Memorial Day... And Lots Of Memories

First off, a peaceful Memorial Day to all, especially to those families who had family and/or friends who died giving their lives for our freedoms. At times, we seem to forget that the last Monday in May is a national holiday of remembrance, and not solely an excuse to barbecue like crazy while drinking cake-loads of beer just because you have an extra day off from work - never mind that it's the unofficial start of the summer season. The internet certainly doesn't help. When doing a Google search on Memorial Day, I also received "paid content" links for the best tech deals for the weekend as well as a list of politically incorrect Memorial Day movies. Whatever.

To me, honoring Memorial Day does bring forth a list of mental concepts and plans for the weekend. Yes, I will most likely take part in engaging in outdoor activities as well as said BBQ, but the the two items that are at the top of the list; One, is remembering family members and friends who gave their life while in service to our country, but second is to take a stroll down memory lane (or amnesia lane as my oldest daughter puts it) in regards to the classic automobiles that I've owned as well as hot rodding from my youth. As humans, we gravitate to warm fuzzy's from our past. With me, hot rods and muscle cars are one of the biggest and warmest fuzzy's out there.

This years stroll started almost a week ago when I saw the Chevy truck I restored and sold years go was parked at a local service garage. It was good to see that it was still in great shape. The paint looked fantastic as did the custom interior, but it still had the old 15" steel wheels with dorky factory hubcaps as rolling stock. When I owned the truck, I installed a set of American Racing Torque-Thrust wheels with almost stock size tires up front but had massive 325/50/15 Nitto radials on the rear. Since the truck was lower 2" in front and 4" in the rear, the stance looked totally bad ass. Looking back however, I think I was ahead of the curve (at least as far as Maine is concerned), because it took me over three months to sell the truck, mainly because it wasn't 4-wheel drive and the original interior (dash and all) was completely gone. Apparently, it is a cardinal sin in Maine to replace a stock Chevy dash with something totally custom. People loved the paint scheme, but became upset that the colors I used weren't "all Chevy", (it was half Chrysler black and a smidgen of Mercedes silver). And those wheels... I received more offers for the tires and wheels than I did on the truck. The picture above was taken right after I finally finished the paint job by mid-November 2010, after 8 long months. You can see the old 15" wheels the truck wore while getting painted.

A woman finally came and purchased it. She also loved the paint scheme, the custom interior, but her husband was adamant about not wanting the Torque-Thrust wheels, even though she wanted them. In the end, I re-installed the old 15" steel wheels that were on the truck when I purchased it, lowered the price by about $1000, and sold the American Racing wheels with said tires separately. It was her husband who installed the hubcaps. Afterwards in my opinion, the truck looked like it had an identity crises. Between the slightly lowered and raked stance and the custom paint, but with the stock 235/75/15 tires and wheels on it and factory era caps on, it looked completely awkward. Much to my dismay, it still looks the same today. As my wife told me, "... you don't own it anymore. Let it go. No longer your circus or your monkey."

She's right. However, my drive to be different along with my yen to modify and slightly customize my hot rods is a double-edge sword. Not everyone is going to agree with what I do with my rides, and that's okay. I usually respond to people who tell me how to paint this car, or modify that engine in that particular way with, "You pay for it & I'll build it / paint it / modify it anyway you want." That usually shuts them up. I've been cruising the Racing Junk website as well as Craigslist again, checking out older (1939 and down) street rods. I've even taken a liking to T-buckets, which I never thought I would ever consider purchasing. On the one hand, it's the ultimate go-fast machine; Throw any V-8 behind the grill that makes at least 350 horsepower and it'll be fast as hell. It's easy considering most T-buckets weigh less than 2000 pounds. On the other hand, most buckets are a convertible 100% of the time, as they have no roof what-so-ever. Which means you can't put the top up if you happen to caught in an unexpected shower, and the interior is open to the elements. That includes bugs, stuff from trees, pollen, as well bird shit. Those last items may be enough to sway me to purchase a hot rod with a steel roof. Either way, I know it will bring back a flood of memories as to when I was a kid in the 60's. Back then, being under 10 years old and not knowing any better, Memorial Day weekend was a time when a ton of hot rods who come out, cruise the streets and the beaches, and also signify that summer vacation was almost here - a time to drool over more muscle cars and street rods.

So - enjoy this Memorial Day weekend. Be sure to express gratitude to those people who had family members give the ultimate sacrifice. Also, be sure to take a cruise down your "amnesia lane" - and take in a car show or cruise-in - and exercise those forgotten memories of hot rod city.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave