1975 Datsun 620 Wheelbarrow

 

You know our thing for wheelbarrow trucks, the simple functional units that arrived here from Japan, starting in the early 1970s and redefined useful? This one lives in Santa Barbara. I think of wheelbarrows, fondly, whenever another supersized, chromish mega-truck piloted by a loner male blasts past me on I-95.

1958 Chevrolet Apache. Denver.

 

From Markus Anstadt: "Sprinkler blowout time in Denver. This guy was using his 1958 Chevrolet Apache truck. Straight 6, manual transmission, big compressor. Faded bumper sticker says 'Honk if you think you are the center of the universe'.  Hunt's Oyster Bar, too. Classic."

1950 Dodge Coronet Gyro-Matic Colorado Springs.

 

Poised calmly in the Patty Jewett neighborhood in COS. Tires are holding air. Kind of gorgeous, in its way. And what's a Gyro–Matic transmission, you ask? Amazing what turns up when you ask our search widget for Dodge Coronet, like this '58 on the streets of San Francisco. And another '58 Dodge Coronet in the Sierra foothills. Over the 12 years of AL, we have accumulated an amazing archive. So check it out.

1965 Formula S Plymouth Barracuda. Colorado Springs

 

Tucked away in a friend's garage in COS, rebuilt and restored. Our last Barracuda of this era was Larry Walker's, posted from Nova Scotia. Then there was a '65 Valiant in Portland, Maine which is more or less  a 'Cuda without the glam. Speaking of glam, the Barracuda got very--well, very Seventies!--in the Seventies, like this purple 1973 specimen in Blue Hill, Maine. 

The Hop Up: early LA hot-rodding

"Sleeping dog in Boyle Heights", Herman Schultheis, Schultheis Collection, Los Angeles Public Library. 

From David Conwill's piece at Hemmings. (and thanks to James Sorensen and Larry Cordell for the heads-up)
"...taken in 1938 by Herman Schultheis, a recent immigrant to LA from New York City and a doctor of mechanical and electrical engineering working for Disney. From the title and caption, it appears the LA Public Library may not fully appreciate what it shows: (A dog is sleeping on a littered dirt sidewalk next to a very old car parked on Estrada Street in Boyle Heights...)
"...It's an early hot rod—a gow job or hop up, as they were called at the time. At first blush, it appears to just be a stripped Ford Model T with later wheels, but certain features grab the eye and hint at its true nature..."
AL: see Clayton Paddison's period-correct 1926 Ford Gow Job on Kustomrama...

Note the parallel leaf springs above the sleeping dog's head. Art by Clayton Paddison.

Note the Ford crossmember and rear spring, the small brake drum inside the Model A wheel center, and the elongated differential housing indicative of a Ruckstell two-speed rear.

1972 Chevrolet Kingswood Estate. Reno, Nevada.

 

From Jonathan Welsh: While visiting the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nev., last month I spotted this gem in the pit area. It looked at least as long as a Suburban SUV and had three rows of forward-facing seats. Quite a color combination. It managed to upstage  some of the airplanes.

AL: You may remember our '69 Brookwood?

Datsun 280Z Colorado Springs.

 

The 280Z's immediate predecessor, the 240Z,  had established a whole new way of thinking about Japanese cars in North America. In the Sixties and into the Seventies, they were mostly econoboxes, practical, cheap and often more reliable than the Detroit iron of the day–the Datsun 510 more or less established the genre in North America. Then along came the sporting Z cars, starting tin 1969. They made the British sports car imports of the day seem even crankier than they were. The 280Z has Bosch file injection, a step up from the carburetor'd 240.

Opel Manta 1900. Colorado Springs.

The boy was playing golf at the Patty Jewett Golf Course in the Springs, third-oldest public course west of the Mississippi. For a car that has been around for half a century, this little unit was looking good. The Manta was Opel's rival to the Ford Capri.

 

1940s International Harvester 3/4 ton. Colorado Springs

We were in the Springs on a clear blue day and October was falling all over the place.

Want Some Ugly...?

 

"Then try the new Toyota Tundra!

" --in the lot at Pueblo Toyota in Pueblo, CO and spotted by Michael Moore. 

NOT a wheelbarrow truck.

Dodge Dart GT, California

 

On the misty and sea-scented streets of my old hometown, Santa Barbara. Here's our post on a 1962 Dodge Dart and the million-mile Montreal taxi.