Art & Inspiration Indoor car shows: the golden years

Thanks low budget. It was my first car and daily driver. I wish I had it back.

George may like this story. In 1981 a group of us decided to participate in the World of Wheels in Vancouver, BC. I cannot remember exactly the building (maybe B&G?). Anyway one of the group knew Bob Larivee's son "JR" who was chairman to the show. So if we weren't walking the exhibits, we would hang out in the show office. On this particular day the ******* Playmates were taking a break between autograph sessions. JR looked at his watch and turned to me to say "I need to have you ****** Miss November to the autograph table". He didn't have to ask twice. So she grabs my arm as I ****** her there. I felt like the rooster who invaded the hen house!

 

Great thread! I'm not all that old (well, maybe!) but I got hooked on cars at car shows, too. My parents would take the kids down to Asbury Park in March or April, either just for something to do, or perhaps because they had a huge candy and chocolate store on the boardwalk, and they'd shop for Easter candy there. Sometimes there would be a show in the Convention Center, and I guess my dad would take us to see the show while mom shopped for candy. He really had NO interest in cars at all, but I got hooked on seeing the Candy, Pearl, Chrome and Angel Hair! I almost got the chance to enter the show, but by the time I had a good enough car, my chopped 55 Olds, they stopped having the show there. But the guys in my car club, the NJ Renegades, attended a few of the last ones.
As a side note, as others have mentioned being attracted by the pomp and cir***stance, and glitter of the shows, are we driving the younger, impressionable kids away from cars? By having so many primered, rusty, ****py looking rat rods at shows? I think those type of cars certainly wouldn't have attracted me, at a young, impressionable age!

 

Yes YES a thousand time yes.

 

The Deuce in the background of the white panel painted Vette sure looks like this one at first blush. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/deuce-coupe-straight-out-of-the-70s.982624/ But, I have doubts. The roof insert isn't padded for one. Geographically it's in the ball park I think. Anyone?

 

Pomoma California 1962

 

Any good shots of the King T available? Loved that one. Gary

 

Hmm, Could be??? Notice the little light on the cowl, The car looks to be sittin up about the same,tinted windows,also looks like the under trunk lid could very possibly be covered the same (I ***ume that one bracket that holds the trunk up is factory?) Its the same. (That roof could have been laying down a little tighter then or could have been changed since 72 ???)

 

I do really miss the indoor 2 an 3 day shows in the 50s an 60s,we had 4 places that shows were held at around Miami Fla.. Both Dinner Key and the Bayfront Park Auditorium are now gone ,only the Miami Beach Con. Center an Ft.Luaderdale War M.are left ,an now from City rent greed can't be used. I added a few pics of both Bayfront an Dinner Key that have been bulldozed an sold land off to fill some crooked officels pockets with kickback for the land. Two photos of my fullcustom"Henry J" at those shows are added as well in very early 60s. I did Airbrush "Wild T-shirts" at these shows from 59 to 64 under the art name of "The Bat" out of hell,an made $ for my hotrod an custom fun.

 

Tacoma Show '56, photo by Wayne Miller. Custom '40 Merc by Gale Morris from Portland. Some nice shoeboxes. Roger Cunningham's in the background, R & C cover Nov. '56, with body work by one of my mentors, Bob Mead senior. Ric Hoving wrote a great article on Gale's Merc.
http://www.customcarchronicle.com/custom-cars/gale-morris-1940-merc/

 

The little light is a '32 cowl light, so it's not a distinguishing feature, but the similarities between the two cars are uncanny. I would say it's a good possibility.

 

Was thinking it was but seems like they are usually removed once they are built more times than not.

 

Keep in mind that photo dates from the resto-rod era, when having all that stuff was the height of fashion. Most early-mid seventies era rods would have had them, sorta like highboys with '35 ford wires and big headlights now.

 

Yeah, I always think of the paddy wagon model car kit and ones like this.

 

When I was a kid the BOOT HILL EXPRESS was one of my favorites . Saw it at a indoor sow once in th 70s.

 

Better pics of this show piece.

 

Never did get a chance to take any pics of my 37' when at a show, the trophy on the right was from a Winternationals show where I won second and Maz'z A / super won first and I was very happy with that award
The other tall ones were shows like the Tridents etc in the L.A. area, shorter ones were from the drags

 

D.N.D. Great achievements indeed!

