Event Coverage Aussie Rodders do Santa Maria and on to LARS

I suppose it has been brewing for a while now , been wanting to do a Hotrod Tour for years and then after reading ChevyGirlRox post 6000 miles in a Flathead Roadster it inspired the Betterhalf and myself to do some organising and take the plunge . Colleen organised heaps and looked up plenty of things to do and how far they were from where we were staying , socalcarculture.com was a godsend thanks , and some posts that we had read but after years of reading Mags and posts I really wanted to see Paso (now Santa Maria ) and the Fathers day show . After a 15hr flight we landed at LAX , caught a cab to the RV hire place and headed north , I don't like new Technology much but this was the first time I have used a GPS and it is a new friend Unfortunatley the Hotrod wouldn't fit in the hand luggage so this was our ride , maybe not the coolest hire company ,


As we headed north we remembered that it was Memorial Weekend so the traffic was Killer not to mention driving on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road (sorry to anyone who encounted us coming head on ) we made it to Santa Maria for the last 1/2 hr of the Crusin' which was cool ,

it was about now we realised the RV company had not supplied any bedding or Towels so off to WalMart for our first Walmart Experience WTF , why does Walmart attract the freaks ?? late night that night and a very long day .

In the morning we were up early and off to the fairgrounds , plenty happening already when we arrived and the Camera was going overtime ,


Look like some US Gals behind that Buick !







Loved this car , if it stays how it is it is cool but painted it will be sweet , the side glass was wow,


Met some Hotrod /Custom Icons while walking around , Gene Winfield was a very nice guy and it was great to meet him , also met George Barris , Weesner , Pat Ganahl

Then headed for the HAMB get together at Midday , met HotRodLadyCruzr and ChevyGirlRox , was great to meet you both and get the lowdown

Then off to take some more shots of Hambers Cars ?


More to come .................

 

More pics








The Lace on this truck was killer , and everywhere
Some friends from OZ had found the Beer tent at 8.00am , somewhere in the world it was 8.00am

 

Great adventure, thanks for posting !

 

Killer pix Greg; great to see you finally made the trip....AWESOME !!

Any more pix?

Rat

 

More pics ....







Most of you have probably seen these all before but it was all new to us , Santa mari was all it was hoped to be ..


Ended up meeting the Owner of this stunning Merc a bit later in our trip , great guy....




Loved this surburban ...










Cool as Stude 2R5 Pickmeup


more to come Soon ..............

 

glad ya made it over here,nice pics

 

Great pics. A lot of really nice cars not shown in other threads. Must be the Aussie eye
Pete

 

Thanks for the pictures. I hope to make the same adventure some day.

Jim

 

and some more pics from Saturday , love the Surfboard aircleaner on this Tin Woody Pontiac longroof ,












Love 61' Caddy's .........







Hell , these two 32's would have been on the Hamb more times than any other cars maybe but you don't get sick of em'





More to come ..............

 

and these .......







Never seen a Chopped '59 El Camino before and would have thought it would have bombed but this was Sweet , nice job all over



And its nice to see a Tri-Five Chevy as a custom , this '56 was just Slick ..
After the show on Saturday we headed on the Cruise to the Hitching Post but were a little late for Dinner , damn , smelled great and SanDiego Joe told us later the Steaks Rocked , we headed back into town and watched some unofficial Crusin' Cruised the Parking lot at the Rancho Bowl and then into the Santa Maria Inn for a look , plenty of cool rides in the carpark and out on the street crusin' ....this Rolls Royce Silver Cloud Custom was different and worked ..



Next morning we were back early for the show and we were a little surprised and how quite it was probably 2/3 the cars , less people to get in your pics and a really great atmosphere , lot of the winners were lined up but there was a fair few new cars , or I missed them on Saturday ,









This paintwork is simply amazing ,


Old Ranchero Custom had a lovely patina ....



took plenty more pics both days but need to move on , after the Presentations we headed back up the coast a little to Pismo Beach and had dinner with some Hambers who had invited us along , SanDeigo Joe and his Wife Christine , HotrodLadyCruzr and ChevyGirlRox , ate at a place called Steamers which had a great veiw of the water and good food , had to pinch Denises pics here as our Camera was flat by then ,

 

Haha...really nice pix Greg.....I see you got to meet some fellow Hambers; those two do seem to be everywhere man....!!

Rat

 

Great photos. Glad you got to come over to sample life on our side of the water. Freaks in Wal-Mart, really?

 

Nice pics! Thank you for showing them.

 

Thanks for the pics, some realy nice rides. Looks like you had a ball.

 

After Santa Maria was over on Sunday it was Sightseeing time , so after a little swapmeet at Nipomo we headed for LA again along Highway 1 (the Coast) a little longer but we are on tour , saw this cool old Drive inn at Lompoc ,


As we headed though Malibu I spied this little Gem on the Hill , looks like it has some Garage Buddies as well ,



Then just cruised along in the Traffic ......





checkin' out the sites heading for Anaheim .......
In the Morning it was up and on the way to Disneyland , what !! Every tourist goes to Disneyland ..........



