The Dark Wob

I think the appropriate pricing level at this time ran - Chev/Pontiac/Buick/Olds/Cadillac. Actual retailing was less than transparent back then with factory price lists virtually a trade secret and the dealers were left to squeeze what they could from the buyers. Also each line's top models tended to blur with the next brand. Then there were the premium or specialist models such as Nomad and Safari, the Corvette etc.

Hooli wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:28 am

chadders wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:26 am Which presumably makes it more expensive to restore & less valuable?

FTFY

Yeah that - and then it’s RHD which the yee hah yank car fanatics in cowboy boots loathe, despite it being more practical here.

I bought a 1956 Motor Show guide - Chevrolet Canada were showing a 4 door Bel Air Sport Sedan (more luxury version of mine) and a 4 door sedan as well as a Corvette.
I suspect this is why people keep telling me my car came from Canada.
According to the chassis plate it was built in Tarrytown New York - but maybe they sent it to Canada for some reason to be exported here - something to do with taxes no doubt (if that's what happened).

I think it is a common assumption that all Yanks sold here in the 1950s/60s were Canadian-built. Certainly, some were and it does make sense in terms of Colonial-type duty preferences that would have applied to Canuck cars on the British market. However, I don't believe the shipping route would have been particularly cost-effective in the days before full intermodal containerisation and a New York state assembly origin would have been more benficial than say, Oshawa. The 210 four-door hardtop did also appear to have been about the lowest production of all the '56 models so more likely to have been sourced from elsewhere. I can't imagine there would have been that many RHD examples built either unless Australia took a few.

mercrocker wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:57 am I think the appropriate pricing level at this time ran - Chev/Pontiac/Buick/Olds/Cadillac. Actual retailing was less than transparent back then with factory price lists virtually a trade secret and the dealers were left to squeeze what they could from the buyers. Also each line's top models tended to blur with the next brand. Then there were the premium or specialist models such as Nomad and Safari, the Corvette etc.

Almost, just swap Buick/Olds around and that's it for back then. I think the options list was a big earner on the lower priced makes, just tick the boxes for all those factory extras. It's funny to think that if you walked into say a Chevy dealership in the 50's they had just the one type of car to sell, start with the basic two door sedan with a six pot and three on the tree manual and then, you guessed it, start ticking boxes.

AMCrebel wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 1:47 pm I expect I will probably die with it in this state and my poor daughter will have to sell it.

In spite of it all I do love the old thing.

I'd love to know who bought it new, in London in 1956.

It is a factory RHD that came here brand new and has never been anywhere else.

I have been in touch with a previous owner who used it as his everyday car in the late 70s - he used to drive it from the West of England to Scotland where he was at university quite regularly.

The chassis is sound but the body (4 door hardtop - no centre B pillar) is fucked - none of the doors fit and it's as rusty as shite.

Also paradoxically, no-one in the UK likes RHD Yank cars (except me).

Lendrum & Hartman was the main place to buy a GM car back then. For some reason I have a feeling that I visited the home of your car, would have been circa mid-70's in the New Forest area. I may be wrong but do recall there being a RHD 56 Chev there, a married couple owned it, they were older than me, perhaps in their 40's.

My first American car, purchased in 1976 was a RHD 59 Impala four door hardtop reg WXT4, it was rust free as in the rust was free. Cost 35 quid, had the 235ci six pot and Powergilde auto. Actually I had put a deposit on a RHD 60 Impala, 283ci V8/auto, think it was 60 quid but much better body-wise but when I went back a couple of days later with a trailer as arranged the bastard had sold it to someone else. Bit annoying as it was about four miles from where I lived rather than the 59 which was in Notts. Other RHD's were a 58 Belair four door sedan reg VXO9, was 283/three on the tree and went like a bat out of hell. It's still around full of wob. Also a 66 Galaxie four door sedan 390/auto and the rarest of them all a 68 Chevelle wagon with six pot and a 'Glide. Neither of those two have survived.

The orange and flamed 55 Chevy in that first photo was also a RHD car, the infamous RGF404 as it was known. Sadly it was broken up as a spares car for a 55 Belair two door hardtop which turned out to be horrendously rotten. I know a few of those cars from back then.

Dream cars at Redhill have or had a rhd Impala, one of the owners was going to do it for his son.

I like rhd the only time is a pain is a conversion where there isn't enough space in the foot well

Just found this on Leboncoin
https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1839239192.htm/ There is another one as well
https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1839561215.htm/

59Impala wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:17 pm It's funny to think that if you walked into say a Chevy dealership in the 50's they had just the one type of car to sell, start with the basic two door sedan with a six pot and three on the tree manual and then, you guessed it, start ticking boxes.

Yeah - it took me a while to get my head around the fact that they didn't really have model names like Escort, Cortina etc - as they really only made one (apart from the Vette of course)
I think this is why so many people just call all 55,6 and 7 Chevys "Bel Air" even though loads of them were not - and of course over time loads of people fitted Bel Air trim and interiors to the lower lines.

How much is that 210? It says 10 Euro, negotiable, offers invited (I think) - do they mean 10K? (I haven't got 10p to spend on it but just wondering)