What are you doing today 2016?

[58 Yeoman]

Carps, thanks for posting the great pix. I'm the kid at Christmas that enjoyed playing with the box the gift came in. I actually liked the outdoor cars more.

[Rochie]

Carps, have you ever run into a friend of mine down under, John Taylor, who has a 33 red Ford roadster.  He used to be in Melbourne but now calls Brisbane home.  I know its a huge country and continent, but the hot rodding world seems like a small community

[UGLY OLDS]

Carps ... Thanks for posting the photos ...     Do you guys ever have "winter" as we know it  :?:  

 You know ...Snow / cold / ice /yuck  :?:  

If not , where do I  sign up  :?:      

Bob..

[Rrumbler]

Good stuff there, thanks Carps.

[kb426]

Way cool! Seeing summer pics in the middle of winter is great. Thats a fabulous building for a show. Thank you.

[Carps]

Carps ... Thanks for posting the photos ...    

My pleasure.

 

Do you guys ever have "winter" as we know it  :?: You know ...Snow / cold / ice /yuck  :?:  

Ummm, nope!  :-D

Here's the last Mid Winter Country Cruise, the weather was about as bad as it gets.

Lakes Entrance the eastern coast of Victoria, Australia, Friday, June 6th, the fleet is in port and all is well with the world.



Around mid-day, the first hot rods and customs started rolling into town.



The day moved on, fishermen cleaning their nets and sorting their stuff.





Slowly more and more hot rods rolled into town.



The cars came in all shapes and sizes, even some humpy ones.



Some, like the fishermen's prey have fins....



..... others were just smooth, with few lumps and bumps to disrupt the straight lines.



Some parked by the port to check out the boats and other marine machinery.









A few needed to re-fuel after the long road trip.



Friday evening was a pretty quiet affair, with nothing organised, most of the early arrivals found somewhere to grab a bite followed by a quiet evening catching up with old friends.



Saturday morning and it was time to cruise down to the foreshore at the far end of town.









Some folks seemed to be headed in the wrong direction.







Yep, he's headed the wrong way too, but Stampy's '40 deelux coupe was looking a treat and illustrates very clearly the correct and perfect stance can be achieved even in Australia.



It's a shame Neal's ability to know which way to go was not so good as his ability to figure out the key elements that make the perfect hot rod.  I guess he didn't see the injuns either.  

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Eventually he found the park.



As did everybody else, although I'm thinking this guy was searching for a workshop or his missing parts....

If not , where do I  sign up  :?:      

Right here!        

Registration was quick and simple, just walk top to the desk, give the ladies your name and/or entrant number and you were instantly on your way.



A few familiar rides turned out, some with new owners.



Others just helping get the young-un's prepared for their turn.



Instead of parking cars along the shopping strip, the lake front park was made available and proved a much better venue for Saturday's show.



Not sure if I'd be surfing the waters down this part of the southern coast, but this wooden bodied Chevy sported a neat mascot all the same.



There's usually one or two Humpies turn out for this event, but it seems that since the rules have changed, they have really come out of the woodwork and could have qualified as the most polar model at the event.



Of course there were lots of hot rods too.





Including many unique Aussies.







And a whole bunch of '50s era American Classics.





Seems these guys have been pretty quick to jump ship following the announcements of the demise of the local car industry.



Billy and the gang did a fantastic job all weekend, it seemed they were everywhere and I mean everywhere, relentlessly pumping out the tunes.



Saturday evening is the traditional pie night at the local golf club.



Again, the band were there. providing the rythum for the dancing folk to strut their stuff.  This was kinda new, as dancing hasn't been a big feature of the Saturday night activities in the past, just eating, drinking and swapping tall stories, so it was a refreshing change for most.

[Carps]

Sunday morning, is the traditional cruise, from Lakes Entrance, to Bairnsdale then across to the lakeside village of Paynesville....    It all starts with a gathering of the clan at the bottom of the hill at Lakes Entrance.











We left the park as the last of the stragglers were arriving, in order to find a nice location to photograph the cars as they cruised down highway one, towards Bairnsdale.



We figured these guys weren't the only late starters as it was at least ten minutes past departure time when the Police car that was to lead the procession flashed past us on the highway.  
Very soon he was back, followed by a long conga line of hot rods and customs.







I'm still learning all the cool things that my new camera can do, so I set it for continuous shooting, and locked in a very slow shutter speed.
The effect I think is quite good, however not every shot came out the way I would have liked, but there are a lot that did.





The traffic was unusually light on the day and that allowed the convoy to be travelling rather quickly, which helped the effect, but also made me dizzy.







