Fad and/or Options that quickly Faded

[Sleeper-6]

I don't know what is worse all the fads or the fact that you can still go to your ChekShuckPepStraussZone and still find most of this crap in the isles or on cars in the lot.

 

[Nasty Wendy]

Animal skin seat covers.

No Dennis I don't own all of these things. I just like to give a little visual aid. Google image search is a great tool. I do have a NOS 8track player though.

 

[Dennis Kirban]

Animal skin seat covers.

No Dennis I don't own all of these things. I just like to give a little visual aid. Google image search is a great tool. I do have a NOS 8track player though.

Visual aid is a great to include one skill I lack.....

On 8 tracks they were quite frustrating in the day similar to cassette players ended up flinging some of them out of the car window when machine would eat them.....

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

[Dennis Kirban]

In looking over the list the fake convertible tops reminds me of the late 1950s continental kits were popular

Also member the 2 or 3 years Ford offered the retractable hardtop? This basically eliminated most of the trunk space.

Mercedes has made the retractable hardtop popular in the slk 230 and 320 models....rare ones are the 320 slk 6-speed manual cars....if you ever see one...built in the 1998-2003 approximate years...

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

[Nasty Wendy]

What about the 'Flame Thrower Exhaust'!!! Probably good that isn't popular these days. Some idiot kid would burn down a gas station showing off.

 

[83turbomon]

IMO

8 track players
Diamond in the back windows
Ragtops
SPINNERS
Good Kids:biggrin::biggrin:

 

[Dennis Kirban]

Lots of fads that have come & gone...

Earlier I said I'd tell a quick story on those stupid pine scented trees....true story

Back when I was buying turbo regals....I bought this one really mint GN. This car had without any exggeration 35 to 50 of those scented pine trees throughout the car! It was so bad I could not keep the car at my house.

he owner had a few that hung off the glove box knob and from rubbing the glove box door left a green mark on the door. Had them all over the trunk under the seats....We tried every trick known to man on how to rid the cr of that smell....no luck......

I have no idea why the owner had so many of them in the car in the first place....some sort of addiction or low sense of smell. Anyhow...I got lucky sold the car to a younger guy and the smell did not bother him.

I can't imagine working in a factory that makes those stupid things.

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

["Turbo-T"]

Automatic shoulder seatbelts that came forward. I think the escort or taurus had em.

Ford Tempo's had these

Again back in my youth....GM had it in some cars you could preset a needle on your speedo to buzz if you hit a certain speed. I am sure their is a technical name for it high speed reminder?

I believe it was called a speed warning indicator. I know the older Buicks had them, makes you wonder why ours didn't.

Ok I'm going to post some I remember from the late 80's/early 90's....

People used to paint their cars monochrome and it was usually some sort of bright pastel neon type color, such as this Datsun:

Radio wave stripes....

Bazooka bass tubes....

Neon colored windshield wipers and steering wheels....

Bent antennas (usually bent into the shape of a zig-zag....

Nike swoosh logos on car windows (more mid 90's)

Tweed interiors...

On mini trucks, the "walk thru", where the rear wall of the cab/window and the bulk head of the bed were cut out...usually so a boat load of subwoofers could be placed in the rear:

Here's another 80's custom...

Oh yeah, I believe the Testarossa sides were also common there in the late 80's...

 

[Little6pack]

Not sure if these were mentioned?

Curb scrapers
Esso (Exxon ) sold tiger tails
Goofy moon eyes stickers
When some people had CB radios they also had a voice speaker system. We use to try to get drivers ahead to move by making a wailing siren sound.

 

[1quick6]

When some people had CB radios they also had a voice speaker system. We use to try to get drivers ahead to move by making a wailing siren sound.

I'm ashamed to admit we did that too, although a bit differently. We'd sit at a stoplight and when the light would turn green my friend would make awesome burnout noises. We'd then act like the g-force was pushing us into the seat and we'd go nowhere at all without the tires even spinning. We got some weird looks but we were stupid highschoolers.

 

[regal454]

The CLUB

Remember these?

 

[Mike Licht]

Side Pipes, Gabriel HiJacker air shocks, colored wiper blades (pink), Thrush mufflers (wish these were still around they sounded great) headlight and taillight covers
Mike

 

[Pronto]

Thrush mufflers:
Thrush Exhaust - Products Page - Welded, Turbo, Glasspack, Headerback

 

[Little6pack]

I hate those FAKE STICK ON SCOOPS!

JUST saw a beat late 90's Buick RIV with 2 stuck on.. I bet they slow the car down LOL

 

[83turbomon]

Remember these?

hey i got one... works as a club, and as a great weapon...

 

[Mark T-TB]

This is great fun - a lot of responses.
I remember those Gulf "horse shoes" stickers ["there's a lot more to Gulf's 'extra kick'... than horse shoes"]

PLENTY of cars had those moving seat belts, don't recall the exact era, but that was an early version of the automaker's answer to the federally mandated "passive restraints".

I think that I have one of those Hurst flower stickers in the garage... left over from the late 60s or 70s.
I have a couple of those Esso/Exxon tiger tails... I hang one from the gas cap on my '66 Tiger at shows & cruises.

 

[Dennis Kirban]

Lots of good ones getting posted......

As for the "Club" we used to sell them when they were the rage...company was located in Pennsylvania I believe. Course cars that had the club were still stolen only difference is you now had a cut out section of the steering wheel!

I for one could never understand why GM never made a machined metal steering column instead of plastic that thieves would bust to dislodge the ignition switch.....today electronics has cut the theft rate down.

here are some more short lived fads associated with our cars back in the day when they were just slightly used cars.

Member when some owners would cut that GN trm plate above the glove box and drop in 3 or 4 round gauges? That is an expensive fix today.

Or, drilling a hole in a mint hood to mount a fuel pressure guage......

We used to sell tinted headlite covers made by Extang...never fit rite because the headlite bezels were not a flat surface. Tail lite tint covers never looked ride either.

Another company made a flat style headlite cover also.

We get made the tinted front parking lite covers as they look pretty good on the cars.

Great reading

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

[Dennis Kirban]

This is great fun - a lot of responses.
I remember those Gulf "horse shoes" stickers ["there's a lot more to Gulf's 'extra kick'... than horse shoes"]

PLENTY of cars had those moving seat belts, don't recall the exact era, but that was an early version of the automaker's answer to the federally mandated "passive restraints".

I think that I have one of those Hurst flower stickers in the garage... left over from the late 60s or 70s.
I have a couple of those Esso/Exxon tiger tails... I hang one from the gas cap on my '66 Tiger at shows & cruises.

I see you own a Sunbeam Tiger neat car....years ago I had a 1964 sunbeam with the hardtop option. Yours I believe is either a 260 or 289 Ford engne sandwiched in there like they did the 4.3 n the Syclone....

those tiger tails where a major hit in the GTO world. The tiger was part of the GTO theme in 1965......

Neat cars.....

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

[TWISTER]

What about the triple and double wiper blades. Had to change 6 of them at once when they go bad.
Nobody mentioned all of the lifted 4x4 trucks that ran around on 44" Ground Hawgs back in the 80s. I dont see that happening like it used to. Friend had one that you would drop the tailgate and still couldnt see into the bed.
PVC rollbars and cages used to be in. Apparently they figured out looks didnt save lives.

 

[rmar]

musical horns, aoooga. I had one that would play several tunes...
Bad just bad. It played Dixie, ect.......