Grand National Roadster Show, January 2017.

The sheer variety of stuff you see on your travels is just mind blowing....

All i can do is thank you so very much for sharing it all with us, I am so very appreciative of it...
So much variety that i will never get a chance to see, and also so many ideas to put in to scale builds....

My pleasure Dee Cee.

I've visited the Petersen Museum many times over the years and despite the familiarity there was always something new and interesting to see.  Mid 2015 saw it closed for a major makeover and one of the challenges was to make the building a new L.A Landmark.  The traffic stopping facade sure achieved that goal and is an indicator to the new era and even better displays inside, most of which allow visitors to get much closer to the cars than ever before.



The road repair crew kinda messed with my ability to get a good image of the building exterior.



But despite that it's quite clear it sure do stand out!



It's so easy to find now and the parking lot entrance much more clearly defined.



There's a few cars like this air cooled Franklin on display around the undercover parking area.



Inside the new Foyer it's bright and airy with a number of vehicles displayed, a classy upmarket restaurant replacing the old Johnny Rocket burger bar and a new shop with a wider range of books and souvenirs.



Bruce Mc Laren's last race car is there.





Rare Ferrari is quite small and not painted red.





And Edsel Ford's early fifties Ferrari Barchetta is painted black.



Of course there's an image of the guy who started it all and put up the money to keep it going.



There's also a special area for kids to learn about cars, the history, how they are created, built and used, it works for grown ups too.







Inside, the museum is divided into Salons with areas for movie cars, like the Speed racer.



The original Great Gatsby's Deusenberg.



A whole set of Herbies.



That Delorean.









And the real Christine!



Another space is filled with rare motor cycles from oldest…



…. to newest.



And everything in between





This old Injun sickle is pretty cool.



An even older whatever it is.



And one with a passenger compartment.



The old car displays include things like this very early 1906 petrol electric Hybrid.



Yeah, it's like a Prius, but without all the computers.



Has some interesting features like the turn signals.







There's also a few straight electric cars, which were very popular in the early days because they were cleaner than oil or steam powered cars.  Did you know Mrs Ford preferred to drive her Baker Electric over her husbands machines?



Walking around the building there's always small interesting displays of things like engines and other components.





There's even an family sized copy of the Fiat Topolino.




The major display for the first six months of 2017 is a scaled down version of Peter Mullins' The Art OF Bugatti'.  However it includes a number of cars that we did not see in Mullin's personal museum when we visited in 2015.  Like this stunning number built for an early Paris Auto Salon.



Love 'em or hate 'em you cannot ignore Bugatti's artistry and designs.







Or the intricate detailing.





In the middle level display halls there's a mix of vehicles like this oddball three wheeler



Yes it was a production model.



But handled like a reliant and didn't survive.



There's also cars of the stars of movies and sport like this Cadillac that once belonged to a well known actress or should that be lady actor..



The bloke who owned these Jaguars was pretty well known around the Hollywood are.



I think his name was Paul something or other.



There's also a display of concept cars from various manufacturers.  See if you can figure out who did which.





I'll make 'em the same colour just to confuse you.





And tell you the blue one doesn't have a matching badge.



This one is from Europe.



Sorta looks like some well known Iitallians only because the coach builder covered more than one brand.



I'm sure you'll all know what this one is.



What do you mean you've never seen a Mercer before?  They are one of the most famous of early 'sports' cars.



Well that makes me wonder how many of you might know what this one is.



The second floor salon area was filled with only silver painted cars, most are pretty rare and exotic, but this one had fairly common ancestry.  Can you guess it?



This was my favourite here.



Gorgeous and eminently useable on road or track.



This one is for track use only.





This is the first Porsche to ever win at Le Mans, it started a bit of a chain reaction.



I'd have to look it up to be sure but I think this is an earl Alfa Romeo V* model.





Think this one is called a Bizarini after it's maker who once worked for Ferrari, or something like that.



Have no idea what this coach built number is, other than exotic and sporty in an old fashioned kinda way.



It's pretty sexy



What's that you say?  Hot Rods, where's the hot rods?

Well, most are stored in "The Vault" which is beneath the building.  There's about 160 other rare and valuable cars stored there as not everything can be on display at the same time.  It's well worth the price of admission to see what's there, because it's all rare as rocking horse poop, valuable and/or desirable too.  Which is why photography is not allowed down there, to limit the chances of bad people being able to identify and unravel the security systems and remove them whilst nobody is looking.

But there's still plenty of hot rods on display, starting with Ray 'Racer' Brown's roadster in the foyer.





This is what hot rods really looked like back in the late 1940s and it's the sort of car we all aspired to own in the fifties and sixties.



Tucked in a back corner is Coddington's rear engined Aluma Coupe.



Further inside the building it gets interesting with a mix of historiical and contemporary hot rods, starting with the Deuce of all Deuce Higboys the legendary Doane Spencer car.



Considering it was built immediately after war number 2 and how, this car is incredible and still steals the limelight from big ticket modern day rods built using CNC machinery and other space age technologies.





Spencer built his car using hand tools, hacksaw, files and gas welding.  The finish and details reveal the work of a highly skilled craftsman.









Yup this is without doubt the quintessential deuce Highboy.







And not just a survivor, it has the score on the board in more ways than most.



Whilst the Spencer car has been restored, the Frank Mack T roadster remains exactly how it was built all those years ago, again as a testament to the quality of workmanship and construction in the early fifties.





At the extreme opposite end of the hot rod spectrum is this, the Chip Foose designed and built machine, with one off body coach built by Marcell and Sons of L.A..



I'm still not sure of it's bonafides as a real hot rod but it is a class act, designed and constructed with the help of CAD, CAM (Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing) it is truly art on wheels and I guess deserves it's place in hot rodding as the only car to win both the Ridler award and AMBR.



It's pretty sleek from any angle and filled with intricate details.



The custom built headlamps mimic a design theme from Ford's 1937 models.



The details could only have been reproduced so consistently as a result of CNC machinery.





However there's still a lot that is down to the skill of the craftsmen involved.









Yup, I guess we can call it a modern hot rod.



Tom Mc Mullen's Deuce Tub adds a little late '70s flair to the show.



