If this isn’t the coolest Divco milk truck on the planet, it’s got to at least be in the conversation! This magnificent piece of baby blue-and-white awesomeness will be up for bids late in Mecum’s huge Kissimmee Auction, which runs from Jan. 2-12 in Kissimmee, Fla. This fabulous custom is a 1963 model and is described as a “nut and bolt frame-off restoration.” Among the cool stuff:

• Built on late model GMC Suburban chassis
• GM Performance 330-hp crate engine
• Power steering
• Power disc brakes
• Air Ride suspension
• Chopped 8 inches and shortened 22 inches
• March performance billet serpentine system
• Five-year build with 100 miles since completion
• New Diamondback radial whitewall tires
• Removable Deluxe Dairy logos
• Air ride seats
• Automatic phantom gauges
• Custom fab work and custom features throughout
• Side and rear cameras with LCD screen

We can’t imagine why anybody would ever sell anything this wonderful. If you kick the bucket owning a hot-rodded Divco milk truck like this, you have won the game of life. Whoever is lucky enough to scoop this up at Kissimmee will no doubt receive eternal happiness, and our undying respect.

The post We’d Buy That! 1963 Divco Milk Truck appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story by Brian Earnest

Rick Sprague never had any secret desire to be a postal carrier.

But he has never been able to hide his affinity for the transportation they once used. In Sprague’s case, the machine of his affections is the Westcoaster Mailster, a memorable little three-wheeled glorified golf cart that puttered around U.S. residential areas hauling mail during much of the 1950s and ‘60s.

Sprague got ahold of his first Mailster when he was only 13, and he’s never really let go. He’s now on his fourth one — which is also the nicest he’s had. It’s a retired 1963 model that once delivered mail somewhere in Pennsylvania.

“I was always into min-bikes and lawn mowers and stuff when I was a kid, and I had my hands on small engines for many years,” laughs Sprague, a resident of Racine, Wis. “And I learned over time how to fix a lot of things.

“I had never heard of [a Mailster], but then I got one when I was a kid, probably 13 years old. The Post Office in town was selling some of them for $200 apiece and a kid in my neighborhood bought one, but the kid’s dad didn’t want him to have it. I got it from him. I think I gave him his 200 bucks back for it. My dad didn’t know I had one at first — I kept it away from the house for the first few days. But he let me keep it.”

Sprague never drove that Mailster on the road legally. It was more of a toy than transportation, but it was plenty of fun to tinker around with and gave him an appreciation for the unique three-wheelers that continues to this day.

“I’m not sure exactly what happened to that one. I never had a title for it or anything,” he recalls. “I had it for probably a good 2 years, then it disappeared. It might have been my dad getting rid of it, I just don’t remember. It took a beating. I used to put a couple guys in back of it and tie the doors shut so they wouldn’t fall out and I’d drop the clutch and do wheelies! Luckily, I never tipped it over. You do a lot of things without thinking when you’re a kid!”

Six or seven different companies wound up making the three-wheeled mail cars, and Sprague owned a Cushman version for a time. It was very similar to his first Westcoaster. The biggest difference at the time was that Sprague was old enough to drive it on the street. “It was the same-size frame,” he says. “I was probably in my 30s at that time, and I used to ride this Cushman three-wheeler back and forth to Kenosha to a friend’s house, probably about 10 miles … That took a beating, too! My dad convinced me to get rid of it, and I sold it to a guy for 200 bucks just to get it out of my hair.”

Sprague’s third Mailster was “a basket case” that he bought about 7 years ago. He worked on it for a while and had some fun with it, but “I could never get it running right. I couldn’t figure out the shifting mechanism. I couldn’t get it fixed, so I ended up putting it on the internet and selling it.”

The apple of Sprague’s eye these days arrived on a transport truck about 5 years ago after he found an ad for it online. The Westcoaster was more than 50 years old, but had been restored and repainted and didn’t need any major repairs. It carries cheeky “U.S. Male” lettering on its side, but otherwise could be mistaken for an actual working mail truck — albeit one that is operating in a bit of a time warp.

“I’m taking it easy with this one,” Sprague laughs. “I’m 63 now and I don’t do all that dumb stuff you do when you’re a kid!”

3’S A CHARM

Prior to the 1950s, mail carriers operated much like paper boys, delivering mail on foot or delivery bicycles. In some cases, carriers were driven in groups to areas to start their rounds, and then re-supplied with mail along the way if necessary.

