Bob Klug has a surefire way to make himself feel better if he’s ever down or needs a little pick-me-up. He knows from experience that it’s pretty hard to be in a bad mood when you are behind the wheel of his crazy, colorful 1970 AMC Rebel Machine.

“It’s been phenomenal to own,” says the resident of Hartland, Wis. “It’s definitely an ego boost. If I’m ever having a bad day I just go out for a ride and I feel a lot better when I come back!”

Klug has had his sweet AMC a long time — since 1984 — but it’s only been about five years that he’s had it back on the road and in fighting shape. The road to restoration was a long, slow grind, but the end result was pretty spectacular. He now gets to prowl the streets in a rare beast that stands out in any crowd.

The whole saga started about 39 years ago when Klug wasn’t even yet an AMC fan. He wasn’t all that familiar with the hairy Rebel Machines, but he decided to take a swing at owning one after talking with a close friend who had been buying cars in Florida, bringing them back to Wisconsin and then flipping them.

“He came back from one of these trips and said, ‘There is this car I wanted to get, but I just didn’t have enough money.’ And he said it was a Rebel Machine, and I said, ‘I remember those.’ … I had gotten a settlement from a motorcycle accident. And my wife being pregnant said, ‘Yeah, a four-wheel toy is fine but not a two-wheel toy.’ So I gave him the money and I said ‘Wave this in front of him and see if he’ll bite,’ and the following week he called me and said ‘I’m bringing your car back from Florida.’ He knew the machine was rare that’s why he really wanted it, and when I gave him the extra money [he bought it].”

A Rebel Machine seems like it would be a difficult car to steal, with its rarity and instantly recognizable patriotic paint scheme, but apparently Klug’s AMC had been swiped early in its life and never fully recovered.

“I found out the car was stolen from the original owner six months after he bought it. It was recovered two years later, believe it or not. The transmission was gone, the interior including the dash, was gone. The engine was still in it, and the rear end was still in it. But that was about it. Everything else was pretty much gone.”

A replacement interior had been put in the car at some point that was from a Matador SST and wasn’t quite correct. The original automatic transmission had also been replaced by a Borg-Warner T-10. 

“That was normally assigned to The Machine with the Hurst shifter and linkage and stuff like that,” Klug pointed out. “So that’s about the only stock thing he was able to get back into it at that point.”

The flashy original paint scheme had also been altered. Klug didn’t mind the way The Rebel Machine looked when he got it, but he knew he wanted make the car look stock again.

“It was in Florida and the stripes that are on them are 3M reflective tape, and the Florida sun faded out and cracked the original stripes,” Klug said. “So he had them stripped off and painted on, which then of course took away from the gimmick factory of the reflectivity of the stripes. You could get a Rebel Machine in any color, but then the hood would have been in a Shadow Black. Well, [the previous owner] liked the black hood, so here it is painted white with painted-on red, white and blue stripes with a black hood and across the bottom quarter panels it was done in Big Bad Blue, which was another color that he thought was pretty cool.”

“So it wasn’t true to its original paint scheme and things like that, but it didn’t really matter to me.”

LIVING FAST, DYING YOUNG

AMC officially joined the muscle car battle royal in 1968 when it unveiled cars like the 390-powered AMX and Javelin SST. Two years later it launched another haymaker when the loud and proud Rebel Machine showed up. It had AMC’s top-shelf 340-horse 390 V-8 along with a four-speed, close-ratio tranny, a Hurst shifter, lighted 8000-rpm hood tach, Ram Air, 3.54:1 or 3.91:1 rear axles, heavy-duty shocks and springs, a low-back-pressure dual exhaust system, front and rear sway bars, 15-inch raised white-letter tires, styled wheels, high-back bucket seats and power disc brakes.

“Standing before you is the car you’ve always wanted,” AMC proclaimed in December 1969 magazine ad. The ad showed The Machine that had actually debuted two months earlier at the National Hot Rod Association World Championship drag races.

The ad copy warned, “Incidentally, if you have delusions of entering the Daytona 500 with The Machine, or challenging people at random, the Machine is not that fast. You should know that. For instance, it is not as fast on the getaway as a 427 Corvette, or a Hemi, but it is faster on the getaway than a Volkswagen, a slow freight train, and your old man’s Cadillac.” Which meant it was plenty fast enough.

The Rebel Machine came with a price tag of $3,475, a 114-inch wheelbase and curb weight of 3,640 lbs. It clocked 14.4-second quarter-miles at 98 mph speed and had a patriotic paint scheme that was rivaled only by its SC/Rambler sibling

The first 100 “Machines” delivered from the AMC factory in Kenosha, Wis. were finished in white. Hurst Performance Products did up the lower beltline stripes and hood in blue and then added red stripes on the upper body sides. At the rear, red-white-and-blue stripes ran across the fender tips and deck. Special “The Machine” emblems were tacked on the front fender sides and on the rear trim panel’s right-hand side.

For buyers who didn’t like the patriotic paint scheme, AMC advertised, “If you like everything about it except for the paint job, which admittedly looks startling, you can order the car painted in the color of your choice.” When buyers did this, they got silver striping and the blacked-out hood. The original color scheme became a $75 option.

Sadly, all this flash and dash produced sales led to the production of only 2,326 cars, which made the Rebel Machine a one-year wonder. A year later, AMC instead put its marketing efforts behind the Hornet SC/360 and renamed the Rebel the Matador.

24 YEARS TO DAYLIGHT

Klug figures his Rebel Machine had to be one of the only ones in existence that had a trailer hitch on it. Apparently, it spent more time pulling a trailer than it did racing between stoplights or collecting pink slips at a race track.

“He said he didn’t drive it much, he only used it because of the amount of horsepower and torque that the car had to tow his jet boat down the ocean,” Klug recalls.

The car also had a rust spot on the rear fender that Klug decided was one of the first things to work on.

“I stripped the car completely myself in order to get it back to original condition and I wanted to find out what kind of shape the body was in, so I stripped it right down to bare metal,” he says. “A guy who worked at AMC told me the right front fender of an AMC Ambassador has the same wheel moldings as what’s on The Machine. So I went to a swap meet and found a ’68 right front fender from Oklahoma that was beautiful. I brought it to my body guy and he was able to cut out all the rust and cut out what he needed from the fender and he welded it right in place and matched it up perfectly. Then I had all the body work done that it needed and had it painted and the stripes put on it.”

At the same time, Klug had a couple of fellow AMC enthusiasts who happened to race AMCs and work on engines tackle the 390 V-8. 

“They put a dual-roller timing chain in and hardened the valve seats so I could run unleaded premium fuel in the car.”

It was then that Klug says life interfered with progress on The Machine. The engine and bodywork were pretty much done, but the car didn’t have an interior and there was plenty of other work to be done. But it was all going to have to wait.

“In 1992 I shelved the car for 24 years,” he says. “I stored it in a buddy’s pole barn – the same guy who had found the car for me. It sat in his pole barn for 24 years. Life’s priorities came up, like building my home and putting my two girls through college and getting them married off.” [laughs]

In 2016, Klug says he was ready to get the car out of mothballs and “start over on basically everything but the body. 

“It was still in good shape, but the paint on the engine block had peeled off and it had been sitting all that time. I hadn’t started it in the 24 years that it had been sitting there.”

Klug enlisted the help of Mike Kusch at Hartland Service, which does a lot of engine and mechanical work for the local collector car and hot rod crowd. 

“He got the car set up with a temporary gas tank and things like that. He called me up and said I’m getting ready to fire this thing up. And this is after we put Marvel’s Motor Magic in the cylinders and let it sit for 48 hours. First turn of the key it fired right up …. We haven’t had to do anything to the engine since that time, so hats off to those two guys that freshened up that engine. They knew what they were doing.”

Klug was able to source a new interior and door panels from Legendary Interiors. He had plenty of other odds and attends to finish and loose ends to tie up, including refurbishing the hood tach. Ironically, he said waiting for some many years may have actually made finishing the car easier. In the intervening 24 years, the number of companies making reproduction parts grew, and the arrival of the Internet made finding them a much easier task.

There weren’t a lot of options boxes to check when it came time to buy a Rebel Machine back in ’70. Klug noted that his AM/FM radio is optional, and he has most — but not all — of the parts for the optional factory air-conditioning unit that was on the car. If he ever locates a couple more pieces, he figures he’ll put the A/C back in.

For now, though, he figures his parts chasing days are mostly over and all he needs to do is take the AMC out for regular exercise. The local interstate is not far away, and Klug has no problem getting the red, white and blue coupe out in the passing lane and flattening the gas pedal. When he does, the front end rises up and the hefty AMC screams like the old days.

“It’s funny, I was coming home from a show and a guy pulled up next to me in a Hellcat Challenger,” Klug laughs. “And it was a long stoplight, and the guy looks over and says, ‘Well, you wanna go?’ I said ‘Are you crazy? You have twice the horsepower that I have, and if you break something you can get it fixed. I don’t have that luxury!”

“But then I told him, ‘One thing you’ll never be able to beat; my car made your car possible!’”

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Anybody who doesn’t have fond memories of the 1970s needs to spend a little time with Jim Maher.

For Maher, a resident of Appleton, Wis., almost every day is an episode right out of “That ‘70s Show,” the iconic series that made Fez, Kelso, Donna, and the Formans all household names. Maher has a groovy little collection of ‘70s vehicles, including a time capsule 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser wagon that has made him a bit of a local celebrity.

“It’s a really pretty car, and everywhere we go, people love it,” Maher chuckles. “I go to McDonald’s and the girl in the drive-thru goes, ‘Oh you have the ‘Hello WI’ plate, you are the coolest guy in the Valley!’ And I’m driving this. I’m driving a Vista around and she thinks I’m cool!’”

Having any 50-year-old car as finely preserved as Maher’s Vista is probably cause for celebration. Having a family hauler — and a very fancy one at that — that somehow survived in such pristine condition borders on miraculous. 

