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A Rare Radiator Cap

Over the last several weeks, we traveled the highways and byways in search of car parts on the Highway 36 Treasure Hunt, the Nebraska Junk Jaunt, and the Highway 136 Trail of Treasures. We found many amazing parts, some of which will be featured here in the coming weeks, but this radiator cap is my favorite find of all:

The seller of this cap did not know what it was, and other shoppers guessed “Rolls Royce” due to the winged “R”. It does not, in fact, belong to a Rolls.

This ornate cap was originally found on a Rockne, manufactured by Rockne Motors Corporation, a Studebaker subsidiary, and named for legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne after his tragic death. The coach was enroute to Los Angeles when the airplane he was in burst into flames and crashed near Bazaar, Kansas, on March 31, 1931, just days after being named manager of the Studebaker sales promotion department. The coach and the car manufacturer were a natural pairing as Studebaker and Notre Dame were both institutions of South Bend, and Rockne had been traveling the country giving “pep” talks to Studebaker salesmen. One newspaper article said that he was employed by Studebaker to boost sales “through his knowledge of psychology and ability to lead men.”

Studebaker created the new Rockne as a memorial to the late coach, and it was launched in December of 1931. The first one manufactured was presented to Mrs. Knute Rockne, the widow of the coach. At the unveiling, Studebaker president Albert Erskine said, “It seems to be highly fitting that the finest qualities of Knute Rockne, the man, should be so brilliantly reflected and recalled by as fine an automobile as the Rockne Six will be. It is a source of great pride to us and to his family that this new automobile will honor his name and perpetuate his memory.”

The 1932 Rockne was available in two lines, the “65” and the “75,” with prices starting at $585 and $685.

It was a great-looking car, and reasonably priced, but in 1932 it had to compete with the new Ford V8 which was available at even lower prices:

For 1933, the Rockne Six was offered in the Model 10. It is shown as a sedan with suicide doors in the top photo below, and you can just make out the radiator cap:

When Studebaker’s Paul G. Hoffman introduced the 1933 models to a group of Studebaker salesmen and dealers at a Boston meeting in December of 1932, he was quoted as saying, “Our challenge to depression – there they are!”

Unfortunately, the Depression won this one. In Stephen Longstreet’s history of Studebaker, A Century on Wheels, he put it this way: “The Rockne Six was well engineered, well built. It was also low-priced. But even that price was too much for a nation selling apples at street corners.” Although sales were not bad for a brand-new automobile, Studebaker was facing serious financial problems, and the Rockne was not produced after 1933.

Coach Rockne’s personal car was a Studebaker President Eight Victoria. It was reported in September of 1931 that one of Rockne’s former players, John Edward “Jack” Chevigny, had purchased this car from the coach’s widow. Chevigny is the Notre Dame player that made the famous “That’s one for the Gipper” touchdown in Notre Dame’s game against Army on November 10, 1928. Chevigny was also a United States Marine Corps officer, and, tragically, he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Sources:

Advertisement. Ford. The Kansas City Star, 31 Mar. 1932, p. 15.

Advertisement. Rockne Six. Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 30 Dec. 1932, p. 10.

Advertisement. Rockne Six. The Atlanta Journal, 8 Jan. 1933, p. 15.

“Coach Rockne Killed When Plane Crashes.” The Lafayette Sun, 1 Apr. 1931, p. 1.

“Depression Is Challenged Now.” The Boston Globe, 7 Dec. 1932, p. 30.

“First Rockne Auto Is Given to His Widow.” Battle Creek Moon Journal, 23 Dec. 1931, p. 9.

Fraley, Oscar. “Johnny Has Gone to Join the Gipper and the Rock.” The News and Observer [Raleigh, NC], 28 Mar. 1945, p. 9.

“Jack Chevigny Dies on Iwo Jima.” Buffalo Courier Express, 25 Mar 1945, p. 18.

