Louisville

[416Ford]

You can't report trouble without telling what it was. So tell us what were the car issues?

Brakes hug up in the construction traffic. The senior machanic informed me I had the wheel  bearing to tight. Problem fix.
And I am putting a lug wrench in the car.
That's another word for a four way for those of you don't know.

[UGLY OLDS]

You can't report trouble without telling what it was. So tell us what were the car issues?

Brakes hug up in the construction traffic. The senior machanic informed me I had the wheel  bearing to tight. Problem fix.
And I am putting a lug wrench in the car.

That's another word for a four way for those of you don't know.

 You could get one of those cute little four ways that folds up..  Takes up MUCH less room than the regular one .. Do you carry a spare tire & jack  :?:  Temp spares don't take up that much room in a sedan.. May be a good time to think about that .....

 For those of us "travelers" that really pound on the miles , try changing a flat tire in your garage using ONLY what you carry in the car ..

 A tow truck ride to a "closed on Sunday" tire store is not always the best option ....

Bob ...

[Crosley.In.AZ]

We have never been to this event.  Its on the list.  Hope I can check a few items off the list when (if) I retire

[Carps]

my departed buddy Mike Keehn's

Is that the guy with all the cats that lived in St Louis that me and the Lipstick gals stayed with one year after the Nationals on our way to Sturgis?

Hi Denise, Mike didn't have any cats, but he would be the same guy.  I introduced him to Liz many years ago and they became great pals, with Mike hosting the lipstick tour on many occasions.

He fell ill at the Nat's last year and was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, died on his birthday in May of this year.  

Ran into Sam and Carps yesterday

And I still have the bruises to show for it.      

This year I took flight early, heading towards the midwest, to hook up with my fellow St Louis Street Rod Association members for our annual road-trip southeast to Louisville, Kentucky and the NSRA Street Rod Nationals as we've been doing for over 30 years.



The back story and why the trip this year was such an important mission for me is linked to Mike's death and the passing of my wife who was planning to travel with us this year.





The T shirts we are wearing in the pic's above are from this year's 'Real Easter Show' an event the club hosts in St Louis at Easter (go figure) and have been doing so since the mid '80s.

For many years, Mike who was a very talented artist, did the T Shirt and dash plaque art  and since everybody knew this would be his last Easter show, his own cars are depicted on the 2015 even shirt.  He chose these cars from all the rods he's owned over a lifetime as the ones that were special to him and recognised by all who knew him.  They include the T bucket he drove during his high school years (it was his daily driver) to the Chevy Sedan Delivery we've used to cover what seems like a million miles across the US of A from the  NSRA Nationals and Bonneville since the late 1980s as well as many other places.  We did take the tubbed and stroked 440 MOPAR powered Deuce to the Nat's one year, but it proved a bit less than comfortable for the long journey, not to mention a tad thirsty.




Whilst I didn't set out to do so, this year without really trying, I managed to shoot over 11,000 photographs using three cameras some of which I'm happy to post here if you guys would like to see them.
 

[Carps]

I arrived in St Louis late on Saturday evening.  My friend Ed was waiting at the gate and for a change my bags arrived instantly and we were on our way to Ed and Barb's ranch, across the Mississippi River in Illinois, near the small township of Red Bud.

Next morning as we ate breakfast we heard a feint rumble in the distance.  It wasn't the old barn finally falling down, but the sound of our friend Hot Rod Liz's T bucket as she completed the first leg of her 3,000+ mile annual road trip to the Nat's from her home in Manitoba, Canada.







The T bucket was blowing a bit of smoke on arrival, having eaten the transmission modulator valve a few hundred miles out from Ed's place.  So we tucked it away in the garage and headed out to the parts store in search of some bits to fix it.  





Since last year, Ed has almost finished the '57 Chev he was working on, so we decided that it needed to be given a workout to confirm if it might be OK for the road trip to Louisville.  Thus it became my daily driver for the next few days.



It's had a thorough refresh and renew of just about everything and runs a late LS6 from a low mileage pick up truck that Ed purchased as an insurance write-off. It has rack and pinion steering and the truck's big disc brakes along with the overdrive electronic auto transmission and a Ford nine inch rear end, making it as good to drive as a brand new car.  The vintage air unit integrated into the dash helps keep the humidity low and temperature perfect.



We spent some time driving local roads, which can be kinda entertaining.





With Liz's bucket all fixed and ship shape, we decided to hit the highway and get to Louisville early.....





The trip was pretty much incident free, for us at least.



As usually happens, by the time we arrived at Louisville it was raining and would continue to do so all day Wednesday whilst we were getting the club digs set up.



Here's my St Louis SRA club-mates, Ed, Shirly and Barry making the our base watertight........



