In truth, many parts of Los Angeles and Orange Counties offer as many old street-parked cars per capita as The Island That Time Forgot; it's even drier down there than in the Bay Area, and the worship of vintage cars runs strong. Here's what the Scientist has to say about his finds:

Los Angelinos don't register or wash their cars edition.

North-East LA (Silverlake, Glassell Park, Eagle Rock) could easily give Alameda a run for its money when it comes to keeping old cars alive. Of course, that's LA in general. With hardly any rain and no salt to promote corrosion, it's really easy to keep beater cars running forever...they just oxidize top-down from the sun and acid rain.

In shooting these, I noticed a ton of super-dusty cars with super-late registration, which suggests they might be abandoned or just flaunting the law. The cops around here have plenty of real crime to fight, so cracking down on the beaters of the poor isn't real high on their priorities list.

Anyway, I'll start with what might be the most malaisiest car ever: an olive-green, vinyl-topped Ford Maverick. This shining star of the Mustang II/Pinto family is parked right down the street from my house in charming Glassell Park, CA. As best I can tell, it's a '71...but they didn't change much over the years.

According to the Abuelita whose house it's in front of, it's abandoned. It was parked on a different nearby street for a few months with a "Se Vende" sign on it, but it looks like they gave up and just pushed it over here.

For the positively hideous exterior, the interior is in surprisingly good shape. And what's this? A Stickshift?! Probably a bean-counter special 3 speed OD with a 2.5:1 1st gear...but I'd like to believe it's a true 4spd behind a built 302. Best.Sleeper.Ever.

Also right down the street is the 3/4 Ton Chevy Pickup. "Yep, that's a pickup" pretty much sums it up. It clearly sees regular hauling duty, and the owner's taken good care of the interior (or had it re-done). They took the time to add late-model 8-lug take-offs, which probably weigh 1/2 what the original steelies did. My best guess on the year is towards the end of that generation, 69-72.

Around the corner, we find an Impala that's slowly being mummified by spiders. They've already tethered it to the ground and started sucking the tires dry. I've lived in this neighborhood for about 2 years, and I don't think it's moved as long as I've been here. The funny (tragic?) thing is, both the body and interior are about a "B-". The 327 might be a good motor for something smaller ('Vette, 'Maro or El Camino), but for this beast, we'd like to see that "3" switched to a "4". Some new tires and wheels (the 13"s aren't quite my thing) and a coat of primer, you'd be ready to cruise for really trashy ladies. Nothing like a 19-foot long two-door. That trunk looks big enough for a whole cheerleading squad.

Moving over to genuinely charming Eagle Rock, we see the DOTs material improving...
This '63 Falcon Futura Convertible is pretty puzzling. Aside from the massive layer of dust on it, it's in great shape. The top is perfect, the interior doesn't have a rip or stain. From the expired tags and the writing on the windshield, it looks like it spent some time in an impound/tow lot...but why? They better get that reg straightened out, or it could get towed for parking on a public street.

Right down the street from the '63 Falcon Futura Convertible is this red-rimed Falcon Ranchero ('65?). The paint's not perfect, but there's no major rust going on. From the bedliner and requisite Miscellaneous Crap in the Bed, it's pretty clear it gets used as intended. The red rims and Car Kulture sticker suggest this owner probably cruises around town with a pack of cigs rolled up in sleeve of their plaid shirt. There's no V8 badge, but if the shifter ball is to be believed, this puppy's got a 4speed. Sweet. I'd kill for this car.

Down the street from the Falcon vairants is a pretty standard While Mustang. I didn't catch the corners to see if it's a 67 or 68. It's got Cragars, a nicely patina-ed painjob, and a painted undercarriage that suggest its (likely numerous) owners have used it as intended (liquor store parking lot burnouts). The dust and spiderwebs tell me it's been sitting for a while. Again, get those tags current, or it's off to impound for you!

Cruising over to Silverlake (aka Hipster Ground Zero)...
...we've got a super-malaisey Jag XJ6L. It was once a Proper British Green...but that's starting to peel in a big way (no rust, though). I know nothing about Jags, but those sun-baked mega-bumpers and Wikipedia tell me this is probably a Series III. Again: registration, people!

