Pictures of Vintage GM cars!

[Captain Video]

50's Chevrolet

This pic is from my personal files. Shows a family in Rio de Janeiro in the early 50's onboard their new car. They all look very happy. Why wouldn't they, in a car like that?

 

[Greg B.]

Keeping up with the rest of you, here's my '68 Cutlass -- and in keeping with the spirit of this site, note the original Oldsmobile 8-track:

 

[davei]

Mine

70 Corvette

dave

 

[Mystic]

My GM collection isn't in nearly as good shape as the Mopars (see the Vintage Mopars thread), but they're all solid and the restorations are coming along, slowly, but deliberately. Main problem with these, along with the Fords & the "other" makes in the collection, is lack of storage space. Correction: make that "indoor" storage space. A few are in those temporary sheds, more to follow. We're gettin' there. I'll post the Ford/Lincoln/Mercury cars to the other thread, and maybe I'll start a "Vintage Other Makes" thread, a place for all those Dusenbergs and Packards.

Here we have:

1. 1939 Cadillac Sedan - It runs! It's also lots cleaner than in this picture.
Interior is original and very clean. Like it so well I attached 2 pix (also
because one of the pix is poorly focused). Excellent all metal body &
sound frame all the way around.
2. 1940 Chevrolet Sedan - Also runs & looks better (cleaned up a bit) than
depicted. Interior is original but it is rough. Again, all steel body & frame
are in excellent shape. This is the advantage of being (much!)closer to
the desert than the ocean.
3. 1953 Chevrolet "Yellow" Cab - Used often & tirelessly in film shoots in the
LA area in the 1970s and 1980s, as were most of the other resto projects
we have in the collection.
4. 1968 Chevelle SS -- That's "SS" for "Super Stock", not super sport. This
vehicle is a near first-generation Super Stocker that my uncle built and ran
at NHRA events throughout the region. This sucker had an original 427
BB stuffed into that compartment. We've pulled the block and the original
12-bolt rear and placed them in safe, dry indoor storage. This thing is
super light (esp for a Chevelle) and will eventually make a great street rod.

On to the Fords!

 

[USSEnterprise]

We have a 1962 Buick Electra 225 4 Door Hardtop Sitting in our garage. The whole car, save for the upholstery, needs work. Has a 401 nailhead with a Dynaflow Twin Turbine auto tranny. Power windows and seat, but no A/C. Needs pretty much every major system rebuilt, plus tires, a rear bumper, paint, and a stereo . I'd love to work on it, but it was my grandfather's car, and my father is reluctant to let me near it with any tool more powerful than a feather duster.

 

[Meower]

These are some great pics! Personally, I like the 67-69 Camaro's...

 

[rickon66]

Our family all had GM cars and I have been a big fan and customer ever since.
We have moved a bunch of times and most all of my pictures have been lost.
Here is my list of GM cars, start with the oldest model but not in order of ownership.
1950 Chev 2 door fastback
1955 Chev-Blue
1955 Chev-Blue
1957 Chev-Blue
1957 Chev-Red
1964 Nova
1964 GTO-Red
1964 GTO-Black
1966 GTO-Blue
1966 LeMans
1969 Corvette Coupe 427 Black w/
factory sidepipes
1970 Opel Manta*
1970 Camaro
1975 Monte Carlo*
1976 Trans am*
1977 Malibu*
1977 El Camino*
1978 Firebird Formula*
1980 Malibu
1981 Citation X-11*
1990 Bonneville*
1991 Bonneville
1993 Bonneville*
1996 Bonneville*
2003 Impala*
*=purchased new
I got my first good job in 1974 and was the Chevrolet and Pontiac dealers best friend for a while. I between the GM dealer visits I also hit Volvo,VW,Mazda,Ford, Lincoln , Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Plymouth and BMW.

 

[Dynacophil]

A little different, but this is the only vintage GM car I've ever considered buying.

Hi

thats a german Opel Manta A (first edition) - did they sell it in US?
In Germany Manta's and its drivers have pretty bad reputation...

there are 100ds of Manta-driver-jokes... (one of the shortest and best: A manta is parked on the University-parking lot...) ...even Films like Manta Manta...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Manta

Helge

 

[merrylander]

I thought we were talking vintage? Our first car was a 1931 Oakland, a Canadian company bought out by Pontiac so can be considered GM. Later there was a 1948 Pontiac. Then I bought a 1947 Pontiac and a 1966 Chev Belair. There was a 1978 Buick Century hardtop traded in on a 1980 Pontiac LeMans.

