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June Special!
Get the Standard Catalogs of GM Collection for only $39.99. There are
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Standard Catalogs of GM Collection
Check these out too:
2013 Collector Car Price Guide
Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975
Standard Catalog of Pontiac 1926-2002
Old Cars Guide to Auto Restoration CD
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50′s Cars
Car of the Week: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air racer
Todd Newton had never had to worry about making one of his restoration projects TOO good before. But then again, he had never tried to authentically resurrect a genuine, family heirloom, grassroots race car, either.
Such was the challenge Newton’s Auto Restoration — the shop in Spring Green, Wis., that Newton runs with his father, Ardell — faced when they tackled a 1957 Bel Air hardtop that had been a racing demon back in the 1960s for Merle Newton., Todd’s grandfather. “I really had to be careful not to over-restore it and make it too nice,” Todd Newton said. “The rough edges around the windows and the holes that they cut in the floor — I left them all just the way they were. I didn’t smooth things out or try to do anything different. We didn’t want anything to be too good. If they torch cut something, I did too.”
Todd and his father, Ardell, are probably two of the only guys around who can judge whether the car looks better today than it did back in its racing days, but its pampered life is certainly different now than it was four decades ago.
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Car of the Week: 1959 King Midget
King Midgets were the undisputed “Kings” of the low-budget cars, with one-cylinder engines, two seats, a removable canvas top and not much else. They were originally the brainchild of Claud Dry and Dale Orcutt, who made it their mission to build the most affordable car on the market. But to guys like Dick Russ, the King Midgets are stll 10 gallons of fun in a half-pint package.
‘Two-Four’ Four-Door Faux Pas
A ’57 Bel Air with four doors and eight barrels? Yup
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Car of the Week: 1955 Buick Roadmaster
If Gerry Cheshire’s stunning red-and-white 1955 Buick Roadmaster hardtop isn’t the quintessential 1950s cruiser, it’s at least in the conversation. More
A Factory Fresh Olds 88
Olds fan finds a truly ‘Super’ 88 hiding in the Wisconsin cheese
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Car of the Week: 1954 Nash Metropolitan
Back in 1970, even though he had just bought a flashy new muscle car, Jim Caron just couldn’t help himself. His sparkling new 1969 SC/Rambler was fun and all, but Caron figured that the lonely old 1954 Nash Metropolitan he had seen at a local boneyard needed a new home.
“I dunno, I’m a car guy, I’ve always been a car guy,” said Caron, a resident of Las Vegas. “I had [a Metropolitan] before that, but it was all rusty… Just being the junkyard dog that I am, I had to ask the guy how much he wanted for it. I wound up giving him 40 bucks. Then I put a battery in it and drove it home."
Caron might not have guessed it at the time, but his decision to part with two Andrew Jacksons has blossomed into a longtime attachment to his little Nash, which is now a shiny, fully restored show-stopper More
60 years later … Still Special
Glitz and glamour of the ’59 Fleetwood Sixty Special
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Categories: 50's Cars, 60's Cars, Features
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Car of the Week: 1957 Pontiac Bonneville (V-8)
Pontiac accomplished a lot when it unveiled the new fuel-injected Bonneville for 1957. Not only did the company have itself a beautiful luxury cruiser that could blast down the highway at 130 mph, but it managed to completely change how the car-buying public perceived the Pontiac nameplate.
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Car of the Week: 1954 Hudson Hornet (Last Step-Down Design)
The last of the Step-Down design Hudson Hornets — the 1954 model — upheld the winning record established by the 1951-53 models on the nation’s stock-car ovals, but it eventually lost the bigger battle, which was to remain in production More
Thundering into Battle: the ’57 Ford ‘Battlebirds’
In the spring of 1957, auto racing buffs were treated to a battle royal when Thunderbirds and Corvettes went head to head in straight-line racing and sports-car competition. Ford was poised to pull out all the stops when it decided to create four special Thunderbird racers that became known as the “Battlebirds.” More
