Survivor 1971-76 GM Clamshell Station Wagons! Chevy, Pontiac Safari, Oldsmobile, & Buick Estate!
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Mr. Goodpliers walks around an amazing lineup of survivor 1971-76 GM Clamshell station wagons! Check out Chevy Caprice, Impala & Kingswood, Buick Estate, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and Pontiac Safari models... Woodgrain or plain side, in every color of the rainbow!
Love those wagon s
Me too there was a family guy here that had a 1965 or 66 galaxie wagon copper color with wood grain sides and mag wheels new was beautiful
👍👍
My mom had 69 Kingswood station wagon. White with a rack and the faux wood paneling. I learned to drive in it at 15 with my learners permit.
I learned to drive in a 1971 Pontiac Grand Safari that my dad bought new as a company car. Gold metallic with white 9 passenger interior and wood delete. White interior was a daring choice with 6 boys in the family. With the 455, the thing was quite quick and a stealthy street racer (don't tell my parents). They sold it cheap in 1980 with over 300,000 miles on it and no rust or wrecks and still looking great. When it was fairly new, my mom backed into a light post right in the center of the bumper. The tailgate never worked right after that. Had to help it get started to bring it up. Our older brothers used to put us in the jaws of the tailgate and glass to torture us. Fond memories and you never see them around.
we had the whole caprice kings wood estate concours estate wagons from 71 to 74 in the family at one time we had vega, 2 chevellle concours with the wood trim a impala and 2 caprices all at once then the gas crisis hit
@@rsprockets7846 Gas crisis. That sure sucked!
@@aaronwilliams6989 yeah read about it oct 1973 first gas crisis because war with Israel and the OPEC nations rose petro prices and caused massive shortages rose from 31 cents to 49 cents a gallon
@@rsprockets7846 I'm familiar with that story. I was just a little kid back then
and too young to really care.
Mom and Dad bought a new Cumberland Blue '72 Grand Safari when I was 5. It had been ordered by a customer without the woodgrain siding and with the rally wheels, but the customer did not take delivery. Dad claims he overheard an employee mention that a customer ordered the car for his wife, but she suddenly passed away before the car was delivered and obviously was no longer interested. After Mom and Dad agreed to buy, the salesman told Dad they had a hard time finding a buyer. Seems most customers thought the lack of woodgrain on the flanks made it look somewhat cheap, and being loaded with many options, "Big Blue Brenda" as we came to know her, carried a considerable sticker price. It worked out well for us. Mom and Dad were in their early 30s and the sportier styling was more in keeping with their "cool" personalities (ie, the eternal prom king/quarterback and popular cheerleader).
I was the youngest of the four kids, and took my perch on the back "rumble seat", leaving our vicious toad of an older sister to duke it out with my knucklehead brothers in the middle seat. Baby brother Brady arrived just months later and over the next five years, two more boys were added to tribe. Mom and Dad can't recall any problems with Brenda, other than the fold-down part of the middle seat being fickle, leaving Brady and I to just jump over the top of the middle seat to the back. Just before we traded her for a '78 Olds Custom Cruiser, she was showing a bit of rust and the tailgate weather seal was starting to dry rot. "Brenda" was part and parcel of my childhood and intertwined with some of my most cherished childhood memories.
Had a 73, Chevy Estate Wagon, 9 passenger, 427 V8, green with wood-side trim, and cream interior. Loved the tail lights, AM/FM, power windows, and dash layout, on the 73 wagons. Loved the automatic clamshell tailgate, and disappearing 3rd row seats. A great ride and a beautiful car. Wish I still had it ! ! !
What a amazing collection of these cars!
What a cool time by all.
We had a 68 and then a 78 Impala wagons. Being a an upright bass player... I've always been a station wagon man. What a delightful presentation, thanks for sharing.
Cool to see so many GM Clamshell wagons together along with sedans.Nice to see so many of them still exist and are in good hands.Always liked these!.
My parents had one of these. A 73 or 74 white Impala.
These cars brought back such memories of the eight of us piling into it and my parents driving halfway across the country every summer!
A 72-76 wagon with a 400sb ruled the demo derby for years 😁 it's easy to see why they're so few now. Thanks for sharing the show👍👍
Yessir I derbied a bunch of these in the late 80s. They were everywhere. 100 bucks for clean ones.
Sadly true. Sad for Imperials, too.
@@letaloudone Did you ever find one too nice to derby so you drove it for a while or sold it on ?
Would have liked to have been there , didn't realize till later in life wasn't many of them manufactured
Them wagons are a lot of real estate if you are painting em. Thanks Tim👍👍
I am happy there are folks out there that can keep these cars.
