Jalopnik: Oakland

Circle Of Automotive Life Nearly Complete: DOTS '67 Cougar Now In Junkyard

Murilee Martin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:15:00 EDT

Remember the 1967 Mercury Cougar we saw down on the Alameda street, just a little over a week ago? Well, I was shopping for some race-car pieces at an Oakland self-service junkyard yesterday when I spotted a primer-black Cougar that looked very familiar. Yes, just weeks after this 41-year-old car had been holding the Mercury flag high, that mean ol' tow truck hauled it away (I took the photographs in late July). I suspect the car was bought by the owner of the beater '68 Mustang as a parts car and then scrapped after being picked over like a leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Make the jump to see all the photos, before and after.

So That Nice Citroens Might Live, Hanzel Auto Body Hacks Up This Rusty DS

Murilee Martin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EDT

We took a look at Hanzel Auto Body Works, located in Oakland's historic Auto Row district for 90 years, last winter and saw that Henry Hanzel's shop is definitely the epicenter for all things Citroën in Northern California. A few weeks back, I got an email that started "I'll be cutting up a rusted-out Citroën DS at my shop in downtown Oakland tomorrow if you would like to come by." How could I pass up such an opportunity? Not only was there the promised sliced-and-diced DS, but several solid DSs, a 2CV, a Traction-Avant, and Henry's daily-driver DS wagon parked out front. Jump away for all the photos.

We've already had one French DOTS Bonus Edition today, but what's wrong with having a DOTS Bonus Bonus Edition? This wagon really is Henry Hanzel's daily driver; we're talking about a man who grew up going on road trips across the United States in a Traction-Avant, who drove a 2CV in high school, and whose parents owned Oakland's Citroën and Panhard dealerships back in the day. Yes, I totally want a Citroën now!

DOTS-O-Rama Sunday: 1956 Mercedes-Benz 180

Murilee Martin — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT

We're escaping from behind the Orange Curtain- for the moment- and heading 430 miles north to Oakland. Oakland is just across the Estuary from Alameda, and it has nearly as many old vehicles per square mile as the Island That Time forgot; SuperCarnitas found this nice-looking Ponton not far from Oakland's Auto Row. Make the jump to see all the photos and read what SuperCarnitas has to say about his find.

If there was ever a For Sale Down On The Street (Oakland Edition) feature, I'd nominate this car: A 1956 Mercedes 180, which has spent the past few weeks parked dangling its "For Sale" sign around upper parts of Broadway in Oakland. It looks really clean inside & out, and the UC Berkeley Central Campus sticker (these pull rank over regular student / faculty stickers) serves to reinforce stereotypes about kinds of tweedy people who own these cars in the East Bay. And no, this isn't some elaborate advertising scheme — I have no affiliation to this car nor its owner!
See you around the wrecking yards,
supercarnitas

Now let's hear something from one of Oakland's best rappers... and I'm sure as hell not talking about MC Hammer here:

Hardtop Or No, This Galaxie Is Crusher Bound

Murilee Martin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Hyperocky's DOTS '67 Ford XL 2-door hardtop looks great, but we must remember that not all big Fords of its era are quite so nice these days. Plenty of beat-to-hell examples manage to clank along for decades before their date with The Crusher's jaws, as was the case with this extremely rough '66 I spotted at an East Bay wrecking yard last weekend. It appears that the dashboard and quite a few interior bits have been salvaged, so at least some of this Ford will live on in other cars.

Jeep FC170 Living Oaktown Style

Murilee Martin — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Rickey Henderson, Earl Warren, Too $hort, and Gertrude Stein all came out of Oakland, and now it's the turn of this street-parked Jeep FC170 to put the East Bay's main city on the map yet again. If and when I run out of DOTS cars in Alameda, all I'll need to do is take a quick hop across the Estuary and start photographing Oakland vehicles; as you can see, they don't disappoint. Akier spotted this fine example of forward-control awesomeness in the Temescal district and was on this truck with his camera like Alice B. Toklas on a batch of hash brownies. Make the jump to read what Akier has to say about this find.

So I was cruising around Oakland (Temescal neighborhood) with my girl, searching high and low for an apartment, when on a side street I caught a glimpse of this beauty out of the corner of my eye. It's a Jeep FC170, and I couldn't narrow down the year anymore than '57-64 because none of the registries I could find had a year-by-year breakdown. This guy looks kind of tired, and I can't tell if it runs or not. But man oh man, is that forward control setup cool. I thought you'd all get a kick out of it. Let me know if you want more pictures of specific info about this one, because I can always swing by and take a look again.

