I was looking at the new issue of Rod & Custom (Feb 2009) and on page 46 in the Bonneville coverage they have a small picture of what looks like a very accurate Grapevine clone. Does anyone know anything about this car? Or does the real one still exist? Is this the real one?
Yup! But not the "grapevine" version most know. It's done In the "heartless" I believe version. This thing is bad! I have seen it twice before here in SoCal but it's been a while since the last time I've seen it.
um actaully i'm friends w/ the owner randy rhoades and he is not on the hamb. if your thinking of manuel artche...he's dead
Very cool car. I talked to the owner a bit at Speedweek this year. Nice guy. Rod & Custom actually did an article on the car quite a few years back - maybe 10 years ago? Here are a couple more photos from Bonneville.... Malcolm
very cool. the car randy used is my grandpa's old car! here's a link to rik hoving's site and 1/2 of the pictures i gave him for these albums! http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_.../49-51_chevy_custom_cars/larry-watson-grapev/
I want everybody to remember that 'hotrodjon08' is 12 years old!!!!!...and he DOES know the history on this car. This clone is based in Oregon, and we camped next to this guy in the bend at Bonneville this year...and to get off the road down to our campsites, you had to drive down about a 4-5 foot shoulder...and this guy would come bombing right on in!!!! it was great! he had no fear in driving this car through rough gravel...dragging his lakepipes...it was awesome! and a very nice man with a very nice car.
Randys car is a great ride he has been driveing this lady better then 8 years. The real Grape Vine is setting in a freeway upright on I-5 outside of salem ore. Randy remembers the car being dumped there.
That car rules!!!!! So it lives in oregon? Explains why I haven't seen it around. I saw it last at the Pomona Swapmeet parked way in the back by the bleachers
Randy is a stand up guy. He drove back from Paso one year with me when I was having lotsa problems with my chopped and sectioned '51 ford. You see him EVERYWHERE with his car. He built it to drive it, and drive it he does. His boy lined ot all the scallops based on the original. Very cool, and very much a for real guy. His sis owns a house next to my brother in Eugene, and they chat from ttime to time. If you ever se Randy out and about, be sure and say hey - he's an awesome guy. As far as the Original Watson Grapevine - it came to Eugene long ago, and used to cruise the streets there. It was owned by someone who either owned a gas station or worked at one on 11th st, by U of O. The fellow owned another famous old ride, must have had a real eye for neat stuff. After a few years, and a few different hands, the car ended up next to or behind a gas station or body shop on Franklin Boulevard in Eugene area - tired, and with a few parts missing, including the front seat. When they put in I-5 - at the long bridge crossing the Willamette River, the used crushed old cars to 'stabilze' the fill before adding dirt, and after some rock. Lot's of them. Anything and everything was fair game. Since the car was abandoned, or at least left behind, they hauled it the 1/2 mile or so - Crushed it flat, and used it in the fill. I always give a moment of thought when passing that section of 5 in Eugene, that she is down there, forever. I wonder what else is down there? So as far as 'seeing' it - not gonna happen. But feeling it? Heck yes!!
Randy and the car live in LaPine Oregon, anybody that has met him will tell you he is a great guy and a true hot rodder. The car is a reproduction of the origional and he drives it every where. He is active with the local car club here, (High Lakes Crusers).
The Jalopy Journal
