Thread by @iowahawkblog

A happy peak Texas bluebonnet season from #DavesCarIDService! These ladies went out to gambol among the wildflowers in a 1936 Plymouth coupe, and the shorty trunk lid and step plates on the right rear fender says one of them rode in the rumble seat.

Late start today, so I am eschewing my normal stream-of-conscious car history blather, but I will note a surprise in the photo: not Texas at all!

1940 photo from National Geographic, taken in California's San Joaquin Valley. But hey, the flowers are Texas bluebonnets.

OK, just one synapse side trip here: Gotta recommend garage rock's Bluebonnets, featuring OG Go-Go and my Austin buddy @Kathy_Valentine. Buy their records!

Kathy is no car slouch either; that's her and her beloved '63 Buick Riviera custom at the Petersen Museum.

I woulda thunk the car ID request guidelines had sunk in by now, but sadly I must post yet another reminder. Personal images only please, and use that hashtag!

Leeds! Grabbed my attention as my maternal grandma's girlhood postal address was Rural Route #1 Leeds. Now a Sioux City neighborhood.

Grumpy Lil' Gramps and fam are in front of a 1927-28 Chevy sedan.

https://twitter.com/BTOakleaf/status/1639400341958524930

It's case closed on the notorious unsolved Reinhold Dick mystery: Gramps owned or purchased a 1928-29 Ford Model A sport coupe with fire damage in 1931, and by 1932 replaced the soft top with a (nicely done) custom fixed top.

https://twitter.com/ted_poppke/status/1638357526961098754

*Pic #1 is the after, and pic #3 is the before. I suspect Gramps was pretty proud of the project, including the jazzy custom top and new two-tone paint job.

Kinda sad how HoJos and Stuckeys have all largely vanished from America's highway roadsides. The lady munching on last minute lunch is ready to get back on the road in a 1959 Chrysler New Yorker. 63 Chevy Impala on left, 63 Ford Country Squire right.

https://twitter.com/MRaff57/status/1637956470741270528

*Although I did stop at a surviving Stuckey's in the Missouri Bootheel a few years back. Shout out too to Happy Chefs, Copper Kettles, and various flavors of Big Boy franchises that were driven to extinction by McDonalds-centric convenience stops.

Ah, another vintage Iowa photo teeming with mysteries! A couple of tweets to solve them all. First, yes, Vinton IA; Ervin Motors is still in biz, and I would murder for that neon Pontiac/ Buick sign. Second, per Benton County plates, year is 1946.
1/2

https://twitter.com/HollywoodDan/status/1637540575413952512

*Tow car is a 1939-40 Hudson sedan, and towing remains of a 1930-31 Ford Model A roadster or RPU, 36-37 Ford wheels up front. Maaybe for jalopy racing at fairgrounds, maybe for a doodlebug tractor. Trailer wheels are 30s Ford 1+ ton truck. Also see a 38-39 Pontiac & 46 Buick.

Somewhere under the rainbow is (L-R) 1949 Ford, 1954 Chevy 210 sedan, and 1953 Olds 88 2 door hardtop; white roof car in background is 1954 Chrysler or DeSoto 2 dr hardtop. Guess I'm missing the anachronistic car here, all point to ~1954.

https://twitter.com/TravisW02570348/status/1637471890192121863

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when the national baby surplus meant toddler car safety was an afterthough. Little Shannon is laughing and driving along with Mom in his Bunny Bear steering wheel "safety" seat.

https://twitter.com/shannon_sherrod/status/1637441150788272130

Oh the lengths I go for you people. And, I mean, you could've at least given me the chance to ID the 63 Galaxie.

But who need baby seats at all? Free range Little Bro is ready to catch some road breeze from the window of a 1953 Ford Customline 2 door Ranch Wagon.

https://twitter.com/Frederi55056035/status/1637300530694459392

*and holy smokes! Almost missed that 1954 Chevy Corvette across the street.

Va-va-va-voom! That would be a young pre-movies Jayne Mansfield perched elegantly on Buick's 1954 Wildcat II concept car. Within a few years she would be a major box office draw for "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"

https://twitter.com/WCespar/status/1637156332825346048

I also spy a couple or husbands about to rebukes rebukes and silent treatments.

