MAGAZINE

HOP UP 2000

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HOP UP 2001

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2001 Cover

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Peace..........La Paz........the zone.......the groove.........the.. cool.

He finds it with a classic here, a Tri-five there, a truck, a dragster, roundy-sedans there for a properly prepared motor and.....hot rods. And his fellows.

One local who is legendary in the parts, was cooking on the campstove in the back of his '29 roadster pickup, the one that he'd taken to Mexico in '91 for the Eclipse (a copy of the one he'd gone to Mexico in, in 1941 with his Dad.) They had gone the long way....and waaaaay down. No toll road. They sought dirt and serenity, kind of like racers do the night before the races at El Mirage. The A is stock but well- prepared and we think Cookie has other iron, including one fine German piece we saw there. There was also a handful of cars seen recently in magazines - not power parked but parked with the rest.

Typical of the people and cars in attendance was a Hop Up Guy we know who has a '32 BB truck with goosed banger in it. It's a shop-truck-grocery-getter that he drives around town like some kind of ambassador of cool-livin', while he grooves on his other projects like the flatmotor in process that he'll build a car around. Don't know yet what that car will be but.....hey....... that's no fence for a jumper; but we think he's leanin' toward a A-V8 on '32 rails with speedboat windshield. That'd do!

It's inspired foolishness, ain't it, Boys?

Looked up and had to get back in our own piece, grabbed a gear, chose a twisty bit of road for the ride and...did I say 'grabbed a gear'? Oh yeah. Hooking up a little bit, in a G-denying roadster on the right road will make you well. Quick spurt back over to the coast, late lunch at a beach sidewalk cafe with the hot rod in site.........and, Shoot! I didn't realize how much I like the way that thing looks from this angle. New discovery after 41000 miles. A pal said recently, " You're car is developing a nice patina. I'd like that for mine......", this from a guy with the blackest, coolest, heppest deuce roadster to arrive in recent memory. But he's right. There are rewards.

The rest of the ride home was like many of them: you just want to go for a few more miles. It felt so good to be stretching that iron out that we hated to give it up and turn it off. You pause for about 2 seconds after the kill switch....and....in that blink...reflect on how cool this stuff is. You reflect that it only has to be cool to you. And you pat the thing on its' cloth top when you unfold getting out of it, dragging your fingers over a top bow because you know that that is what gave it the shape you wanted......and you think, "Thank ya, Whitey...Steve", and you get something out of the trunk and see that rusty panel of hand-crafted metal down there and think, "Gotta get that redone right, pretty soon."

And you don't see the thing until the next morning and -even though your job is worthwhile and important and fulfilling and necessary and OK ....and..........? I'd rather be getting back in that roadster this morning and going somewhere.

Soon enough we'll be on some trips in other hot iron. That automatic (ugh!) rig is about ready for some duty....and it'll be OK.

Internal combustion nirvana?

Yeah, Man.

Suck-Squeeze-Bang-Blow.

Bias/radial....auto/gear.....open/closed.....flathead/nailhead/sbc/inliner/Windsor/hemi/banger.........Sure-Fit/Swell Tom Leather/serape/bare springs........paint/primer/rust....

It doesn't matter if it delivers you.

HOP UP 2002

It's the annual look at what's happenin' now. Not trends, or looks at what is fleeting in hot rods and customs. It's what is permanent. It's the third edition of the...................

Epistle of the apostle.

The reference without deference.

The tome to take home.

It is - and always will be - about the iron.

FTB

The T Meet was the same weekend, looked smaller than usual, but a bunch of the real cars guys did both. Not as avante garde to be at the T meet, but true-heart, tipped-over car people found a way to do both. It was like visiting the college lab where you'd learned your alchemy, then escaping back to the glory of the banquet of the AMA to celebrate how cool it all is in science and medicine and all that. What a day.

Sweet Thang and I had a famous Hop Up visitor from up North and he parties pretty hard, so we hadda pony-up. You know? Throw back yer shoulders an' say, "I can do it, Man. Usta, anyway, didn't we?"

What an animal.

Made it another memorable weekend full of old cars and their caretakers.

DEACONS LUAU

Paul Bos was there in his r/p and we got him to retell the story about how he won the "Egg-Timer in the Fuel-Line" Trophy from Vinther and the Boys:

He had turned up this '68 Ford pickup - nice Daniel with a 6 in it, that he'd be using for ranch type duties around his spread in Alpine. It's a clean piece that needed nothing, but PB thought he'd put the tune on it one afternoon, and put in plugs, points, condenser, adjusted the carb, set the idle and generally snugged stuff up for the things next life.

He went back into the garage, shut the door from inside, went into the house, showered, watched the tube for a while, then went to bed.

Next day he went out through the garage, opened the door and heard a click................. just a quiet click.....click.....and looked over at the Ford................... .......................which was still running from when he started it to check the idle............ yesterday!

He had to tell his Pals and thus, the trophy which is a fuel line contraption with an egg timer in the middle of it so you can set the thing to shut off sometime - without you - while you sleep.

Anywho, the Deacon's Luau is a Rite of Passage to put on your schedule next year; and enjoy the Ocean Beach weather.

Since they always support the doin's up here....well....come on down!

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