While making a wrong turn, I noticed this 3-door 3/4 Ton Suburban. Never could figure out why it was important to not have a door on the driver's side. Anyway, it's about as textbook as it gets: 2wd, 350, tons of crap in the back, super-dusty. The blue-and-white is almost emasculating on something this big.

Coming into the final stretch, we've got a '64 Falcon, a Plymouth Fury III ('65?), a Studebaker Champ Pickup, a 67 Mustang and a '70 (?) Caddy Hearse with custom paint all within a quarter mile of each other on Silverlake main-drag Hyperion Blvd. The funny thing is, I was coming over here b/c there's a 68 Chevy Wagon and Checker Marathon that are usually over here...but gone today.

The Falcon is a super-clean Futura hardtop with AC and a 302 (says the For Sale sign). I love how the side-lines run into the rocket/jet tail lights. Maybe someone can fill me in on those aluminum Ford rims. There's no way those are OEM, right? Also not sure what's up with the driver's side mirror. Pep Boys didn't have a bright yellow one with blue LEDs?

A few steps in front of the Falcon, we come to find...

Apparently in '61 Studebaker bought the tooling for their Champ pickup beds from Dodge. You can see how well that turned out here. Yet another anti-registration activist. The interior looks pretty clean, and that paint looks about a quarter-inch thick. Not sure what's up with the wheels.

Parked a few feet in front of the Stude (and partially into a shrub) is a Fury III. Looking this one up, I learned that the "III" stands for the trim level (above "I" and "II"), and not the 3rd of anything. While the outside was super-dusty, the interior looked near-flawless (hope the AC works). The dark blue makes me think this was either a detective's car, or purchased by a cop for home use because he liked the one he got from the LAPD so much. The dual pipes and overstated shifter suggests it may have fallen into more hoony hands along the way.

Up from there, we've got a pretty clean, but otherwise unimpressive 67 Mustang. 302, C4, deluxe interior, and filthy. I'm cool with filthy beaters, but to see this guy on the street with 8 month out registration and 50lbs of "I've been sitting" dust on it is a travesty.

Ok, last but certainly not least is a white-with-blue-flames Caddy hearse. Google image search tells me that nose is probably a '70. Looks like it's been someone's "haul all my crap"-mobile for some time (note the trailer hitch). While the others had expired tags, this thing's got no plates at all! Good luck with this one Mr Tow Truck Driver.

California doesn't offer any kind of "finders keepers" program for abandoned cars, do they?

So, I got on the horn with these guys and ordered me up some new front and rear hoses (plus new wheel cylinders). Because Project House Hell has been so all-consuming in recent months, PCH Car Numero Uno has been sitting untouched for quite a while, silently lowering property values. Meanwhile, the Civic is due for a new timing belt and I need to figure out what's causing that "Lean Condition Bank 1" error code in the Crown Vic.

It starts and moves under its own power, so all it needs to get on the street is the brakes and a few dozen nickel-dime fixes. And hey, it turns out it's not really a '67 after all! Actually, it's sort of a FrankenSprite, patched together from the corpses of at least three other cars; I discovered that the brake plumbing in the chassis comes from an early-to-mid-60s car, and I'd been wondering how a '67 managed to get a single-reservoir master cylinder in a year that the meddling federal government mandated the Communist-inspired dual system. Stay tuned for news of the PCH 20R Sprite's first drive… one of these weeks.

Well, that changes now, because we've got this spotless '67 RS convertible for you; it follows in the footsteps of this purple '69 coupe. I'd seen this car at the Park Street Car Show, but it was surrounded by a crowd of other early Camaros and didn't really jump out at me.

This car gets the Murilee Stamp-O-Approval™ because A) the original 327 is still there, B) the original Powerglide isn't still there (the owner ditched the Slip-N-Slide for a Tremec 5-speed, and I say good riddance to a transmission that sucks for any use other than drag racing and beer labels; if you purists think that's a crime, feel free to take a break from studying hose clamp date codes to scrawl a venomous tirade in the comments), C) it's not red or black, and D) it gets driven on the street. Not every day, obviously, and it doesn't sleep on the street, but I caught it while its owner was using it to run an errand to the hardware store. The same hardware store, incidentally, at which I photographed the 1937 London Cab.