Longstreet, Stephen. A Century on Wheels: The Story of Studebaker, A History, 1852-1952, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1952.

“Loud Explosion and Spurting Flames in Murky Sky Heralded Disaster Which Claimed Life of Rockne and 7 Others.” Daily American Republic [Poplar Bluff, MO], 31 Mar. 1931, p. 1.

“New Rockne Six Expected To Be 1932 Sensation.” The Fresno Bee, 2 Dec. 1931, p. 12.

“New Studebaker, Rockne Shown.” The Atlanta Journal, 8 Jan. 1933, p. 15.

“Rockne Accepts Studebaker Job.” The South Bend Tribune, 24 Mar. 1931, p. 5.

“Rockne Joins Studebaker.” Press of Atlantic City, 25 Mar. 1931, p. 12.

“Rockne’s Life.” Los Angeles Evening Post Record, 31 Mar. 1931, p. 1.

“Studebaker Announces New ‘Memorial’ Car.” Kansas City Journal, 1 Dec. 1931, p. 10.

“Studebaker Rockne Six Makes Debut.” The Herald Palladium [St. Joseph, MI], 1 Dec. 1931, p. 11.

Whitaker, John. “Speculating In Sports.” The Times [Hammond, IN], 4 Sept. 1931, p. 22.

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Multi-Car Families in America

The post-war economic boom in America resulted in an increase in the number of multi-car households. According to the 1959-60 edition of the Automobile Manufacturers Association’s publication titled “Automobile Facts and Figures,” that number grew 67 percent in the short span of five years. By the end of the 1950s, more than 18 percent of car-owning families and 13.5 percent of all families owned two or more cars. The idea of owning multiple cars was not just a product of the fifties, however. Prior to the war and the Great Depression, multi-car ownership had been a very hot topic during the roaring twenties.

1929 Franklin advertisement

The automobile was initially regarded as a luxury, but the introduction of large-scale production resulted in lower prices, which in turn made one automobile, and sometimes more than one, available to the average family. Surveys conducted by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1926 reported that 18 percent of car-owning families and 10 percent of all families owned multiple automobiles. That information caused ripples of excitement throughout the car industry, and many industry insiders commented on the record. In one interview, A. R. Clancy, president of the Oakland Motor Car Company, explained that four factors made up the automotive market: exports, replacements, natural growth or “virgin” market, and two-car families. He believed all had tremendous growth potential. In a separate interview, R. S. Cole, general sales manager of the Hupp Motor Car Corporation, said he believed the two-car family to be the largest factor due to the increasing desire for a car for every member of the family.

1928 Oakland advertisement

As director of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, Walter P. Chrysler stated that the increase in the number of owners of two or more cars represented “an advance in American standards.” He added that, “Many of our newer communities have been constructed on the premise that every adult will have his own car. In some of our best suburbs it is essential that each home has a multiple-car garage.  The two-car families are increasing.”

1928 Chrysler advertisement

It was in the best interest of any that benefited from the manufacture and sale of automobiles to encourage families to purchase multiple cars, and the Detroit Free Press weighed in with a series of nine advertisements published “in the interest of the motor car builder, retailer and used car dealer.” They appeared from April through July of 1928, and reveal much about everyday life at that time. As seen below, they are also just really enjoyable pieces of propaganda:

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“Repurposing” Car Parts

I started this post a couple of days ago and was going to begin by saying that, if your experience is anything like mine, you hear one question over and over when out buying car parts: “What are you going to make with that?” Well, it happened again this past weekend.

We attended the 42nd Annual Old Trusty Antique & Collectors Show in Clay Center, Nebraska, which includes a flea market. We were happy to find many desirable hubcaps that required multiple trips to the truck with arms full:

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise: Three Oldsmobile Fiesta-style tri-bar checkerboard aftermarket caps; a 73-87 Chevy 3/4-ton 12-inch dog dish; 1930 Buick wire wheel hubcap; 30-32 Chevy wire wheel hubcap set of four plus one aftermarket version with the dash in place of the bowtie; and three 64-66 Chevy truck hubcaps (one clip and two nub-style.

