ROD-A-DAY :: '64 Chevy Biscayne Pinner "service car"

1964 Chevy Biscayne Pinner "service car" from ImpalaForums.com.
I came across this photo doing some browsing of photos of '62 Chevy Biscayne wagons (because they are oh so early sixties minimalistic, like a beautiful woman wearing only red lipstick), and just had to make a post about it. The story of this peculiar car - only three were ever made - is as follows (from the original forum post by the owner, Hotrod Dwayne):

"It started life as a 1964 Biscayne wagon, when new only three Biscayne wagons were shipped to Pinner Coachworks for this conversion. Service cars were popular mainly in the 1930's thru the 1950's, larger funeral homes who could afford one used them as the workhorse of the business. They were mainly used for removals (removing the deceased from their home is more discreet with a service car) but also used to fetch caskets from warehouses or taking chairs & flowers to the cemetery. Production numbers were very, very low for service cars, only the most profitable homes could afford yet another coach in their fleet (a coach-built cars are extremely expensive) and Pinner only built three of these in 1964 only. All three were delivered to a distributor in Brooklyn NY & sold locally.

How were they built? The rear doors were removed, then the door jambs were cut out. All the window posts were cut out and then the car was cut in half & stretched 30". Somehow they formed new sides for the car to fill the now huge void (door skins were not reused) & a single sheet of steel to fill in all the windows on each side.
They were finished off with large chrome wreaths & 3 narrow chrome spears on the window filler panels. All 3 were black with full custom made gold interiors. I do have all the coach-specific parts & the full interior. In the professional car world these three cars are still highly talked about, desired, & sought after.

Of the three mine is the only one known to exist. It was last seen in the 1980's in a driveway in Brooklyn & photographed by an enthusiast. These 5 photos have been in several coach-related books & publications through the years as they are the only photos to ever surface."

It's those kinds of awesome stories (plus a million other things, obviously) that really get my blood racing for old cars. No fucking shit. I tried to contact Hotrod Dwayne, but had to join a million random internet forums and have to now wait for my membership to be approved before I can email him and ask for continued updates. I'd really like to see how the restoration of this baby pans out.

ROD-A-DAY: Pride and Joy

Pride and Joy, originally uploaded by DarkHorse68.

This photo was waiting in the wings from my Flickr photo group and thought it was lovely enough to post today.

Sorry I've been mega slacking lately on updating the site. I've been too busy whipping my fat ass into shape.

ROD-A-DAY :: 54 Ford Flathead Belly Tanker

Some of my friends have kids. This is one of them. He's going to grow up to make the
ladies crazy.

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:: 1957 Dodge Custom Royal

1957 Dodge Custom Royal D-500 @ the Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals, July 11, 2010.
Photo via Flickr by Paul Balze
I've said it many times before, but for some reason, when asked what my all-time favorite classic car is, the 1957/58 Dodge always comes first to my mind. DeSoto, Coronet, Royal...all with their enormous bat-like wings and front end with a menacing grimace. Virgil Exner hit the nail on the head with this one.

Rod-A-Day

1959 Chevy El Camino, via Flickr by John P. Sullivan (great photographer based in Brooklyn. Check his stuff out!)

ROD-A-DAY: Maryland Model A

Yes, I know...you probably thought you'd never see another Rod-A-Day again, didn't you??? Well HA - just when you think I've forgotten about my promises, I make good on them. At least for today.


1930 Model A sedan, from the 38th Annual Vintage Tin of Maryland Rod Run in September, by splattergraphics via Flickr.
In other stream of consciousness news: am about to embark on reading Tom Wolfe's "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby"; there are NO hot rod magazines based out of the East Coast (I'm talking made-of-paper old school type magazines...are there?) and I want to design for one someday; and Hair the musical was actually pretty great (fuckin' hippies).

And in a whoppingly good suprise turn of aural events, my sexy piece of man beast just put Man...or Astroman? 1000X ** on the record player (yes, a real record player). I knew there was a reason I liked that guy.

**(Buy it from Touch and Go Records and support your local indie record label, jerkface!!! Buy vinyl! ...Or one day someone is going to spill a glass of water on your cellphone and you'll lose your entire record and video collection as well as your entire personal library!!)


Is it artifical? This gravity is strong...

ROD-A-DAY: Goodguys Columbus brings the drag ass

GOODGUYS COLUMBUS 09, originally uploaded by HORSEPOWER & HONEYS

Now, I've seen a lot of radical channeling on rad rods, but this is just crazy. Can you even drive the damn thing? Who knows, and also, that's not the point. The point is that this spark-generating, road rash of a ride is pretty sick.

Look at you, Ohio. Who knew you had it in ya?

