Featured Features 40 COOP Goes to Custom Car Revival...another adventure

Well folks, I have been on another adventure in 40 COOP. This time it's been a drive from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Indianapolis for Kevin Anderson's Custom Car Revival. This is my first trip there. Last year I was planning to go but didn't have things ready in time, so I cancelled at the last minute. This year was similar, and I was doing a lot of changes to 40 COOP that took me right up to the last minute to accomplish. But thrashing on a car is not an unusual experience for us guys, right?

What added to the need to be there this year was an invite from Kevin and Steve Coonan, Publisher of Rodder's Journal, for custom cars that were featured in Rodder's Journal. GOTTA BE THERE!

The ride was an adventure, only about 550 miles, and overall it was a wonderful experience to make it to the show. Here's Jay and me at the Park-N-Ride at I-70 and MD32, where I picked him up:



But first, a recap of my trials and tribulations:

When Jay Fitzhugh and I drove to Bonneville in 2012 to meet up with the Doug Rice Coupe (Bonneville Boomers in TRJ #57) I was thrashing right up to the last minute....sound familiar? The wiring of the car after the channel job ended up looking like it was a rat's nest created by a rat with ADHD! The gauges in the '50 Ford dash were of my own creation and did not function fully, especially always at only 11.7 volts and a voltmeter that just plain did not work. I never got the 700R4 to lock up, so it ran hot (I think) all the way out and back.

So for this trip I have done a partial rewire,, using a Coach Controls power pannel and a set of Gauges from Classic Instruments that are made for '50 Ford dashes. I don't know if any of you have heard of the Coach Controls wiring system, but my nephew, Bill Strasser (in Florida) put me onto them and I really like the system. The power panel is on a printed circuit with all fuses and relays plus connections for the conductors on terminal posts around the perimeter that use ring terminals to each of the systems:



On 40 COOP I connected all systems (engine, front end lights, rear lights, gauges, A/C, radio, etc.) using the existing wiring, so that took a fair amount of time and re-routing. BUT IT WORKED!

I finally connected the tranny lockup correctly (Boy! Are there ever a lot of different opinions out there on YouTube!) and it worked GREAT!

So I was thrashing until 11PM on Wednesday June 4 and left to pick up Jay at 6AM on Thursday and drove straight thru (not in the original plan).

Straight through is a only figure of speech....

@#%&!# I-70 in Ohio and Indiana....Dropped into a large pothole near Columbus that threw off my driver-side fender skirt. Fortunately, I had a piece of bailing wire that hung on to it, but we didn't know it until I was near a jersey barrier that echoed a bad sound.:

Rubbed it right through the fiberglass, so I patched it with Gorilla Tape and identified the culprit at the show:



Thr cross-seams on the Indiana portion of I-70 thumped the car so badly that I cracked an exhaust pipe right after the header outlet, so we pulled into the Drury Hotel (venue for the show) with a loud leak. Fortunately, with Kevin Anderson's help, I was able to get it temporarily fixed on Friday morning and re-arrived and the show in a much quieter manner.





By the way, Bonneville salt did its dirty work on my exhaust. eventually I will be redoing it in stainless.

So for today, I will close with a few pics at the show. I'm doing all this on Fathers' day, so it is obvious I did not try to put out a report while on the road....







Later......

 

Great story, great car, couple of great local car guys on a great road trip. Thanks for posting for us to enjoy, Jim. Glad you two made it out there and back safely.....Don.

 

Beautiful 40.
Road scars are a badge of honor, earned the hard way.
Thanks for the great story.

 

Great post!
Thanks for sharing the realities of cross-country trips; late night thrashes, roadside repairs, etc.

 

Thanks for the road trip report. Driving these cars is never without risk to their condition, but that's why we own them. Every weakness discovered is a chance to make it better and stronger for the next trip.

 

It was so kool to see your coupe at CCR. We just got into town and we saw you driving in to the hotel. What a kool view watching your coupe in action. Sorry we didn't get the chance to visit. Thank you for posting about your adventure.

 

I’d drive it

 

I'm b-a-a-a-k!

I'll discuss travels with travails on the return trip later. For now, on to the SHOW!

CCR being at the Drury Plaza Hotel was really neat. Jay and I had a room on the 10th floor. The Customs were in a parking area designated for their ilk, along with displaying on a grassy area just off the pavement, where the headquarters tent was positioned. Del Villareal (from DEEtroit spun the tunes from the tent and assisted on announcements (but I'll get to that later).

Mostly, I'm gonna post pics of cars, with a few comments about some of them (or their owners), so here goes....

First off, here's 40 COOP in line with the Customs Featured in The Rodder's Journal, with the undamaged fender skirt side showing, when Kevin guided me into the spot after I got back from the muffler shop. Note the CCR tent in the background.



I felt I was in in pretty heady company, especially next to the Alexander Brothers Pontiac.

So then I did a walkaround.....











I gotta say, the weather cooperated nicely, both on Friday and Saturday...It was generally cloudy (good for photos) and no rain during the days.....



Kustoms from mild to wild.....









