San Francisco Street Sighting - 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Coupe

I don't make it to San Francisco much anymore. I've been out of college for several years, working full time, and now with the coronavirus pandemic going on I've barely gone anywhere for the past few months. These pictures are two years old but they continue a long-held tradition. When I go to the city I always try to see if our friend Fifties Guy has anything new. This visit was after I participated in my first Radwood car show in South San Francisco, where I shined up and displayed my 1999 Buick Regal GS. I'd already paid the bridge toll to be on the peninsula, so I headed up north for a little while. Sure enough, I was greeted by this all-original 1958 Oldsmobile finished in what I believe to be Champagne Mist Poly.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Mercury Park Lane Cruiser

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a partridge in a pear tree.

The holiday season is once again upon us and I've utterly and completely failed to keep this site updated, so here's a little treat for my readers.
On this first day of Christmas, my archives give to thee, a Park Lane down on the street.

It's been a long time since I featured one of Fifties Guy's cars here, long enough that I think he actually sold this one before I got around to writing something about it. But I have these photos, and it was one of my favorite subjects from his collection.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk R1

As a red-blooded American I love the Fourth of July. I love the parade that I have to go to another town to see, and the fireworks I have to go to another county to see. Honestly in my area it's kind of ruined since fireworks are illegal and my city no longer puts on their own show. But I can still fly the flag and once again do my annual "Independents' Week" to celebrate Independence Day.

For those of you unfamiliar with Independents' Week, it's a time when I focus on featuring cars built by American automakers not affiliated with the Big Three of Ford, GM or Chrysler. First up this week is a 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk R1.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan

My God, has it really been almost two years since we last visited with Fifties Guy? My schedule doesn't allow me to visit San Francisco as often as I used to, and that means fewer opportunities to stop by the street-parked collection of the man I like to call Fifties Guy. Keen readers will remember his steel menagerie of chrome boats. Every so often he buys one, sells another, but always has enough old cars to stay busy with their upkeep. Here's a 1959 Chevy Impala flattop.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1958 DeSoto Adventurer

Rounding out this week's visit with the San Francisco car collector I like to call Fifties Guy, is perhaps the rarest Mopar in his fleet. This is a 1958 DeSoto Adventurer, the most expensive model in DeSoto's lineup and one of just 432 made. Of those, 350 were coupes as seen here.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1960 Plymouth Fury Convertible

This week we're taking a look at some more of the fleet belonging to the San Francisco car collector I like to refer to as Fifties Guy. This one isn't from the fifties, but it is a Forward Look Mopar. Fifties Guy seems to really love his finned Mopars, and this 1960 Plymouth Fury convertible is nothing short of spectacular.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Dodge Coronet Lancer

It's been a while since we last visited with Fifties Guy, so this week it's all Forward Look Mopars. First up is a 1959 Dodge Coronet.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk

Several days ago a reader contacted me about a 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk for sale in San Francisco and recognized it as belonging to the collector I colloquially refer to as "Fifties Guy". I figured it was a good time to pull it out of the archives.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1954 Hudson Hornet Special

Rounding out this week of Hudson automobiles is the last of the Step-Down Hornets, and really the last true Hudson.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1960 Ford Thunderbird

It's been four years since I began documenting the collection of the San Francisco car collector I like to refer to as Fifties Guy. To date I've photographed over a dozen cars belonging to him or his friends who might share his hobby. Many of the cars have been sold over the years, and new ones appear as time goes by. The most recent one I've seen as of the time of this writing was this 1960 Ford Thunderbird. My friend and I were exploring the city after the California Mille car show and, as I frequently do when I'm in the area, I decided to stop by and see if there were any members of the collection present in the public domain.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1953 Studebaker Commander Starliner

It's become a tradition here at California Streets to celebrate July 4th with a car not built by the Big Three, but by an independent American automaker. This year, we celebrate Independents' Day with a 1953 Studebaker Commander.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1957 Chrysler Windsor

There is something wonderful about a classic car that gets driven. I can appreciate a low-mileage car as much as the next guy, but there comes a point where one wonders, why did I never drive this thing? It almost seems like a waste to have a nice car and not use it for its intended purpose.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Plymouth Savoy

It's relatively uncommon to see custom cars on the streets of San Francisco, but this was an exception. In summer 2007 my friend and I took a day trip into the city which took us through the Mission District. We pulled over to check out this 1959 Plymouth Savoy, apparently made into a rat rod with rattlecan flat black paint, red steel wheels and outlined red flames.

A Letter to "Fifties Guy"

I received a comment recently from "Anonymous", the San Francisco car collector I have commonly referred to as "Fifties Guy" here on California Streets. Since he's come across this humble blog which has featured over a dozen of his cars, I wanted to address that fact.

