Eastern Hot Rodder

Cruising with my friend Keith. He had is updated 1923 T-bucket hot rod theme car out for its first long ride. I was in my '41 Willys coupe and shot this short. I almost dropped my phone when I got on the Willys a little.

Great looking factory solid lifter LT-1, 4-speed equipped 71 Z28 RS Split Bumper Camaro was a Top 20 pick at the 2023 Hayesville, NC Car-B-Que.

Designed by Nash to be built overseas for the American car market, the Metro was the first American designed car to be built overseas specifically for import to America as an economy/2nd car for the misses to drive when needed. This example was too cute for me to pass by.

This '66 Chevelle has a dealer installed Cowl Plenum Induction set up. Laser straight black paint, SS396, 4speed, and black bucket seat interior is a rare setup by itself, add in the cowl plenum induction and it gets even cooler.

This turquoise '50 Ford shoebox checks all the right boxes for any fabulous '50s fan. The mild custom touches include a slight shave (door handles and emblems), as well as it being nosed and decked. The chrome lake pipes, spot lights and tasteful pinstriping complete the outside look. A rolled and pleated interior in a bright white keep it bright and fresh looking.

The Hayesville, NC Car-B-Que always has an eclectic mix of cars and trucks to make the show. They have trophies for just about everything, so it makes sense you'd see hot rods, restorations, classics, imports, trucks, modern muscle, rat rods and more.

The Mainstreet Cruise In is held near the beautiful St. Luke's Church in Cleveland, TN. It is a great show, but unbeknownst to most attending the show is the mystery surrounding the church, more specifically the marble mausoleum behind it. The story goes that the Craigmiles, a wealthy family, commissioned the building of the church in honor of the untimely death of their 7 year old daughter, Nina in 1871. She was killed in when the carriage that she and her grandfather were in was struck by a train. The church opened on St. Lukes Day 1872. The church cost a small fortune, yet the small mausoleum cost nearly as much, due to the expensive imported high grad marble used to construct it. While Nina lay in rest there her father, John, would join her in 1899 when he died of blood poisoning after sustaining an injury from a fall. 30 years later, Nina's mom Adelia Cragmile would die suddenly as well, being struck by a car while crossing the street. The 3 of them are unturned in the marble masterpiece. That isn't the spooky part. The story goes that although the mausoleum was made of the finest marble known so years after Nina was laid to rest the marble began to leach red. There have been many attempts to clean off the red stains, but nothing removed them. The stains appeared in other parts of the building as time went on. Rumor has it that there is no explanation for the red stains and it has been studied by geologists and others. What ever the reason, natural, or supernatural, it is a beautiful structure worth looking at if you are ever at the Mainstreet Cruise In held the 4th Saturday of the month throughout the cruise season. It is a great cruise in, too.

This Formcar Formula V car is a 1964 and is chassis number 157. My dad picked up a while back and everything was rebuilt and (very) loosely bolted back together. We put in a new clutch, and a friend of the family helped get that and the brakes working after my dad made new brake lines. I wired up enough of it to get it running only to discover that the rebuilt trans didn't get the needed ring gear flip to get the now mid-engine 1600 VW to have 4 forward gears. So, since I am swamped with more pressing projects I drove it up to my house and decided to bolt the body back on the little racer so that you all could get a better look at it and it would be self contained, until I get a chance to get to it.

Really or a clone? Who knows, who cares. It is still a great looking example of an early Mustang fastback in classic Wimbledon White with blue stripes.

Well, it could be a 348. Either way this beautiful '61 Impala was an awesome car. The W-engine was mated to a stick shift trans making it that much cooler. The arrest me red paint and whitewall tires shone nearly as bright as the chrome.

This '65 Vette has a pretty cool look. While the fender flares and side pipes harken back to the late '60s to mid '70s hot rod look, the larger diameter wheels modernize it just enough. The wheel choice works well because, it still maintains the tradition 5 spoke wheel design that works on a classic hot rod or muscle car. The C2 is stuffed full of big block Chevy power that is handled by a 4 Speed trans.

This is actually his first car. He has restored it into a beautiful cruiser/ show car. The color combination works well and the overall look is spot on. It is refreshing to see a Torino as it isn't your more common of muscle cars.

Keith Wagner has one helluva theme car, rat rod inspired, hot rod that he is constantly improving. This most recent upgrade is ditching the rough riding transverse spring and air shocks for airbags and a Watts Link system to keep it all centered. He designed his own brackets and fit it all together and called me up for welding duty. Check out how it's coming along.

My friend Lee built this stunning '65 Cutlass specifically for the PowerTour. The super straight spotless gloss black body surrounds a beautiful red leather bucket seat interior. The built 330 sends its legendary Olds torque through an overdrive manual transmission. Lee built the car with all the best suspension stuff he could get to make it ride and handle great. He wanted something you'd never tire being behind the wheel of. Mission accomplished.

While at the Cleveland, TN Mainstreet Cruise In we noticed a pretty clean Chevy Citation parked in the cruise. I haven't seen one in years, no decades. Are these FWD 70s and 80s cars starting to get cool enough to become collectable, or even a little desirable to the mainstream car scene, or is this just an oddball former mundane commuter car that come one managed to keep in decent shape? Chevy did offer a "sporty" X-11 package with a "power" bulge hood and big graphics for the 2 door hatchbacks. My dad always hated these cars, my friend Stephen Murray (see his channel) had one we flamed in a car wash booth on the 4th of July.

Well, this is just one great looking Fairlane GT. Nicely detailed engine connects to a 5 speed stick. 4 wheel Wildwood disc brakes provide the stopping power. This car has a great stance and the modern improvements play well with the classic style. Even the wheel choice is right on.

Jackie Jones Ford of Hayesville hosted a good show to celebrate the opening of their tire center. As expected, the show was Ford heavy, but there were plenty of other makes and models to satisfy all who came out. The weather held long enough to keep us dry through the show and the ride home. While I was putting this together I decided to drop the sound of the show down and up the songs performed by the Rubble Wallfield Band because the background noise was too much in most scenes. I wrote the lyrics and the fellas put the music to it. It was recorded in the living room of my old house. The late, great drummer and dear friend Josh Bloomfield sang while Jeremy Walz handled the guitar, and Chris Roblewski laid down the bass. Stephen Murray handled the production. He is a voice over actor, radio host, and comedian. The first track is 'Hot Rod Man' with a flat tire beat it lazily tells listener what being a hot rodder is. The second track (and everyones favorite) was the CDs title track, 'Gasser Blues'. This is a fast paced blues song I wrote about my '55 Chevy gasser, which also provided the engine revs heard in the song. The song got enough recognition in the Albany, NY area that I painted the name on the car's fender. Guess that makes it the only car to have a song written about it, then being named after that same song. Anyway, kick back, hit play, and turn it up!