely caught it standing still, so this feature includes photos from two different sightings a year apart in the same neighborhood.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Fiat Ghia 1500 GT

This post marks my 600th street sighting feature. I thought that I might as well pick something truly rare and unusual, so here we have a 1962 Fiat 1500 GT by Ghia.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Mercury Monterey

Sometimes when I go into the city to look for cars I end up spending the whole day in one neighborhood. The day I photographed this 1962 Mercury Monterey four-door hardtop, I also found a 1950 Hudson, 1955 Chevy wagon, 1962 Magirus-Deutz fire truck, 1965 Ford Fairlane, 1977 Pontiac Sunbird, 1982 Toyota Starlet and several other interesting historic vehicles I'll be featuring here at a later date. All were in San Francisco's Sunset district.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Pontiac Catalina

I keep coming back to Bernal Heights when I'm in San Francisco. It's an eclectic neighborhood and I seem to have good luck finding interesting cars there. The vicinity of the park where I found this 1962 Pontiac Catalina is also where I found the '51 International pickup, '62 T-Bird, '79 Ford LTD coupe and '74 Volvo 164E. There's a 1954 Buick around the corner that I've been trying to photograph for the past couple of years, but every time I stop by, it's underneath a car cover. Alas. I had to settle for this metallic blue Pontiac instead. It's good that I did, because I have not seen it since.

Berkeley Street Sighting - 1962 Rambler Classic Cross Country Custom Wagon

Continuing this "Independent's Week" in honor of America's Independence Day, and celebrating the American summer vacation road trip, we're looking at American Motors station wagons. Second in the series is this 1962 Rambler Classic Cross Country.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1962 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Corvan

One of the first 100 street sightings featured here was a 1963-65 Chevy Corvair Greenbrier, posted in 2010 but actually spotted in spring 2009. From that point on, the only Forward Control Corvairs I saw were at car shows, museums or otherwise on private property. Then I stumbled upon this early Corvair 95 Corvan in Oakland. It would be nice to complete the set someday with a Loadside or Rampside pickup, but until then I'll be happy with what I've seen.

Berkeley Street Sighting - 1962 Chrysler 300

Sometimes when searching for cars I'm very lucky, and sometimes my timing is very poor. I happened upon this 1962 Chrysler 300 on a day when the owner was about to meet with a prospective buyer. As in, literally within minutes. He walked outside shortly after I began photographing the car and we chatted for a while. Then the buyer arrived and I decided it was time to let them discuss business.

The 1962 Chrysler 300 is a mixed bag of car design. The '61 cars had received slanted headlamps and a trapezoidal grille, which continued into 1962. The new cars lost their tailfins for a more modern look. It also marked a partial decline of the 300 letter series begun in 1955 with the NASCAR-winning C-300. The 300 was now available in non-letter form as a mass-market coupe, convertible or even a four-door hardtop with an options list that included most of the formerly exclusive 300 letter-car content. This heavily eroded sales of the 300H. Even the 300H's 413 cubic inch "Wedge" V8 was optional on the regular 300 in place of its standard 383 engine.

I seem to recall that this was a Wedge car. It had had an interesting life, including but not limited to a replacement right front fender to fix crash damage (the paint was a different color on the inside when the owner opened the hood to show me the engine). Much of the trim still had blue painter's tape covering it as evidence of a quickie spray job, and the owner told me that almost all of his cars had recently been attacked by some hooligan breaking windshields. (Note the Mercedes W123 behind it.) The Chrysler had been fortunate to escape further damage. The car also employed an anti-theft device - a purposely deflated right front tire when not in use.

The interior was in surprisingly good shape aside from worn and torn leather seats. I think this car has the push-button automatic transmission. The body was still a bit beat-up and rusty, but I'm hopeful that whoever ultimately purchased the car saved it. I hate seeing complete and running vehicles parted out.

Note to readers: This car was photographed in July 2013. Please don't ask if it's still for sale; I don't know but the answer is probably not.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Magirus-Deutz Mercur 125A Fire Pumper

Over the last few years I've noticed a mysterious influx of German fire trucks in San Francisco. One was a Mercedes-Benz 508D which last I checked was owned by Make Magazine. Someone found an old Opel fire truck in the Sunset District and now we look at this 1962 Magirus-Deutz Mercur 125A fire pumper which hails from the same general area.