BTW, I have a few other DOTS Oakland submissions if you'd like - a Chevy-powered FJ40, a Peugeot 504 diesel wagon, a 50's Chrysler 300, and a B-body Plymouth that has been painted flat-black and equipped with flamethrowers for Burning Man. Let me know if you'd like those. Thanks dudes, keep up the good work.

Bay Area Train Commuters Prefer Vintage Iron

Murilee Martin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EDT

When you're having a quinto-Belvedere tailgate party at the Oakland Coliseum, you pay to park in the official stadium lot, but when you're swilling cheap beer and wolfing chile verde burritos prior to ~~sneaking into the good seats with your bleacher tickets~~ watching a ballgame from the bleachers, you don't want to pay to park your car. That's why me and my cheapskate friends park in the free Coliseum BART station parking lot for most games, where we often have the opportunity to admire vintage machinery driven by commuters. Some of you may remember the Menacing Bee Van from last year, and here we have a quintet of other interesting rides spotted in the same lot. Apologies for crappy phone-camera image quality.

Camaro Dumped In Oakland Like An Unwanted Water Heater

Murilee Martin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:00:00 EST

Sandwiched between an asphalt plant and a huge yard used for storage of shipping containers from the nearby Port of Oakland, this road is a good shortcut to get to one of my favorite East Oakland junkyards. It's also a popular spot for illegal nighttime dumping, with heaps of dead refrigerators, concrete chunks, etc. often clogging the shoulders. Every so often you get a parts car that's been relieved of its worthwhile components and dumped here, and the latest such car is an '82 or '83 Z28 Camaro. There was a time when I'd have stopped and grabbed some parts myself (there's always something useful on such a car), but these days space restrictions force me to maintain a very selective parts hoard. Can you feel the Late Malaise spirit? Make the jump for an additional gallery.

You Can Bring Your Crumpled Citroens To Hanzel's

Murilee Martin — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST

With all this talk about Citröens around here, it's sad that I hardly ever get to see them in real life. That's why it was great to discover that there's a shop specializing in Citröen repair in downtown Oakland, just a few miles from Alameda. Commenter VWMiniSpeedster's great-grandfather opened the shop in 1918, and the family also owned a dealership selling Citröens, Panhards, Morgans, and Lloyds during the 1950s. Nowadays they still fix the old French machinery and have quite the collection on the premises. Make the jump for more photos, a description of the shop's history, and (for you wannabe 24 Hours of LeMons contestants) a chance to get a deal on a potential race car!

You can see VWMiniSpeedster's complete set of photos here. Here's what he has to say about his family's ancestral shop:
May 1, 1918 "Manny & Hanzel" @ 20th & Broadway started by my great-grandfather Sigmund Hanzel
1926 Manny & Hanzel sever ties and now its just my great-grandfather running the show - location @ Broadway & McArthur Freeway
Moved to 23rd & Valdez sometime between '26 and '46.
May 1, 1946 - present - current location @ 456 23rd Street. Grandfather Ed Hanzel had the building at the current location constructed. Within the body shop he had his side lines of HanzLift (tow truck fabrication), Hanzel Air Conditioning and Hanzel Battery. His 1952 Ford F-3 tow truck is still in use today.
1955 - 1959 "Hanzel Motors" was established as well. The wide range of "big sellers": Citroen, Panhard, Morgan and Lloyd. The location is where the current Kia dealership is at on Broadway across from the VW dealership.
Current owner Henry Hanzel took over ownership on June 1, 1984 and has continued the Hanzel legacy to the present day. Henry's daily driver is a 1972 Citroen DS21 wagon with Citromatic shifting and 290,000 miles. When the wagon is presenting troubles he has a spare daily driver in the form of a 1970 DS21 Sedan with a manual 4 speed. This PLUSH ride has also seen thousands of miles, 280,000 to be precise; some in the form of SCCA rallies in the 1970's. Henry drove to the race, raced, often didn't finish last, and drove home with the AC still blowing cool air after an exciting weekend.

Not only that, he's got a nice solid Volvo 740 sedan that's just begging to be made into a 24 Hours of LeMons car. Don't be put off by the $500 price, because I've already learned that Volvo parts are easy to sell!

