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Because you asked so nicely, I'll even start at the beginning.

The Carps 2015 Hot Rod and other stuff, tour started with my arrival at Los Angeles on the last Friday arvo in July and the fun started immediately as I headed out to supper at 'Ruby's Diner' with my good buddy Ron Cole (Hi Ron) in his totally cool '40 Deelux Coop.





Ron told his buddies I'd had a few health issues before departing Oz, so they came equipped to help if it was needed.



So here we are, all lined up neatly outside Ruby's Diner for the weekly Friday evening get together.  



I just love a car with lotsa door and this is one of the nicest fat rendered oferings I know.



This Morris 8 had many unknowing locals scratching their head, the owner was more puzzled that I knew exactly what it was,  I figure he didn't notice my 'southern' accent.



Mid fifties Dodge Kustom Royal looks like a tired old stocker.



However, you should never judge a book by it's cover as this old Dodgem is packing some serious heat beneath that crusty old hood..



Another MOPAR, this time a Chrysler New Yorker!



Ruby's cruise night is a pretty laid back affair.....



..... and quite pleasant.  As the sun goes away the air cools off quickly, making for a great drive home after the lights go out.  We usually take the long route.



How do you pick the difference between a 1956 Buick Riviera and the same year Buick Roadmaster?



The Roadmiester is on the right of this shot.  Notice the different roofline and boot lid?



It's far easier to see the differences between a 1958 Edsel and a 1960 model.



The '58 model looks less like a same year Ford than the later unit.



And here's a great visual of the differences between '40 Ford deluxe and standard models.



Did I ever tell you that I think glass is overrated?  That line always cracks me up. ;-)



This one is tin, not tupperware.



Years ago there was a tech story in Australian Custom Rodder Magazine  on making an early XL style Falcon Hardtop using bits cut from a sedan and grafted onto an Aussie XP coupe.  We didn't know at the time that they could have just bought one of these.  



The owner of this Chubby truck decided to polish the purple paint so hard that it got hot and caught fire,  look hard and you may see the flames.



I wouldn't mess with this Dodgy panel truck at the lights, it has a badass built 440 big block sitting in the foot-space beneath the dash panel.



Plain Jane and bare bones full sized Chevy two door sedan didn't look that special but had these neat front fender badges which suggest otherwise.



With a Muncie four-speed, dual quads on the 409 and pos-a-traction rear end, what looks like a plain old fleet car, is indeed  real fine..



These old Chevy trucks appear far more common that same vintage Fords.  I'm told it's something to do with a big torquey six pulling better that a flathead V8.  This one seems to have every accessory available when it was new and a few more that appear to have come later.



This one was a little less conspicuous.



Model A had been updated with modified banger and a few late model bits.



Jeep wagons are becoming popular even in SoCal.





On the other hand, Cadlee-accs have never been out of fashion, especially when they have big fins.



A year really does make a difference, albeit sometimes a very subtle one.



This next pair are a good example of that, starting with Chevrolet's finest for '59......



.....which was totally outclassed by the new model one year later......



....then not too many years later GM kinda lost the plot.  However, with lowered suspension and the right wheels this uncommon model doesn't seem as ugly now as it did when new.



Pontiac for '59 was much better looking than the Chevrolet offerings, but that's only my ever so humble opinion.



However, the '58 model's great looking dash was toned down somewhat for the new wide-track Poncho, but it still looks OK.



This is what's known as a size ten engine in a size five car.



This Chevelle was packing a nasty sounding big block and four speed.  It belongs to the young lady standing next to me who brought her mom and [strike]a cougar[/strike] aunty along to make sure she didn't get into any trouble.



As darkness fell and the air cooled off, cars and trucks continued to roll into the parking lot.



The lighting at that time of night also makes for some arty-farty type photograph opportunities.



Of course I'm always on the look-out for a different angle or lighting opportunity.



Other times long arms come in handy for shooting' photers, but a ladder would work better.



They don't always work out so well, but here's a few more arty-farty, ish attempts.





















This is a better shot of the '55 Chevy gasser, which is upholstered like a luxury car and has an independent front suspension.  Not to mention a blown and very scary sounding big block Chevy power plant.



I reckon these late forties-era Chev's are grossly underrated as hot rod fodder.  Done well they make comfortable and classy rides.  



This puppy would be anything but comfortable.



Here's another example of major difference from one model year to the next.



And a couple more size ten engines in size five cars.



Ford Pinto shares it's dimension with an early Cortina, this one has pro stock style 490 c.i. big block and drag race style drive train.



Here's a nice example of Ford's pre-war ugly duckling.



And one for the fans of Chevy Fastback styling.





This '40 Ford three door hatchback is just too shiny and kinda glows in the dark.



On the other hand, it starts to show the fact that Ron's coupe is not so shiny as it sometimes seems.



The descending darkness does make it look even cooler than in daylight.



Ford's land-yacht Lincoln Continental takes up a whole bunch of parking lot real estate..



And still the cars, or what substitutes for a car in some parts of the world, continued to roll in.



Finally it' was time to head home, as we'd need to be up before the crack of dawn to be on time for Donut Derelicts.



But then I remembered I was booked to fly to St Louis the next day, which meant the donut shindig would have to wait until I returned a couple of weeks later.

So here's to all my friends at the RRT who it seems I never get enough time to have fun with anymore.

May you all have a great day of fun and festivity today followed up with a happy healthy and prosperous new year this time next week.

And may all your wishes come true.

Some of you may remember many years back my posts about the exploits and unlikely sucesses of old number 77, our underfunded efforts with an overweight and underpowered sprint car, pedalled by one of the most talented young drivers of the time.



You may also recall, how with a bit more funding, the team moved up a peg or three with a new number on a lighter more competitive machine, gaining more success, despite still being nowhere near the big league in terms of funding and equipment.



Well, here's a lesson in what happens if you never give up, this is Dave's latest weapon!



Did ya notice the lucky seven is missing?  That's because after more than 20 years trying, he's the new Australian Sprintcar Champion and proudly wearing the number, Australia 1.  It's been an incredibl journey with a whole bunch of bumps and bruises along the way.  However after being the bridesmaid way too many times, Dave finally got the job done and very much like we used to do it in the old days.  Due to logistics difficulties and the cost of shipping his car to Tasmania for the championship event, the team rented a local machine, added a few of their own parts and put a radical tune up on the borrowed engine, to win in grand style from row 3 in front of his home town crowd and family.

It is with much sadness and regret that I type this.

At around 11:15 this morning John Katsanis lost his battle with Cancer and slipped peacfully away, to be with his beloved soul mate Tina.

Chopper fought the mongrel disease to his last breath and was looking forward to The Rumble in a couple of weeks.

There's so much I want to say about John, but right now I'm a little stuck for words and there's much needs to be done to help the boys close out his time with us. Suffice to say John was a great and loyal friend. A man who lived the hot rodding life with a passion that was sometimes beyond comprehension, a man who just wanted everybody else to appreciate and enjoy the same things he loved and thus a man who worked tirelessly to try and achive that.

The hot rodding community will not be the same without him as he has had a profound effect on many of our lives even if we don't know it.

Condolences to Dean, Luke Tom and Damon, brothers Peter, Max and John's greater family.

an't find the original model car page, must be too long since anyone posted there.

Anyhow, I just finished another Merc.  This one is the AMT kit built as a daily driven work in progress.  Headlamps are frenched,  the hood corners rounded and rolled front pan moulded to fenders...



Most of the parts except the wheels were in the original kit including the big block Ford engine.......





Of course the chassis was neatly finished in order to ensure reliable driving whilst the body work is being finished......



The top is chopped and the interior only partially modified retaining the stock rear seat and door trims, it does have a red flake moon wheel and bucket seats





The final paint colour will be blue 'flake and it should look a treat

Do we need an arty - farty thread?

I'm inclined to drawing twisted lines on stuff, here I am wielding my trusty brush on my buddy Dave's new pickemup truck.





Anyone want to add to this one or keep it going?

Considering there's more than a few of us here are children of the '50s and '60s, I figure there's got to be more than just me, still building model cars.

That being so, then I'm thinking maybe we should have a model cars thread.

I'll start the ball rolling with one I'm currently working on, an ARDUN powered '32 roadster.

The base kit is from Revellogram, with parts from many other sources in true hot rodding tradition.



The decklid was cut from the body and replaced with the louvred part from the new 5 window coupe kit.  
Wheels are from the Revellogram '49 Merc kit and tyres are resin parts from the parts box.



The basic engine is from the Revellogram '50 Ford Pick-up, but since the heads in that kit are not right, I'm using parts from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland.  
The magneto was adapted from an AMT kit and the inlet manifolds modified to accept the R&M SCoTT supercharger.



I'm sticking with the kit rear axle assy, as it positions the wheels correctly and looks like an early Olds unit.
It'll be mounted on a transverse spring.