Lots of work and TLC involved, just happy they have the time and money it takes to preserve them.
I love those clamshell wagons! My dad had a 1971 and 1973 Grand Safari's for company cars. Both with the 455.
As always thank you for your eloquent tutorial on these GM wagons that are a big part of Americana. I'm sure you brought back many happy memories that were of a happier time in many of our lives. Much appreciated.
Well-said.
Thank you for the sound
I have some great memories of summer vacations riding in the rear seat of these cars!
Great, Tim doesn't answer our comments, but he reads them. Thanks for fixing the audio.
Beautiful a collection of cars …
I grew up in these. Both parents had one at the same time. Mom had the Caprice Estate Must have been the 74, Dad had the 72 Kingswood. Spent a lot of hours watching the world through the back glass on vacations and fishing trips. Thanks for the video.
What a wonderful collection, great memories indeed
I can't believe how many derby cars I made out of these wagons! There's a couple back in the day I truly regret running in the derby. But in the 80s they were a dime a dozen! Sure wish I'd kept a few!
I forgive you. You should save one now though!
Great content, like all the big sedans, especially the clam shell wagons.
Wow you really do like this model era! I love how tailgates in the back windows operate. The oil and bargo probably help kill these big dinosaurs off. Then people like me use them for parts like seats and pickups took the engines out put them in trucks and coupes. Sometime lies in the parts out of cars wagons up to maybe two years earlier mom is driving them.
Oil “embargo” ❓🤣
@@mrdiplomat9018 yes oil embargo. Thank you Mr diplomat. I talk to text autocorrect and sometime I don't catch it.
Learned to drive on a 72 Impala SW. That huge chrome front bumper was like tank gauge steel. Impaled a little Tercel running a red light 30 years back and totaled it -without a scratch- on the Chevy.
We had a 1974 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Custom Cruiser wagon in the seventies, white with a maroon interior and woodgrain siding. It was so long it barely fit in the garage, but that glideaway electric tailgate was pretty cool. We also had a 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon, cream-color with a hatchback liftgate. Considered mid-size, it was much smaller than the 1974 Ninety-Eight but still larger than cars of later years.
My brother had the 76 Caprice wagon. Yellow with the wood grain and black interior. He bought it in 1980 as his first family car, trading in his cherished, red 77 Monte Carlo.
That blue 76 at the 8:20 mark with the bucket seats in the third row was awesome!
What my little brother and I would’ve given for those back in the day!!!🤣
Thanks for sharing this video Mr. Goodpliers. Really enjoyed watching and learning about the clamshell station wagons. We had a Pontiac crap brown four door car in the 70's. And van's. Learned a lot of how the clamshell worked, very interesting.
Love this i got a 72 kingswood 👍
My late dad drove Pontiac wagons for decades, I had a 73 Dodge Cornet Crestwood Wagon in that orange and woodgrain side, exactly the same colors as the one at the show, I wish I knew of this show, well I got to see it via your great video, thank you I remember as a kid riding with my little brother in that way back seat facing backwards, lots of memories revisited
My dad bought a Pontiac Grandville 2 seat wagon in 1974. It was originally ordered for the dealers wife, Ma Gay of Gay Pontiac, in Dickinson, TX, but she decided against the wagon.
It was ordered with items you couldn't ordinarily get on a Pontiac.
Thanks for this video!
Wow that's awesome....I have a 76 pontiac Laurentian safari wagon that was my dad's with a 400....made in Canada car....this is cool to see!!
Friggin Awesome. I Loved This Video.
Grew up in the back of a wagon. Just loved it . They sure don’t make them like they use too.
Watching this from the UK. Great video. Love American wagons. I did have a 1977 301cu Pontiac Grand Safari. Engine failed, I sold it to a garage who work on American cars, who then put in a modified engine (not sure which). I have since found the new owner, and I am hoping to buy it back from him, at the end of this year (2024) :)
Chevy version of one of these we used on a job site building 4000+ sq ft homes. The wagon was used to haul cinder blocks and other building materials around on site. It had no brakes lol so it had to be coasted to a stop. In 1986 in Connecticut.
Nice to see a few of these cars that didn’t end up in a demolition derby.
IMO: The 'clam-shell' tailgate was the best designed tailgate - it got out of the way, for loading and unloading.
Yeah but they required too much maintenance, that wasn't worth the cost of admission for most. Especially when a flip down, or swing open tailgate is equally out of the way.
A real nice video ! Thank You...
