Cruising returns to Van Nuys Blvd

looks like something from the life magazine archives

 

no info on where the picture came from originally. another member posted it here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4140508&postcount=8169

picture should be used in a future flyer for the cruise nights

 

I would be apprehensive about printing this photo with out knowing whether or not this photo holds a copyright. Penalties could be severe, and costly.

 

Wonder whose grandmother that is..My wife said it came from an article on line in the Daily News about the section of Van Nuys becoming a part of Sherman Oaks...

 

Thanks Reid,

Photos of anything on Van Nuys Boulevard from back when are hard to find.

I wonder why they just don't leave the city boarders right where they are? Maybe these two cities are rivals, and this is some sort of get even scheme.

 

That photo is also in the "Then & Now San Fernando Valley" book. Nice one!

 

awesome website vncruiser simple and to the point, my wife will be there aug 12 with my son theyre picking me up a sweet shirt, vnca is going worldwide lol

 

Hey Groucho,
Do you have any idea what happened to Sammy from the street races in the mid 1980s? He drove a 56 Chevy and he used to run with a guy named Bruce. I was sure I would of seen these guys out on the blvd for the last couple cruise nights.

 

Long haired guy that came out to the races with his brother (possibly a twin)? I haven't seen them since then. I raced Sammy on Saticoy and Woodman, and barely won. His car ran pretty good. I also bought an Elcamino off him or his brother back then. But, haven't seen or heard from them since.

 

This tread is getting tired. How about some VN Blvd stories, or recollections?

There was quite a difference between the boulevard of the the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

The boulevard of the 50s and part of the 60s were devoid of muscle cars cruising, though their predecessors were there. Few if any VWs or foreign cars in the 50s, but, slowly becoming popular by the mid 60s.

The Van thing was new in the 60s, evolving into the gaudy scalloped Van
conversions in the 1970s. Anyway you get the idea, these are just a couple
of the vehicles that eventually became part of the VN Blvd. mix.

In the late 60s early 70s different groups of car guys began to gather in the empty parking lots of closed businesses. So my question is: which groups collected in which parking lots along the boulevard?

 

One of my stories..............around '72 I get pulled over in my "juiced" 61 Impala Lowrider. The cop sees my Vin tag is missing one of the two spot welds. Arrests me, and impounds the car. I use my one phone call to call my room-mate Les to bring the pink slip to Van Nuys Jail. The cop let me go, gave me a ride to the impound lot, gave me my car back, and I went back to the Blvd to cruise. I guess the whole thing took a bit more than an hour. As far as what groups in what lots? There were MANY. Lowriders at June Ellens Donuts/Hughs Market lot just South of the 101, and street racers at the Jack in the Box. I rememeber GTO's/Firebirds in front of the Pontiac dealership, maybe Nomads in front of the Chevy Dealership (or car wash @ Chandler), etc. Different groups of kids and their cars were literally everywhere. If you saw a friend parked, and stopped to talk, and a few more friends pulled in, THAT spot might become your hangout every Wednesday for a few weeks

 

Mopars parked just above Burbank Blvd in front of the Chrome house. LA Street Racers were in Hughes, now Ralph's Van Nuys faceing lot, then in the ARCO station and Pioneer Chicken now the used car lot on Burbank & Van Nuys.

Getting pulled over on Van Nuys was a regular event for me. I was visiting a friend in the hospital on Van Nuys near the GM Plant and as I pulled away at 9:30PM the reds came on. I was 18 and my two passengers were 17. One was up front with me and one was sitting in the rumble seat I had made where the trunk was. The reason/excuse for pulling me over was my car sat too high in the rear (air shocks, long shackles), they thought the rumble seat was not legal and didn't understand why I had a roll bar in the car (ok a lot of people didn't understand that.) After 30+ minutes of talking and no ticket, they decided that it was past curfew and I was getting busted for contributing to the delinquency of minors.. That was dropped too when I reminded them that they pulled me over for no reason.

A year later I was stopped while home on leave from the military and had my dog tags on a GI neck chain along with a bunch of keys. The cop tried to bust me for a weapons charge, chain over 6" long with weights on the end. A cop Named Smitty knew me and laughed at the cop that tried it and set me free once more. Told him he would have to bust every GI on the blvd for that.

 

What years?

 

Late 60's to early 70's. I worked at Hughes bagging groceries from 68-69. That's how I got started with the Street Racers and hug out with the MOPAR guys as well. Most of them were with the street racers too. My cruisin years were '65-'79. My last bust for 11 fix it tickets ended my days. I was also transfered to Texas so it was to far to commute...LOL

 

I got a few stories for you:


In 1976, my junior year of high school, a friend and myself met a classmate of mine and his buddy on the Blvd, to drink some beers. I had a case in the trunk of my 1968 GTO, and the classmate had a few 6-packs in the trunk of his 1968 Roadrunner. We decided to get in my Goat and cruise for a while. The beer was hot and didn't go down very well, so we started throwing it out. My friend took one beer, shook it up, and sprayed a street light with it, out of the window of my car. Well, he did that in front of a narc car. Hence, the cops pulled us over a few blocks away. Before they were able to, we got rid of any open cans in the car. (Tossed them out in front of the Federal building). The cops pulled us out of the car, put us up against the wall of a building, and searched us and the car. One cop asked what was in my pocket and I replied a pocketknife. He siad "oh" and did nothing about it. They did not find anything in the car, and never checked the trunk! The cops told us to go to a park and drink instead of drinking on the Blvd. Remember, we were 16 years old at the time. I don't think that that would happen today!!!

