Morning coffee

[CobraJoe]

Glad to hear Rich. Looking forward to some car show pics, we still can't have 'em here.   

[RICH MUISE]

Weather was going to be iffy all weekend. I left Amarillo at 7PM, and got to Vernon about 11. I pulled over at a truck stop for the night. Tired, no time for naps that day! I fell right asleep, but was woken up about 1 by heavy rain, then some hail, mostly dime-nickle size, then some bigger stuff started coming down, rain was very heavy. I pulled the car under the canopy at the gas pumps, just in time, it was starting to do some big stuff..quarter and half dollar size! There were probably at least 20 cars pulled under the canopy, and no one was getting gas or moving for about an hour. After that, I pulled the car back were I was originally and was good for the night.
The car show was ok, about 100 cars or so. Only me and about 1/2 dozen others wearing masks. Not my kind of car show, but anything involving car guys was going to be great. Lots of newer cars, 2000 and newer. lots of lowriders, only about a dozen or so traditional street rods. Weather was cloudy in the morning, but clear and hot in the afternoon. I got sunburnt, but all in all, had a great time.
On the way home my wife called to tell me I was headed into a major storm front. You know it's gonna be a biggie when a team of storm chasers passes you out headed in the same direction! I almost made it home, only about 60 miles to go when the storm caught up. I was only about 2 miles from a town when the rain and hail and wind started, and I was able to find shelter in a car wash.

[RICH MUISE]

Now, the good eventful stuff this weekend......on the way down, I was doing about 70 when I saw a state trooper coming up behind me (speed limit was 75). He got up beside me, tooted his horn, and gave me a big thumbs up!! A short time later I pulled up next to him at a traffic light and he rolled down his window and told me the car was an absolutely beautiful '57. He asked what I had in it, and I asked him if he had driven the Crown Vics they had for years and years. He said oh yeah, and I told him I had a higher horsepower version of that drivetrain. Got another thumbs up.

I took first place in the 1940-1960 class. Got a license plate size/shape plaque. Not all that big a deal, probably only 6 or 8 cars in my class, but still appreciated.

I had a guy ask how much I'd charge to do a similar interior in his car. Ha, no way Jose, I'll pass thank you. Ha, I had visions of him telling a story like Gary had with his car in an upholstery shop for 5 years and counting.

I had a media guy take a bunch of pics of my car and asked a ton of questions. Said he wanted to do a story on my car on his website. We'll see how that goes, but nice he had the interest......he's a Chevy guy.

In that storm driving home, I was being passed by a bunch of semis. I had slowed to 30, and had my hazards on. Heavy rain and hail. Just a mile or two from a town. The last semi to pass me got up beside me and slowed to my speed. The wind was blowing the rain and hail at about a 45* angle. At first, I was worried he couldn't see me, then I realized he was trying to block the hail from hitting my car. Thank you sir!
When I pulled into the car wash, the bays were already taken, so I pulled up right next to the building at the end, pretty much blocking most the hail and rain. After a minute or so, a guy came walking up from the back of the car wash. I put my window down a bit, and he told me he was in the second bay, he saw me pull in, and if I pulled up behind him, he'd pull out and let me have the bay. He was in a 90's Ford pickup. There are some great people in this world!

[RICH MUISE]

Glad to hear Rich. Looking forward to some car show pics, we still can't have 'em here.   

Hardly took any pics......who wants to see pics of Chevies, or 20-teens mopars.
There are very few car related things going on around here. I did miss one last month in Lubbock, and I'm not sure if I missed the Park in the Park show in Albuquerque. The one I went to was 220 miles away. Lots and lots of street rods/classics driving around town, but no one is stopping to congregate. A few days ago I saw a beautiful 2 tone blue 59 Skyliner driving thru my neighborhood.

[RICH MUISE]

OK...here's a jumbled assortment of pics of stuff I've been talking about the past few weeks. First is my completed compressor lines. I've seperated the lines into a general use outlet on the left, and a painting only line with the big filter, and a combination dryer and oil remover on the right. I made a plywood saddle to keep the compressor from dancing around.
Next pics are from the road trip to Colorado last week. Didn't take too many pics on that trip either.

[RICH MUISE]

pics from this weekend at the racetrack show. First pic is with some typical boring N.Texas landscape behind. They were spacing the cars pretty far apart, at least until their space started filling up.
Second shot shows the pit area they were using for the show. My speed shop buddy here in town will be there next week drag racing. Alot of the pics I took were so he could see what the grounds were like. He's never raced there before.
I loved this 40 Chev lowrider, and his brother's surburban next to it. Check out the one-year only steering wheel. That small "handle" rotates.