The General was late to the party started by the Mustang (and Barracuda), but the snazzed-up crypto-Nova hit the showrooms running and sold like crazy. In 1967, you could get a base V8 Camaro convertible for $2,809 (the Rally Sport option package pushed the price up to $2,914), versus $2,806 for a '67 Mustang convertible with the base 289. Meanwhile, the '67 Plymouth Barracuda V8 convertible went for $2,860. The Chevy had the most powerful base engine (210 horsepower versus 200 for the Ford's 289 and 180 for the Plymouth's 273), but all three could have been stuffed with a monster big-block if the customer's wallet permitted.

We're a little disappointed that GM didn't recycle the "Mini-Brute" name for later vehicles. What if the Vega Kammback had been the Vega Mini-Brute instead?

We've seen this beautifully vile 1970 Skylark and this Energy Crisis-defying 1973 Electra, and today we're adding this waterfront LeSabre. This car lives in an industrial neighborhood on the Oakland Estuary, and it appears to be a replacement for the '64 Oldsmobile Jetstar that once parked on this block.

The standard engine for the '67 LeSabre was the 220-horse 340-cubic-inch V8. A 3-on-the-tree manual transmission was standard, but we're betting that just about every LeSabre had an automatic.

I find quite a few old Volvos in my local self-service wrecking yards; for example: this 144E, this Amazon coupe, this Amazon wagon, this 145 wagon, this Amazon coupe, and dozens of 240s. Please, those of you considering putting together an E30 for the 24 Hours Of LeMons- try racing an Amazon instead!

That means that his tow vehicle, the blue '67 Belvedere II that has been to so many Oakland tailgate parties, is now back on the Alameda street… and thus it qualifies for Down On The Street! This car has a healthy 360 crate motor and serves as Adrian's daily driver (when he's not out in the Belvedere wagon, the Sawzall Convertible Belvedere, or the big-block Belvedere convertible).

Adrian picked up the homemade '58 Dodge pickup bed-based trailer for 75 bucks, after spotting it on a some guy's lawn in lovely planet-buster-nuke-designin' Livermore. I'm sure his new neighbors (in one of Alameda's more upscale tree-lined neighborhoods) love it as much as I do!

Mostly you see the good ol' small-block-Chevy-powered Corvair, but why do that when the engine/transaxle assembly of the front-wheel-drive Olds Toronado (or, heh heh, its Cadillac Eldorado cousin) is better suited for placement in a rear-engined car? Corvair racer UDMan has found a very nicely done Corvair/Toronado swap and written up a review over on Automotive Traveler.

[Automotive Traveler]

We get ads for the 1966 (410), 1967 (510), and 1971 (610) Bluebirds here. The last one, for the '71 Bluebird-U, is a masterpiece of bewildering Japanese salaciousness and makes me want to offer the owner of the DOTS 610 too many dollars for his car. Thanks to LTDScott for the tip!

Here we see the Fairlane hauling the Dragnet boys from one stinkin' hippie shithole to another, as they attempt to hold back the waves of LSD washing over the City Of Angels. Now, you'd think that an LAPD detective would likely have bounced that freak's painted face off the Fairlane's hood a few times, were said freak to have torn his suit jacket the way Blue Boy did, particularly just a year after Miranda vs. Arizona and two years after the the Watts Riots. After all, it was war, with the forces of anarchy and disorder on one side and the spirit of Chief Parker and Henry Ford on the other!

Last time, 67% of you arm chair Andrettis thought the 1971 Merlyn racer was Nice Price worthy. Today, we've got a petite, topless-loving italian to test your automotive pricing BS meters. It's a '67 Fiat 850 Spider with a Buy-It-Now price of 11,000. That's dollars, not lira.

That's a lot of chianti and pizza for a Fiat with an engine smaller than most Harleys. But these are cars that engender a lot of love from their owners, and the current title holder does seem to have a soft spot in his head heart for the cars. That's not to say he's not taking a hardline on the price. The seller threatens to part it out if he doesn't get his price - selling it off piece by piece - much as a mobster might do seeking ransom for a captured adversary.

The description of this red, rear-engine roadster claims many a new part, and not only a bored 965cc engine, but twin solex 40mm side draughts. That may seem like a lot of carburetor for such a little engine, but those velocity stacks sure look nice.

Now, you should note that this 850 is not a runner- it is a Fiat after all. The seller says it's 85% done, and has 99% of the parts necessary for completion, including $8,000 in NOS parts on or about the car. So keep that in mind as you judge it.

