ROD-A-DAY:: 1931 Ford Pickup

Crusty, rusty 1931 Ford AV8 Pickup on the streets of Brooklyn.
I'm surprised how many old cars I am starting to see on the streets of this city. It gives me hope for humanity. (Thanks to owner Drew for correcting me on the model year! Shame on me.)

ROD-A-DAY: Hot Custom Ford in Florida

I hate street rod paint jobs. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE. Fifty-somethings with absolutely no color-theory knowledge shouldn't be allowed to choose finish colors for their cars. The horrifying results are usually enough to send me into vomiting epileptic seizures as they race by (and by "race", I mean cruise by at 25 miles per hour, because that's "racing" when you're 50 and own a light peach pink, fiberglass body '32 ford with a weird, airbrushed checkered-flag stripe zig-zagging all over the side of your ride). Case in point, see massacre below.


Dear lord.

But today's rod of the day, while utilizing some seriously sherbet-inspired standard street rod colors, is far from vom-inducing. Behold - the custom '49-50 ford that candy coated dreams are made of...


From the Titus Nights car show in Titusville, FL, taken by Keith, found on Flickr.
Basically, what it comes down to for me is that basically when you're in Florida, shit like this can be let to slide.

And yes, yes...I realize that my "Rod-A-Day" posts are probably disappointing you on many levels, firstly because they are obviously not happening every day and secondly because they are so heavy with shoebox Fords. Especially scalloped shoebox Fords. I swear I'm going to try and mix it up. SWEAR!

ROD-A-DAY: Roddy Moore's '49 Shoebox

RIGHT before I was about to call it a night, I stumbled across this beaut of a 'box from Virginia (assumedly) posted on Garage Magazine's blog page.

Artistic mastery of scallops, if I've ever seen it

Although I haven't done more research, it appears that Mr. Moore is also heavily affiliated with the Blue Ridge Institution in Ferrum, Virginia, and possibly responsible for curating a recent exhibition called "Full Throttle: A History of Drag Racing and Oval Track Racing in Southwest Virginia", which is right up our little East Coast alley. Having grown up myself relatively close to the Blue Ridge area of Appalachia, this all has particularly more interest to me.

You have to check out the Full Throttle site...just look at this list of original Car Clubs from the area.


Thundering Turtles car club plaque
How cool is that? I have no doubt in my mind I've had conversations with members of some of these clubs who were still around to wax enthusiastically about draggin' and drivin' in Virginia mid-century. Other tart little morsels in the online exhibit: a list of drag strips throughout the area and opening years, featurettes of local legends in car craft including apholstry and pin striping (to name a couple) and a glossery of southern VA hot roddin' slang terms. So check it out already, ya Squirrel!

ROD-A-DAY:: Friday Ford

So I still haven't gotten my photos from the weird pseudo KKOA show up on the site yet, and I'm clearly failing at posting an actual ROD-A-DAY, every day, but if it's any consolation, at least I'm still thinking about it all the time. This full-time job stuff is really getting in the way of my web-mistressing/blogging fun.

Excuses aside, here's today's awesome East Coast car, courtesy of Krapow who may or may not run Jalopyrama...you can only tell so much from a Flickr profile.


1950 shoebox Ford, in what appears to be a brushed steel finish. Incredible.
Now that shit is tight! This photo was taken at the East Coast Indoor Nats in 2007 (Baltimore, MD), so I wonder if it is still in the same state of unfinished glory, or if it's since been painted over. If that puppy was mine, and maybe the owner did this very thing, I'd keep the finish like that, get it all scalloped to hell and cover it all in clear coat. In my wildest dreams, anyway.