And the AMBR contender raised high on a hoist helps folks understand the lengths to which hot rodders go to build the finest machine they can.





While we're discussing craftsmanship in the construction of custom cars, we cannot ever exclude the one and only Sam Barris.  George may have been the front man, but it was Sam's eye and talent with the welding gas and hand tools that produced the cars that made the Barris name famous.

And pictured here with a contemporary take by Boyd Coddington and Larry Alexander is some of Sam's best work.



It doesn't matter from which way it's viewed the Bob Hirohatta Mecury is a masterpiece of both design and execution.



It was created at a time when show points were awarded more for the number of modifications as actual style and flair.  It has all that and more with many details that warrant closer inspection.





This car doesn't need to be displayed with the hood open to reveal the engine bay detailing, which is also mind blowing.



It is all about the body and how it looks as art on wheels.



Cadzilla is no less beautiful but in a more modern way.



It's quarters and roof are all scratch built components the only real Cad parts are front fenders and engine hood, whereas the Hirohatta Merc was constructed using parts from existing cars plus a few scratch built items.



So, that my friends, concludes our quick tour of the new Petersen Museum.

When the shopping list includes old Ford parts as it invariably always does, a trip to The Early Ford Store at San Dimas is usually mandatory. Even if you have no need to purchase anything the ever changing inventory and old Fords makes it a must do each time one is in the L.A. area.

This time Bill's current daily drive was parked in the street out front.



Yup it's a Deuce, mostly original but with just enough tricks to make it really cool. Like being a Vicky.



The wheels are stock, mounted to juice brakes and fitted with big n little rubber rings. The original 'Dago' front axle gives it just the right stance.



A Corvette small block hiding beneath the stock hood, hooked up to the original cog box and rear end.



The interior is pristine original 1932 Ford.



Except for the non factory air conditioner.



Meanwhile inside the store, the inventory has changed from what was on the shelves last time I visited.



See anything you like?



Or maybe anything you don't like?



There's something here for everybody.



If the part you need isn't here, it will be tomorrow.



Every time I've been here looking for something specific, Bill has gone straight to it or has found one within a week or so if it's not here. However, he does admit it's getting harder.





Parts in the cabinets are sorted by model year.







There's always something cool blocking the front doorway.



And it changes from one day to the next.



This old coupe is a genuine drag strip hero from days gone.



It has all the right parts for racin'



Including a stripe…..



….and comfy if not a tad secondhand looking vintage tuck n roll.



It also runs and drives and it could be yours for the right number of dead presidents.



Here's a few of the other cars that were around the place when I visited, the mint original black '40 coupe isn't for sale, yet. But be patient it will be sooner or later.











The Jailbar is a customer car.





Some customers even drive brand X.



The clean and nicely updated '48 coupe is available to the first one with the right money.



If you prefer something more traditional in style this banger powered Brookville A might be just the ticket.





The Deuce roadster was offered as a runner but on the day it decided not to play nice.











Maybe a Model 40 Cabriolet is more your style, this is not the same car that was here 12 months ago, that one found a new home, this one is still looking.





For new reproduction vintage Ford parts, CW Moss is the place to go, it's only a few miles away and is the place where everything old is new again.





And some things are still old.







C W's roadster is way cool, but not for sale.







The showroom next door was open for business selling complete cars, when last I visited. Today it was locked up and it seems the car sales operation is closed down. However, there were a few nice things visible through the windows.









Reid's Speed Shop is housed in the building next door and is the place to go for your hot rod parts.



They have pretty much everything covered.



From chassis and drivetrain….











……to repro bodies and even complete cars.





Since the Wally Parks NHRA Museum is nearby, maybe we'll visit there whilst we're in the 'hood.

'The Wally' usually has a few new things on display like this nice little chunk of Bonneville and Hot Rodding history.





The late Bob McCoy's coupe was nearby displayed with some of his awesome artworks. Bob fist came to prominence in the fifties when his black and flamed '40 Tudor appeared on the cover of Car Craft and a few other magazines. His artwork and especially the 'models' or sculptures are really cool.



It's always great to see the cars that started a fad, the Tommy Ivo and Norm Grabowski T buckets look great together.





And Isky's T, well it is simply timeless.



Theres always a couple or more of the Chrisman families old race cars on display.







And among the bunch of bunch of old dragsters, the one that started the slingshot dragster era.



And a few others that did amazing things.



The very first NHRA National Top Eliminator from 1955.



Plus others from the later fifties and on









Dragmaster's Two Thing is a legendary machine.







The gassers evolved and race cars became funny.







And like the camshaft wars during the gasser period, the funny car wars involved weird critters.





It's always a delight to see the SWC cars, but only one was present this time, the lightweight and Hemi powered 'Swindler A' match race car.



Another new old car to the museum this '40 coupe was found recently, completely intact as raced in the pre Willys gasser days.





This old warhorse has seen more than a bit of salt pass beneath it's tyres.



There's also a few contemporary racers on show.









And a few from the dry lakes.











Chuck Porter's sectioned and chopped '48 F1 truck dragged many a racer cross country and then pushed them off at the starting line.





Before we tead back east to St Louis I figure you might like to see some more of the classics from the Nethercutt Collection. This time around the Nethercutt wasn't a quick stopover as we spent the whole day there and then some thanks to me having made an appointment to take the guided tour of the big building across the street. In there is housed some beyond valuable cars and the worlds largest collection of mechanical musical devices.

Some thing for everyone Big thanks for sharing them again what a surprise to see the Pink Panther custom car and the early funny cars too.

I look forward every year to your trip to California. Your coverage of things automotive is without equal. One thing I noticed about the Grand National this year, unless it's the result of your impeccable taste in cars acting as a filter, but the style of cars has continued to evolve to the more traditional. even among the clearly contemporary cars. I'm not sure I like the "facelift" on the Petersen, but it sure would be easy to locate, now, and the interior layout is a vast improvement over the old one. It's great to see how they've been able to use their clout to dramatically broaden the range and depth of the cars on display. I can remember going there not too long after they first opened and it was a dark confused affair with a limited array on offer, although even then there were some remarkable cars to enjoy. Now if the NHRA museum wasn't so cramped... And finally, many thanks for the guided tours of all the private shops of your extraordinary friends!