“I’ve had muscle cars and stuff, but this car attracts more people than any of them …because I think it’s just an ‘Everyman’ car,” Maher offers. “You grew up with these sitting in the back seat. It’s really approachable. It’s just a wagon and everybody remembers them. Of course, people recognize the plate. And then again the Vista wasn’t just a cheap wagon. Even the base Vista was probably $300 more than the Chevy, and that was a lot of money back then. These were just a little different.”

Maher first started entertaining the idea of buying an old station wagon back around 2000, but he wasn’t after a Vista Cruiser. His mind changed in a hurry when he saw this one in the flesh, however. 

“I really wanted a ‘clam shell,’ the big ’71-’76 GMs. I really wanted one of those!” he laughs. “I had gone all over the country and then I’d show up and they weren’t quite how they were described. Then this one popped up on 442.com right down in Naperville, Ill. It was so close I figured I better go look and it only had 43,000 miles on it! … [The seller] was like, ‘I don’t know why no one is looking at this car. Everyone is just glossing over it, but this is the car everybody wants.’ When I saw it I was like, ‘Wow, I will never find another Vista Cruiser like this.’ It’s so solid. It’s unrestored. I took it to Olds Nationals in Minneapolis in ’03, and I got 950 out of 1,000 points in the Unrestored Class. They dinged me like 20 points for a scratch in the window and some belts and little stuff.”

And as far as being known as Appleton’s Red Forman? Well, Maher would like to set the record straight.

“Everybody calls me Red! No, I grew up in the ‘70s, so I feel more like Eric. I might look more like Red, act like Red. I’ve got a couple kids and sometimes I want to put my foot in their a– … but inside I’m just Eric [laughs].”

OLDSMOBILE’S WONDER WAGON

For the first time in the United States, 18-year-olds were eligible to vote in 1971. Disney World opened in Florida, Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit Mars, postage stamps were 8 cents, and Archie, Edith and the Meathead propelled “All in the Family” to the top of the Nielsen ratings.

It was also the first time since 1965 that the Vista Cruiser was not the largest Olds wagon. That honor went to the new Custom Cruiser. Size certainly wasn’t the most memorable thing about the fabulous Vista Cruisers, however. They were more known for their calling card second-row skylights and glass side panels, step-up roof profiles and “dual action” tailgates. (The full-size Custom Cruiser wagons on the Olds 98 chassis still had the memorable “clam shell” with the disappearing tailgate)

The Vista Cruisers were fixtures of the Oldsmobile lineup through three generations from 1964-1977, serving as top-of-the-line transportation for the thousands of families in the pre-minivan/pre-SUV ’60s and ’70s. The second-gen Vista Cruiser bowed in 1968 and ran through ’72, filling the middle slot in the Olds wagon line as a two- or three-seat model. Standard equipment included: woodgrain trim, cigarette lighter, V-8 engine, carpeting, moldings, windshield radio antenna, seat belts with shoulder harnesses, raised vista roof and chrome hubcaps. Upholstery was vinyl or cloth. Standard tire size was H78-14.

The options list was lengthy and included the 455-cid two- and four-barrel V-8s in addition to the base 350 two-barrel that was rated at 240 hp. Although they were considered intermediates in size, the Vistas utilized 121-inch wheelbases with doors and fames that were cut-and-stretched 5 inches longer than the Cutlass models. This gave the Vista Cruiser a cavernous 105.2 cubic feet of cargo room, which was actually almost 12 cubic feet more than the Cutlass Cruiser. At more than 218.3 inches and more than 4,200 lbs., the Vistas still took up a lot of room in the garage.

The two-row versions were not as popular with the buying public as the three-row, nine-passenger versions. For 1971, 9,317 of the two-row models like Maher’s were built at a base price of $3,865. A total of 20,566 nine-passenger wagons were built for the model year with a hefty $4,007 base price tag.

BABIED FROM THE BEGINNING

As far as Maher knows, he is the third owner of his Olds wagon, and he certainly appreciates the care the first two owners gave the car. The original owner was a woman from the Reading, Pa., area, who purchased it from Bayliss Oldsmobile back in 1971. “I don’t know much about it … I’ve love to know more of the car’s history from back then. I would be great if somebody from the Reading area knew about the car or remembered it,” Maher says. “Evidently, she had it until she went into assisted living at around the turn of the century and that’s when Jim Martino bought it. He is a hot-rodder and he was planning to make it into a drag car — a drag wagon — but then he decided it was too nice for that. So I bought it from Jim.

“It was obviously kept inside. These things hold water, with all the channels on top and everything. They are beautiful to look at … but if it sits outside water just sits in there and rots through. And the floors rot. This car was obviously taken very good care of.”

As much as he’d like to leave the wagon untouched, Maher has had to do some maintenance and cosmetic tweaks over the years to keep the Vista Cruiser in show-stealing condition. He added 15-inch SS1 rims in place of the 14-inch base wheels the car came with, and he swapped in a four-spoke Sport steering wheel. Both would have been optional factory upgrades from Oldsmobile in 1971. He has also re-done the brakes, brake booster and master cylinder, shocks and exhaust to keep the wagon running and sounding as good as it looks. For the most part, the stock 350-cid, two-barrel GM power plant remains untouched. 

“That’s just the basic engine, and I like survivors so I don’t mess with it too much,” Maher says. “I just keep it running and if it needs something I give it to it.”

Perhaps the biggest project Maher has tackled so far is re-covering the front and rear seats.

“The cool thing about this one is it’s a base Vista. This is the way the Vistas came I think, with air conditioning and Dinoc (wood grain vinyl), the roof rack. I think the air dam in back was a dealer-installed option. But the goofy thing about this car is the black interior. Most of these had brown or blue or green. Very few had black interiors. I think it looks good, it’s kind of sporty.”

“When I got it, the seats were beautiful, but they were dry and cracking. I took it to Tri-Power Upholstery in Fremont [Wi.], and she did a beautiful job. She took the seats and made a pattern, because it’s a unique pattern for the Vista… and cut these just the same way, and I love it. The seats still looked good, but they had just dried out. That’s what happens to those cars. But it’s perfect now!”

“It’s got the original headrests. The door panels, carpet, headliner, that’s all original. The paint is probably 99 percent original. Up on top it’s checking with age, and there is a couple little areas where you can look close and [see] it’s been sprayed… but I talked to people who said that might have actually been done on the assembly line. They would fire up a compressor and just shoot it going down the line.”

Even at 21 years and counting, there is such delight in Maher’s voice when he talks about his station wagon, the question of what he plans to do with doesn’t even need to be asked. There is no chance he’s ever parting with his fabulous monument to the ’70s. Just the thought of anyone else owning it hurts worse than a shag carpet burn.

“This is my baby and I’m never getting rid of it and everybody knows it. My kids like it, which is cool. I think they’ll keep it rolling…. Other ones come and go, but this one is staying for sure,” he says. “I don’t want to restore it, I don’t want to paint it. I want it to stay like this forever. I told my wife [Andrea] that she can bury me in it.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Bill Hitchcock knew the judges missed one little flaw.

It was two summers ago in Lisle, Ill., outside of Chicago and Hitchock was having his stellar 1964 LeSabre sport coupe judged in the Archival Class for all-original cars at the big Buick National Meet. He knew that if the judges looked hard enough, the could find at least one thing that would get him docked a point.

“They have a 400-point scoring system and they put two judges on this car and it got what’s called the Elite Award, which is 385 points or higher,” Hitchcock recalled. “I had to request my score from Nationals and I got it in the mail, and I got 400 out of 400. They couldn’t find anything wrong.

“Well, the one thing that they missed was the oil filter was a NAPA. It wasn’t an AC filter, but it was turned and they couldn’t read the NAPA on it!”

Given that it batted .1000 in front of eagle-eyed Buick judges, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call Hitchcock’s amazing Buick the best original ’64 LeSabre in existence — and maybe the best of its kind period, restored or not. Somehow, the car has passed through a long string of owners around the country and remained in near-perfect condition. There doesn’t seem to be any particular rhyme or reason for while a big, family cruiser — meant to be a cushy family hauler and daily transportation — would be so pampered its whole life. The LeSabre currently shows just 33,000 miles and change on the clock, and Hitchcock is responsible for about 2,000 of those in the short time he has had it.

“It was owned by collectors from day one,” he chuckles. “That’s the difference with this one. It just never got driven.”

As thrilled as Hitchcock is to have finally given the LeSabre a permanent home, he actually missed a chance to land it earlier. Somehow, fate just seemed to insist that he and the car hooked up.

“I tell people the car found me,” says. “I live in Milwaukee, and in 2017 we had the Buick Nationals in Milwaukee. And an individual from Indianapolis named Todd Jaworski called me and had two Buicks he wanted to bring up from Indianapolis and he had only one trailer, and he asked me which one of these I wanted to store. I said I got room, I’ll take the LeSabre and store if for you.”

“Well, he took it to the show and he wanted to sell it, but nobody would buy it. So he ended up coming back to my house and we almost made a deal for it, but it wound up falling through, and instead of going back to Indianapolis, he took it up to the Lake Superior Region and put it in a building. Fast froward to 2022 and now the Buick National are bing held in Lyle, Ill., and I’m about call him because I have a big neon sign that fits his ’54 convertible, and the phone rings and it’s him! He asked if I still had the sign and I said yes. I said do you still have the LeSabre and he said yes. So we worked a deal where he brought the car to my house. This car was in my garage twice, it was the only time I had seen it and I bought it!”

THE LESABRE LEGACY

The long-running LeSabre nameplate debuted for the 1959 model year as the lowest-priced offering Invicta and Electra series, but by 1961 its status was elevated with the introduction of the bottom-tier Special line. The first-gen LeSabre proved to be extremely popular wherever it was positioned and wound up being Buick’s top seller from 1959 through 1964.

By 1961, GM made the LeSabre slimmer, and sleeker, and the car remained a strong seller. A big redesign was in the way in 1965, but 1964 models still got a mild refresh that included a handsome new stamped grille in front. A narrow bright bodyside molding decorated the back third of the body, with the series signature residing above it, near the fender end.

