I love seeing this no matter what the climate is in this or any part of the country. A not-bad '58 Chevy Bel Air 4-door sedan being used as daily transportation. Saw this pull up in the parking lot as I was leaving the post office, and I had to snap a photo. Yes, it needs wheelcovers, and it has three different brands of tires on it and an electric fan hanging from the clothes hook on the passenger side and aimed at the driver, but it's still cool, in very good shape, and would be a great restoration candidate.

 

I noticed that you lived in a desert area.

A car like that dissolved into rust particles by 1968 or so here in the northeast.

Road salt killed 99% of old cars here. The 1% that survived were not driven in winter.

 

Oh, I'm sure of this.

My point was that, even for a dry climate, it's still unusual to see a car this old seeing daily use. I do see a not-small number of '60s and especially '70s and '80s vehicles around town, mostly pickup trucks. The foreman for the construction company that built my house, a great car guy, drives to work every day in a '74 Chevy pickup.

It's rare, though, to see anything from the '50s.

 

That is great. I remember some of the names we called that ugly color. It is interesting that they have the mirrors mounted so far out on the fenders you could not see anything in them. That was the style then. Amazing they are still there.

 

I noticed this. The details of the trim are all there and in pretty good shape. The only real issue I saw was on the trunk lid, where it looks like the "Chevrolet" script above the V is broken off after "Chev."

 

Neat, I drove a 65 Coronet 4 dr as a summer daily driver about 6-7 years ago and it was great. It was about the same condition as this 58 chev, but people would really appreciate it and talk to me about it. I screwed up and sold it. Next year I plan to use a 70 Vista Cruiser as a daily summer driver that's in worse shape than this 58. Looking forward to it.

 

Sounds good. Let's see some photos of that wagon!

 

That's cool to see. My DD right now is an 84 Eldo. Not from the 50's but definitely different than anything else on the road right now.

 

I will put in some pics of the wagon and my 71 Convertible on as soon as they come out from hibernation in the spring. I'm really enjoying this site. I came on in 09 but never did anything until last year, when I bought the vista and needed some parts. Then I looked around on CO and started posting, etc. Any way I need to get some digital pics and post them.

 

About ten years ago, my wife drove a '67 Valiant with a 150 six as her DD.

It was rear-ended in front of our house one night (hit and run, of course), and the trunk didn't close right after that, plus the rust in the rockers opened up, so I got pissed off and sold it cheap (heck- I'd paid $500 for it and we'd driven it for about four years) to a buddy, who drove it for a while, then traded it for something he liked better.

I really should have kept it - low miles, dead-solid reliable, and close to 30 mpg on the highway.

Oh, well...

- Eric