Saturday, March 13, 2010

If you Counters have read this, you will know why this olelongrooffan is posting a blog about my Saturday earlier this month.

It is a rainy Sunday afternoon so this olelongrooffan is gonna try to catch up on my happenings the past couple weeks.

Stay tuned.

Anyway, after the events of this evening, this olelongrooffan woke up in Kris's guestroom to the scent of freshly brewing coffee emanating from that well equipped kitchen downstairs wafting upstairs to the oversized nose of this olelongrooffan.

I jumped up, threw some clothes on, went down to grab a Diet Coke and watched Kris rustle up some grub.

Much as she did the previous evening when our roles were reversed, this olelongrooffan grabbed that fancy dancy camera of hers and commenced to getting some shots of her in action.

And Kris was busy admonishing this olelongrooffan saying something about no makeup, hair is a mess, etc., etc., etc. But me? I kept shooting away.

And know this Counters, that eggs and cheese, strawberry and toast breakfast was every bit as good as that shrimp dinner we had consumed the previous evening.

So anyway, we headed over to Baldwin Park for their annual art show.

And you Counters out there know that this is the only piece of artwork there that this olelongrooffan had any interest in.

It's the new BMW 1 Series. This is the 135 128 and the retail was $32K. Sure made me appreciate my oleragtop.

After strolling around that street for about an hour, Kris and I were off for a historic building tour in the downtown section of the Big O.

One time this olelongrooffan misdirected us.

No, Counters, We Were Not Lost!! We are still in downtown Big O!!

Just misdirected.

Yeah, that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Anyway, this olelongrooffanI pulled off into a parking lot to consult my notes while Kris went off to get all artsy fartsy on me and got a couple shots of Lake Eola with its fountain turned off.

Oh yeah, and a couple geese.

On March 13, 2010!!

I love Florida!!

We did get a chance to see a couple cool old buildings, the coolest of which was this one with its cool granite and sheet metal facade.

I'm not really sure of the history of this building but it sure is a sweet art deco masterpiece.

I remembered and related to Kris, and now you Counters, when this olelongrooffan was in college so many moons ago, I worked for Dale Beveridge whose specialty was renovating old buildings in the downtown area, as well as those on Commercial Street, in The Queen City of The Ozarks. When we were doing this to the old Central Hardware building, I was on four stories of scaffolding scrapping those many layers of lead based paint off that sheet metal facade. Masks? I don't need no stinking mask!! Can anyone say OSHA?

So, after waxing nostalgic for awhile, Kris and I headed off to Lake Mary on the northeast side of the Big O. After having a delicious glass of wine in a cool bistro, we went outside to stroll around and check out some cars, the real reason this olelongrooffan was in this part of town in the first place.

By and large, as far a car shows go, it was a relatively low turnout event. Mostly muscle cars

of the 60's, 70's, and 80's with a few 50's era buggies scattered around.

And Kris, getting all artsy fartsy on this olelongrooffan, yet again, got a couple images of our reflection on the passenger side rear fender of a Factory Five Cobra.

This olelongrooffan never did get an image of that Cobra knockoff.

We were fortunate enough to see this lead sled pull in and it sounded pretty sweet, if you like that kind of stuff.

At first, this olelongrooffan thought it was a 49 Mercury, chopped, slammed and significantly altered.

But when we approached, we saw the only original item left on this street rod.

The Packard emblem on the nose of this giant beast.

Kris asked me if it was built this way. I commented about the only original part being the emblem out front. She had a good laugh at that.

Then she, in her artsy fartsy way, pointed out the size of the windshield wipers.

This olelongrooffan needs to hang out with that artsy fartsy woman a little more.

As we strolled down that street, we spotted this late 60's Chevy C-10

and then this Chevy SSR. A truck? A car? A convertible?

At least the El Camino had style.

As Kris has had a couple dates with a gentleman some years younger than herself, this olelongrooffan could not help to to give her a load of cr*p when we came across

this first generation Mercury Cougar.

And that likeness of the god Mercury is stamped into a full size wheel cover adorning the living room was of the Taj Mahal. I was given this wheel cover at the Turkey Rod Run, 2008 edition.

Yeah, Counters, that is correct. A vendor out there at the Daytona International Speedway gave this olelongrooffan that wheel cover, almost as soon as I picked it up. When I queried as to why he would just give this away, he commented that I was the first person, other than himself, to touch that wheel cover in three years.

Yeah, it is all about karma.

But, anyway, that first gen Cougar is pretty sweet and there was not one but two of those rare upscale Mustang knockoffs at that show.

