Studes in Roadside Americana photos

[Radsman]

Is #1342 location known? My guess would be possibly Greater Southwest International Airport, Fort Worth which closed in 1974 when DFW International Airport opened. It has a runway that looked like this over SH 183 that caused traffic backups for years after the airport as shuttered as it caused the traffic to bottleneck in rush hour. But I can't tell if in the background those are hills or a grove of trees. If hills, that may not be North Texas.

[skyway]

Thanx Bob!

"Now, look closely at the Chevy in the street behind the peacenik girl, right behind the RF wheel.".....

[Alan]

#1342 is the Los Angeles airport, taken from the South Side looking North. By the looks of it about 1952.

[Bill Pressler]

Right, Gary; it looks like maybe a late-60s Dodge Polara to the left of the GT Hawk; perhaps a taxi or fleet vehicle of some kind.

Now, look closely at the Chevy in the street behind the peacenik girl, right behind the RF wheel.

1964 Chevys had one of three V8 engine insignias in that location (if they were V8s):

1. A V emblem with no crossed flags denoted a 283 V8.

2. A V emblem with crossed flags denoted a 327 V8.

3. A V emblem with crossed flags and a block of numbers below the flags was a 409.

It's too fuzzy to read the numbers below the crossed flags, but I believe there is a block of numbers below the flags. If so, they would read 409. Now, since it is a 1964 model, it could be the low-performance 340 HP version of the 409, which was fairly popular that year...you got a "409" but a tamer one than previous versions. BP

Bob, that car is a 409, but I believe it to be a '63 Chevy Impala for a few reasons.

1) It appears to have a white insert in its side molding, which '63 Impalas did.
2) '64 Impalas had a "C" or "U" shaped side molding treatment, with an upper molding parallel to the lower molding. Only the '64 Biscayne had a molding in the position the car in this photo does, but it did not have a white insert.
3) In '63, Chevy still used the 'wide' V8 emblems (located behind the front wheel opening on Impalas and in front of the front wheel opening on Bel Airs and Biscaynes). In '64 they went to the smaller V8 emblems that were also used in '65, with "409" written above the vee, not below.

'64 Biscayne 409:

http://www.chevconnection.com/IMAGES/64biscayne409white003.gif

'63 Impala 409:

http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_detail.cfm?LOT_ID=SC0512-128351

'62 Impala 409:

http://mrpickem.com/cars/1962%20Chevrolet%20Impala%20SS-409%20Sv.jpg

Note that the car in the original photo shows the '409' underneath the vee...something that only happened from the factory on the '62's. In '63, the wide vee had '409' above it. Someone added the emblem at some point on the car in the original photo, or a body shop screwed up in replacing it after paint or an accident, as so often happens even today.

BTW, the black '62 in my last link made me realize how I think the '62 looked the sharpest of the three years, then the '63, and the '64 last IMHO. Still, I'd take a '61 over any of them!

[BobPalma]

Bob, that car is a 409, but I believe it to be a '63 Chevy Impala for a few reasons.

1) It appears to have a white insert in its side molding, which '63 Impalas did.
2) '64 Impalas had a "C" or "U" shaped side molding treatment, with an upper molding parallel to the lower molding. Only the '64 Biscayne had a molding in the position the car in this photo does, but it did not have a white insert.
3) In '63, Chevy still used the 'wide' V8 emblems (located behind the front wheel opening on Impalas and in front of the front wheel opening on Bel Airs and Biscaynes). In '64 they went to the smaller V8 emblems that were also used in '65, with "409" written above the vee, not below.

'64 Biscayne 409:

http://www.chevconnection.com/IMAGES/64biscayne409white003.gif

'63 Impala 409:

http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_detail.cfm?LOT_ID=SC0512-128351

'62 Impala 409:

http://mrpickem.com/cars/1962%20Chevrolet%20Impala%20SS-409%20Sv.jpg

Note that the car in the original photo shows the '409' underneath the vee...something that only happened from the factory on the '62's. In '63, the wide vee had '409' above it. Someone added the emblem at some point on the car in the original photo, or a body shop screwed up in replacing it after paint or an accident, as so often happens even today.

BTW, the black '62 in my last link made me realize how I think the '62 looked the sharpest of the three years, then the '63, and the '64 last IMHO. Still, I'd take a '61 over any of them!

Good points all around, Bill; agreed.

I was scratching my head on that, but concluded it might be a 1964 Super Sport because the SS only had the lower molding of the huge U-shape...and even then, it was a different, wider lower molding than the bottom half of the "regular" 1964 Impalas in that it also didn't have a white insert, instead being engine turned.

Clearly, the subject car is not 100% correct anything! BP

[Bill Pressler]

Good points all around, Bill; agreed.

I was scratching my head on that, but concluded it might be a 1964 Super Sport because the SS only had the lower molding of the huge U-shape...and even then, it was a different, wider lower molding than the bottom half of the "regular" 1964 Impalas in that it also didn't have a white insert, instead being engine turned.

Clearly, the subject car is not 100% correct anything! BP

Bob, the '64 SS only has the upper molding, not the lower:

http://www.thefreewheelers.net/MOM/j1964_Chevrolet_Impala_SS.jpg

That's OK; I've never replaced a single spark plug and I take my cars somewhere to get the oil changed! THIS is the kind of stuff stuck in my brain, though!

[BobPalma]

Bob, the '64 SS only has the upper molding, not the lower:

http://www.thefreewheelers.net/MOM/j1964_Chevrolet_Impala_SS.jpg

That's OK; I've never replaced a single spark plug and I take my cars somewhere to get the oil changed! THIS is the kind of stuff stuck in my brain, though!

That's right; I stand corrected. (At least the engine insignia is in the right place for a '64, regardless of how it is configured, eh?)

The car in the original subject photo sure had me turned around, Bill. BP

[aarrggh]

[aarrggh]

[aarrggh]

. . 1916 . .

[JRoberts]

[JRoberts]

[Spannerbird]

JRoberts.. That Cliff House in S.F. Doesn't exist anymore, or at least looking like that. Kind of sad because it was one of the more impressive buildings. But it had a chronic case of catching fire.

[JRoberts]

Oh, the embarassment of it! To be rescued by a Dodge!

[Noxnabaker]

Er... these Dodges came with Hemi's sometimes, stuff that used to find their way in to Studebakers, (even if the bigger Chrysler Hemi was more usual) & it could've been worse: it could've been a Chevy that stopped...