Author: Conrad

2017 Tucson Dragway Reunion

Tucson, Arizona

May 5-6, 2017
by Conrad Monroe

Photos and information from Alan Mitchell.

Last weekend while Michelle and I were driving around the state, Alan & Cheryl Mitchell and Charlie & Danise Cover were down in Tuscon driving a quarter of a mile at a time at the Tucson Dragway Reunion.

Alan brought down his 1939 Chevy Gasser Coupe, Blown BBC sporting a new Turbo 400. Charlie had his 1937 Ford Street Rod, powered by an injected LS3/4L65E Plug & Cruise package from Chevrolet Performance.

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Alan & Charlie at the Track

In Alan’s own words…
“Charlie ran test & tune and turned a best of a 12.3 or 12.8 (I think) .  He made 4 or 5 passes trying various techniques at burnouts and shifting.  By the way the Speed Sport guys were all over his car.  They totally loved his car as well as every female that walked by.  As Charlie said, he did not realize he built a “chick magnet”.

As for us, after all the changes we ran a best of 10.8.  Not what I expected but all the new parts worked good.  Was entered into the eliminations, but being the rule follower I am, I had installed an engine diaper which held in a lot of block temp and thus heat-soaked the starter when we were in staging getting ready to run, so had to withdraw.  So will get rid of the diaper, and install another battery.  The driver did “ok” with the new parts, have a few little bugs to work out but nothing big.

Weather was terrible with winds in the 20mph range, no track prep and lots of dust so track was greasy.  All in all good times, nothing broke on either car and all was safe.  Looking forward to our next event, don’t know where yet.  Maybe next year we can get a few more cars out to Tucson for T&T.  Tech was pretty easy so with just a few checks we should be able to get more cars on the track.”

http://www.tucsondragway.com/tucson-dragway-reunion/

I was quite happy to see the kind of times that Charlie was turning. I have the same drivetrain in my 1940 Ford Convertible build. Looks like it will be a pretty fun street machine… 😎

I would like to thank Alan for sending me the photos and his write up. The club has been doing a lot of very neat things lately which Michelle and I have not attended due to our living 180 miles away. It would be great if more members would send me their photos and some notes on the activity that they attended.

Michelle and I will be in Payson this Saturday for the car show. We are not entered, just coming down for the day to see our friends…

Until the next time… Keep On Keeping On… !

2017 Route 66 Fun Run

Seligman AZ to Topock on Rt 66

May 5 – 7, 2017
by Conrad Monroe

One of the more fun car things that you can do in Arizona is to participate in the annual Route 66 Fun Run from  Seligman to Topock Arizona following one of the longer remaining stretches of Route 66. This was the third time that Michelle and I made the run, and this was one of the best ones yet. As I recall the total entries numbered close to 900, which did not take into account all of the folks that made the run without signing up.  There were several large Corvette and Mustang clubs in attendance including a group of 24 Mustangs driven by French citizens from Paris. A large number of Germans were aboard a variety of Harley Davidsons. The event has become quite popular with both the Australians and New Zealanders as well.

This year Michelle and I traveled the Mother Road with a group of friends from Show Low. We all met at the Mustang Gas Station on the corner of Rt 60 & 77. Making the trip with us was John & Jan Corder in their red Mustang Coupe, James & Sharon Johnston in their Chevy SUV, Ed Turner in his 1956 Chevy Wagon, Tom and Connie Kakavas in their white Corvette Coupe, Dave and Lydia Larson in their black Mustang Convertible, Jim Morse in his white Thunderbird, Bob & Linda Shultz, in their Dodge Ram Diesel Pick Up, Paul Edwards & Lynn Felton in Paul’s yellow Cadillac Hard Top, Sylvia Carruthers in her Honda Coupe and Dan Goude in his Nova. Terry & Sheila Ringey in their orange Boss Mustang Coupe, met us at the Cracker Barrell in Flagstaff.