At one point a woman approached me to ask what I was doing with all those hubcaps. She said she was worried that she was missing out on some great new craft idea and seemed more than a little disappointed when I answered that I was going to sell them to people who needed them. . . for hubcaps. We never want to see car parts sent to the crusher but also aren’t crazy about perfectly good parts being used to make another clock or yard-art gizmo. Vintage and antique car parts have historical value, and we vastly prefer to get them into the hands of the restorers that need them to maintain the authenticity of their projects.

That being said, we do understand the love for old cars and their various sculptural parts, as well as the enjoyment that comes with surrounding yourself with them where you live. The internet is brimming with ideas for repurposing vintage car parts, but many of those ideas involve the partial, or total, destruction of the parts being used. If you are a person who likes to immerse yourself in the classic car aesthetic, here are some ideas for adding car parts to your decor while maintaining the integrity of the parts for future use:

These old Motorola radios have vibrant colors and a great vintage look, and here they were just piled up to make a small table or stand:

This vintage headlight bezel with chrome trim has been made into a mirror for a car-themed bathroom by sticking a round piece of glass into place with silicone. This bezel is from a 1956 Ford and has the original “buckskin tan” paint.

You can’t go wrong with a wall of hubcaps. From top to bottom, this one features Pontiac, Hudson Terraplane, Chevy, Nash Lafayette, Oldsmobile, and Ford dog dishes.

Emblem letters that are the stick-on type, or ones that are missing their mounting posts, can be made into magnets like these that spell “RAT ROD.”

Everyone loves a beautiful hood ornament, and a good way to display them is on chunks of wood with holes drilled into them to accommodate any mounting bolts still on the ornaments. They look so much better on a shelf than another made-in-China-by-slave-labor knick-knack.

Clockwise, from the top: a Brockway husky, a George Petty-designed Nash flying lady, and a Chevrolet golden gazelle accessory hood ornament.

This photo features a small cloche made with a sediment bowl. The glass bowl has only been modified with a wood craft piece stuck to the closed end with silicone. It sits on a base which is also made of wood.

Finally, if you embraced the galvanized metal trend and used it as wall covering or to encase a bar, it makes a great place to display old license plates with magnets. No nail holes required!

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The Story Behind the Shell Oil License Plate Topper

This vintage license plate topper is fairly common, but so is confusion over its backstory. It was part of a program to eliminate unsafe and discourteous driving, and it was in the shape of a shell because it was sponsored by Shell Oil Company.

The program originated in the 1930s and was called the Share-the-Road Club. Its aim was to get rid of “Screwdrivers,” people whose bad driving habits and lack of courtesy caused traffic delays and stop-and-go driving. When drivers joined the club, they were presented with one of these license plate toppers. The shell was painted gold, but most of the gold has worn off the one in the photo. The three flags draped over the shell are nautical flags that, in maritime code, mean, “I am giving way.”

You can see the topper in this photo published in a 1939 newspaper. The man standing is a Shell Oil representative, and he is explaining the program to Lou Boedecker of the Montana State Highway Patrol.

It was free to join the club, and five million drivers had signed up by the first quarter of 1940. That explains why there are still so many of these shell-shaped toppers around!

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The Meridian Highway Bridge

As the number of automobile owners increased during the early 1900s, so did demand for better roads. One of the major north-south routes was the Meridian Highway which crossed the Great Plains from Winnipeg, Canada, to Mexico City, Mexico. Now it is known as US 81, but back then it was nicknamed the “Main Street of North America.” The Meridian Highway took its name from the Sixth Principal Meridian which it roughly paralleled, and at one time was reported to be the longest international highway in the world.  The last section of the highway to be completed was the Meridian Highway Bridge at Yankton, South Dakota, which spans the great Missouri River between that state and Nebraska. This historic bridge is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

This map was part of an ad in an Oklahoma newspaper advocating for the paving of roads in Kingfisher County.

