Old photo time.....

OK, 81x11's excellent thread about his vehicle history got me into digging out the photo albums.....I really should scan all that stuff, but would probably need a month to do it....

Not surprisingly, we're not real good picture-takers in our family, and we didn't always take photos of our vehicles - quite a few are missing. (some we probably didn't have long enough to even take a picture...

I'll try to do this in a somewhat chronological order.....

Around 1956, the family's first house to call our own. Dad's ('48?) Dodge out front. this is the car I broke the key off in the right door lock cylinder when I was about 4......




Unfortunately, I don't have any more pics of vehicles that my dad owned. Maybe mom's got some - I'll have to check next time I'm up there.

Skipping waaaay forward to 1974/75, after I was married...

Apparently, we were camping- somewhere.
This is the wifey (Marcia) standing next to our first pick-'em-up, a 1972 Ford Courier. I built a complete sleeping interior for the bed area out of partical board and foam padding. The Mrs. did some curtains for the windows. We bought the truck used from (Go see...) Cal Worthington Ford in Long Beach.


Here's another pic of the Courier in front of our little house in Redondo Beach....

 

Moving on, in 1975 we were able to purchase our first new car, a 1974 Mazda RX-4....here, also in front of our Redondo Beach house....


I thought the white side moldings along the beauty creases lent it a nice touch. Later on, I spray-painted the steel wheels a silver color, made them stand out more.


I liked the RX-4 so much that I wanted a wagon version. A few months after we bought the sedan, I came across a yellow '74 wagon on the same dealers used car lot. Like the sedan, also an automatic, but it also had A/C. So far, only pic I can find on the wagon is this one from about 1979 - 1980, in front of my '80 Pontiac Phoenix company car. By this time, we had sold the RX-4 sedan.....

This is also at our first 'house' - a mobile home that we purchased new and set up in a small park in beautiful downtown Gardena, CA. Got some stories to tell about that place.



Jump to 1982 or so....

Back to a pick-up. My wife's sister and her husband had bought a new 4x4 Toyota P/U, and they raved about it. Started thinking about one for ourselves. Problem: wife never could get the hang of a stick. (big complication with the Courier...) We happened to find this automatic Deluxe Toyota (1979) for sale at a RV dealer. The first owner had installed the 'SR-5' side stripes on it. Probably one of the most reliable vehicles we ever owned. I got fancy with it and ordered these custom alloy wheels that looked just like the Toyota Supra wheels of that vintage. I equipped the truck with Helwig overload springs to handle the camper.


1985....
Traded in the Toyota with the camper on this...
1983 Chevy Van G20, with conversion. Here,we're in Arizona, on our way to the Grand Canyon. The trailer is a rental job.

 

Oops, gettin' ahead of ourselves here.....

In December, 1984, we splurged. Bought this: (Technically the wife's car. I told her, "You buy the Z, I'll buy the TURBO...")



If you remember these when they were new, the Turbo model had this hokey tape stripe that went down from the side mirror about 4", then went backto the end of the car. I immediately had it taken off, and had nice painted pin stripes put on just above the black rub strip - orange and light silver.


1986....
Mom's new 1986 Mitsubishi Galant, which replaced the 'Z'
We were attempting at this time to adopt an infant through a county agency. Made you jump through a bunch of hoops, including showing them you had a vehicle suitable for hauling kids. Unfortunately, the 'Z' didn't do it, so it had to go.....the pisser is that we didn't actually end up getting our first kid until May, 1988, so we could have kept the 'Z' for 2 more years....
Oh - this is our first 'real' house, too. Moved in in '81.



Around 1990....
Our daughter Shannon is 'driving' daddy's big '79 Ford F-350 Crew Cab. That's our 5th wheel travel trailer behind it - a '88 Komfort, '26'.

What you don't see it a little '85 GMC S-15 P/U that I attempted to tow the trailer with. No go...


Just throwing this one in -
Hawaii, 1986.
Wifey and me, with my dad in front. Guess mom took the pic....

 

This 2000 Audi A6 Avant came along in 2003....


Then, of course, the Focus:

 

That Hawaii pic .... looks like the skiff that ran out to the USS Arizona .... nice collection of cars, thanks!

 

Nice stuff, KK!! Thanks for the pix.

Cal Worthington??? If I can't sell you a car I'll eat a bug!

 

I think it was, but unfortunately we were time-limited that day, so we couldn't take a longer cruise that actually stopped at the memorial (or some other reason - don't remember...) So, we only passed by it....

 

Wait a second... you had 79 F-350 crew cab!?
Yer holding out on me Krash!

 

Cool pics KK

 

Yup. Kind of along story....
Bought the 5th wheel travel trailer when we had the '85 GMC S-15. It was a really nice little truck, loaded. Unfortunately, it didn't have enough power to tow the 5th wheel. Sold it and went looking for a full-sized crew cab. This was in '89 - kids were real little then. Found a '78 (? may have been a '79 - don't remember) F-250 shortbed crew like yours, with a 400 and automatic. Found out after about a week it had some kind of major motor problem. Took it back to the dealer and exchanged it for a big red '86 F-350 longbed crew - with a diesel and a 5-speed. Ended up spending a lot of money on it - clutch, flywheel and other things. Got tired of the 5-speed, dumped it and got the '79 F-350 longbed crew. Had an automatic, A/C and a 460. It's the one we kept for quite a while - as long as we had the 5th wheel. .

 

Im thinking that the 78 had round headlights and they kept using them for a few months in 79 and then switched to rectangle headlights which really made ID'ing one difficult .... maybe some one can enlighten me.

 

Consider yourself enlightened! I wrote this someplace else in the forum. We had a 3/4 ton 1 ton rated(whatever that means) camper special Ford superdupper cab with 460. It had the round headlites yet. I was hit by a drunk on glare ice after very short time. Had already ordered the 1978 grille, lites, etc to convert to 1978 look. Simple bolt on by Ford garage after the original front was whiped out. 1978 was first year for rectangular headlights. A 3/4 ton easily handles at least a 30' fifth wheel which we had and took to the Smokies several times. Went up those mountains at 70MPH. One of those optical illusion things. I kept mashin the gas on those steep mountains, not realizing I was going faster and faster---- and faster! Don't you feel better wingnut, being enlightened? That'll be $129.95.

 

Nice photo story KK, thanks for sharing.

 

Welp since we are on the subject and I have a need to accept Cats race challenge .... my story, I bought a 76 f-250 new and in 1980 got into a bit of front-end damage .... I bought a whole front clip off a 1979 at a wrecking yard for $600 ... while the front-end was "clipless" I had a enjine builder do a 428 fe and I yanked the 360 .... and did a Trans-Go Intercepter kit on the c-6 ... with a 10' overhead camper I could hit 85 (no problem) going UP mountain springs grade outside San Diego ... $129.95 ... no way. None of the other campers could touch me in that truck ... shooting up that grade was a Sunday ritual .... and a white-knuckler for the wife! LOL

I was also under the impression that the f-350s were late in getting the rectangular headlites also ....

Cat I think the "3/4 ton-one ton rated was due to a shorter wheelbase ... the one ton being longer.