Michelle and I were leading the group on the 1st leg of the drive. We were about a mile up Rt77 from the gas station when all of a sudden a very large cloud of dirt swept over the road in front of us. When the dust settled we saw that a very large cement mixer that been heading south on the highway had for some reason swerved on to the shoulder then proceeded to roll over and skid around so that when it came to rest it was headed north and was lying on it’s side. Fortunately the driver’s side was still in fair shape. By the time that I got to the truck, a couple of gentlemen had gotten the door open and had helped the driver to his feet. He had a pretty good scrape on his forehead but was otherwise in decent shape. Soon after Show Low PD arrived on the scene as did the paramedics. Of course during all of this, my camera remained on the back seat and my iPhone was in its cradle… sigh. Here is a link to the article from the White Mountain Independent.

http://www.wmicentral.com/news/latest_news/sand-and-rock-mixer-rolls-north-of-show-low/article_2c3fc4f7-bdb4-5899-9c18-2c073664543e.html

Thankfully no further excitement was to be had on the rest of the trip!

After lunch at the Cracker Barrel we drove into Williams were we spent the night. After registering at the hotel we walked up to Main Street i.e. Route 66 and had a great time visiting the shops and seeing the sights.

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Williams AZ

The weather had been great on Friday and it continued being nice throughout Saturday. After breakfast we loaded up and drove down I40 to Seligman where we joined all of the rest of the participants. We had about 1 1/2 hrs to spend before we took off at 10:00 AM for Hackberry. We had lunch at the General Store where we ran into Tom & Val Altgilber. Tom & Val have been regular participants of the Fun Run for a number of years, they were driving the Suburban and were having a good time!  While walking around taking pictures I noticed that the 1957 Corvette that had been a fixture at the General Store for years was gone. Somebody finally made the owner an offer he could not refuse! Kind of sad to see it gone…

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Seligman – Hackberry – Kingman

After a rather good Pulled Pork Sandwich we continued down Route 66 to Kingman, AZ. After checking in to the hotel, Michelle and I went to the car show that was set up in the downtown area. We were the only ones that had preregistered for the Fun Run and by the time that we got to Seligman they had sold out and were not taking anymore entries, so it was only us doing the Show & Shine. We had a lot of interest in the wagon from a number of spectators and entrants. It is really a lot of fun, owning a fairly rare car that is not often seen. Lots of questions and comments!

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Kingman – Oatman – Topock

Unfortunately, over night a cold front blew in and we awoke to cloudy, overcast skies and gusty winds… oh well. We had a nice drive down to Oatman were we spent time window shopping and sightseeing. The Donkeys are still an integral part of life in Oatman, which made Michelle happy… After Oatman, we headed down to Topock to look at the awards hoopla and the rest of the crew headed off to Laughlin NV for some Casino fun.
The Award Ceremony was held inside the Golden Shores Rec Center so we could get out of the chilly wind for awhile. I was very surprised to see the number of winners that were no shows… I am guessing here but I think almost 1/3 of the awards went unclaimed.

All in all a very fun relaxing trip, mainly due to the great group of folks that we were with. Lots of laughing and storytelling! What’s not to love.

Until next time! Stay safe and keep it on it’s wheels… don’t be that cement truck driver guy… 😎

Conrad

2017 Chrome in the Dome

Springerville – Eagar, AZ

April 29, 2017

by Conrad Monroe

Last Saturday, the Show Low contingent of the OTHG Phoenix Steve & Terri Besore and Michelle and I braved the snowy and icy US60 hwy to headed over to Springerville/Eagar Round Valley High School. Our goal was to attend the Chrome in the Dome Car Show that is held for to raise money for local charities. Over the past few years the show had gone somewhat downhill with declining attendance. This year the management of the show was taken on by an experienced car show guy, Mike Campbell, and the results were greatly improved! Entries were right at 90 cars & trucks this year which is almost double the past few years turn out. I am very sure that the entries in coming years will grow from here.

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The show management decided to keep the class structure rather simple with only 11 classes, which allowed them to offer some really special trophies that were made by the High School shop class.

I have to say, being at an indoor venue at this time of the year has a lot going for it! Up until Saturday we had been having beautiful spring weather with temperatures running in the high 60’s to low 70’s. The weather turned on Friday evening and by Saturday morning the south end of Apache county was covered with up to 4-5 inches of snow. By noon it had mostly melted and by 1:45PM it began snowing again… By the time the show was over at around 3:00PM it was dry and clear in Apache county, but snowing in Navajo county. By suppertime, all the bad weather moved out of Arizona… as we like to say, “Dont like the weather? Wait an hour and it will change!”

Both Steve and I ended up in two of the larger classes. Mine was Custom & Modified Cars from 1942 to 1964. Steve was in the Custom & Modified Trucks 1959 and Earlier. Michelle picked up a Second Place Award for our 1956 Dodge and Steve made the walk for a 1st Place with his 1950 Chevy Pick Up.

