There was a car show on by the bay

Oct 13, 2019,16:00 PM
 

"Cops & Rodders" but sponsored by the Pontiac Club of San Diego. There was also British Car Day yesterday, but I was over-boooked and only made a near-dawn visit. 


Back to the rods. Can I let you cruise through the pictures first?? (this was a test for the site photo uploader!)


As I said the theme was COPS and Rodders. The Police cars and trucks filled the front rows of Embarcadero park, and it was a beautiful, slightly overcast day - warm with a gentle breeze off the harbor.







I got distracted by this beautiful blue AMC AMX. 



Nice car, basically a shortened Matador with big motor and sporty look, but they couldn't save the company.



Here's a gorgeous '57 Ford Ranchero pickup



Note: never upholster your door panels in off-white crushed velvet ...



a row of nifty rods was topped by 



a "Corvette 4x4"?



But for sheer jaw-dropping, outrageous build - the blue car here took top "People's Choice" of the show.




Built by a local legend, this car featured an alloy big-block roughly 500 cubic inch (8.2L) topped by Porsche 928 SOHC heads! I spoke to the gentleman, Mr Pete Ardema, who said:

"Hey I noticed the bore spacing was almost exactly the same as the Chevy BB, so I had a casting made that moved the cores and bolts enough to fit the Porsche heads, then I engineered the rest in my workshop... "

In his other spare time built from scratch a 1200 cubic inch (20L) V12. If you want to see it,  you have to chase down this LINK. Put a pillow under your jaw so you don't hurt yourself when it drops open... 

I used to have a teardrop trailer built by this guy!


Back to the car show







I love the variety in this lineup







Drag racing demands large rear meats.



Woodie!



Chopped, channelled and leaded sleds.



Flamed and



Flowered and veloured



There was a large appreciative crowd on Sunday afternoon.





My first car was a 1960 Oldsmobile. It looked a lot like this Wide Track Pontiac Bonneville.



I loved the flamed body and matching transmission paint job!



Here's a view of the whole car



Blue and burgundy were popular colors today, but "BRIGHT" of any color was really the star





My friends at the San Diego Auto Museum took first place award for the "Best Pontiac of the Show" a nice honor since this was a Pontiac-club show.



I sat inside and rested my weary feet for awhile.



Sorry, the clock was off 



Notice the abundance of beautiful blue station wagons?











I don't want to disappoint the MOPAR fans in the crowd, as there were quite a few nice rides. Here are the "small" MOPARS



This is a 340 cubic inch motor



and the smaller 273 version



nice rear ends too



And now the big ones:





Fantastic paint here!





and a lovely AMC line-up



and another AMX whose owner took a nice trophy home. Even his shoes match his car.



See what I mean about the bright colors?





This wasn't the day for drab colors, unless you had a Rat Rod as nice as this Farmall truck


First time I've seen a bumper made from a camshaft, with pistons for bumper over-riders



Smirnoff jar for the radiator overflow tank, and barbed wire holding up radiator shell.



I didn't try to see if that gear and chain tach holder are functional, but the design is certainly a Logical One (yeah, pun intended)







Overall weirdest car of the day award went to this rod made from a real coffin!







That's all, I'm outa here...



Cazalea


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Always great to see your car posts, thanks! My first car, given to me by my mother when I was in high school, was the '68 Ford Country Sedan station wagon shown in your first photo.

 
 By: Emil Wojcik : October 14th, 2019-08:15
Mine was an ex-police car but I'm still surprised to see one displayed as such in your photo. Now long gone, it's one of many cars I've considered buying again, but finding one in nice enough condition to be worth owning isn't easy. But I guess that doesn... 

The first car I drove was a 1961 Dodge Dart ex-police car

 
 By: cazalea : October 14th, 2019-08:27
My stepfather bought it at a police auction. It was extremely ugly but still cool with black paint, spotlights and holes in the dash. This is not the exact car, but it’s very similar. Here's a link to Jay Leno driving one of the last remaining CHP version...  

always great to see nice American cars

 
 By: Weems@8 : October 14th, 2019-13:33
I like the pictures. The drivers are creative people who made art of cars. I visit sometimes a car show. ...