Hooniverse Asks-What 1970s Auto Accessory Should Make a Comeback?
It used to be – or so I can assume from looking through car magazines from before even my time – that there once was a whole ton of aftermarket performance parts available to bolt onto your car. Hell, Popular Mechanics used to advertise a ram jet-powered go-kart! But looking at the chronology, something happened in the ’70s – and auto accessories changed from adding to your go to only accentuating your show. It wasn’t much longer after that before catalog accessory offerers like MG Mitten and Villem B. Hann went out of business.
But that’s not to say that the ’70s were bereft of automotive accessories, and in fact there were a few of them that, while not popular today, might warrant a comeback. Sheepskin seat covers became huge in the seventies, a possible reason being the discovery by auto makers of vinyl as a thigh-searing substitute for leather or cloth. Having a dead sheep’s outer vestments under you butt could make even the crappiest of car seem luxurious. Not to let your feet feel left out, Sisel mats also became an accessory that seem seventies defining.
But the one aftermarket accessory that is destined too be tied to the disco era is that of the Citizen’s Band radio, good buddy. Following the popularity of such ’70s cinema staples as Smokey and the Bandit and Convoy, the add-on two-way popularized both a new lingo and a pre-Internet social network on the road. All of these accessories are still available today, but rarely do you see them either advertised or actually applied to anyone’s car. That seems a shame because, if the ’70s gave us anything, it was ways to make us feel less depressed about the shitty nature of our cars. Even if cars today aren’t that bad, what ’70′s accessory do you think could make them even better?
Image source: [alliance car accessories]
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Curb feelers.
Damn, stole my answer right off the bat.
The CB radio can still be your friend on long trips. There are two benefits that I've found helpful: If you get stuck in stalled traffic, the truckers on the CB will tell you which lane is open and what is happening up ahead, and they are very good at communicating the presence and location of law enforcement cars. I've been saved from speeding by a cop on two occasions because a trucker warned me that there was a cop sitting on the other side of the hill, etc.
Just remember channels 9, 19, and 21. These are your best friends
Let's start with the CB. With our love of cell phones it would only seem natural that in some retro way we welcomes the CB and HAM radios back into our lives. Especially by putting the CB back into our vehicles.
Also I'd like to see the return of the 8 track. There is already a movement that has brought back LP's. For those two young LP records are those funny round plastic things that make noise when DJ's scratch them. They have been brought back because of fidelty and sound quality. So it's time to bring back 8 tracks and listen to ELO, Barry Manilow, and Aqualung once again.
Lastly we need vinyl roofs. In an era of ugly CUV/SUV's that all look the same, well except for Nissan, we need things to make us look different and to look like we have a 1920's Phaeton in our garage. It's been long enough now that the vinyl roof is a classic retro item in it's own right. It deserves to be put on the second box of a typical 3 box SUV
"Especially by putting the CB back into our vehicles."
Although it's not a 'breaker-breaker' kinda communication, I've been using Waze on my phone since it was shown on HV last Thanksgiving. The app allows txting to others but more importantly allows users to report issues such as accidents, hazards and the fuzz. Because it is real time, it does a far better job than the traffic reports I hear at every commercial break.
I had Waze when I had a work iPhone. I haven't reinstalled it on my Android personal phone because I didn't have a reason to. You are right though that crowd sourced was kind of interesting. It was a great way to know what that accident up ahead was.
+1 for the waze reference!
It also gives darn near real-time road construction updates. They've been rebuilding I-465 on the west side of Indy over the last several years including reconfiguring all the interchanges. As soon as a ramp is re-opened, or even temporarily re-routed, a local map administrator will update waze. They're also rebuilding US31 north of the city, and I updated a new on/off ramp within 12 hours of it being opened to traffic. Let's see Google, Garmin & Tom-Tom keep up with that!!!
Plus, waze has cookies!!!
Cooooo-kies!
I have no experience with Waze, other than having it preinstalled on my old phone. Are you supposed to read your screen in traffic, or is there a voice to tell you what to do, like the nice lady who lives in the GPS?
Yes it does have voice guidance. It'll even give you prompts like "Hazard ahead" and "Police Ahead" if they are on your route.