....for which everybody was grateful, coz as I may have mentioned, it rained.



It cleared late Thursday arvo and by the time the Nat's was open for business, all was good.

[Carps]

First task on arrival at Louisville is to stop by Papa John's Baseball Stadium and register.  
Being a day early meant there were not so many cars on the parking lot, also that we could get in and out without too much waiting.

A few years back the NSRA aligned itself with the times and introduced a rolling 30 year cut off, which means some of the most outlandishly styled cars ever built are now acceptable as participants at the Nationals.



The bottom line here is that the late model Camaros & Mustangs (American Commodores) haven't taken over the event like the naysayers suggested would happen and the thing has just grown stronger with more neat old cars this year than in immediate past years.

Here's a small sample of who and what was there on the day.



This is not Ed's '57, it's a Nomad painted almost the same colour.



Speaking of sameness, the owners of these almost matching '56s did not know each other until they arrived to park side by side.  Both cars are very similar but as is the case with hot rods, they are also very different.



Of course as always in the Midwest and Deep South, plenty of MOPAR machinery was also on hand.



Looks like another '48 Plymouth but it isn't!
Closer inspection will reveal it's a mildly customised '48 Ford.



A lot of resto-rods turned out this year, it seems the '70s and '80s look may be making a comeback and taking over from the fifties traditional deal.





The ratty style is also being overtaken, by the 'straight & clean but unrestored' look, complete with highly detailed up to date and contemporary underpinnings.



Here's a great example of yet another linked trend, recently purchased as a restored car and then simply retro fitted with a store bought hot rod chassis and running gear.



Of course there's also a good range of weird and strange contraptions turn up, coz lets face it, without such machines it wouldn't be hot rodding.



There's also the phantoms, cars or body styles that were never actually built or offered by the auto factories.



Mild customs are becoming one of the most popular styles at the NHRA Nat's and this one has close to perfect body work beneath it's smooth black paint-job.



It's always great to catch up with our old friends Dennis & Sue O'Brien  Their Deuce Panel Truck has logged a million miles and is used as daily driver and shop truck for their business.  For this who have never heard of O'Brien Truckers, they make old/retro style cast/finned aluminium hot rod parts and club plaques.



I'm thinking the black '33 coupe parked beside Dennis,'s truck might just have been my favourite car at the 2015 Nat's as it seems I got more photos of it than any other car.



Almost appears like I couldn't walk past it without shooting a few more photographs, rain, hail or shine.



Funny or weird, but there's a few things about it I don't usually like, such as the glue in windscreen, the funny nerf-bar on the front and billet grille insert, but there's just so much more that is just absolutely spot on that those little indiscretions become invisible.



It's a perfect example of keeping it clean and simple.  As I've always said, get the details like wheels stance and colour right and you have perfection.

This is what a hot rod looks like!





And this, is as close as you'll ever see to the perfect hot rod stance.



Yeah baby!



OK, now I have that off my chest, lets take a quick stroll around the hotel parking lot.









Did I mention it rained?



So much that Mudman became the event mascot.

[Carps]

We ended up with a good crowd beneath the ST Louis Street Rod Association Tent, Including a few passing Aussies, who are always made welcome.  That looks Like my old pal Ian 'Boss Hoss' Murcott who has joined us from Tasmania for a chat and cool drink.   Seems everywhere I went this year there were more bloody Aussies than 'Murricans.  



Here's the attending club member's cars, Starting with my departed pal Mikey's Chevy and Trackenstien, the car he built for no financial investment using everybody else's cast off junk and scraps.  We think the chassis is from a Buick, most of the body metal is '39, '40 or '41 Chevrolet or fabricated from the remains of the wrecked Astro Van that also provided the engine and trans. The floor and trans tunnel are also Astro metal whilst the suspension and brakes are mostly early Ford.







Ed & Barb's '57 Chevy



Barry & Shirly's '38 Pontiac.



Denny & Patty's '38 Chev.



Steve & Linda's '47 Chevy Fleetmaster Fastback.



This bucket was built by the late Phil Brown way back in the 1960's.  
Check out the front axle and you'll see its an original Bell item, complete with flat filled ends and then look at the rest of the car, there's some pretty cool old stuff there, not least being the Dodge Polly power plant.



I don't remember who owns what among the rest of the club cars but I do have a list somewhere.



















There were a couple of others present, but for some reason I can't seem to find pics of those cars.

[Carps]

Since I was using three different cameras, the photographs got a tad mixed up, so there'll be rainy day and sunny day images together, but it only rained Wednesday and Thursday morning.  Friday through Sunday was hot and sunny, but at least the humidity went away for Saturday and Sunday.