The USPS needed a faster and more efficient way to get mail into people’s hands during the population boom following World War II, however, and in 1950 the city of Miami, Fla., began experimenting with three-wheeled scooters. Some were electric, others were propelled by one- or two-cylinder gas engines. The three-wheeled scooter idea caught on and soon the Post Office Department was testing a bunch of different vehicle prototypes to outfit its carriers in urban areas. More than two dozen designs were apparently tried, including some right-hand-drive setups. The Mailsters turned out to be inexpensive and handy little rigs and soon were being operated in places like Tampa and St. Petersburg. By 1957, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and other locales were also experimenting with three-wheelers. By 1960, more than 5,700 Mailsters were operating nationwide with plans to add many more.

One of the companies involved was the West Coast Machinery Co. of Stockton, Calif. It built golf carts, trash collecting vehicles, resort cars, airport freight haulers, small farm utility trucks and other specialty vehicles. It called its mail delivery truck the Westcoaster. The truck was basically a beefed-up three-wheeled golf car capable of hauling around up to 500 lbs. of mail. It was powered by a 7.5-hp Onan opposed two-cylinder engine that was located under the driver’s bench seat. The Mailster had a safe speed that topped out at about 35 mph, depending on the terrain and nerves of the driver.

The trucks had a three-speed manual transmission that shifted on the column. The turn-key electric starter operated just like a regular automobile, and most seemed to have mechanical chokes that could be used for cold weather starting. There was a gas heater in front, but most heating units probably didn’t get used much in warmer climates. They had fiberglas bodies with metal doors that slid into slots in the body. The Mailsters stood about 74 inches high and stretched 115 inches from nose to tail and weighed in at about 2,600 lbs.

With three tiny wheels and minimal horsepower, the drawbacks to the little three-wheelers were obvious. You had to be very careful going around corners, and you were helpless in snow and ice. At one point, the Post Office Department actually considered forcing their drivers to wear crash helmets. The Mailsters never earned a reputation for great reliability, either. Among their more common maladies were clutch issues, balky fuel pumps and broken front axles.

By 1967, the Mailsters began to give way to delivery Jeeps. The four-wheeled trucks were simply better in almost every way, if not quite as interesting to scooter fans like Sprague. “The Westcoasters were built in California and I can’t believe Wisconsin ever bought any, but they had them here,” Sprague chuckles. “I know Racine, where I live, they only had them for 2 or 3 years because they were useless when it snowed, but they did use them here.”

DELIVERING FOR CHRISTMAS

Ironically, Sprague acquired his snow-challenged vehicle during the heart of the Wisconsin winter five years ago. He knew he’d have to wait a few months to give the ’63 Westcoaster a proper trial run. “It came up on eBay and at that time the guy that had it lived in Pennsylvania,” he says.
I won the bid at Chistmas time. I remember because I was off work for Christmas time… I paid 2,500 bucks for it, and then when the owner got his money I got hooked up with uShip, and had this thing shipped from Pennsylvania to my house for I think $450. I couldn’t go there and pick it up for myself and bring it back for that.”

The engine in the Mailster had been re-done at some point, according to Sprague, and the truck’s body had been patched up, sanded and repainted in its traditional USPS livery – sans the spelling of “Mail.” For the most part, all Sprague has had to do since then is jump in the scooter and have some fun. “It was all restored at one time, I’m not really not playing with any junk,” he says. “They took the body off and put it all back together. I’m mechanically inclined a little bit and I’ve gotten to know more and more things over the years on these things … The hardest thing was the carburetor. I had some trouble with it because of the reformulated gas we have here. I had it fixed once, then I had it fixed twice, then I got lucky and found one new-old-stock in a climate-controlled warehouse in Florida. I got that carburetor home and put that on there and it started right up. One good thing was I joined an online group called Westcoasters USA. These these little things are all over the place and the owners know where to go to [get parts and repairs].”

Sprague will pilot his mail truck in an occasional parade and hit a few car shows now and then. Most of his trips are to his weekly Wednesday cruise-ins at the local McDonald’s during the warm weather months. “At my age, I think I’m looking for attention [laughs],” he says. “I have a Dodge Coronet and I prefer to take my little scooter up to McDonald’s.”

His days of 20-plus mile road trips in a three-wheeler are probably long gone, but Sprague doesn’t let his Mailster sit for long in the summer time. He makes regular grocery runs while staying off the busy streets — or ones that have potholes that haven’t been repaired. “It feels like a golf cart, because it’s got the little wheels,” he says. “You feel every little bump in the road. It’s not a comfortable ride. If I had two guys in the back, I’d be struggling. I’ve got a real steep hill to get to the south side of town, and I try to avoid that hill. I don’t even want to push it.”

“I’ve got an extra set of lights on her. Two are for brakes and two are for directionals, and then I have four-ways on there. I put strobe lights on in case I pul over I can talk to somebody with the strobe lights on.”