It behaves like a high-end Garmin with a map and audio cues with street names- not just 'TURN LEFT' but "In .5 milesTurn Left on Maple Street". I have the Garmin in the truck but it is out of date.
For some reason, Waze likes to take the long way home. I used it today to get to Staples and it wanted me to drive thru neighborhoods.
And the voices… last night I heard 3 distinct female voices out of the Waze. What's going on in there?!>!1?
The reason it takes the long way home is because no one's used the short cuts for it to use as a reference. Remember it's all crowd sourced. So if you have a charger in your car you want to run it a lot and let it learn the roads around you. Plus you get scores for stuff. Which doesnt really give you anything but it's fun anyway
I use it about every time I'm on the road but unless I'm totally clueless about the area, I kinda have an idea where I'm going.
At the least it lets you know when planning the route if there are problems ahead.
And playing PacMan on real streets… who doesn't wanna do that??
It's been over a year since I used it. Do they still do the pacman with the cherries thing?
Nope.
NAMCO prolly busted their chops. It's candy now.
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6hDZt1e0ofY/S9-GgaDbHvI/AAAAAAAAJTc/V-NttkOUeB0/s400/browning_ad.jpg" width="500">
CB radios are awesome, especially with giant whip antennas! Also awesome, when searching for whip antenna images, this was in the top five!
<img src="http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/08/Impala7-27-550×360.jpg" width="500">
Praise be to Murilee!
My 1971 Bronco is in great need of a vintage CB and some whip antennas. I have a newish Cobra CB, but it is way too modern for the Bronco.
All of my 4x4s since '98 have had CBs in them. They're still required equipment for most 4×4 groups.
My grandfather just passed away, and among the things that I took from his garage where 2 very vintage CBs (one's not even 40 channel). I'll be installing one in the Wagoneer…maybe one in the Falcon.
It can't hurt to put them into a vehicle. You never know when you will be out of cell range but in CB range
Hell, a bunch of the guys from the Justruns crew in San Diego have HAMs. On more than one occasion they've been able to get in touch with rescue staff from very remote areas.
One of the very accidents I had was back in the late 80s early 1990 or so and I called it in by using Channel 9 on the CB. To be honest I was told to calm down but hey it's the point that i used to the stupid thing.
My CB Handle was usually Chauffeur. A name I wish I had kept as a handle but lost because early MMO's would only allow 8 character names. So I switched to Fodder since Chauffer means something very different then Chauffeur.
So it's time to bring back 8 tracks and listen to ELO,…
Hey!
I have Out of the Blue on LP & CD. In fact, I just moved some from my rather large, and some would say dated, ripped MP3 storage to put on a disc with some other period songs. I finally figured out, kind of, why the '05 STS's CD player freaks out on "X" number of tracks per disc.
I've determined, it doesn't like them. However, re-exporting fixes it. I figure it's a GM feature.
Dance, by Paul Jabara, was one which I didn't have but wanted. It's on the Mother, Jugs, and Speed soundtrack, which I lack.
Amazon to the rescue!
Still have Funkytown, by Lipps, Inc., on 45.
Custom van interiors.
<img src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/138/359236895_71c563c5f2.jpg"width="500"/>
Image source: Pleasure Programmed's Photostream
My high school ride had blue shag carpet on the walls. It was like driving Cookie Monster.
Oh, geez……..that would be something else!
Catalytic converter "test pipe" bypass. Run your car on leaded gas again! Oh, wait….
<img src="http://www.sv3power.com/store/images/testpipe08.JPG" width=400>
Yeah, I remember those. "Test pipe", my ass. Of course if you had one of the GM converters that was filled with pellets, all you had to do was remove the factory plug, dump out all the pellets, and install a service plug.
Well, they couldn't really say "Throw away your cat converter permanently!" without getting into trouble, could they? I had a "test kit" for my '75 Duster. The stuff inside a Mopar cat converter was a hard honeycomb material that was just too difficult to knock out.
The guy I work for has a semi-beater Lincoln, that lost all power over the course of a week. It was a clogged catalytic converter. He just had it removed, not replaced. Hell, it would have cost almost what the car's worth. Now, it runs better than it ever has. We have no emissions testing here in God's Country, so nobody's the wiser.
