29 A gets new threads!

The little 29 A pickup had a "well worn" interior. The back of the seat was a Mexican blanket, the cushion was black oil cloth vinyl that was crisp and starting to split at the seams. The wind lacing was worn and kind of shredded.I decided it was time to spruce it up.
I painted the garnish moldings green rattle can, also the top part of the dash. I made some ABS plastic panels that go below the map pockets on the B pillar, and made a speaker cover from the ABS and painted them green too. I had already added a AM/FM 8 track radio below the seat......yes, a 8 track. I bought a couple of Waylon and Willie 8 tracks from the swap meet for a dollar. Now I have cool tunes.
It had real nice green carpet on the floor, kick panels and door panels that Dan had put in. I thought a nice green pleated seat would look good. I tore the seat apart, the springs were really bad shape. I decided to make a new base of 3/4 inch plywood and have Al use webbing and new foam for the cushion. The back was already good foam. Al sewed up a beautiful pleated cover for the back and the cushion, looks and sits nice!
To finish it all off I added a flying eyeball third brake light and put a sending unit in the gas tank so now I have a working gas gauge! No more need to have a note with the mileage at last fill on the dash.

A little work on the "Deuce Delivery"

The seat handles on the delivery have always been broken, I tried to glue them a couple of times and did not work.
This idea came up back when the interior was done. I finally decided to do it. I also replaced the passenger side door glass that had been cracked for a couple of years and had the chip in the windshield repaired, looks all better now.
You can see the broken handle. I made a new one from some tubing,, one end flattened and drilled to bolt onto the seat adjuster. I finally decided to paint them brown, I thought of chrome, nickel plate, powder coated black or silver.....it all seemed to stick out too much. Brown rattle can worked well! To fill the end of the tubing, I used a railroad date nail that had been chromed, a "32" of course. It fit perfectly in the tubing.I attached the handle with two little stainless button head bolts. I think they look good..much better than the broken plastic ones!
I had the front tires rebalanced and reset the toe, now the annoying little vibration that would occur at 50 to 55 mph is gone.
I wired the fog/driving lights up, (they were just decoration before)so now I can see at night better, cleaned it all up, touched up some paint underneath, cleaned the interior, re glued some carpet pieces..I think its all ready for the summer trip

My new "Deuce Garage"

I needed more garage space, I was out of room. All last winter I used the empty house garage across the street to store four of my cars. I have had 13 cars crammed into my house garage. It is very hard to keep nicely finished cars in the work shop when I am grinding, sanding and painting there. The decision was made....build a new garage to park the finished cars in. This garage will house just 32's. The other rides will stay in the house garage.
I got the variance and the permits to build a 46x60, 2x6 stick built, cedar sided garage to match my house and shop building. There is a 12 ft wide door in the north wall, small windows up high on the ten foot high side walls. The light can shine in but you cannot see in. I don't need snoopy eyes looking in the windows.
There is floor heat and brick red epoxy floor coating. It is all drywalled, textured and painted two tone grey with a "Ford" blue stripe separating the colors. It is lit by old school house lights down the middle and two rows of aluminum dome lights from Ikea on each side. At the top of the long walls are two rows of blue neon tube lights and a large 48 inch diameter red neon "Open Tonight" sign. On the south wall under a red and white stripe canopy is a half of a deuce chassis, powder coated red, complete with the front and rear axle cut in half, a vega box, chrome brake pedal, chrome 4 bar and a 3/8" glass counter top. Rope lights under the canopy and two red bar stools finish it off. There are two high top bar tables and bar stools in the middle.
There are lighted show cases with die cast deuces and deuce pictures and posters on the walls. I added a glass top desk, dvd player and tv, security camera/tv, micro wave, coffee pot and fridge full of beer and water. This should be a cool place to hang out this winter between shop projects.