Looking forward to next year!

there are some works of art there!!!!

O.M.G. thank you for sharing your great photo's Carps. There is so much inspiration here for my modeling and 1:1 projects ,I'm on overload !

Bernard Kron wrote:I look forward every year to your trip to California. Your coverage of things automotive is without equal. One thing I noticed about the Grand National this year, unless it's the result of your impeccable taste in cars acting as a filter, but the style of cars has continued to evolve to the more traditional. even among the clearly contemporary cars!

Thanks Bern, and yes, you're correct, whilst I do filter a few things out, the style of cars has become more traditional over recent years.  Likewise in the Suede Palace, the style has gone from grungy rat rods to shiney traditional rods and restored original rods, which to my mind is a great thing.

The bad news is I'm not done with this trip yet, yes there's more and I'll be back in August for the Street Rod Nationals, Bonneville, Pleasanton and maybe even Pebble Beach, since my employer is a sponsor.

Meanwhile, before leaving L.A. I needed to pay a visit to the Nethercutt Collection.  I've been there before and posted some pics here but this time I had an invite to view the extra special stuff in the multi story building across the street from the main vehicle museum pictured below.



Of course we arrived early enough to check out the cars in the main building starting with the priceless Bugatti and Delahaye twins displayed in the foyer.



Past the reception desk the first car surprised me as I know it belongs to Bruce Meyer.  Which is what made it strange as all the cars in this museum actually belong to the Nethercutt family.  There are no outsiders.  But it was good to see the iconic McGee Scritchfield Roadster a car that's done it all from daily driver, cover car, movie star and land speed record holder. Like the Spencer & Brown roadsters at the Petersen, this is the another quintessential Deuce Highboy and was quite advanced for when it was first built in the late forties.



Thus it's another fine study in how to build and detail a traditional hot rod.





Despite the 'visitor' there are a couple or three hot rods included in the Nethercutt collection,



,,,,, which is somewhat eclectic and at the same time a tad specialised.  In other words there's lots of common cars and a whole bunch of very unique and special machines too.

Like this pair of similar but different GM products from 1932, the Chevrolet Coupe and Cadillac V8 Coupe sit happily side by side like big and small but otherwise almost identical twins.



In the opposite aisle there's a long row of extremely rare Cadillacs.  Because the collection includes a full set of the long bonneted V16 models.





Gorgeous cars all of them, especially this '34 model.



Across the next aisle is a line of Fords starting with a less than common model T doctors Cabriolet.



And an even more uncommon Model A, the Deluxe Phaeton!  Count the doors.



There's also a goodly number of classy machines from the very early days when cars were only for the rich like this Winton which was from the final year of the company wich started way back in the early 1890s.  An intersting story about the maker of this car is that the company was already struggling by the late 1890s as a result of a shortage of good engineers with understanding and experience of the new fangle automobile.  So one day in 1898, Alexander Winton interviewed an eager young engineer and dismissed him as totally unsuitable for the fledgeling automobile industry.  By 1908 the Winton company was on it's knees when that young engineer Winton rejected intoduced his own car to the market and almost overnight, Henry Ford changed the world.



Along with some very early models there's also the very last car built by the Packard company before Studebaker took over.



How about this low mileage unrestored Graham, it shows 27,000 miles on the original odometer.



There's a few unrestored vehicles in the collection, like this huge 1911 series 27 Limousine.  At that time it was the largest and most powerful Olds ever built with a 706 cubic inch six making 60 horsepower, it also had the biggest wheels ever fitted to any motor car in history.  Forty Three inches in diameter they help ensure this is the tales car in the collection.



Closer inspection reveals some ageing of the paint and the original brush marks.



One of the most exclusive cars in the US before WW2 was Pierce Arrow, the company with the distinctive fender mounted headlamps.



Like many in the early days Pierce Arrow started as a bicycle manufacturer who saw an opportunity in the new horseless carriage for wealthy folk.  The collection includes at least one Pierce Arrow from every model year starting in the early 1900s to 1936 when the company folded after struggling through the depression.  



This one was the Nethercutt family car for many years….



… which meant towing the matching Pierce Arrow camping trailer on many vacation tours.





Like the cars, the trailer is big and incredibly luxurious.



It has everything, including the kitchen and bathroom sinks.









Among the Rolls Royces, the collection includes the only complete set of Phantom models anywhere in the world.  From Phantom 1 through 2 to the current Phantom 9, there's at least one car from every series.





The museum also houses an incredible library, with information on all the cars here plus many that are not.  It's open for uses as reference to all but the books cannot be taken from the library space.





Every car in the collection has been painstakingly researched and then restored exactly to it's original condition, right down to the paint and upholstery colours.



However, as I mentioned, some like Tucker number 43 remain unrestored as to do so would likely devalue the car.





I think I managed to shoot some decent images of every car in the collection, but there's too many to post here so I'll just put up a selection for you to view before we head across the road to see the really special stuff..



If you have any questions about them, just ask and I'll try to answer as best I know the details.







The other deuce coupe.



Chrysler by Walter P.



Pure class!









The spare engine for Mc Hale's PT 76.









Another one of them very small cars that seem to be gaining popularity.



and a few more classy things.

This just gets better and better. I do have a question about the MG in this last series of photos. It appears to be a TC, but the colour, the chromed wire wheels and the button upholstery are so not MG. Is there a story connected with the car???

Yup, export MGs were painted to fit the market and the American cars featured many colour schemes that were not used for UK or even Australian models, likewise the chromed wheels would have most likely been a US dealer fit option as chrome plated wheels had been popular in the Us since the late 1920s when the shinier more durable chromium plate started to replace nickel. The car pictured would most certainly be a TC as that was the first model to be built LHD and exprted to the US of A as a result of the enourmous demand in the US for such cars after WW2.

But button upholstery??? No accounting for taste.

As it had been since the horse and buggy days button upholstery was still very popular in the US through the 1950s and even into the sixties when it was the popular choice for things like the Fad T or T bucket as we know them.

With respect to American tastes, yes they like some things that we'd consider overdone or less than classy, hence the extravagant car designs of the 1950s and '60s.  I'm not sure if the car would have carried that upholstery from the factory but as they were shipped CKD to the US and assembled locally, the opportunity to 'cusomise' was there from the go get up and since everybody wanted soemthing unique, dealers and distributors were only too happy to oblige.