Standard goodies on the LeSabres included electric windshield wipers; Step-On parking brake; padded instrument panel; directional signals; front and rear armrests; dual sun shades; courtesy lights; dual horns and cloth upholstery. Cloth and vinyl trim was optional. The convertible was trimmed in all-vinyl, with front bucket seats optional. A Custom trim package option included full-length bright bodyside moldings, with a brushed metallic insert.

Also new for 1964 was the 300-cid V-8 rated at 210 hp. It replaced the old 401-cid “Nailhead” V-8. A 250-hp version with four-barrel carburetion was also optional. A three-speed manual on the tree was standard with a four-speed on the options list. A two-speed Super Turbine 300 automatic transmission could be mated with the two-barrel 300 V-8. A three-speed Super Turbine 400 came with the four-barrel versions and the 401-cid V-8 that was still used in the Estate Wagon.

Inside, the LeSabres were tough to beat. Leg and headroom were spacious, and the seats were soft and inviting — worthy of a high-end 1960s “cocktail cruiser.” passengers were met with ample brightwork, lots of room and living room chair comfort. The huge instrument panel was clean and uncluttered, with two large round gauges serving a variety of functions, all set back under a padded dash surround.

Buyers could order their ’64 LeSabre as a four-door hardtop or sedan, two-door sport coupe or two-door convertible. The two station wagons were technically grouped in their own series and were trimmed as LeSabres and equipped with the Wildcat’s chassis and power trains. The LeSabre four-door sedan was by far the most popular of all Buicks for 1964 with 56,729 produced. Hitchcock’s car was one of 24,177 sport coupes built for the model year and would have carried a base price of $3,061 before any of the accessory boxes were checked.

Hitchcock’s LeSabre still carries its original 300-cid V-8 mated to an automatic transmission. “It’s the Wildcat 355. It’s 355 ft.-lbs. of torque and 250 hp,” he notes.

 “Then it has the Super Turbine transmission; power steering; power brakes; power windows; power seats; power antenna; power seats; power antenna; vacuum-operated trunk; console; bucket seats; tinted glass in the front; no air – for a California car that seems unusual. And it’s still got the original floor mats!”

Buyers and GM brass all seemed to remain fond of the LeSabre through many generations. The name first appeared in 1959 and held down the fort as Buick’s lynch-pin mid-level full-size do-everything machine. Buick never really deviated from the formula of a plush, full-size, rear-drive heavyweight available in multiple body sizes that appeal to a wide-range of buyers (at least those not looking for a compact economy car). The LeSabre finally bowed out in 2005 after a run of 46 consecutive years.

33,000 MILES … AND COUNTING

Hitchcock inevitably has to retell the ownership history of his ’64 when show-goers stop and take the time to understand how pristine and unusual his big Buick hardtop is. He is still a little incredulous himself at how the car has sailed so cleanly through so many garages without a scratch.

“The very first guy was in Los Angeles. He bought it and I think he tried to fake it as a Wildcat to his wife because it’s got all the cool stuff [like a Wildcat],” he says. “It’s got power windows, the bucket seats, all that…As near as I can tell, he owned the car for 29 years, and then he sold it to a guy on the East Coast who is kind of famous, named Captain Jim Brown. He took it from California on a trailer to Virginia where he lived. And he wound up with first places in National Antique Automobile Club of America [shows], and then he got up in years and he sold it in 1999 with 29,000 miles on it. At that point I lost some of the history on it. It resurfaced in Carlisle and Hershey, out in Pennsylvania, and then it disappeared for a while and it wound up in a Raleigh auction, where [the last owner] bought it.”

“The guy I bought it from had it 6 years and put 109 miles on it. But everybody that owned this car has treated it as a show car — until me! I’m the guy who has taken it from trailer queen to highway driver. It’s got 33,000 miles on it now.”

Even for the most discerning eyeballs, it would be hard to find a flaw on Hitchcock’s baby. It simply looks like a brand new car from bumper to bumper, inside and out. He doesn’t blame people who seem skeptical when they see the LeSabre for the first time and find out the car has never really been touched, other than cleaning and routine maintenance.

“If you look close at the paint, it’s not perfect!” he laughs. “It’s factory paint. They weren’t perfect. But the thing is it’s never really been out in the sun.”

The only thing Hitchcock says he’s done to the Buick is swap out the deteriorating bias-ply tires for some radials so he can safely drive it. For all its wonderful “time capsule” qualities, he says he bought the full-size coupe to drive and enjoy, not just admire.

“This is just what I call a turn-key car. You just get in it and go,” he says. “With the bias tires it drifted all over the road. With the radials it’s straight and true. It shifts flawlessly. I’ve never driven it above 75 mph, I like to keep it at 60, 65 … It’s got that annoying speed alert buzzer when you go too fast. But it drives beautifully. It doesn’t sway much… It’s got a little bit of a heavy-duty suspension to it.”

“So yes, I’m going to continue driving it. It’s just a really nice car, and I’m going to enjoy it.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1964 Buick LeSabre appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

The “gone but not forgotten” saga of Gene Leopold’s 1967 Ford Mustang GT was almost more of a “gone and good riddance” story.

But Gene’s son Kris was determined to change the ending.

It’s not that Gene, a resident of Superior, Wis., didn’t like the hot Acapulco Blue Mustang GT he bought new back in 1967. Heck, he custom ordered it exactly the way he wanted it, and he loved driving it for the first five years of the car’s life.

But when Kris wanted to play detective and determine if the car still existed many years later­ — and maybe see if he and his dad could somehow get it back — Gene wasn’t so sure.

“We had a couple of pictures of the car, with the license plate on it, and my son was always asking me about it and saying, ‘Man, I’d like to buy that car!’ I figured the car probably didn’t exist anymore and had been crushed or something… Well, my wife knew somebody at the police department and she asked him if he could help us locate the car, and he got back to us and told us who had it. And it was the same fella I sold it to!”

That was about 35 years ago, and Kris and Gene couldn’t resist. They had to go look at the car in person in Ashland, Wis., and see if they could buy it back. And while they had succeeded in finding the car, the happy ending to the story would have to wait a while.

“We went and looked at it, and I just kept saying, ‘Oh man, look how rough it is,’” Gene recalled. “We offered to buy it for $800, and a day later he called us back and changed his mind, said he wasn’t going to sell it.”

That was in about 1990. About 11 years later, Kris sent the man a letter asking again if they could work out a deal to buy the car. This time, the man said yes and stuck to his word. The price had grown to $1,200, but the Leopolds took the deal and dragged the tired Mustang home. Ironically, as rough as it looked, it had barely been driven since Gene had sold it back in 1972.

“It’s crazy,” Gene said. “I drove that car to the East Coast when I had it, and he drove it to the West Coast, but he put it in the ditch and ruined one shock tower, so he quit driving it. He had it in the garage all that time, sitting on a gravel floor, and it just started rusting away. Him and his brother, I think they wanted to restore it, but it’s expensive restoring something like this, because it was so bad. But he was a single guy, he never got married, and he just couldn’t let go of the car.”

After finally locating the car, waiting years for a deal to materialize, retrieving it and getting it back home, Gene admits he still had a few regrets. He wasn’t convinced trying to rebuild the Mustang was a good idea.

“When we first got it back, it was so bad I didn’t even really want it,” he says. “That’s the truth. That’s what it came down to.”

1967: Days of Thunder

For 1967, competition in the so-called sports-compact market was noticeable stiffer. Mercury introduced its fancy version of the Mustang — the Cougar — in 1967. Chevrolet, which had little success responding to the Mustang with the dying Corvair, chose to develop its own entirely new sport-compact model for 1967 it called the Camaro. The Firebird was Pontiac’s version of the Camaro, and it bowed in mid-1967, six months after the Camaro.

Ford was hard pressed to improve on the classic Mustang it had introduced in 1964, but it had to. The competition was getting very keen, indeed. Lee Iacocca and company did a great job with a tough assignment. 

The 1967 Mustang received a jazzy new body, a wider tread for better road grip and a wider range of engine choices. Options included a built-in heater/air conditioner, an overhead console, stereo-sonic tape system, SelectShift automatic transmission that also worked manually, a bench seat, an AM/FM radio, fingertip speed control, custom exterior trim group and front power disc brakes. Styling followed the same theme as the original, but in a larger size.

On the exterior, the 1967 Mustang was heftier and more full-fendered. Especially low and sleek was the new 2+2 fastback, which featured all-new sheet metal. The roofline had a clean, unbroken sweep downward in a distinctive concave rear panel. Functional air louvers in the roof rear quarters were made thinner than before. The wheelbase was unchanged, but overall length grew by nearly 2 inches. Front and rear tread widths went up by 2.1 inches and overall width was 2.7 inches wider at 58.1 inches.

All Mustangs had bigger engine bays. This was necessary, because the first “big-block” option was among the many 1967 hardware upgrades. It was a 390-cid V-8 with 320 hp. This small-bore/long-stroke power plant was related to the Ford FE engine, introduced way back in 1958. It provided a good street-performance option with a low $264 price tag, lots of low-end performance and plenty of torque.

All of the 1966 engines were carried over, plus there was a new 200-hp version of the Challenger 289 V-8 with a two-barrel carburetor. That engine was standard in cars with the GT option. The new designation used on cars with automatic transmission and GT equipment was “GTA”.

Other technical changes included front suspension improvements and a competition handling package that cost quite a bit extra and didn’t go into many cars. The 1967 Mustang GT 2+2 with the 390/325-hp V-8 could do 0-to-60 mph in 7.4 seconds and the quarter mile in 15.6 seconds.

Specific breakdowns were not kept of how many Mustangs carried the GT package, but total Mustang production for 1967 was whopping 472,121, with the hardtop leading the way at 356,217 assemblies, compared to 71,042 fastbacks and 44,808 convertibles. 

Zooming down memory lane

Gene Leopold was a car guy to the bone and he didn’t cut corners when it came time to plunk down his hard-earned cash on a new Mustang in 1967. “I wanted to go fast, basically. Yes I did,” he laughs. “And this was basically the fastest Mustang they had in ’66-’67.”

