―Street Style―
This is Mel Martin’s first car. It’s a 1986 Aries K Car (153,000 km). She’s named her Curlers. The first order of business after purchase was to put on a wood-look steering wheel cover.
The second was to allow some friends who might not have been completely sober at the time to add some wood veneer linoleum to the roof. When they measured no times and cut once, the results were not optimal. They added wooden house molding to keep the lino in place. I think most people would agree that the slightly rippled effect is hypnotic.
Mel said that she loves the way Curlers “smells like your grandpa’s couch cushions”, which made me reflect on how I’d never really smelled my grandpa’s couch cushions because my grandma was usually sitting on them and how that was a sadly missed opportunity for scent-based nostalgia. The car reminds Mel of “Jane Fonda in 9-5; she’s a career girl with a manilla folder chalk-a-block full of documented repairs and oil changes. She likes to keep things tidy under the hood; business as usual.”
Here is Mel Martin and her sister, Andrea, reminding us of everything that is right in the world and in the automotive industry of yore. Please honk and wave if you see them tooling around in Curlers.