Forgotten Brand, Forgotten Car: 1929 Oakland All-American Six

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:30:00 EST

Can you imagine a brand marketed above Pontiac and below Buick, Olds and Cadillac? Neither could GM after 1931, but before that Oakland was such a brand. Proving platform prostitution isn't a new idea, this 1929 Oakland All-American Six is basically a badge engineered Pontiac with a fancy interior. The story here isn't really the car though, it's the history. Somewhere around 1949, a mechanic parked this car in his garage, and it sat there ever since. Preserved even in the San Franciso climate, the Oakland is nearly perfect, right down to the velvet on the doors. Make your way over to telstarlogistics and ogle the incredibly clean flathead straight six, completely rustless doors and still intact emergency kit. What a find.

1964 Chrysler Newport

Murilee Martin — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:30:30 EDT

Since now I'm in the mood to look at mean-looking Detroit beaters, I'm breaking out some shots I took while enjoying a burritos-and-beer repast in the Oakland Coliseum BART parking lot prior to a baseball game. Apologies for the fuzztastic quality of my low-end cellphone camera, though I do think the grainy pixelated look does a good job of capturing the spirit of this fine automobile.

If you're going to leave your car parked all day in one of the toughest neighborhoods in East Oakland, it's a good idea to select a nothing-to-lose beater for your ride.

Actually, this Newport looks great like this. No rat-rod pretensions here!

The Newport for 1964 came standard with a 265-horse 361 engine, though you could get one with the optional 360-horse 413.

Best of all, you could get a floor-shifted 4-speed as a factory option in this car, with a price of only $227? Jeez, why didn't everyone get the 4-speed?

This tire wins the Best Tire Name Ever award. Grand Turbo! If I ever get a Starion, it's gonna have a full set of Grand Turbos, I tell you what!

Note the innovative rear window treatment. Probably fine at any speed under 50.

Is that a Prius in the next space?

Here's another example of Calilfornia body rust; it took 43 years to get like this. Probably some rust-through around the rear window frame, and therefore some rust-through in the trunk. It's a slow-motion process out here, though.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this car looks even meaner than Alameda's '62 New Yorker. I'd definitely like to see the two of them race, though the New Yorker probably has the edge in engine power.

The base price of this car was $2901, $125 more than a V8-equipped Galaxie 500 that year. That's a tough choice, especially considering you could get the Galaxie with a 4-speed as well.

Amazingly, this car still has intact taillights!

Judging by the thousands of dents and dings, I'm assuming this car spent a good portion of its life living across the Bay in San Francisco; cars sort of erode away over there.

The Ultimate Van Decoration

Murilee Martin — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:00:42 EDT

While consuming a burritos-and-beer meal (served on the trunklid of the Crown Vic) in the Oakland Coliseum BART parking lot prior to watching yet another A's loss, I found my appetite disrupted by the sheer menace of the image painted on this yellow-and-black custom van. The sinister, knowing facial expression. The utter lack of limbs of any sort. The sunglasses.

But, most of all, the stinger dripping blood. Lots of blood. What does the Menacing Van Bee want from us?

Cush-Ride Suspension of Belief

Mike Bumbeck — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:00:00 EDT

Back when we lived Oakland work sometimes carried us over the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island to spray umber and ocher colored water about sets. Even though the island was only halfway across the bridge, getting there required paying the full bridge toll! While sitting in traffic the idea of a personal hovercraft was often entertained. The toll money saved could have then been spent on some goggles and foul weather gear, so that on rainy days we could make like the Gorton's Fisherman down Powell street on our way to the water. – Mike Bumbeck

Neoteric Hovercraft [External]

Related:
A Flying Hovercraft [Internal]

Proper Use of Scrapers

Mike Bumbeck — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:00:00 EDT

Back in early 21st century Oakland we started to see later eighties and early nineties Oldsmobile Cutlass Cieras, Chevrolet Celebs, Buick Park Aves, and even the occasional Pontiac 6000 rolling up and down San Pablo. At first they were mostly stock, but time brought Daytons and plenty of metalflake. We found out later these cars were collectively known as Scrapers. Although the whistle tip fad has come and gone the Scraper lives on, and has come to influence the kids. They're always coming out with something new in the O, and the Trunk Boiz got some ~~hella~~ hekka critical mass. – Mike Bumbeck

Save Your (Grandparents') Generation: Youngsters Rolling In Oldster Whips [Internal]

