Convertibles for a sunny Sunday.

A woody convertible. I don't recall ever seeing another one. I took this photo at the intersection of East Burnside and NE Grand Avenue.



A vintage convertible photographed outside the Bright Auto Upholstery shop, near my work building.



Another vintage beauty photographed outside the Bright Auto Upholstery shop.



Yes, one more vintage convertible photographed outside the Bright Auto Upholstery shop.



I cannot remember where I took this one--I don't recognize the surroundings.



Here's another view of it which also identifies where I took it--in the parking lot of Club 21, on the north side of NE Sandy Blvd. near where I live.



Wouldn't you hope to look happier than these four if you were out and about in a vintage Ford Mustang? I took this photo at the intersection of NE Couch and NE MLK.



And here's another beautiful vintage convertible, seen in downtown Portland.



It's really a gorgeous vehicle.



Finally, a red VW Bug convertible!

Our flag flies every day at Bright

The best image I have for Memorial Day, this photo I took recently through the garage door at Bright Auto Upholstery while out and about during my lunch hour.

Green at Bright's

Bright Auto Upholstery, 1611 SE 6th Avenue, often provides a vintage vehicle or two for me to photograph. On a recent lunch break I found this beauty of a pickup truck just inside the open shop door.



All sorts of circles there in the distance, all involved with the upholstery process.



I've always loved that word, Studebaker. By the way, take a good look inside the shop and see a successful small business, in operation since 1976 according to what I read on the Web. By the way, I think the green is truer in the top two photos than it is in this one.

VW van, seen on a parking lot, No. 4

I thought this chartreuse-colored van would look pretty cool after yesterday's orange one, especially since I actually took the photo the very next day, back on July 24, 2008! Serendipity!

This VW van is parked in a parking lot near work--I took the photo while out and about on my lunch hour--sometimes I didn't go across the river to the park bench, I just ate at my desk and went out for a walk.

The building in the background with the blue trim around the windows is Bright Auto Upholstery. The red brick building is a parking garage. I've never noticed that tower being that much taller than the garage itself--it's a stairwell. Makes me wonder if at one point there were plans to add another story to the garage. Bet there's no money for that now.

Buddies

Hercules and Bubba enjoy Portland's fantastic summer weather every chance that they get, here in the door of Bright Auto Upholstery, 1611 SE 6th Avenue, near where I work. Up until this week, I've only been able to get Hercules, on the left, to stand up to be petted; he's a sweetheart. Tuesday morning Bubba decided not to be so shy and walked up to sniff my hand. Our weather is about to change to misty, drizzly and/or rainy--for months to come. I hope that I'll be able to visit these two in their doorway and continue to build a friendship with both of them.

Today I have a Zipcar.

And I'm glad it's way smaller than this vehicle. Oh, the two dogs are always there at Bright Auto Upholstery, keeping company with the sidewalk. Gotta love 'em!

I have to tell you that the other day when I was out walking at lunch, and I came across this one, I literally stopped in my tracks. A Cadillac mixed with an El Camino? That's what it made me think. So that night I contacted my buddy Ratty Caddy, in my humble opinion Kind of the Custom Caddy, and asked him if such a thing existed off the assembly line. He got right back with me and said to Google flower car. Huh? Flower car? Oh, I see, as in that which transports funeral flowers. Naturally, I had to look some more on the Internet because I saw the insignia on the vehicle, Cadillac Caribou.

I found a bit, here and there. On a message board: Caribou Motor Company (USA) Cadillac custom Caribou pick-up on DeVille chassis, SSA 1992, p.30. CLC member, Tim Pawl, who is also curator of the CLC's Museum and Research Center, owns a 1974 Caribou, several years ago he contacted company that produced them; their records were supposedly lost in a flood. The person he talked to remembered that about 90-94 were produced in 1974, and perhaps as many as 275-300 total over the period from 1972-1976. Tim says also that another version of the Caribou was produced circa 1980-84. Over the past few years, Tim recalls that a dozen or so of the 1972-1976 versions have shown up on eBay and elsewhere. There was an article about the cars in Motor Trend Magazine circa May or September, 1975. These are very rare cars; their cost, when new, was supposedly $ 20,000 over the base $11,000 Coupe DeVille price or approx. $30,000. Typical ones today [2003-2004] have been going for $12,000 to $20,000.

And here's a link to Flickr image and comments about Caribou Motor Company conversions. The info here is fantastic--turns out Evel Knievel owned  a red one similar to this one and Glen Campbell and Bob Newhart owned ones converted into station wagons!



Now I'm off to get ready to enjoy my Zipcar. Here it is, on the road the other day with someone else at the wheel. It's the Mazda 3 known as McMinnville!

Bentley, Bentley, what happened to your glasses?

I photographed this gorgeous automobile at almost the end of the detailing process, hence the missing headlight glass so that the deed could be completed professionally.


Thanks to Details by Mark, next door to Bright Auto Upholstery on SE 6th Avenue!


See what I mean? What a shine!


Sweet whitewalls!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 ... Alfa Romeo

In a comment about the Karmann Ghia--thanks, Snapper of Gabriola Daily Photo, for the correct spelling of that neat little vehicle--Steve from New Orleans Daily Photo asked where I'd found the Volkswagen product. One block from my work is Bright's where I often photograph autos left there for their services, like this Studebaker Avanti. The sleek factor certainly shows up in these two beauties.


Here's the same Alfa Romeo outside Bright Auto Upholstery.

Studebaker Avanti

Here's another beauty I photographed at Bright's. I don't know the year, but I recognized it at once as a Studebaker Avanti. Somebody back home in Jackson, Mississippi, had one when I was growing up. Seems like it was some local TV celebrity, maybe Bob Neblett, the Reddy Kilowatt weatherman on Channel 12. I don't know exactly why I'm associating him with a Studebaker Avanti, but it's sort of like a multiple choice or true/false test question--you really ought to go with your first choice.

By the way, most of the time these days I can't visit as many blogs as I'd like during the week, but I certainly hope to be able to make up for it on the weekends. Don't give up on me, OK? Thanks!

Does this Rambler remind anyone else of a Plymouth Barracuda?

I photographed this beauty on the corner of SE Clay and 6th Avenue at Bright Auto Upholstery. Something about the car reminds me of a Barracuda that a guy I dated a few times drove, way back in 1969. His nickname was Pinky. And he worked in the meat department of a grocery store and told me on one of our dates that he could get me any cut of meat that I liked, for free. You can picture my double take, right? OK, so we went on one more date to a professional baseball game and he said, "Anything you want, just let me know, and I'll get it for you." I said, "I'll take the first baseman." He just sat there, no double take, no nothing. And he bought me some M&Ms. That was it. The end. Over and out.

So, car people, does this car remind anyone else of a Plymouth Barracuda?