So now it's time to move across the road to the earthquake proof multi story building where the really, really special stuff is housed.

Normally, because nothing in this building is roped off, there's only 25 people at a time on the tour, which takes a bit more than three hours.  However, today the had a European Coach Tour group  visiting and we only got in because i had the right contacts.

First stop is the lower ground level entered via the doors used to drive cars into the space.  headroom is a bit lower here than everywhere else but it's not claustrophobic and the cars are both rare and stunningly beautiful.

There's even a cool low rider in here.



This one holds a special place as it's the first vehicle used to deliver Merle Norman cosmetics.  That's the family business and Merle Norman is the only cosmetics company that still manufactures in the US.



The cars in here are on another level to those in the primary building as many are extremely rare or the only one of the type known to still exist.  This Packard double six, looks like a regular Pack but is the only one of it's type built on a custom long wheelbase with one off body and an interior that reeks luxury at a whole other level.



This V16 Cadillac has a unique Sports Phaeton body  by Deusenberg's in house coach-works, Rollston.



And each of these cars is restored to exactly how it was when first built…..



…..or maybe only cosmetically restored as is the case for this Model SJ Deusenberg.





There's some pretty rare machines housed here and like those in the other building they are all roadworthy, registered and driven regularly.  The registration bill must be horrendous, but I guess if you can afford your own private museum and offer free entry, you can cover the rego.



There are a couple of exceptions to the rare deal, some are here just because they are too cool to be displayed anywhere else.



The cabinets in the background of most pictures hold some amazing stuff including the worlds largest collection of radiator mascots and a sub collection of priceless Lalique Lead Cystal mascots, also the largest known.  



Lalique mascots when they change hands are usually in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range.





Like the main building, there's a fire tender, I guess just in case it's needed.



Strangely, the car I'd take home from this building if I could only have 1 isn't the woody or this early thirties Caddy V16 Convertible sedan.  Sure they are both cool and desirable, the right colour too but there's an even more desireable car that I'll show you soon and it's probably not the one you'll think it may be.



It's certainly not this one….



or this gorgeous Victoria Coupe.



Having drooled long enough it was time to move upstairs to the Grand Salon.  And boy is it grand!  Styled after the luxury Auto Showrooms of the late 1920s, the pillars and floor are solid marble and it takes up two full levels of the building with a mezzanine filled with rare artefacts and antiquities.



Maybe it's not as big but it kinda makes the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne look a little lame buy comparison.



Around the walls are parked some rare veterans and early vintage machines, each the only example of it's type known to still exist.













On the staircase this seven foot tall grandfather clock which normally might not rate a second glance unless you knew the cabinet is carved from a single tree trunk and the entire thing is but one single chunk of wood with a giant clockwork movement inside.  It's also a precursor of what's upstairs as this building also houses the world's largest collection of mechanical musical instruments.  And like the cars, every last one of them is in perfect working order and was played for us during the tour.  But more on that later.



The centrepiece vehicle in the main hall is the Rollston Deusenberg SJ Arlington Torpedo Sedan!



This 1 off Deusenberg, known as the 20 Grand is coach builder Rollston's most famous and was designed by noted stylist Gordon Beuhrig and built as a show car for the 1933/34 Century of Progress Exposition held in Chicago, Illinois.  It was intended to be kept for use by the Deusenberg brother after the exposition, however many wealthy shoppers wanted to own it, so at a time when a regular model SJ was around $6,900 and a new Ford about $600, the Deusenberg brothers in a bid to deter potential buyers put a price tag of $20,000 on the car.  It was snapped up almost instantly by a wealthy local.



It may not be the best known or most famous Deusey, but it is the most beautiful and one of the most valuable cars in the world.  There is a replica that was built in the '80s on a regular SJ chassis, but it's easy to pick because so many of the details are not right and the chassis under this car is also unique.



Here's the spare engine, straight eight, twin overhead camshafts and four vales per cylinder, supercharged of course and looking exactly how it would have appeared in the engine bay of the new car in 1933.  In fact it looks identical to the one between the chassis rails of the car on display.



Remember how I said this part of the museum is special?  Can you imagine being allowed to sit inside this priceless car?  Whilst it's requested that visitors refrain from touching the paint and chrome, everything here is what it is and guests are invited to get as close as possible, they even insist people sit on the antique furniture to relax their legs.







Look closely at the screws to understand the level of detail and craftsmanship in this unrestored car. Every screw on the car is indexed so the slots run the same direction.



Parked beside the Twenty Grand is another totally unique and stylish one off.  Thiis '34 Packard 12, Dual Cowl 4 door Roadster.  It's an awesome machine, but still not the car I'd bring home.







This Hispano Suiza is not only rare it's positively huge and of course powered by an aeroplane engine.





This supercharged Benz could top 100mph in 1909 and again it's the only one known to exist.  We were shown photographs of what the restoration team started with and whilst the car was complete it's easy to understand why it had been passed over for so many years.  Most of us would have done the same, but Nethercutt recognised what it was and home it came in about a hundred boxes on two trucks.  It took ten years to restore but it's the only one of three originals remaining.



It's not a Mercedes Benz because that nomenclature didn't happen until Daimler and Benz joined forces some years after this car was built.



I always call these cars the Bruce.  It's actually a Ruxton and yes, that is it's original Duco.



All Ruxtons were front wheel drive on an underslung chassis, so they were very low for their time and  featured some incredible multi coloured paint jobs…



….as well as exotic fittings and equipment.



This Rolls Royce is half as big again as the biggest Phantom in the collection and was specially built for royal duty, serving the Sultan of Brunei for many years.  He also had as fine a collection of classic automobiles as could be owned by one man.

Carps wrote:As it had been since the horse and buggy days button upholstery was still very popular in the US through the 1950s and even into the sixties when it was the popular choice for things like the Fad T or T bucket as we know them.