He knows no matter where he takes his Westcoaster, he’s going to get some smiles and puzzled looks. A lot of folks aren’t quite sure if he is an on-duty mail man. “I like to take it to the grocery story, and I have no trouble parking right up in front with the motorcycles… Yes, it’s titled as a motorcycle, because it has three wheels,” he says.

“There’s not one person I meet who doesn’t like it. I have one guy who really wants to buy it, and he just says ‘name your price.’ But I can’t sell it. I’m having too much fun with it!”

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The post Car of the Week: 1963 Westcoaster Mailster appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By John Gunnell

Several 1963 American cars broke new ground for the auto industry in styling, equipment and technology. Three particularly “classic ’60s” designs came from Detroit styling studios that year: the Buick Riviera designed by Bill Mitchell, Raymond Loewy studio’s Studebaker Avanti sports car and the Corvette Sting Ray that Bill Mitchell dreamed up during a fishing trip. To sweeten the pot, the Sting Ray of ’63 had a one-year-only “split-rear-window” styling triumph.

All three of these iconic designs were fashion hits in an era that generated passion for all two-door sports-personal cars, such as the Ford Thunderbird, Oldsmobile Starfire, Studebaker GT Hawk and Pontiac Grand Prix. Sportiness, luxury and performance in glitzy packages held strong appeal for “jet setters” of the early ’60s. Bucket seats and floor-mounted gear selectors were all the rage. Buyers wanted racy cars with something-special looks with potential to draw stares.

Important manufacturing innovations of 1963 included a Riviera rear window that needed no weather stripping. AMC started stamping Rambler door frames out of galvanized steel. The Corvette revived retractable headlamps and Pontiac adopted a new bake-sand-bake painting process. The venerable Chevy received a cast-iron crankshaft with seven main bearings and started a new trend.

Aluminum engines didn’t fare well. Pontiac dropped its alloy V-8 and Chrysler discarded its aluminum Slant Six, but the “cubic inch race” continued and the number of cars built with 144- to 200-cid engines fell 26 percent. In contrast, the number of cars with engines displacement greater than 400 cubic inches doubled the figure of 1961. Chevy installed 3,670 409s, Pontiac turned out 3,670 big 421 cars, Chrysler Corp. produced 2,130 wedge-head 426 machines and Ford shoe-horned 4,978 of its 427-cid high-performance V-8s into engine bays.

With the U.S. economy picking up steam, the compact cat market began to shift in an important way. Overall sales of compacts were up, largely because car sales were up in general. There were now 11 compacts from which to choose: Chevy II, Corvair, Tempest, F-85, Special, Falcon, Comet, Valiant, Dart, Rambler and Lark. However, market share for compacts declined from 35.2 percent to 32.9 percent, although sporty compacts were selling better. Sales of small two-door hardtops were up two percent and compact convertibles sold nearly 12 percent better. This is the trend that Ford’s Mustang tapped into.

Many small engineering refinements of 1963 were important: Cadillac’s five-joint drive shaft — which had one single joint and two double joints — gave a smooth ride, even if a slight misalignment developed. Olds mounted its V-8 flatter and farther ahead to reduce the height of the drive tunnel and increase roominess. The trend towards floor shifts and consoles turned many coupes and convertibles (and a few sedans and wagons) into five-seat cars.

Many of the year’s advances in automotive styling and technology were summed up in the three iconic designs of the year, which were all sports-oriented, powerful two-door models. They led the pack and we’ll look at each of them below.

Riviera: Iron fist in a velvet glove

Buick used the Riviera name on its early postwar hardtops when it described its two-door hardtop as a “Riviera Coupe.” When the four-door hardtop arrived in 1955, it was called the Riviera Sedan. The all-new ’63 Riviera came only as a hardtop coupe, and it was far different than earlier Rivieras. For one thing, instead of being just a unique body style, it was a totally unique car. It also brought leading-edge design to Buick for 1963, which also helped change the entire image of Buick Motor Division during the period.

The Riviera began as an effort by GM styling chief Bill Mitchell to revive the LaSalle, a Cadillac companion car built from 1927-1940. The LaSalle is famous for being the first car to come out of GM’s Art & Color design studio. In 1955, Buick stylist Ned Nickles — the father of the fabulous ’53 Skylark — designed an experimental LaSalle II. Around the same time, public reaction convinced GM that it needed a sports-personal car to compete with the Thunderbird. The development program was assigned to Buick and the Riviera name was selected to replace LaSalle.

Mitchell was a great talent in car design, and the Riviera was among his crowning achievements. With its Rolls-Royce-like, razor-shape body lines, the Riviera had a hint of classic styling that blended perfectly with up-to-date motifs such as a long hood-short deck configuration and restrained use of bright metal trim. It was also one of those iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove cars with Buick “nailhead” V-8 power under its hood. The first Riviera could get through the standing-start quarter-mile in 16 seconds and looked great doing it. In addition, it handled well, too.