Michelle and I were very pleased to pick up the Award for Best Interior. The Award was made from a pinion gear with a broken bearing, which I think was quite apropo since the pinion bearing is the only bearing in the rear axle assembly that I have not had to replace. No more Chinese bearings for me…!!!

As a special treat we met Larry Besore’s son Ron, and his lovely wife Sherry. They were on their way back to Phoenix from Colorado and heard that Steve and Terri were at the show so they stopped by for a visit. They joined us for an early dinner in Show Low.

Mike Campbell should be applauded for the great effort that he put into getting this event back on it’s feet! We for sure will be coming back next year…

Till the next time…

Conrad.

2017 Goodguys Spring Nationals

by Conrad Monroe

Westworld in Scottsdale, AZ

March 9 – 12, 2017

According to the Goodguys staff we had around 2500 cars at this year’s spring show. The weather was clear, sunny and warm with temps in the mid to high 80s. Actually on Saturday it may have been over 90° F. by 4:30 PM the field had pretty well left for cooler territory.

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Thursday – Shop Tours

Very large turnout for the shop tour this year, I am guessing we had around 200 cars or more leave the Registration Tent for the tour. Unfortunately we only had 4 shops on the tour, the other 4 shops that had been lined up, canceled at the last minute.

The 1st stop on the tour was to Speed Sports in Gilbert. Mark Clark and his crew offer a broad scope of service including EFI & Turbo systems and Chassis Dyno Tuning for optimum performance. Unfortunately I was not able to get a lot of photos due to the large number of tour members in the shop.  One of the better speed shops in the valley in my opinion.

We next headed over to Squeeg’s Kustoms in Chandler.  It is always fun to visit Squeeg’s shop, they always have several interesting projects in work. I was especially impressed with the 1963 Corvette with a tube chassis and LS engine & transmission. It would be a joy to own and drive when it is completed! For the 1st time ever I saw an LS powered off road buggy in the shop getting a custom aluminum interior. King shocks all around and a Mendeola transaxle with 20+ inches of wheel travel… another I would love to own!

We skipped the 3rd stop since it was basically a car dealer, and headed up to Fountain Hills to Mods for Rods. Pretty impressive shop with a number of cars being worked on. From what I saw it looks like they do some quality work. This was the lunch stop and the end of this year’s tour.

 

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Friday – Swap Meet and Vendors

This year’s swap meet and car corral was one of the largest that we have had. Nice selection of parts, memorabilia and cars to look over and buy. One of the big hits this year was the Bob’s Big Boy statues in either bronze or fiberglass. One of my friends from Show Low bought one of the smaller 4-5′ bronze versions and asked me if I could haul it back up the mountain for him.  I was hoping that I could stand him up in the back of the wagon, but he was too tall. It would have been very cool to have him looking out the back window. As it was he laid down and took a nap while we drove home.  Paul & Judy Nolte bought one of the bronze one as well…

It seemed like there were less vendors in the tent this year but more down on the field.

I watched the autocross for a bit thinking that it would be fun to build a car for it, but then I went into the tent and had a cold beer and the feeling went away!

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Saturday – Car Show

I usually spend Saturday walking the grass and taking photos of all of the wide variety of cars that Goodguys draws. This year I had to stick around the wagon. My daughter and son in law were coming to the show and also my newly found Grandnephew who I had not met in person yet. I wasn’t sure when everybody was going to show up, so I spent a good deal of time in the Specialty Parking Area photographing some pretty nicely done cars in the Home Built Heaven section.

 

 

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Sunday – Awards Part One

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Sunday – Awards Part Two

The Sunday Awards were special this year in that Terry & Barb Scott won the Trick Truck award for their Chevy Pickup and Mike Combest picked up an award for this blown Chrysler powered Model A coupe. All in all this year we were treated to a great selection of cars in the winners circle!

After the awards Michelle, Big Boy Bob and I headed up the mountain for home, with a late lunch, early dinner stop at our favorite restaurant in Payson, Mackey’s Grill for a cold beer and pattie melt with sweet potato fries.

Early spring evening in Payson AZ outside of Mackey’s Grill

Another Goodguys in the books, next stop for Michelle and I will be ViVa Las Vegas Rockabilly Car Show in Las Vegas… it should be very interesting! We attended a similar show in Austin Texas last year and had a great time. What is not to love, traditional hotrods and customs and Pinups… doesn’t get much better.