Since it's a street car, it needs a generator, which was a little tricky, however using an obscure AMT part and some fabrication it now works dual duty as an idler for the blower drive belts..



That deuce firewall doesn't come in any kit, it was scratchbuilt, although I've since learned there's one available from the aftermarket.



Before it's done, this one will get some other cool tricks like cowl steering, '40 deluxe dash and Duval windscreen.

....been off work for a few weeks and figured to cut the boredom I should use the time constructively.  Simple solution, build a few cars, starting with something relatively straight forward.  Old Jo-Han promo kit of '63 Mercury Comet Caliente, only a few minor mods on this one.







Then I figured I could maybe improve on Lindberg's old toy like model T coupe.  So I chucked away what didn't look like it belonged on a hot rod and replaced those bits with the right stuff.










That done, I figured I should build a Bonneville race car, but I really need a parts chaser.  So as hot rodders do I collected up the junk laying around the shed, and wouldn't ya know it, just enough parts to build me a twuck.

















Now that's done, it's back to collecting bits and building me a racer.

Anybody here know anything about this thing, the Weineck Cobra replica?

I'm told only fifteen will be made, each powered by a custom Donovan V8 of 780ci (12.9 litres?   ). Naturally aspiratied with two carbs, no turbo, supoercharger or nitrous etc for a quoted output of  1,100hp and 1,300ft/lb of torque. Four-speed manual trans and LSD. They say it accellerates from 0 to 186mph (300km/h) in 10 seconds.  That's possibly achievable but the quoted seven second quarter mile times, I find hard to believe, especially considering the narrow rubber, lightweight and short wheelbase.

Don't worry about dinner I had some lovely lamb chops on the plane.  

Had a great time thanks to all involved at nats, bonnneville and wherever else my tired old body ended up.

Special thanks to my good buddies Mike Keehn, Bob K and Don Dillard for making it one of the best US visits ever.  Got to make a whole bunch of new friends, see and do stuff I never imagined possible.

And the number one highlight and best partt?

Lunch at a little restaraunt in Ogden Utah where I got to share the promised lemonde with the family and a few close friends of my late buddy Don Palfreymanr (AKA, OFOF).

Now I gotta go to work..... BUGGER!

Since many of you here have had some experience in such matters, I thought I should seek your advice on what may end up being a life chaging decision.

I've suspected for some time now that my wife has been having an
affair. The usual signs. Phone rings, I answer, someone hangs up. She
started going out 'with the girls' a lot recently although when I ask
which girls it is always "Just some friends from work, you don't know them".

I always look out for her taxi coming home but she always walks up from the end of the street and I can hear a car taking off from there. Seems as if she has got out of the car round the corner. Why? Is it not a taxi?

Last week I picked up her mobile phone, just to see what time it was and she went beserk and screamed that I should never touch her phone again and why was I checking up on her. Anyway, I've never approached the subject with her probably because deep down I just didn't want to know the truth.

However, last night she went out again and I decided to check on her. I figured I should hide behind my car which would give me a view of
the whole street so I could see which car she gets out of.

It was whilst crouched behind my car that I noticed rust around the rear wheel arch. Should I take it into a panel repair shop or should I buy some stuff from the local Autobarn or Repco parts shop and try to repair it myself?

On Christmas day my '33 looked like this, but was parked inside coz the weather was rather unAustralian and it was snowing outside.      



By new years day it looked like this, coz it stopped snowing and the sun came out.



What you can't see is all the sound insulation and other things that were resolved, added during the same working spree.  It's much better to drive now coz the only noise heard inside is from the tailpipes or..... the new music/entertainment system.    



Glass?  You'll just hafta wait and see what happens next.  

7:30am New years Day so I'm off to the annual Picninc In Da Park.

Unlike Christmas day it's not snowing , but te sky is dark and there's some drizzle about with thunder storms and heavy rain predicted.  Global Warming?  BAH! HUMBUG!

Enjoy your celebrations and have a happy and safe new year.

[IT SNOWED!]

Australia, the driest and one of the warmest continents on earth, around 60%  of our Island is desert and the average recorded temperature for Christmas day is around 80+ degrees (or mid 30s for those who understand metric) because it's summer down here.

So, what happened here today?

IT SNOWED!  

Yup, we had a genunine bonafide white Christmas and not just a little dusting of the stuff but enough to go ankle deep, ski or build a snowman.    

So much for global warming, today was the coldest Christmas day on record and the first time in my whole more than 50 year life I ever knew it to snow on Christmas day.