 

Thanks Mikey

 

I have to say that indoor car shows had an 'interminable' bite on me. Never liked the politics, but one year I was about to get 'unconsciously involved', without realizing it.
I had known Joe Cardoza since 1954, he was always 'the character'...
He reappeared in '75, I had moved back to San Jose to be Allison BMW's first Master Tech.
Joe begged me to wire his orange '29 roadster pickup, (Jag front & rear, Halibrands all around, SBF w/C4) I reluctantly agreed, got started in October. NINE days later, he stopped bugging me about trifles, and I finally finished. (!)
I designed and finished with a BMW E32 theme, there were relays for every separated circuit.
The dash folded down with a piano hinge, and a pair of strong receding ball snaps.
Donn Varner was 'stoked'...
Joe entered it in the San Jose Autorama, now held at the Fairgrounds, main building.
Now, Cardoza was anything but 'welcome', let alone 'popular'...Show promoters Benders (Vicki and her husband Paul) were very 'sore' about Cardoza's ****ons he had p***ed around the previous year, "Car Shows ****".
When it got down to the judging 'wire', judge Otto Bartholdi (you all know handlebar moustache 'Big Otto', don't you?) was hard pressed to award the trophy to Joe Esperanca's black '31 Roadster.
Otto reached into Cardoza's R/P and snapped down the dash, displaying 3/4 mile of multi-colored wire, all neatly bundled and secured behind gauges, switches, and relays...
Otto connected the battery, turning on toggle switches and each emitting a different tone, (as each provided more or less amperage for its particular relay)
Vicki and Paul were livid as they made their way with Otto back upstairs to the logs.
Joe Cardoza was the winner, best street rod... and when I found out about the history, I felt a pang of guilt.
To top it all off, Cardoza dropped by my lavish Cupertino home and 'presented' my ex wife with a 'Car Shows ****' ****on. "Just give it to Mike, he'll understand..."
Rub it in, Joe.

 

Ha ha. My brother could top that. Car club helping out, promoter asked if anyone of us would run to the airport to pick someone up, no one really wanted to but finally my brother volunteers. Wasn't till after we found out they needed to pick up the playmate. If he had told us who we were picking up I'm sure there would of been several volunteers! Anyway, my brother runs out there in his 57 Bel Air, gives this gal a ride back to the show, said she really liked his car and slid over and sat next to him. He couldn't stop talking about that all weekend!

 

Getting pretty close to home with this topic George. "PNE" shows are a source of warm and fuzzies for me too. I remember snow coming in through the cracks in one of the walkways between the buildings one year. Attending was a family event more than once, and just my dad and I later on. I still remember a military Jeep that seemed to have everything but the body chrome plated. There was also a metal flake blue mid sixties Corvette that had a record player and a TV in it, I was barely five.

I worked in the same building that Boots Olsen had his Striping shop set-up in when he moved from Richmond to Surrey. Guess where I went to hang after work and at lunch? That was the mid eighties already, but he had the walls of the shop lined with pictures of customer's cars and magazine features. Lots of car show memories in one place. One of his own builds was featured along with his trophies and such. It was a metal flake blue mid sixties Corvette with a TV and record player in it. Boots pin striped my first mountain bike for 10 bucks and not long after he offered to paint the shrouding on the new engine for my Bug. He did window etching too and he taught me how to design my own template and he did the etching for free. I actually learned a lot from him. I've even got a couple of his old striping brushes here. I'm digressing a bit, but the point is the car show was a huge contributor to my addiction and all the memories tied to it. If only we had the technology that would allow us to print memories.

Mind if I park these pictures here? They were taken by my dad and may be a bit relevant to the discussion. Note the Cal Van display behind the Orange Crate.

 

Yeah, when did Maple Ridge/Haney become simply Maple Ridge and Lulu Island become Richmond. I know the city is Richmond but the whole island?

 

"Note the Cal Custom display behind the Orange Crate."

Pensive Scribe, I believe that is actually Cal-Van Speed Shop, not Cal Customs, no? As teens we used to hitch hike from the North Shore to the PNE too for the shows. I Can't Remember **** when it comes to the cars but I do recall the Miss British Columbia drag boat plain as day, we used to watch it race. I read somewhere (here?) it was being restored. That would be cool.

 

Pensive, I was hoping you would post a few of your dads photos. Did You ever see the pics of that red BB El Camino that I took at a Newton A&W cruise night with all the Boots striping on it?

 

Grumbler, I posted a bunch of photos of the restored Miss British Columbia in a thread about the 2016 Greater Vancouver Motorsports Pioneers get together.
If you go to my profile page and click on the threads I have created, it's about 7 down from the top.

 

IIRC, Haney lost its iden***y in the late seventies?

 

Yup, I went back and fixed it thanks. I hate growing old.

 

Hope you don't mind me posting some indoor car show pics. I was going through some closets and found some photos of the World of Wheels photos I took in Boston. The pics say 1987 on the back. That was the last indoor show I went to. I limited the pics to pre-65.

 

The only thing I mind is the are so small. Can you get them bigger? There's a BUNCH of cars there that I would like to see clearer.