I decided not to go for it. Since I’m physically unable to do service work anymore, and the only mechanic I trusted recently retired, who would work on this thing?
Remember the old saying “Happy wife, happy life.”
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I kept my antique motorcycle fetish up until the better half threw in the towel about 25 years ago and learned to accept it. The hot rod cars not so much…
I seem to remember a late uncle of mine had a 58 Buick back in the late 60s. It was half white and half chrome.
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This picture is on my wall next to my computer at home. 1958 was an interesting year for GM designs.
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The Caddy is good looking ( and has the most restrained trim of the group). Is that Harley Earl in the pic?
Yes that’s Harley.
I’ve always thought 58s were a little over the top design wise. 56 and 57 were a lot classier in my opinion. For GM at least.
If you have a moment, Google Buick Limited. It makes the trim on that Roadmaster convertible look restrained.
The convertible in that pic is just a 56 Century, Roadmaster would have had a little more bling. Someone once told me all the plating stripped off a 58 Bonneville would weigh over 300 lbs. Don’t know if that’s true but I believe it.
By 1965 cars looked like this:
I actually had one of these, a 65 Ninety Eight Luxury Sedan.
It’s been a while since I’ve taken such a close look at the pics on my own wall!
I loved the 65 LS. I had a 75 Regency. It was the second best car I ever had.
My parents had a 1956 Olds 88 with the B pillars, gray and white exterior and gray interior. I think it more attractive than either the '55 or '57 models that bracketed it or the well known '57 Chevy.
Parents also had a 1965 Olds 98 luxury sedan, again with the B pillars, gold exterior and interior. True land yacht with HUGE flat bottomed trunk.
Both cars were great looking. Interesting how car styles morphed from rounded to angular lines in those nine years.
Cars were still styled then. Now they are all look-a-like generic boxes.
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1958 was a difficult year for the auto industry as the U.S. was in a recession. The chrome didn’t help sell cars as buyers thought the chrome was excessive and added to the price, There was a trend toward simpler cars. VW Beetles were selling at such a fast pace that customers had to wait 6 months for delivery after placing an order while GM, Ford, and Chrysler cars were not leaving the dealers’ lots and showrooms. However, American Motors Ramblers were selling well enough to put AMC in the black. Even the stripped down Studebaker Scotsman exceeded sales expectations.
I am the odd ball in this discussion, but I didn’t care for any of the GM offerings in 1958. I was in high school at the time and removing the chrome and “leading in” the holes where the chrome was removed was the fad. GM was out of step with the consumer tastes in 1958.
Could it be that the outrageous styling of 1958, '59 and '60 models significantly worsened the economic downturn?
But I seem to recall an iron worker strike at that time.
@Rod_Knox. The 1957-59 years were recessionary years in the U S. The auto industry was hit particularly hard. I lived in an area that had big auto parts factories and there were massive layoffs.
The blame for recessions, like all things re the economy, aren’t decisively determined. A consensus from those who shared in the blame is usually announced to point the blame on “market forces.” Americans seem to want to keep the guilty immune from legal and political consequences.
But I was just old enough to want a new bike in 1958 and I had to settle for the stripped down model. That’s all that was available and it was expensive and as best I can recall a steel workers strike was the supposed cause. I guess I was lucky to get a new bike.
There was no shortage of new automobiles on dealers’ lots in 1958. There was a campaign in my area called “You Auto Buy Now” and urged people to buy a new car because it meant work for an auto factory worker.
Ford, GM, and Chrysler got serious about compact cars and by 1960 we had the Falcon, Corvair and Valiant. Auto sales began a decline in 1956 after the boom year 1955. The market declined even more in 1957 which was expected to be a big sales year. GM had its captive imports, Vauxhall and Opel. Ford had the Anglica and Chrysler dealers were also selling the Simca to bridge the time gap until the domestic compacts could be produced. On college and university campuses, the VW Beetle was the “in” car to drive. When I got my first teaching job in 1965 at a university, many of the young faculty and the students who had money were driving VWs. The chrome monsters of the late 1950s were out of style.
In the neighborhood where I grew up, no one owned a Studebaker or a VW. One notorious skinflint owned a Rambler, and he was looked at as an oddball by everyone else. There was even a local contractor who made a good living extending the neighbors’ garages to accommodate the longer cars.
@old_mopar_guy. We had a couple of neighbors that owned a Nash. These were the Nash cars that some people called inverted bathtubs. These were from the 1949-51 time period.
I have strange tastes, but I liked these Nash cars. I found out years later that they were designed to minimize the co-efficient of drag thus reducing wind resistance. They were also comfortable cars to ride in.
I much preferred the 1949-51 Nash. It was an honest design compared to the late 1950s offerings from Ford, GM and Chrysler. I was a tall teenager and I found the seating position too low in these cars. I really didn’t think hanging a lot of chrome on cars made them attractive. This was a time period where young drivers were stripping the chrome off cars.
I found the Studebaker Scotsman attractive in its own way. Had Studebaker offered the Scotsman to the general public with its V8 engine (there was a V8 version offered to police departments) I think it would have sold. I can imagine a Studebaker Scotsman with the supercharged 289 Hawk engine being a real sleeper.