The Riviera came in one model priced at $4,333 and weighing slightly less than 4,000 lbs. It had a 117-in. wheelbase and was 208 in. long. The base 401-cid V-8 produced 325 hp. It pushed power through a two-speed Turbine Drive automatic transmission. Standard equipment included front and rear bucket seats, a console, deep-pile carpeting and a smoking set. The Riviera was aimed at affluent buyers, and only the Electra 225 convertible cost more with a price tag $35 higher than that of the Riviera.

Sting Ray: Sea creature-inspired

The ’63 Corvette Sting Ray was all new and an evolution of the Mitchell Sting Ray race car. Bill Mitchell replaced Harley Earl as head of GM styling in 1958. He thought it was important to race the ’Vette and persuaded Chevy general manager Ed Cole to sell him the 1957 Corvette SS “mule” chassis, which he obtained for just $1. Mitchell then had designer Larry Shinoda create a manta ray-inspired body for it, which influenced the production 1963 Corvette.

“Oohs” and “aahs” went to the new “split-window” Corvette fastback coupe. Shinoda created the “split-window” that Mitchell loved, although chief Corvette engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov was dead set against the vision-impairing feature of the design. Zora eventually had the split-window canned before the 1964 model year, so it was offered just one year and remains collectible.

On both ’Vette models (there was also a convertible model), the front fenders had two long, non-functional louvers resembling brake cooling ducts. The rear deck resembled that of the ’62 model, but the rest of the car was totally different. Hide-away headlamps were housed in an electrically operated panel and enhanced the car’s aerodynamics.

Firsts for Corvette in ’63 included optional knock-off wheels, air conditioning and leather seats. Four engines based on the 327 offered 250, 300, 340 or 360 hp. The 360-hp job had Rochester fuel injection.

Avanti: Design that survived its maker

The Studebaker Avanti was conceived as a way to save the South Bend, Ind., automaker. Industrial designer Raymond Loewy was responsible for guiding a team of talented designers in their effort to produce a Euro-styled Grand Touring car that could change Studebaker’s stodgy ’60s image. Studebaker president Sherwood Egbert asked for a closed four-seat model with an aerodynamic shape. He got a milestone design that survived the company.

Loewy hadn’t worked for Studebaker since his 1956 redesign of the Hawk series, so he gathered designers John Ebstein, Robert Andrews and Tom Kellogg at a house in Palm Springs, Calif., and wrote a new chapter in automotive styling history. What his crew came up with was a startlingly different look that literally stopped people in their tracks. The Loewy group’s scale model went to production with nearly no changes from his design.

In profile, the body of the car resembled a horizontal Coke bottle: narrow in front, bulging over the front wheels, then tapering in the center and flaring out at the rear. It had large glass areas and a flat roof with a built-in roll bar. The front fenders were angular with flat edges. There was no grille. The front consisted of V-shaped flat panels that slanted forward at the bottom and carried large headlamps in large, square, bright-finished housings. The hood had an asymmetrical hump. Inside were four bucket seats in an aircraft-like interior layout with lots of crash padding. The look was light and functional.

Three engines were offered for ’63: the base R1, the supercharged R2 and the seldom-seen and expensive R3. The R1 was a respectable, if somewhat unexciting 280-cid, 240-hp V-8. The highly promoted R3 was rare. The R2 was readily available and only $210. While it lacked the brute force of other muscle cars, the use of a small, supercharged V-8 and the clever use of existing Studebaker parts created a car with fast acceleration and great handling.

The Avanti received a publicity boost from a successful assault on existing American speed records. In August 1962, an R3 established several new marks including a 168.15-mph two-way Flying Mile. Early in ’63, a near-stock four-speed R2 averaged 158.15 mph through the measured mile. Road and Track reported a 7.3-second 0-to-60 mph time for the four-speed R2. In addition to being fast, the Avanti was rare. With a model-year run of just 3,834 units, Studebaker’s sports-personal car was a true limited-edition vehicle.

Stars of ’63 50 years later

Now we have reached the 50th anniversary of these iconic 1963 model cars. They are designs that made the fourth year of the ’60s stand out in automotive history much like the earlier years of 1903, 1932, 1940, 1955 and 1957. It is hard to say why the industry peaks in certain years when design trends and engineering developments converge to spurn the creation of great automobiles, but there’s little doubt that 1963 was a special time for special cars.

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Standard Catalog of American Cars: 1805-1942

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The post Sixties Swingers: Special ’63s celebrate 50 years of cool appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.