TBT…

Posted on by April 6, 2021

Cars, trucks, and… A Land Rover…

Mid-1930s (I ‘think’ 1936) Chevy pickup, running an old school 327. Didn’t hear it run, but it looked GOOD!

The paint job was intriguing, almost a mix of patina and color that made you look twice at it.

And we saw this one in a parking lot at the restaurant. Lawdog had to look at it, mumbling something about “Memories, so many memories…” This one is a 94, TDi 100 Defender, RHD, probably ‘imported’ from England, by a USAF type based on the license plate surround.

It has obviously seen a lot of use, but it has also been well cared for. All of the pieces and parts are there, including the luggage rack and other parts built in London!

Like I said, right hand drive, 5 speed, and the obligatory fuzzy dice!!!

And last but certainly not least, 1968 Corvette. It looks all original, so I’m guessing probably a 327/300HP motor. It didn’t have either the front spring ‘droop’, nor any 427 badging.

And it was an automatic, so that leads to my 327/300 guess. The interior wasn’t perfect, nor was the paint, so again a guess that this is probably a 10-15 year old restoration, but one that was well done back on the day.

And it did have period correct rims on it, American Racing Torque Thrust mags from the 1960/70s. They were old school, with the engraved metal centers and old lettering.

Overall, a nice older car, obviously out for a Sunday drive! I hope they had a good day and enjoyed themselves!

Comments

TBT… — 19 Comments

  1. Nice! Quite an eclectic group of vehicles, I’d be happy with any one of them. See the Land Rover in right hand drive brought back memories of learning to drive in England and how it exposed a lot of habits that are done but not consciously thought about – like walking to the ‘wrong’ side of the car when you go to get in…

  3. I like the red ’36 but the sei-slicks on the back won’t be worth a crap on a wet road. But then who would drive it on a wet road?

  4. Highly restored cars are over rated.
    Buy the car, maintain it, drive it and sell to the next caretaker who will rinse and repeat.

  5. Saw a bumper sticker in Vancouver, BC once that read, “The parts falling off this car are of the finest British manufacturing”. Somehow, I think the Defenders avoided most of those problems (except for Lucas).

  6. Tom- LOL, yeah THAT was an experience the first time I drove over there… And those damned one lane roads…

    Rev- True, but dealers are few and far between up there!

    CP- Point!

    Jet- That does occur occasionally…

    WSF- Heh, saw that once on a Triumph, that was broke down…

  7. The Land Rover would be a nice vehicle, if all the Lucas electric parts were cast out by a priest and replaced with decent electricals. Maybe an aftermarket AC but maybe not.

    I really admire the luggage rack. That’s a lot of room. Man could put a lot of stuff up there… besides a spare tire, some jerry cans of water and fuel, spare parts… Hmmm…

    • I was just thinking the same thing. What would you keep up there? Well, if you used a tarpaulin and nylon line, pretty much anything you wanted – or thought you might need down the road a bit.

      This is a nice set of pix, but the one that I’d take is the pickup.

  8. I am disappoint! I couldna get the picture of the license plate surround big enough to read!

    I got a license plate surround with both of my missile units’ numbers and base’s names.

  9. Beans/MJ- They only had a couple of ‘spares’ up there, I think one was a jerry can of diesel.

    Sam- He or she was Air Force academy.

  10. Those are the newer version of the American Racing Equipment Torq Thrust rims. The originals had “As Cast” centers with polished rims. They had 5 little self-tapping screws to hold the center caps on, which is why they’re usually missing.

    American updated them in 1970 to be “Torq Thrust 70” rims, and went to a center cap held on with a metal back-up plate and a single self-tapping screw into the plastic center cap, which was now hex-shaped.

    I had five or six sets of these, including two sets cast in magnesium for my racing tires. Aluminum was much better for the street as it’s not as brittle and corrosion-prone as magnesium is.

    The originals, in magnesium, are going for $1500 a rim these days…..sigh….

    • Assisted a woman driving a Mercedes on hiway280N near Sunnyvale in the early 00’s. She had damaged a wheel hitting road debris or a pothole. Optional wheels, and she had ruined 3 of them, so far. Said they cost ~$1500 EACH, not counting tires. She intended to have the shop put the original wheels back on, as she was tired of the problem. The spare required the oem lug bolts, of which she had learned to keep a set onboard.

  11. drjim- Actually these had the five little screws. We looked to make sure. And they were aluminum that somebody had polished out.

    • Old – I’m guessing that a ‘few’ of us might have first dibs to inherit that Rover so the body count might get rather high…………….and unless he has a good supply of ammo he ‘might’ run out. 😉