You never see Graphic Equalizers anymore. We need more than just Bass, Mid, and Treble. 3 to 4 times more, in my opinion.
<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YQV8XXD3L._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width=500>
I used to have a 40-watt Muntz equalizer, with 10 frequencies and and an analog meter. That is, 'til someone stole it out of my Vega. It sounded awesome, for having so little power.
I had a Spakomatic EQ in the 5000. It was great. The orange lights matched the Kenwood deck.
Because of my inability to wire anything back then, the wires shorted and started to smoke. No fire but all the little knobs warped from the heat so much they fell off the pins… 15 little buttons on the floorboard.
Ha ha! I wired a Sparko EQ into my 79 Toyota, along with two 6×9 3-ways and a 10" sub. I'd bought all the parts from a guy at school who needed the money to buy books. My first ever wiring project, and it almost ended in disaster. If I turned the low bass slider up past halfway, it sounded incredible.
But it set the wire to the sub on fire. Every time I slid it above halfway. By which I mean it happened several times before I figured out what was causing it.
After that I didn't use that slider. Probably the wire had been too light. A friend made a stick-on label for the EQ that read "Flameomatic"
I always thought of those as more 1980s. I didn't know 8-tracks had that much fidelity to play around with…
When I first had the Muntz installed (in my '78 Audi Fox), I also had a Blaupunkt AM/FM/8-track installed. The drive motor for the 8-track induced a hum through the speakers, which I fixed by keeping the 500Hz slider all the way down. I also had Jensen 4×10 Triax speakers in the package shelf, and 4" dual cones in the front doors. The installers weren't too happy when they discovered that they had to cut holes in the steel package shelf to mount the 4x10s (they had quoted $25 to install all the speakers), but they had to stick to the quote.
The sales guy said when they were finished, "You hear that music back in the shop? That's your car!" Everybody was amazed at how good it sounded. Only 40 watts, through four speakers, but you could really crank it, and it sounded awesome.
I wonder how many Muntz sound systems have been installed into Muntz cars?
<img src="http://www.americansportscars.com/images/muntz10.jpg" width=500>
Shag carpeting.
And paint schemes like this:
<img src="http://www.fquick.com/images/articles/15351.jpg" width="500">
I was only going to say the shag carpeting, but when I searched for a picture I found this one, and couldn't not post it.
That's a 70's car, but the paint and wheels look 90's.
Well, the wheels are definitely 90s (or 2000s), but the paint scheme looked older to me.
That car was done on Pimp My Ride. I don't remember the details, but I think they put an herb garden in the back or something dumb like that.
A herb garden or a "herb" garden?
I'll go with add on bumper riders/ram bumpers. Most cars should have a real bumper, not a front fascia that a 5mph will cause $1000 in body damage.
The one that has made a comeback with $3-4/gal gas is the aftermarket locking gas cap.
Metal bumpers are one of the things I like about malaise land-yachts.
Not so much an accessory as an option, I'd love to see wing windows come back.
<img src="http://www.classicmontecarlos.com/wp-content/uploads/5583583-2.jpg" width="600">
swivel bucket seats…
I guess this doesn't really count as an accessory? …but I want it to make a comeback, regardless.
Because the 12' long door on your '72 Continental just didn't open far enough into my car for you to get out?
I think of sheepskin seat covers as an '80s thing. I had one on the driver's seat of my '76 Vega for awhile. It was nice as long as it never got wet. Then, it smelled like, well, a wet sheep. The face of it was genuine sheepskin, while the rest was acrylic, which of course changed color of time, making it two-tone.
Hitchhikers.
<img src="http://www.nc17clothing.com/images/Ass-grass150.jpg">
I came here to post that. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
Vacuum gauges and recapped tires.
Dont forget timing lights and dwell meters
Add on side pipes.
<img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6708203911_25821a1438_b.jpg" width="500">
Wow, I just turned back into a 12 year old. There is so much in that photo that needs to make a comeback.
<img src="http://images21.fotki.com/v759/photos/4/41638/560129/customvansjan76-vi.jpg" width="480">
I bought every issue of Custom Vans magazine in 1976, starting with the premier issue. I read this over, and over, and over…
Just not the high waisted shorts. The 70s can keep those forever.