Till the next time, stay safe and Keep On Keeping On!

Conrad.

2017 Grand National Roadster Show

Fairplex, Pomona, California
January 27, 28 & 29, 2017

by Conrad Monroe

On January 26, the Over The Hill Gang Phoenix made it’s yearly assault upon Los Angeles for the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona at the fairgrounds.  Making the trip this year was Dave & Anne Bennett, Dan & Carol Burdett,  Jim & Carol Dalton, Charley & Danise Cover, Paul & Judy Nolte, Larry & Theresa Way and Michelle & I. Also tagging along with us was Val & Sandy Muyres who may soon be joining the club!

We stopped at Chiriaco Summit on I10 for a bathroom break and found that they were in the process of rejuvenating the old gas station to display a number of older cars, mostly Model As that were in a new shop building located behind the gas station. Looks like they should have a number of good displays from what we saw in the shop. Well worth the stop if you find yourself on I10…

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Chiriaco Summit

When we were ready to leave, Jim Dalton found that the fuel pump had died in his new sedan delivery build. We checked it out and found it was moving fuel, but was not producing the 60 psi that the LS3 needs to run. Carol called AAA and got her first ride in a tow truck back to Phoenix.

After we were sure that Jim & Carol were in good hands we continued our journey to Pomona.  We made decent time and found that we had enough time to pay a visit to Kennedy Brothers Hot Rods in Pomona.  They have a decent size shop and a good selection of hard to find parts. If you are having a hard time finding early parts give Joe Kennedy a call at (714) 307-8095. If he doesn’t have it he may know where to find it… they have a lot of contacts…

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Kennedy Brothers Hot Rods

After we left the Kennedys, we went to the Kellogg West Hotel and Conference Center which is located on the Cal Poly campus. It is used to train students in the hospitality industry and I must say they do a great job. I don’t believe you can find a nice room with breakfast anywhere in the LA area for less money than what they charge.

On Friday we got up at a reasonable hour, had breakfast and then headed over to Santa Fe Springs to visit Lime Works Speed Shop. Lime Works is probably best known for their steering columns, column drops and steering wheels. I was quite surprised to see that they have a number of interesting project builds going on as well.  The most interesting one, for me anyway, was a 1936 Ford cabriolet that was being done pretty much old school, rack & pinion A arm front suspension aside. The workmanship and attention to detail was quite nice.

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Lime Works Speed Shop

We then headed up to North Hills, near Van Nuys/ Northridge area to visit Galpin Auto Sports which is one of the businesses in the Galpin Ford complex. Quite an impressive dealership. In addition to the usual new cars & trucks, they have a Diner – The Horseless Carriage where we had lunch. The place was swamped with customers, it was right around 1PM so I figured we would all be split up, but no, turns out they have a very nice sized private dining room that they seated us in. The food was great as was the service! and the prices were reasonable… nice find Charley! After lunch we walked a couple of blocks to Galpin Auto Sports – their customizing and performance shop. In addition to the shop, they also have a nicely done auto museum with a wide selection of hotrods, custom cars, sports cars and race cars which are on display and also available for sale. Michelle and I had a chance to talk with one of the techs who had just finished putting an LT4 VVT direct injection and supercharged crate motor into a 1967 Chevelle. He gave us a lot of detail on the build… the LT4 is one hell of a great engine! We later saw the Chevelle at GNRS in the Galpin tent. He also showed us a 2017 Acura NSX supercar that they have been customizing. It will be the centerpiece of  a charity auction that will be held later this year. The car has every option that Acura makes for it, plus a lot of neat aftermarket parts. To give you an idea of the costs involved, the base car starts at $157K and goes up from there. The optional carbon ceramic rotors and calipers are only $11K!

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Galpin Auto Sports (GAS)

On Saturday we arose early and drove over to the Fairplex for the car show.  We got in line around 6AM or so and waited until they let us onto the grounds at 7:00 where we parked in long lines until they let us park at 8:00. Michelle and I split a breakfast burrito which was excellent, if not somewhat pricy… Once we got inside we were able to park in exactly the same place as we did two years ago which was Michelle and mine’s first trip.  Instead of parking inside the building, where the judged cars are parked we park outside in the Grand Daddy Drive In area located around all of the fair ground buildings. The cars are all “drivers” and most are quite well done. With just about every thing you can think of in the way of rod & customs, muscle cars etc. I would say that this year the Drive In attendance was down somewhat from two years ago, due to a competing car show being held at the Coliseum in downtown LA. Two years ago our Dodge wagon was awarded a top ten Drive In pick and as luck would have it, we got another one this year! Needless to say it made me a very happy camper!

