10 Gimmicks You Find On Classic Cars at Car Shows

A classic car connaisseur notices that you find a lot of aftermarket gimmicks that are put on classic cars at car shows. Like curb feelers, the fuzzy dice, antenna balls and creepy dolls. What's up with that? Let's find out!

Remember to like, subscribe and share if you want more of this!

Enjoy!

[hofield]

Don't forget those antenna balls helped snowplows see parked vehicles after major snowstorms!
Honorable mention dashboard hula girl!

[Thinginator]

The timeout dolls are meant to depict children crying because their inheritance was spent on a show car. That is the explanation I was given. There's really no way to explain those things that doesn't make you wish the trend would die, they're just creepy and depressing. I go to classic car shows to talk to fellow classic car enthusiasts, but I avoid the people with timeout dolls as I can only see it as a red flag.

[AlanRogers]

I'm 74 and remember most of those items except the air conditioner and the stupid dolls.
In 1956 my dad bought a new Pontiac coupe, yellow over white. It had curb feelers and a traffic light prism.
We drove from Pittsburgh to Miami the next year and to keep us three boys entertained we had an old cigar box with crayons to draw and color.
It was placed on the parcel shelf behind the rear seat and got melted by the sun so bad the entire box stuck to the shelf from the melted wax.
Never did get the stain out.
Also, as we had no air conditioning the windows were always open. My dad drove with his arm out of the window, like he always did, but forgot about the sun and got a really bad burn on his left arm.
Just some family history.

[bob_._.]

Antenna balls can help you find your car in a crowded parking lot.
My parents had one of those window coolers; the mechanism is generically known as a 'swamp cooler.' They cool you down but blow out a fine mist of water droplets too.

[VogeGandire]

Dashboard hula girl should be right up there with fuzzy dice for kitsch interior accessories.

[Sebastian_Dinwiddie]

Antenna balls always makes me recall Homer Simpson when he was designing a car. “You know those yellow balls people put on their antennas so they can find their car in a parking lot? Everybody should have one of those!”

[leonb]

I never knew the origins of the 'fuzzy dice' from being a WW II bomber aircraft 'good luck charm'.
Another gimmick you might see is a knob mounted on the steering wheel. This was popular on vehicles that didn't have power steering, had stick shift or for even today for persons that only have one arm or hand to steer with. They were also known as 'necker knobs', as freed your right arm to put around your girlfriend/wife's shoulder when driving in 'bench' seat cars.
I agree those dolls are creepy.

[AskDrannik]

One thing I've seen at classic car shows in the past is the fake body part (usually an arm or a leg) sticking out of the trunk.

[TheREALJoey-T]

Anyone remember the trend of having an 8-ball as a shifter handle? Or if you have a VW bus, you either do a surfing theme, a camping theme, or a picnicking theme. And if you think the fuzzy dice are bad, there are also dice valve stem caps. I won't get into truck nuts, the Carolina squat, or that weird duck thing the modern Jeep crowd are doing now.

[clark]

Also the bobble head dog that sits on the packet shelf. And "suicide knobs", like curb feelers, were for practical reasons.

[elfthreefiveseven]

Yes, I find the Time Out dolls creepy too. As someone who was born in 64 in Southern California I can remember cars having curb feelers. Today you will see then on the really nice low-riders with paint jobs that look miles deep. Also you will get pulled over in California if you have stuff hanging from you mirror while driving.

And I miss the Jack in the Box antenna balls. Too bad some executive decided it was not profitable anymore.


Keep up the good work, your channel rocks.

[joeyager]

No mention of spot lights, or worse, dummy spot lights, fender skirts, windshield visors, luggage racks on trunk lids, lake pipes, exhaust cutouts and my favorite, the Esso tiger tails.

[Goatcha_M]

Fluffy Dice not being an option for the Lowriders in GTA Online is a crime.

[Low]

In 90s Australia, nudge bars were everywhere on cars. Also window lourves on the rear window, and plastic tube bull bars.

[rdhudon]

I like the longhorns Texans would put on their Caddies . Lol

[spacepeanut]

I've been going to car shows since I was a kid in the early 90's. If I hear the Big Bopper and see those dolls one more time, I'm slashing tires 😂.

[chuckpeterson]

Good job Ed. I was a kid jn Los Angeles in the 60s & the 76 ball story is 100% accurate.

By the 1960s you never saw the fuzzy dice unless it was a hot rod or a custom car.

I also always put curb feelers on my Mom's huge Country Squires in the 80s so she would not scrape the white walls.

Thanks for the great vid as usual!!

[Never-mind]

Those "continental" kits that extend the bumper out a couple of feet, has to be the ugliest thing ever.

[donkeyboy]

Honorable mention. Tiger tails sticking out of the trunks of GTOs

[dj]

The water in the window unit didn't cool the air. The evaporation of the water did. Essentially they were swamp coolers. You would often see them used in cars that were crossing long distances of desert.