So what will it be with this espresso-sized two seater? Is $11,000 a nice price for this Italian-red roadster, or is the seller 85% of the way to crack pipe, with 99% chance he's not going to get that price for it?

You decide!

eBay, or go here if the ad is sleeping with the fishes.

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a tip.

We saw this '73 Caprice last week and this '70 not long before that, but that means that now is an even better time to check out this '67.


The two-door hardtop 1967 Caprice sold for $3,078 new, which was a little over 600 bucks more than a Bel Air two-door. Unlike the Bel Air, which came with a 250-cube six as standard equipment, the V8 was included in the base Caprice. Cheapskates got the 283, which got the job done just fine… but why would a cheapskate be buying a fine luxury machine such as the Caprice? Smart Chevy shoppers sprang for an extra $316 and got the SS 427 package, which upgraded the horsepower from 195 to 385. Of course, what's a 427 without a Rock Crusher 4-speed? A bargain at $181!

It would even have held the all-time lap record until lap six of the race, when Dan Gurney in his Eagle broke it with a time of 8 minutes and 18.2 seconds.

The 1967 season was fast, wicked and violent even by the standards of early Formula 1. The cars had just come back into power the year before, when regulations increased maximum engine size from a sewing machine 1.5 liters to a healthy three, and this was the first year when the entire field was made up of 3-liter cars. Speeds were increasing race by race, the cars ran on hard rubber, had no wings, and the tracks they raced on were designed and built in the 1920s.

Add to this the utter madness of the most famous of those tracks: the old Nürburgring Nordschleife. Where trees lined a thin strip of tarmac and these slender aluminum tubes with no downforce skirted right up to the edge on every lap. One would imagine it was not only the Eagle’s exhaust manifolds which were made of titanium but Gurney’s balls as well.

The cars took an incredible beating and the Grand Prix turned into a race of attrition. Gurney, who would go on to break the lap record again with a time of 8:15.1, had to retire from first position with a broken halfshaft. Denny Hulme in the unremarkable but reliable Brabham-Repco won the race and went on to become World Champion.

And yes, the cars took to the air on every lap at the very appropriately named Flugplatz.

Yes, the car that inspired me to start doing the Project Car Hell series, PCH numero uno, the engine-swapped Sprite that took on the Fiat 850 back in July '07; after posting it, I decided I had to have it. I called the guy up, but it had already been sold. Damn! That'll teach me to post on a car without being 100% certain I didn't want it for myself, I thought at the time… and kept my eyes open for another like it. Then, Oskimba sent me a tip on this Craigslist ad (go here if the ad disappears). It's the same car! Long story short, I bought it, along with many extra parts… and cheaply enough that I can sell some of the extra parts to get the cost into 24 Hours Of LeMons territory if I so choose. For now, I'll be pretty busy making a new wiring harness from scratch (after wiring the totally gutted Black Metal V8olvo I know what I'm in for here), and then I'll need to get the brakes working, and so on. It was being driven on the street as recently as 6 months ago, and it can be started and moved around now, so this project could be more hellish. Long-term, I'm thinking of building up a hairy 22R for it and installing a sturdier rear end… but first things first. Here's the first batch of photos, shot last night after the tow truck dropped it off in my back yard:



By the way, the guy who sold me the Sprite has quite a collection of Jalop-worthy machinery, so many that he can be forgiven for not finishing this project. How about an original 500-mile '61 Volvo Amazon wagon? Or a vintage-racer 1912 Model T? Perhaps a genuine crashed-in-the-original-series Dukes Of Hazzard '69 Charger, parked next to a cherry Stage 1 Buick GS, parked next to an IHC Scout? Yes, all those and much more, and I'll be posting some photos in the near future.

Rafael set out to recreate the contemporary Viper Coupe and did so by reinterpreting many of its features as they would have been designed back in the 60's (we'll ignore the actual Cobra from the 1960s it was based on). He started out with research boards depicting classic muscle and sports cars of the late '60s and started sketching around the current Viper chassis, integrating classic design trends with the primitive (yet durable) construction techniques of the era.

Rafael says of his design:

"The design of the Viper Concept 1967 came from the idea of how the car would had been if it had appeared in the 60's to compete with the Corvette of the time."

