1955 was a helluva year for the American automotive industry, with prewar frumpery finally expunged from car designs and the economy bubbling over with optimism, plenty of dollars in the pockets of those millions of freshly minted GI Bill college grads, and Ike's promise of a vast new Interstate Highway System on the horizon. Car shoppers were ready to sign on the line that is dotted, and they did so in vast quantities. Naturally, most of us would feel pretty cool rolling in a '55 model year machine, but the price tags on most of the ones you can find nowadays make us think we're stuck in 1958. But if you're willing to plunge your soul into the hottest molten-sulfur-filled crater in Project Car Hell invest a little time and money into a project car, you can buy yourself a classic 1955 American car for 600 bucks or less. We've got one apiece from each of the Big Three, plus a car from one of the many doomed independents of the 1950s, so let's go shopping!

We might as start with the most expensive of the four: this 1955 Chevrolet sedan (go here if the listing disappears), for which the owner would like to receive 600 American dollars. Anyone who has been to a car show in North America during the last, oh, fifty years has seen several hundred thousand '55 Chevrolets, so there's no need to get into its storied history, the famous movie cars, or the inaugural year of the small-block Chevrolet V8. And speaking of V8s, this car comes with one! Is it the original 265, or (far more likely) a good ol' 350 yanked from Grandpa's wrecked Kingswood Estate wagon back in '82? Who can say? Who cares? You get a reasonably intact body and- maybe- a quasi-functioning suspension, plus every single interior and trim piece you could possibly need can be purchased from these guys.

The '55 Chevy is a great-looking car, no arguing with that (though I prefer the less "blocky" look of the '56), but you don't have many choices for the project that haven't already been done to death. 9-second drag racer, super-spotless show car, low rider, rat rod, whatever- 100,000 dudes got there before you. You might get a '55 Ford sedan, but even those are pretty common… but hold on a second, Henry- what about a '55 Ford wagon? What would you say if we told you we could put you in this 1955 Ford two-door wagon (go here if the listing disappears) for just $400? That's right, it's Ford's answer to the Nomad! The Ranch Wagon is just as cool as the Nomad and you can put a nice one together for about 1% of the cost of the Chevy. Check out this '57 Ranch Wagon to get a sense of just how good a mid-century Ford two-door wagon can look. This one has the standard PCH engine-sans-transmission setup, but that doesn't matter; you'll be dropping a supercharged 5.4 Modular out of an F-150 Lightning into it, anyway!

It's hard to argue with the appeal of a two-door wagon, but just imagine yourself behind the wheel of a two-door, Semi-Hemi-equipped '55 Dodge coupe, say for example this one for 500 bucks (go here if the listing disappears). It's in Michigan, which means there is might be extensive some rust, but so what? Two-tone paint job, tons of chrome, and a growling V8. Maybe you could go the rat rod route with this one, apply two shades of primer, and show those Ford and Chevy guys how it's done!

Do you really need to stay with the herd and run a V8, or do you want to go seriously old-school and pack a flathead six under your Kenosha cruiser's hood? Yes, you can buy a mostly complete proto-AMC for chicken feed, as proven by this 1955 Nash Statesman (go here if the listing disappears), which comes with a price tag of a mere 300 bucks. Three hundred dollars! The seller doesn't give us much useful information about this car, other than the extremely optimistic "super complete parts car not fixer upper" and the less encouraging "floor boards are rusted threw," but it should be a slog through Hades a walk in the park to get this classic sedan back on the road and looking good.

Of course, any one of these cars would make you an instant Legend Of LeMons, should you choose to race-ify it, though we'd prefer that you kept it street legal as well; that way you can drive it to and from the races, no trailer needed!

We've got a Nash Cosmopolitan, a couple of early Mustangs, and a Ford F-250 sitting at the roadside:

I see you're a junkyard rat like I am. Or at least I would still be if there were decent pic-n-pulls here in central KY. Anyhow, what about cars that are simply abandoned and left to rot? Thought you might enjoy some shots of a 1952 Lincoln I found on the side of the road, and several Mustangs and other cars doing hard time at my in-laws' farm (long sad story there). I had planned to search out old cars and photograph them in a similar matter; life sorta got in the way the last couple years but I just ordered a new camera and hope to get out there again.

(All is not lost at the farm though, a 1966 Mustang vertible and a 1929 Model A Roadster Pickup (!) await resoration, and I'll be spending a week in June clearing out space in a barn to move the Model A and inventory all its parts - I want to see it rebuilt and do it myself if I can).

The heated battle yesterday over the merits of a $3,700 Pontiac ended with a surprising 75% Nice Price vote saving the LeMans to cruise Hollywood yet another night. Speaking of Hollywood- it's a long way from Cherry Hill New Jersey, which is where we're headed today.

