Restored video from mid-60's San Francisco

I think there was a Austin Morris 1300 at 0:54 mark the side stripe maybe?

Totally agree…several ‘63 Galaxies, and a white ‘64 Galaxie Wagon on the right near the beginning.

Depending on when the new models were released back then, it’s either late-‘63 or early-‘64.

Lots of long coats and warm hats too, so that lines up.

Yep! Another car I wanted when they were worthless…:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

The E-type sure stands apart from the rest of them, and still does!

Don’t think I saw one Mercedes in all three videos.

…both of them!

:grimacing:

At one time, rebuilding VW engines was the bread and butter of my dad’s garage: there were some months when we rebuilt 15 to 20 engines.

With the 40-hp engines, they were all virtually identical, so my job as a kid was washing and cleaning all the various piles: cooling tin, crankcases, crankshaft, and the like.

Back then parts were so cheap Dad could do a rebuild on one for $350, and that included new pistons and jugs, new camshaft and lifters, rebuilt heads, and a gasket set.

A new set of connecting rods, with shells, was $8.

:disguised_face:

Those little PsOS were everywhere!

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No looters in this video!

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Every Dragnet episode and Barnaby Jones, they are screaming down the road…
Then at every light is a Bug :slight_smile:

What I notice the most is the small amount of traffic, and one can always find a place to park. I remember driving the city in those days and had forgotten how easy it was then.
LLoyd

“Abstainer” A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Writer Ambrose Bierce

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I would put the year at 1964 or maybe '63. I saw a number of '63/64 cars (Impalas, Chrysler Newport, Galaxie) and didn’t see anything later than '64. I couldn’t find the '67 Vette that Joey mentions, only the C1 that looked to be a 61 or 62, but was brief and blurry. Given that there would almost certainly be a few current MY cars in three minutes of footage from downtown in a major metropolitan area, I wouldn’t think it would be any later than '64.

Cool video.

The 67 was on the second video someone posted…

We were just kids when Mom and Dad moved the family from New Jersey to Los Angeles in '65. We thought everything would be palm trees, swimming pools, and surfers. The image in our minds didn’t quite match up with reality :slight_smile:

For a youngster in love with cars it was certainly a cool place to be, though. As for Jags specifically, well, they were a common sight; almost ubiquitous.

XKEs and Stingrays were the cars to own and commonly seen. Porsches were much less common at the time. They didn’t really become a big deal in my neck o’the woods until the early 70s. By then the XKEs were falling apart and Corvettes were, dear lord, simply too, too brutish and vulgar for anyone with an iota of sophistication. How…ugh… gauche :slight_smile:

Muscle cars and Mustangs were everywhere, naturally. Tons of MGs, too. Dune buggies were popular, too, and often seen cruising the streets

I remember it all very well and very fondly

Cheers
DD

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A friend of mine drove out to Los Angeles from Duluth, Minnesota to buy a used, non-rusty E-type in the winter of ‘68, when he was in his early 20’s.

As he puts it, “it was only then I realized I was free to leave Minnesota”, and he decided to move to Orange County for the next 40+ years.

He says that the SoCal car culture that existed in the late-60’s and 70’s was the stuff that dreams are made of, and nothing will ever approach it again.

This was him, on that fateful trip, outside Vilem B Haan’s motoring accessories shop on Santa Monica Blvd.

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Nice story!
Great times
Gtjoey

… and pretty much remained that way until 1985! :slight_smile:

I remember Haan’s very well.

A lot of the more raw performance/racing stuff was in the West Los Angeles area as well. Dick Guldstrand Racing and Traco Engines, both in Culver City. Carrol Shelby in Venice and, later, at LAX. Paxton/STP/Grantelli in Santa Monica. Eddie Paul Customs in El Segundo. Scores of others that I can’t remember at the moment.

Santa Monica Blvd had a car lot on every corner, seemingly. Car ‘stuff’ was everywhere.

I have to agree!

Cheers
DD

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I have an Aussie friend who is obsessed with all things 60’s/American/Car/Performance/Racing related.

When he moved to the US in about 2010, he came armed with a collection of vintage Hot Rod magazines, and spent the first few weeks driving around Los Angeles, looking for any evidence of all those old shops and factories.

Needless to say, he came away pretty disappointed, but most of the original buildings themselves have been repurposed, so he got a kick out of seeing a building that once produce Mag Wheels or cylinder heads, now producing boutique living room furniture, for instance.

I’ve a friend, Neal East, who grew up in that scene, and started “Auto Books,” in Burbank.

He was a key figure in the mid-to late 60s thru the 70s automotive scene, and I’m sure he’d agree.

I’m guessing my friend knows him. He and his brother live on opposite ends of the same street in Burbank, and are both WAAAAY into the Burbank car scene.

They live on the next street over from the house that was used in ‘The Wonder Years’.

Let me know if he does.