We see a lot of Corvette in his design, but also a lot of the current Viper styling cues such as the modest double bubble roof, angular headlamps, engine compartment heat vents, and curvaceous rear haunches. It could have been full of win, but Rafael decided to leave out the large displacement V10 that is synonymous with the Viper and instead replaced it with the 440-Magnum that was used in the Challenger R/T. His decision was based on what would have been practical for the time, we say he wimped out.

Rafael estimates his 1967 Dodge Viper would sell for around $4,110, making it a worthy competitor to the Chevrolet Corvette. Although we'll never see this thing on the road, we can image what it would have been like and this makes us happy. Somebody who makes video games should by this design off of Raveal.

[via carbodydesign via Autoblog]

Actually, we're going to the Czech Republic, which is where this 1967 Volvo P1800S lives. It's a restomodded machine, the product of "2,374 work hours," and it's pretty impressive. Some might disagree with the choice of wheels, and that Svaroski crystal gearshift knob is the kind of thing Manny, Moe, and/or Jack would have put on their personal rides after hitting the big time, but that stuff can be undone. What can't be undone is the giant bite this car will take out of your bankroll; add in shipping cost from the CR and you're looking at one of the most expensive Volvos out there. Worth $69,900? You decide! Thanks to KaptKaos for the tip.
[eBay Motors]

OK, you Porsche zealots experts, I'm counting on you to verify that my quasi-guess about the model year of this car is correct; the headlights are definitely pre-67 units, but the engine lid emblems and dash suggest the 1967-68 range (though the lack of side marker lights appears to rule out 1968). The license plate also looks to be from 1967 or 1968. Whatever the year, it's great to see this car living outdoors and looking good; I spotted it at the same house at which I photographed the 1971 Datsun 1200, so we're dealing with a car freak who has exceptionally good taste in vintage iron.


Prior to this car, we've seen this '67 912, this '67 912, and this '68 912. The oldest Alameda 911 in the series is this '74 Targa. Sure, the 912 outsold the 911 during the 1960s, but you'd still expect to see one or two early 911s on the island. Or are they just too valuable to go outside?

While Fiat never has had a powerful North American presence, some of their cooler machines have made it to these shores. The 124 Sport Coupe, for example, the 130, and- it goes without saying- the 8V. You've got to add the Fiat Dino to that list as well; easily confused with Ferrari's Dino, the Fiat Dino had a Ferrari V6 but was otherwise all Fiat (and Pininfarina or Bertone, depending on whether you got the convertible or the coupe version). They're seriously rare, but we've found a pretty nice one in Los Angeles. You want it, of course- just look at it!- but do you think 15 grand is a good price for it?
[Craigslist Los Angeles, go here if the ad disappears]

I'm still not quite sure what you're supposed to call the Malibu from this era, whether the preferred nomenclature is "Chevy Malibu" or "Chevy Chevelle Malibu." The Malibu was just a trim level for the Chevelle in '67, but later became a model in its own right. Either way, this one is seriously mean-looking, which means we get to see how it fares against some other Evil Alameda Chevrolets.


This car was parked in front of a house undergoing a roof replacement, and the roof racks seem to be made for ladders and scaffolds. There's the usual neglected-California-car surface rust, but overall it appears to be pretty solid; no doubt this much-sought-after two-door will evade the Crusher when the current owner decides it's time to move up to a beater pickup.




OK, now let's have our poll! Here's a sampling of some of the Evil Chevy cars we've seen down on the Alameda street (sorry, truck fans, cars only). Vote for your favorite!

Lots of street-driven early Mustangs in this town; so far we've had this '65, this '65, this '66, this '66, this '68, this '69, this '69, this '69, and this '73 in the series. What about the competition from GM and Chrysler? Well, we've seen a single first-gen GM F-Body and just one Chrysler E-Body. Something is going on here; perhaps Mustangs survive the rigors of the street better than Camaros and Challengers, or maybe it's just that Mustang owners don't have quite the same levels of trailer-queen-grade protectiveness about their cars.


Either way, it's nice to have our first 1967 Mustang; we just need a 1964-1/2, and one each from the 1970-72 period to get the complete set. This one looks to be very solid, and it's either a rare factory disc-brake model or (far more likely) a junkyard Granada donated its brake hardware. I've always thought that Cragar S/S wheels look particularly good on these cars.


Hey, it's the Evil Orange Chevelle SS396 parked across the street! You can't see it in these photos, but the green '72 IHC Scout lives just a few doors down. Great block!