March 1, 2010 by Chris Keen
Thanks to an article I read this morning, I was thinking back to some of the weird limos you could get in the 1980s. It used to be strictly Cadillacs and Lincolns, but for a while in the 1980s, you could also get stretched versions of unlikely suspects such as the Chrysler K-car, compact Cadillac Fleetwood, Honda Accord, and probably others. A neighbor on one of my newspaper routes as a child had a dark blue Chrysler Executive, but there were none to be found… so I stretched my memory banks and thought back to a day on I280 when I saw a limo made out of a Honda Accord. Like most other people, I reacted with “why??”. And unlike most others, my other reaction was “cool!”
So that brings us to today’s car. It’s a 1986 Honda Accord limo, most likely built by Marquis Custom Coach in Canoga Park, CA. A quick online search netted this period article from the Boca Raton News about the conversion. At the time, the Accord got 25mpg and was about $24K, and in an era of shrinking cars they could be forgiven for thinking this would be the limo of the future. Find this car for sale in Salem, OR for $2000 (or a quad, if you have one lying around!).
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 1986, accord, honda, japanese, under $2000
Posted in Feature | 1 Comment »
March 1, 2010 by Chris Keen
For those of you with cars of a certain age, you’re no doubt familiar with the broom-handle method of keeping your hatch open. As an owner of two late 1970s cars using struts to hold up their trunk lids, I’ve been doing this for the last few years. Honestly, though, I don’t really understand why I did. This is possibly one of the cheapest, easiest ways to de-jalopy-ize your old car.
Both my Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT and Lancia Beta sedan use hatch struts. And both of them were failed, the Beta to the degree that they don’t ever hold up the trunk lid. Since I use the Alfetta most, I looked around for a strut online, and ended up finding one from Hatch Struts Depot. So, the reason why this is cheap and easy? Cheap: The strut was $61 shipped and arrived in two days. Easy: Replacing it required removing two circlips and pulling out two pins, then reversing that to put the new one in. Make sure you support the lid with the broom-handle while you’re working on it, otherwise that flat spot on the back of your head (from being hit by the hatch, you know it’s happened) will get flatter. And there you have it – now I have to stand back since the lid opens so quickly. Disclaimer: I’ve got no relationship to Hatch Struts Depot, other than as a customer.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
February 26, 2010 by Chris Keen
So I was trying to think of how to intro this epitome of a 1980s car without a cliched reference to Prince (or any number of other musical references I could probably come up with if I tried), when I thought of what a bad idea buying a cheap, high-powered sports car really is. And that’s when I thought of White Lines… anyway, in trying to branch out a bit I’m going to have something of a series of Bad Ideas, inspired by some of the challenges on Top Gear. To intro the series, I thought I’d start with the C4 Corvette. Before you Corvette nerds start spluttering on your NCRS handbooks, I’m not saying the Corvette is a bad car by any means… but there is a point beyond which buying one is liable to get you or your bank account seriously injured or killed. These cars have always held a spot in my mind – for some reason, even though I’m not a huge Corvette fanatic, I can clearly remember the first time I saw one of these back in 1984. It was summer vacation, and my family and I had driven up to Konocti Harbor on Clear Lake in the less-than-trusty Saab 99 LE Wagonback… I can still picture the silver-gray car sitting there in the lot.
Anyway, enough nostalgia. Twenty-six years on, with new Corvettes far outshining them, the early C4s have been subject to some serious depreciation. Some, like the car we’re about to see, have probably been subject to some serious abuse. However, it’s allegedly running and driving, and while there were nicer automatic cars, this manual popped out at me since I prefer to row my own. At $3000, this red 1985 example in Lake Elsinore seems like just the ticket for some 80s-style fun.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: american, C4, chevrolet, chevy, corvette
Posted in Bad Ideas, Feature | Leave a Comment »
