LARS: It Was a VERRRRYYYY Long Weekend....but WORTH IT!

Matt and I took the Legion Special down to LARS for the weekend and then for a photo shoot on monday.

Friday was uneventful and we were excited for the weekend to come. We got down south without incident and spent an hour or so cleaning the car for Saturday morning. We discussed how we really wouldn't need to clean it on Monday for the shoot. Just leave some character on it. Well, that's not how it worked out.

Saturday morning was looking good. We had preferred parking via a special invite from the L.A. Roadsters and the weather forecast was stellar. The drive from our semi-ghetto hotel in Montclair to the Fairplex in Pomona went great. The Legion drove like a champ. Getting to the event I had no idea where to go and most of the traffic directors couldn't help. Finally I got through the gate and was idling through the last aisle of the swap meet toward the inside of the show. Literally half way down the aisle I looked at the temp and "OH SHIT" it was at 250. The second I looked back up...KABLOOHISSS! The top hose came off the radiator and three gallons of rusty coolant shot through the louvers and coated the entire car and ME! FUCK!

Of course a crowd instantly gathered. A couple people offered real help while most of the dipshits started asking me questions about the car. "What motor is that?" What is the grille from?" I'm building one just like it except mine has a Mustang II." FUCK OFF! I had to back away from the car. I wasn't really pissed at all about what had happened, but couldn't take the inane conversation when there was a VERY OBVIOUS problem with the car that I was coping with. A great guy and his wife in the swap loaned me a screwdriver and three gallons of water. We limped it into the show.

The car now runs like complete shit and shakes like mad. We're guessing blown head gasket.

Anyway, we cleaned it up pretty well and were happy to now answer the ocean of questions. The praise for the car was humbling, especially from the "heavy hitters" who gravitated to the car.

We left the car there Saturday night and hit the party at the NHRA museum. Lots of people came up to us to talk about the Legion Special. Pretty damn neat!

Sunday we tried to stick around, but just couldn't do it. We left around noon and unfortunately had to load the car up in the parking lot. Back at the hotel we cleaned again to prep for the Street Rodder photo shoot the next day.

Monday we were up bright and early, leaving the hotel in El Segundo at 7am sharp thinking we'd have all kinds of time to make the 50 mile trip, have breakfast and give the car one last wipe down before 9:00. Well, SoCal traffic was SoCal traffic and it took us literally TWO hours to get there, arriving right at our 9:00 appointment.

After really just wiping down the belly pan, we rolled the car into the studio and left for breakfast, then wandered around L.A and Hollywood all day to kill time.

We loaded up and were on the road home just minutes before 5pm, right in time for rush hour traffic once more. We were stoked on the horrible traffic and then even more excited when we hit the 90-minute construction delay at the Grapevine. Traffic is AWESOME!

Anyway, we made it home VERY late and semi-delirious, but stoked that we'd got a chance to get the car in the sun and very appreciative to have the car shot.

Here's a peek of TLS in the studio....

 

Great story Kirk! Man..what an awesome studio! Some day...

Spike

 

Congratulations on your SR photo shoot. It ain't the Gazette but ya gotta take what you can get.

 

The sneak picture alone is worth the hassle. That is a bad looking car,cant wait for more pictures.

 

so, where's the other 4000 pics of the show? ...sorry

 

Yeah, top notch all the way. It was a real honor to be there. We even got to sign the giant canvas with the likes of Dore, Barris and Saleen.

 

I took exactly ZERO at the show. Vacation for me means leaving the camera in the room.

 

The Legion, looked great there,One of the few times I took my camera out of my pack to snap a photo,you should be proud. great build...........
It was cool to see the build from start to finish on-line, and then see it in person.
Brian

 

Wow. What a range of emotions in one weekend! I know what it's like to break down with lots of people watching... kinda reminds me of getting de-pants in Junior High.. don't know whether to get pissed or laugh it off..

Congrats on the photo shoot, the car is killer, and the head gasket is an easy fix.

 

That's a really surreal picture KIRK! Almost creepy. Cool as hell!

 

The Legion Special was my favorite car at the show last weekend!!!

 

It was nice to briefly meet you guys. The car is stunning in person. I couldn't believe Seret seemed perfectly "normal".

 

I'm happy for both you and Seret. I don't know either of you guys but I like the way you approach things. The Legion Special is picking up where MCD left off... that's pretty cool.

 

damn and i was hoping you were sharing pictures. I have missed you not showing shots from the GG shows this year...

 

damn and i was hoping you were sharing pictures. I have missed you not showing shots from the GG shows this year...

 

Beautiful!

 

It was great meeting you guys...the TLS was the only pic I took.

 

El-supreme-o!! You were very brave to get thru the tight demanding schedule and new ride challenges. Congrats bro ~Sololobo~

 

Can't wait to see the pictures. I know that its' a little early, but have you diagnosed the problem with the six cylinder yet? Was the motor fresh when the car was built? If so were there modifications? Could you give us all the specs?

Thanks, John

 

It was good seeing you again and meeting Matt. Glad all worked out for you and there were no reports of gayness any where in the show all weekend. You boys really behaved. Congrats again on completing another project.

 

Newly built motor. Chevy 194 - ported, polished, balanced, blueprinted. We have not diagnosed it yet. We're going to pull the head probably this week or weekend and deck it just to be sure.

It revs up pretty well, but the idle slowly increases like there's a vacuum leak. Then it shakes quite a bit.

 

We were too tired to be idiots.

 

You looked pretty calm by the time you got our space! Instead of inane questions, I gave a meaningless story about the same thing with a hood full of louvers leaving a perfect pattern on the windshield! Kinda like a weird circle of life and all that bullshit. Oh well, good to see you guys, and the special is a stunning car... Well done!

 

Could be just as simple as the intake manifold bolts loosening up when stuff got hot. Or then again not...

 

...so I shouldn't run a Mustang II when I build mine?

This could be your second car to make the pages of the Rodder's Journal!

 

!timmaD ,lamron ma I

 

Thought I was the only one to make a speticle of myself entering the fairgrounds. Mine was popping and blowing out of both ends. Think I might have blown a head gasket too.

 

!tihslluB

 

Congratulations on getting The Legion Special to the show. Looking at the photos others have already posted, the Legion Special looked awesome at its power parking spot inside the show. That sucks to hear about the motor, hopefully it's any easy fix and not something terminal. Congratulations on the Street Rodder studio photo shoot, and all of the praise from those "heavy hitters" Matt and you deserve a ton of recognition for building one very beautiful car. Are plans still on for The Legion Special northwest tour this summer?

 

Did you guys trailer the car down or somehow insanely ride in the car together all the way down there and back!? That couldn't be possible could it?

Regardless, congrats on the show and hope you get the motor straightened out without too much effort. If it was only 250 or so and just idling and you cut it off, I can't imagine it did any serious damage. Hopefully just pull the head and reseat gasket and torque down and good to go.