Features Pics of Rods with Chrome Steelies?

This one is half right. View attachment 6164784

 

Here we go, with whitewalls, on a truck.

 

At the show, with accessories.

 

Just one more.

 

Hello,

It was between opening the gate and 9:00 am at the Riverside Raceway Pits in late December of 1959. It was to be an all day long event and we had just arrived after a two hour drive. There were no freeways back then and the road leading to the event grounds was a two lane road. Some parts of the highway ran parallel to a flowing river.

The wide open raceway led to a huge pits area that had some race cars we had never seen before. they came from all over the USA.

Candy Apple Roadster Riverside Raceway Pits


But, boy, was it an event… It was the first time that a huge group of traveling drag racers came to So Cal for a big time “East vs West” event which led to invites to all top racers from the USA participating and joining one side or another.


Jnaki

Many years later, at the Lion’s Dragstrip Museum openings, when talking to some old friends from the So Cal, way back time machine and to other old time drag racers, we remembered all races and locations. As young teens and 20 somethings, we just happened to be there and the memories flowed like thin syrup.

We packed tall cliff sides for one portion of viewing the races to almost free access to all parts of the wide open dragstrip surface. It was fun to be able to walk all over the property and feel as close to the racers as we could get, even close enough to lose our hearing during eliminations at the starting line.

As the named drag racers were listed, there were others that showed up with some interesting creations for their own classes.


The So Cal Willys sedan, record setting Gas Coupe/Sedan Class champion was there:

The 1320 record setting Willys sedan class champion to a relatively new builds:

All in the name of performance and competition…



Note:

Not everything went smoothly… Filming as much as I could in the pits led to lunch time. As I was finishing my lunch, some racers disagreed with various things that go on at big drag races. At a large gathering, some tempers were a little short and resulting in some bad feelings. Some folks just don’t get it… YRMV

 

Hello,

A 1965 Chevelle SS model is a rare commodity. Only a few top of the line models were made and delivered to various Chevrolet dealers across the USA. I was not able to get closer to take other photos, but the look and styling fits right into the mid 60s version that we would see around the cruising areas. Again, they were rare builds and not everyday sightings.

In 1965, I tried three different local Long Beach area Chevy dealers to be able to outfit my choice of a 65 El Camino with an SS package, including a 396 c.i. motor, 4 speed and bucket seats. The word was no factory order sheet was available to get that build made. At any cost. Well, I said to take out the bucket seats and SS logo, but keep the 396 and 4 speed. The fast answer after talking to the “final manager” of the dealership was an emphatic “NO.”

Jnaki

So, I was happy for a 327 powered El Camino with Positraction rear gears and it lasted 125k miles of cruising all over California from 1965 to 1976. The kid that bought it was a surfer/sailor and he had plans for a trailer hitch for his sailboat. After several months, I saw the El Camino cruising in Laguna Beach and he had painted it a dark blue color.

Note:

All of my troubles with the dealers I talked to for ordering the 396 + 4 speed + Positraction was laughable. In the next ordering year, my friend needed a small pickup truck, liked my red El Camino as we drove to the desert many time for our desert hare and hound races. We even went south of the border for a couple of coastal beach, sand dunes, cliff areas for something different when our district had a first time set of races near and sometimes in salt water.

Most of it was hard pack sand close to the water, but as the tide came in, we were squatting low and the sprays from the leading bikes gave us a salt water spray. Yes, we stopped in San Diego to hose off the salt before the long ride back to Long Beach. Guess what we ventured down to Baja, Mexico in during those last two times?

A new 1966 Chevy El Camino with bucket seats, a 4 speed and a 396, including Positraction. All in a new El Camino ordered straight from the closest Chevy dealer near Lion’s Dragstrip entrance portal. It was all like I would have imagined after my test drive a year earlier in an SS sedan. power, handling and reserve power + comfort in the bucket seats. No, it was not an SS version, but a normal dealer order sheet filled out and probably made in Fremont, California near my old college apartment. YRMV

 

I kinda like the paint around the lug nuts. I asked @Moriarity about that practice a few years back and he said he thinks it was due to the plating/polishing being poor in that small area. Likely. I almost painted mine gold in the centers and stuck the spiders back on, I still think it would be cooool.

Anyone have a picture of painted centers in chrome steel wheels with spider caps?

 

^^^^I totally missed that one. That looks bitchin!

 

Love this coupe

 

Hopefully it will get painted,it's to nice to have fake patina

 

Here's my old coupe

 

JR's Deuce Pickup Project