The Curtin clan from Pennsylvania (we had them in Jalopyrama...Customs at the Shipley, so it was something of a reunion with them for me and Jay):





How many mild custom '57 Fords with tube grilles did we see back in the day.....and how many do we see today.....not enough!



Well folks, I'm gonna quit for now.....might get kicked off for posting too many pics at one sitting.

Be back tomorrow......

 

Awesome! I always love your trips posts.

I hit some gnarly road in Oklahoma and busted some shock mounts off and cracked an exhaust
Manifold. I feel you on the on the road repairs! Part of the adventure I suppose

 

Jim thanks for the photos and trip stories.

 

Customs, Customs, and more Customs......

What made me thrash to get here was the invite for Custom Cars that were featured in The Rodder's Journal, 40 COOP being one of them. Steve Coonan, Publisher of TRJ, is now operating out of Denton, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore, about 40 miles from my home. Steve drove over to CCR and arrived late Friday.

Here's Steve with me and Jay:



While I was planning on coming to CCR this year, anyway, a call from Kevin to put out the invite from TRJ inspired me to call Don RIchardson, restorer and owner of the Doug Rice Coupe, the original Bonneville Boomer, to se if we could do a reunion of our own by his coming to CCR from Washington State. He was making plans to do so, which would have been REALLY KOOL. That's when I talked to Jay and he wanted to ride along, just as he did in 2012. However, it turned out that Don had another commitment the same weekend.

My keep-it-always copy of TRJ 57 has a few signatures I value: Don Richardson, Jay Fitzhugh, and especially Doug and Janet Rice. (Doug Rice has fairly recently passed).



It was my intention to have Steve Coonan also sign it, but we didn't get together with a new Sharpie during the weekend, but soon I can bring the mag and Sharpie to him in Denton......

So here's the lineup of Custom Cars that were featured in TRJ that were brought to CCR 2025:


























Sorry about the thumb in the corner of the pics.....new phone, inept photographer....GRRRR!

Later in the day, I got permission to gather all the owners of these cars for a photo session. It's just a habit of mine to document things that way. With the help of DJ Larry Villareal in announcing the time to get it on (herding cats...but this time Kool Cats), Steve Coonan shot each of the cars with their owners. Maybe the pics will show up in TRJ.

So that's about it for today's posting.

More Customs, Customs, and more Customs tomorrow......

 

Great coverage, Jim. Thanks for taking the time....Don.

 

Very cool! Glad to see @drdave got the Impala out!

 

Thanks for posting those great photos.

 

Jim can’t wait to hear the return trip adventure.

 

Thanks for posting the adventure. Sure glad you got the car there for the display. I noticed the fender skirt when you pulled up in the spot next the Impala. Road trips in customs is always an adventure. Blew two tires on the way to Lead Ain’t Dead one year. Haha

 

Jim, what's wrong? I cannot believe you did not build your own power panel while stuck on the side of a backroad two-lane. And your own voltmeter as well. Lots of good company once you got there. Still another great Irish tale.

 

I was someplace close when the DJ Del Villareal was talking about doing that announcement. I always end up hanging out with him at CCR. Weird enough, his show on Rockabilly Radio is playing in the background as I type this.

 

It was great talking to you at the CCR. My son and I pulled in to wash off the bugs and stretch our legs after 10 hours of driving to get there. As you were telling me about losing the skirt, I was thinking how dang lucky we were to not lose one driving on those Ohio roads. Your 40 coop is so cool even with the road rash. I found myself looking at it from every angle and various distances throughout the weekend. Super cool car!

 

Thanks for the kind words. Now, I'm gonna step away rom the coverage of the show and 'splain what I did when I got back:

I also share your fear of losing a fenders skirt on the trip. Now it ain't gonna happen again. Note that my skirts are fiberglass that my wife bought for me in about 1992. Here's a pic on that version of 40 COOP when I turned it from Street Rod to Custom:



The attachment to the fender were aftermarket with a screw clamp with a thumbscrew at the front, a clamp bar that pinched onto the flat edge at the back and a lever that captured it at the top. The lever rotated with the handle swinging forward to be wired to the thumb screw with bailing wire. The pothole shook the rear clamp off and the bailing wire saved the skirt by dragging it from the front on the pavement.

So now I have repaired the skirt using West Systems Epoxy with a layer of fine weave covered with a layer of coarser weave fiberglass on the inside and outside, followed by magic mud and Eastwood rattle can 2K epoxy primer:




Here's apicture of the rear clamp with my hang-on-to-it fix. I used a longer 1/4" SS socket head bolt that allows me to screw on a SS coupling thru which I drilled a hole for a 1/16" wire rope loop tail.



The other end of the tail is wrapped around the fender brace and crimped. The brace is a rod that extends from the frame to the bottom edge of the fender, so that loop cptures the skirt bolt.



So to paraphrase a gospel song...."Ain'ta gonna looose that skirt no more!"

 

While we are on the subject of fender skirts and the fear of losing them on the road, this is Earl Bergeron's 51 Merc....