A little work on the #42 Deuce

With no big projects on the plan for this year, I thought I would do all of the little lists that I have for each car. The first one up is the 42 car. I call it that because at one time I had two black hi boy deuce sedans. The first sedan I had painted on the door a big 42, that was to mean "four deuces", I had my son design a lady luck gal with 4 deuces to put on the front quarter. Anyway, the list for this car.
1. weld in new patch on passenger side rear quarter.(its all painted and looks good now)
2.straighten the exhaust pipes to be even and straight.
3.replace the ugly yellow plug wires, (see the before and after pics)
4. move the hoodlum plaque from the chain to the right taillight
5.clear coat the original 32 rear license plate
6.clean the interior
7. clean the engine
8. clean the tires and use rubber dressing on them
9. add a hand pressure pump to the eelco tank. (I bought a pump in 2007 at a swap meet in Colorado, finally got it mounted.)
The list is completed, not very big I know but sure helps the look of the car, now just drive it a few more times before it gets too cold and snowy.

The Scavengers come to visit

Sunday the Scavengers Car Club from the cities came to St Cloud for a garage tour that I arranged. About 10 AM we all met at the Copper Lantern. There was around 20 cars from the club.
The first stop was at Mikes "toy Museum". They all enjoyed the many die cast, hot wheels, pedal cars and of course all of the St Cloud advertising things in the antique replica gas station.

Stop #2 was Terry's Rod Shop. There the group enjoyed the collection of red Chevys, the orange hot rod bus and spacious shop with the new chassis for the 35 Chevy.

The next stop was at Lumpy's place, the Divco beer truck was a big hit as well as the other rods and the cool collection of toys in the house garage turned into a car party room.

The last stop was at my place. The group were fed pulled pork sandwiches and other goodies in the newly decorated house garage and then toured the new "Deuce Garage.
Except for the short rain shower the day was a lot of fun. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Looking forward to summer 2012

I am having "trip withdrawals" already. There are no more trips planned this year. I have been thinking about and planning the summer of 2012. The stars are all aligning with the moon or something because the show schedule seems to be working with the calendar for 2012.
The way I see it, I could leave about June 4th and head for Loveland, CO for the Goodguys Colorado Nationals being held on June 8th and 9th.
Monday morning it would be off for the LA Roadster show in Pomona CA on Fathers Day June 16-17.
Sunday after the show it will be going east to Vegas for the night and onto St Paul, MN for the Back to The Fifties.
After three days at home its off to Des Moines for the Goodguys show then onto Columbus Nationals on the official cruise.
I would be home for a week or so and then to Salina, KS to the Leadsled Spactacular the last week end of July. Driving the 50 Buick custom for this trip
That pretty much takes care of June and July don't you think?

Iowa and Hastings MSRA

7AM we met Zannoths and headed south towards Kimball. There we picked up the Dicks in their 35 sedan. We stopped for breakfast in New Ulm. Just missed a deer on the highway, too close for comfort for me!
We arrived in Algona, IA about noon. Found Randy and Vicky's B&B, wow wnat a nice p;lace. Huge house built in 1913 or so, 25 rooms, all reubuilt by Randy in 9 short years.
They got their Lincoln Zephyr out of the garage and we all headed about 30 miles to take a tour of the Winnebago factory. That was very interesting. On the way home we found a neat antique store in an old barn. I think we all found something there to buy.
Saturday morning the gals went shopping and us guys went to see Randy's shop about 10 miles away. The next stop was a tree grove to check out an old bus that Randy had heard about. It was a 32 Dodge weged between two trees. He will need a chainsaw and a tractor to get it out!
About 2 PM we headed for Northifield, MN to our hotel and then onto Hastings for a cruise night. There was close to 1000 cars. One of the most impressive was a Peterbuilt V12 truck, all chrome or polished aluminum...pretty cool.
Sunday we had special parking by the newly relocated Porkys drive in. There were around a 1000 cars there. So many people that they ran out of food.
About 3 us and the Nystroms headed north to home. It was a 630 mile weekend. The car ran fine, we all had a good time.

