MAGAZINE

WHAT'S HAPPENING

SHOEBOX

TONY MILLER RUNS THIS 'BOX WITH ZZ3, CLIP, ETC.

They're still out there, in resto form, and getting more expensive as we speak. Save one . Bring it into the fold. Make it a Hop Up piece.

RATTLE CAN NATS

EDGY IRON FROM '98 RATTLE CAN NATS

Bring you, your Rib and your Edge and meet us there. The only scheduled event on the weekend calendar is Snocker Practice - after we've visited urban terror on the pastoral countryside.

Seems like mufflers are optional up there. Hmmmmm. Details later.

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Question: Would Billet Proof organizers contact us here, again, so we can talk about your dates for the "Worlds' Least Important Car Show".

LONG BEACH

Ya goin' to Long Beach?

This was an upstart meet compared to the huge Pomona event; a cottage effort at first. But Holy Crime-in-Italy. This past Sunday, the thing looked like Pomona. Big. Real big. We went just to see Jim and Scott, who were selling (and take them up on the promised Coors n' Cornflakes) and couldn't even find 'em.

Bought a set of 16's with trim rings, good red paint and medium worn big n' little bias ply blackwalls on-the-cheap while we were lookin for them, though.

THE CATCH OF THE DAY

Then, over to the 'cars for sale' area, and run across some familiar hairy-legged people. "Hey, that last article on (whatever) was great!" Positive reinforcement. Well, we picked up a point: two detractors/one fan.

"Hey, 'ja-see my little pickup over there? Only askin' ten grand. I'll give you the "whisper price". Hold on to yer wallet, it's about to get picked! "Come on over, lemme show you what I've done to this lil' creampuff....." We have a feelin' this is gonna be the usual. Yup. The formula. Buy it right, put some money where it shows, express some good taste (the look) and raise the price. It's worth it, although it's not our turn.

But the Candy Store is open. Good values. One of everything: Mid 60's Cruisers - Project cars - High-end resto-rod - Pickups - Woody - Muscle cars - '62 Biscayne with 409 (We absolutely do not care if the numbers match. You can't see 'em goin' down the road, Fellas). Just gimme one of 'em.

It would be a treat to go and buy something sometime, instead of a pile o' parts. It is starting to reveal itself thusly : If you are very, very interested in all the decisions that have to be made on a hot rod, ya gotta "do it " yourself. (Do it, commission it, hire it done, whatever). It's yours, then. But how 'bout a muscle car? Are my peers going to measure my muscle-car acumen by whether or not this or that gadget is cad plated? By whether or not I got the original upholstery from Chevy Upholstery Source or Muscle Car Seats, Inc.? There are no decisions to be made, no artful inflections to input, no clever mechanical nuances. It's either correct, or it's not. So let's buy one. The best value in the hobby is the purchase of anything, at the price the builder is asking, because about one-half of the deal is a gift this unknown guy is giving you. His time. His aggravation. His having to do everything twice because of a mistake on his part, or because of a half-fast supplier. (We have those, don't we , boys?)

But ya gotta be ready to buy. Ya have the geeders in your pocket. Ya have your best negotiating outfit on. You're fully current on the market for the car, you know all the models, evolutionary changes. "No, the Grand Sport had dual quads in '65 and then......." And you're ready to be an owner.

Maybe when you acquire them this way, that's the reason you are willing to sell them later. To get another one the same way. Parlay that investment and your cleverness into something grander. But it's not your own. Any more than the money was. It's transitory. You hadn't gotten attached to the C-notes. Hadn't memorized the serial numbers. "Yeah, I got his one back in '94 when I did that job for.....". No, we aren't attached to the money. It is the means to the end. It goes bad after a couple of days, anyway. (Like fish and friends).

Sometime when we've run out of fun projects, then maybe we'll go to Long Beach to buy something.

But we won't forget to do the most important bit of preparation:

We'll take Dougie along to do the negotiating. He'll get us the "Whisper price."

Personality

A new expert came into our acquaintance in the form of a guy who is a soft-spoken, experienced zealot in A, in T, in flathead, stock & modified, exotics, blah, blah, blah. All of it. A visit to his shop was a wonderment of interesting cars, including the '29 Sport Coupe he's had since he was 14, and a passle of other pieces, all of which start, run, idle, rev, and will go where he points them, on command.

He has commiserated with real big names in the hobby, is considered by them to be family, and we were humbled to be in his aging presence..........................but, Noooooooooooo! This is no Gato Viejo. The Cat is younger than us by a decade or so. What's wrong with this deal, Boys? Our mission has been to find the old ones, chronicle their history, learn something from them and go on being the youngster. (A youngster in his 50's has got to only work in our little world). How can it be? Well, some of them do it. They define themselves early while some of the rest of us are floating around, influenced by hype, doing what is en vogue. They have focus, and they study while their nerve-endings are still growing together. It's some comfort to know that a handful of the professors are likely to be around longer than us, so the advice won't all go to the grave while we are still holding our hat in our hand, asking those absurd questions!

So Steve Beck is a gentleman. One who imparts his knowledge modestly.Although quiet and soft-spoken, the conversation is laden with a sense of purpose and reverence for the art. Pointing out a particularly inspired relieving job on a flattie, his words sound more like introspection. Thinking outloud. We got to hear it as he hears it in his own mind. Paying homage to the hands that had performed the work, there is reverence in the speakers' words; there is balance in his world. There is peace. Appropriateness. Purpose.

It all makes sense.

He has the same generosity the White-Headed Galoots have; if he takes your pulse, and the rhythm indicates red, American, rod-blood, we'll talk. He described someone as "about your age". He must pity someone who defective decision-making left him uninformed at this ripe old age. (We don't care. Pity us. Just keep showin' us the hot iron!)

There's a stock T roadster that is much nicer than most of them. There's the A-V8 roadster pickup with deuce shell. Period perfect is an over-simplification. A friends' A-V8 is in there for some civilizing (great curb-appeal, either way), Coco's neat '32 Sedan lives there, a roadster pickup with a D Engine, '39 Merc sedan , swap meet truck, a Chevy Roundtruck, even an original Cobra. A Model A sport coupe body, in for a complete, is on the floor. There's a loft with parts, including a complete, low-number Kurtis midget, and flathead V8 and banger parts, transmissions, etc. that will accommodate his projects for quite a while............Quite a while.

Thus, the tapestry is woven by one more row......the talk links Steve and us through other common acquaintances and ya say to yourself, "Sure. He'd a had to know whatshiscarb if he was doin' this stuff at that time. In that place. We shoulda known him sooner. We were just not paying attention.

Steve holds court at his modern iron auto repair shop in Santa Monica, where he and his co-owner Chris do bread and butter work on the mundane as well as exotics; fun projects for themselves are sidelines that don't appear to blur the line between hobby and profession. Good work if you can get it.

Every one of the Hop Up Heroes we add to the list is different from the last. Each one offers up a unique set of background exponents and specialties, but is kin to the others by virtue of that defective gene we share: Gearhead, car guy. Make up your own handle.

If you take a look around you, there isn't much to recommend many of us to one another. Intellect, wealth, education, physical stature, religion......the demographics of difference are pretty well put aside when you're car guys. You and we might not have chosen one another for acquaintance if not for the cars. This is, then, serendipity. We continue to find genuineness and real character where we were only looking for someone with neat iron.

'Makes up for the Morons, don't it, Bub?

Check out our cool NEW T's!