Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Beware! Watch out! As you cruise the highways and byways of the asphalt jungle this weekend, you’re going to see predators prowling–blown, injected, bored, stroked, rodded mild and wild. Hot cars from around the country have begun their rumbling annual migration into the state for its largest road-iron powwow, and one of the biggest on earth.

Tell us what you see. Where did you see it? How was the paint? How was the sound? Big-time car enthusiasts from around the country, and from other countries, are coming here by the thousands for a little Minnesota hospitality and some fairgrounds fun. Give ‘em a wave. Say hello. Their four-wheeled pride&joys are going to be everywhere around the Twin Cities this weekend.

If you’re here from out of town and find your way to this site, tell us where you’re from! What did you come in? What’s your favorite part of the show? How long have you been coming?

Several of us from this website will be on hand throughout the weekend at the Star Tribune booth. Stop by. Say hello. We’d love to hear about your car and your weekend.

Thursday night was one of the best get-togethers I’ve been to at Minnetonka Drive-In.

Weather was nice, great cars in every direction, and a lot of Minnesota car fans happy the snow and the rain were gone—for now. There were rat rods, customs, bone stock vehicles, motorcycles and a lot of proud owners on hand.

Hang around vehicles and enthusiasts like these and you can see and learn some cool stuff….

Tom Snead is a former instrument builder who brought his fine woodworking skills to bear on his enviable ‘67 Vette (a 400-horse 427 big block Vette, that is). The typical steering wheel here is plastic. Not Snead’s. His wheel, dash and shifter base plate are burled walnut. The round rudder betrays Snead’s instrument-making background. Mother-of-pearl buttons look a lot like those on a guitar neck, and the abalone insets evoke similar touches on a guitar or violin. The insets lie over dovetail joints, which connect each walnut section around the wheel. Because the wood surrounds a metal rim, it has front and back pieces, with their seam neatly covered in ebony. —Sweet stuff for the Vette, instrument and fine woodworking fan.

How about this cherry turbocharged Corvair? Dave Gustafson is the lucky finder and owner of this machine. The air-cooled, rear-engine Corvair is always a novelty, but with factory turbo and pristine paint and interior, it’s an inviting and enviable summer toy too.

And who doesn’t like El Caminos? (Well some people don’t but some people don’t like going out in the sun or driving in the country, either, so let’s ignore them for now.) The paint job atop this ‘59 is a masterful piece of art, making a good car even better and more personalized.

Immerse yourself in this stuff long enough and parts can come full circle. In the course of building my 215-V8 powered TR6, I sourced a rare manual transmission bellhousing from a West Coast junkyard. The transmission I settled on, from a TR8, came with a bellhousing, however, so I parted with mine to a 215 specialist I know in town. Naturally, I regretted it immediately. Talking with the owner of this Morgan Plus-8, which uses the same engine (GM sold it to Rover in the 1960s, and it spread to many British cars), I learned 215 specialist Jim built his V8 and got him the bellhousing to mate up a GM transmission. I know where that bellhousing came from! ‘Least it went in an excellent car…

If this beautiful ’Bird looks a lot like the one in American Graffiti, it should. Most of the shots of Suzanne Somers show her in a ’56, but there was a white ’57 on the set too and several shots are framed too close to see the differences. Owner Randy Schneider knows this car was shipped new to an LA car dealer and was sold by Movieland Auctions as excess inventory for Universal Studios in the mid-’70s. He doesn’t have the VIN of the car used in the film, but the evidence he’s gathered indicates that the platinum blonde who captivates Richard Dreyfuss’s character may have batted her baby blues from this very Thunderbird.

As a long-time gear guy, I’ve come to really enjoy and appreciate the old cars, the ones that have been fully restored to previous glory and also those RODS that have been souped up or, as the young folks say, tricked out.

This weekend, at the Back to the 50s blow out, I’m looking forward to seeing plenty of both. But I’m wondering if those folks who are actually involved in car projects would like to speak up on behalf of either side. Is it more work to do a restore-to-original project or to soup up/trick out a vehicle?

–Angelo Gentile

Cars Editor, Star Tribune Specialty Publications Group

Yesterday I cruised down to Bloomington to see a pristine 1954 Buick Skylark convertible for a Locals in Motion piece (e.g. LIM1, LIM2, LIM3, LIM4**note: this is 2002 piece; this year’s Back to the 50s is June 22,23,24) running July 6th. Wouldn’t start.

We jumped it. It died. Wouldn’t start again. We jumped it. It died.

So we photographed it in owner Rene’s driveway. (Naturally, after the shoot, it kicked over immediately when she shut it off and turned the key.) Point is, it’s time to get those trickle chargers out, check fluids, check for leaks, air up the tires and get a few miles in to get your car over to the Back to the ’50s next (not this) weekend.

Here are two weekly stops you can make to get in a few miles, make sure everything’s working right and talk to fellow enthusiasts.
Every Tuesday night, cars from the ’50s, ’60s and before meet informally in the parking lot by Caribou Coffee in Glen Lake. There are usually a couple cars there by 6:30 and a dozen or more on a good night.

A bigger gathering happens on Thursday nights on Shoreline Drive in Spring Park at the Minnetonka Drive In. Lots of cars, lots of good people, plus burgers, excellent fried chicken, fries, and shakes. Gathering lasts from about 5:30 to dark. Time was when cars would light off on departure, giving the crowd a taste of vintage hot rod muscle. Now John Law is typically on hand–though not necessarily in view–to enjoy the festivities, so keep things cool to avoid unwanted paperwork.