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GNRS Grand Daddy Drive In Cars

The indoor Show Cars were all great! So many innovative ideas and excellent craftsmanship on display.  If I was forced to judge this show I think I would have to toss in the towel… just too many truly excellent cars.  Some that really caught my eye were a 1936 Ford Cabriolet with a Lasalle grill done in mid 50s custom style, clean and low… The 1955 Chevy 2dr post with the tilt front end, suicide doors and V12 engine was another top pick of mine. The workmanship and thought that went into this build was phenomenal.  The 1957 Ford Ranch Wagon that was under construction will be killer when it is done.  The red & black 1963 Corvette Split Window coupe with LT4 Supercharged power could find a home in my garage at anytime… simply beautiful and built to drive and handle… and lastly, and perhaps my favorite a 1941 Willys Coupe built street rod style. It maybe the only 1941 Willys coupe that I have seen that was not done either vintage gasser style or pro mod…

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GNRS Indoor Show Cars Part A

 

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GNRS Indoor Show Cars Part B

Last but not least, we will tour the Suede Palace devoted to all things traditional Hot Rod! The heavily louvered black 1934 Ford 5 window with the wide fives was a big hit with me. As was the dark blue Deuce Roadster. The black Deuce 3 window coupe done 1950s custom style had a great look as well. The blue 1961 Chrysler was awesome to say the least…

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The Suede Palace

On Sunday we were able to get on the road around 8:00 AM and headed back down I10 to Phoenix. Michelle and I had a 8 1/2 hour drive ahead of us to get back home before it was too dark.  Up in the mountains the elk have been out in large numbers this year and I have no desire to meet up with one while driving! So when the group stopped for lunch we kept on truckin on down the road and made it to Show Low without major incident. We were able to gain enough time to where we could stop at Macky’s Grill in Payson for a bowl of chilli for me and a half sandwich and soup for Michelle…

Great trip, we had a lot of fun with some really great friends. Looking forward to Goodguys in March and Viva Las Vegas in April. Possibly a road trip up to Dearborn in late June/ early July to visit the Henry Ford Museum, Gilmore Museum and possibly the Auburn Cord Duesenberg in Indy before heading to Tennessee to visit a very good friend from my childhood then on to Arkansas to visit two of my cousins that I never knew I had! Should be an interesting year!

Till next time! Take care!

Conrad.

2016 Goodguys South West Nationals

by Conrad Monroe

Westworld in Scottsdale AZ

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In camera panorama made by the IPhone 7 Plus – nice little feature.

November 17 – 20, 2016

Another great Goodguys show is in the books. This year’s fall show was one of the larger ones with around 3000 cars on the fields at Westworld in Scottsdale.  Lucky for me, Michelle and I had just recently purchased new IPhones which provided me a back up camera. I packed my camera bag with my standard complement of Nikkor lenses into the back of the wagon, but left my Nikon DSLR on the front seat of my pickup, which I had parked in the shop… All in all my IPhone 7 Plus did more than a credible job of documenting some of the activities during the run of the show.

Thursday was registration and the shop tours. I did not get an exact count but I am guessing that we had a good 300 plus cars on this years tour.  We left toward the end and hit the Baer Brakes, Martin Classic Car Museum and the Hot Rod Interior stops. Baer proves that high quality products can be manufactured in the USA at a competitive price.  Hot Rod Interiors does some really high quality interior design and fabrication. They had several great examples of their work on display, I especially loved the 1939 Lincoln Zephyr!

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Registration and Baer Brakes

We generally spend Friday visiting the Swap Meet and Vendor tent.  This year the Swap Meet & Car Corral were perhaps the largest in my memory. It ran the entire length of the south side of the field.

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The Swap Meet and Vendor Tent

Saturday was spent walking the field and finding vehicles that struck my fancy, and to be honest there were quite a few that put a smile on my face.

To start with we parked in Home Built heaven and we were placed right next to 1968 Mercury 4 door wagon. The owners were great to talk with, he built the car in his home shop and was faced with many of the same issues that I had to deal with, namely finding parts for something other than a tri-five Chevy or a prewar Ford.  He also made the same choice as I did and went with a 2005 fuel injected computer controlled engine. Instead of a Dodge he used a 4.6 L Ford with a computer controlled transmission.  This year they have put over 14K miles on the wagon… my kind of folks.