Prior to the construction of the Meridian Highway Bridge, those needing to cross the river at Yankton had to use a ferry service or a seasonal pontoon bridge. For this reason, talk of a bridge project was nothing new when a group of Yankton businessmen renewed the discussion in 1919. They began raising local capital and holding meetings, and as often happens, some turned heated. At one meeting in particular, “boxing gloves were resorted to in a successful effort to relieve ill feeling and restore the sanity and good nature of the bridge sponsors.”

The group founded The Meridian Highway Bridge Company and commenced a campaign to sell stock. An engineer was hired, and the first dirt was thrown in February of 1921. The company adopted a policy of paying bills in full every Saturday and continued this practice until the end. In 1923, $300,000 in bonds were issued to finish the project which had a total cost of $1,250,000. It was truly a local project since eighty-five percent of the capital was raised from a population of 20,000 people living within twenty miles of the bridge.

The bridge was said to be a lucky one as there were no serious accidents or injuries in the building of it. This fortunate bridge was also a double-decker with thirty-four feet nine inches between the lower and upper decks. It was designed for vehicular traffic on the upper level and for trains on the lower level, although it never actually saw any use by trains. The bridge proper was 1,668 feet long, and the total length including approaches was 5,863 feet. It was constructed with eight piers of reinforced concrete with steel on the upper river side. The piers measured sixteen by fifty-eight feet at the base, and the height of the piers mid-steam was sixty-eight feet six inches, with thirty-five feet below the bed of the river. A total of 30,000 pounds of steel was used.

 It had a lift mechanism that allowed river traffic to pass below. The distance between the lifting span piers was 250 feet and designed so that the lifting span could be placed between any two piers in case the river changed course. The span weighed 800 tons and was able to be lifted twenty-seven feet using counterweights and a 20-hp gasoline motor.

The project put one man out of business, ferry operator Captain Joseph Geisler, but he apparently wasn’t too broken up about it as he was also a stockholder in the bridge company. He had been operating a steamboat on the Missouri since 1880 and was likely quite tired of it.

The Meridian was a toll bridge, and this was the schedule of tolls when the bridge opened in 1924:

The completion of the bridge was celebrated with a week of great pageantry. There were parades, floats, fireworks, football games, and rodeos, and a tent city with 1,000 shelters had to be constructed to accommodate all of the travelers coming from other states and countries. The town of Wausa, Nebraska, population 400, recruited residents from the entire county so it could send a delegation numbering 800. Both Canada and Mexico sent delegations to christen the bridge with bottles of water brought from their respective countries to mingle with the water of the Missouri. The Sioux sent a representative from the Rosebud Reservation to meet and clasp hands with a Yankton representative in the middle of the bridge. Dirt from every county in South Dakota and Nebraska was mixed in jars and also tossed into the river. There was even a wedding held in the center of the bridge. A crowd of 20,000 people was on-hand to witness the actual bridge dedication on October 17, 2024.

The city of Yankton took over ownership in 1946. After recouping the $700,000 purchase price through tolls, toll collection ended in 1953. The first car to drive across the toll-free bridge was reported to be a 1913 Model T “showpiece” driven by a city commissioner; unfortunately, no paper saw fit to publish a picture of the classic Ford. The two decks were converted to one-way vehicular traffic, one going north and one going south. The lift mechanism was later removed.

Today, a new bridge has been constructed for vehicular traffic crossing the Missouri at Yankton. The one-hundred-year-old Meridian Highway Bridge is now used for recreational purposes, and that upper deck still affords one beautiful view of the Missouri River.

View of the new bridge from the top level of the Meridian Highway Bridge
Lower level of the bridge facing south
Plaque that stands near the bridge today.
Bicyclists using the historic bridge.
Upper level of the Meridian Highway Bridge.