Arrrgh! $4+ Gas Spotted In California

Murilee Martin — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:45:47 EDT

I just took this shot at the gas station located at the corner of Ashby and Claremont in Berkeley... or maybe it's technically Oakland. No matter; the critical psychological barrier of Quadra-Buck Gas has been breached here. Yeah, yeah, nitpickers may have noted that it's Full Serve Premium, but we can expect Cat Piss 83 Octane, self-served by wringing gas-soaked rags over your fuel filler, to be up to Quadra-Buck standards any day now. – Murilee Martin

Related:
$4.07 For Premium In Chicago! [internal]

Hell Freezes Over! 580 Maze Fixed In 25 Days!

Murilee Martin — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:30:09 EDT

Here's a California joke for you:
Q: What's orange and sleeps eight?
A: A CalTrans truck! (CalTrans = California Dept. of Transportation)
Yes, the Golden State's highway bureaucracy is legendary for glacial slowness of freeway construction and/or repair, and we all laughed until oxygen deprivation set in when we heard the claim that the contractor fixing the melted 580 Maze would have it working in an absurd 25 days. 25 months, if we're lucky! Yet... it's done. We just hope they used the extra-heavy-duty zip-ties and real JB Weld (JB Qwik is not rated for freeway repair, folks). – Murilee Martin

His reputation on the line, contractor finishes repair early, and I-580 opens [San Francisco Chronicle]

Related:
Bay Area Hellwatch: The Bay Bridge Melts!! [internal]

Ghetto Fabulous: Oaktown's Falcon Culture

Murilee Martin — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:30:21 EDT

Even with most of Oakland's customizers of vintage Detroit iron going with GM products- a trend with deep historical roots going back to the popularity of the '50 Chevy in old-school lowrider culture- there's a group of Oakland guys who've broken free of the GM trend and gone with the Ford Falcon. Daniel has hipped us to a fine documentary about the Falcons of Oakland; make the jump to his site to check out the trailer. – Murilee Martin

Ghetto fabulosity and the Ford Falcon. [Fear the Beard]

Related:
Piense Fuerte. Piense Ford Falcon. [internal]

Welcome to Oaktown: Mildly Donked Skylark

Murilee Martin — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:30:35 EDT

At the Oakland Coliseum BART station yesterday, we spied this '69 Buick Skylark sitting proudly by itself in the parking lot. Not so much a donk as a car heavily influenced by donkism (and Oakland, proud home of 2 $hort, is certainly on the leading edge of donkitude, what with the box Caprices teetering on absurd-diameter wheels you see towering over traffic around here), this Skylark actually looks halfway decent with the treatment...

The wheels completely fill the wheelwells but don't bust up the nice lines of the car's body, and nothing that permanently screws up the car has been done here. It's possible that this Buick has been subjected to every trend of the last several decades; maybe its rear was jacked up four feet on big air shocks and Mickey Thompson steamrollers back in the late 70s, followed by a stint as a lowrider with negative-offset 12" wheels. That's the beauty of the '68-'72 GM A-body- it's incredibly adaptable.

We're giving a thumbs-down to the Pep Boys HID headlight conversion, of course, but lights are easy to replace. No lasting harm done.

We'd like to think that there's a 455 living under the hood, all ready to burn some more tread off those tires, but (sigh) it's probably just a 350. Yeah, one of these days we'll get a better camera phone. For now, stay tuned for the next Down On The Street car. – Murilee Martin

Related:
SEMA Show: Donk a What? [internal]

The Mighty Bay Bridge

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:30:00 EST

There's a photograph of the bridge abutment between the two suspension spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the liner notes of Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy that I've always loved. Because while the Golden Gate may be the most perfectly beautiful bridge ever built, it's also kind of crap. First of all, it takes longer to get to Bottom of the Hill from the East Bay if you take the Golden Gate. But more seriously, the 10-foot lanes make driving over it an experience that can be rather nerve-wracking for the driver. The Bay, by contrast, is easy as pie. Other than the traffic.

Sure, the Benicia, San Mateo, Dumbarton, and Richmond Bridges get little to no respect. And although the Benicia Bridge spans a really pretty expanse of water and offers up great vistas while waiting for the toll booth, it's not much to look at. A concrete beast of a thing; the best thing that can be said about it is that the view includes the Carquinez Bridge, a utilitarian cantiliever span (the construction of which was aided in by one of Los Jalops' fathers), a partially disassembled cantilever span that dates back to 1927, and the westbound Alfred Zampa suspension bridge, which is visually striking and a lot of fun to drive over. It gives us some small glint of hope for future California roads.