Another car that caught my eye was Dan Burdett’s 1930 5 window Model A coupe with a period correct hot rodded 4 banger engine. The quality of Dan’s work is phenomenal attention to detail after detail. When you have some time, take a close look at this car, well worth the time.

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Saturday Car Show

Sunday is the awards day, however this year the weather on Sunday was turning sour as the morning progressed. After taking a series of photos of a really nice Dodge and Dan’s Model A Ford, Michelle and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and we headed home staying ahead of the storm.

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A Few Parting Shots…

Next up the Over The Hill Gang – Phoenix annual Christmas Party! See you all there!

2016 Just Crusin Car Show

Winslow, Arizona

September 30 – October 1, 2016
By Conrad Monroe

Once again we headed to Winslow, Az for the 22nd Just Cruis’n Car Show, hosted by the Just Cruis’n Car Club. I believe that they had a record turnout for this year’s show with 194 entries, in spite of the poor turn out of our club. We only had 5 cars registered this year, it has been a long time since we had that small of a showing in the 22 yrs we have been supporting this show.

Those of us who made the trip were Tom & Val Altgilbers, Page & Linda Barnes, Steve & Terri Besore, Steve & Cindy Bryant and Michelle & I. The Barnes & Bryants drove up on Friday via Payson.  Steve & Terri and Michelle & I made the trip down I40 from Show Low.

Tom & Val drove up I17 to I40 which proved to be fateful.  Just outside of Winona they ran into a major storm cell, with heavy rain, little visibility and high winds. Their truck hydroplaned and did a 180 and slammed the guard rail several times, as luck would have it there was a Highway Patrol officer behind them who put on his lights which prevented major pileup. Thankfully, both Tom & Val were not hurt, their beautiful truck suffered major damage which hopefully can be repaired.

 

Former club members, Manfred & Connie Wagner brought their pair of 1939 Chevys which were a solid hit with everyone. Brent & Sharon Haines drove Connie’s sedan. Manfred had the coupe in his enclosed trailer which he was towing with his diesel pickup. They had stopped for lunch in Payson. When they went to leave, the truck would not start, the fuel filter had collapsed and cut off the fuel supply. After some running around, they were able find a filter and get back on the road again.

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We did the Poker Run Friday afternoon and I think we had the backend of the storm that hit Tom & Val. Everyone took the rain in stride, and the run was completed. Steve & Terri Besore got the 2nd best hand with two pair, Kings over Queens which was good for $300. Of course we had our typical nothing hand, a lousy pair of 8’s.

The show on Saturday, was great.  The weather was fine, clear and bright, with some clouds. There were several new cars to look at and photograph this year. Parked next to us was a 1966 Dodge Dart rear engined Funny Car. It is a very accurate reproduction of the Lil Ole Whine Marker that was campaigned in the mid 60s. The original car was built in Phoenix and ran out of Bee Line Dragway.  I remember seeing the car run at Lions and Irwindale. It hooked up quite well and was very competitive, it was great to hear it run again!

Also catching my eye, was a 1940 Ford Deluxe convertible which was done in a somewhat 1950s style custom. It gave me a few new ideas to incorporate into my build.

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The award for Best of Class 1936-48 Street Rod Coupe was given in honor of OTHG-Phoenix member Bradley Harrelson who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. Brad was well loved by the Just Cruis’n Car Club. In the past 22 years Brad only missed one show, last year’s when he was in hospital dealing with gallstone surgery. Brad was instrumental in getting the Over The Hill Gang Phoenix involved and supporting the show. This was a very touching and considerate thing to do on the part of the Just Cruis’n Car Club. It was very fitting that Manfred Wagner received this award. Manfred and Brad were old friends long before they relocated to Phoenix and Brad loved Manfred’s beautiful 1939 Chevy Coupe.

Steve Besore picked up a Best in Class and one of the three club pick custom trophies. Page Barnes, Steve Bryant and I all won class awards. Manfred and Connie, as usual ran the table, each picked up a Best in Class, Manfred got Best Interior and Connie got Best of Show.

Another great Winslow show now in the books, each year it gets better. Already looking forward to next year!

Next stop, Goodguys at Westworld! Hoping to see everyone there!

Conrad.

