Awesome pictures. Crazy, the festival grounds look exactly the same! This is a hot rod town for sure.
In additions to the great engineering, John could really handle that thing. Kinda like a roller skate on steriods.
Somewhere buried deep is my picture collection from Lodi. Only 2 things come to mind quickly about that show. First was a beautiful '29 Model A canvas coupe with red wires and the perfect nose in the weeds stance and a straight arrow body covered by a foot deep black paint job. Second is Jack Stewart's red deuce roadster with a small wings keg mounted on the luggage rack with the logo "Come get stuck in Lodi" in a Cresent shape. Jack was an NSRA rep back then. I do remember a great time. I guess I need to dig out that album and scan all the pictures . Thanks for the memories!
My time era for sure. 73 I was 14, pics like these went into my skull full of mush and dictated one day I would own something like these. Love seeing cars with the Borrani wire wheels, seldom seen today, but classy when they are.
No. I attended both during those years. May have been a change in the Nats status but the run was the same.
You gotta' start somewhere man ,and Lodi CA 1978( I think) was it for me. I was a tag along with my best friends family. 'bout 12 years old I guess. My dad wasn't really into this stuff ,so I'll always be sooo greatfull to this family for this first of many rod runs I attended with them. These were the Cars! This was the Scene! We all will develop our own personal tastes if we are true to ourselves. Though I don't currently have one I'll always be fond of Resto Rods. Uncle Ronn
I attended in 75 and 76, Was the greatest thrill to see all these cars and people from the magazines. 76 wasn't as great though, the Automatic in my 48 Ford sedan died at Micky's grove on the Friday night. Spent Sat. and Sunday working on the car. One of the club members had rebuilt my trans for me on Sunday morning!
@33 cdan man & @choffman41 - Glad you enjoyed the Lodi & Merced events! Even though my father put me to "work" during most of those weekends, I thoroughly enjoyed both events ... Really great memories! ... It was in Lodi & Merced where I had the honor of meeting several of my "Hot Rodding & Custom Car Heroes". I was just 11 years old at the 1973 LODI event ... and spent the next 16 summers attending and/or "working" several Rodding events across the country ... including (but not limited to) the following events in California: LODI '73 (1st Annual West Coast Street Rod Mini-Nats) was hosted by Nor-Cal Early Iron (NCEI) ... with Gary Meadors as the Event Director and several other NCEI members (including my father) helping to coordinate the event. LODI '74 (2nd Annual West Coast Street Rod Mini-Nats) was hosted by the Northern California Street Rod Association (NCSRA) ... with Gary Meadors as the Event Director and several others (including my father) helping to coordinate the event. LODI '75 (3rd Annual Championship Rod Run / West Coast Street Rod Mini-Nats) was hosted by the NCSRA ... with Chuck Corsello as the Event Director and several others (including my father) helping to coordinate the event. LODI '76 (4rd Annual Championship Rod Run / West Coast Street Rod Mini-Nats) was hosted by the NCSRA with Chuck Corsello as the Event Director. LODI '77 (5th Annual Championship Rod Run / Lodi Nationals Street Rod Reunion) was hosted by the NCSRA with Chuck Corsello as the Event Director. LODI '78 (6th Annual Championship Rod Run / Lodi Nationals Street Rod Reunion) was hosted by the NCSRA. LODI '79 (7th Annual Championship Rod Run / Lodi Nationals Street Rod Reunion) was hosted by the NCSRA ... with Bob Cress as the Event Director. MERCED '78 (1st Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA Western States Event Director ... and my father was Gary's "right-hand man". MERCED '79 (2nd Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA Western States Event Director ... and my father was Gary's "right-hand man". SAN JOSE '80 (3rd Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary & Marilyn Meadors were the NSRA Western States Event Directors ... and my parents were the NSRA Western States Event Coordinators. SANTA MARIA '81 (4th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA National Field Director ... and my father was the NSRA Western Nationals Coordinator. MERCED '82 (5th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA Western Nationals Event Director ... and my father was the NSRA Western Nationals Coordinator. MERCED '83 (6th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA Western Nationals Event Director ... and my father was the NSRA Western Nationals Coordinator. SAN JOSE '84 (7th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA Western Nationals Event Director. MERCED '85 (8th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA Western Nationals Event Director. PLEASANTON '86 (9th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA ... Gary Meadors was the NSRA Western Nationals Event Director. BASKERSFIELD '87 (10th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals) was hosted by the NSRA. PLEASANTON '87 (1st Goodguy's West Coast Nationals) ... Gary Meadors had left NSRA to start GOODGUY'S Rod & Custom Association ... with the help of many others (including my father). PLEASANTON '88 (2nd Goodguy's West Coast Nationals) ... PLEASANTON '89 (3rd Goodguy's West Coast Nationals) ... PLEASANTON '90 (4th Goodguy's West Coast Nationals) ... : : :
I LOVED Hot Rodding in the '70's.... I had such a AWESOME time... we drove our cars everywhere all the time, rain or shine... and we were doing it every weekend... nobody sat around, we got in and went. Thank you for sharing great memories.
HEMI32 - do you have dash plaques and/or T-shirts from all of the events listed? now you would have to get a tattoo from each-Ha!
Dash plaques - YES T-shirts - NO (they were being stored in our shop ... all were water damaged by a leaky roof ... almost all were thrown away ) Event Programs - YES (multiple copies) Pics - YES (literally hundreds of photographs and color slides) Misc. Memorabilia - YES (windshield stickers, mugs, etc.)
@b-bob - Thanks for this info! ... I have updated the caption accordingly. Your post got me to thinking about all of the cars at this 1973 event that are still owned by the same guy (or family). Here's @alex blanca and his 1931 Model A Sedan ... ... then: ... and now: Here's Joe Cardoza's 1929 RPU ... ... then: ... and now: Here's Dino (@fremont32) Ramacciotti's Deuce Roadster ... ... then: ... and now: Here's Gary Meadors' Deuce Tudor Sedan ... ... then: ... and now: Here's Jim (@34's father) Robinson's 1934 5wd Coupe ... ... then: ... and now: ... and I obviously still have my father's Deuce 5wd Coupe (i.e., "HEMI 32").
As I mentioned in post #20, @Tom Branch maintains his father Bill Branch’s photo archive of ‘70s Street Rodding events ... including several from the '73, '74, & '75 LODI Mini Nationals. Tom has graciously allowed me to share these pics with the H.A.M.B. community ... so here's some images that I'm sure were shot at LODI '73. First up is Andy (@AndySS) Southard Jr.'s '28 Model A Phaeton ... which at the time, was owned by Randy (@cheesegrater) Kenney: LODI '73 image from the Tom Branch "Street Is Neat" Collection NOTE: Here's a B&W of @AndySS posing with his '28 Tub (& '29 Roadster):
Here's Bob Cress’ ‘37 Chevy Business Coupe: LODI '73 image from the Tom Branch "Street Is Neat" Collection NOTE: Bob a member of the NHRA Safety Safari in the ‘50s, help start (and later owned) the Kingdon Drag Strip, and a member / president of the Franklin Syndicate car club in Stockton, CA.
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