The cars are shown here in no particular order, because it's late and I'm I'm too tired to sort them any further.













What makes this event fun, is that instead of cruising the local fair/show grounds, the venue is a whole big area of south eastern Victoria and the event takes entrants from one place to another, cruising on the highways or back-roads just like cars are meant to be doing.



Here's a pair of neat Model A Tudors, one may even be more than a little familiar to folks here.





Steve's Dodge has been on the road for many years and it shows, like when was the last time you saw a '30s era car with a traditional section job?





It's always great to see my old travelling buddy Ian 'Datsfa' Shaw's T Tub out and about, this time in the hands of Datsfa Junior and his two young boys.



Orange seems to be a popular shade lately.









Blue is of course is timeless.















Screamin like a stuck pig at 60 mph and what seemed like 9,000rpm on the highway, I guess 4.11 gears will have that effect.



Thanx to the light traffic, we made it to Bairnsdale in time to see the tail disappear up the main drag.  
So I found another great vantage point on the Paynesville Rd and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, but only a few cars came past......











A few minutes after Bob and Cynthia went past, my phone rang, with a message that the cars had come the long way around from Bairnsdale and were rejoining the Paynesville road about a mile from where I had set up.  
I hate it when that happens, but by now it was too late.



Anyhow, the weather was perfect this year, no wind and the sun was warm enough top bring out a big crown of locals.



And of course, there once again, were these guys, still pumping out even more tunes.



I have no explanation for this, but I guess if it needs one we probably wouldn't understand anyhow.



As event participants enjoyed the dining experience in local cafe's or the car boot sale in the park opposite, locals enjoyed checking out the many hot rods and customs on show.





This little bugger is just straight up cute and I mean that in the nicest way.





Datsfa's T is a truly timeless hot rod, we all miss him.





















There was a guy in a nasty black '55 Chevy looking' for the owner of this car.



Speaking of nasty guys, meet some of my Confederates rod & Custom Club mates.















We've all heard about the mechanic's car that get's no attention, well I'm reliably informed this is the body and paint guys car...........

[Carps]

Sunday night we got some rain and it was still falling Monday morning, although it didn't put a major dampener on the planned breakfast BBQ in the park.





Many participants stopped in for a feed before heading home and enjoyed the bonus of excellent espresso coffee from a mobile machine.



As we enjoyed the meal and camaraderie, others were headed down the highway.













Yup, it may seem strange to you folk who live in the snow, to hold a long distance rod run in winter, but for some of us, strange is perfectly normal.  

[UGLY OLDS]

Again Carps ...Thanks for the photos ...
i saw some people wearing light jackets , hoodies , sweat shirts and of all things ....  Side curtains on a roadster  :!:  

 If that is your version of "winter" , I'm going to pack up & head your way  :!:  :!:  

Bob...  

[Carps]

i saw some people wearing light jackets , hoodies , sweat shirts and of all things ....  Side curtains on a roadster  :!:  

Yup, that's how we know it's winter.      

If that is your version of "winter" , I'm going to pack up & head your way  :!:  :!:  

See you when you get here Bob, but please be aware The weather isn't always perfect, only about 350 days a year.  Right now it's summer which is when it gets a bit weird.  We can have scorching heat and a firestorm one day then cold and rain the next.  

[sirstude]

Carps, thanks again for the pics.  Sure like those Utes!

[idrivejunk]

Carps, wow. Very nice pics. I liked the white plain stock deuce too.

Lately I've been busy gathering up bodywork pics from my last decade. Haven't touched the cars much, washed the GTP and topped off the steering pump in the 69GP yesterday. Probably just cruise around today, its nice out and gas is cheap so hello 455.

Speaking of plain white Ford pics, heres one I tore down and did some tricky metal repairs on, it was ready for the customer Friday. It was a complete resto-mod.















Love the interior but I have built one once and if you have too... you know its a pain. Mike did a terrific job getting this one together. Didn't get a pic of the trunk but it is equally beautimus.

Left quarter, right door were the main problem areas as far as dents. There were so many pull rod holes it looked like Bonnie and Clyde's rig.

[phat46]

Nice work on the T Bird, that is a beautiful car!

[kb426]

I'm a real fan of that gen of bird. Looks great!

[58 Yeoman]

We finished splitting the tree that I cut up a week or so ago. We still have to stack it, but at least it's split. Osage Orange male. It will probably take 10 years for it to dry out. We had to leave the log splitter down in the river valley (ravine with a creek running through it LOL), as the drive coming up is too muddy for the lawn tractor to pull the splitter out.

Beautiful job on the Bird, Junk.