Sources:

“Ceremonies Mark End of 29-Year Fees.” The Daily Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 1 Dec 1953, p.1

“Great Crowd Sees Bridge Dedicated.” Norfolk Daily News, 17 Oct. 1924, p. 2.

“If We Wait – What?” The Hennessey Clipper, 30 Oct 1924, p. 4.

“New Meridian Highway Bridge.” Free Press Evening Bulletin [Winnipeg], 18 Oct 1924, p. 29.

“Wedding on New Yankton Bridge.” Polk County Democrat, 23 Oct. 1924, p. 6.

“Week of Celebration to Mark Opening Meridian Highway Bridge at Yankton.” The Lincoln Star, 3 Oct 1924, p. 6.

“Week’s Celebration to Mark Opening Yankton Bridge.” The Daily Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 11 Oct 1924, p. 5.

“Yankton Toll House Vacant; Bridge Clear.” The North Platte Telegraph Bulletin, 2 Dec 1953, p. 2.

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The Nebraska Version of the Fuller

The best-known Fuller automobile is likely the one made in Michigan, but there was also a Fuller made in Nebraska, and it was a beauty with gleaming brass accents. The Nebraska Fuller was manufactured in the tiny town of Angus, Nebraska, by a homegrown mechanical genius, and it likely would have continued to thrive were it not for shareholder disagreements.

The Fuller as depicted in the Angus Automobile Company brochure.

The man with the mechanical aptitude was Charles Fuller, and he had gathered experience in a blacksmithing and buggy shop where he completed an early version of a car, reportedly the first one in the state. This experience combined with stints working for the St. Louis and Lambert Car Companies to ignite a desire to start his own car company. In 1906, the business was incorporated with capitalization of $50,000 in his hometown of Angus, which had a population of around 500 at that time. A new $20,000 factory was constructed, and manufacturing commenced in February of 1907 with a capability of building 13 cars at one time. Two other Fuller Brothers (Clarence and Lon) and their father, a preacher and a blacksmith who was also named Charles, were also involved in the business.

Photos of the Angus Automobile Company taken around 1908.

The company hired around 40 employees to build the cars that, unlike the Model T, were available in a variety of colors. In an interview conducted in 1965, a former employee said that the paint shop would put on 16-18 coats of quality paint, and that he remembered delivering cars in red, gray, white, green, blue, and black. The cars were powered by the Indiana-made Rutenber engines that were used in many early automobiles including the Auburn.

The Fuller Touring Car was powered by a 4-cylinder 35-40hp Rutenber motor. Other models available included a Gentleman’s Roadster, a Runabout, and a heavier Touring Car with a 60hp 6-cylinder engine. The company pioneered many ideas, including the use of a steel shaft instead of a chain drive to transmit power from the engine to the rear wheels. This 1908 advertisement is a most detailed explanation of the mechanics of the automobile:

One 1907 paper reported that Charles Fuller had taken one of his new automobiles to the nearby town of Edgar one day when he received a phone message that he was needed back in Angus before the train left the station there. The train was due to leave in 15 minutes, and Fuller made it in 12. Today, Google says the trip will still take 10 minutes.

A common marketing ploy in the early 1900s was to put a car on a giant teeter totter. The Fuller took its turn on such a contraption at a 1909 Odd Fellows picnic.

The car was manufactured until 1910, its demise the result of disagreements over the future of the company. The success of the venture had resulted in a lot of interest from outside parties; newspapers reported that at least four other towns were trying to induce the company to move operations there. Then a group of Omaha businessmen offered to purchase the company after seeing an exhibition at the Nuckolls County Fairgrounds in which the Fuller completed two half-mile laps in 60 seconds. Charles Fuller wanted to sell, but the other shareholders refused. Charles left the business, and there was no business without Charles Fuller. A 1913 newspaper story appeared when the Angus Automobile Company was sold to a couple of men from Brewster. It confirmed that company control had been secured by a group of Nelson businessmen at some point and moved to Nelson, but that it had been operating as a general repair and garage business as cars had not been manufactured for several years.

