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I’ve been on a Junkyard Find roll lately, but I haven’t forgotten the old/interesting cars that are still among the living. Here’s a nearly-60-year-old Chevy that lives— more accurately, thrives— on the street near downtown Denver.
I’m pretty sure this is a ’53, what with the one-piece windshield and 53-ish gutted grille, but you never know for sure with all the parts-swappage that takes place with these things.
It’s good to know that such cars still get used for transportation these days.
21 Comments on “Down On The Mile High Street: 1953 Chevrolet 210 Sedan...”
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Tall roof, upright seating position, bulbous front-end and compromised visibility.
It’s practically a crossover!
Not to mention the ponderous handling, wallowy ride, mediocre gas mileage, and tepid performance (assuming the original Stovebolt 6 is under the hood)
As a child my parents had one in powder blue. There was a hole rusted in the floorboard. I would lay on the floor and look through that hole at the road passing by below. Amazing what pops to mind sometimes.
Oh yeah, no seat belts. Children amok on the back seats!
I had a similiar experience as a child but instead it was a 1960 thunderbird that I could watch the road go by. I miss that car.
It’s funny how my first car, a 1952 Chevy DeLuxe looked/still looks more “modern”! The 1953 & 1954 models were a blast back into the past and as a result, I have never liked them. Even in red.
I’ll pass on this one.
Well, it definitely has the ’53 model’s taillights. I assume the turn signals/parking lights are hidden behind that custom grille?
Our family had a 2-door version of this; it may have been powder blue as rrhyne56 mentions. I remember it only vaguely, as I was a wee lad at the time.
My mother couldn’t reach the clutch pedal properly, so it was traded in on a ’55 (also with manual transmission).
When I was 16 in the early ’70s, my grandmother wanted to replace her powder blue 1953 Chevy 210 sedan with 75k original-owner miles. I had hoped she would sell it to me, but she convinced my dad it was a bad idea. Sure, it wasn’t a perfect car for me at that time, but I’d still own it today if it had been mine then.
She sold it to another young driver for $150 who promptly wrecked it in a month.
I am still having trouble forgiving her.
These old early 50s Chevy sedans were like Superman…indestructible. Here’s one that hauled a trailer across Canada twice in 2010.http://www.mystarcollectorcar.com/2-features/stories/1277-october-2011-a-coast-to-coaster-1954-chevrolet-the-hornblower-drives-across-canada.html
the muffler bearings were really heavy on those things
LOL – Almost literally.
Grandparents had a ’53 Bel Air in two-tone green. Zackman is right as I also hate that style, but Fords and Plymouths from the same years were just as sad looking.
I could not agree more with Zackman. Dad’s first new car was a 1952 Chevrolet Deluxe Hardtop. Black top over a yellow body. Blue Flame 6 and 3 on the tree. I learned to drive it when I was twelve.
I never liked GM’s styling direction for ’53 and ’54.
All slandering aside–when 10% of a vehicles impact on the environment happens at manufacture, it can be argued that this is a more sustainable vehicle. Not to mention: endearingly portly.
@musicmachine
Didn’t someone here post about how their 1950’s car even though it was a gas guzzler was more environmentally friendly than a new car? Something to do with all the pollution during manufacturing of the complex mobile computers we call cars today.
I could’ve sworn I saw someone post about how they had done the research on this topic.
/shrug. Still I like old cars too and I’m all for keeping them around as long as possible.
As a kid my dad had a 54 Bel Air 4dr two-tone green w/powerglide. I remember sitting up front tuning the Motorola AM radio. Since it had tubes it took a couple of blocks to warm up. When we drove with my mom I sat in the back and held on to the back seat strap. Seat belts? Nah. He sold it in 68 for a mear $75 and upgraded to a 62 Impala.
Oh goodness, that is so evocative. My grandmother in Colombia had a powder-blue ’53 Bel Air 4-door in the same kind of condition. It was her only car – she drove it from 1954 until she died in 1987. The look, the feel, the smell (it’s the mohair, I think) take me back.
I’ve spent a lot of time on long road trips in a friend’s ’51 Chevy, and it’s a pretty comfortable and competent car even by modern standards. Just don’t try to stop or turn quickly, because it won’t do that.
Clifford Inline Performance has tons of goodies that can wake a tired old stovebolt right up. Their company logo is “6=8”.
CPP ( Classic Performance Products ), Fatman Fabrications, and Global West offer plenty of suspension upgrades.
I wonder what kind of gas mileage he’s getting?
The one I had in the late ’60s got 15 in town, but I never calibrated the odometer to highway mileposts so it may have been less. Left town in it only once. The powerglide shifted itself down to low and stayed there 40 miles west of Omaha.
Had it towed home and sold it for $100–just a $50 loss.
Dave, most old cars like this don’t cover many miles over a year’s time, so gas mileage doesn’t much matter to the owner.