The blue GT was equipped with the big 390 V-8 with a four-speed, limited-slip differential and 3.25:1 rear gears. It also carried a tachometer, AM radio, fold-down rear seat, heavy-duty battery, extra cooling package, two-tone paint (gray on the tail below the trunk lid), tinted glass and black Comfortweave bucket seats.

“I ordered this car myself when I worked at the dealership in Park Falls [Wis.],” Gene remembers. “I was going with this gal and we got married in August ’68, and I put a trailer hitch on it and I pulled a U-Haul trailer and drove it up to Superior where she was going to school, and I got a job at the Ford dealership there.

“I drag raced it in the Cities, yes I did, but I was actually very careful with the car. I drove it hard…but I took care of it.”

One of Gene’s favorite memories of those early days with the Mustang GT involved racing off and leaving a local police officer in his rearview mirror — a move that didn’t particularly sit well with his father, who was a police officer himself. “I took off out of town and got it up to about 125 and made it around a corner and lost him while he was still trying to get the carbon out of his motor,” he laughs. “I turned into another little town near us and, of course, they never found me… My dad heard the next day about one of the officers ‘chasing and losing a blue Mustang’ and he knew. The next day he’s asking me, ‘Gene, what were you doing last night?’”

Once fatherhood arrived, Gene began to realize the Mustang might not be the ultimate family car. He didn’t want to get rid of it, but eventually he relented, and he never even had to put the GT up for sale. 

“Some guy came by the dealership and said, ‘I’d like to buy your car.’ Out of the blue. And by God, I thought maybe that was the time to sell it to him. So I got rid of it in ’72.”

After Gene and Kris swung and missed at getting their ’67 back the first time, Gene eventually bought and restored another one just like it. “It was identical to it, made two days later in the same factory!” he says. “I bought it out of Wyoming. It was even the same color, Acapulco Blue, but it still wasn’t my original car. I think it was a good thing that we did that, because we restored this car better than we restored that other car.”

Father and son had that first 1967 Mustang GT re-done from top to bottom, with no screw left unturned. After dreaming about having the car back on the road for several decades, they didn’t take any shortcuts.

“It’s my son’s car now. He wanted it more than I did, and he funded most of the restoration,” Gene says. “We had the engine overhauled… had the transmission overhauled. Had the rear end all done. Everything is brand new underneath. Every suspension part is new. Everything was re-done, exactly how we ordered the car. We had to wait an extra two and a half weeks because it had knit-weave vinyl seats. They said we could put standard seats in it and you can have it, I said no, it needs to be knit-weave vinyl, no matter how long it has to sit there.”

Gene laughs and says he still has to pinch himself sometimes when pondering how his “lost and found” Mustang somehow survived and made it back home into his garage. He is quick to credit his son for making it all happen, with maybe a little divine intervention along the way. His first voyage in the car after it was “new again” made it clear that the waiting and effort had all been worth it.

“I was extremely proud. I did not think it would be possible to find this car. I thought it would be crushed like so many were,” he says. “Even though it was so bad, I thought, ‘If we could get this all restored like a new car again, I would just love that… And for my son to have the car!

“Kris is the one who wanted the car more than I did, at the time. And we were lucky, to be able to find it.”

Mustangs get your blood pumping? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week-1966-shelby-mustang-g-t-350-h

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week-1970-ford-mustang-boss-429

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1981-mclaren-m81-mclarens-first-mustang

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There weren’t many cars around in 1958 that had room to haul all of Chet Champion’s kids, and the cavernous 1949 Cadillac Series 75 Limousine was one of the few.

Somehow, the Champion family wound up with one of the rare limos in their Iron Range town of Hibbing, Minn. The monstrous Caddy didn’t have to serve as daily transportation for the family all that often, but it had to be ready when all 10 Champions — and sometimes a few extras — wanted to travel together. The big ’49 was always up to the task and 67 years later, it’s still in the family and looking as good as ever.

“Yeah, we could fit the whole family in this thing, all 10 of us. There were times I stood up between Mom and Dad in the front seat,” recalls Mike Champion, of Roseville, Minn., who now shares custody of the limo with brothers Jon and Dennis. “And sometimes we had a couple of neighbor kids who would come along, so we’ve had 12 in there! I remember [my brother] and my sister, who is a couple years older than I am, used to argue over who got to sit on the armrest, because as a little kid, you couldn’t see out of the windows otherwise.”

Chet sold cars for a living in Hibbing, and it was his connections in the car dealer business that led to the Cadillac landing in his lap. It was an unlikely series of events — there were only 626 of the ’49 Series 75 Limousines built and the Champions had to be one of the only working-class families in the country that had one.

“My dad had a friend who sold cars in Ely, Minnesota … He called him up and said, ‘Chet, I took something in on trade that you might be interested in,’ Champion recalls. “It was this car.” 

A family had bought the Cadillac from a mining company for their 16-year-old son, who commenced to ruin the transmission.
“…If I would have been that 16-year-old kid, the solution to the problem would have been, I would have paid for a new transmission,” Champion said. “Their solution was to trade it in on a ’58 Chevy Impala for the kid, brand new. 

“So Dad went up and took a look at it, and they were asking $495 for it, ‘as is.’ That was in 1958. And my dad talked them down to $445 and they put in the new transmission. I have the original bill of sale and the original bank note that has the Cadillac and my mom’s Maytag washing machine as collateral — honest to God!

“It was originally owned by Oliver Mining Company in Virginia, Minnesota. When their executives flew in from Cleveland, this is what they transported them in. It didn’t get a lot of use in the years that they owned it, but they ultimately traded it to a dealer in Duluth, and the fella from Ely bought it and then my dad bought it.”

Mike Champion still chuckles at the idea that his dad somehow convinced himself — or was talked into — buying a huge, 9-year-old limousine. 

“My dad had demonstrators. He didn’t need this car!” he laughs. “This was a toy car for him. But we could fit the whole family in this thing.”

Mike recalls plenty of lively road trips to Wisconsin with the whole Champion clan packed into the big, black Cadillac. The limo proved to be fun, reliable family transit for about seven years before the brakes went bad in 1965. Nobody probably would have guessed it at the time, but it turned out to be more than 30 years before the Series 75 was back on the road.

A Power Move at Cadillac

The 1949 model year was certainly a time of “something old, something new” at Cadillac. The biggest news for the year was the arrival of the new Kettering overhead-valve 331-cid V-8 rated at 160 hp. Tailfins had been part of a complete redesign of Series 60, 61 and 62 Cadillacs in 1948 and their styling was still fresh in 1949, so there wasn’t much new looks-wise for them that year. However, the giant Series 75 bodies for ’49 were essentially holdovers from 1941 and so they were clearly dated-looking by 1949. The archaic Series 75 Cadillacs rode on a huge 163-inch wheelbase chassis that was used for funeral cars, ambulances and their ilk. Five- and seven-passenger sedans were offered, as were seven- and nine-passenger business sedans. At the top of the heap was the new Series 75 Imperial Limousine with a divider window at a whopping 4,648 lbs. and equally weighty $5,170 sticker price. Included in the deal were such amenities as power-assisted steering, hydraulic power windows, rich leather seats, optional air conditioning, the divider “chauffer” window, self-adjusting suspension, clock, heater, AM radio, dual exhaust, fender skirts and the fancy, stylized “flying goddess” Cadillac hood ornament.

Such grand machines were well beyond the financial means of most Americans, but they were not out of range for the Vatican, which ordered at least one of the limos for the Pope and his entourage. 

The Series Imperial Limousines measured 227 inches from tip to tip. With only 626 built, they have always been a rare sight — Champion says to this day he has still only seen one other in the flesh.

“I was out in Vegas for the NASCAR race in 2000 and went to the Imperial Palace’s car collection,” he says. “As we were leaving, we noticed a sign that they were going to have an auction at the Imperial Palace. And one of the cars they were going to auction was a 1949 Series 75 Limousine…. That was the day after the stock market crashed in 2000, and it sold for $25,000!”

Planning a Surprise Party

“With two kids in college and six more at home, Dad didn’t really have the money to fix it,” recalls Mike, of their ’49’s lengthy slumber that began in 1965. “So he parked it, always planning to get it back on the road someday. Well, in 1995, he still hadn’t gotten it back on the road. He had a heart attack in 1995 and had to go to the hospital, and he really needed to sell the house and move into something handicapped-accessible. And in the hospital he said, ‘Well, I suppose I’ll have to sell the Cadillac.’ And in the room was a bunch of my brothers and sisters, and the room just went silent. Then I spoke up and said, ‘Dad, if you’re going to sell the Cadillac, I’m going to buy it and I’m going to restore it so I can see you drive it. You do what you want,’ because you never told my dad what to do.”

A few weeks after that, Mike, Jon and Dennis took possession of the limo and hatched a plan to have it restored. Two years later, with the help of a restorer friend “who grossly undercharged me,” the boys had completed the remake and were ready to surprise the old man — who had no idea what they were up to. 

Despite its size, the Champions’ Series 75 was a great candidate to be restored at the time. It had somehow avoided serious rust issues in the harsh Iron Range winters, and the interior remained in great shape. The body was stripped, straightened and re-painted, and the faux burled-walnut woodgrain was re-done. All the original leather and mohair upholstery remained, as did the carpet, headliner and almost everything else inside.

The engine and drivetrain were original and serviceable, although eventually both got rebuilds for the sake of reliability.

“There was surface rust on some of the fenders. The body was straight. My dad had built a seven-stall garage to help protect this … and the snow load in March of ’79 — I think it was ’79 — collapsed the roof and there was a dent in the roof. That’s some real heavy steel!” That led to a lengthy search for some stainless trim around the windshield that needed to be replaced, but otherwise, there wasn’t a lot of parts chasing involved in the restoration.

“It was all taken down to bare metal. I have a good friend who owned a body shop and he did this one and my wife’s ’72 Camaro … It was done on his terms, there was no time frame,” Mike relates.