Sorry about my shadow in the foreground of this image and no, that is not Lake Mary in the background. It is a stormwater retention pond.

This was the only Corvette at the show and although this olelongrooffan is not a huge fan of that two seater, this is one of my favorite Corvette body styles.

Now one to the Camaro section of the show. As with the previous image of that Corvette,

this is my favorite body style of the Camaro.

Maybe it has something to due with the fact these cars were new when this olelongrooffan was a younglongrooffan.

Think about it. What is your favorite body style of a particular marque and was that the one produced when you were a young Counter? Me thinks so.

Anyway, Kris and I struck up a conversation with the owner of this Z/28. It sure is easy to strike up a conversation when you have a pretty woman in your presense.

He shared some information about this particular Z such as production numbers in particular colors, options, and much, much more.

Kris was fascinated but this olelongrooffan knew that Gentleman was just showing off for her.

But she ate it up and I had fun being an observer.

Parked next to that Z was this super nice SS, errrr Super Sport for you uninformed Counters out there.

Yeah, The Heartbeat Of America.

We had earlier stumbled upon this uniquely colored one with a 427 under its bonnet.

Immaculate inside and out.

Yeah, it says Yenko but, as the Z-28 owning dude pointed out to us later, after this olelongrooffan asked, "Is it a real one?"

"No, it is a recreation."

While a nice automobile, it is not worth anything more than a cleanly restored Camaro and that cleanly restored Camaro has a whole lot more credibility with the in crowd than this Poser.

Anyway, let's move on shall we?

There were a couple old school street rods at the show and here is one of them.

Definitely a fair weather ride.

And that dirt on the firewall in the above image? It's paint. All about patina.

But the engine and dash were in proper operating order.

And this olelongrooffan loves the wide whites Coker tires with steelie rims.

Now, with Kris getting all artsy fartsy on me, this olelongrooffan thought I would try to get in that habit and got a shot of this poker playing card size rear view mirror on the

passenger side door of this highly modified

street rod. There also was a mural painted on the underside of that hood

which covers this engine.

But I forgot to get an image of it.

I did, however, get an image of the *ss end of it.

And now on to the Tri-5 section of that GM dominated show.

Kris loved the color of this aqua colored coupe.

I got a shot of the traffic light prism mounted on the dashboard.

I was trying to figure out the name of them and neither the Bus nor myself could come up with it. And forget trying to google it. Bet TheGentlemanFarmer knows.

There was another '57 there but it was all restomodded and not all that interesting to this olelongrooffan.

Kris took a look under the hood at the chromed out engine compartment

of this '55 post and asked me if it was original.


Not even close, although the interior seats may have come from the factory in these colors.

There were several second generation Chevelles that made an appearance.

Yeah, in the above image, that is a reflection of this olelongrooffan and Kris's fancy dancy camera on the driver's side rear quarter panel of that Super Sport.

Equipped with the highly desirable 396, back when the boys from Detroit advertised what was under the hood of those muscle cars.

And although this '67 had been slightly restomodded,

this one was just off the wall!

I mean, you take a perfectly good, straight '67 Chevelle SS and blow the h*ll out of it.

Yeah, it was, once, a clean Super Sport with a straight body and create this

machine that needs 12" wide tires on the rear just to keep it on the road.

And it is Street Legal!!

Now, aside from those two Cougars, the Blue Oval was represented by this "Big Bird" as well as a few Mustangs.

And the "ricer" segment was represented by this Toyota equipped with Lambo doors.

And as this olelongrooffan has pointed out previously, "Lambo doors are so out, Lamborgini doesn't even do them anymore."

Now, Counters, Kris and this olelongrooffan saw some pretty sweet rides out in Lake Mary that Saturday but I have to award the Best In Show to this 1956 Chevrolet Belair Tudor Hardtop.

Looking at it you would not think much of it. Just an old car.

Well, Counters, this '56 Tri 5 was in original condition, with only the electric fan, seen in the lower left of the above image, being the only, and a functional, add-on to this original ride.

The patina was wonderful and

I was honored to have seen it.

Unchanged in fifty-four years and still straight as an arrow body parts.

Light paint fade and some surface rust only added to the desirableness of this sweet old ride.

It looked good from all angles and it even

had the original wheel covers!!

After all, these old rides are only original once.

Yeah, it was nice and it was enjoyable to show Kris what they looked like back in the day.

And, Counters, that is another day in the life of this olelongrooffan as I, and a good friend, were able to

Celebrate Life.