O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle Mar. 27

I love that Imperial Parade Phaeton.  I too would buy one.  the '56 certainly looks better than the '52, I must say.

I have a 3-D color slide of that later version of the Imperial parade car, taken around 1956. It is the Hollywood, CA version of the 3. I have a large collection of 3-D slides taken in the '50s, and that one is among my most prized.

Who made the Thunderbird shown above? looks sharp.

I am working on my layout trying to get ready my "Car Show" and "cruise in" on my layout on a city street scene above the layout.

Diecast Direct www.diecastdirect.com

Has perhaps one of the best collections of vehicles for sale and is a forum sponsor and advertiser in OGR great shop and great deals. There are vehicles of all $ ranges you can get almost everything here.

Our local diecast car shop that has been a good shop for our local model train club with club discounts and good selection and selling local members collections. Disappointing that they are now shutting down the store front.

They are clearing out the last of the collection at huge discounts till March 28. up to 70% off

You can search eautomobilia . com for the website.

use the extra discount code at checkout;

MAINandFOURTH

And be sure to click on the US flag at top right of page to get the US discount prices with exchange rate.  And the Availability button to see what is in stock, really cleaned out!

My aunt used to drive a two door Buick, but a 1956, similar to that above.  We kids

rode many a mile in it as she took us around Kentucky.  Seems like you didn't see very

many two door "coaches" in the larger cars.

I like the 55 Buick Special ......... & 59.....

My new vehicle this week.

Without trying I've accumulated five or six Buicks.  I always liked Buick, but was never around them  much or owned one.  My dad was an Oldsmobile man, and my grandfather loved Cadillacs, so I just didn't associate with the brand in the middle, but grew up being told it was a good brand, slotted in between the two as it was.  An uncle owned a '54 like the blue and white one below, the only one in the family when I was growing up.

And I'd like to get a good version of the Buick Patrol car Broderick Crawford drove in Highway Patrol: 1955 Buick Century coupe.  I can find and could repaint a "three-holer" but his Century was the four-hold model.

Normally all these Buicks are not on the all together but scattered around the layout, but I took this just now:

I can find and could repaint a "three-holer" but his Century was the four-hold model.

Thinking back to my mis-spent youth, the Century was always a 3-holer; the 4-holer was a Roadmaster. Century was a Special with a big engine; we teenagers lusted for one.

Lee's street scene is excellent!      Perhaps this might hold interest for Buick fans:  Master Blues slide guitarist Johnny Shines' "Dynaflow Blues":  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?.../watch?v=lbrf4fk8w5U

Yup, owning a beat to death Dynaflow as my first car sure gave me the blues, all right.

The car used in the show was an actual model built only for the Calif Highway Patrol.  It was a Century coupe - the smaller lighter body, but with the big motor and heavy duty drivetrain, etc.  and it had four holes in the side.  As of about a year ago, Diecast Direct was going to offer a 1:43 model of it but I haven't seen it listed as coming soon in a long time.

That black '60 Buick 4 door hardtop certainly is pretty Lee!

I own that model of the '54 red/white Buick, but the incorrect 2-toning, drives me nuts. The only 2-toning on the '54 was roof/whole body (like the blue/white one). The way it is shown did not start until '55.

You're right Joe, but back then dealers would bend over backwards to make a sale. and their profit margin was higher. Who's to say they didn't run it through their paint shop?

Lee:

The 55 Century 2 door sedan was a special model unavailable to the general public.

2 door Centurys were all hardtops or convertibles 

The 54 century had 3 portholes and from 56 up they had 4.

This week's contribution.

These arrived today, from Diecast Direct.  

This American Excellence '59 Dodge pickup is so '50s.  Two tone, and note Dodge put tailfins on a pickup!

This Brooklin '49 Olds is very much like one my Dad, an Oldsmobile man, had in the early '50s. 

The 1949 Olds coupe with the OHV V-8 and light "Chevy" coupe body is one I would not

be ashamed to own. Not sure how long Olds offered that combination, through 1951, or beyond?  My first car in my college days was a '52 Olds Super 88 convertible, bigger, heavier, badly used, bullnosed (customized), and definitely the second of the two cars I should never have owned...oh, well, it was a learning experience.

