… – IOTW Report

53 Comments on …

  1. Heh! You don’t see those any more. It makes me wonder, though just when was the window in time when cars still had ash trays AND had (mandated) head rests.

    Modern replacement for puny built-in car ashtrays is the butt-extinguishing can that fits in a cup holder. They work like a champ.

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  2. “I feel so old”
    Many safety measures are a result of more stupid people.
    My granddaughters would always tell me to put on my seatbelt, I told them, my plan is “don’t crash”.
    Insurance companies mandated seatbelts and helmets.
    How did we ever survive riding on the tailgate of the pickup @60mph.
    Now days people do ever increasing stupid things, to be the next viral video.

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  3. I remember being about 6 years old, and my sisters and I were playing in an old Hudson. I was in the driver’s seat and my oldest sister pushed the cigarette lighter in, and when it popped, she grabbed it and placed it directly onto my arm burning me. That’s all I can remember of those old cars. I had a rough childhood. 🙁

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  4. Back in the days….. Got Cigs at the gas station for 25 cents while waiting for the attendant to fill your tank at 31 cents per gallon. Had several Zippo’s because the fluid leaked in your pocket and made your leg burn. Usually used the dash igniter, would pass it to the ones in the back seat when needed.

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  5. Vehicles are now over loaded with junk that won’t last. I’ve been asked to work on electronic dash board features that you can’t find because the junk yards are stripped of the common failure features that can’t be found. The plastic used in cars ages and is brittle and looses its strength over time.

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  6. Was this car old enough to be seat belts optional? My first car, a Dodge Dart ’71 was, and you only got LAP belts if you opted in. Full metal dashboard so it was easy to hose off and sell to the next guy once you busted your face onit, and the ashtray swung down from the bottom center of it, covering about a third of the total span of the bench seat so you could get a LOT of butts in there before having to empty it, provided your center seat passenger (your girl, usually, since she was going to be pushed against you from hip to knee when you seated 3 in the front) didn’t complain about it.

    The right seat passenger had to deal with the undeslung Radio Shack 8-track player and power booster. This was usually your (drinking) buddy, so it was good he had something to keep him usefully occupied.

    But wing windows were great because you could put your cigarette butt out THEM and they wouldn’t blow back into the car if the rest of the windows were up.

    …good times, good times…

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  7. I couldn’t use the cigarette lighter in most cases.

    That’s what you plugged the XK Band radar detector into, if youu weren’t using it for the defroster since your car didn’t come with a rear heated back light unless you had LOTS of money back in the day, which I did not…

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  8. Had a senior couple pull up in front of the Fire Station main overhead door. They said their car interior was on fire. When I approached the driver side and opened the rear door the entire floor and back seat were concealed by cigarette butts. Now that’s an ash tray!

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  9. Jethro
    JANUARY 2, 2022 AT 8:08 PM
    “That looks like a late 70’s / early 80’s Oldsmobile.”

    I had a ’73 Cutlass Supreme with corroded red leather that may or may not have had an ashtray there, I don’t recall, but I wouldn’t have recommended using it because the inside seat pin was broke and I held the driver’s seat back up with a cut-off tomato stake rammed through the springs of the bench seat bottom.

    I got that car EXTEREMELY used and it was pretty damaged outside and in, but with 60 Kestones in the back, a 350 4 barrel in the front, and dual exhaust, it was the proverbial ugly chick who was great in the sack…

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  10. Let’s get real.

    When my Dad flicked his cig ash in the vent window while I sat behind him, I just might get a hot ash in my eye on a family Sunday drive…

    Too bad for me that my Dad didn’t have a basic understanding of drafting physics while he was in medical school.

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  11. Dadof4
    JANUARY 2, 2022 AT 8:20 PM

    …that’s why you never let rear seat passengers put their windows down.

    Doubly so in my Dart, because (a) the windows were all hand-crank, and (b) the rear windows in old Dodge Dart coupes were shaped oddly and often very difficult to put back UP if you DID put them down.

    https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/Y9w4W/s1/rare-1970-dodge-dart-gt-is-a-mean-mopar.jpg

    …it was your DAD’S car, not YOURS.

    That means the PROBLEM…was you.;)

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  12. Back in the 1970’s, I went out to an abandoned mine in the Mohave desert with some friends. We were actually fossil hunting. On the dirt road to the site sat an old abandoned automobile, probably a late 40’s model. I looked in the back seat – no human skeletons, like I was hoping, but there was an ashtray just like in the picture. The cig butts were in there in good enough condition that I could read the brand. They were brands I had never heard of, like “King” cigarettes, or similar.

