I'm a little behind on my posts, but a recent trip seemed worthy of a
brief note even if a touch late. Several weeks ago, while we in SoCal were
still sweltering through a late season heatwave, one of my car clubs, The
Roaring Twenties Antique Car Club had a tour to the world famous Malibu beach
area. I'm sure that every TV or movie watcher is familiar with the look of
the place as the film industry shoots there frequently. Many famous shows
have been set there including one of my favorites, The Rockford Files
starring James Garner.
On this particular day, I had no interesting cars ready to tour, so I
went in a modern car and just sort of tagged along. One of our other members
had the same problem as he showed up in one of his "moderns," a freshly
restored 1959 Chevrolet pickup with it's original 235.
Boy this was one neat truck! The owner bought it new in '59 and had
restored it three times over the years, each time doing a better job. It now
looks like a factory fresh model. He is an old Chevy truck type of guy from
year one, as he has two of the Art Deco models that he drives unrestored on
club tours. As luck would have it, I wound up right behind this lovely white
'59 on the tour and had the pleasure of seeing the truck driving for an
extended time.
This truck created a sensation. Lots of folks smiled and waved as they
watched it go by and plenty of other drivers pulled up to take a good look.
Those old trucks are popular folks! When we paraded by Santa Monica (aka The
People's Republic) on Pacific Coast Highway, things began to look
surrealistic, as if WE were part of a movie. There were lot's of palm trees,
white sandy beaches, hot rods, woodies with fer shure surfer dudes and
bikinied beach bunnies a-plenty. Sometimes it's sorta hard to keep an eye on
the road.
In the midst of this whirl of color and action, a lovely baby blue early
TF shorty with drop front end and a big rorty motor zoomed by our column in
the fast lane and briefly fell into formation with our '59 resto. After
exchanging grins and thumbs up with our club member, he roared off to
whatever his destination was. Just moments later, the same thing happened
again with a jet black TF shorty also with a drop front end. What a day for
the TFs!
A little later up in the "movie colony" area of Malibu, someone had an AD
cabover Jimmy growling along in the slow lane going south as we proceeded
north. This had the look of a working truck, with faded pasty looking dark
green paint and company lettering on the door. I'd like to think that he was
on his way to pick up one of those beautiful streamlined aluminum trailers to
match his tractor.
The day wasn't over, however. Late that afternoon, when I got back to
Fullerton, I spotted a late AD 1 ton with a rack on the bed, four smashed
fenders and the remnants of a long ago white paint job. This old AD soldered
along in the slow lane with a bed full of "stuff" returning from yet another
job somewhere. The driver looked old and tired and he probably was thinking
of dinner and a couple of cold ones. I wonder what he would have thought had
he known somebody had admired his long serving steed.
Paul O'Neil, Hudson29@aol.com
1951 Chevrolet 3600 Pickup Project, See it at:
The Poor Man's Advanced Design Tech Tips Page
http://home.earthlink.net/~conntest47/
Fullerton, California USA
AEROMARK - Need Rubber Stamps or Signs? See:
http://www.aeromark.net
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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