Sources differ on the actual number of Fullers built, but generally agree there were hundreds completed. Regardless of the number built, the Fuller might have completely disappeared from this earth were it not for the fact that a niece of the Fullers married a California car guy with Nebraska roots by the name of Ray Ringer.  A 1955 newspaper story described Ringer as someone who collected parts of old car models and assembled them as a hobby, and the story was written because the Ringers were traveling to Lexington, Nebraska, to see the last known surviving Fuller, a 1908 model. There is no report of what they actually found in Lexington, but Ringer was able to scrounge enough parts to put together this Fuller which is now on display at the Nuckolls County Historical Society & Museum in Superior, Nebraska.

This gorgeous Touring Car has a red leather interior, cream colored paint, and beautiful brass accents. It is powered by the 4-cylinder/40-hp Rutenber motor. A plate mounted on the rear of the car identifies it as a Fuller, manufactured by the Angus Automobile Company. There is an emblem on the radiator, but it isn’t likely original.

As for the Fuller brothers, Clarence moved to Hastings and opened a car dealership with his son, Homer. He died in 1943 and Homer continued in the business, building these new quarters for a Buick dealership in 1950.

Charles moved to California and continued to invent. He made the papers in the 1930s for inventing a machine to extract gold by the placer method using air instead of water. It was reported that the giant machines were not for sale but were leased out for a flat rate plus a percentage of the profits. Manufactured in Los Angeles, the machines were 47 feet long, 18 feet wide and weighed 33 tons. According to a 1971 article written by his daughter in The Horseless Carriage Gazette, Charles Fuller died at his drafting table in 1940.

Homer Fuller once recalled the day his father drove one of the new Fullers by a church just as the service was over. The unusual site of an automobile sent horses and buggies in every direction, and Homer said, “They were going to hang my father, sue him, and everything else.” The original site of the factory in Angus is now a cornfield. There is little left of the now-unincorporated town, just a few streets, a handful of houses, and the memories of the fine automobiles that were once built there.

Note : The following names were mentioned in old newspaper stories in connection with the Angus Automobile Company.

Nelson Businessmen: C. R. Imler, M.S. Storer, D.L. Davies, L.W. Knapp, William A. Voigt, S.A. Lapp, V.A. Thomas, W.W. Hawley, Proctor Peebler

Incorporators: Charles E Fuller, Charles M Fuller, D.C. Mills, L. Moss, H.G. Eggers, J.L. Carlon, E.C. Moore, J.W. Ewing

Employees: Gilbert Osborne, Mr. Davis, G.W. Taylor, C.T. Moss

Sources:

Advertisement. District IOOF Picnic. The Edgar Sun, 20 Aug 1909, p. 5.

Advertisement. Fuller Motor Car. The Deshler Rustler, 14 Feb 1908, p. 12.

Advertisement. “The Angus Automobile Company.” The Lincoln Journal Star, 19 Feb 1908, p. 5.

Advertisement. Western Motor Sales. The Hastings Daily Tribune, 12 May 1950, p. 7.

Advertisement. W. J. Burt Motor Car Company. The Los Angeles Times, 3 Sept 1911, p. VII-4.

“Angus Auto Factory Sold.” The Edgar Post, 11 Mar 1913, p. 1.

“Automobile News.” Omaha Daily Bee, 28 Jul 1907, p. 3.

“Automobile Show Attracts.” The Nebraska State Journal, 27 Feb 1908, p. 3.

Bixby, Max. “When Angus Was a Thriving Town and Automobiles Were Manufactured There.” The Superior Express, 1 Apr 1965, p. 2-1.