Amazing any of these even exist
They where the toughest demo cars allowed on the track...
Yes a handful of these got used by me!
Thank you, I really appreciate the background and history.
Excellent video! Love them all but if I had to choose it would be the 71 or 73 Olds Custom Cruiser.
Interesting station wagon car club. . Very unique
Thanks for sharing
My had a 69 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser Wagon, great car for trips and the drive-in movies.
Seems to be GM's golden age. Unique vedeo ! Thumb up !
All us kids that grew up in the sixties and seventies grew up on a station wagon. We had the green/simulated wood of the Pontiac Grand Safari, year unknown. I'm gonna say it was a 72. At least one we had had the backwards third row seat so you're parents could get a break and you could make faces at the people behind you.
I love these Clamshell wagons.
Awesome wagons Tim, nice show, love it 👍👍👀👀
Bring back memories!
20 years ago the whole lot could've been purchased for the price of a new ford ranger. It's crazy how they've appreciated!
I miss these kind of cars. 🙂
We had a 73 Caprice Estate wagon. Midnight blue metallic w/black interior. 400 small block under the hood ran like a scalded dog! Miss that car.
Took my first driver’s license test in a 1973 Buick Estate Wagon. It was brand new - my parent’s had bought it about a week earlier. I still remember sweating bullets when it came time to parallel park that thing - like docking a Nimitz class carrier. Also fond memories of the 455-4bbl under the hood.
Now that's a boat 😄
I spent most of my youth riding in the back of station wagons! Before mini vans and SUV's there were wagons! Lotsa wagons!
Seeing these reminds me of the movie "Fire in the Sky".
The character who reappeared had a blue Chevy in the end sequence.
Love this!!!!!!
Can you notify Me if you have another one of these clamshell shows, somewhere near the east coast??
I learned to drive on a fully optioned 76 grand Safari, cream with wood.. rally wheels. Everything... 455!!
But I currently own a 76 Caprice Estate beautiful complete dentless and rustless beauti... 400 motor rebuilt and all new parts under the hood.. + exhaust and Tires! Maroon/Wood .. Red interior.
Not fully optioned but nicely optioned.. door locks. Cruise 3 seat power gate and rubber bumper strips and bumpers!!
My pride and joy.. only out on nice days!! Lol.
THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS VIDEO BROTHER!!!
Thanks Mr GP.....from 1958-1961 and 1969-1972 they used the alternate series names....1962-1968 they used Belair, Impala, and Caprice. Love these, I had a1968 Impala and a 1971 Kingswood.
They made a Biscayne in there somewhere I don't know if they did that in a station wagon
My first car was w
‘70 Chevy Brookwood wagon.
Small block 350 with three on the tree and a posi rearend..
My parents bought it new and by seventy five it was too rusty
for a family car.
I started driving it in seventy seven.
Did a lot of high school street racing. It was fast.
The best was racing a ‘68 Charger. Her speedo was pegged
at 150 when I passed her.
Nowadays it makes me news when someone is clocked at 100 mph.
cool, a clamshell wagon club. i owned a '73 and '74 impala wagon and they rode beautiful.
The cutest young lady in our school came from a family who owned a light green 1974 Impala wagon. Though I doubt it had a 454 for power or posi traction. Just as well both her and her sister drove it back and forth to school and around town quite safe and legal.
I had a 72 buick estate wagon use 455four barrel Wood and all. That is where the rust began under the plastic wood, from that point on it only took a couple more years of highway driving to kill the body. I was young and poor and just drove it to the scrap yard eight years later.
My Parents bought a brand new '71 Kingswood wagon (color: cottonwood green) we had it for over 20 years!!
I have a cottonwood green 1971 Biscayne with 350/auto. Old metallics fade out pretty quick after sitting outdoors very long, but it still has bright color in the door jambs
Cottonwood green looked great on all 1971 full size models like our new Impala sport coupe with black interior.
We had the fully loaded Pontiac station wagon with clamshell tailgate.My sister ran over a motorcycle cop in it. I learned to drive in it.
10 thousand dollars for a wrecked wagon! Wow! I've literally been paid to haul off better ones back in the day. Funny how times change. Love these wagons and like I commented earlier, sure wished I'd kept a few!
That one has just 40k miles if I remember right, and there's something people particularly like about the 71, since it is the first year. It was parked indoors since the 80s so the inside was really nice. Windshields are cheap, the rest would go together pretty quickly. This one is a far cry better for restoration than something pulled out of a field
Our next door neighbors had a brand new 1973 Olds Custom Cruiser in metallic orange with the wood grain sides. Spectacular car!!! Drank gas by the tanker full, but who cared???