With respect to American tastes, yes they like some things that we'd consider overdone or less than classy, hence the extravagant car designs of the 1950s and '60s.  I'm not sure if the car would have carried that upholstery from the factory but as they were shipped CKD to the US and assembled locally, the opportunity to 'cusomise' was there from the go get up and since everybody wanted soemthing unique, dealers and distributors were only too happy to oblige.

Inskip(?) made TDs into 4 passenger tourers. Arnoldt coupes in the mid-west. Plenty of example of US mods being made to the cars imported. Anything for a price.

Yup, welcome to America, the land of plenty.

So what about the one car I'd take home? Well it's this gorgeous 1934 Packard Sports Phaeton.



Not the most ohh! ahh! or even the rarest car in the collection, but there's just something about it that lights my fire.





A totally class act, this car could be driven daily and never embarrassed by a modern car. But then you'd have to think really hard about that because of the car's history and unrestored status. Yes, I said UNRESTORED!

This Packard was built for display at the New York Auto Show in 1934. The extraordinary colour known as 'Orello', was often used by Packard for cars destined for major auto shows. However, it was never offered as a catalogue colour it was reserved for show cars.

Herbert and Agnes Greer, of Morgantown, West Virginia, were visiting New York City and attended the show that year. They purchased this car off the show stand as a birthday present for their 16-year-old daughter, Jane! Jane didn't like the colour and refused to drive the car, so Mrs. Greer drove it until World War II.

Some time in 1941Charles Weidebusch of Morgantown purchased the car from the Greers. He owned it until his death in 1976, when it was sold at auction to Bob Adams and Leo Gephart, who, in turn, sold it to Wally Rank of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By this time the odometer showed 41,000 miles.

The car then changed hands several times; Frank and Loni Buck purchased it in October of 2002, then sold it to the Nethercutts in 2013.

During their ownership, the car has been shown at the Hershey Fall Meet and numerous Grand Classics. In all events it has appeared, the car has received unrestored and/or original recognition awards.

This particular car is the fourth of only 19 11th series Super 8 Sport Phaetons produced by Packard in the 1934 model year and has a V12 engine. It has only 61,100 original miles on the odometer, some of which are the result of two Classic Car Caravans where it was driven across the US of A and back again.



So, are you bored silly yet? Or would you like to see what I got up to in the St Louis, Mo area?

Carps, you have me riveted to my laptop with this display. Unbelievable and I cannot begin to describe the awe of seeing not just the cars, but the building itself. It must have been an absolutely fantastic experience in person. Really appreciate all that you are sharing. Thanks.

There are two collections I dream of visiting before I shuffle off, one is the ex-Schlumpf Cité de l’Automobile, Musée National de L’automobile in Alsace in France, and the other is the Nethercutt. Despite having lived in California and visiting there often enough, along with missing the GNRS and Oakland Roadster shows, the Nethercutt eludes me. Both are epic in their scope and focus on the truly exceptional in the Classic Automobile era. I hadn't realized that so many of the extra special cars I associate with the Nethercutt are kept in the "other" building!!!!

The Duesy Twenty Grand is thought by many to be the first metallic paint job. Extraordinary to think that it's in this condition as an unrestored car - testimony the high regard it's commanded all these years.



The Bob McGee/Dick Scritchfield Deuce has always been the ultimate in its genre for me (although I'm partial to the Joe Nitti Highboy as well). It's stance, color and restrained detail are near perfection. A lot of people don't realize that the reason it's stance is so exceptional is because it's actually z'd at the rear, but with the frame ends dropped down again to hold the fuel tank in the stock location.

Bernard, it's definitely worth the time and if you can wangle it whilst your in the area, see if you can get into to see the Mullin Collection.  Peter Mullin prefers European cars from the Art Deco period and his collection is mainly Delahaye, Delage and Bugatti, it also includes the sixty cars that the Schlumpf wives won back from the French Government after their hysband's deaths.  The court case was won on the basis that not all of the money the brothers used to buy the collection's cars was missapropriated from the French Government.

The McGee Scritchfield roadster was well ahead of it's time and another thing that many folks miss is the lack of exposed door hinges, a difficult thing to achieve back then even though it's standard fare nowadays.

There's another car that fits with this group and that's the Walker Morrison Raodster, which was built in the immediate post war period by Morrison with the help of his good buddy Doane Spencer.  It's shares a lot with the Nitti car in that it had plenty of brightwork a very unique dash panel and like the others served as daily driver and racer.

It was restored by my very good friends Jack and Harry Stirnemann of St Louis, Mo.



And it is exactly as it was built, confirmed by Morrison's friends and then girlfriend supported by thousands of photographs and other items she passed on to the boys.  Even the colour is spot on masterfully matched by Jack to a couple of bits of the original paint still on the car.  Even the licence plates/nmbers are the same.











But we digress, so back to the story.

Awesome pics Carps, would love to see more please

Deev, your wish is my command.

Since I had to get to the office which is now in Texas and that's more than halfway to St Louis, I took the time to head there so I could finally after 30+ years as a member of the St Louis Street Rod Association, make a club meeting. Made it just in time for sunset.



Second night wasn't so dramatic.



Being mid winter only the president arrived in his hot rod, the rest came in pick up trucks or cars with good heaters as it was a tad cool out at minus two degrees.



Dat's the clubrooms in the background.



When we got home Ed's wife Barb told us about a newly finished residence and large garage in a nearby town. What she described sounded a bit strange so we headed out the next morning to see for ourselves. Here's what we found.



Glass doors facing the highway.



At least the side that faces the back street has proper doors.



Anyhow, since we were there we did a lap around the place to see what else we could see and we did see some interesting stuff hiding in plain sight, like at the local service station.









And the supermarket parking lot.





A bit further out of town it' got even more interesting, so we had to stop a couple or three times to check out stuff like this Chevy which was pretty solid and complete, just sitting by the side of a road.





A bit further and we found this, It was in surprisingly good shape. so I don't really think it was lost.



This seems to be the back half of an Olds 442.



And this old clunker was tucked away where it's protected from the elements. The fibreglass mould was interesting but we couldn't figure what car it was supposed to be.



We had a chat with the owner of the property where this one sits. It's the last of the Plymouth Roadrunners, same as the Daisy Duke kit.



