Well here we are in 2026. A new year with many changes in the world and our home as well. Last year we barely travelled anywhere or attended the kind of car events that we would have liked to. So over flips the leaf and we are heading south to Australia's largest custom car event. The Taildragger Kustom Invitational. A three day event starting Friday mid-day and finishing up Sunday after an extended breakfast and cruise. Having booked in over 9 months ago we have been waiting patiently for March to roll around. For us it is an eleven hour drive if we do it in one hit. So we're planning to meet up with our mates who are also going at the halfway point. A relaxing overnight stop in a holiday park shooting the breeze and catching-up. The event has specific Taildragger entry requirements and will be a mix us US and Australian marques. Which means the next month will be all about final preparations and roadworthyness. Mike Bello from Bellos Customs will be travelling out from the states. It will be great to meet him and pick his brain of the topic of Customs. There will be highlights from the event and they normally do a video on YouTube post March. Stay tuned everyone as we gear up for....
Maybe I should have given a little more notice. It will be my first exclusive custom care event with the '39. I've even done a specific run of Tshirts haha. That is to say I'm really excited. There is a custom art show as well where entrants can bring their own. Then donate for a cause to be auctioned. So I've do e som weld garage art.
@OzMerc39 the show is done n dusted, looking forward to an update! @guthriesmith the next one is in 2028, so you have some time to organise it
Some guy had a video on YouTube of this event, was unwatchable as he was moving so fast I got motion sickness watching it. Really impressive group of cars showed up though.
Well what a journey it was for the 2nd Taildragger Kustom Invitational at Canton Beach. For us it was just over 1100 kilometres (683 miles) to get there. All other distances will be in kilometres (km). Then enjoy event and return home across two across two states. This was my first time attending as I missed the first one two years ago. So I hope that I can capture the essence of the weekend as we saw it. For those keen to see more, I have placed a FB link at the end of this post. Canton Beach is located on the east coast 117km north of Sydney in the state of New South Wales. We live in the state of Queensland, so it's a southward journey for us which makes it easy on the way there as it's all down hill . I entered 8 months ago after a good Ex-Military mate of mine entered his 50 Chevy Ute. I have never been to a specific custom event before. Readers may find that customised cars here in Australia may have some differences to the American scene. The custom car scene here in Australia is not that big, but there is a dedicated group doing their best to grow it. After entering I knew I would need to trailer the Mercury due to distance and as it's a long way for a somewhat tired 8BA and it has a rear main bearing seal leak. Fuel and oil would be comparable in use if we drove. So I set myself tasks about getting the other mechanicals sorted so the driving events would be trouble free. I secured the use of my brothers trailer where the design would allow the doors to open after loading. Previously a hire trailer we tried go to another event last year didn't allow the doors to open. I did some prep over Christmas/New Years to loading, securing then test drive to make sure everything stayed put for the two day trip. https://www.facebook.com/p/Taildragger-Kustom-Invitational-100091403185457/
Skirts (Spats) removed to avoid tie down ratchet straps from rubbing on the paint and trunk (boot) emptied to keep the back light. The Beaver tail trailer helps with loading a lowered car. It's going to be a two day trip so we linked in with our mates to meet them 8 hours down the road for an overnight stay at Valla Beach Holiday Park. 50 Chev Ute and 38 Pontiac ...there we would team up for the second day and roll in for registration then meet and greet. The 1100km rolled by event free and the Merc was rock solid on the trailer. I was a little apprehensive about towing but settled in by the second day. After arriving and unloading we fired up the Merc and rolled across to Canton Beach. We were received by rows of people lining the Holiday park roads opposite the meet and greet 'Kombi Keg' bar. The flathead loping along as Flatheads tend to do at slow speed making more noise than actual power hahaha. There were over 100 car entries and many of those cars with multiple people in them. This made for a great atmosphere with over 80% of them staying at the same Holiday Park. Lots of eyes trying to peer into the car as we cruised by. There were custom cars everywhere and people of all ages hanging out to see the new arrivals roll in. The organiser is a custom car enthusiast, he secured the use of common areas for food vans, Kombi mobile keg (with big screen TV pop top screen, large tents as covered areas for presentations as well as eating areas for families. Kids had access to the pool which was great for them as we have just entered Spring here. This year they wanted to get more Australian build cars and Australian make cars into the mix. I'm not sure how many Aussie cars there were last year but there seemed to be few this year. The mercury was brought to Oz in the early 2000's and chopped in Victoria by Fast Lane Speed shop, Ballarat. So I was glad I fitted the bill. Without any further noise from me, here are some snaps that I took in the next post. It is by no means an extensive coverage but should give you a bit of a taste. OzMerc
WARNING... Other peoples cars may appear in photos of the Mercury. Day 1 Friday afternoon meet & greet Getting some essentials in town. There is that Mercury again... Australian XL Falcon Wagon A hammered Ford single spinner.
Still Day 2 With the show & shine complete and a bite to eat we all ventured out for a 1 and a half hour twilight cruise around the coastline. We all know how that works out once you mix with everyday traffic. Especially in this case of 100 entrants hitting the road together. Traffic lights, roundabouts and highway merging all made more exciting with everyday motorists who were breaking the necks to guess what kind of cars were sharing the road with them. A 1 and a half hour cruise worked out to be A THREE HOUR CRUISE. ... and some of us here know how that ended up for Gilligan & the Skipper !!! Spot the Mercury ? and of course the cops turned up and got involved !?!?!!!
Mike Bello from Bellos Customs was the invited speaker and presented at the dinner on the evening of day 2. He spoke well and is a great amb***ador for custom cars. He was active and enthusiastic over the entire show and was never without someone asking his questions and picking his brain. With the onset of day 3 came a 20 minute cruise out in the morning for coffee and donuts breakfast and farewells. I only took a couple of photos as I was mainly talking too much to others. We were joined by the local car clubs who turned up with their non-custom cars. The organisers and Mike Bello said farewell and people left in style and began their return journey. I managed to pick up an award for my art show entry from Shaun at Desert Speed Australia. I was humbled by Shaun in choosing my welded garage art as his choice. We stayed and extra day just to unwind and then loaded up for the two day journey home.... 2,200 round trip. So that's it guys.... hope you enjoyed the thread. The Taildragger is every two years and I feel there is some great momentum from events like this given the amount of younger people involved in it this year. Waving... OzMerc
Thanks for sharing! Looks like some great cars! I was just coming to find this thread to post the video I just found…but @Outback beat me to it. Glad to find all the pics though!
Home now ... and all unloaded. Plenty of rain on the way so a few days of cleaning are at hand. Let the cleaning begin.
The Jalopy Journal