Nash Kelvinator had always been a second-tier automaker here in the U.S., and by the mid-fifties, while everybody was leaving it to beaver and loving lucy, they quietly merged with Hudson to form American Motors. A brand cue of Nash's (other than Nash Seats which would have engendered a population explosion had the cars been more popular) was the bathtub body design. The tall fenders with semi-skirted wheel arches - front and rear - made the cars look like they should always be transporting a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker. While the major competition was zooming into the future on fins bedecked with chrome, and everything longer, lower and faster, what Nash felt America needed was a diminutive shoppers trolly disguised as a car. Setting one of their biggest Kelvinator washing machines on extra-hot, they shrunk down their compact Rambler into the even smaller two-seat Metropolitan- an example of which is our candidate today.

This 1961 Metro is attractive for both its convertible top which lets the sun in, and an opening trunk, which lets you in to get your stuff. Previous models required you to limbo your way behind the seats to access your bottles of scotch and Life magazines. The two-tone paint is most complimentary to the cheery but rounded shape, which is surprising on such a small car. That carries over to the interior with a pair of broad seats, in red and white, and a metal dash that is dominated by the speedometer- directly ahead of the wheel and three on the tree shifter.

While Father may know best, the mileage of this BMC- B-series powered Metro is in question. The seller claims it might be 21,000, or. . . maybe not. But really, who cares? You're not buying this for its long term drivability. This is a fun car, a top-down Sunday afternoon kind of car.

And with those expectations in mind, let's revisit that price. The seller is asking $16,500 for this littlest Nash, and that gets you not only the top and the trunk lid, but also a continental kit, which looks a lot less ridiculous on this than you might imagine. These cars have extensive support networks- the Nash Metro Club has chapters all over the place and the members typically aren't weirdos, just regular folk. And they're not all a bunch of dwarves, so stop thinking that.

So what will it be for this Nash with panache? Is $16,500 a Price that is Nice for this slice of American life? Or, is the seller smoking the Crack - from a tiny, little Crack Pipe - for asking that?

You decide!

South Jersey Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to evanschmitt!

Did you look at the '57 Cadillac down on the Alameda street and think "Man, I'd love to get me one of those... but who's got that kind of cash these days?" You could buy a somewhat rough one, but then the cost of parts will keep you poor for years. Don't give up on those Caddy dreams so easily, we say, because we've found a project '57 that comes with a parts car (go here if the ad disappears). Tune out the squawks of those can't-do-ers and never-happen-ers trying to tell you that both of those Cads barely qualify for parts-car status, because: 600 bucks. Really! Just six Benjamins and 9,000 pounds of rust luxury automobile will be all yours! And hey, you stand to make a profit on this deal, according to the seller: "Enough parts to build a complete car, and sell the remaining Vintage Parts to pay for your project, and then some!" You can't lose! Thanks to Scout_II_4x4 in Iraq for the tip!

A '57 Cadillac is a great car... if you're Vito Genovese, heading to the Apalachin Meeting, that is. If you're not a mob boss, however, you might consider heading to Kenosha for your 1957 project. Nash and Hudson joined to form AMC back in '54, so by purchasing this 1957 Nash/1957 Hudson combo (go here if the ad disappears), you'd be able to laugh at those noob Marlin owners who think they've got old AMCs. The seller doesn't think you need to know what models he's selling, but the cars appear to be a Nash Ambassador and a Hudson Hornet sedan. Since both are based on the same platform, you probably won't should be able to swap parts from one to the other with abandon. Just pick the nicest one and get busy! You get two AMC 327 V8s (one conveniently located in the trunk) and both cars are "pretty straight," with the interiors allegedly in good condition. Did we say you could use one as a parts car? Forget that- fix 'em both!

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It goes without saying this one is magical not only for its quirky peachy color, but also the rad textured vinyl on the bench seats, the pristine roof rack carrying a surf board (natch), and oh yeah, the vinyl woody applique. Totally awesome. What a great way to kick off our car coverage for the Dream Cruise.

1) 1909 Peerless Model 19 Touring Car

2) 1941 Willys Coupe Street Rod

3) 1951 Nash Rambler Custom Landau "Roll-Top" Convertible

4) 1967 Porsche 912 Soft Window Targa

5) 1957 Volkswagen Beetle

6) 1974 Chevrolet Camaro IROC Race Car

7) 1974 De Tomaso Pantera L

8) 1958 GMC Series 101 Pickup

9) 1966 Amphicar 770

10) 1959 Fiat Jolly 600

So there you have it, our picks for the crappiest cars up for sale at this year's 2008 Monterey Auctions. We know some of you will think we're heretics for picking a few of these, but by and large these rides just don't cut the mustard when masterpieces like the 1938 Bugatti 57SC Atalante are on the same block. So what do you think? What's the crappiest car of this years auctions? Feel free to fight it out in the space below.

Post publish commentary: Since some of you seem to have checked your sense of humor at the door and consider everything a serious offense to the senses now, I'll go out of my way to make it clear the term "Crappy" is being used in the jocular sense. Perhaps I didn't lay it on thick enough, but the main beef is with the culture of auctioneering driving the prices up on relatively normal cars. I don't think these are crappy, but the multi-million-dollar classic car gold rush is forcing the prices up and the prestige down on otherwise neat, but normal cars.