First cars are learning experiences, something I kept in mind when it came time for each of my boys to get a first car.  

My dad very quietly set the hook deep for hot cars when I was very young.  He loved smaller, lighter cars with big engines.  The '49 or '50 Olds coupe he had (can't remember which but it looked just like the model) was one of his early favorites, and until he was in his 60s, would buy a new Olds every five years, keeping it ten, so we always had one fairly new car and one "used car with a known history."  He always got the smallest lightest body, with the biggest engine they made.  

Lee, concerning the Dodge pick-up...it's interesting that they used the GM/Ford style wrap-around windshield rather than the Chrysler Corp. style. After all, they used to advertise that the GM style was "dangerous" because it blocked your view of people who may be starting to cross the street.

Facts don't matter, Madison Avenue will say anything to try to make their competition look bad. Chevrolet ads praise the virtue of their steel bodies because Ford's new pickups have aluminum bodies.

Because of competitive pressure, Dodge put those fins on those pickups. They were modified station wagon rear quarters.

A 49 or 50 Olds coupe, I don't remember which but I'm near certain their the same was my 2nd car. They were the fastest car until the 55 chevy came out. And say in the early 60's they were affordable to a high school kid where a 55 chevy was pretty well for the fairly well off.

I put a 56 engine in mine from the junkyard and that engine ran real good. 

Got me a date and I won't be late

Pick her up in my 88!

That would have been quite a car.  The '49 and '50 coupes were light, powerful and fast (for their time) stock, just with the OHV engine from those years.  By '56, the Olds V8, particularly in the '98 4-barrel configuration, was putting out some serious power.  my Dad had a '55 Super 88 sedan with the '98 engine, which was pretty good stock, but he updated it to '56 specs when that model year came out and it had so much extra power compared to the '55.  It was a powerful car for its day.

A buddy of mine had a 50 Olds club coup with a 56 Olds engine and a 4BBL. It also had a rare stick shift. It was fast until he roiled it over and darn neat killed himself.

Our family pretty much stayed with the "independents", Nash, Hudson, Studebaker (we couldn't afford a Packard) so, while I could appreciate the performance of a '49 - '50 Olds 88, we were stuck on Hudsons and Nashes.  The '51 Stude Commander offered a V8 that was designed after the Cadillac V-8 engines, but was only 232 cu in and 120 HP.  Really didn't offer any blazing performance compared to the competition.  But when Hudson introduced it's Hornet with a 308 cu in six, man, did our family fly!  Then in 1952 they added "Twin H Power" with dual single barrel carbs and that big Hudson with 170 HP really could go.  My Uncle Henry bought a '52 coupe with stick shift and overdrive and I would borrow it when I was in high school.  There wasn't an 88 around that could stay with me on a drag race! 

When Chevy came out with their 265 cu in V8 in 1955, I worked for a Hudson dealer and was able to buy a 1954 Hornet Convertible with their 7X engine and stick shift.  That was their racing engine, and it came with dual two barrel carbs and an aluminum head.  During that '55 summer, it was my "obligation" to take on any other make with their "power packs" and other beginning cars of the HP race that started in the mid-50's.   I never lost any race to a stock car. Unfortunately, at the end of that year, Uncle Sam had some other ideas for my time and I was drafted for a couple years.  What I wouldn't give to own that Hudson Hornet Convert. once again!

Paul Fischer

From a "Chevrolet family", I did not appreciate the independents as a kid.  It wasn't

until I became interested in vintage cars, discovered the dozens of makes that were

once available, vanquished by the Depression, that I began to understand that some  fantastic automobiles had once been offered.  However, a grandmother's brother, a

kind of boomer railroad telegrapher around Michigan, drove and swore by Hudsons,

until they adopted the unperfected Packard V-8.  My now long retired dentist had

a Hudson convertible in college, and acquired one that he was having "professionally"

restored.  He was having a problem with the restorer, and I never heard how that

came out, before he moved to Florida.

I am going over the new auction list for stouts, for you car guys there is a number of lots of cars.  lot 373 to 386.

"stouts"??  Stout automobiles?

The Brooklin lots could be a good deal at $50. or so per car. Wish they showed details about the USA cars in lot 384, as those could realy be worth $$$. They were made by Motor City, with slightly lower detailing. Some of those could be $100. each and up.