    There are strange things in the desert.

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  13. SNS

    Thats not a Dart, it’s a Scamp. All A body MOPARS. Your dads car? Hardly. I had a 70 340 Duster turning 11 second quarters with out laughing gas. It was a Direct Connection, W2 heads and all.

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  14. If you haven’t had a car with curb feelers…..you’ve missed a lot of shit in your time.

    And that’s not to mention mechanical turn signals on trucks and stepping on the gas pedal to engage the starter.

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  15. Yep. I remember car ashtrays. I used to put gum in them as a kid. Kinda made a mess with the ashes, but some trays were easy to remove and clean – others weren’t.
    Ahh yes, the car cigarette lighter. I was fascinated by it but, I was not tempted to find out how hot it could get. The bright orange glow and heat from the coils convinced me it was crazy hot.

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  16. Brad
    JANUARY 2, 2022 AT 9:58 PM
    “SNS

    Thats not a Dart, it’s a Scamp.”

    You are correct sir, I was jyst trying to illustrate the rear window and this was the first, closest picture I could find for that purpose. This is also a ’70 and mine was a ’71, they had different tail lights, but again not what I was drawing attention to.

    The Dart was the Dodge version and the Scamp was a Plymouth version of the same basic body style, so this is very close. Mine had a different hood, grille, and tail lights, but the shape, windows, and fenders were the same.

    I had a 225 slant 6, which wasn’t a powerhouse but it WAS unkillabke, and Lord knows I TRIED to kill it. It was great to work on because of all the room under the hood, even if Mopar couldn’t make front end parts for shit and screw-in top ball joints were a terrible idea.

    Mine also had 4 wheel DRUM brakes, so it’s probably GOOD I didn’t have the Hemi engine, especially considering I learned to work on brakes on it too. I once drove all my freinds to Kings Island up I-75 with one wheel cylinder blown, so the pedal was ALL the way on the floor, but thanks to the then recent invention of the dual master cylinder, I didn’t kill anyone, because God looks out fir fools I suppose.

    Good times, good times. Since you had the up model with the big hemi and nitros, I’m sure you agree…

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  17. SNS

    Chrysler didn’t offer A bodies with the 426 Hemis. In General the Hemi Sucked Their girdle style main caps WERE BUILT TO FAIL. The 440 was a horsepower producer. The 383 a total dog. The 340 small block was bad ass. All you need to know.

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  18. joe6pak
    JANUARY 2, 2022 AT 10:41 PM
    “What? Rear window and tail lights? “.

    My link above, discussing rear and wing window coordination when ejecting lit cigarettes with Dadof4 at 820 PM…

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  19. Brad
    JANUARY 2, 2022 AT 10:51 PM
    “SNS

    Chrysler didn’t offer A bodies with the 426 Hemis. ”

    No, but you could get them with 318s which weren’t hemi but at least had 8 cylinders, but it did seem a thing back in the day for guys to drop larger engines in them, sometimes to the detriment of the unibody design. I didn’t have the budget for anything like that, so all I could do was listen to the bragging of others who did, and they seemed happy with it…

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  20. SNS

    Let me help you out here, the 318 was an 8 cylinder two barrel carbed motor. Would run for ever. Low horsepower relatively high torque. A small block. As was the 340, later the 360. but the 340 was where it was at. Four Barrel Carters. Those cars ran sub 13s box stock. Wasn’t that hard to suck 850 plus horsepower out of a 340. And the Direct Connection D port heads could take it to 8,000 rpm. They outlawed those heads for NASCAR. Ah, the good old days.

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  21. Brad
    JANUARY 2, 2022 AT 11:03 PM

    It seems you spent a lot of time with Mopar when it wasn’t mopey instead. It must have been nice being able to get into their high end when they were basically making production stock cars, I envy you that. But with Challengers and Super Bees and Coronets to choose from, those must have been tempting to you too…

    …I lived in the Midwest my whole life, so they rusted up pretty good. I’m guessing you had better luck, living out West with no road salt…

  22. @SNS ~ “I had a 225 slant 6, which wasn’t a powerhouse but it WAS unkillabke, and Lord knows I TRIED to kill it”

    yeah, had a 64 Dart w/ a 225 slant 6 (unfortunately w/ push-button auto trans) that you could run forever … but to kill it, all I needed to do was give it to my little brother …. what? ya gotta put oil & water in it? 🙄

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