“Chance For New Factory.” The Beatrice Daily Express, 8 Apr 1908, p. 1.

“Charles M. Fuller Inventor of Giant Placer Mining Machine.” The Hastings Daily Tribune, 26 Jul 1932, p. 8.

“District I. O. O. F. Picnic.” The Edgar Post, 20 Aug 1909, p. 1.

“From Our Exchanges.” Nuckolls County Herald, 11 Jul 1907, p. 10.

“Fuller Cars Manufactured at Angus Fifty Years Ago.” The Oak Leaf, 23 Sept 1967, p. 2.

“Fuller Car Manufactured in Angus Listed in Auto History.” The Hastings Daily Tribune, 21 Nov 1951, p. 5.

“Growth of the Automobile in Popularity and General Utility in Omaha.” Omaha Daily Bee, 22 Mar 1908, p. 3.

“Homer Fuller Dies Sunday.” The Hastings Daily Tribune,10 Jul 1961, p. 9.

“Local Lore.” Nuckolls County Herald, 11 Aug 1911, p. 5.

“Rather Independent.” The Superior Journal, 25 Apr 1907, p. 4.

“Tells of Recent Trip.” The Edgar Sun, 20 Oct 1955, p. 4.

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The Year the American Auto Industry First Hit One Million in Inventory

The American auto industry hit the million mark in inventory for the first time in 1960. This story about the new record appeared in March of that year:

Although this article tries to paint a rosy picture, the country was on the precipice of a recession caused in part by industrial overexpansion to meet post-war demand. Another reason for the high inventories in the auto industry was the record output of compact cars which were surging in popularity. During the first week of March, it was reported that the six compact cars accounted for 25.1 percent of the total output for the week. In addition to the AMC Rambler and the Studebaker Lark, the Big Three were offering the Ford Falcon, the Mercury Comet, the Plymouth Valiant, and the Chevrolet Corvair. Chevrolet was outpacing everyone in terms of both production and sales.

Automobile inventories have been in the news regularly for the past few years, due mainly to the lack thereof. It was downright spooky to drive by the empty dealership lots, barren wastelands caused, at least in part, by production cuts during the pandemic and global microchip shortages. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently published this visual depiction of the fluctuation in domestic auto inventories since 1994.

Domestic Auto Inventories (AUINSA) | FRED | St. Louis Fed (stlouisfed.org) U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Domestic Auto Inventories [AUINSA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AUINSA, June 17, 2024.

As you can see from the chart, inventories have started to rebound from the depths plummeted to in February of 2022. Even so, those unpleasant sky-high prices do not appear to be coming down anytime soon.

For comparison purposes, you could buy a new Chevy Biscayne in 1960 for around $2,300. For a couple hundred dollars more, you could get yourself a new Bel Air two-door hardtop Sport Coupe.

That is roughly equivalent in purchasing power to $26,000 today. There are still some new car options under $30,000 in 2024, but none will give you the same thrill you would get from cruising around in that ’60 Sport Coupe. Let’s hope improving production numbers and rising inventories translate into lower prices and better access for today’s buyers, but even if inventories return to that million mark, buyers will never again have access to the fine and diverse automobiles available the first time it happened:

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A Seldom-Seen Buick Light

Do you recognize this interesting and hard-to-find light we picked up the other day?

It is a reverse light for some 1958 Buick models, and it would have been found in the back bumper, directly under the tail light, as seen here on a Roadmaster 75:

Photo credit: Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

My Dad always referred to 1958 Oldsmobiles as “Christmas trees” due to all of the chrome ornamentation, but the Buicks of the same year are similarly bedecked. Just check out this beautiful chromed-up Buick station wagon:

Photo credit: CZmarlin — Christopher Ziemnowicz — photo credit is required if this image is used anywhere other than Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The ’58 Buicks had dual headlights and an incredibly unique grille:

Photo credit: Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It was described as consisting of chrome squares, like jewels, set in four rows that extended all the way across the front to the outer extremities of the car, accentuating the lowness and breadth. Each chrome square was composed of four triangular surfaces designed to reflect maximum light. I have heard it called a “drawer pull” grille, but I see what Buick was going for; it does remind me of a diamond tennis bracelet.