Two years later, on Father’s Day 1997, the brothers decided it was time for the big reveal. Cue the box of tissues.

“Dad did not know the car was done and he was over at our house. We were inside for a while and I finally said, ‘Dad, let’s go out in the backyard and play some bocci ball.’ I lived on the golf course in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and the original No. 3 tee box is in my backyard. And we had the car parked on that spot, and when we went out there and saw it, he looked the car over … it was probably 5 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. I came up to him and put my arm around him said, ‘Dad, would you like to drive your car?’ We didn’t have the whole family there, because we are kind of spread out around the country, but we had myself and a couple of my brothers and sisters, and my wife and daughter. He had both some grandkids and one of their sons, so there was a great-grandkid. There were plenty of family there to see it.”

Mike says Chet’s comeback drive was short and sweet. A couple of gentle miles were enough. “I could tell he wasn’t really comfortable driving it, because it’s so big. But he got to drive, and that was my goal.” That same year the family took the limousine back to Wisconsin to show it off in the Blue Ribbon invitational area at the Iola Car Show. They were back again in 2025, reliving old times and enjoying some miles in their venerable family hauler.

Chet passed away in 2002, but the big Series 75 lives on in the family, and likely will continue to do so for many years to come. 

“It’s just a cruiser. It actually is a lot of fun to drive,” Mike says. “You’re never going to get a lot of speed out of it. I’ve hit 80 with it. It’s just totally a totally unique driving experience.”

Love Cadillacs? Here are a few more articles that might interest you.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/a-peek-inside-the-lemans-cadillacs

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/old-cars-reader-wheels/old-cars-reader-wheels-1953-cadillac-fleetwood-series-60

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1959-cadillac-hearse-from-new-zealand

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The post Car of the Week: 1949 Cadillac Limo appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

It took quite a while, but Bill Person Jr., and his dad, Bill Sr., eventually got Grandma’s Firebird back on the road.

It all started when Milwaukee, Wis., resident Shirley Nelson cracked up her car back 1967. The little mishap changed her life in more ways than one.

“She had a car accident, and that’s how she met my soon-to-be-grandfather,” chuckles Bill, Jr. “She eventually married the gentleman, and I was born three years later. I knew him as my grandfather until he died in 1986.”

“So she wound up searching for a replacement car, and she bought this new on April 28, 1967,” he adds proudly, pointing at the silver 1967 Firebird coupe that is still in the family.

From there, the car went to Bill Jr.’s mother. Sort of.

“The car started rotting out and they wanted something newer, and my mother at the time did not have her license and in 1978 my dad bought the car from my grandmother so my mother could learn how to drive,” Person recalls. “Well, she never drove the Firebird. It sat in the garage. My dad drove it for a little while, but mostly it just sat there.”

That went on for about 10 years, and then young and ambitious Bill Jr. decided that the car was worth restoring and took it all apart. He had it almost completely disassembled, sandblasted the subframe and did some other heavy lifting before he eventually wound up running low on time and resources to continue the restoration. 

“I was an 18-, 19-year-old kid and life happens, you know?” he laughs. “It was terrible. The rear quarters were all rotted out. No exhaust on it. The front fenders had holes in ’em. The doors had holes in ’em. The only saving grace was one time she had the oil changed in the motor and they didn’t put the drain plug in tight enough. The drain plug came off and coated the whole undercarriage with oil and she seized the motor. So she had the motor rebuilt before my dad got it, and the only saving grace to it is the car has all its original floor pans because they were coated with oil. And the rockers are original, too.”

Person says the car remained in pieces for more than 25 years until Bill Sr. finally came to the Firebird’s rescue for good. 

“In about 2015 he decided, ‘I’m gonna stick some money into it and restore it,’ and I’m luck, ‘Go for it! I seem to have failed.’” 

With that, the pair gathered up the entire project and handed it off to TLC Restorations, an excellent collector resto shop in Milton, Wis. By the time TLC was done with it, the 80,000-mile Firebird looked almost new again. The end result gave both father and son plenty of affirmation that the ’67 was worth keeping in the family.

BRINGING BACK THE ‘BIRD

Ford changed the landscape of America car-building for good with the mid-1964 introduction of the Mustang. General Motors needed about three years to deliver an answer, and part of its reply was the Firebird, which officially arrived on Feb. 23, 1967. It was Pontiac’s version of Chevy’s new Camaro dressed up with a Poncho-style split grille, different engines and transmissions and a few suspension tweaks.

Pontiac offered the sporty ‘Bird in five flavors — base, Sprint, 326, 326 H.O. and 400 — created by tacking regular production options onto the same basic car. The options created distinctive packages that were merchandised as separate models. Bucket seats were standard in all Firebirds. Design characteristics of the ‘67s included vent windows and three vertical air slots on the fear fenders.

The base 230-cid six-cylinder produced a modest 165-hp. The more spirted Sprints featured a 215-hp overhead-cam six with a four-barrel carburetor. A floor-mounted three-speed manual gearbox and heavy-duty suspension were standard. A Firebird Sprint convertible cost $3,019 and a coupe was $2,782.

Firebird 326s featured a 250-hp version of the 326-cid Tempest V-8 with a two-barrel carburetor. The convertible cost $2,998 and the coupe was $2,761. Firebird 326 H.O.s used a 285-hp version of the same V-8 with a 10.5:1 compression ratio and four-barrel carburetor. A column-shifted three-speed manual transmission, dual exhausts, H.O. stripes, a heavy-duty battery and wide-oval tires were standard. The H.O. convertible cost $3,062 and the coupe cost $2,825.

The performance version of the 1967 Firebird was the 400. It featured a 325-hp version of the 400-cid GTO V-8. Standard equipment included a dual-scoop hod, chrome engine parts, three-speed heavy-duty floor shift and sport-type suspension. Prices were about $100 higher than a comparable 326 H.L Options included Ram -Air induction, which gave 325 and cost more than $600.

Other popular add-ons included air-conditioning ($355.98), power brakes ($41.60), front disc brakes ($63,19), power steering ($94.97), power windows ($100.05), power top ($52.66), vinyl top ($84.26), fold-down rear seat ($36.86), hood tachometer ($63.19), console with bucket seats and floor shift ($47.39), cruise control ($53), head rests ($42), remote control trunk lid ($13), rally gauge cluster ($84), reclining right hand seat ($84), AM/FM radio ($134), stereo tape player ($128), tilt steering ($42), 3-speed with floor shift ($42), 3-speed synchromesh ($84), 4-speed manual ($184), automatic transmission with V-8 ($195), wire wheel discs ($53), Rally 1 wheels ($40), and Rally II wheels ($56).

A SILVER HEIRLOOM

Time and Wisconsin winters did a number of the sheet metal of the Persons’ Pontiac, but the interior remains almost all-original, as is the drive train (although the engine was rebuilt after the oil plug mishap). The Firebird’s condition is truly impressive; it would make no apologies on any show field. And the fact that it is a very well-preserved six-cylinder makes it even more unique.

“The seats are original. The door panels are all original. The arm rests are reproduction,” Bill Jr. says. “The carpet is reproduction. It came with floormats and these are reproduction floormats. We do have one floormat left, but it’s in really bad shape. The original spare is still in the trunk! The clock doesn’t work. I’m going to get a quartz kit one of these days and fix that. It hasn’t worked in a long time. The AM radio does work, but it’s got a replacement speaker. The windshield glass is new, otherwise all the glass is original.”

“Otherwise, everything is pretty much as stock. Two-speed automatic. Super-Turbine 300 transmission with its original 2.56 open rear end. This thing so great on the highway! If I hold her to the board she’ll do 60 [mph] and then shift into second!”

Bill Sr. decided to swap out the original front drum brakes in favor of power disc units. That’s about the only nod to non-originality on the entire car. Bill Jr. says the car is a hoot drive when it’s running right, but it was probably a little temperamental towards Grandma on the chilliest days of winter.

“She’s a cold-blooded b—h. She does not like to run cold,” he chuckles. “But once she’s warmed up and running down the road, she runs great.”

There were plenty of early Firebirds that qualified as muscle cars back in the day. The debut six-cylinder Firebird was not one of them, but it certainly was a sweet-looking and sweet-driving car for its time. The fact that the go-fast crowd all seemed to opt for the V-8s at the dealers — or in engine swaps later on — has made the surviving sixes scarce these days. One-family trophies like the Person family’s eye-catching silver ’67 stand out in any crowd.

“[The sixes] are starting to become a little more prevalent,” Bill Jr. says. “Ten years ago there wasn’t many, but they are starting to become a little more popular and people are starting to appreciate them.”

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American Motors Corp. became the go-to car builder for quirky, colorful and — in some cases — low-production muscle cars in the late 1960s and early ’70s. AMC muscle machines typically had loud, Type A personalities. There was the patriotic SC/Rambler and Rebel Machine; hairy little two-seat AMX; Javelin SST; Matador X; and eventually even a Gremlin X. It was an interesting cast of characters for sure.

Certainly one of the oddest ducks on the AMC farm, and perhaps the least understood and most overlooked as a legit pavement eater, was the one-year-only 1971 Hornet SC/360.  Just 784 of the hyper Hornets were built, and only a relative handful remain. Most car guys probably don’t remember them at all, or at least haven’t seen one in years.

For some guys, like Greg Piecynski of Plover, Wis., SC/360s are Holy Grail-type cars. They aren’t nearly as uber-expensive as the Hemis and Shelbys of the world, but they are almost as hard to find. Pieczynski knew for a long time that he had to have one, and he was willing to wait as long as it took. His patience was rewarded when he landed his impressive green-on-green SC/360 about four years ago.

“I looked for about 30 years. I did find some for sale, but they needed a lot of work, and to try to find those parts is really tough,” says Piecynzki. “So I tried to buy the most complete car I could… They’ve got a registry for these cars, and they are estimating there are probably about 100 left in the world, and that includes automatics, four-speeds and three-speeds. When I got this one, yeah, it was the nicest one I had ever seen.”