Turns out the property owner's nephew couldn't make the payments when the 383 and four speed car was only a few months old and to keep it from falling into the recovery people's hands it was moved across the Mississippi from Missouri to Illinois and has been sitting here ever since, again hiding from the repo guys in plain sight.



We also stopped off to check progress on Ed's new truck, which is at the upholstery shop.





Since Ed decided to run with the Chevy, his other project truck is now on the market. Yep it's a low mileage original that' really is as good as it looks with a sweet running Y block under the hood.



This is Ed's daily driver, which he purchased just because it was going cheap.



Passing the local Tojo dealer I had to stop and check out the 'Tundzilla' parked on the front row. I really wish we could sell these trucks in Oz!



It's a big mean looking mutha!







These are US market Tacoma's, like Hilux only a poofteenth bigger and with US rather than our Asian market styling, there's no Diesel option because for some reason in the US only really big trucks have daysals..





Here's a nice shot showing how Tundra stacks up against LandCruiser sizewise.



OK enough of the new car stuff, let's get back to the cool gear and check out what's happening at a club members workshop. Dave' parks his antique tractor outside the shop, because in a rural community you're nobody without one.



Dave's daily driven truck is kinda unique among '49 F1s.



Can you pick what makes it so? It's a 4X4!



Dave has some pretty cool tools too.



Including an elderly Bridgeport Mill.



Here's the model A Tudor he's building for himself.



It's one very serious hot rod.



But I don't think I'd like to try and drive it in ice or snow as it has some pretty fat meats down back.



This Buick Special is the newly acquired family car, just getting a few wires tweaked and a little tidy up before being pressed into service.





On the way into St Louis, this Austin Healy roared past sounding more like an AC Cobra than a B series BMC donk.



This angle gave the game away, it's a fibreglass kit car that only looks like a Healy, if you squint.



On the way home we spotted this parked in a local street, looks just like the ones assembled by Toyota Australia when they were AMI and did Ramblers and triumphs too.



But we never built one with a back half like this.



After a quick detour to check out Grandpa's 'low mileage '34 Plymouth…… Yes that's genuine mileage and the radio, heater paint etc. are all original.







Dunno what happened here, must have got dirt or sumpin' on the lens.



Next stop was a professional workshop, where some of the work was done on Ed's 55 and 67 Chevies.



They had a few nice thingsf being refurbished here, like this Chevy.





And this Corvette, note the matching model kit.



The chopped Dak-Dak was a bit on the unusual side.



All that out of our hair, it was time to go shopping.

This next lot of photographs were shot at a very interesting place Ed told me about over dinner.

The business promotes itself as an Automobile Museum.  However, most of the cars on display are in fact for sale and have a display card to that effect.  Others are there for storage but instead of being parked out the back and covered up, they are also displayed as Museum pieces.  The idea is simple.  If you have an old car that you need to store or might consider selling, just bring it along and display it for a nominal fee.  The owners of the facility charge people admission to come in and view them as museum display cars, at the same time trying to sell them to visitors and earn a commission on the sale.

I couldn't quite get my head around the concept, so Ed suggested we go check it out.

ON arrival, the 'Curator' advised us that even if the car doesn't have a for sale card, if we'd like to make an offer to purchase, they'd happily submit our offer to the owner and help broker a deal.

When we walked through the door I nearly fell over.  Like when was the last time you saw a rare as rocking horse poop 1959 Ferrari Dino?    Even though it isn't officially for sale, we were advised the owner would consider offers over $3.5 million.



Considering one of these recently sold for just over $25 million I thought that somewhat strange.



So I raised my concern with the curator.



And he told me the story of the car.  Y'see it looks genuine enough and it sort of is, but it's not a matching numbers Ferrari with provenance.  It does have some history being built from leftover and secondhand parts from a couple of wrecked racing cars that were rebodied by Ferrari back in the day.  It's pretty much all Ferrari, just not one Ferrari.  The chassis and other components were never assembled officially as a car, so it's not worth what the matching number cars go for.  Consider it like car number 26 from a production run of 24 'real' cars.



It'd a be a fun thing to have just to blast around town and piss the Ferrari guys off, coz I don't reckon anybody would pick it as it has all the right bits, just not the right numbers.



On the other hand, this '42 Ford Wagon was the real deal but it did't have card and was absolutely not for sale.



This Mercedes was for sale and offers would need to be truly serious as unlike the Ferrari, this is a Genuine 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Speziale Roadster.



It's worth considerably more than the TR 250, so we decided not to bother with an offer, it could remain a museum piece.



Qualifying as silly price of the week, we could have opened negotiations on this old LandCruiser FJ55 at $75,000 and that's US dollars which would make it close to Au$100k.  These and VW multi window busses seem to be the hottest property on the US collector car scene right now.



This one could follow you home for ten grand less, coz it's a not so rare late model.



The price ticket on this Dak-Dak was nearly $20K higher than the red Tojo.



Strangely the Packards were a lll reasonably priced, below $100K













This would have been the Packard for me and as is usual for me it was also the most expensive.





1934 Ford Cabriolet was nicely restored but at almost $90k the price was a bit steep.





It did have a factory radio.



On the other hand this '37 was relatively cheap with an asking price of $35k.



Ed said the price on the Jeepster was simply insane and around double what they are worth.  Ed has three of these and a collection of rare old Jeeps that would take your breath away.  His daily driver is a '48 Sedan Delivery with rare barn doors.  Again I digress, sorry.





This boat had a six figure price tag on it so again my wallet was a mile or three away where we might start the negotiations.



It has three passenger compartments and is 32 feet long.



Y Block Ford powered it seemed pretty nicely done for a wooden boat.





There was plenty of other stuff to choose from and much that was  priced well for quick turnover.



At leads than $20K this American Austin Bantam carried what was about the lowest pricetag on the block.



T bird was in the low $30s.



Chevy Fleetline appeared to be a genuine 'woody' and like the Bantam, the price was below $20K.



This one appeared to be a better car and that showed in the $10k price difference.



Chrysler Town & Country was a nice resto with real timber, but not for sale, which is why it was tucked in behind the others.  No sense placing the non earners on valuable selling space.



'36 Hank Cabrio, was almost a bargain at around half the price of the '34.



It seemed to be in pretty good shape too.



''39 Deeluxe coupe was nicely finished and priced below $50K.





Nash Rambler was pretty neat and low priced, would make a neat cruiser.





Fords generally were being offered for sensible prices.







Old Injun sickle was up in the same price bracket as the Packards.



Was nicely restored and apparently quite rare.



And the asking prices on this next lot is what I'd consider more silly money, especially the C type which is a replica using an XJ6 drivetrain, not a $250K original.







Old Bentlys always carry a high price but I don't really think this car won at Le Mans like the price tag suggested.



Even if it does have all the right hardware.



Wells Fargo wagon was in the storage area out back, so I figured maybe not for sale,



Mercury Custom was priced a little high at $75K.



Quite a few muscle cars too, some not for sale, some seriously overpriced.









Dunno if this qualifies as a Muscle car, but it's packing some serious under hood mumbo.



A couple of fire trucks here, one restored, the other original no prices shown on their cards.









There was also a goodly bunch of vintage tin like this A Sports Coupe as well as brass era veterans.



Think this is a model R or S Ford, it's definitely pre model T.



When was the last time you saw a pre 20th century Sears Horseless Buggy for sale?



It was kinda cool and in good shape for something so old.



A few decent sporty cars in the line-up, the Healy BN! carrying a price double the Porsche next to it..



Perhaps a Corvette is your thing?



Or maybe a Kustomised Caddy is your idea of the right kinda ride?



Not sure if gene Winfield was the painter but it looks like his work.



This Chevy looked like it had a quickie paint job to help move it along to a new home.



Cant remember what this was, but definitely uncommon and in good shape.





How about a 1911 EMF Speedster?  OHV power plant with three speed rear mounted transaxle and bugger all body fat.  Probably went quite OK in the day.



Looks the goods.



Simplex is big and not for sale.



Don't panic if there's nuthin for ya here, we aint done yet!      

There's about a dozen businesses in St Louis that specialise in the sale of classic and cool automobiles and whilst we didn't get to them all this time around we gave it a good shot.

Here's a place I try and visit whenever I'm in St Louis because they generally have one or two pretty cool things on offer.   They focus on a mix of vehicle types and usually don't have anything that's  questionable in terms of the quality of workmanship.

However, sometimes workmanship can be good but the builders taste remains more like "What were they thinking?"





Big mid '30s Pierce Arrow seemed somewhat of a bargain for $65K



Appeared to have been a big dollar older restoration.





Straight 8 Packard Limo was a gem and priced accordingly.



Hard to tell if it was original or older resto, the engine ran like a swiss watch as you'd expect of a Packard.



This later model was no less well done but the price was much more affordable at around $25k.



Early VW had a price tag more than double the blue Packard.



And it wasn't even a split window model.



Excalibur must have fallen from favour or become popular again, as we counted four on the showroom floor.



Nash Metro's seem to be everywhere this year.





I walked straight past this one….



…then Ed told me I should take a closer look.



And if you like driving in the dark of night, we can slip you into this little gem. for only $230K



It's a glass body purported to have been taken from a mould of the original, which the TV people had made just in case they needed to duplicate the TV car.   And it was duplicated, as these things pop up in weird places all across the country.  This is one of the roughest I've see and it appears to have had a hard life.  But cleaned up, it could provide a bit of fun.



Pinto could also be a bit of fun it has a 351C under the hood.



Singer isn't going to be so fast but they are a fun car and rarer than MG, at $35K this one is considerably cheaper than a similar car would be here in Oz.



Here's one for shoebox lovers, the not so common Crestline, in good nick at a reasonable price as I recall.





If that's too much, you could consider a mildly customised regular shoebox model.



There's always some good quality vintage stuff here, again always at reasonable prices, or at least what I think is reasonable.  





Some of it is more desirable than others……



………….like this ''35 Ford Convertible Sedan.



I understand these early Volvos are quite common on the east coast but rarely seen in the Midwest.





However, there's other things I'd consider even rarer.



There's also usually a good mix of muscle.



Ford Torino are not so common…



But a pair of rare Taladegas is not something you see every day







Of course there's a Camaro like this Z28 with a factory Smokey Ram 327 and they had others.



Buried among the muscle machines was a base model '65 Chevy four door sedan, completely plain-Jane from the bench seat right down to the dog dish wheel caps.  It was hard to photograph and I figured hardly worth it until I spotted this.



Yeah Baby!  This puppy has a rat motor with factory four speed plus, heater and radio delete.



There's a usually few hot rods and customs around the place, like this tasty 2 door sedan.



Or this somewhat less tasty coupe which seems a bit confused as to what style or era it's supposed to be representative of.





Kustom Thunderbird is a genuine built in the late fifties deal



It's not as questionable as many older customs that I've seen for sale.



And appears to be as built, even with the original paint which is a tad crazed in a couple of spots.



The interior looks like it may have been redone unless the car has simply been sitting in a shed undriven.



Model AA stake bed seemed to be in very good shape for a truck.



If that's too big for ya, we can go a size smaller.



And then there's this, the rocket is purely for decoration but the rest is the real deal. Ive seen this thing run over 200mph at Bonneville and it's now for sale in race ready condition for only $99K.  Powered by straight 8 Buick.



No!  It's not the dart!



But it looks like it could be fun.



Looking for an early model Lincoln? ……







….or late?  We got it covered.



Don't like the colours of the other Nash Metros?  How about this then?



And for those seeking something a little more exotic, we have that covered too.

This next shop is one I've never visited before. We went to check out one of our Club Mate's cars which was there on consignment and Ed wanted me to see it.

These guys do a cable TV show and the shop is really just a big TV studio with a showroom attached at the front where the project cars that don't already have owners are offered for sale. They also have quite a few cars on consignment like Bob's Chevy.



It's a very nice home built car.



Upholstery was done by the same guy who is doing Ed's new truck.





It's detailed to the max top and bottom.



It is an interesting place in that at one end of the 'showroom' is the front of the paint shop, where a lot of prep and spot repairs were going on. This despite it being open to the showroom and I'm sure you'll notice the cars all seem to have a layer of body shop dust on them..





Taking photos in the showroom was OK but they asked that I don't shoot pictures of the studio or vehicle storage area, where there were many cars under covers.