Seems also that there's an emerging trend towards cars with lotsadoors, I guess so the whole family can enjoy the journey and in my book, that's a good thing!

This '34 Ford also has a somewhat scarce Potter trunk fitted to facilitate haulin' a bit of luggage.



Even Merc's come with extra doors.



The last of uncle Henry's four door convertibles before WW2 also has lotsa doors.



...and here's one from a few years earlier.



Even Walter's gang get in on the multi door act.





OK, so this one doesn't have multiple pairs of  doors, but it does have plenty of seats, so that almost makes it OK.  Besides, it does have two more doors at the back, which makes a total of four.



Another cool model 40 Ford.



Similar vintage Chevrolet, a rare 1933 model I believe.



And another pair of Hank's model 40s.





A long roof four door from the general's 1960 line-up.



A couple of big-guns.



And a pair of Deuces with eight doors between them, which I reckon could be called a full house.





Plus a Deuce of a more common kind.



A couple or three more for the MOPAR lovers.







And another pair from GM, one from early in the third decade of century 20.....



...and another from the late part of the same decade.



Yeah I know it's a wooden wagon, but it's cool and also has the requisite number of doors.



Another emerging trend is towards products from the famous covered wagon company, but instead their swoopy coupe versions, it seems the late fifties and early sixties family models are becoming even more popular than those sexy models.



And they come in any style you may wish for.



Gotta admit, these often overlooked cars are not so bad looking.



Even the earlier Studebakers are pretty cool.



Did I mention it rained?







Or that four door cars seem to be gaining in popularity?



It's rare to see a late '50s or early '60s Anglia or Prefect in the US of A, but this one was everywhere, it's powered by small block Chev.





The Griswalds lost their way yet again and ended up at the NSRA Nat's this time.



The Family Truckster was built over a five year period by a young fella who just wanted something unique and fun to drive.



He got it absolutely perfect with the Truckster being one of the big hits of the weekend and probably the most photographed car.



Here's a few more cool machines that I shot for no other reason than I just like 'em.







Reckon this one would have been a real handful on the day I recorded this image, even more-so if the trailer was attached.



This two door Ford Mainline is going against the trend for luxurious four door models.



This one just bucks every darned trend in the book.



Cars lined up along the roadside.

[Carps]

Here's a few more in no particular order, starting with Hot Rod Liz hightailing it back to our motel before the wind started to blow the furniture around the fairgrounds on Wednesday arvo..



Race?



A very fine four-oh-nine!



..........with dual quads.......



...and a four speed.



TAs always at the NSRA Nat's, the Willys boyz were out in force.







Also the Forty Ford crowd.







And those crazy MOPAR guys too.















The GM crowd are also well represented.






















Gotta love all the shiny stuff on a '58 Oldsmobile!

[Carps]

Of course it wouldn't be a hot rod event without a few '32 Fords.....



...or Chevys.



Our old pal Bob Klessig was there too, but he lost a wheel cap and fender skirt along the way.  So his Chubby wasn't looking its sexy self after he removed the other fender skirt.



Some offbeat models from equally offbeat manufacturers were also making their presence felt.













And here's yet another Studebaker!



.....and another.



Of course old Fords were everywhere....



and in all manner of different configurations.























Not so many wooden cars this year.



Orv Elgie's Forty Tudor in the foreground, was built from a pristine original car.  it retains factory original paint and upholstery along with most of the rubber bits and pretty much everything but the small block Chevy based drivetrain.  All massaged with his usual attention to simple detail and perfection.



Who knows what is hiding under the covers?

[Carps]

It would be remiss of me not to take you into the swap meet area, so let's take a quick walk around the space it occupies in front of the stables area.





The Deuce Fordor sold early.



This '55 Chev looked like a real bargain for only $7k, that's provided you didn't get too close.



It was totally rotten and about all that was salvageable is the stainless trim which you could buy as new reproduction parts for about $3k.



Some items were priced OK, others the seller were dreaming!





Here's a good example of dreamers, or a bloke that just wanted to tease people because he has something desirable that he wanted to show off rather than sell.

This was a solid almost rust free car but the seller would not budge from his silly asking price.   I made a couple of offers that I considered more than reasonable, but he ended up taking it all home on Sunday.



Many of the complete cars were sensibly priced to facilitate a sale and sellers were happy to negotiate.  This was one of the bargains.



Likewise, most of the parts vendors would haggle, but a few were rigid on their big numbers.  Check out the ask for a '33/4 Ford glove compartment door.     At that price I could retire and live a life of luxury considering how many I have in a box under my bench.













Another pretty knackered but desirable body with a big price tag.



Saw a few of these winter grille's to suit a wide range of different cars.