September trip

At the last minute we cancelled the Deuce Reunion trip to Bastrop, TX. With the fires going on there and the heat still there and we had a ton of things to get done here, we decided to skip the reunion this year. We will have it on the list for next year. I will give someone else a chance to win the "long distance" award!! LOL
This Tuesday we will be going to Des Moines, IA, I promised my good friend Dave that I would help him swap 5w bodies from the old to the new chassis. I figure Wed and Thursday will work. Need to move the body over, then shim it to get the doors to fit right.I will take some pics and post the progress.
Friday it off to Algona. IA to Randy's B&B. We will be meeting Yagers, Zannoths and Dicks there. Shop tours on Friday and Saturday, then its onto Lakeville for the night and over to Hastings for the MSRA Fall Foliage run. Many of the nominated cars will be there to check out in person. I hope to have someone drive the RPU there for me.
Check back soon for Des Moines updates.

"Cruise to the Quarry" MSRA event

Saturday was the first ever MSRA "Cruise to the Quarry" hosted by the Hot Rod Hoodlums of Central Minnesota. Lumpy and Terry did a great job of organizing and planning the event. The weather was cloudy and cool, but fine. There were almost 300 cars attending, a great feat for the first time ever. Cars from all around, will be interesting to see where they all came from. Moliters is a really nice place for the event, I sure hope it continues for more years.
The real highlight of the event for me was being nominated for car of the year with the RPU. That's right, now we have both new deuces in the running for car of the year, not sure if that doubled our chances or "halfed" our chances.....LOL. It is just a great feeling to have them nominated....two in one year and the Buick last year....WOW. Maybe I do need a "new project: for this winter and try again next year!! Just kidding.
I had favorite son in law Le and Cooper drive the RPU, we drove the 3w. I think they had fun.If I put many more event stickers on the windshield I won't be able to see out of the right side.

MSRA Fall Campout

This past weekend we went to the MSRA Fall Campout in Grand Rapids. There was six or seven of us that drove together. It was a nice drive, about 150 miles. The weekend event was very nice, two free meals, poker run, cruise thru the country, show and shine on Saturday, plenty of things to do. We saw several friends from the cities that also made the trip.
The highlight of the weekend for us was being nominated for MSRA Car of the Year !! That is a great honor. We are very happy and thsnkful. Prety cool to have had the Buick nominated last year and the 3w this year.

Minneapolis Messaround

I left about 8AM this morning for the Minneapolis Messaroud, a tradtional hot rod and custom show at the Memory Lanes in Mpls. What a fun cool show. Beautiful weather, lots of cool cars, bands, food, vendors, pinstripers, a real neat show.
I drove my RPU, my neighbor Jerry in his 41 Chevy coupe, we stopped in Elk River and picked up his son and girlfriend in their 27 T coupe.It was a nice drive, about 75 miles.

49 in 7

My friend Dave Schaub is at it again. Last year he drove his 32 roadster to 49 states in 8 days....this year it's 7 days. He is on his way right now driving to Maine from California, one minute past midnight on Sept 10 he will leave Maine and drive thru all 49 states, ending in Alaska....quite a feat. This is all done to raise money for the Ronald McDonald house, a very good cause. You can follow his trip and most of all donate to the cause by going to his web site www.49in7.com
Check it out.
He will be driving by St Cloud again this year and I plan to be on the highway to meet him and drive with him for a few miles, maybe all the way to North Dakota....who knows. Last year I drove with him for 60 miles or so.
He is 25% of the total funds he wishes to raise...please check his site, click on the donate button and give something...I did, its easy, goes right to your charge card....(you can get points on your card that way!!) He needs a lot more money to make it to the grand total of $150,000...open your wallets a give.