El Segundo Street Sighting - 1962 Ford Falcon Ranchero

Avid readers will already know that I love the Ford Falcon in almost all of its forms. Australian friends, that includes many of the Falcons sold down under as well. And speaking of Australia, the car-based coupe utility pickup, or 'ute', is virtually a way of life in that country. Here in the states, it's more of a novelty, but the Ford Ranchero is one of America's best known and most popular utes. I featured a 1968 Ranchero years ago, a larger version based on the redesigned Fairlane and new Torino. That version was more akin to the Ranchero's roots as a large Fairlane-based pickup from 1957 to 1959. For most of the 1960s, though, the Ranchero existed as a compact Falcon variant, and again as a Fairlane for 1967.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Plymouth Valiant

I love Bernal Heights for car spotting. It's a gold mine for old and unusual vehicles, most of which are daily drivers with various stages of patina. Here we have a 1962 Plymouth Valiant sedan. The Valiant was introduced in 1960 as its own brand, sporting a radically styled body and a new slant-six engine. It competed with the Ford Falcon and GM's compacts, intended to provide large car space without the large car dimensions and mileage. The separate brand identity only lasted one year before it was folded into the Plymouth lineup, but the Valiant built a reputation for reliability and toughness.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1962 Studebaker Lark

Studebaker is one of the few brands that usually makes me stop and take notice when I see one on the street or at car shows. Avantis, Hawks and the classic 1950-51 bulletnose cars are the iconic models everyone remembers, but the 1960s Larks are cool as well. Consider that they were developed on a shoestring budget from late-1950s body and chassis components and you're left with an oddball compact sedan that looked very different from most of the cars on the road.

San Jose Street Sighting - 1962 Dodge W200 Power Wagon Town Wagon

One of the things I've always liked about postwar Dodge trucks is that they look like they mean business. They just have a tough overall appearance that says, "I'm here to work hard and don't even think of messing with me". Such is the case with the Power Wagon. Even the name evokes a badass work truck. The name dates back to the end of World War II when Dodge developed a civilian version of its M37 military truck. The original Power Wagon was almost medieval in its design by the time it was dropped after the 1968 model year, what with its 1940s cab, separate fenders and exposed radiator cap, but it was still a brutally effective 4x4 truck. The Power Wagon name spread to other 4WD Dodge trucks, including this W200 Power Wagon Town Wagon. The Town Wagon was a carryall, basically a proto-SUV. It was also available as the Town Panel, a delivery van-type vehicle with no side windows made for hauling cargo.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Ford Thunderbird

Rounding out "Where were you in '62?" week is a Blue Oval product, a 1962 Ford Thunderbird coupe. Third-generation Birds are becoming scarce on the roads, particularly as daily drivers. They're a guilty pleasure of mine, a car I like even though it's not particularly attractive. For a while I collected diecast '61-63 T-Birds, and was fascinated by them after seeing a cherry red '63 Thunderbird Sports Roadster in Disney's Flubber (pretty much the only saving grace in that film).
This one's rough around the edges but appears quite restorable. From across the street, it seems as though all it needs is a coat of paint, but up close I'm concerned that rust is starting in the rockers and the bottom front corner of the doors. Fords of the '60s tend to suffer from rust there.

San Jose Street Sighting - 1962 Chevrolet Impala sedan

Second in my series of "Where were you in '62?" is this 1962 Chevy Impala sedan. Being an Impala, it's one of the more common American classics. This is due in no small part to the ridiculously large number of Impalas the General cranked out back in the day. They were fantastically popular cars with American car buyers.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Chevrolet Chevy II 100 wagon

With a new year comes the realization that we're all getting older. This year let's celebrate the 50th birthday of some cars with a catchphrase from George Lucas's early film, American Graffiti. Where were you in '62?

Best of the Rest 1: San Francisco Corvairs

1961 Chevrolet Corvair sedan

1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza coupe

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza coupe

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza convertible

1966-67 Chevrolet Corvair 500 coupe