It’s hard to believe by looking at the nearly flawless green AMC today, but it was driven into the ground and then left for dead in its first life. Fortunately, Pieczynski isn’t the only guy around who covets the SC/360s and will go to great lengths to have one.

“I came across this one about four years ago in Alabama. The guy that restored it was a guy named Bill Smith. He lived in Kansas and this car came to a dealership in Osage City, Kansas,” Pieczynski notes. “He owned another SC/360 at the time and he drag raced it. He was looking for another one to drive, and this dealership got this green one in. He saw it on the lot and called them up and said he was interested in buying it. The dealer told him it was sold already, so he told them if it ever came back in a trade or whatever, to let him know. What I heard is that a guy bought it for his wife, because she was a mail carrier. So apparently this car spent 100,000 miles carrying mail! …The guy that restored it said when he got it, there was so much mud in the right rear quarter panel, he said, ‘I believe the story.’ This car had to have been a mail car.”

The dealership that sold the car originally did eventually get the car back in trade, but it was so far gone they junked it. 

“It was in a local junkyard, because it was in such bad shape and had so many miles on it. So he went to the salvage yard and bought the car and restored it.”

AMC Kept Its Foot On The Gas

American Motors thought that it was “introducing a sensible alternative to the money-squeezing, insurance-strangling muscle cars of America” when it advertised the all-new Hornet SC/360 in the December 1970 issue of Motor Trend magazine. Little did the company realize that it was also bringing out a rarity. Although it expected to make 4,000 of the cars and optimistically suggested that 10,000 sales might be possible, only 784 were ever built. That’s what makes the SC/360 an especially interesting car. The model was never offered again, although a fairly mild version of the 360-cid V-8 was offered in other Hornets for a while.

“They had a signature muscle car for ’69, ’70 and ’71. In ’69, they had the Rambler-SC/Rambler; then, for 1970, they came out with the Machine Rebel. Then, in 1971, they decided to come out with these, but by then, the insurance companies were already getting wise and clamping down on muscle cars,” says Piecynski, who also owns a stellar 1968 AMX. “So AMC thought, ‘We’ll do one last hurrah. We’ll take Grandma’s Hornet, stuff a V-8 in it, with Ram Air, and a Hurst four-speed in it.’ But the insurance companies weren’t quite that naïve and they figured it out. If they knew it was an SC/360, you were going to pay for it.”

The compact Hornet replaced the Rambler (formerly Rambler American) for 1970. It was efficiently sized with a 108-inch wheelbase and short 179.6-inch overall length. It was only 70.6 inches wide, despite having wheel wells that looked large enough to stuff in racing slicks. The largest engine at first was a 304-cid V-8, but that changed when the 1971 SC/360 was introduced.

A 360-cid V-8 with 245 hp was standard for the base price of $2,663 along with a “three on the floor” all-synchromesh transmission, a heavy-duty clutch, D70 x 14 Polyglas tires, 14×6 mag-style wheels, a Space Saver spare, rally stripes and individually reclining seats. For $199 more, you got the Go-Package with an AM 4300 Model 1RA4 four-barrel carburetor, the 285-hp power plant with dual exhaust, a functional flat-black Ram Air hood scoop, a handling package, raised white-letter tires and a big tachometer. A four-speed manual gear box with Hurst shifter or a Borg-Warner Shift-Command automatic (for $237.85) and a choice of 3.15:1 (with automatic) or 3.54:1 and 3.91:1 rear axles with a Dana Twin-Grip differential were other options

A Hot Rod road test of the SC/360 was printed in the December 1970 issue of the magazine. The virtually out-of-the-box car, fitted with the automatic, was put through its paces five times and turned in a top performance of 94.63 mph in the quarter-mile with a 14.80-second elapsed time. Can Am driver Steve Diulo then wrung it out on a road racing course and summed it up as a great little car with slow steering that was “really a lotta car for the money!” Two other advantages were that it avoided a 25 percent surcharge insurance companies were levying on other muscle cars, and that it got fuel economy as high as 17 mpg in freeway driving.

Apparently not many of the fiery 360 versions of the Hornet came in Meadow Green. “Supposedly only four were made this color … Most of them were blue or mustard yellow; once in a while red,” Piecyznski says. “It’s a lot of green. You gotta like green!” he laughs. “I didn’t have too much choice in it, but I like the color.”

Creating A Buzz

Pieczynski says his green Hornet was pretty well known in AMC circles after the previous owner began showing it and collecting trophies after he finally restored it. Collecting hardware wasn’t really what Pieczynski had in mind, however. He was mostly fixated on winning the chase to finally find one and be able to own and enjoy a car that he had pursued for many years.

“I’m not into the trophies that much, I’m just into the uniqueness of the car,” he says. “Mostly, if I take it to car shows, people say, ‘Oh, it’s a Hornet, we had a Hornet. I remember those!’ But what they don’t realize is how rare these particular ones are and they only had 784 of these built. But once in a while, you get a guy that really knows what these are, or who worked at the Kenosha [Wis.] AMC plant and they can’t believe their eyes, because you never see these anymore. A lot of people don’t know they were ever even produced.”

As far as he knows, Piecyznski’s Hornet was restored back to its original factory configuration: automatic with the Go-Pack, AM radio and optional Magnum 500s. “And, of course, the famous Rambler seats that fold down!” And was the luggage rack ever used to carry bags of mail? We’ll never know. “Maybe! I never thought of that! It’s funny to think somebody would have used a car like this to deliver mail, but back then, they were nothing special. They were just a car.”

Nothing special, perhaps, but definitely a wolf dressed as a green sheep when it came to performance. With its V-8 and short wheelbase, SC/360s just flat-out feel and sound fast, even when rolling at slow speeds. 

“Yeah, It wants to go. It’s built to go,” Pieczynski adds. “And being a lightweight car, it can go. When I first got it, I tried a couple runs with her. I think it would do well against the AMX. You had the SST package, and if you got the Go-Pack, you got the Ram Air hood, and Hurst four-speed in them with a special suspension. And a lot of performance upgrades, but they only had one ad in Motor Trend magazine. That’s it. That’s all the advertising they did for them. A lot of people never even knew about them.”

But was it worth the 30-year wait? The grin on Piecyznski’s face leaves no doubt about the answer.

“Absolutely! Absolutely it was worth it. I love it!”

AMCs your thing? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week-1965-amc-ambassador-990

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1970-amx

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/old-cars-out-and-about-1967-amc-marlin

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Gary Miller never really had any use for six-cylinder cars. He insists he was a V-8 snob all the way and says he used to make fun of six-cylinders cars that tried to look like muscle cars.

Of course, that was until he drove one that looked awesome and really WAS fast.

“I had a friend who had one of these, and I drove his and I really liked it,” says the Janesville, Wis., resident, surveying the fabulous 1985 Buick Regal Grand National that he’s owned since 1988. “I kept making fun of his car and so he told me to drive it. I drove it for a weekend, and then decided to go looking for one.”

What changed his mind? Take a guess.

“They go! They have got that turbo when you hit it, it doesn’t do it right now, but you go a little bit and it will just take off. They just move!”

Miller probably shares the same sentiments with countless other Grand National fans who fell hard for the menacing black Buick as soon as they first got a good look at one. And if the car’s dark, dangerous looks didn’t win people over, the scintillating performance — for the 1980s anyway — was a clincher.

Miller’s Grand National is especially appealing these days because it’s spectacularly original. The cool gray interior looks brand new, and aside from a few minor paint touch-ups, the ’85 coupe is completely unmolested. The Buick had 78,000 miles on it when Miller got it as a four-year-old used car. It’s got about 92,000 rounds on it today, and it remains a stellar specimen.

“My son found it. He’s a car guy and he found it in Milwaukee [Wis.],” Miller says. “A friend’s dad had it sitting in his garage and we went down and bought it that day. Then I took it home and took it to the garage to have some little detailing done on it. It was really good. I don’t know if [the previous] was dealing cars or not, but he sold it to me right, and I put some money in it for a scratch here and there. Otherwise, everything you see on it is the way it came to me.”

“I just thought I’d dive it for a while and get rid of it, and I wasn’t sure I’d like that V-6. I always had eight-cylinder cars, but it’s really comparable to any V-8 car I’ve had, believe me. And the thing is, if you don’t use the turbo you can get 28 mpg with it. If you get on the turbo, of course, you won’t get that much.”

A GRAND ENTRANCE

The Grand National debuted in the 1982 model year and was named after the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National racing series. Buick had claimed top honors in the Manufacturers Cup in 1981 and 1982 and was looking to cash in with the go-fast crowd.

The original run of Grand Nationals was planned to be only 100 cars, but grew to 215 before production ended. Cars and Concepts, based in Brighton, Mich., fancied up Regals with light silver-gray firemist paint, red pinstripes and ghosted “Buick” lettering on the sides. The wheel opening moldings and rocker panel moldings were blacked out and a new front air dam and rear spoiler were mounted. The interior featured special “Lear-Siegler” seats with silver cloth with black vinyl inserts. A special clock delete plate was added to the dash with a yellow and orange “6” logo and “Grand National Buick Motor Division” lettering.

The 1982 GN was an undeniably nice car, but it wasn’t fast, thanks to the pedestrian 252-cid (4.1 L) V-6 under the hood. It was rated at 125 hp and 205 lb.⋅ft. of torque at 2000 rpm.

For 1983, no Buick carried the Grand National nameplate. The closest thing in the lineup was the stylish and sporty 190-hp Regal T-Type — a name that had been applied to Riviera in 1981.

After showcasing its turbo-engine technology at the 1984 new-car shows, Buick brought out a new version it advertised as “the hottest Buick this side of a banked oval.” This new Regal Grand National coupe was, according to Buick, “produced in limited numbers for those who demand a high level of performance.” Its stated purpose was to give young and young-at-heart Buick buyers much of the feeling of a NASCAR racer. Buick built 2,000 copies of this car.