Couldn't help when walkin' around Disneyland if any of the Original Roth or Dutch signs or paint still survive as they would restore the place reguarly , I believe they both worked there for a time ,



I love old Service Stations and petrol stuff ... even Toon stuff is cool



and Toon Studebakers are cool .....



even saw this cool Mickey framed Print in one of the Many shops , the Dark side of Mickey was he was a rouge street racer



It was a big day and Space Mountain sucks , who would of thought to make a Rollercoaster in the dark ......WTF !!!!!

Next Morning it was back to the action with a few visits to HotRod shops in the LA Area , Moon was first , was great , Young guy gave a great tour and showed us some of the workings and what they still make on site was great , and the room full of vintage casting bucks was cool to see .........







More to come soon , next its of to Limeworks to see Limey Steve ,

 

Thanx for the great pics dude. The mooneyes shop is bitchen!

 

Hey Guys!!
Looks like your havin one hell of a time!!
If You dont get me at least 1 cool t-shirt-thats it!!!
No welcome home for you!!!!

 

Great photos, Like Striper said, many cars that have not been shown.
Looks like you're having a ball!
Very envious.

 

Thanks Frank , good to hear from you , we had a ball , I have about 4000 pics to sort through so its taken some time , I was good to meet up with some great guys and gals who had a few local stories , wasn't long enough of course , talk soon .

cad

 

Hey Richo , back now unfortunatley , but I do have something for you , no T-shirt but I think you will like it . Need to catch up soon ,

Cad

 

wow great pics glad you had a ball over there

 

Back already!!!!
Sheeeesh time flys when your havin fun!!!

 

Great pictures -thanks for sharing

 

What a great choice of events, and the location gave you some great opportunity to see some U.S.A. icons. Nice pix and appreciate you sharing your good times with us. ~Sololobo~

 

Back to it , after Moon we headed over to Limeworks which was a cool stop , Steve and his team were very welcoming and happy for us to have a sticky around , his wifes '32 Sedan is a sweet daily and there was some cool rides in the shop , unfortunatley Steve didn't have his Daimler powered Roadster there but luckily we got to see it at LARS later , nice with a cool engine , the bare metal Allard was coming along strong , if you haven't already check out their website , Steve has a cool '40 style Column in the works that he has tested in his Sedan with a couple of cool safety features , and he has '40 style wheels to top the column off , not a plug , just loved the workmanship and product ,







Love Studes and this '47 Rag was a good car with a better engine ..

Then it was off to the Petersen Museum , if you are going to LA this is a must see and there is so much in there and they rotate their cars reguarly , but to see there displays they were a standout , the car dealership Showroom and streetscape is really cool ,







as I have said before I love Petrol Stations and related stuff and they had some nice stuff ,










they have a bell speed shop , d'Agostino Drive inn and a chopped Merc Workshop happening , do you think the Curator is a Hamb member ............ or should be

 

I have been to the LARS a couple of times and never saw 1/2 the shit you did. Great photos and thanks for sharing. Glad you had a good trip, By the way you want see some Walmart freaks, "google" people of walmart and have a real laugh.

 

Super post. Thanks.

 

Some Cool models ..........


before we headed upstairs we put some more money in the Parking meter , obviously this was going to take a little longer , even then we didn't put enough money in , had a present under the wiper when we got back later
Anyhow upstairs we went and things just got better , possible ??


The Doane Spencer Roadster , a little came out the end ........



The Grease Lightning ..........where's the Gladwrap roll



Man , I ...........ooops




MMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......Hotwheels



Hollywood cars ... this Caddy Ghia was stunning and in the new Ironman pic , probably only for a second , it used to be Rita Hayworths car when new ..





Beautiful Scale model of the Batmobile , and the Chrysler Turbine (not a scale model)





Stunning Custom was mouthwatering ,



The Bike room ........ never seen a Kaiser Darin in the flesh




And then to cap off ...........




Man that was good , there was lots more so I haven't spoiled it for everyone ..... back soon

 

No Problem , thanks for looking , like I said I was inspired by a similar thread so I thought this may help people to show things to do if they venture So-cal way,

Thanks, I am glad we took the plunge , two great events at either end and a mix in the middle worked for us

Hey Pete , thanks , must be the Aussie eye

Hey Jim , do it ASAP, would have loved to have done it in a Hotrod though !!

Thanks, your side of the pond is HOTROD /CUSTOM Heaven for us !!

Thanks for looking !!

Thanks for looking !!

Man it was good , as you know we have some killer cars in OZ but to go to a show and see a completely different show of cars was a buzz

Absolutley Bitchen , and still a working factory making coolness ..

We did , and threw in some sightseeing as well

Thanks , plenty more to come

Hey , great Coupe , thanks for sharing , sorry I didn't come and say hello at Santa Maria ...

Thanks, We had a lot of people say while we were in the states we had picked a couple of standout events to go too , we certainly enjoyed them but you could be there a year and not see all the good events ...

Thanks for that .........

 

Nice to see your pics and adventure! I wanna go back to Disneyland one of these days, I haven't been since I was 8!

Looking forward to seeing more...