Old pics of my parents' 73's

I thought some of you would like to see the old iron that got me interested in 73-77 A-bodies. Here are three pics of my dad's 73 El Camino that he bought from a good friend of his in 1975. My dad sold it around 1980. It was in nearly perfect condition when my dad sold it. We saw it a few years later in a loading zone in front of an antique store, and the truck looked like it had been subject to a few East Coast winters. The truck was a total rust bucket. I'm sure it rusted away to oblivion and is no longer around. It was equipped with a 350 4bbl. The color was a champagne silver with black bench interior.

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Also here is a pic of my mom's 73 Chevelle Malibu 3 seat wagon. I think this is the only good pic that exists of the car. My parents got this wagon off of a dealership used car lot in about 1978 when they traded in the 74 Vega they bought new. As was the case with many other Vegas, it had one problem after another (some were actually from horrible work at the dealership). The wagon was a fabulous car. It had a low rear end gear (not sure what ratio) but it was pretty quick for a big car. It also had a 350 4bbl. The color was a metallic green-gold with black interior. I'm not sure what Chevy called the color, but Olds had it available in 73 and it was Moss Gold in the Olds line. My dad called it metallic avocado. He hated that color! I thought it was kinda cool in a 70's sort of way. Definitely very 70's! My parents sold it in the early 80's and I remember the odometer was less than ten miles from rolling to 100,000. The wagon was getting some rust in the rear quarters and my mom wanted a smaller car. My parents sold it to a guy who wanted the 350 and was going to junk the rest of the car. I'm sure it got squashed many moons ago and is no longer around either.

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I hope you enjoy the old pics; just a tiny piece of history. I'd love to have the El Camino and the Malibu wagon back, especially the wagon. I've got many memories of both of these cars and a few amusing stories. Well, they're amusing now!

My dads first new car was a'73 chevelle 2 door. It was navy blue with a baby blue interior and vinyl top. 307 with a/c. He had it till'78 when he bought a new Pontiac Catalina. He did say the car (chevelle) was bad luck as in the five years of ownership he hit a deer, it was in two accidents, shot (in the Cleveland police dept parking lot where he worked) and he sold it to a friend who rolled it on the freeway and almost died in it. Next time i see a photo of it, ill post it.

Those are nice. Love old pics...wish I could find some of my Cutlass fro back in the day.

I love the wagon in green! Always liked the 73s in that color. A friend of mine had a Malibu coupe in that color when I was a kid. He let me drive it and I was hooked on the 73 Chevelles forever. Just a great driving car. You could tell that the steering and suspension geometry had been vastly improved over the previous Abody as I owned a 71 Skylark at the time. My buddy drove that car year round here in N.E. ohio with no rust probs because he worked at a car wash and ran it through every day to get the salt off. After he left that job the car disintegrated in about 2 years as they all did in that vintage. I always say "don't spit by a G3 or it will start rusting". I am restoring mine now and the to say that the factory seams are assembled poorly would be an insult to the word poor! Maybe mine was built on a Friday or something. Anyway, thanks for the pics. I bet you wish that you still had that wagon.

. My dad took a lot of pics of his car with my mom modeling, as it was his first new car & my mom (they weren't married yet) looked like Elizabeth Montgomery. Here nick name was Samantha.

Had to be the metal back then. My dad washed his Monte just about every day after his commute to work,he had access to a pressure washer and the car was always parked in a covered area and it still got all rusted out. Just terrible but I think some cars were more prone to rust than others. It no wonder the Japs made such inroads in the 80's after you had a 5 yr old car come apart like that you didnt want another. Ever notice how the next A-G bodies didnt rust nearly as bad or at all with a little care.

Loving that wagon!

Thanks for the compliments on the old pics. Yes, I'd like to have them both, but especially the wagon. I do still have the owner's manual and the option sheet for it, and a spare set of keys. The only thing missing is the car itself! I'll have to dig out the option sheet and scan it.

Regarding the pic of the El Camino with the different grille, some of you may be wondering why it has a different grille. This is one of the amusing (now) stories I alluded to earlier. My mom's Vega wouldn't run, so my dad was using the El Camino to push the Vega up the driveway. My mom was steering the Vega. He got her pushed up the driveway and my mom didn't step on the brake. She then proceeded to roll backward down the driveway and took out the grille of the El Camino. It was just the different elevations and angles the vehicles were at that resulted in a broken grille. Needless to say my dad was NOT pleased! A new grille was too expensive from the dealership and for whatever reason he didn't find a used one. He was a shop teacher for years and able to make pretty much anything he set his mind to, so he made a grille out of steel bar and strap, had it chromed, and installed it in his truck. It turned out nice and personally I think he just wanted to make one for a project.