“A little chrome and a lot of power in basic black attire, that’s what the Buick Regal Grand National coupe is all about,” said the ad copywriters. The cost of the option—$1,282—was quite modest, considering that it had a host of appearance and equipment extras. To begin with, Grand Nationals carried the 231-cid (3.8-liter) turbocharged V-6 with sequential fuel injection (SFI). This code LM9 engine produced 200 hp at 4000 rpm and 300 lbs.-ft. of torque at 2000 rpm. It came linked to a four-speed automatic transmission and a 3.42:1 rear axle.

Ingredients of the GN option included black exterior finish on the body, bumpers, bumper rub strips, bumper guards, front air dam, windshield wipers, rear deck lid spoiler, taillight bezels and aluminum wheels. The paint code was No. 19. Grand National identification was carried on the front fenders and the instrument panel. A sport steering wheel, a tachometer, a turbo-boost gauge, a 94-amp alternator, power brakes and steering, dual exhausts and a special hood with a turbo bulge were also included in the package. The code 995 Lear Siegler seats (sand gray cloth with charcoal leather inserts) were embroidered with the Grand National model’s distinctive “6” (for V-6) logo.

Individual options available from Buick included a hatch top (RPO CC1), an Astroroof with silver glass (RPO CF5), a theft-deterrent system (RPO UA6), cruise control (RPO K34), electronic touch climate-control air conditioning (RPO C68), a rear window defogger (RPO C49), a remote trunk release (RPO A90), electronic instrumentation (RPO U52) and a lighted vanity mirror on the passenger-side sun visor.

For the 1985 model year, the Buick brass decided there was no reason to change a good thing. The Regal GN wasn’t selling in big numbers, but it was pulling enthusiasts into Buick showrooms where some of them bought other models. With hot looks to spare, the “new” GN didn’t need a major overhaul, but it still got a facelift.

The forward-slanting nose of all ’85 Regals carried a new grille. On the GN, it was finished in black. So was nearly everything else, including the windshield wipers. There were minor updates to the upholstery and ornamentation. Still, the ultra-high-performance version of the Regal T-Type was basically unchanged on the outside.

Under the hood once again was the turbocharged 3.8 V-6 with sequential fuel injection. The system (introduced in 1984) provided more precise fuel delivery. Metered fuel was timed and injected into the individual combustion ports sequentially through six Bosch injectors. Each cylinder received one injection per every two revolutions, just prior to the intake valve opening. The ’85 engine also had some torque curve revisions.

The ’85 GN stuck with a monotone black exterior treatment and was identified by special model badges. The Grand National package retailed for $675, so prices for the high-performance model started at $12,640. The package included the turbo V-6, quick-ratio power steering, an instrumentation group, sport mirrors with left-hand remote control, a four-speed automatic transmission, air conditioning and P215/65R15 black sidewall tires.

There were some interior revisions for 1985. A new two-tone cloth interior with front bucket seats carried code 583 soft trim. Underneath the car was a specific Gran Touring suspension.

A total of 2,102 Regal Grand Nationals were built for 1985, still a modest number, but enough for Buick to bring back an even better version of the GS for 1986. That was the year engineers added a

an intercooler to the turbo set-up that that supposed to produce 235 hp, but some insiders claimed was more like 300 hp. Sales grew to 5,000 units that year.

The Grand National enjoyed one more run in ’87 when the hp grew to a listed 245 hp, but some GM infighting and perceived in-house competition from the rest of the Regal lineup, including the sport T-Type, eventually led to Buick bowing out of the muscle car business and focusing more on its more sedate line of full-sized luxury cars.

Miller says he has never really researched it, but as far as he knows he’s just the second owner of his sweet ’85 GN. He’s got three other nice collector cars, including a GTO Judge, but he’s never seriously considered parting with his hot black Buick.

“I had a chance to sell about a month ago,” he jokes. “I couldn’t do it.”

Miller figures if he ever let the ’85 go, he’d never find a nicer one to replace it. The car is loaded with options, including power windows and seats, sunroof, cruise control, air-conditioning, AM/FM stereo and tilt wheel.

 “It’s got about everything you could have except the leather seats. And it’s got the trunk liner, too,” he says. “They had a special liner for the trunk that was an accessory. I’ve had a guy try to just buy that liner from me!”

A lot of car lovers would put the Grand National at or near the top of the list of the best cars built in the 1980s. You can put Miller in that group. They were certainly among the most memorable, and have become some of the most collectible and revered cars of the period. They were great performance cars for their time, but even if they weren’t they’d still have plenty of appeal for guys like Miller, who remain enamored with their sinister good looks.

“I knew the Chevrolets, the Monte Carlos were [similar]. I just liked the styling and options and the way the Buicks were built,” Miller notes. “Everything is blacked out. There is no chrome anyplace, and I’m a chrome guy. I like chrome on my cars. The black is what really made it stand out, and then they put that motor in there. Who would think a Buick would be the fastest production car built in ’85?”

If and when he ever does decide to part with his Grand National, Miller figures the car won’t be leaving the family. He says one of his sons has already called dibs on it.

“I’m really happy with it. I’m going to keep it. One of my boys wants it when I’m done with it. Another one wants the GTO. They’ve got it all figured out, I guess.”

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Brian and Mickey Moore have owned plenty of collector cars over the years. Especially convertibles. There have been Mercedes-Benzes, Volkswagens, MGs, DeSotos, ‘60s Chevrolets. Quite a few nice machines have come and gone from their lives over the years as they have enjoyed the old car hobby.

The revolving door has apparently stopped in the Moore’s Wautoma, Wis., garage these days, however. It’s safe to say the couple won’t be looking to trade up from their current baby: a stunning 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster convertible. As far as the Moores are concerned, there would be nowhere to go but down if they decided to sell off the glorious drop top and move on to something else.

“It’s a privilege to own this car, it really is,” Brian says. “I fell in love with it the minute I saw a picture of it.”

The Moores discovered the ’48 Chevrolet in the summer of 2010 when they were keeping their eyes open for a new toy to enjoy.

 “I saw it on the Internet and it was actually only 35 miles away from here in Oshkosh,” Moore recalled. “An older couple, Bill and Lois Ludwig, owned it. We went there in early August and looked at the car and went back and forth on price… and I walked away from it. We couldn’t agree on a price. Then about 7 weeks later we were up at my cabin and got a call on Sunday morning and it was Lois. She said her husband had died and ‘I’d really like to sell the car to you if your offer still stands.’ So it was really kind of meant to be. She wanted us to have the car, and it was kind of closure for them.”

The Chevrolet had 42,000 miles on its odometer at the time and had undergone some quality restoration work at some point. The convertible had apparently lived a good share of its life in Illinois before being sold to new owners in Wisconsin around 1996.

“I was told when they did the restoration they dipped this car — and you can that see when you look at the fenders underneath — which is a pretty classic restoration,” Brian noted. “It’s an older restoration, but it’s still in beautiful condition.”

Chevrolet Post WWII: What’s Old is New

Like most car and truck builders at the time, Chevrolet didn’t have a lot that was new to offer to customers immediately after World War II. Wartime production had taken precedence and there had been little time to work on post-war designs, and almost no time to tool up and actually get ready to build anything that was all-new.

That didn’t bother the buying public much, however. The demand for anything automotive was through the roof, and buyers happily snapped up warmed-over 1942 models badged as 1946s from just about any manufacturer who could get cars on their lots.

Chevrolet came out with three updated versions of its 1942 models for ‘46, replacing its Master Deluxe and Special Deluxe lines with the base-level Stylemaster, mid-range Fleetmaster, and top-end Fleetline. All carried the tried-and-true 216.5-cid “Stovebolt Six” that dated back to 1937, and all featured similar conservative styling that might not have made Chevrolet the winner of any beauty pageants at the time, but helped the company remain the No. 1 seller in the U.S. market.

For 1948, the Chevrolets were still very similar to the ’42 offerings, but the lineup had been trimmed to just the Stylemaster and Fleetmaster. The Stylemaster menu included a pair of coupes and pair of sedans, all priced between $1,244 and $1,371. The Fleetmasters had seven offerings, including two “Fleetline” sub-models, all priced between $1,381 for the two-door town sedan and $2,103 for the eight-passenger station wagon.

The Moores’ convertible was one of 20,471 examples built for the model year at a base price of $1,750. Like the other Fleetmasters, it had the 90-hp six with a three-speed manual transmission on the column and manual choke. Short, stylized spears on the rear corners of the hood had “Fleetmaster” identification badges. The windshield had chrome surrounds. Inside, there was a two-spoke Deluxe steering wheel (with horn ring); woodgrained dashboard and window sills; illuminated glove locker; leatherette rear seat scuff covers; front floor mat carpet inserts and leather-topped front seat armrests. The clock and cigarette lighter became standard on Fleetmasters and Fleetlines only. A dome lamp with automatic switch in the driver’s door was also a regular extra feature on these lines. On the Fleetmaster, buyers could select two-tone Bedford cloth upholstery options or stick with the standard pile fabric choice. Triple, stacked “speedline” moldings once again graced front and rear fenders of Fleetline fastbacks. These cars had other Super Deluxe features as well such as five vertical slashes of chrome beneath the taillights and Fleetline signature script on the center of the deck lid. There was also a three-quarter length belt molding.

Among the accessories were the choice of a standard or deluxe push-button radio and antenna. Also available was: a below-dash heater and defroster; Deluxe in-dash heater and defroster; white sidewall tires; spotlight cowl windshield washer; low-pressure tires on wide rim 15-inch wheels; front and rear bumper wing guards; chrome-plated gravel shields; an external canister-type oil filter; wheel trim rings; directional signals and an external windshield sun visor. Perhaps the most noteworthy accessory sold by Chevrolet dealers was the woodgrained “Country Club” trim package for the Fleetline aero sedan and the Fleetmaster town sedan or convertible coupe. It was produced by Engineered Enterprises of Detroit and was sold only through authorized dealers at a cost of $149.50.