I myself have a weakness for vans. And mustaches that would only look appropriate in said vans.
While lacking in proper portholes and murals, I found this van looking for CB antenna pics. The dual rear wheels really tie the whole thing together.
<img src="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1056/743328677_9f71694ef4_z.jpg" width="500">
A neighbor has had an extended 1st Gen Sportsman B-van for sale on and off for about six months. I've started carefully diverting my eyes as necessary when I drive by.
Whoa.All that and wrap around rear windows to boot. Truly this is the King of Vans.
That dually-D350 has some temptation. Looks to be pre-'76, as well.
In college, my best buddy had a 1975 Dodge Tradesman no-window shorty van that he turned into a custom. While the exterior was left dead stock (he didn't want cop attention for the illegal things that often went on inside), the interior was fetchingly done in red and blue shag with the obligatory bed in back. We did a lot of road-tripping in the thing. Good times…
And all this time I'd thought that Captain Beefheart's 'ShowMuff, Yes I Do' was completely original. Now I understand the inspiration.
Doug Thorley ads were indeed memorable.
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_i_AovfzNXgQ/SkwowVdhYTI/AAAAAAAAzl0/vH_UakIm3oU/s1600/scan0010.jpg" width="380">
Coco mats: German for funk.
Superfly headlights!
<img src="http://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000005150923-oqfkc5-original.jpg?5d75100" width=500>
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://dunhamcoach.com/superfly-corvorado.htm
That's the Duke of New York.
CABALLISTA!!!!!!!!!!
<img src="http://www.corvettes.nl/other_specials/caballista/files/page26-duncabadun.jpg" width="600" border="0" style="border:none;" alt=" " />
And to think it used to be a 1979 Corvette…
<img src="http://timsweet.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/1978-ford-mustang-cobra-ii-0002.jpg?w=500">
Obnoxious graphics packages with gold leaf!
Vans with skylights and teardrop portholes and immense airbrushed murals involving buxom women in skimpy bikinis.
Mr. Microphone! It's like a public address system for venereal disease!
I don't know if it counts as an accessory or not, but V8 Vegas definitely scream SEVENTIES! When I was in high school, this was as sick as it got. <img src="http://gearheadzgarage.com/vega/images/vega_frt.JPG">
I still want one
That thing is STILL bodacious!!
Is it wrong that I am searching for a vintage CB radio and an old Becker Europa (with short wave!) to install in my Geo Metro? The only thing I can't figure out is how I would mount the giant antenna…
Suicide knobs:
<img src="http://1939chevy.com/images/Suicideknob.jpg" width="334" border="2" style="border:2px solid black;" alt=" " />
Except that today, the knob would need its own airbag.
CB radios would still be quite useful on road trips, if anyone used 'em.
I even tuned the one on our motorhome to barely register on the SWR meter, but it stays silent most of the time.
I was a kid in the 70's, and CB radios were the thing to have. GM, at the very least, even had them as an option on the factory radio/antenna.
<img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/wominera/5.jpg" width="500">
I frankly think that CBs should be made mandatory and cell phones be banned. That way you could break into inattentive drivers' conversations say "Hey! You in the Malibu drifting in and out of your lane! Pay attention!"
We used to have a Cadillac with an AM/FM/8-Track/CB. The "head unit" for broadcast and tapes took up more space behind the dash than today's double-DIN units. The CB unit was in a separate, even bigger enclosure.
The power antenna got snapped off in a car wash or something. A replacement AM/FM/CB antenna was about $200 just for the part in the early 80's.
AMC also had an AM/FM/CB. If you find a factory one in the wild and for sale, let me know.
Oddly enough, my van had wood (well, laminate) paneling on the ceiling.
I did occasionally have young lovelies in the shaggy part of the van. Fun times.
Flares, scoops and portholes! along with the aforementioned shag carpeting, sidepipes and wing windows.
Also… chrome bumpers.
<img src="http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/217/1481/25540740003_large.jpg">
You left out the lettered sidewall sixties. Nobody ever ever told the tire guy to hide the letters back then, when he was mounting the tires. Whitewalls were out, letters were in.
Damn straight!!