Practically Right In My Backyard

There's a saying that was pretty popular back in the mid to late 60's; "Fall apart in my backyard.", which meant to basically chill out and not worry about anything. I recently had to live that scenario because I cannot control every single aspect in my life - like other people and things like the weather. Over this past weekend, there was the 25th annual Great Falls Hot Air Balloon Festival which was held just northwest of Portland in the twin cities of Lewiston and Auburn here in Maine. To ride in one of these hot air balloons is one item on my wife's and mine bucket list. Unfortunately, Mother Nature and the FAA had the final say with our Saturday morning balloon ride - no go. The cloud ceiling, by Federal law, has to be at least 1000 feet before we can go up. It never got any higher than 800 feet throughout the morning. We were supposed to launch at 6am. By 11am, everyone had given up hope of taking off, so the whole smash was cancelled. We'll be going back next August and we're confident that we'll best Mother Nature at that time.

It's sorta the same scenario sometimes with hot rodding and drag racing. For example, over the past two months, I started scouring the classifieds on Racing Junk as well as Craigslist, looking for my next go-fast ride. I've been searching as far south as the Carolina's and as far west as Illinois. The kicker is, while on our way back from the festival, I stumbled across at least two hot rods that, at minimum, deserve some phone calls and further investigation. One was an old Dodge panel truck rat rod, the other being a 1965 AMC Rambler 330 2-door post car. The Dodge panel rig was in rougher shape than the Rambler and not just because it was a rat rod. The interior consisted of a modern leather Chrysler unit that was in decent shape, but the exterior still needed some finishing work in regards to headlights, turn signals, rear glass, and other minor details. I'm unsure if it ran or not nor did I know what it had for a drive-train, but it was advertised as turn-key and the price wasn't bad at $4000 dollars. It would really turn into a sweet deal if the old school bus parked next to it was part of the deal, even though that rig needed a lot of work. Why? When was the last time you saw a short school bus with a chopped-roof that was a prime candidate to be a drag vehicle or possible pro-street ride?

The Rambler, on the other hand, was a little more civilized. It was a classic el-cheapo 2-door sedan that had (I going to assume) some major upgrades in the speed department. Again, I'm unsure what was under the hood, but I was fairly optimistic that the original 6-cylinder was long gone due to the steering column mounted tach, and the row of after-market gauges that resided ahead of the Hurst 4-speed shifter. The interior was completely redone with new carpet, headliner and bucket seats, but the exterior had a poorly applied flat-black paint job that was starting to come off. However, if a 390 or a 401 engine is between the fenders, then it's definitely worth the $6500 admission price.

Drag racing is full of trial and error, or as they use to say in the sport, "If something didn't work right on that run, maybe you were spared from a greater disaster." I've seen old films of the Dodge Ramcharger racing group where they had a 1964 Polora with the new race Hemi between the fenders and they had a transmission literally grenade at the starting line. You could just see the expressions on their faces and "Oh shit!" doesn't even begin to describe it. However, they burned the midnight oil, swapped in a new transmission and the associated parts, fixed the body damage underneath the vehicle, and went on to win the next days eliminator heats. The same rings true for racing at Bonneville, or Daytona. If you're old enough like me, you might even remember one race where Richard Petty was wailing on the roof of his 1968 Roadrunner because the vinyl roof tore and was coming off the vehicle at speed. The problem was, it was coming down in front and blocking his view as well as distracting him. His team thought the particular roof covering wouldn't make a difference. Well - guess what?

Do you see where I'm going with this? Our hot air balloon ride got canned, but we'll hit it again next year. Maybe there was some reason why we weren't supposed to go that morning. I've been searching far and wide for some cool rides, the two described above came on my radar, and they are less than 90 minutes from my house. And I may not have ever known about them if I didn't make the trek to the festival. In the end, obviously what I need to do is fall apart in my backyard and things will work out for the better if I don't stick my hands into every single solitary detail.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave

Cool Hotrods - Stable But Not Standing Still

Judging from the title of this week's blog, you might think that I'm referring to the performance and speed of vintage Detroit iron. Not entirely. For decades - literally since the birth of modern hot rodding after World War 2 - there has always been that coolness factor. Hot rods in general have always been cool, mostly because, in the grand scheme of the total number of vehicles out there, hot rods represent a very small number of this total. In other words, they are rare. The next logical connecting point is the sense of history and nostalgia they posses. Agreed, for a while, especially back in the late 40's and throughout the 1950's, they were seen as gateways to trouble that ranged from getting arrested to going to Hell. However, since the 1960's, they have been a trip down memory lane, albeit that lane, at times, had no posted speed limit.