As was the case for its “Big Three” competitors, Chevrolet made do with its pre-war styling until the 1949 model year, when it debuted an entirely new lineup with more slab-sided profiles, new model names and a big new sales push.

A TOP-DOWN RETIREMENT

With only 42,000 miles on the clock over its first 62 years, the Moores’ beautiful Satin Green convertible had clearly never been much of a daily driver. The couple figured they’d have some mechanical work to catch up on to make it a reliable hobby car, and that was the case for the first few years they owned it.

“[The previous owner] was pretty weak and had been in bad health, so he probably hadn’t done anything with it for a while,” Mickey noted.

“It was running good. I looked at it pretty thoroughly,” Brian added. “But when I shifted into second I got a little bit of a grind and that led to a new transmission. Actually, a couple of them because I had gotten a bad deal on a couple of transmissions that were rebuilt. Then I had a friend take it all apart and put a new clutch in it. Now she shifts great. … and everything is correct. All the gaskets and all the seals were replaced. The carburetor was redone. The rear end is new. The transmission is new, the master cylinder … all the brakes were done. We put new Coker tires on it. Whatever it needed, we did.”

The Moores have put about 7,500 miles on the Chevrolet in the past 12-plus years. Brian figures they will put 1,000-1,500 miles on the car every summer, making short trips to places like the Iola Car Show in central Wisconsin, where the convertible was on display in 2021.

“It runs like a dream. It runs as good as she looks,” Brian says. “It’s post WWII and that’s when they started making so many beautiful cars. And it’s all steel. It’s heavy! …I can go 60, 65 down the highway. I don’t go that fast very often, but I can take my hands off the steering wheel and it will stay as straight as an arrow. No power steering, no power brakes, so you get a little bit of a workout. No blinkers, just brake lights. Back then you didn’t need ‘em! It’s got a ‘banjo’ steering wheel in it, which was not original. It’s got a crack in it, but they are so expensive! I found one that was 900 bucks!”

It’s been a dozen years, but the Moores’ enthusiasm for owning and driving their ’48 convertible has clearly not worn off. The car is in loving hands these days, and it will not be following any of its predecessors out the door.

“It is a sweet ride,” Brian says. “So many people just love the car, wherever we go. We’ve had a quite a few, but this is it. This is the one. We just feel honored and privileged to own it.”

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Paul Bellile has grown used to the delayed reactions. When he rolls up in his vintage camper, he knows most people are probably thinking to themselves, “That’s a nice old camper, and a pretty nice Chevy pickup underneath it.”

Then a few moments later, it hits them: “Hey, that’s not a pickup! That’s a Blazer!”

Sure enough, somebody actually turned a Hugger Orange 1972 K5 Blazer convertible into an all-in-one family camper. And that somebody was Paul’s dad Len, who bought the Blazer new from a local Chevy dealer in Hortonville, Wis. From there, the family had the K5 immediately shipped to a long-since-defunct shop in Osseo, Minn., that fitted it with a nice camper big enough for Len and his family of four. 

Some 95,000 miles and 53 years later, the camper is still on the Blazer, and the rig is still in the family after Paul took the keys from his dad a while back. And both father and son always get a chuckle when confused onlookers check out the camper and act like they’ve just seen a unicorn. As far as Paul knows, that’s pretty much what the camper truck is. The camper top was supplied by a company called Ronco Coaches, and the Belliles have only come across one other similar unit, but it wasn’t on a Blazer.

“I keep in touch with a guy with a GMC from Grand Rapids, Minn. He’s got a 1970 GMC version of this with the exact same camper,” Paul notes. “I talk to him and keep in touch and we don’t know of any other ones… I’m hoping if any others are out there, somebody sees this. That would be awesome.

“They made pickup toppers, too, and I’ve never seen a pickup topper for a full-size truck, either. Supposedly they were in business for 10 years. I’ve talked to people who live in Osseo, Minn., who don’t even remember that the company existed.”

Len Bellile says the idea for a Blazer camper wasn’t even originally his. He remembers being in the market for a camper for his wife and two young boys back in the early 1970s when the local Chevy dealer, Griesbach Chevrolet, pitched the idea to him. “My wife really wanted a camper and we went out to Griesbachs and we were looking at Blazers and he said, ‘I know where they could put a camper on a Blazer,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘OK, order us one,’ so he ordered us a nice blue one. When it came in, he said, ‘Your blue Blazer turned into a red one!’ I said, ‘That’s fine,’ and, we had it shipped out to Minnesota to have the camper put on it…Everything was perfect. We flew up there and there was a guy there [at the airport] and we looked it over and it was nice, just the way we wanted. They had different deals on the inside. We wanted the bunks in there so the two boys could sleep on the bunks and we could sleep up above. After we got there, they had to finish it the way we wanted it. We stayed overnight one night and the next day we drove it back.”

Len says he paid $5,500 for the K5 Blazer — “the same amount that it weighs” — and the family soon took off on its first big adventure to South Dakota. “Mom died 23 years ago, and she’s the one that loved this,” Paul says. “When we first got it, we went out to Deadwood, S.D., and she bought a little beaded Indian, and she hung it from the rearview mirror, and it’s hung there all these years — 53 years, I guess. I’m trying to keep it exactly the way it was.”

Blazing A Trail

Ford and International Harvester had already launched new lines of utility trucks by the time General Motors mounted a response in the late 1960s. International had made a big first impression with its enduring Scout, and Ford followed up in 1966 with the similarly designed and equally capable Bronco. Both of them were heading down the same road as the Willys Jeep and Jeep CJ, which owed their beginnings to World War II-era military jeeps.

With a shortened pickup chassis, the new-for-1969 Chevrolet Blazer and GMC Jimmy were bigger machines than either the Scout or Bronco, which probably made them a little more appealing as a truck that could pull double-duty as a family hauler, but perhaps made it less nimble off-road. The body had an open top “convertible” design, and buyers could choose between a soft top and fiberglass hardtop.

The Blazer and GMC Jimmy were classified as half-ton trucks, but instead of riding on a 115-inch wheelbase — the shortest pickup chassis at the time — their wheelbase was shorted to just 104 inches. There was no divider between the cab and bed, and no window frames on the doors.

Shifting was done through a choice of either three- or four-speed automatics, or a three-speed manual transmission. When it debuted for 1969, the new Blazer and Jimmy were only offered as 4x4s. Two-wheel-drive versions were added a year later in 1970, but buyers overwhelmingly preferred the 4×4 models. Even fewer preferred the six-cylinder. The 350 was offered only with the SM465 or TH350. Manual locking front hubs were optional.

The four-wheel-drive version had a solid front axle and used leaf springs front and rear. The two-wheel-drive version came with independent front suspension and rear trailing arms, both with coil springs. Both versions used drum brakes on all four wheels until 1971, when the entire GM light truck line was fitted with front discs as standard equipment. A tachometer was optional. Two transfer cases were offered: the Dana 20, available only with the manual transmissions, or the NP-205.

Chevrolet built a modest 4,935 Blazers for the model’s 1969 rookie year, but production ramped up quickly, and for 1972 that total had grown to 44,266 4×4 Blazers.

‘It Ain’t For Sale’

Len Bellile opted for the 350 V-8 and full wheel covers on his new Blazer, but he left most of the other accessories to Ronco. “Dad wanted the big V-8 so we could pull the boat,” Paul remembers. “It’s the standard model, so it’s got the painted bumpers, not the chrome bumpers. That would have been the CST (Custom Sport Truck), but that came with the console in the middle and he and Mom wanted to be able to get in back in between. It had a soft top and they took it off at the dealership. That’s the original Hugger Orange, K22 — it’s called a red-orange. Those are the original hubcaps. The tire was mounted in back, where we have the bunk beds, so they had to build a bracket and mount the spare in front. That was part of the camper package.”

The family rolled up plenty of miles in the K5 camper every summer during the 1970s, but the odometer started to slow down a little after the boys got older. The camping trips were fewer and farther between, and eventually Paul decided to just buy it from his dad and keep it for posterity’s sake — and because he couldn’t bear to part with it.

“It actually wound up sitting for many years. I bet it was a dozen years. But I had it inside and covered. But I finally said to Dad, ‘I gotta get that Blazer out. I want to start showing that.’”

Paul had the body repainted below the beltline and did some carburetor and fuel pump work. Other than that, he says it was pretty much ready to go after a little cleanup and detailing. Aside from the partial repaint, he says the Blazer itself is unchanged from when he was a kid. 

Inside, he’s taken out the sink for now and unhooked some of the heating and plumbing. But otherwise, he’s keeping the camper intact. “I’ve got a few little things I want to do, but I don’t want to touch that camper, because I’m afraid with it being wood I’d be opening up a can of worms,” he laughs. “I really want to just leave it the way it is, from new. It’s the way I remember it.

“I’ve got some bodywork I want to do. I have a new bumper I want to put on it. The step in back was just something they thought up at Ronco with all the leftovers they had. I’m going to re-do that and make it different so it’s cleaner.”

Paul says he had a hunch the K5 camper would be a hit at car shows, and he was right. It drew a steady stream of onlookers at this year’s big Iola Car Show in Wisconsin, and he says the Blazer never lacks for attention, no matter where he takes it. “I was at a vintage camper show in June … It was just like bees around it!” he laughs.

“Nobody knew that these things existed. It’s quite a conversation piece. I have a hard time getting away from it once I park it. Part of that, of course, is the color. That color really makes it stand out.”

With Blazers and their brethren pickups from the era red hot on the collector market these days — the best examples have even topped $100,000 at auction and private sales in recent years — it’s no surprise Bellile has had other Bowtie fans trying hard to get him to sell it. He’s fended them off so far, and he insists his commitment to keeping the camper won’t waver.

“I’ve been offered a lot of money for it already, you bet I have… I had one guy say, ‘I’m going to buy this, how much do you want for it? Name your price and I’ll get the cash.’ I said, ‘It ain’t for sale.’ He said, ‘Everything is for sale.’ I said not this thing. It’s in the family.’ 

“There is really a cult following for these Blazers.”

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