ROD-A-DAY: '62 Brooklyn Buick LeSabre

Almost every day during the summer months when the sun is out and I'm not hungover, I mount my bike and make the harrowing 7.9 mile commute to where I work in Bushwick, Brooklyn. (That's 7.9 miles one way, mind you.) That means this week I rode 47.4 miles, not including any detours here and there off the designated path or jaunts to the supermarket. Lets say I ride three days every week for the last month (that's 189.6 just in commuting) and then there was the day long bike trip to Red Hook last weekend (another 12 miles)... Jesus. You get the idea. I know there are probably plenty of people out there who are riding 40 miles a day or something, but try doing that during rush hour in NYC and we'll see how long you last.

My regular route to work is an exhausting forty minute, smog-hazed, pothole-ridden, death defying, asshole filled road ragin' ride that makes me question my sanity just as much as it makes me feel like I'm incredibly' hardcore.


See? Insanity. The route I take almost every day to work on the ol' two wheeler.
While the trip certainly is filled with interesting smells (the artificial scent factory on 36th street somewhere, rotting piles of garbage marinating in the summer heat) and sounds (cat calls, car horns) and obstacles (road construction, gravel pits, flattened pigeons, blind assholes with drivers licenses), it tends to be lacking in interesting things to look at.

This seems like a bit of an imbecilic complaint on my behalf, because as everybody who bike commutes in this city knows, the minute you stop thinking and looking at the road for one millisecond is the minute you meet your maker. So naturally, why in the world would I want things to distract me? I guess what I'm saying here is that I've found the fastest, safest route to work that I ride several times a week and it is getting SERIOUSLY BORING seeing the same factories, tenement buildings and civil service workers every single freakin' day.

There is one thing however that I pass almost every day as I head up 3rd avenue right around Caroll Gardens that lifts my spirits - the '62 Buick LeSabre.

It might not be the showiest of things, but in a city fof 8.3 Million people crammed into 305 square miles of concrete, asphalt, rats and roaches, it's a nice breath of fresh air to see something with some character now and again. I keep fantasizing that one day as I'm slowing my riding speed to take it all in that the owner will come out (from wherever he - presumably - lives) and tell me that for $300 in cold hard cash "that hunk of junk can be yours for the taking." One can dream.

ROD-A-DAY: 1962 Chrysler 300H

For some reason today, even after a night filled with home-made sushi and one too many saki bombs, I am up at 8:30am, rifling through the photos on my computer in a highly unplanned attempt at their organization. I come to realize that I have a couple photos of cars I've taken around Brooklyn that I never bothered to share with anyone. What kind of an insensitive clod am I!? You must be furious with me.

So I uploaded them all and decided that, in at attempt to squeeze water from a stone, I will share them with you bit by bit, starting with this most magnificent '62 Chrysler 300H (to be particularly specific). A magnificent piece of two-tone machinery, presumably firing a 383 in. V8 with a 4-speed manual tranny...at least that's what this particular two door coupe model would have been manufactured with.


Satin black and glossy cherry red two-tone. Luscious, to say the least.



Assorted other angles. I still just can't get over how nice that satin finish looks.

I took these photos on N. 11th street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn probably around...jeez, like three or so years ago now and haven't seen that car since. It haunts me like a one night stand you keep wishing you could booty-call again but you were too smart (or perhaps too stupid) to ask for their number.


Reminiscing on this beaut' of a buggy made me hungry for the visual titillation of more pulchritudinous pics of the 300, manufactured from 1955 to 1965 as limited edition luxury cars focused on style, exclusivity and most importantly power. These vehicles were apparently the precursors to the America "muscle car", as they were the first models with big engines produced post-war that brought about renewed interest in the performance of your car. Heard of a Hemi? (What a stupid question.) Yeah, well these were some of the very first Chrysler models to feature the first generation of their innovative new hemispherical engine design (originally called the FirePower V8).


1960 Chrysler 300F.

Personally, and not surprisingly, my favorite years for the 300 were between 1957 and 1962. Those were the years when automobile designers were really into the whole futuristic Jetsons-airplane-aerodynamics wacko body design ideas, and locker-room "who has the biggest fin?" contests. Across the board, fins and body moulding were all the rage. Do note: '57 Dodge Coronet, '59 Ford Galaxie (also note futuristic naming!), '59 Chevy Bel Air, '60 Buick Electra, and of course, the 1959 Cadillac.


'55 Lincoln Futura (concept car) anyone?

I also firmly believe that designers like Virgil Exner, one of my favorite automobile designers of the time who, you guessed it, worked for Chrysler, were also inspired by their less "classically trained" artistic peers like George Barris and Ed Roth.


Barris went on to buy that '55 Futura concept car up above and later turned it into the original Batmobile (left). At right, Ed Roth's "Outlaw".

