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Topless
Tour 2002
or
Larry & Jim's Excellent Adventure
By
Larry Zilinsky
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| On
June 10 Jim McGowan and I left Victoria B.C. in our '32 Ford Roadsters heading
for Longview, Washington to eventually wind up in Pomona California for
the 38th Annual Father's Day Show and Swap Meet put on by the LA Roadsters.
Late Monday afternoon we pulled into Jim Denison's yard in Longview to find
out that Jim had got a bunch of the local hot rodders to bring their cars
out and enjoy an evening of telling lies, having a few beers, and eating
junk food. A total of 22 hot rods were there with their owners, a bunch
of great guys and genuine hot rodders from the Longview area. Great evening!
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| Tuesday
morning we headed for California, and about 8:00 that night, we hooked up
with our friends Pam and Frank Brocco in Calistoga (California) for an evening
of great food, great company, and "rustic" accommodations in a
really cool little resort near Pam and Frank's house. We knew right away
that this was going to be a great trip by the way Pam and Frank hosted that
evening, and we were right! |
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| Wednesday,
we headed out first thing for the Richmond area just NE of Frisco to visit
the incredible warehouse/toybox of Al Engels. Al's collection of cars, hot
rods, race cars, and memorabilia is nothing short of incredible and words
can't describe it. It's HUGE, it's top quality, it's VERY interesting, and
Al was the perfect host and a super guy. (Editor's note: visit the
Canadian Rodder archive article "Fit for a king but occupied by Jokers"
for more on Al's) |
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| As
we left Al's and as I was inching my roadster across some railway tracks
I felt a "thunk" as the car kept moving. My roadster is very low
and I knew I'd hit something , which proved correct as I noticed smoke coming
out the back as we started down the road. After I pulled over I looked under
the car to see the life's blood running out of my trans pan onto the roadside!
The track had caught my drain plug and tore a hole in the pan! A call to
Roy Brizio's shop by Frank brought a slide truck out (about a 40 minute
trip!) and the roadster was loaded up and taken to 4-Star Automotive near
Roy's where they got right on to it and sent me on my way to Roy's shop
to meet up with everyone else. Great bunch of guys at 4-star! |
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| We
spent the rest of the afternoon at Roy's place ogling the great new shop
and about 30+ hot rods they were working on. After spending the night in
Pleasanton and hooking up with the rest of the "Brizio bunch",
including Andy and Sue, we headed off to Pomona for the show. |
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| Now,
California freeways are well known to be ,well, BAD, and I found that out
when just before we left the freeway my rear license plate went away! I
remembered hearing something amongst the roar of the traffic and when we
got to the grounds all that was left was a little stub of the bracket! I
later found an old rusted '32 bracket in the swap meet for $1 and "mounted"
my front plate on the back. (That worked about til we got to Redding on
the way home - then it went away too!) |
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| The
weekend overall was nothing short of perfect, and most of that due to Frank,
Pam, Andy, Sue, Cub, Lynda,Terry, Daryl, and two "crazy Al's"
doing everything they could to make us feel right at home and part of the
family. What a great bunch of people! |
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heard there was around 900 roadsters alone there, plus countless hot rods
in the parking lot, and a HUGE swap meet. This show is a "must do"
for anyone into hot rods, and if you run into the bunch we spent the weekend
with - lucky you! The trip home went fine after a visit with LA Roadster
member Chuck Small at his shop in Santa Maria. Chuck's one of the good old
boys that's done it all! From racing dragsters to lakesters to hot rods
and to being a member of the B'Ville 200 MPH club he is one interesting
guy! |
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| And
about showing up at the border without ANY plates? The officer said "
I'll bet you've got a REALLY interesting story to tell me, right?"
I did! |
About
the author:
Larry Zilinsky is a long time hot rodder who lives in Victoria, BC. His
first car was a '32 Ford 5-window coupe which he owned from 1961 until '63
when he sold it because he joined the Navy (didn't think he'd need a hot
rod!) He currently owns a '32 Ford roadster, which is featured on his site
at www.topsters.com, and a '55 Ford pickup which is in the 2002 Snap-on
truck calendar. He also started Topsters International with his pal Jim
McGowan where they make breakdown soft-top frames for '28-'32 Ford roadsters.Larry
believes in driving his hot rods and puts LOTS of miles on them through
the year.
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