Not been on here for quite some time now unfortunately, Penni and I had the chance to go from Cornwall, far south west of England to the A Bombers OSW in Uddevalla in Sweden. Great, except the gearbox in my '55 Chevy had spat the cogs out to say the least and we didn't have anything else to go in.... A couple of weeks after Easter we were chatting to our mate Nick (think he's called travelling man on here, his last thread on here started with "I've got this pile of shit...") and he knew of a '56 Suburban that would be ideal. Long story short we spent the next few months rebuilding so much of this thing its half new now, took us right up to the wire and even broke down the day before we left..... With the suspension hanging down 2 inches below the scrub line the work began..... So now at a safe but boring height we drove the 1,400 miles to the show via the hot rod hayride (which we wished we hadn't bothered...) with the fold out leather sofa bed from our front room in the back with all of our stuff underneath it, perfectly comfortable! Plans for this eventually will be for it to be a little lower, caddy caps with whitewalls and a mild custom paint job, possibly in two tone green. Unless we change our minds again...! If anyone is thinking of going to this show, its f**king awesome and well worth the drive; Just what I've selected here is minimal in comparison to the five or six hundred cars there.... Also in this time I bought an unfinished truck project, it was mostly done but needed lots of silly finishing off type jobs (loads..!!) so is now my daily driver for a while. Always wanted one and recently sold my garage and workshop recently so figured long term investment if nothing else! Bought it, sorted a few jobs, changed the moon discs for caddy caps, added a sun visor and gave her a damn good clean So now she's my daily, done over 1,000 miles so far! Next part of the grand plan is to sort my '55 out, anyone got a Saginaw 4 speed they want to sell...? haha its went bang big style! Need to sort out the bodywork, interior then get on to the mild custom work, shaving a few bits of the body to clean the lines a little and probably go for flat white paint with blue lace flake roof and flake scallops. Fingers crossed it happens in the next five years..!! Sorry for the length of the thread, if you made it this far well done! Will update soon with a bit more, thanks for reading Martyn
Top work there; and that Swedish event looks like it was a perfect antidote to the disappointment of the Hayride's new venue this year.
It was Stueee, the weather was pretty rough at times but it didn't really dampen anyone's spirit. Never chatted to so many different people who were so friendly and welcoming, and so enthusiastic about the cars. Road trip was cool too, a few of us went and every time we stopped for food or fuel we had people taking pictures and asking questions, it was all good. Shame about the hayride, we didn't even bother going on the Sunday, we didn't feel it was worth the effort. Definitely going back to Sweden though, even if it was nearly 3,000 miles altogether!
You are one very busy person, with the projects and traveling. No Moon discs with Moon Eyes on the doors of your truck?
It did have Moon discs on it before, I just felt that they were too plain for such a pretty truck, they almost brought it down when it needed something to lift it. Penni and I have 6 American cars altogether at the moment, and with 4 of them on the road they all take quite a bit of looking after...! This is Penni's truck, we restored it a few years ago now and although it drives fine there has never been any synchro on the gears so shifting the 4 speed is tricky and the 235 that puffs out a cloud of smoke every time you start it will be replaced at the same time. It still gets used plenty so will plod on yet for a while, its too much fun to take off the road yet. We also have a '50 Olds Rocket fastback with the original 303 and Hydromatic box, just fully refurbished the cooling system, fitted a new electronic ignition and 'Dynamater' generator too so she's a lovely old girl too. Don't drive it enough and with so many to look after I don't know how much longer it'll be kept for at the moment, we just don't like parting with them! I also have a '91 Sonoma that I've owned for 17 odd years or so but she's in need of a full rebuild, needs way spent on it than its worth but it was my first yank and I just can't bear to part with it so it will sit there until I make my mind up... Was my daily driver for a very long time, V6 and T55 box running on LPG makes it very cheap to run over here And the two we sold most recently were my '46 Aerosedan and Pen's Volvo, wish id kept the fastback but we can't keep them all unfortunately, no matter how hard we try! lol The Volvo was Pen's daily driver for 6 or 7 years, rain or shine and I did nearly 20,000 miles in the '46 in less than 3 years. She was totally original with single circuit drums all round, 6 volt electrics and cross plies and I couldn't get enough of driving it but had to go to make way for the '55 unfortunately
The Jalopy Journal
