Castlemaine Rods 2002

Saturday Page 1

Saturday was when the action really started to hot up. For Choco and myself, it was just another day where we both swore... "I'm never going to drink again!"...

Choco was a lot worse than me and actually went back to the motel for a bit of a "Nana's Nap", but then, he's an old fart. Me, I just soldiered on and by lunch time had pretty much got back to normal operating tolerances... just.

As there's so many pics from Saturday, I'll spread them over two pages, so don't forget to check out page two and then of course, there's still Sunday to come.

 

I got up nice and early on Saturday and headed down to the Tourist Centre again to get some pics with less people in the way.

This great T-Bucket is one of my all time favourite Hot Rods, and it's not one of those "nostalgia" Rods either. This is one of the Castlemaine Rods founding member's, Peter Swift's T. Practically unchanged since the early 60's apart from the 4 barrel replacing the leaky triple 2 barrels.

Here's that great flathead again, this time bathed in the morning sun. What a great looking engine this is.

I'm not sure if it's a runner and ready to go into a car or whether it's just a museum piece. If anyone knows any details, drop me a line.

Behind the flatty was a cabinet with a few trophies and memento's from various Hot Rod Runs and Shows, but this was much nicer than any trophy.

It's one of those steel 1/8 models that was built for Rod Hadfield. Boy he's got some good toys!

Not the kind of Hot Rod I'd normally feature on my web site, but when there's a chance to brag about how good Australian craftsmanship is, well I don't have a problem.

These 'glass bodies are being made by Deuce Custom's in Melbourne especially for Boyd Coddington. Apparently he has pre-ordered 70 bodies, so Ken and the boys will be busy!

The car is finished in Gel coat and looks sensational... if you like that kind of thing.

Uh-Oh! He's gone BILLET-CRAZY I hear you say. Nah, this just had an awesome paint job and a great set of flames.

The yellow is an amazing yellow pearl and the flames show how "flip-flop/chameleon" paint SHOULD be used. In moderation.

Of course, the blown big block Chev didn't hurt either!

You can't go wrong with a '34 Coupe, big and little Halibrand's and subtle, but very nice flame job.

Here's a close up of the flames on the '34. Great layout, colours and blending.

I admire guys that use different colours for flames, but for me, they just gotta be a yellow/orange/red fade with blue pinstriping. Bewdifull!

I just loooove Model A coupes too, especially when they sit this LOW!

It's rare to see the raised roof version nowadays too.

Uh-Oh! More late model stuff. I'm a bit of a fan of the XM (1964) Falcon. In my opinion they are much more handsome than the US version of the same year.

I didn't see it with the hood up, but there were two pipes coming out the back, so I guess it's got a Windsor of some sort in there.

Here's that roadster I promised I'd tell you more about. The proud owner is Corey Swift, son of the legendary Peter Swift who owns the T at the top of the page.

You may notice that the hood and the fenders mysteriously fell off overnight... well the fenders actually did FALL off, well one did anyway. On the way to his Dad's place on Friday night, one of the brackets failed and the fender got pulled under the car, yanked the handbrake cable and sent the car off the road and into the gravel.

Fortunately, the only damage was bit of a dent in the fenderwell and a pair of undies. It could have been a LOT worse, and the car wasn't even a day old!!!!

This great 4 banger powered modified had heaps of great details. It was featured in Australian Street Rodding a little while ago and after seeing it in the flesh, I can see why. It's a very nicely put together little Hot Rod, with the emphasis on little.
Here's the dash of the little modified. I just love all of the traditional details like the starter button and the dash light, which is that tube running across the top of the gauges.

Here's another one of Rod Hadfield's toys. He must be in the leading pack for the "He who dies with the most toys wins" competition.

The Old Wise Bearded One (Choco) told me that this car was actually built by flathead guru Mike Davidson. Rod bought it and did what every self respecting Hot Rodder would do... put a 392 HEMI in it! Yeeeeee Haaaaaaaa!

This great little Deuce Coupe won one of the awards presented by the original Castlemaine Rod members. The member that picked this one was Peter Swift. Peter really wanted a '32 Ford, but all he could find/afford was bits and pieces of a T. He said that this is just how they would have built one "back in the day".

...apart from the 350/350/9" of course...

Now if you're gonna go high tech, why not put EFI on your flatty. Much better looking than those modern engines with all that plastic all over them.

This system is supplied by the aforementioned Mike Davidson. It uses readily available fuel injection parts from your garden variety V6 Commodore and gets the owner 28 MPG!

It goes as good as it looks too. Most important!

Just another cool flamed '34 Coupe, only this time with polished American's.

Apparently this roadster has been like this for over 20 years! Waaaaay before "Rat Rods" were popular. Hang on, maybe he invented it!?!?

It actually looks a lot better in the photo. In real life the patch panels have just been stitched in and not finished at all.

Probably just showing off that the car is all steel.

Just a crazy '36 Coupe. The flames were everywhere. On the butterflies on the bug catcher, on top of the grille shell, the headlights... everywhere.

This is the very first ASRF Raffle Car. It is still owned by the guy that won the raffle and is just as good as the day he won it.

The paint is (as you'd expect) full of metalflake. I don't know why, but I really like it. A real piece of Australian Hot Rod history, preserved for a change!

Now if you told me you were going to paint your Hot Rod green with orangey/bronze flames with a purple outline, I'd say "YOU'RE NUTS!".

But it works. I really like this roadster. It's reminiscent of the "Limefire" roadster and has a real late 60's feel about it.