Believe it or not, the Roadmaster wasn’t even the Buick with the most sparkle that year; that honor went to the extra-long and luxurious Limited which was adorned with 15 vertical louvers on each rear fender. The Limited was nearly 19 feet long and weighed around 4700 pounds.

All ’58 models, the Roadmaster and Limited (as well as the Century, Special, and Super) were powered by a 364ci V-8. All series except the Special had a Quadrajet carburetor. Powertrain options included the Flight Pitch Dynaflow, standard on both the Roadmaster 75 and the Limited. Marketing focused on flight (it was the rocket age after all) and used phrases like, “It looks and feels like flight on wheels,” and, “The air born B-58 Buick.”

If it seems like something is missing, despite all of the dazzling chrome trim, your mind may be registering the lack of ventiports. That feature, practically synonymous with the Buick, was absent in 1958 and 1959. Ventiports reappeared in 1960, this time with the Electra being the top-of-the-line model and sporting four on each side.

This 1960 Electra was graced with four ventiports to distinguish it from other models.

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Fallout’s Kaiser Darrin

We finally got around to watching Fallout and enjoyed it much more than I thought we would. Having just finished watching the Justified series for about the seventh time, it is nice to have another opportunity to watch Walton Goggins finesse the fine art of scene stealing. The show has a unique, vintage aesthetic, and it was a wonderful surprise to see Goggin’s character “Cooper Howard” tooling around in a Kaiser Darrin during the flashback sequences. We published this post about the Darrin many years ago, but here it is again for those who missed it the first time:

This unusual front end belongs to a rare automobile, a 1954 Kaiser Darrin:

1954 Kaiser Darrin (Classic Car Collection, Kearney, Nebraska)

The brochure for this unique machine boasts that it was designed by “Darrin of Paris,” also known as Howard “Dutch” Darrin.  Darrin was an interesting character who flew combat missions over France as a member of the U.S. Air Service during World War I.  He designed luxury automobiles for movie stars like Clark Gable and Errol Flynn, and his gravestone in Santa Monica simply reads “AUTOMOTIVE ARCHITECT.”  A thoroughly interesting 3-part article about his life was written by Richard Langworth and can be read here.  Although Darrin had some successes designing automobiles, the Kaiser Darrin wasn’t one of them and only 435 were produced.

The Darrin was a product of the struggling Kaiser Motors Corporation, and it just beat the Corvette to be the first car with a fiberglass body.  It also featured sliding doors that retracted into the front fenders when opened as seen in this picture from the sales brochure:

The grille has been said to look like pursed lips, but I think it looks more like Tweety Bird.  Think about it.

Design preferences aside, the Darrin was not cheap.  It was priced at $3,668 (compared to $2,774 for a Corvette) and, although it cost more, its 90-hp engine was completely out-classed by the Vette’s 150 horses.

Another problem may have been the sales pitch for the Darrin.  This is an excerpt from an article dated February 13, 1954, that featured an interview with a model, Pat Matteson, who had been hired to demonstrate the Darrin at the International Sports Show in New York City:

Cars with plastic bodies are still a mystery to most motorists.  They want to know if the plastic will dent if people lean on it, whether snow will melt the plastic, whether hot water will make a hole in it, or whether insects will become permanently embedded in it.

“No. . .No. . .No. . .No,” says Pat.  “But a motorist can repair a fender dent in the same way he’d patch a tire.  And he can fix it so it doesn’t show.

“If a lady wants to change the color of the plastic body to match her hat, gloves or a new dress, she can do so by spraying on a new paint with a vacuum cleaner.  But it would take her three hours.”