The video I've been waiting for! 👍
These wagons from Chevy through Buick did retain the flavor of the Tri-5 Nomad on the 'C' and 'D' pillars, despite them being 4-doors. They're all beautiful!
We had a 73 Buick Estate when I was a little kid.
Very cool!
While I technically wouldn't call it a clamshell, back in the mid-'80s, my wife (ex) and I owned a 1974 Chevy Malibu station wagon. It was perfect for a growing family.
Tan, with the fake woodgrain sides.
Had a 400 V8.
I thought it was a cool car.
The wife hated it.😂
We had at least 3 in the family. The last one was a 73 Caprice Estate. 😁
We had a pontiac Grand Safari. Miss that car very much. Had the 455. 70 - 80 mph was like sitting still.
Or at least seemed like 45 mph
Shame there weren’t more Buicks. They’re my favorite, the Cadillac of wagons!
@tyler2610 This guy has the BEST Buick Wagon...he is a perfectionist. ruclips.net/user/stangslayerws6
Great vid
When my daughter was born in 1982, I traded my Triumph Spitfire for a '75 Buick Estate Wagon. 455 CI engine, room for 9 passengers comfortably, space behind the front-facing third row as big as the trunk in most cars, plus a trunk under the back floor. Biggest problem was the tailgate. That's why Ford's Magic Doorgate was more practical. Traded it about a year later when we figured out that we don't need THAT much space for a new-born.
Back in 1975 I rode to a KISS concert in the back of a stationwagon driven by my friend's Mom. We were all too young to drive. Not sure if it was a GM product. Those were the days.
Love those old wagons I didn't see any 67 or 68 Pontiac bonneville wagons those are sweet wagons also
This was a 1971-76 show. It would have been huge if it was expanded to other years beyond that!
Separate eras different equations
I had a 75 Impala wagon with a 400, 228 inches long. I parked it next to every older car I could find and never saw a longer car.
My grandpa had a grand safari wagon don't remember what year but it had glass on the top .
Man, more clamshells than at a beach!
Somebody crank up Captain & Tenille!
The cool hip beach goers played The Eagles and others to avoid AM bubblegum syndrome
@@garyblanchard1084 Hey, I listen to more bubblegum, from then and today, than I chew! I'm a man of the people! :D
@@Zickcermacity AM was ALL I for one played until halfway through high school
Thanks for sharing this. I live out west , left coast and the station wagon has pretty much disappeared from the landscape. Unfortunately Prius and Tesla’s have become the second ahole on the elbow that everyone needs out here. Progress is a mofo. 👍🤙✌️🇺🇸
I had enough and moved to the Ozarks.....enjoy it.
@@anderander5662prettiest country in the world… all the rivers, bluffs, trees as far as the eye can see… massive hills and valleys… yea the west has the High Mountains… but the valleys don’t compare… just moved back from Colorado Springs.. in less than 8 years it was destroyed by the Communist regime from California..
Memories Sweet Memories,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I like them all.
I have seen a Cadillac clamshell wagon once...they are very rare
Unique car show
Baby diaper green looks good though! I would love to find one!
Dude… had to put your video on 2x to get to the Olds and Buick versions…. Just wanted to revisit my moms 76 Custom Cruiser wagon and my dads 75 98 Regency Sedan
If I didn't know this was a car video, I would have mistaken it for one of our family reunions in the early 70s.
We also had a 71 Belair level one with a 6 cyl 3peed base model . only year could have that.
Stay tuned, next video I will show the 1971 Biscayne with 6/3 spd
By then these beauties were too big for anything less than V8 power. Buyers had to special order straight 6 three sp manuals and wait weeks and weeks for delivery.
Get Down Brown. My favorite color.
My dad had a 1972 Buick Estate Wagon with the clamshell
Mom & Dad had the '74 Yellow!
Way cooler than suv's
Borrowed a friend's Olds 98 wagon to shift some stuff. Amazing car.
Preciosas todas
There's nothing as cool as a station wagon.
My favorite is a 1971 chevy Kingswood Estate and 73 chevy Caprice.
Parents had a 72 Pontiac Grand Safari. Car was a beast. Not fun when oil embargo came in and you could only buy gas on certain days
And you could only get 10 gallons max.
Thank goodness the demo derby drivers haven't gotten their hands on them lol!
We had of them but it was a Pontiac safirai it was stolen ,we had a foster home by one of one of the boys we in our foster home back in the 1970 s !!