The main point I'm driving at, is the coolness factor of hot rods, muscle cars, street rods, etc., is always changing, always expanding. And that in itself is a very cool thing. I can remember a piece of tribal knowledge that was passed down to me over 30 years ago; "If we all agreed on what was "cool" with antique vehicles, our hobby would be very boring." This statement hit my ears at the time back in the mid-80's when the first wave of popularity hit the public in regards to muscle cars. Muscle cars still contained the same coolness factor they always had, but it was when their prices got stupid expensive, rather quickly, for the first time. It was also during that period when "100% correct restorations" first reared their heads. I'm not saying that restoring a muscle car to factory stock where it looks like it just rolled off the assembly line is a bad thing. I'm saying it can't be the only way, or the "true correct" way to restore these cars - which was a line we almost crossed back then.

If hot rods from the late 20's to the early 40's are any indication of things, we will be seeing more than our fair share of modernism in vintage automobiles. I believe, in the very near future, things like an Chevy LS or Ford 5.0 Coyote motor swap will be yawn city. I've already seen transplants like Duramax diesel swaps into mid 60's Chevy wagons. How about an incredibly modified Ford Eco-boost twin-turbo V-6 in a 1932 Model A? Check. The latest issue of Hot Rod magazine contains a feature vehicle that's a 1964 Pontiac Tempest wagon that was converted from a 4-door to a 2-door and has the drive-train, and a great deal of the interior swapped in from a 2005 GTO. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see an all-electric or hybrid setup between a pair of fenders that used to house a straight-8 motor. Anything is possible - and that's also damn cool.

Drag racing is already there. It's old news that "Big Daddy" Don Garlits has already built and driven an all-electric dragster and I do believe it may have finally broken the 200 mph barrier on batteries. This is unexplored, revolutionary ground, but that's what hot rodding and drag racing is all about - going where no one else has gone before. While there may be more than a few of you out there who will shout that anything electric or hybrid is downright blasphemy, in any kind of vintage automobile - be it street rod, old car, or rat rod. There are even a few who hold fast to the concept that the purest form of vintage street rod roadster is a Model A on Deuce rails. I get it - many of us are old enough to remember a time when there were far fewer vehicles in the hot rod mix. This, and other mindsets, have been passed down through the generations. However, times are moving forward, whether we like to admit it or not. We, as a hobby, as well as an industry, need to keep moving forward with the technology, the fresh ideas, the new concepts, and the unexplored. We need to be stable, but never stand still.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave

It Doesn't Have To Be Mint

I was photographing a car show Friday night and struck up a conversation with a guy from North Carolina who was visiting our area. He had a nicely restored, bright yellow Studebaker pickup that also had some custom touches. For example, I liked the custom speedometer that was in the dash. It was about five inches in diameter with the numbers going clockwise from 0 to 90. The final spot on the speedo normally where 100 would be, was instead the word "zoom". Very cool. But the one aspect about the truck I liked the most (and what I took the most pictures of), was the mostly original engine with it's surface rust, patina, and somewhat faded decals. The owner quickly apologized for not having the time to detail out the engine. As we continued to talk, I told him it was the current condition of the real estate under the hood that captured my interest. To me, that engine told more stories than the rest of the truck put together. He was totally cool with where I was coming from and even thanked me for the different perspective. I, in turn, thanked him for letting me photograph his truck.

I can say, without equivocation, at every car show or event I photograph, I am told almost the exact same thing that the owner of the Studebaker to me, by countless owners of vintage Detroit iron, that one or more particular aspects of their ride is not finished - and they're apologizing for it. The first thing I do is tell each and every one of them not to apologize. The next thing that runs through my mind, but stops at the filter in my mouth is, "Why are you apologizing?" The way I see it, it's your rig. You put the blood, sweat, and tears in owning, modifying, restoring, or whatever you do with it. Even if you stroked a check and purchased a finished ride, it's still your money and your ride. I can remember when I was restoring / modifying an antique Chevy pickup. When it came time to paint it, everyone and their brother told me what color I should paint it. Even after I told them the color scheme I was going lay down, they still told me, "no dude - you need to do it this other way." In the end, I still painted the truck the way I wanted to. Were any of these people who told me different in the body shop for the nine months it took to finish the paint and body work? Nope. My truck, my money, my way.

I gotta admit - that's one thing I still love about car shows, hot rodding in general, and even vintage drag racing. I love the individuality. I love the fact that today's car builders, regardless of who they are - be it the well known builders who's rides are featured in major magazines, or the average Joe or Mary who's building and welding in their garage and don't have access to a lift, or $30,000 in tools, but use their creative talents instead - continue to produce mind-blowing results and new ideas. Even if I don't gel with the finished product, I can still truly appreciate and totally respect the finished work. Ditto with old-school drag racing. Less rules, more fun. Creative experimentation, I like to call it. And if someone totally digs your ride, or hates on it, it doesn't matter. You did the hard part - if you like the outcome, that's all that matters.

Until next time, more empathy and less hating,
Dave