As I begin this new year, I can sit back and reflect on how fast the past year flew. Did my car project (any of them) get done? No. Did I make any progress at all? Some. A little. But I'm not driving any of them just yet, and I hope to be further along this year on a couple, so I can at least be able to pull them out of the garage and make an appearance or two. It's hard to be a car guy when you don't have a drivable car to show up in!
As debuted in the Jan. '06 issue of KIT CAR, the California Hauler magazine project (the '41 Willys pickup from Active Power) is moving along, but not as fast as I want. Putting a magazine together is a lot like that guy who spins plates on the top of some long sticks. One wobbles, needs attention, and then the others start to wobble. Sometimes I think the kit industry is a lot like that. The result is I can't seem to find the time to go over and work on the truck like I want to.
Time is the biggest obstacle on my part, and it always has been. As a kid I didn't like waiting for the glue to dry on the little plastic models I tried to build before moving on to the next build phase. I thought they should go together quickly, from snap-apart to paint inside of an hour.
Outside the pages of KIT CAR, I'm also working on a Kyote dune buggy (chassis is done, bodywork is next), one of my two '59 Karmann Ghias (rust removal, but just surface stuff-after all, I am in Southern California!), and a new street rod chassis from California Custom Roadsters is almost finished for my original steel '29 Ford pickup (I don't even know what motor will go in that one).
After that I'll get my '32 three-window up and running again (ignition problems -it's been down for a year so far), then maybe onto one of the two early-'60s bugs (I want to convert one into a '53 split-window), the '65 Barracuda (it needs a Hemi), or a couple of other cars so far down the project road I can't remember where I parked them!
When these cars do get finished, however, I know where I'll take them. I firmly believe cars should be driven and the only time they should be hauled on a trailer is if they're broken. Events such as the AHA's Knotts Berry Farm show, the Carlisle nationals, Run & Gun, and a handful of the smaller shows around SoCal are all on my list to attend with my own cars. Participation in your hobby is the key to extending its life.
And it is with that thought we've decided to publish a calendar of events in the pages of KIT CAR so that everyone knows when everything is happening. You'll find lots of places to go and see, and all types of events. Yes, some are strictly kit and replicar events, some have a wider audience, and some others may not have a replicar entered at all. That is because (and the real car guys know this) cars are cool. From chain-driven Frazer-Nashes at a concourse to the latest hybrid at a new-car auto show-there will always be designs and applications at these shows you can learn from. The quest for any car guy is to answer the immortal question: "How'd they do that?" And any real car guy who walks through a car show and doesn't pick up an idea or two must already be dead!
So if your club is organizing a club sandwich (where two clubs meet somewhere), an event, a charity cruise, or a cross-country trip to one of the major national events, then drop us an e-mail line at kitcar@primedia.com (and be sure to write KIT CAR EVENT in the subject line), or send it via snail-mail to: KIT CAR Calendar, 774 S. Placentia Ave, Placentia, CA 92870. (And we're still looking for more club newsletters, too!) Keep in mind we need this info well before the event date, as magazine production is a slow and tedious process.
Until then, happy motoring, and we hope this year you'll get that project out of the garage and on the road where it belongs!