[RICH MUISE]

Joe, first pic is for you. Looking past all the tight pink shorts, in the background is part of a huge prison complex. There were 7 girls there dressed like that, don't know where they were from, I suspect a Hooter's like place.
Second pic is the Surburban I mentioned. I really really like some of the lowrider cars. You probably don't see many in New England??
Last pic is the storm I was driving into on the way home. Weird cloud formation, probably why I was passed by the storm chasers. This was on hwy 287. It goes all the way from the gulf coast (@ Galveston?) to the Canadian border. It's the direct route from Amarillo to Fort Worth.

[fdlrc]

Somebody actually got up in the morning and thought: what a great day to wear my pink shorts! In public no less.

[RICH MUISE]

I forgot the new addition to my garage trophy shelf.
Les, those two Colorado pics were taken on rt 12 out of Trinidad before it got up into the Chucaras (sp?) Pass area

[CobraJoe]

Lol Rich, I'm sure there were plenty of eyes pressed against that fence, even at that distance!!!

That steering wheel and window A/C is pretty cool.
As far as low riders go, no, none of that crap around here. I did spend two week in Cali years ago (1980) and I saw plenty, actually, more than I ever care to see. I heard all the stories from the local truck drivers on how their batteries used to get stolen to power the hydraulics.

[RICH MUISE]

The lowrider thing is a whole different culture from what we're use to. I felt the same way when I lived in California, but me and a whole lot of other car guys have got a new appreciation for what they do. As I said, for one, it's a whole culture...a family thing in most cases. Brothers, wives, kids, fathers, sons and daughters...........events become a family outing day. The workmanship on some of these, like my two examples, is out of this world over the top. The thing I like most about what they do, is you almost never see modifications to the bodies, and often not even the drivetrain. It's about suspension, upholstery, paint, artistry, and sometimes.... like the Surburban, gidgits and gadgets, but pretty much all relevant to the time period. I was hoping to go to the big annual national lowrider show in Albuquerque, but found out from these guys the show has been cancelled for this year. I go to more and more "normal" shows where they've added Lowrider awards to attract them to participate.
On the way home, I was thinking a "cute" name for my car might be, wait for it,.............."GO Rider"

[hiball3985]

Good for you Rich for getting on the road. I always enjoy the road shots, thats where 57's belong.
We have a local car show every Saturday morning but I only go about twice a year. It's been filling up with too many new cars, Mustang, Corvette, BMW, Porshe, etc, I don't need to see that crap. Luckily  no low riders, or not when I've been there, they probably couldn't make it up the grade to get here.

[Ecode70D]

"Mustang, Corvette, BMW, Porshe, etc, I don't need to see that crap. Luckily  no low riders, or not when I've been there, they probably couldn't make it up the grade to get here."  quote hiball

   Jim I just read that and started laughing.  That's the kinda stuff that the new generation people think is cool these days..

[mustang6984]

They think? Since when? Most I have seen only react to now...don't really think.

[CobraJoe]

Well, I have been struggling trying to get everything to line up perfect on my '57. After taking some measurements, it appears that my car must have been in a minor accident at some point and time in it's life. I guess that's to be expected on a 63 year old vehicle. 
I always had a bigger gap between the drivers fender and door than the passenger side and figured I could adjust it because the gap on the front of my hood and the fenders was good, but off slightly at the cowl.
Now with reshaping the fenders to fit the og buckets, gaps aren't good. I had noticed that the panel on the drivers side radiator support had a slight wrinkle in it, so always assumed it got tapped or replaced with a used piece, because the drivers fender is perfect viewing it from the inside.
Apparently, someone got hit it on the drivers side front and just slapped on a new fender because the frame rails are shifted one half inch to the passenger side. There is no visible damage to either frame rail or horn so it shouldn't be a big deal bringing it back about 3/8" of an inch, just something else I didn't plan on.
I had brought it to my buddies shop to do the paint work and he wanted to work on it with me because he felt that the fender shape needed to be reworked before I attached the headlight doors permanently. So I drove it next door and we set it up on the frame machine. and he confirmed that it needs to go back to the drivers side about a 1/4"-3/8".





You can see the wrinkle in the panel and we also confirmed that the drivers side is up about 1/2" also. You can see it if you look at the height of the passenger side valance vs the drivers side valance.



So, he'll have his guy measure and pull it tomorrow....story of my life, my wife calls it "The Snowball" effect.