Monday, September 11, 2017

Rods And Rhodies!!

Since I was already up so early, I headed down to Old Town for some more of that delicious hot chocolate at Suislaw Coffee Roasters, only to find all the roads blocked.  Parking spots were at a premium and the coffee line long.  No matter, it was worth the wait.  I have a recommendation however ... I tried the bacon burrito.  You should pass.  Have a donut ... it would have been much better!!

Today is for the guys!!!  Wasn't I surprised to find the streets full of gorgeous cars.  It's the Rods and Rhodies Invitational Car Show in Old Town Florence Oregon.  I don't think these looked like this back in the day.  Although some say they drive these beauties on a daily basis, I'm pretty sure this one stays in the garage most of the time.
The engine inside was just as fabulous as the outside.
It seems the brighter the color, the better!!
Although you can't really see it, there are blue flames running down both sides of this one.  I probably should have taken pictures of the cards so you would know what every one was.  I figure most of the men know what they are anyway!!  
Some of the insides of these would fool you.  You would think they would be just as pristine as the outside, but not so much.  Maybe they haven't gotten that far in the restoration.  
I heard one guy talking about how he actually drove his car from Seattle to here.  With an all chrome engine, someone wondered about the engine heat damaging or making the chrome change colors.  No he said ... he never went over 50 mph in the early morning cold.  
Okay guys .. you're up.  Someone tell me what kind of radiator this is.  Is it a radiator?  I don't think I've ever seen it before.  One car even had two, back to back and slightly offset.
Speaking of bright colors ... I wasn't too impressed.  I mean it's a beautiful paint job, but the color seemed to clash to me.  Wouldn't you just hate it if this wasn't exactly the paint color you wanted when it came out of the booth?

You know every car show has to have an American Graffiti car or two.  Not the real deal, but an exact duplicate of the ones they used in the movie.  The black Chevy is right next door.  They got a lot of attention.  It reminds me of the many MANY nights I spent cruising the Modesto drag in my '57 Chevy ... yup, just like in the movie, we went round and round.  And just like in the movie, we usually ended up out on some country road, racing for bragging rights.
Obviously there were a LOT more cars, some of which I'll show you tomorrow in the interest of keeping this blog short.  I ended up spending most of the day wandering around all that money!!  I was surprised again when I got to the very far end and found a parking lot full of trailers they were brought here in.  Maybe two were actually driven ... the rest were trailered to this event.

Hurricane Irma is wreaking havoc over Florida where I have friends who may be in harms way.  Some have left, thank goodness, because this looks like a big one.  There have even been tornados in the middle of the storm.  Mother Nature seems to be doing her thing across the nation this year.  Please keep Texas and Florida in your thoughts and if you are making donations, be SURE they are going to legitimate organizations.

It's also the anniversary of 9/11.  Please let's not forget the tragedies of that day and remember those who lost their lives.




4 comments:

  1. You are right on putting in a trailer and taking it from point A to point B
    Show cars are show cars God forbid if it rains or gets Misty

    We have Powers /water/ Internet/ and enough water to fish off your own back dock unless you have a balcony and we can accommodate that too
    If you know any carport fabricators send them to Florida they could make a enough to retire on

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    1. I'm just glad you and your family are okay. Hey, if you've got internet, you're golden!! LOL

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  2. The original radiators had two tanks usually one set on the top and one side on the bottom due to spacing In show cars they turn them sideways so in the picture you have it sit right to left instead of up-and-down
    As car got newer they decided to do a right and left radiator tank
    On Todays show cars most radiators a custom designed
    On the Chevy in your picture because it's not the original engine
    Instead of putting the radiator in its original position they move it forward front portion of the frame because they can run without a radiator fan
    Which gives them more room for a bigger Engine
    Because of the high-performance engine they're using probably a four core custom radiator at the same time he has no radiator fan blades so they're using radiator fans to cool the engine as well
    There are numerous builders of radiators custom car and truck set ups
    most of those radiators and fans are custom built as a combination set and you're probably looking at 3 to 4 grand just for that alone

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    1. Yikes! I guess there's more money in those than I thought.

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