1954 Chevy 210. 3 on the tree. Base model. They had a 210 Deluxe and the very deluxe Bel Aire using the same body.
Was my grandmothers car so it had few miles on it when we drove it home. I remember that drive. Dad driving, me playing with the dash clock. Mom driving the other family car home. Below is a picture stolen from the www. My sister nicknamed it "Petunia". It never looked this good. I spilled brake fluid on it one time so there was a big streak on the fender. Only black wall tires. Dad would never spend more that $2 for a tire so I got good at changing flats. There were usually 3 or 4 spares in the trunk. I remember a road trip to the Anamosa state prison where one of the lug nuts broke off and we got it fixed in Mechanicsville. A few days later a front wheel fell off. A bent wheel stressed the lug studs and they all broke off. This was 2 blocks from the service station where his buddy worked (and sold him the $2 tires). I doubt it ever went through a car wash. This one other time, a neighbor kid rode his bike too close and got skewered by the chrome trim on the side that was hanging loose. It went clear through his leg. One cool feature of the 4 door was you could sit about 5 across in the rear seat and still have room to roll a full size road bike in front of your legs. In one door and out the other. A younger brother got broadsided in the 1954 at a 4 way stop sign (other drivers fault) and the car was totaled.
Grandmother got a 67 Nova to replace the 54 so it would have been about 1967 when we got the 1954 Chevy. My grandfather died in 1967. She leased the farm and moved into town where she bought a house and new Nova. We later got the Nova when Grandmother passed away. The Nova had the 2 speed automatic, straight 6, bias ply tires. As base as you could get. Gram only drove it to church on sundays, really. About 1 mile a week for about 15 more years. I think it had about 7,000 miles on it. Drove pretty bad with the bias ply tires and no power steering. It was hard to keep it going in a straight line. I replaced the starter solenoid 4 times in 1 day. Made of a too-brittle bakelite. The final turn of starter wire terminal nut.. Snap. Snap. Snap. Maybe the local car parts store had a bad batch of them. I figured out how to diagnose and replace the choke pull off diaphragm. Those tended to gum up or rot out about every 6 months. A $2 part that needed replacing at every tune up (whats a tuneup?) Really hard to keep it going in a straight line, like the Nova. Bias ply tires and city streets we drove on were wavy asphalt. I built a bike rack to bolt to the rear bumper using some scrap steel from the phone company. Also totaled. Mom was stopped at red light when the Nova got rear ended and shoved into the car in front of her too, some time after 1980. When the car was rear ended and totaled, the bike rack was still straight. Back when bumpers were made to take anything.
When I took drivers ed, I was the only student with any experience driving a stick (the '54). The schools had a 'driving range'. A fully fenced facility with stop signs, traffic lights, parking spots, etc. Like a 10 acre mini city. The teacher would get up in a tower with a AM transmitter that we could receive with the car radio for instructions. (yeah, sure there was rock and roll station to listen to) The fleet was 20 all brand new 1972 Malibus (auto) (no way they were SS versions) on lease from a local Chevy dealer and 1 Opal Kadet (stick). I got the Kadet which was far easier to drive. Backing through the figure 8 course was a breeze. Bumper cars it wasn't but one girl managed to crush a door in turning too tight a red light post.
