Rust seems to have taken a few bites out of the Pontiac, but it hasn't surrendered! Here's what Nuyear68 has to say about his finds:

Not necessarily an island that time forgot, but still a home for some neat DOTS candidates. Here's a 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible. Pretty low production, it was the last Starfire ragtop, with the 1966 coupe being the end of its run until unceremoniously brought back as a dinky hatchback in the 80's (I think).
This one sports wheels from a 1972 Olds, and the neatest feature of this car is the side exhaust outlets at the rear of the fenders.
Must be an Olds guy who owns this, notice the nice Olds 98 Regency coupe in the driveway.
Rust hasn't forgotten this oldster I spotted here on Staten Island. It's a 1952 Pontiac - plain jane model with not too much trim, but a real neat chrome treatment up the deck and down the nose.

Buyers who didn't want to splurge on the frivolous trunklid option had to fold down the back seat in order to get access to the trunk. Try explaining that to the Yaris buyer who whines because he has to pay extra for cruise control!

I've selected 1953 as the model year for this truck, but it could be a '52, or a '51 with later "push-button" doors (this truck has apparently had a door transplant), or a '48 frame with a '51 cab, or… well, you get the idea. To add to the fun, you couldn't get a Chevy pickup with a chrome grille during the Korean War- chromium being a strategic war material- so the grille on this thing isn't original. Old pickups are so useful that they serve as rolling repositories for generation after generation of junkyard parts, and trying to nail down an exact year on one would probably require a look at the pink slip.


The doors are especially interesting, so much so that I hope the owner never repaints them. Back in the early 1950s, there was a military base somewhere with an early-50s Chevy truck hauling provisions to the Commissioned Officers' Mess. It probably wasn't the (now-closed) Alameda Naval Air Station, which favored Dodge trucks.


This truck is still earning its keep; it parks on the street and goes to work every day (unlike its nearby sibling, the '53 GMC, which doesn't seem to move much these days.

From what I can tell, this truck could be a 1951, 1952, or 1953 model, so I'm choosing the middle year. Any of you who can find some distinguishing feature that nails down an exact year, please share it with us. We haven't had many Dodge trucks from the 1950s; just today's, the '50, and the Air Force ambulance.
Look, it's the '60 Cadillac just across the street! This block has been a real DOTS cornucopia, producing the '65 Mustang GT, '78 Datsun 280Z, and '86 AE86 Corolla. I might have to shoot the early-80s Buick and T2 VW Transporter that live on the block, just to make this East End block the King Of DOTS.
Fluid Drive! Job Rated! This truck has some great emblems, including a cool "MADE IN USA" on the middle D in the hood emblem.

Normally you need to spend, like, a cubic yard of Benjamins if you want a reasonably complete Bentley S3; after all, the 1963 model sold for $16,355- $111,671 in 2007 dollars- and collectors swarm like sharks maddened by the scent of blood when a nice one goes on the market. That's why you might wonder what's wrong with this '63 Bentley S3, which has been bid up to a mere $5,600 at the time of this writing. Well, nothing much- just the matter of a little Katrina damage, that's all. Surely you've got the skills to get this slightly damp British dream machine shipshape again, right? There's rust, there's rot, there's a bunch of engine parts sitting on one pallet and who-knows-what-all parts sitting on another pallet. But... how hard can it be? You could probably fit a GMC Twin Six in that vast engine compartment, and a quick trip to Tijuana would do wonders for the interior. Tub the rear and put some Mickey Thompson steamroller rubber underneath, and you'd have just the ride for unwinding after a hard day of throwing your Lotus through the twisties.

We're going to push the admission price up a bit- well, quite a bit- for our second choice today, but you'll understand when you see it. Yes, it's a 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 cabriolet, currently bid up to $31,100. Now, as you look at that battered hulk squatting forlornly in the snow, try to imagine what it will look like fully restored. As the seller puts it (twice): "THIS IS A VERY RARE CAR AND COULD BE RESTORED TO A VERY NICE CLASSIC." It might cost a few bucks to find the bits and pieces you'll need... bits and pieces such as, oh, every single interior component. There's rust, though apparently not as much as you'd expect from a car that's been sitting in the woods of Ohio for decades. The engine and transmission are still there, but the seller admits "I AM SURE THE CAR WOULD NEED SOME MECHANICAL WORK." Yes, we're sure of that, too.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

The owner was out working on his other car (a '50 Ford) in the driveway, so I was able to get some of the story of the Dodge from him.
Turns out he rebuilt the engine and drove it every day for years until the transmission blew. Unable to find a replacement trans, he ended up getting a custom adapter made so he could install a TH350. Now it's back to normal daily-driving duties for the ol' reliable Dodge.
Fender skirts... visor... ram's head hood ornament... whitewalls. This is so much better than a painstakingly restored car sitting at a car show while the owner drones on about date codes.
Wait, it's not a Dodge- it's a '52 GOD!
Alameda has a lot of young guys who dig the old iron and old ways of customizing it; it's not a new fashion, just something that never died on the island (this is a big part of the answer to the question "Why so many old cars on the street in Alameda?"). The only difference between the 70-year-old Alameda hot-rodder (and there are plenty here) and his younger counterpart is the type of music they listen to while wrenching.
The pink bumper guards look a little odd, in my opinion.
Since the Ford wasn't parked on the street, I didn't shoot it (DOTS cars are required to be parked on the street, though maybe I'll shoot driveway cars when I run out of street ones). The guy said he bought the Ford in New York and is now replacing acres of rusty sheetmetal.