I'm guessing these garnish moulds are hard to find.



Likewise old Buick brake drums, without broken fins.



Not too much Coke stuff this year, I figure Rick's restorations must have grabbed it all.



Old wheels were either big bucks or cheap as chips.







Still plenty of variety on offer.



This one wasn't cheap, but better value than the '33 Vicky body.



The Convertible sedan was a bargain at only $21k from memory.



Now they can be fitted to old cars, good useable license plates are getting expensive.







Bent spoke wheels also had bent rims and thick paint to hide the rust pitting.



I paid half this much for a mint pair pair of these Merc' wagon tailamps only a few years back.



Grille prices ranged from "Ohmygawd!" to "Surelyyoucantbefreakinserious?"



As I recall, this little Crosley was a runner and bargain priced.



This coupe was one of the best buys of the first day and it sold very quickly.



Big Chrysler was still there on Sunday morning.



Likewise this Chevy hardtop.



All these cars were still unsold at the end of Saturday.  Maybe the heat kept potential buyers indoors?

















Hood is open to show off the 392 Hemi.

[Carps]

After being so busy outside doing other fun stuff all weekend long, I finally made it inside the huge vendor hall on Sunday.



New Mustang anybody?



How about a big rig, all the hot rod shops have at least one.



Toys?



There's even muddersickles on display in here.



And lotsa desirable old cars, or repops as the case may be.







Nice model 40 multi door see-dan.



Or maybe you'd prefer a gold Caddy-lac?



There's sumpin here for everybody.







New radial tars that look like old bias ply jobbies will be popular with the folks who dig forties and fifties style.



Fancy injuns.





Or perhaps you just like wood?



There wuz a few oldies with a lot of history too.





One of my favourite Deuces, the late Tom McMullen's ride, direct from the cover of an early 1960s Hot Rod magazine.



The late Jim Ewing's Superbell coupe has always made my heart race a little faster.







Meanwhile, Maybe something arty-farty is what you're seeking?



Considering that, I tried my hand at the artistic approach to picture taking.



Not so sure I got it right.



So I'll keep trying until I do.



The new stuff had its own special space as always and as usual is all pretty cool, especially this timber bodied Deuce.







Slick fordy instrument panel is neat.



How about some paint to protect your patina?



This single big dial cluster should fit the dash binnacle of my FJ Holden.



A small taste of Ed........ Roth that is.



And another wild ride.



Plus a class act.



OOOOOOOOH BABEEE!

[Carps]

There's enough stuff in the big hall to keep most car guys occupied or interested for a lifetime.



Need some new metal fenders for your old ride?





Maybe it's time for some new wheels?



Got lots of stuff you need to haul around, maybe you need a truck?



And a couple more vendor display cars.





More of the the same but as is hot rodding, look again and you'll see they are different.



Some are lower than a snake's belly.



Can't weld?  No problem, this stuff all bolts together like a big Meccano hot rod chassis.



Some cars are even painted to appear like they are not.

[Carps]

On display in the entrance foyers at each end of the big indoor shopping space, are a bunch of ISCA (International Show Car Association) championship winning cars.

Look closely at this image and if you know your '35/6 Ford Coupes, it's not hard to understand how much work this body has in it.



These cars are all fenced off from sticky fingers and drooling tongues.....



......so they do pose a challenge the photographer, as it aint easy shooting around the ropes.





A perfect body beneath shiny black lacquer.





Some are a tad radical in style and/or execution.

























But there's no doubting the time money and effort put into each of them and why they are displayed here.





How low can you go?

[Carps]

Just as it is here in Oz, when darkness falls it's time for kicking tyres, bench racing or just getting together with old pals for a brew, some BS and a few laughs.



That is, unless your ride requires a little unscheduled maintenance.



There's always some frantic repair work happening, usually in order to get the family home in time for dinner.



Of course if you don't like to chat, cruising from motel to motel will ensure you see a bunch of stuff you might miss during the day at the fairgrounds.







Gerry Burger's '41 Ford pick-up always looks a treat.



This old Buick had a fresh and highly detailed chassis with perfect chrome and stainless trim on an untouched original patinated body.



Such were the numbers this year that I have a feeling Packards make comfortable and capable long distance cruisers.  



And there seems to be more turn up at the Nat's every year.



Of course, day or night, the Willys folk are always out in force.



This '41 Pick-up from John North's factory is equally as outlandish on the outside.



Why is Ed laughing so hard?



Watching her friend Darwin getting into Hot Rod Liz's bucket, even without him having consumed any beers, was always hilarious.



Some cars look great, day or night.



And others are just begging for a little arty-farty photography.



Others become somewhat inconspicuous.



And yet others cannot hide, no matter how dark it is.