Another trip to the Blvd, the same year, the same friend and I, went out with fire extinguishers, water baloons and shaving cream, looking to wreak havic. We didn't get busted, nobody kicked our butts, but before we could finish one pass, no one would stop next to us in traffic. All cars stopped short and kept clear of us.

That same friend got into a four car/lane, light-to-light, drag race on the Blvd in his 1972 El Camino. He was in the parking lane!

Another group of friends, poured bleach in the Blvd driveway entering the Bank of America parking lot. Cars were pulling in and doing large burnouts. Smoke filled the Blvd!!!

In 1979, I hung out at Super Shops parking lot. I had crossed the street to the bank parking lot, to talk to some friends. Upon my return across the Blvd, dodging in between cars stuck in traffic, I got to the last lane in front of Super Shops only to find a moving lane. I was running pretty quickly and I was unable to stop. I hit the front of a moving (new) Cadillac and put my hands on the front left corner of the car, and rolled along the side. My knee hit the door, making a large dent. The owner put his window down and I asked if HE was OK..... (He never got out and never saw the dent...until later, I am sure). It had happened quickly, as I guess he was shook up pretty much! I didn't get hurt at all.

Later that year, I saw a long-haired guy in a pickup truck do a burnout in an alley, at the rear of a parking lot, near the Federal building. The truck had pulled out of the lot and was sitting on the street corner, to enter the Blvd. A motorcycle cop pulled up next to him and told him to get out of the vehicle. As the cop got off the bike, it fell to the ground. The crowd there all started to yell and laugh at the cop. The cop was embarressed and angry. He walked over to the truck, grabbed the guy by his long hair, and proceeded to pull him out of the truck, onto the ground and handcuff him. Many more cops pulled up after that, as the crowd was getting even more vocal. I don't remember what the final result was. The truck owner did lose a large amount of hair that night!

 

Okay, I've got an odd one for ya.

As far back as I can remember, I've been a hot rodder, but, in the Real Traditional sense of the 1950s & 60s. What I mean is that back then anything & everything with wheels was subject to hot rodding, including foreign cars.

Back in 1962 I was still in high school. I had 2 hot rods then, a 37 Ford Sedan, a 38 Buick coupe, and a 1949 Ford Woody. I had an idea back then about painting a car by hand, using the car as a canvas. What I wanted was something so wild that people would be outraged. The problem was, which car to choose?

A guy at the corner gas station had a 1957 VW Bug that he wanted to trade me for my Woody. I didn't really want to trade him, but, I looked at his car anyway. I think it was really the first time I ever really looked at a VW. I thought it was ugly, but, kinda
liked it anyway.

I found myself unconsciously drawing pictures of them until my high school drafting teacher snatched one of those drawings from me in his class. Later he returned it to me realizing that it was something more than simply doodling. (drawing below)

At about the same time a came across a Porch Engine & Trans, and a 58 Bug Body & Pan. I got it all for next to nothing, so my crazy project began. I kept it in the garage next to my Buick so no one could see what I was doing. I also kept it covered. Because I got this body for near nothing, I felt that there was little risk of actually screwing up something valuable. This made me feel a little more at ease with what I had in mind. The painting took about 5 thousand hours to paint it, and about a month to assemble and get running.

The maiden voyage was to none other than Van Nuys Blvd. On the way down Parthinia to VN Blvd. a guy in a van was dogging me, trying to cut me off the road.
He yelled out that anybody that would do that to a car should be run down. At about this time, the guy with the truck behind him rammed his rear bumper in anger for
impeding the flow of traffic. The Van took off with the truck in hot pursuit.
When I got to about Sherman Way I saw both vehicles at the side of the road with the guy in the truck beating the guy in the van to a pulp.

Next, I had the cops pull me over convinced that the painting violated some code, though they couldn't find one, so they gave me my first of 5 ticket that I would receive that night. You have to keep in mind, up to this time about the wildest thing on a cars surface was Candy, or metal flake paint, flames, scallops, and pinstriping.
Nearly everyone thought it was some how sacrilegious.

When I got to Victory the signal was about to turn red, the people driving the cars on either side were rubbernecking the painting while pretending to have their eyes on the road. As I stopped for the light, they sailed right through the red light, to the delight of a motorcycle cop.

Further down the boulevard a guy in a 56 Ford rear ended some girls in a Nash also rubbernecking. For years to come, every time I drove one of these mobile murals I would have a host of unusual experiences or problems, and most certainly piles of tickets. The first year I drove this I got 80 tickets, and out of all that only one conviction.