But while the Golden Gate is the grand dame, the Bay is the grandaddy. And it does big business, carrying 280,000 cars in and out of the City every day. If you haven't driven the Bay Bridge, you need to. Twice. Once behind the wheel, and once with a friend behind the wheel so you can just look. Plus, it links the East Bay and the West Bay, which are undoubtedly two of the finest parts of this great nation of ours. The Golden Gate just goes to Marin. The Bay Bridge should be on propaganda leaflets; it's classic Americana: beautiful, utilitarian and slightly fucked up, as practically all the best American things are. – Davey G. Johnson

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge [Wikipedia]

Eastbound is Down: Bay Area Traffic Not as Bad as Expected Due to Bridge Deck Closing

Davey G. Johnson — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 09:00:00 EDT

For those of you who never did time in the Bay Area, we'll lay it straight out: when the Bay Bridge is closed, the normally bad traffic goes from indigestion to amoebic dysentery. And to demolish the old Western Approach to the hoary gray workhorse (and actually our favorite bridge anywhere (yes, we love you, too, Vincent Thomas, don't worry)), CalTrans has shut down the eastbound lower deck of the structure, causing traffic toward Oakland to either divert south on 101 to the San Mateo Bridge, or to cut through the City, head over the Golden Gate, up to San Rafael and over the Richmond Bridge.

Either way, it adds a good 20 to 40 miles to one's trip, depending on the destination. What's more, it soaks the other already-overloaded arteries with traffic. However, officials say that the public has responded rather well to the closing. Still, we know the public is helluv annoyed. The bridge re-opens at 5am Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, we wanna see 'em shut down the Altamont Pass permanently, cover the stretch of 580 with more windmills and watch the soulless office parks of Pleasanton staffed by miserable schmoes fall into the toilet and cause the awful housing tracts of Tracy to disintigrate blow away in the Central Valley wind. Our lackadaisical blogging ass will just take the 101 next time we drive up to see friends. The rest of you can go back to Salina, Kansas or wherever.

Traffic keeps flowing despite bridge closure [SFGate]

Athletics Pitcher Esteban Loaiza's Ferrari Goes Faster Than His Pitches!

Ray Wert — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:18:52 EDT

Only a pitcher for the Oakland Athletics could be picked up by the California highway patrol driving 120 mph in his Ferrari, fail a sobriety test and then be locked up in jail on suspicion of a DUI. Where we come from, we call that guilty of a DUI. But then again — we're from Detroit — we don't have a working bus system, much less a judicial system — what do we know?

By the way — anyone want to head over to the impound and snap some pics of the car? Or at least go all "Smoking Gun" on us and get some copies of the paperwork — there's got to be something funny in all of that. Just try not to steal a police car while you're there, k?(Many praises to scotte on the tip!)

Loaiza arrested on suspicion of DUI [SacBee]

Sideshow Folk Fire on Oakland PD

Davey G. Johnson — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 11:28:45 EDT

Saturday night, a massive sideshow took place, the first one in a long time in Oakland. Involving over 1,000 people and what the OPD calls "dozens of motorcycles and hundreds of vehicles," the sideshow started at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention center, stopped at a burger joint, and petered out at the Goodfellas' motorcycle club's house around 4am. In the ensuing chaos, potshots were taken at the police. No word on how many, if any arrests were made and if any vehicles were confiscated.

Oakland police fired at from sideshow [SFGate]

Related:
More Cops on Oakland Streets Quell Sideshows [Internal]

More Cops on Oakland Streets Quell Sideshows

Davey G. Johnson — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:28:11 EDT

A month back, we posted about Oakland's problem with sideshows on the city's streets, as well as a new law designed to shut them down by targeting participants. Apparently, the law hasn't been used yet, as there hasn't actually been a real-deal sideshow in Oakland since April. The East Bay Express reports that since adding more officers and cars to the late-night East Oakland streets, sideshows have all but disappeared. Thanks to Dateline for being late to the game, and boo to us for not being hip to the goings on in the 'hood.

Sideshows RIP? [East Bay Express]

Related:
Oakland Up in Arms Over Sideshows [Internal]