Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Careful how much coffee you drink before you start the show. Hitting this many amazing cars at one time with a fully alert brain might cause a sensory meltdown. Any person who can wander this show and not be pulled hither and yon by amazing sights has not a car loving cell in his or her body.

These tail fins–no need to tell anyone here they’re from a ‘59 Caddy–a Series 62 flat top, to be exact, from Menomonie, WI. Bill & Rose Jardine bought the car four years ago with 60,000 miles on the clock. They resprayed some of the paint in the original color; other than that, about all they’ve done with the car is put on some smoooooooth miles.

Not 50 feet from the Star Tribune booth is a trio of real deal vintage rods that’ll blow your mind. Each of these cars was built in the ‘50s with period speed parts, then sat for decades waiting to be found–by the right person. Brothers Pat and Jon Shimota were two of those right people.

Pat’s ’34 runs dragster-style no-brake front wheels, and a Chrysler Marine hemi engine. Awesome! A ’57 Chrysler three-speed sends power to the back wheels. This was built to race in ’58 or ’59, blown up on an early ET quest and left to sit till the mid-‘90s outside, down South. Every rodder fate took down that road knocked on the owner’s door to learn the car was Not For Sale. That is, till a recent shift in marital harmony changed his mind. Pat was in the right place with the right size money roll in his pocket.

Brother Jon likewise scored a ’34 barn-find with flathead V8, trick intake and dual carbs. These 3-window coupes have terrible paint, no amenities and gobs of old-style charm. As Pat says, all you do is care for the running gear. The bodies can fend for themselves. There’s lotsa older rods at the show. Heck, there’s lotsa eeeeverrything.

Every once in a while, a vehicle whistles for you when you weren’t looking. This ’57 Chevy pickup is flat-out beautiful. Looks stock, no fancy wheels, no bold pipes, no flames or fancy lettering. But if it makes your peripheral vision, it’ll pull you over. That’s what happened to Jim Popilek, who wasn’t looking for a truck. Well, soon as he saw this one, yes he was. Says he got a killer deal on it too. When the right vehicle calls for ya, keep an open ear.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 11:04 am and is filed under Back to the 50s, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.