2016 Run To The Pines

Pinetop, Arizona
September 23 – 25, 2016

By Conrad Monroe

Photos by Jerry Schrunk & Conrad Monroe

Every September up here on the mountain we celebrate the change of season with the annual Fall Festival Artisan and Craft show. For the past 33 years, in conjunction with the Arts & Crafts shows has been the Run To The Pines Car Show.  This show is one of the better car shows in Arizona.  As long as I can remember it is generally sold out by the middle of May. This year was no exception with around 600 cars on the Pine Top Country Club driving range.

For this year’s show we only had Steve & Terri Besore, Larry & Teresa Ways and Michelle and I.  Hopefully, club attendance will pick up again in the future.

The show starts on Friday with registration, followed by the Parade from Show Low up to Hon Dah Casino on the White Mountain Apache reservation. The cars start lining up at the LDS Stake on the corner of Clark Road and the Deuce of Clubs around 3:00 PM. The parade starts at 4:00 PM. As a rule there are several hundred cars on line which ends up being a car show of it’s own.

During the parade the car in front of Larry and Teresa either ran out of gas or had a fuel pump problem. Larry pulled in front of him and attached a tow strap to pull him to a parking lot where they could work on the car. The found the problem and solved it, but when the got ready to leave, Larry’s car would not start, due to ignition problems. AAA was called and the car was hauled back to the hotel. On Saturday, Larry’s son drove up from the Valley with a trailer to haul the car and his parents home.

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Friday Parade to Hon Dah

The weather on Saturday was perfect! We sometimes have had downpours,  hail storms and very hot weather for the car show. This year the monsoon abated and we had blue skies, mid 70 temps and white puffy clouds.

The nice thing about Run To The Pines is that you can always plan on see at least a few new cars, or at least new to me. This year the standout was a 1937 Chevrolet 1 1/2 Ton heavy truck set up as a car hauler with a matching 1937 Chevrolet pickup truck on the back. Both trucks were well built and well detailed. The owner who was from Tucson picked up a total of 4 awards for his effort! Also, new to me, was a beautiful 1934 Packard convertible coupe. What an outstanding car for it’s day.

My apologies to Steve and Terri Besore, somehow I did not a photo of either of them or their truck… they were parked right behind us, and I must have zoned out… sorry guys, will make up for it in Winslow.

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Saturday Car Show

Sunday was the awards and drawing for the Gas Pump and 50-50. Neither Steve nor I got an award. Steve was in the 1950-1972 Modified Truck class and I was in the 1950-1972 Modified Car class. Both very large with a wide assortment of excellent vehicles. The gas pump was a Shell similar to the one Jerry Elliott won in 2005 or so, we had tickets but no winner. The 50-50 was $1050 and again no joy… Nice day though and I did pick up a few more cars. I like the way the tail lights look in the 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, will probably do that on my 40.

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Sunday Awards Day

My good friend and neighbor, Jerry Schrunk was on hand at the parade line up and also at the show on Saturday. I have included some of his images from the weekend.

  • 0010 Early 50s Buick Custom

Jerry’s Take on the Show

Well that about wraps it up for this show. This coming weekend we will be in Winslow for the Still Crusin Car Show.  Looking forward to seeing the new Glenn Frey statue on the corner with Jackson Browne.

Till then… Keep on Keep ON!

We all have trips that went like this one…

I think that if you participate in this hobby enough, and travel enough that sooner or latter you will have a trip like this one that was related by Roger Sevison who is with the White Mountain Cruizers, a non club much akin to the Phoenix 40s…

The Durango Fiasco or two tales of one trip…
by Roger Sevision
16-19 June, 2016

So much happened on this trip that I will have to break it into 2 emails.

Since we were threatened with evacuation, ten of us decided to evacuate to Durango Thursday morning ( Dan & Elaine Carr, Phil and Sandi Terry, Gene & Val Stirling, Al Mercer and BJ plus Pat & I).  Everything seemed fine until we got near 4 Corners about 80 miles from the nearest town.  It was déjà vu all over again when the Mustang fuel pump quit pumping and the engine stopped just like Moab last year.  At least it wasn’t on fire this time.  Al loaded it in his trailer and we continued on with me driving Al’s GTO.  Then Gene’s truck refused to start each time we stopped.  It would finally go but it got harder every time.  Then as we got close to Durango, Dan’s new Firebird started smoking badly.  He never found the cause but it went away.  Lastly, as we headed down the hill into Durango, Phil’s Caddy got a piece of gasket stuck in the secondary’s causing the throttle to stick open.  Phil and Sandi had an exciting ride into town with both feet on the brakes.  Once at the hotel Phil also discovered that a big bump on the Navajo road connecting 77 to 191 had ripped the right front shock mounting out of the “A” frame causing the tire to completely wear out.  By then we were afraid what would happen when we got on the train to Silverton Friday morning.