Ain't that the epitome of a TRADITIONAL CUSTOM? The chop is both beautiful and perfection....and he drove it from North Carolina without dragging a fender skirt.....

But now back to the show...













But there's always time for another story...

Back in 2017, Jay Fitzhugh and I sent out a bunch of invites to Jalopyrama for "Customs at the Shipley", in Westminster, MD. While it is usually customary to only invite "finished" cars, there was one shoebox that HAD to be there. Pennsylvania's Mike "Jersey Mike" Sutton had been seriously injured in an industrial accident including a broken back. We arranged to get him and his car there and were proud to have him in the show.





But during the traditional pre-setup tour, one of the other entrants threw the fan through the radiator of his '57 Olds. He was able to get a new radiator and water pump shipped in, but later was able to arrange a ride in another entrant's trailer back home. So we were all gathered around as the cars emptied out of the arena. The Olds was pushed into alignment with the trailer ramps and someone had to hook the cable under the car and steer it in...

As we able-bodied gentlemen stood around, we all watched Jersey Mike get down on the concrete and do the hookup thing, etc., etc., etc. We all felt ashamed.......

So at CCR 2025, I reconnected with Jersey Mike Sutton, was pleased to hear and see that he was doing pretty well, and enjoyed seeing the completed shoebox:





Well I guess that's enough tales and tails for today.

Later 'Gater

 

Anybody got any build photos of this Buicaminoooo ??

 

It's Saturday morning....

I left a note on the DJ's table: "How 'bout kicking off the show this morning with Mule Skinner Blues, by the Fendermen?"

And He did!

" GOOD MORNIN' CAPTAIN...GOOD MORNIN' TO YOU A HAHA, HA, HAHA,........"

So now I'll continue the walkabout among the cars:





Haven't seen a '54 Capris in a long time.......







Lotta skirts...the only ones my wife will let me chase.....



















Now to close out this posting for today, I want to relate an unofficial honorarium...

Listening in on a smll group conversation, I heard comments about the GM Tech Center, in Warren, Michigan. I butted in with my story about my being a GMI student in '62-'64 and as my co-op being Chevrolet Engineering Center (before I flunked out!). After some introductions, it turned out I was talking with Larry Erickson, lead designer of some models of Cadillac as well as Cadzilla! Larry was VERY complimentary about the proportions and style of the chop and channeling of 40 COOP. I was flying high!!!





See ya on the next posting....

 

Thank You for sharing your adventure.
You have created a stunning coupe. The '40 is tough to improve on,
but you have really brought the lines out to compliment each other.
Your trip is one I often took on my way to work.
Thanks for the camera work. I appreciate all of your efforts.

 

'Nother story that Jay told me and I will pass on in my own words, as I'm guessing has been told over and over and over....

Larry Erickson was a pretty high up guy at GM Styling, working on the design of various Cadillacs in the late 1980s. But he and some of his fellow designers were "moonlighting" on the design of Cadzilla for Billy Gibbons. I understand that they worked on the design right at GM Styling after hours and created the full size profile there, hiding it behind some cabinets during working hours. Here's a pic of the rendering (thank you Custom Car Chronical):



But the BIG BOSS of Styling happened to look over their shoulders as a couple of the guys were looking at smaller renderings over a table. CAUGHT red handed! They confessed what was going on behind his back, so he grabbed one of the renderings and stomped off to Larry's office. "What's going on here?" he exclaimed to Larry, who also reacted sheepishly about his misuse of company time. Larry stammered some with an exclamation as the BIG BOSS then exclaimed "It's GREAT!!!"

So that's my version of the story.

Back to the "really big shew".....

























So now I'm gonna close this post with a short story about Jay and me at the show. We both decided to wear our t-shirs from The Rodder's Jurnal Revivals at Pimlico in Baltimore in 2013 and 2014. We had someone take a picture and here it is:



Unfortunately, it was much later in the day that I realized that MY T-SHIRT WAS ON BACKWARDS!

Well, that's it for today. More pics later.....

 

Thanks for making the trek out, it was awesome to see your car in person. Those roads out that way can be a bear!

 

Great pics and story.....thanks for sharing!!

 

Jim, thanks for sharing ! Love the road trip stories, fabrication feats, and engineering that
goes into your builds. Glad you made the CCR this year and congrats on Rodders Journal article.

 

Okay! Okay! I know I've fallen behind on my posts.....

So my wife showed me this from the Washington Post this morning and I thought you car guys would get a kick out of it:



So watch where you lay your car mags......

The last Merc on my last post was among a series of either restored original or clone Kustoms known by all of us old geezers from thae days of the little mags. So I am going down the line of photos of them:



















And then there's one of my favorites of all time, the Blue Danube. I have loved that car since I got the 1957 Restyle Your Car!



So I went up to the owner (I'm terrible on names. Sorry.) and said (cleaned-up paraphrase), "Seeing this car, I'm feeling like a 16-year-old kid with a (insert sexually excited member here)!" And that's the truth.....





So Jay snapped a pic with me beside it...



Well, that's it for today. See ya!