Dear Owner:

Thank you for responding. You may have seen me out in front of your house with my camera (probably multiple times) in the past couple of years and I apologize if I have ever made you or your family uneasy or felt that your privacy was being invaded. Your collection of street-parked classics fascinates me and I always like seeing what's parked out there. It's a fairly unique phenomenon for a San Francisco resident to be able to maintain a car collection of that scale. I want you to know that I respect you and will respect your wishes.
For privacy reasons I have held off on featuring cars which were parked in your driveway. The yellow 1954 Hudson which appeared on the post "A Note to My Readers" was photographed way back in June 2009, and unless I have your permission, other photos of it will NOT appear here in the future. When composing shots and prepping pictures to post, I prefer not to show identifiable addresses, street signs or faces of people when possible. When writing posts I usually try not to use exact street names either.

Again, thank you for writing to me and thank you for collecting those awesome '50s cars.

Sincerely,

Jay Wollenweber

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1958 Buick Century Riviera

I generally am not known for being a fan of cars made in 1958. Actually, scratch that. I love the 1958 Chevy, Pontiac, Edsel, Plymouth and... umm... Studebaker Hawk, I guess. Most everything else that came out of Detroit or even Europe was too grotesque for my liking. (Okay, the '58 Mercedes SL was nice, but it was largely a carryover from a few years before, and the BMW 507 and Austin-Healeys were all right, too.) Most of GM's 1958 offerings were based on the same platform they'd been on for a few years, and had a family resemblance in their styling. Cadillac did its own thing because it was Cadillac. 1958 Buicks never really got me excited, and Oldsmobile was just plain baroque. Regardless, this Buick was the car that introduced me to the fact that a car collector existed around these parts. The fact that I never managed to properly photograph it the first time kept me coming back for almost two years in the vain hope of finding it again. Finally, in August 2010 I managed to shoot it.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1960 Chrysler Saratoga

If you've seen the previous feature in the series, feel free to skip the following paragraph.It's that time again, time for another weekly series. This one comes to you courtesy of Fifties Guy in San Francisco. Frequent readers will know who that is, but for those of you just joining us, Fifties Guy is my nickname for a collector of 1950s and early '60s cars in SF who parks them on the streets around his home and drives them daily. Most are big, heavy, massively-finned and usually overstyled late-'50s Chrysler products. So here you have it, folks: Forward Look Week. The "Forward Look" was stylist Virgil Exner's baby, and was the design language for most Mopar cars from 1955 to 1961. Take a look at an early-50s Dodge or Plymouth. Pretty boring, right? Maybe some chrome gingerbread and a snazzy grille but not much else to liven up an otherwise stodgy car. Then Exner came along and made things interesting.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Plymouth Fury

If you've seen the previous feature in the series, feel free to skip the following paragraph.
It's that time again, time for another weekly series. This one comes to you courtesy of Fifties Guy in San Francisco. Frequent readers will know who that is, but for those of you just joining us, Fifties Guy is my nickname for a collector of 1950s and early '60s cars in SF who parks them on the streets around his home and drives them daily. Most are big, heavy, massively-finned and usually overstyled late-'50s Chrysler products. So here you have it, folks: Forward Look Week. The "Forward Look" was stylist Virgil Exner's baby, and was the design language for most Mopar cars from 1955 to 1961. Take a look at an early-50s Dodge or Plymouth. Pretty boring, right? Maybe some chrome gingerbread and a snazzy grille but not much else to liven up an otherwise stodgy car. Then Exner came along and made things interesting.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer

It's that time again, time for another weekly series. This one comes to you courtesy of Fifties Guy in San Francisco. Frequent readers will know who that is, but for those of you just joining us, Fifties Guy is my nickname for a collector of 1950s and early '60s cars in SF who parks them on the streets around his home and drives them daily. Most are big, heavy, massively-finned and usually overstyled late-'50s Chrysler products. So here you have it, folks: Forward Look Week. The "Forward Look" was stylist Virgil Exner's baby, and was the design language for most Mopar cars from 1955 to 1961. Take a look at an early-50s Dodge or Plymouth. Pretty boring, right? Maybe some chrome gingerbread and a snazzy grille but not much else to liven up an otherwise stodgy car. Then Exner came along and made things interesting.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1958 Dodge Custom Royal Regal Lancer D-500

Oooh, night shoot! I actually like how a lot of these photos came out. The story is, I decided one afternoon to head over to Fifties Guy's place and snap more of his cars. Problem was, I was walking from downtown. It was late afternoon, and once I ran smack into the Presidio I realized I had to climb the steep hills of Cow Hollow to get to there. This with a hefty backpack, since I had class earlier in the day. So I finally reached the Inner Richmond as it was getting dark. Too late to shoot cars, right? Voila! Mini tripod.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1956 Chrysler Windsor 250 wagon

This is one I really wish I could find again. Another member of Fifties Guy's menagerie of vintage tin in The City, this 1956 Chrysler Windsor 250 station wagon appeared on eBay shortly after I photographed it. It's a rare (one of 2700), unrestored example with low mileage for its age. The owner was present when I first saw it, and was working on his 1959 Plymouth Fury in the garage at the time. Because he was there, I didn't want to wear out my welcome and decided to make the photo shoot a quick one. Unfortunately the Jeep parked in front made it impossible to get a decent front or 3/4 angle. Sad day.