La Loren is the lost damsel in distress here, gracefully studying her roadmap on the hood of a 1953-55 Mercedes 300 SL gullwing coupe. The motorcyclist locking up his brakes is aboard I thiiiink a circa 1955 FB Mondial, but not 100% sure.

https://twitter.com/WCespar/status/1637154293114347521

Pretty sure those are coyotes; and yeah, they are a handsome creature but unfortunately a menace to livestock, especially poultry. The vehicle here is a 1925-27 Ford Model T roadster pickup.

https://twitter.com/GoSpeedyPrius/status/1637146017865891843

Grandpa was undisputed Manspreading World Champion astride the fender of his 1939 Dodge.

https://twitter.com/nicksloey/status/1637079015260299270

Can't vouch for the year of the photo, but can tell you these two Cheesehead sourpusses are in a 1910-12 International Harvester MA Auto Buggy. IH continued to make the Auto Wagon truck version thereof until 1917.

https://twitter.com/_michaelcurry_/status/1636741808926474240

On second glance, I think it *is* a 1910-17 IH Auto Wagon with a passenger seat rigged in the bed.

Even in 1915 that "high wheeler," hard rubber tire horseless carriage style looked pretty old fashioned, but was efficient in rural areas with deep rutted dirt roads.

The wagon is a 1956 Ford Parklane, and approaching is a 1956 Dodge Coronet. And presuming it's a first-run theater, year is 1958 (Frank Sinatra & Shirley MacLaine in "Some Came Running"). Sorry, I don't do streetcar IDs.

https://twitter.com/MRaff57/status/1636699329023942660

Gotta say that's a handsome house there, maybe built by some prospector who got lucky in the big Central City CO gold rush of 1860. The car photobombing at bottom is a 1938 Ford Deluxe.

https://twitter.com/shawnconnelly/status/1636028355882483717

Grandpa squired around his high-falutin' employers in a fancy pants 1914 Packard 4-48 touring. Those wire wheels would've been a pricy upgrade, but when you've got a chauffeur, who looks at price tags?

https://twitter.com/TeaBird52/status/1635753491212771329

Pretty sure car on left is a 1928-31 Ford Model A, one on right a 1927-28 Chevy or Pontiac.

https://twitter.com/ferristunes/status/1634922377824940036

Gettin' ready for the gusher! Another one from Cara's treasure trove of vintage Texas family pics, and looks like a scene from "Giant."

What's remarkable here is the lack of Ford Model Ts; I only see one on the far right, nearest row.

https://twitter.com/Texascaracara/status/1634907104443265027

*as far as other cars, pretty sure the 2 oval rear window cars are circa 1920 Chevy 490s, and double oval I think a Willys-Overland. Shades of James Dean as Jett Rink.

That'd be a very young Johnny Carson in the jodhpurs, hand resting on a 1939 Chrysler Royal. I presume in his hometown of Norfolk Nebraska, not far from where I grew up.

https://twitter.com/WCespar/status/1638968967636353025

*1941 Nebraska capitol building plates BTW, which would make him 15-16 years old.

**Johnny was born in Corning, IA but moved to Norfolk NE at age 8 and was a U Nebraska alumnus, so I guess we can grudgingly give the Huskers credit there.

Time to move on to some street and wilderness mysteries, like this... oh dang. The turtled heap here is a 1961 Chevy Impala 2 door "bubbletop" hardtop, very coveted by collectors. Cowl yonder is from a 42 or 46-48 Chevy.

https://twitter.com/C_Whitaker/status/1637481687235043330

1957 Mercury 2 door Turnpike Cruiser. Center section of rear window could be rolled down for breezy ventilation.

https://twitter.com/TexHistMarkers/status/1637266635433160704

Another nice looking car left in flipped-over indignity: 1962 Ford Fairlane 2 door.

https://twitter.com/JosephFKoch/status/1637121918082981889

A layup ID that every American has the duty to know: the unmistakable towering double-bullet tailfins of a 1959 Cadillac.

https://twitter.com/Beachnuke/status/1637075826041663488

At the same time Cadillac was cranking out the previous car in Detroit, over in Dearborn FoMoCo was cranking out this equally preposterous 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV convertible.

1959 was truly the peak of automotive civilization.

https://twitter.com/chandler_lassen/status/1635980359211925504

That'd be a 1938 Buick sedan. It'd be fun to pull up to the restaurant valet stand in one just to see the panic on the the valets' faces.

https://twitter.com/vpmad1/status/1635657048296935424

Afraid that's all I have time for today, but I'll be back tomorrow for a fresh batch of automotive mysteries. Until then, Happy Motoring!