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Cuba Diaries: Cars

by: Jill Richardson

Sun May 16, 2010 at 14:58:38 PM PDT

I took quite a few pictures of awesome 1950's style Cuban cars on my trip. Enjoy...

Jill Richardson :: Cuba Diaries: Cars

Car interior

Back seat

A blue truck used for public trans

Blue truck with people in it

Tags: Cars, Cuba, (All Tags)

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Cuba Diaries: Cars | 7 comments

The cars of my childhood. (4.00 / 4)

When I was born my parents had a 1949 Pontiac Convertible. In 1958, with their third child on the way, they upgraded to a 1957 Chevy, two-tone white and turquoise. No seatbelts, of course. And child safety seats? What are those?,

Where do the Cubans get the parts to keep these cars running? Are they buying classic car parts off e-bay?

If I didn't care about gas mileage, and safety features didn't matter, I would totally want a 1956 Ford Thunderbird, the two-seater with the porthole windows in back.

by: caseyOR @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 06:20:02 AM UTC

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T-bird (4.00 / 3)

1956 Ford Thunderbird

Bright red, of course.

by: count @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 07:22:11 AM UTC

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Red? Maybe. (4.00 / 4)

I am kind of partial to that 1950s automobile turquoise, though. With white trim and whitewall tires, of course.

Wow, remember when whitewall tires were a fancy upgrade?

by: caseyOR @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 07:41:56 AM UTC

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we had a 57 Chevy too (4.00 / 4)

I remember sitting in it after we first got it.

by: LeeN @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 10:25:43 AM UTC

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I heard from somewhere (4.00 / 3)

that they got the parts from Russia. No idea.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

by: Jill Richardson @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 14:14:13 PM UTC

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If you have good machine tools (4.00 / 4)

and the skill to use them, you can re-make the entire 1950's American car. No problem. It is more difficult to reverse engineer modern cars, which is why you saw so many 1950's cars on the Cuban roads. Easier for the shade tree mechanic to keep running.

by: la motocycliste @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 19:59:16 PM UTC

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i saw a show (4.00 / 3)

where it said they make many of their parts... or repair what is broken. they also repack break shoes! the guy was in a little shed mixing up asbestos stuff & packing break shoes with his hands.
gha!

come firefly-dreaming with me....

by: RiaD @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 15:36:04 PM UTC

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Cuba Diaries: Cars | 7 comments