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We've just discovered that our server hamsters now refuse to run on their wheels when a gallery has more than 50 images, so here's the complete set of photos in the old format:

Though looking practically identical, the black car is a 1952 Nash Statesman 2-door, and the maroon sedan is actually a 1950 Ambassador. Sure everybody usually associates Nash with the cute little Metropolitan, but these Ambassadors were actually quite spacious. One interesting fact, is the 1950 models were the first non-GM vehicles to use the General's Hydramatic transmission. But frankly, we don't particularly care what's under the skin. Just look at them. They're fantastic examples of a relatively minimalist streamline design, like bullets with wheels and bumpers. Maybe we're seeing things, but we think the black coupe feels like a bigger, Americanized version of the original Saab 92001 . Either way, we've got plenty more of the poor orphan cars that we'll be showing off over the week.

Images copyright: Mark Arnold / Jalopnik.com

The Ferrambo may not be the greatest name ever, but it serves up a stout 280 points on the Jalopnik scale, and for good reason. How many other tiny, bright red, two door station wagons with a mid-mounted 3.6 L V8 mill out of a Ferrari 360 Modena have you seen lately? Of Course it's stupidly well built, but the details are really what puts this car over the top. The builders at Divers Street Rods went so far as to swipe the Ferrari text and use it to call out the car's name everywhere it was tastefully necessary. Under hood there is custom fitted leather luggage instead of the original wimpy inline 6. The the seats are custom covered buckets and the rear seats... there are no rear seats, only engine. Here's something really cool, the rear windows rotate about 5 degrees open with the turn of the ignition to provide a little venting for that beastly engine. Yes indeed, Troy Trepanier may have had a cool car with last years winner, First Love, but this year's winner is a hell of a lot more Jalopnik in our book. Divers Street Rods

While the term "laundau" dates back to 18th-century open carriages with foldable weather-protection, most gearheads of a certain age tend to associate it with mid-'70s Chevy Monte Carlos and Chrysler Cordobas. In fact, the proper term for these overwrought personal luxury vehicles would probably be faux-laundaulet, as the landau was properly a development of the vis a vis arrangement, whereas the landaulet eliminated element of seats which faced one another. It's basically Nash's fault that we've come to associate "landau" with "chintzy vinyl." Oh, the former AMC, you have so much to answer for. Jason Vines, answer for the former AMC. – Davey G. Johnson

Landau [Wikipedia]

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Looks Like Baby Burled Elm: 1970 Monte Carlo Commercial [Internal]

Reader Ben cares enough only to send the very best, and he has, having dropped a goddamn train on us in the form of this Nash converted to pickup duty. Combining elements of bombas, wacko Barris custom jobs and early-'80s-style '60s Camaros, this beastie is somewhat obscene, but in the best way possible. The owner obviously doesn't give a fuck what you think.

Nash Camino [flickr]

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More El Caminos [Internal]

We figure if Radio Birdman's "New Race" is good enough for Toyota to use in Corolla commercials on Spanish-language TV, it's good enough for a meager Jalopnik headline. We've been thinking about the poor, proud Hupmobile a lot lately for some reason, so we thought that we'd offer a little love here on the august pages of Tha Jalop. What? It's September already? Rats. Wake us when it ends. (Sorry, Billie.) For those of you born in the last 25 years, the Hupmobile stands alongside REO, Locomobile, Nash, LaSalle and Buick as an automotive brand you're only peripherally aware of, if at all. It's time to get educated. Click on for some science, brothers and sisters.

Founded by thee Robert C. Hupp in Detroit back in aught-eight, Hupmobiles were designed to be cars the working man could afford. Designed for reliability rather than face-melting performance (did face-melting performance exist back then?), Detroit's first cop car was a Hupmobile, the Army used them as field ambulances during the Great War, and in 1932, one of Hupp's mobiles took 5th at the Indy 500. Overshadowed today by the iconic Fords of the period, Hupp nevertheless managed to sell half a million cars by the time the company closed its doors on the eve of WWII. So tonight, after a hard day at work hiding your blog obsession from your boss, raise a glass to the mighty Hupmobile, won't you? It's the least you could do for a car that gave so much to so many.

Hupmobile FAQ [Hupmobile Club]

Related:
Grading the Retro: Six Cars Ripe For Revival [Internal]

Rooting for the USPS lately is somewhat like being a Buffalo Bills fan in the early 1990s. With private carriers like FedEx encroaching on their turf and stealing market share, the Postal Service seems to be keep kicking 'em wide of the goalposts. But FedEx doesn't have classic car stamps. This new issuance of 37-centers, entitled "America on the Move: '50s Sporty Cars," features the Studebaker Starliner, the Nash Healey, the T-Bird, the Kaiser Darrin and Corvette, rendered by illustrator and former Packard designer Art Linkletter, er, Fitzpatrick.

New stamps salute classic cars [Detroit News]

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Stanley Mouse: Hot Rod Hippie Icon [Internal]