Friday was a whole new day.  I had a new fuel pump installed and Gene got a new starter for the truck.  Phil got his problem’s fixed and all was well.  The train ride to Silverton was fun with spectacular scenery. The train wound along the Animus River with lots of rapids, sheer cliffs and waterfalls  We only had time for lunch and a quick look around before the train started the 3-1/2 hour trip back to Durango.  We got back in time to check in for the show Saturday before heading back to the hotel.  We thought the jinx was over until we met up with Bob and Claudia Thomas.  The 39 Studebaker started blowing fuses that ran the transmission and fuel pump near Gallup. They would have been stranded but Joe and Megan Blendowski came to rescue with their trailer to tow the Stude on to Durango.  Problems were not quite over yet as Bob’s thumb got crushed in Joe’s truck door.  In Durango, Bob got the Stude into Al’s trailer to work on it but was unsuccessful finding the problem.

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Saturday morning we headed to the show early.  Bob Thomas’s bad luck continued as his Studebaker would not run and was not able to get the car to the show.  Plus Bob had to make a trip to Urgent Care for his thumb that was smashed on Friday.  The rest of us got prime parking and the DeRosier’s arrived a few minutes parking near the group.  Durango is a great show with lots of very nice and some very unusual vehicles.  The day went by quickly.  We parked in front of a Chinese restaurant that had amazing lunch specials for just $6.95 that were very good and so big that no one cleaned their plate.  I’m sure Steve Wing is envious! 😉

Our group did well at the awards considering the tough competition. The De Rosier’s took 2nd in the Foreign Car class,  Phil Terry’s 54 Caddy took second in his class plus the Host Club’s Choice award.  Joe Blendowski won the Open Street Rod class, Al Mercer’s GTO won Muscle Class and our Mustang won its class.

Back to Bob and Claudia’s adventure, while stopped for gas in New Mexico, Bob was talking to a guy there and discovered that this guy knew Bob’s brother in law in Durango.  When Bob mentioned that he did not know how he would get the car back to Pinetop.  This guy responded with an offer to come from Farmington to Durango Sunday morning to pick up the car and bring it to Pinetop.  What an unexpected blessing!  The guy and his wife showed up at the hotel at 7 AM Sunday to load the car and caravan back with us.  Claudia was concerned that this guy was a serial killer but that proved not to be true.  The trip home was uneventful.  We did make a quick stop at 4 Corners so we could claim we covered four states on the trip. 😉

While a lot of bad things happened, overall the trip was a fun and we experienced a lot of blessings that got us all through.

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Rare 37 MG

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56 Ford

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57 Buick High Rider

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American Austin

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Best of Show 54 Olds

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Standing on the 4 Corners

More Durango cars…

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This should give Malcolm a heart attack!

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The Gatling Guns add a nice touch.  The sign below the guns says “Do these tires make my Butt look big?  The tanks are NOS

 

Roger

 

2016 Cruz’n The Rim Car Show

Frontier Field
Show Low, Arizona

June 4th, 2016
by Conrad Monroe
Photo Coverage Thanks to Jerry Schrunk

Michelle and I were not able to attend this year’s car show, we were down in that valley attending the memorial for Ralph Aufrance, Judy Nolte’s dad. The service was really well done and it paid homage to a life well lead by a kind and gentle man that we had the pleasure of knowing for 30 years.

The only club members making the show this year were Frank & Rose Svancara in their 1940 Ford Convertible.

My thanks to my long time friend and neighbor Jerry Schrunk for going to the show and doing a great job of capturing some of the cars and activities.

Mouse Over the Image to Reveal the Slide Show Controls

  • 0010 Show Low Days Cruise 2016

Still Cruz’n in Show Low

The weather was great for the show. Temps in the high 80s clear skies and moderate winds.  Nice turnout of cars!

Next on the agenda for Michelle and I, will be the cruise the the Gang up to Gunnison, CO for a car show followed by some sightseeing and a ride on the Durango to Silverton train. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Conrad.