70s cars as they really were!

[Mike C.]

A treasure trove of great pics. I have always been big a fan of what they now call the day 2 cars. Back then you had to at least have some mags and big rubber when you showed up at to local hang out spot on a Friday night. Thanks for posting. 👍

[ksnow]

Those pictures are very cool. Definitely some inspiration for builds in there.

[Mike C.]

This one brings back some memories. My friends older cousin lived right next door to him had a real 396 Chevelle that looked exactly like this one. We saw him a few years ago and he told us he still had it and took it all back to stock and was starting to bring it to shows. Come to find out he has since died. No word on what happened to the car.

 

[Joe Handley]

The Orange Bee almost looks like David Freiburger's from back in the day!

[JollySipper]

Man, you don't put Lakewoods on a MoPar........ They have a pinion snubber!

[espo]

Ya, if your rear tires weren't sticking out in the breeze you were driving mommy's car. The hair, the bell bottoms, WIDE belts. We were so cool. 

[James2]

Brings back a lot of memories...

[cobraman]

I enjoyed that !

[Oldcarfan27]

Thanks for the favorable responses, guys.

I can post more, if you'd like to see them. I enjoy them myself. 

[ksnow]

14 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Thanks for the favorable responses, guys.

I can post more, if you'd like to see them. I enjoy them myself. 

I love them. As someone just too young to have lived through that era, they are priceless for replicating the look of those days. 

[Mike C.]

2 hours ago, JollySipper said:

Man, you don't put Lakewoods on a MoPar........ They have a pinion snubber!

I saw a set slapper bars on a '69 Chevelle at a show a couple of years ago. Still trying to figure how they managed that strange setup. 😦

[espo]

Slapper bars on a GM product with the coil springs had to be for show. What I used on my '67 El Camino, see my avatar, was a pair of premade upper control arm mounts. I don't have a picture, but I'll try and describe them. They would mount to the top control arm mounts on the differential. They had an arm that dropped down with notches that aligned with the ribs on the front of the center section of the differential and a small set screw to sort of hold them in place. The arm had a mount for the upper rear control arm and gave the arm a different angle to the differential. This would keep the differential from winding up under hard acceleration.  In my case with less weight over the rear end if you went over much of a rough spot in the pavement the rear end would hop sometimes. Under normal driving you wouldn't notice anything different in the handling.  

[Fat Brian]

These pictures are amazing. This is the look I usually go for, that "day 2" or second owner look where the car is really starting to have some personality beyond stock.

[1972coronet]

1-of-650 (+/-) 1970 Swinger 340s with the W15 Wire Wheel Covers. Original owner car in triple-green (including V8F tail stripe), 4-speed, disc brakes, power steering, radio, hood pins, scoops. 

Had Cragar S/S from 1972-2015 (hard to find in that [stupid] 5x4" bolt pattern even back then).

Here's a photo of the W15 wheel cover -- more images to follow when I receive them from its owner...

[ChrisBcritter]

Rough remains of a '72 street machine Firebird, last tagged in '84:

Same car on prom night with its original owner, pre-mags and spoiler:

My boss dragged it home from a Pasadena estate sale as a project for his then-boyfriend; both the BF and the Firebird turned out to need way too much work to keep... 

"How Not to Pick Up Girls" 

[BlackSheep214]

Fun times seeing those vintage muscle car photos.

A classmate of mine who lived down the street from my house growing up owned a ‘68 GTO. Drove it school daily except during winter.

I helped a neighbor kid customized the interior of a late 70 Chevy van. I was rewarded for free rides home from high school during his senior year ( I was a junior then). He had a wicked sound system installed too.

A couple folks from my time working at JC Penny’s. A fellow employee owned a gold ‘70 Camaro - loved that car

Later years still working at JC Penny, a future boss owned a gorgeous ‘74 Nova SS. Told him I would buy his car if he decides to part with it. He ended up giving his nephew the 350 high performance engine for his car.

By then, I owned a ‘78 Monte Carlo. Nothing special except I put on Cragar rims on Dunlop GT Qualifiers. It was equipped with a pitiful 305 cu engine until it blew up on me.  Had a 350 put in as replacement.

[BuilderX]

my mid 80s 69 Nova was a 6cyl 3 speed car then got a 355 SB with a 4speed Muncie!

Edited April 27, 2022 by BuilderX

[Modlbldr]

Nice pictures of how they used to be. Makes me want to start a CBP using a pic from this thread as your build. I think that would be fun. I see a few I'd like to do a build of.

Later-

[catpack68]

This pic is of a speed shop that was in downtown Greensboro,North Carolina. I don’t remember the car but I do remember that place.

[Mike C.]

10 minutes ago, catpack68 said:

This pic is of a speed shop that was in downtown Greensboro,North Carolina. I don’t remember the car but I do remember that place.

 

Cool pic. Remember the local speed shop? Try to find one of those today. I can even remember radio commercials for them.

[stavanzer]

You know what is really notable about these awesome photos?

These folks are tooling around in these rare Muscle Cars, Like they don't have a care in the world. It's like they don't know how much some of these cars will be worth They treat them like ordinary cars. Driving them everywhere, putting miles on them, driving them in the rain and snow. You'd think would have been able to know valuable these cars would be, and not had them out on the roads, where they could be hit, or worn out. Almost like they were just cars, not investments.

[Mike C.]

8 minutes ago, stavanzer said:

You know what is really notable about these awesome photos?

These folks are tooling around in these rare Muscle Cars, Like they don't have a care in the world. It's like they don't know how much some of these cars will be worth They treat them like ordinary cars. Driving them everywhere, putting miles on them, driving them in the rain and snow. You'd think would have been able to know valuable these cars would be, and not had them out on the roads, where they could be hit, or worn out. Almost like they were just cars, not investments.

Then in the early 80s everyone took a sawzall to the roof to install those cheapo J.C. Whitney sunroofs that would leak the minute any water hit them. Then of course the air shocks to raise the backend to the moon. 😖

[LouO]

Just my first car (parked for the winter season) after a lot of hard work. Still in search of a 1971 Chevelle model kit at a reasonable price so I can replicate it.

[Mike C.]

16 minutes ago, LouO said:

Just my first car (parked for the winter season) after a lot of hard work. Still in search of a 1971 Chevelle model kit at a reasonable price so I can replicate it.

I can remember building the Red Alert Chevelle when I was a kid. I'm fairly sure it had the 4 round taillights. Hard to believe they haven't reissued it lately.

[ChrisBcritter]

My only '70s sort-of-muscle car was this '72 Chevelle SS - the base model with 350 4-barrel, owned it from '85-'87: