I'll admit it, I have a soft spot for Coronas of this era because a $50 '69 Corona sedan was my very first car. And, since we saw a Nice Price Or Crack Pipe Corona just yesterday, I'm inspired to share these photos today. With a tippy suspension apparently copied from the '62 Ford Falcon and a clattery-yet-unkillable pushrod 3R engine, the early Corona didn't really foreshadow much about the slick Toyotas to come.

I spotted this racy-looking beater parked outside a party I attended in the Oakland Hills a few weeks back; these days, I find myself around Alfa Romeo obsessos on a regular basis (24 Hours Of LeMons HQ is crawling with 'em), and of course it turned out that this fine vintage Japanese machine is owned by a guy who drives it when the Giulietta isn't working.

It's pretty rough, and plenty of parts have been picked from it by now, but the all-important roof glass remains. There's an example of today's Engine Of The Day honoree under the hood, too- looks like a 2-barrel 350. Nice Bondo-y patina on the tailgate!

We've got a '69 Cadillac Sedan De Ville, a '66 Dodge Coronet 440 wagon, and a '68 Chevrolet Caprice sedan, all parked on or near the gritty Glascock Street in Oakland's Fruitvale district. These days, there's not so much grit in that neighborhood, as you can see in Google Street View (though the Googlemobile refused to drive down Glascock itself), but you still see some nice vintage iron parked in front of the condos and live/work lofts nowadays. I bought the legendary Hubert The Hatred Bug at a junkyard on Glascock, and the original Oakland Hell's Angels HQ, circa 1960, was just a few doors down.

I checked out the snake charming, burlesque performances, accordion music, and cotton-candy booths inside the warehouse, and it was all pretty entertaining… but I was there for the cars. My primary mission: to convince these art car builders to bring their creations to the Goin' For Broken 24 Hours Of LeMons race, since the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir was such a hit at the Gator-O-Rama LeMons. Here's what I found:

The Boiler Bar is having a May Day celebration at their Magnolia Street HQ, starting at 8:00 PM tonight. It's unclear how many art cars will show up, but the Marriage Wrecker and Neverwas LB&O Trolley should be there in addition to the Golden Mean, and there will also be "Snake Charming, CanCan Girls, Belly, Glass, Fire & May Pole Dancing, Burlesques, Balancing Acts, and Old Timey Music." I'll be there, trying to recruit art car builders for the 24 Hours Of LeMons. Give that snail a roll cage and some more horsepower and it could totally compete on the track!
The Boiler Bar

Watch as that Model B flies up Fish Ranch Road (which looks exactly the same today) in top gear, and check out that cool tracking shot through the dealership- why, you can even catch a glimpse of the closer sweating a customer into signing on the line that is dotted! Thanks to Maxichamp for the tip!

Akier found this 80s Vixen 21 TD (more info on this futuristic RV may be found at the Vixen Owner's Association site) in San Francisco, then added some shots of an extremely evil Burning Man-style early-70s Chrysler product he found across the bay in Oakland. Here's what he has to say about these fine street-parked machines:

Hey Murilee! I saw a Vixen today. At first I thought I'd jumped 400 years (light-years?) into the future, but then I realized it was just an RV, albeit one with a DeLorean connection and a rear-mounted BMW diesel motor! Cool huh? This one was in Cole Valley.

And I was in my stomping grounds, Temescal, when I saw this Mopar Deathwagen on the street. Rust, primer, and Roland electronics combine to form the world's most prototypical Burning-Man-pseudo-fascist-Mad-Max-reject-rolling-art-concept. Adina of Adina's Car World, the shop it was parked at, claimed "the flamethrowers were currently inoperative." Thank the maker!

Sorry for the craptacular photo quality. I think my iPhone has a congenital lens defect. Enjoy!

And, thanks to our all-knowing commenters, it turns out that the Mopar Deathwagon is famous, having appeared on the cover of Information Society's 1990 album, Hack:

Why, you do what I did and add to the safety by whipping out your camera and shooting some video of the action! Oakland's San Leandro Street is such a driving adventure that I've often felt it ought to be the inspiration for a driving video game, in which the player pilots an '83 Chevette with no license plates and three space-saver spares the length of the much-potholed street, dodging brakeless 18-wheelers, insensate drunks passed out on the gas pedals of rampaging Chrysler New Yorkers, Sterno bums shambling along pushing trains of lashed-together shopping carts, and so on. Unfortunately, the road surface was too bumpy for the camera to register the nerve-wrackingly loose front left wheel on the bus, but you can see the engine cover on the right side of the bus swinging, as the driver weaves randomly down the road.

That's what happened to Bill, California Melee and 24 Hours Of LeMons veteran (and housemate of TheEastBayKid), a couple weeks back. You see, Bill lives in the Laurel District of Oakland, a pleasant neighborhood in a city that gets a mostly undeserved bad rap from the rest of the country; however, much as I (a former Oakland resident) love the place- it is true that it's a tough town for cars. The OPD deals with matters more pressing than traffic-law enforcement, and happy hour tends to be a 24/7 affair for many Oaktown drivers. You're rolling the dice every time you park your car on the street, and this time the dice came up snake-eyes for Bill's '69 MGB-GT. Your classic hit-and-run wreck, with the MG mashed into a tree and the only clue left behind by the perp (probably behind the wheel of a late-70s Pontiac Bonneville) a broken Olde English 800 40-dog, no doubt dropped out the driver's window at the moment of impact. Bill hasn't decided whether he wants to let sentimental value trump rational thought and try to fix the car in a massive sheetmetal weld-a-thon, or just pull all the snazzy aftermarket performance bits off it and start over with another MGB. Check out Bill's blog to get the whole story.
[Bill's Buckets]

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!

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:

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.

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!

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.

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