The Chrysler 300 also made for a pretty wicked wagon for schlepping your shit:

'62 Chrysler 300 WAGON...oh my, oh my.
...and I even found one that was converted into an ambulance. My Chrysler 300 micro fetish has now been (almost) thoroughly exhausted.

One last thing to share of extreme importance (to me): while searching around for images, I came across Plan 59 - an awesome company in Virginia that specializes in mid-century advertising and illustration, selling hi-res TIFF scans to people (ala yours truly) who graphically design junk. I am SMITTEN with them. I want to work for them photoshopping and scanning all day long. *swoon* You really do need to browse their collection, just to see how beautiful these things are. Not only that, but I can tell that the folks at Plan 59 and I both share a similar sick sense of humor. Only they swear a whole lot less than I do.


A sample of the wide range of images Plan 59 has to offer. Girls in glasses...hooray!

ROA-A-DAY: Barn Busters

This bit of photography beauty comes from the Flickr set of Washington D.C. based artist and furniture maker A. Drauglis. One day, I hope to restore Model A's just for the fun of it too.

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:: ...hey, that's not a car!

You're right, genius! It's not. What it IS is a 1948 Whizzer motorized bicycle - our "RIDE-A-DAY" instead. (I have to give my love to the beautiful bicycles of history too).

This photo is courtesy of jerbec via Flickr, from the AACA East Coast Nationals, Hershey Park, PA. Hershey has had it's share of decent car shows over the years, several of which I've attended.

The Whizzer, originally created back in 1939 by airplane parts manufacturer Breene-Taylor Engineering in Los Angeles, was actually originally just an engine made to attach to any pedestrian bicycle for obvious increase in travel speed. By 1948, they had created their first pre-assembled motorized bicycle, the "Pacemaker" (below)...

YES.

...and then in 1965 they went out of production. Who wants a motorized bicycle when you can have Mopar Muscle...AM I RIGHT??? (I jest. Mostly.) Then in 1997, somebody got the great idea to start making them again, and you know what? They really aren't all that bad looking.

However, neither my wallet nor my ego could take the hit of toolin' around Brooklyn on one of these puppies. Give me another thirty years when my joints can't take constant bike peddling and then maybe I'll come around. But only on a vintage model, because as we all know, they just never make 'em like they used to.

ROD-A-DAY:: Rumblers in Coney Island

1937 Chevy pickup (I deduce) at a recent Rumblers show in Coney Island, which I missed (as usual).
Photo from Jamie NYC via Flickr.

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.

KKOA and a ROD-A-DAY

This past weekend the main squeeze and I traveled back to my hometown in PA for some much needed time away from the grunt and grime of NYC to do some grilling and clean our lungs out for a few days. While there, on Saturday evening, I finally realized that ("supposedly"...more on this in a second) the annual Kustom Kemps of America Sled Scene East show at Oakside Park in Biglerville, PA was going on this same weekend. I say "supposedly" because while the local paper in my parents' town claimed the show was in full effect, all I could find online was a random smattering of internet notices saying that the 2009 KKOA show had been relocated and would never again be held in Oakside Park. Instead, from now on it will be at the Mason Dixon Dragway in Boonsboro, Maryland, about an hour south of its former locale. As far as I'm concerned, it seems like a great venue switch, if only for bathrooms that aren't porta-johns and the fact that you can sign up to drag your car against anybody else you've had in your crosshairs to race.

The only sad part is that this means there's one less interesting thing to do in Gettysburg, PA at any given time of year.

Regardless, Mark and I had seen a few old cars in town and traveled up there on Sunday to see if there was any roddin' goodness left to be had. While there was, it was pretty sparse and pretty short-lived. (At least by then we weren't charged admission and they were giving away free fruit salad at the snack bar.) I don't know if some people showed up there because they were confused, but we at least got a handful of great shots of the cool cars that were still hanging around.

Until I get a chance to upload all of those images, in the meantime, let me give you this - our very first ever "Rod-A-Day" photo, from Brad Lehman (assumedly) via his Flickr account...


From the KKOA '08 Sled Scene East at Oakside Park
There are oh soooo many cars I come across in my daily Flickr travels, not to mention being a part of several auto-enthusiast photo groups on the site that I figured I'd share some of my favorites with all my lovely garage-goers. The idea being that these will eventually appear every day at the top of the "Rods" section of the site (once I get that up to snuff...) and I have created my own Flickr Group in hopes that you'll be able to go back and view each of the previous "Rod-A-Day" vehicles, in case you were lame and missed a few days). Maybe if I'm lucky, some of you will sign up and send me photos of your own rides you'd like to see featured on this site. I'd love to be able to get all the nitty gritty details about people's cars, which isn't always possible when it's a photo of somebody else's car and not your own (like above).