Cars I lusted after in my youth were a 1936 McLaughlin Buick convertible, and a 1940 LaSalle (the small Caddilac). Any photos that existed of them are long gone.

Rob

 

[Captain Video]

1950 Cadillac

French singer Juliete Greco in Rio de Janeiro in 1950, driving a Cadillac.

 

[JerryM]

This wasn't my car, but I had a red 1977 Firebird Esprit just like it when I was finishing my post-graduate work back in the day. Such a cool car and a definite babe magnet. A week after I got it, I found a note on the windshield. From some girl, leaving her phone number, and saying that she loved the car, and I were male and single she loved me, too! I wasn't seeing anyone then, and I was a little tempted to call just for the hell of it, but I decided that any girl who'd leave her number on a total stranger's car was probably not someone to get involved with. I still think the '77 model was one of Pontiac's best looking and a definite classic. :yes:

 

[Yamaha Nutz]

Here ya go DROOOOOOOOL, and I've always been an F-body man myself::thmbsp: (The system in my T/A Firehawk pic #2)

 

[jaymanaa]

She ain't much to look at now, but in her day............

This is my old 64 Riviera that I hope to restore someday. It's kind of a rare car because of the factory dual quads. They only made just over 1000 in 64, but lots more in 65 with the introduction of the GS. The motors pretty much worn out, but it still pulls hard.

 

[skippy_ps]

That's a nice one Jay. Looks like the engine could use a little tlc - not much, just a little bit.

Dual AFB's on a nail head Buick. Who woulda thunk it. I can't remember what year it was but 64 or 65, maybe, was the last year of that block design and Buick came out with a new engine which was the basis of the later 455's.

Nice ride. :thmbsp:

Murray

 

[jaymanaa]

Yeh, It was 1967 when they introduced the 430 (and 400 for the Skylark GS) which like you said became the 455. That was the last of the good ol' biguns from Buick. Do you remember Tommy Ivo's dragster "Twin Mill" which sported two nail heads side by side and tilted? Man, what a ride.

 

[skippy_ps]

TV Tommy. IIRC, the twin Buick dragster was side by side and was fuel injected. I'm not sure how he did the final drive but there was a twin small block Chevy powered dragster of the same style around the same time and the builder took the drive off one engine and connected the other using the starter gear ring on the flywheels meshed together. Of course, the 2nd engine had to run backwards (clockwise) which required a "backwards" ground cam.

Murray

Edit: Yep, here's Ivo. Nice push car, lol.

 

[Adam]

425 nailhead with dual quads, now that is a great motor. Buick is not commonly thought of as producing high powered engines, but I think they had some of the most interesting ones. Here's a picture of an old magazine (May 1970) with some "Experimental Buick V8s", note the turbo-nailhead and the engine to it's right with overhead cams.

 

[jaymanaa]

Man, how bout that sheet metal plenum on the 455 to the left. I wonder how many rpms they were turning on that thing. Back when I was really into Buick muscle, I came across an article about the only two 455s ever factory fitted with four bolt mains. One was in the Sloan museum (I think) and the other was on epay at 5000bux. IIRC it was something to do with a Stage 4 program that the gas shortage ended prematurely. If you look at the dimensions and geometry of the more modern 455s, they were about as good an engine to hot rod as any. I think the cost and availability of aftermarket parts kept most folks away. I never did quite understand how the "pentroof" combustion chambers and tiny valves worked together to make all the power in the nailhead though. Must have been some synergy there. The last really fast one I had was a 87 GN with the intercooler and Garret turbo. That car was so far ahead of anything else (engineering wise) in 87 that it wasn't funny. Something about that Detroit iron, Jay

 

[rickr15]

Yeh, It was 1967 when they introduced the 430 (and 400 for the Skylark GS) which like you said became the 455. That was the last of the good ol' biguns from Buick. Do you remember Tommy Ivo's dragster "Twin Mill" which sported two nail heads side by side and tilted? Man, what a ride.

I like this one better. I believe it was painted and maintained by a very young Don Phrudome.

 

[merrylander]

Here is the one I wanted way back when, 1934 McLaughlin Buick coupe. Suicide doors and all.

Rob