Off to meet the Rolling Bones

We met at the Copper Lantern for breakfast Sunday morning at 6:30. After a great meal we left at 7:30, headed down Highway 10 to Monticello to meet 2 more cars.There was my black RPU, my blue roadster driven by Darrin, Terry Y and his 34 Chevy, Terry N with the 40 coupe and Lumpy in the Divco beer truck. The meeting place was Holiday station....news to me, there is one on each side of the highway and of course I stopped at the east side and they were waiting on the west side...after a few minutes of waiting, Lumpy called their cell and we found them. So it was off to the other station. We picked up Eugene in his deuce roadster and John in his 34 Ford delivery.
I was appointed the leader so off we went on I94, to 494 thru the city and south on I35....traffic was light, a cool Sunday morning so we were "rolling".... 80 to 85. The first gas stop was Lakeville, we all got gas and off again to Clear lake, IA for the next gas stop and to pick up Randy in his 41 Packard. I called Dave to let him know we were on time, in fact about 45 minutes early. Back onto I35 to Des Moines. We made it to Dave's shop about 12:45. There he made us a great pork sandwich. We toured his shop and looked at his toys. His buddy Matt with his 50's built Deuce 5 window came too.
We headed across town to the motel where we were to meet the "Bones". Checked in and set up camp in the back of the hotel lot, canopy, tapped the keg, set up a couple of grills and set back to enjoy.
The bones arrived about 6 PM with the last of them arriving about 7ish. I think there were 10 rods, two trucks/trailers with race cars and a race bike. There were about 6 other local rods that came to the party too.
Monday morning the Bones and the Hoodlums had breakfast at the cool diner next door. After breakfast we all got into our cars and headed out, the Hoodlums up state 65 and the Bones headed west on I80. It was a fun time.
We toured the auto museum in the little town of Williams, IA. They have a very nice display of many neat old cars. Then it was over to I35 and headed north towards home.
Just south of the cities we had a couple close encounters with a couple of state troopers but it all worked out fine.
I arrived home about 4:30. The GPS showed 700 miles exactly. The "fun meter" was pegged all the way.......a real fun time. Thanks to all the Hoodlums that came along with me, now they know how my summers go. Eight hot rods, eleven hoodlums, 700 miles, one keg of beer equals a fun weekend!!

Hot Rod Hoodlums meet up with the Rolling Bones of NY

Sunday morning we are meeting at the Copper Lantern at 6:30 for breakfast. We will leave at 7:30 for Des Moines. There will be three 32's, a 34 Chevy, 40 Ford,55 Divco beer truck,I think John will be in his 34 Ford, in Clear Lake, IA we pick up a 30something Packard. That should make eight rods with 13 guys.
Plans are to meet at my friend Dave's shop for a great pork tenderloin sandwich lunch about 1:30 PM. After lunch and a tour of Dave's shop and toys we will all head over to Motel 6 in Altoona to meet with the Rolling Bones. There we will cook burgers in the lot, drink beer and tell stories.......fun!! Dave and his son Kevin will drive with us in their 409 powered Model A Ford, as well as another friend, Matt in his channeled deuce 5window.

When we return Monday night, I plan to post photos and update the weekend events. I am not taking the laptop with me. Check in after Monday night for the latest update.

Thursday/Sunday

The open house party at Brite's was great. Pulled pork and all the fixins, some real cool projects in the shop. There were lots of cars and people.

Friday was a gorgeous day, cloudy and highs in the 80's. I walked the park over and over. Saw many friends from all over. Lots and lots of beautiful cars......all modified in some way, from mild to wild. I bought several pinstripe art work pieces. Did you ever see a pig fink?? a piggy bank painted like a rat fink!! cool !

Saturday.....it was HOT....107 I think it was...it was unreal. We left the park about 4;30 and went to eat and cool off. My shirt was wet all day. Saturday night was a great gathering in the hotel lot, cars cruising thru, flame throwers burning, like we needed more heat!! It was a fun day even tho it was so hot.

Sunday...hot again. The best thing Sunday was watching Steve collect all the awards for his Pontiac. He walked away with 5 of them!! Pretty cool. Congrats Steve. We spent the night in Salina, had one last dinner with several friends.

Monday.....We left about 9 AM drove to Sioux Falls. Arrived there about 7 PM. Kind of a long day. We are all tired from the weekend and the heat is still here. It was 100 all day driving thru Kansas and Nebraska and into South Dakota. Twice we were stuck on the roadside waiting for a pilot truck to guide us down a one lane construction road. We had to open the hood and turn off the engine. Sunday night we drove thru town about 9 miles, going 30 to 35 mph, AC on high and the temp gauge was stuck at 200.......not bad. Stopped on the highway, in the hot sun, even with all 3 fans on, it puked over......the hood was so hot I had to use a towel to open it. It still fired right up when it was our turn to go down the one laner.