 

Kent, that is so cool.

 

MR BASH,

THANK YOU FOR THAT VW STORY. BEST STORY I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME.

THANK YOU!!!

(yes I meant to yell)

 

While this car was a VW, I considered it a tattooed hot rod on acid. There was much more to the story than what I mentioned above, perhaps even the best part, but, I realized that it was becoming a book so I ended before I got to what happened in Hollywood a bit later that same night.

 

Dude?!!! come on........what happened in Hollywood later that night.
Write a book if you must... We'll read it!

 

Okay, here's part 2 of the maiden voyage of what I considered a tattooed hot rod on acid.

Keeping in mind there was nothing that looked like this on the road, which is what made it so fun to drive. With the Porsche Engine and transaxle it was very fast, though I can't remember hitting the gas
that often, except for an occasional surprise to some guy or other with a small block.

I happened to be with my friend Glenn Hanna that night who was no stranger to souping-up a VW (photo below) In-any-event we headed down to Hollywood from Van Nuys Blvd. We cruised Hollywood Blvd. with two other nearly identical incidence of rubbernecking gawkers who rear ended the cars in front of them because they were not paying attention to the road.

At the time, I was kinda into the Gasser look with both my 38 Buick & 40 Chevy which both had blue plexiglas side windows so I followed suite with the Psychedelic Bug Rod.

As we began to head back to Van Nuys Blvd. on Sunset Blvd. we got stopped by the 3rd cop. The first two cops that sited me eariler that evening were too preoccupied with acidic paint job to have noticed just how dark the blue tinted plex was, however, cop number 3 stopped me because of the tinted windows, or so he said.

It was a busy balmy Friday night and everybody was out. When the cop hit his lights there was no place to pull over, every parking spot was filled, and there was bumper to bumper traffic. The traffic came to a complete stop, so the cop got out of his car and came up to my window which he couldn't see through.

I rolled down the window, and he said he stopped me because of the dark tinted windows. The traffic in the lane next to me picked up a bit, and as I handed the cop my registration, 2 cars collided in the next lane both rubbernecking in stop & go traffic. Now the cop had even more to deal with. Soon, a backup officer showed up just as several cars in on coming traffic got into it also rubbernecking.

Now both sides of Sunset are at a complete stand still. The cop that had stopped me said, if the window tint isn't to bad I'll let you go, because I now have a bigger mess. He sat in the drivers seat and exclaimed, " Hell, you can't even see the red lights through these windows, how the hell do you know when you come to a red light?"

My friend Glenn popped off, " Hell, that's easy, if you don't see a red light that means it's red". At this point, the cop went nuts screaming and having a fit. Glenn put his hands up, and crash-bang, a couple more cars collided. The cop said to Glenn: "Put your hands down". Then I put my hands up. The cop got even more pissed, but, now a crowd had gathered and they began yelling: "Pig, you fu*king Pigs" I guess timing is everything, because a police helicopter showed up and was now hovering above shinning it's spot light, and calling out to the cops below.

It took about 4 or 5 hours to break up the crowd, and tow away the wrecked cars, and to take care of the arrest they made for drinking, getting high, and what ever else.

This was just one of dozens and dozens of the most bizarre nights ever cruisin' in one of these hand painted cars.

 

Kent that is the funniest thing Ive heard in years........good to hear "the rest of the story" you need to do more books.............Kent aka Meatball

 

anybody remember a chevelle wagon 64/65 with a snorkle,under the tailgate in really small letters it said F**k you Its fast! saw that on one of my trips down to visit my folks,think it was by a supershops??

 

While your friend Glenn was no stranger to souping up VW's, HIS appears to be V-8 powered. And, as wild as your Bug was, there sure were a lot of suspicious crashes related to rubbernecking. I'm thinking on calling bullshit on this one

 

I grew up near Balboa Blvd & Nordhoff St...I remember that bug...It was a headturner....My mom thought it was those damned hippies!

 

Glenn's wheel stander truck was Hemi powered.

What makes a story worth telling?

 

Hi Reid,

How are you?

I lived in Granada Hills then so we were sorta neighbors then. I created 6 of these, and all were wrecked but one, by careless drivers.

I have a half of one in my living room. This was T-boned at Riverside & Van Nuys Boulevard.

 

A good friend of mine had a 66 Malibu that was primer grey. One night, probably because someone dared him, he runs it on the blvd. with the headers uncorked. The men in blue take a dim view and try to pull him over. Stupidly, he outruns them and makes it home. He spends the next 2 hours shooting the car with red primer, recorks the headers and comes back out. The police pull him over and ask him if he knows anyone with the same car only primer grey. With the most angelic face he can muster, he replies "no officer, not that I can think of"

alan

 

I can't believe he outran the cops making all that noise and navigating all the Blvd traffic, and I can't believe the suspicious nature of cops didn't detect the fresh smell of the new primer. I'm callin bullshit on this one too