Hope your Christmas was as fun and exciting.          

Yup, you can whip the ring pull offa that cold tinnie and start sippin, coz it's  officially Christmas day here and that means it's party time!

Here's wishin ya'all and your'n a happy day and whilst I wish for Santa to fulfil your wldest dreams, lets not forget what the day is about.

Have a good one and we'll see ya soon.  Peace and goodwill be with ya all.

here http://www.ozrodders.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=11283&start=0 is what we did today.

What is happening in your neck of the woods to help someone in need enjoy a happier christmas?

Hot and smokey, not fit enough to fight fires, so I got stuck into a couple of toolboxes for the Oz-E-Rodders charity gig next weekend.









Then I chopped the top on a '49 Mercury......

In addition to buildin models of my buddies cars I also did some lines on another buddies bicycle.

Mongrel of a job and it took forever, but I finally got it done.  Matches the owner's cooler and his model A roadster, well it will when he lets me loose on the car.  

We already started over here, so feel free to jump in and join the party any time ya'all are ready.        

Have a great day.

Just thought I'd share the antics of those crazy Aussies.

Chrsitmas really is the time of goodwil to all men.

Click here to see what they are up to down under.    http://www.ozrodders.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=4822&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

The funeral service for Ian "Datsfa" Shaw will be held at the Salvtion Army Citadel in Cranbourne at 10.30am this coming Thursday 21/04/2005.

It will then proceed to the Necropolis in Springvale for the burial and followed afterwards by a wake at the Village Green Hotel on the coner of Springvale and Ferntree Gully Roads.

You are all welcome to join in as we celebrate ian's life and send him off the way he lived, with fond memories and lots of laughter. Please bring your hot rods, he'd like that.

Here's a couple of pics to confim the four seasons in one day theory.

Drove there in brilliant sunshine, and to get home, the hurricane turned to a duststorm then thunder, lightning and lotsa rain.  But it's sunny again now.  

[Edit:]

Sent a couple of PMs and got no replies.

Just checked my sentbox and they are not there.

Checked outbox and there they sit unsent.

So I copied the text and created new messages, but again it appears they did not 'go' to the intended recipient, but remain in suspense.

I'm figuring the people I sent em to have blocked PMs or there's something I'm doing wrong...... :?:  :?  :?:

Edit:  Peter, I hope you don't care that I edited the title of your post.  
There are a lot of people that don't get their PM's so I thought I'd change the subject
in hopes they might check the thread and change their settings.
George (purplepickup)

HOT ROD INTERNET IS DEAD!   :cry:

Long live the Rodders Roundtable!

[SAY WHAT?]

SAY WHAT?

It's Christmas already?

WOW!  Seems like only yesterday it was the beginning of a new year.  I guess time really does fly when you're havin' fun.  Sorry I missed much of it this year, had some 'issues' to deal with.

Best wishes to all at the Rodding Roundtable, hope your's is a happy and safe Christmas and the new year finds you in good health and humour, ready to do it all again.

Carps, and Dolly too.

Hey I was reading the other day something about how many forum members it takes to change a light bulb.  Any ideas, and is my spelling OK?

GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and  nature.

What in the world is going on down there on that  planet Earth? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I  started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow  in any type of soil, with stand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar  from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of  songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are  these green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled  there,Lord.The Suburbanites. They started calling your  flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with  grass.
 
GOD: Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful.  It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's  sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass  growing there?
 
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, LORD. They go to great  pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass  and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably  make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites  happy.
 
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, LORD. As soon as it  grows a little, they cut it -- sometimes twice a week.
 
GOD: They cut it? Do they then bail it like  hay?
 
ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake  it up and put it in bags.
 
GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they  sell it?
 
ST. FRANCIS: No, Sir. Just the opposite. They pay  to throw it away.
 
GOD: Now let me get this straight. They fertilize  grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw  it away?
 
ST. FRANCIS: Yes, Sir.
 
GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the  summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the  growth and saves them a lot of work.
 
ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this  Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more  money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of  it.
 
GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the  trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow  leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn  they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil  and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to  enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life.
 
ST. FRANCIS: You better sit down, Lord. The  Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them  into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
 
GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and  tree roots in the winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?
 
ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they  go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it  around in place of the leaves.
 
GOD: And where do they get this  mulch?

ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up  to make the mulch.
 
GOD: Enough. I don't want to think about this  anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?
 
ST. CATHERINE: 'Dumb and Dumber,' Lord. It's a  real stupid movie about....
 
GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole  story from St Francis.