The style of car this place builds is somewhere between Boyd Coddington and a few of the other popular TV shows. Seriously radical and as different as possible in order to gain maximum attention like this Chevy Nomad, which is for sale at a seriously high price.



Colour is custom mixed and everything including the wheels custom made.



The interior is no less 'out there'.



Here's the Shop Truck, which is not for sale.



It packs a serious dose of horse pressure.





But not much cargo space.





Here's the old shop truck which now is for sale.





Built to a similar theme but with shiny paint.





And decent upholstery.



With huge wheels and rubber band tyres.



Whilst that stuff isn't my cup of tea, this Chevy C10 was more to my liking as far as pick up trucks go.



It was purchased cheaply as a well worn old truck and featured in the TV show as a rebuild.



The resto appears to have been very thorough and not done for a quick flip even though it was being prepared for sale.



A lot of the other stuff here was also enough to get my heart racing like this rare Race Hemi powered '67 Road Runner.







Gotta love a two door muscle car with bench seat and Hurst shifter. The pistol grip would come next model year when the Hemi became an option rather than a limited edition of around a hundred cars.



Some of the consignment stock appeared run of the mill, but closer inspection revealed it was usually the more desirable spec like this Z/28 Camaro.



If ya'alll don't like the white stripes, we can do 'em in black too.



Or perhaps an ultra rare Pontiac GTO convertible with Ram-Air 421 is more to your liking? My friend Stevie has one of the total build of 43 of these cars, his is even rarer than this being the only one in his colour and trim combination and one of only five out of the total number that has a four speed? Yup, this is a seriously big dollar car, hence the POA price sticker.

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This Chevy pick-up was one that didn't seem to fit the mould, so we figured maybe it was slated for some reworking on a future episode. We couldn't ask because the team were busy filming and left us alone in the showroom.





Chevelle coupe was packing a big block and YENKO badging.



The real deal or a clone, it was a pretty cool thing.



Earlier model 327 with muncie four speed Chevelle would make a great daily driver.



As would this relatively rare Dodge Dart GTS with 383 big block under the hood.







Offroad thing appears to be based on a Jeep, has AMC six under the hood.







'68 Mustang was nice and clean, but didn't fit with the harder to find models of other brands on the floor.



Unless there's something we missed.



Chevy wagon was very nice and I thought reasonable priced at $25K



Has nicely redone interior.





Mid sixties 'Vette has been upgraded with Bowtie 502 Big Block and overdrive auto, plus the biggest side pipes I ever saw.



Cobra has aluminium body and late 427, would be a real handful.



As would this one, also with aluminium body, but I'm doubtful it was a real one. Although it was POA, so maybe there's more here than meets the eye.

This next place I haven't visited for a couple of years and in that time it has expanded somewhat, from about a hundred cars on offer to about three hundred.  Another thing I like about this guy is he provides a full stick list with starting prices (everything is negotiable) and cars listed by model year.

Some are pristine originals or careful restorations and others project cars or ones that have been tarted up with a splash of paint for a quick sale.

This late 40s sedan appears to have been somebody's well loved pride and joy and it just became time to move on.



I might change the wheels immediately but there's a few other things that don't suit my tastes so at $46K I passed.  



You could do a nice Christine clone with this.



Only $33k



How about a less than common '41 Lincoln Zephyr with alternator driven V12 flathead?







One of the other things I like about this place is they don't mind overseas visitors and encourage you to test drive the cars, even when you tell them you're not buying.  

The property is large enough that you can take a spin that'll give you a good feel for the car without going out onto the public roads, which I did in this 1933 Chevy coupe and can tell you it drives as good as it looks..





With a starting price of only $35k it warranted serious consideration.





But my heart is set on something else, so I had to pass.



They also have a good share of weird here, here's one for those who think stuff like this Mustang painted to look like a, a, a, ummm, Mustang! is a good idea.



Or how about a Cord that barely resembles the real thing?



…..and rides on a rear drive chassis, I mean, really?



Or perhaps a Ratcycle as opposed to Batcycle, is more to your liking?





Maybe you just like rust without the radical style?



At least the chassis and engine are nicely detailed.



Perhaps you live off the beaten track and need something with more ground clearance than a Tonka Toy?



'50 Olds Sloper is super nice.



$49k seemed a little high to me but Ed thought it was about right for this car.



I thought this International pickup somewhat rare,



But Ed said they were once more common than dirt.  He was right they had another three on site.



Yet another one for the Mustang folks is this '65 model starting at $32K



Clean all round with a good top….



And Pony interior.





Personally I'd prefer this Falcon Sprint for ten Gs less.





Just coz it's different.



And just to be sure The F1 fans don't feel left out…..



Rare in Oz and it's less than $25K, sign writing free of charge.



For just $30k you could be driving home in this fine '41 Packard 110 series straight eight.





This '39 model doesn't seem as shiny but is the same price.



mostly because it's a higher grade with dual side mounts, luggage rack and interior partition.



Here's a later '54 Packard Clipper Deluxe Hardtop for about the same money as the '41 model.





And a nice Studebaker Hawk, which could also be a Packard if you ugly it up a bit.





F100 is the hard to find Short wheelbase flare side.



Desoto Sportsman is Hemi powered and appeared in good shape with a $25k starting price.







This stock '49 needed a little TLC but for $18k was about right on the money.



This is the other end of the customised shoebox which to my mind was way overpriced by comparison at $25k, because the voices in my head kept telling me it required a lot more work to make it something I'd want to be seen driving.



On the other hand this '64 Thunderbird is something I'd love to be driving and it was in as new condition.



…which was also reflected in the $57K price tag.



The body and paint are flawless, top perfect and everything worked as it should from the non power windows to the powered folding top mechanism.  The engine purred like a kitten, trans shifted perfectly …



….and the interior looked like the car had never been sat on.





Same year, different colour and slightly less pristine…



….could be driven home for only $34K



Or you could have this '65 coupe for only $16K



This very early Karman Ghia is almost as nice as the similarly coloured T bird



Clean inside



And looking good all round it carried a slightly lower price tag at $46K  than the nice bird but higher than all the others, reflecting the value of uncommon Dak-Dak variants..



Here's a little something for the military lovers at only $24K