The V-8-in-a-Triumph-TR6 project has come a long way. The engine is in, all hooked up, getting fuel, getting oil pressure, she starts, she runs. But the radiator was a question mark–would the old Triumph heat-exchanger be big enough to cool the new lump? Running the 45-year-old aluminum V-8 for ten to fifteen minutes for the first time yielded the answer: Nope. So Saturday was wrecking yard day–off in search of a higher capacity cooler. French Lake Auto Parts is reasonably close and they have old stuff, so that was our destination. I brought careful measurements of the available space where the radiator needed to go so as not to come home with something that wouldn’t fit. My buddy Tom V. came along in search of a speedometer for his one-owner 1962 Buick Skylark.

U.S. Radiator has dimensions for a lot of common rads but they exclude the tanks on down-flow models. Looked like the radiator for the Buick 300 cubic inch V-8 (Skylark) from ‘64 & ‘65 might work and French Lake Auto Parts had one in inventory. But the tanks made it too tall. So out in the yard I found one for my engine, the 215 V-8, in the back seat of a ‘61 Buick Special. Dimensions were perfect for the TR6. It was dry and the fins weren’t too bent up, but was it watertight? They gave me a good deal, $30, in case it wasn’t. We took the speedometer from the same car, identical in shape and color to Tom’s original.

Back in Minneapolis, I dropped my part off at Carlberg Radiator for a pressure test. He called back to say the core is junk. Pinholed throughout. No new versions available. Options–recore that one or find another model that might fit. I’ve gone with the first option, which will cost a little more, but I know this one fits and it will be vintage. (The intended look here is that it was a factory experimental job when the TR was built in 1972.) A higher efficiency core should ensure that it will stay cool with a factory, belt-driven fan, likewise sourced from French Lake earlier in the project. Then it’ll be time to fabricate mounting hardware and secure hoses that can slip between and around obstructions and connect the engine and fixed-up radiator.

I’m sometimes asked if the annual Back to the 50s weekend is a good place to source parts, or is it just a show? (This year’s event occurs June 22 to 24.)

When it comes to finding cars and parts, there are two types of people: those who can find any part for any car, and people who don’t like to talk. Talk! Ask! Not being able to find the part you need has little to do with rarity and a lot more to do with not tapping available resources. The accumulated knowledge among the car owners at the Back to the ’50s show could fill the Library of Congress (maybe). Together, the people have chased parts from vendors and junkyards around the globe. If you have a hard-to-find part, ask someone with a car like yours. Go to the swap meet.

Talk to people! Your part is out there and the person you ask might just have an extra one taking up shelf space that could better go to something else. Don’t tell your loved ones and co-workers and buddies you can’t find it–tell the guy or gal with the car like yours you’d sure like to find a whatsit “like that one.” I told my buddy Tom Porter, owner of Adelmann Engine, I wanted a Smiths clock for my Triumph TR6. He said, “OK,” went to a shelf and handed me one from an Austin Healey. It’s positive ground, so I’ll have to work on it, but it has the right look and it’s gonna look sweet in my Olds-V-8 equipped British hot rod.
Ask, ask, ask…and you may receive. Finally, any time you call a wrecking yard that doesn’t have what you want, remember to ask, “do you know anybody who might carry something like that?” At least half the time, they do know somebody and that info can save you a lot of chasing around.

Old school or new school? Two pedals or three? At the Back to the ’50s event June 22 to 24 at the state fairgrounds in St. Paul, you’ll find a wide selection of hot rods, each its owner’s own vision of the coolest ride.

Hot rods were built to go fast on the California dry lake beds in the 1950s. The idea was to take an older car that could be had cheap — that’s what young people could afford — put in or soup up the V-8 engine and make it light and fast to outrun your buddies and challengers. Old schoolers like their hot rods done up the old way, with drum brakes, a flathead or other vintage engine and old parts from the ’50s and ’60s and before. The other school values useable and safe and dependable — why build up with old parts when you can keep those curvy lines and have all the modern amenities, like power seats, windows, CD player or satellite radio or even satellite navigation?

The best hot rod is … the one you want the most. Is that a cop-out? Walk around the fairgrounds the fourth weekend in June (22-24), and then ask again. You’ll find yourself gaping at machines from both camps, done up with a boatload of care and a lifetime of rodding enthusiasm. If you want stock, buy stock. If you want to tweak it, build it your way.

Hey car fans. Welcome to MotorMouth, where, to steal from Henry Ford’s famous quip, we can talk about whatever you want as long as it’s cars (bikes are OK too–the motorized ones).

The big news on this front is the Back to the ’50s event at the state fairgrounds June 22, 23, 24. How big? How about roughly 12,000 cars covering the entire fairgrounds? If you have even one cell in your body (more OK, too) sympathetic to cars, you ought to check it out. Join enthusiasts from around the country–and other countries too–celebrating the golden age of automobiles, from pre-war models up through 1964. You’ll see creations and hear engines as outrageous as anything in the magazines or movies, plus subtler builds that retain the original car’s looks. Stop by the Star Tribune booth too, and tell me your favorites. Or post ’em right here.