Tuesday......Jerry needs to go to Dakota Digital to get something checked, so that is the plan at 9 AM, then off to drive the last 200+ miles to get home. The heat index is still 100 here at 10 PM. It will be good to get home.

This weekend (Sunday) will be the roadster trip to Des Moines to meet up with the Rolling Bones guys for a party in the parking lot. That should be lots of fun.....stay tuned.

Arrived in Salina !!

We woke up to cloudy skies and a little rain. We just had another cup of coffee and waited for it to stop. The rain didn't seem to cool anything off. It was a good drive, uneventful. The Vintage Air works well. The two vents that I changed around really helped the cooling. The motor ran 195 to 200 all day, so she was cool too.

We arrived in Salina about 5:30. Steve and Deb had just pulled in a few minutes before. They drove 13 hours straight thru to get here, we stopped for lunch and a few breaks and drove about seven hours.

When we arrived the temp was 114 degrees, not heat index but the real deal....it was HOT !! Today, Thursday is to cool down to a 100. Its going to be hot, but all the cool cars will help us make it thru the heat.

Tonight is a shop party at Brite Built Hot Rods with "free food" and then a cruise up and down Santa Fe St. The street will be blocked off so only the show cars will be allowed to cruise. Should be fun.

Stay tuned for more details later.

On the road again......KKOA in the Buick

We meet Doris and Jerry Johnson this morning to drive to Salina, KS to the KKOA Leadsled Spetacular.
As we got in and hit the keys, Jerry's car did nothing. We traced the neutral safety wires from the ignition to the switch, no juice, after wiggling the wire on the ignition plug, we got juice to the switch, but still no fire, next I stuck the test prob on the purple wire on the solenoid and hit the key, bingo it fired. At the first rest stop, the same thing, no fire, used the probe and bingo. Its like the solenoid sticks. From there on it has worked fine.
Other than that we had a great leisurely cruise down highway 23 to Sioux Falls, south on I29 to Vermillion, SD for the night. We arrived about 5PM, found a nice place to eat and have a cold beer.
In the morning we continue south and west to Highway 81. That will be a straight shot south to Salina. Today was a mere 300 miles, tomorrow about the same. Its been a good trip so far. It was hot and humid in SD and have severe thunder warnings tonight until 4AM.

Home again

We got home yesterday about 3 PM. It was a good trip, almost 2200 miles and only a couple of hiccups. Not bad for a brand new car with only 200 miles on it when we left.
Sorry about no posts for few days, I could not get the laptop to connect after Wednesday. Not sure what the deal is, it works fine here at home.

The show was outstanding, 7000 cars, a nice indoor swap meet, large vendor building with AC and a ton of outdoor vendors. The car quality is outstanding. Pros pick area had so many beautiful cars.
This show runs autocross for 3 days, they really pound the cars around the course. The muscle car of the year is crowned here and they have to run the course, some go all out.
A new 3W by master builder Dave Lane won the street rod of the year, a beautiful car. Mustard yellow, it beat out several nice cars including the Dale Boesch built
5W that was at Des Moines, I would hate to choose between the two.
We won the "You Gotta Drive 'em" award...that was a way cool honor!! To drive thru the awards building at the Nats is a great time. We did it a couple of years ago with the Buick too, always nice.
The Ridler winning 56 Ford was there, the 59 Imperial Speedster was really neat to see in person, check this months Hot Rod mag for details, just so many knock out cars.
I was invited to tour the Richard Munz collection in Madison at noon on Monday, just could not get there by then without some real early starts and long days....darn!! That would be a real neat tour, maybe next time. He has many beautiful cars.

Today I cleaned the 3W inside and out, top and bottom, looks better now. I put a spacer under the carb so it will start when hot easier, adjusted the turn signals (had them hooked up backwards in the front!! LOL ). Replaced the coil wire with a red one, used a gray one for the roadside fix.
Tomorrow it is "get the Buick ready time" She is going to Salina,KS in a week or so. "KKOA Lead sled Spectacular"..... needs a oil change, repack the bearings, grease the joints, move the AC vents, and clean it real good.

more pics of the 50's town

Such a neat place.....................