Well, took the Ranch Wagon on it's first road trip. Destination was the Surf City Cruise at Chinook Winds Resort Casino in Lincoln City Oregon. Like years past... this one ended up being rained out again so the results were not a surprise. What was a surprising is that they HAVE NOT CHANGED THE SCHEDULE to an earlier time period!! But, it is what it is... and that's Oregon. Politics and weather. At any rate, "Rat Hole Customs" arrived Friday afternoon after a sunny beautiful one hour drive from the Capitol city of Salem to Lincoln City located right on the beautiful north pacific. Oh, I love the beach! We took both wagons this trip. Mark's '64 Belair and my '58 Ranch Wagon. No mechanical problems detected and the drive over was flawless. Installed an underdash FM 8-track prior to leaving to have some tunes to keep the grey matter occupied during the drive. Here is an overview of the entire show on Saturday. The themes were Street rods and Muscle cars. Both were present, tho the numbers seemed much too low. We sold a butt load of shirts on Saturday and buttkiss on Sunday. That's our booth on the end under the tent. Quite a few wagons were present as well. Most of them tri-five Chevrolets so I won't bother mentioning them... But there was one pretty neat wagon that the owners wanted twentygrand for.... The owner called it a "rare" version of Chevy and not a Nomad. But I could tell that the rear side glass would not be cheap to replace and that the front end damage foretold that something bad happened to the nose at one time in it's life. For that price, it should be in better shape I felt. Or am I wrong? Other than that the drive back was uneventful as the rain started falling about 7-am on Sunday morning and we left by noon with our tail dragging in the wake. Themes on Sunday were Corvettes, Tuners and PT Losers anyway... Results of the drive home were that the '58 needs a heater core, new door and window seals to keep the rain out and an electric windshield wiper motor. Gas mileage on the 390 no worse than my last car, a 1990 Ford Taurus so I was pretty happy. Need better speakers tho... and more 8-tracks... and seals... and gotta mill down that portside exhaust manifold. Respectfully submitted.
Thanks for the pics. I wouldnt value that 57 as more than a Nomad in the same condition but when someone self-promotes their product it is futile to question them. What have you got for a surf rack? ,,,, I am in the process of getting one and would like to see whats out there.
Well I simply did a google search for roof rack and read about the results. Seems that there are only two current models available and the Yakama tower was what I picked. It is a drip rail tower that clamps onto a 1" cross tube. The rail clamps are also locking enabled and allow a lock tumbler and key which turns out costing as much as the towers themselves. (note that is something I plan to pick up eventually) My towers, by the way, were scored off ebay used and cheap. The rods are steel electrical tubing conduit with pipe insulation as padding for the boards. All together less than a C-note.
Wingnut, here is another roof rack style. It sits on the roof and uses clips to connect to the gutters. Can also be used "gutterless" by wrapping around the roof edge and clipping to the door jamb. Don't remember the name. By the way, here was a very nice and healthy '68 Pontiac wagon.... Almost missed it and snapped the pic as it was leaving. Sounded very good!
Nice looking Pontiac wagon....a Custom S I think? Ah, I see the Custom S was a one yr(1969) trim package for the LeMans series cars, it was actually the nicest trim level apparently, above both the Tempest and LeMans. I read somewhere that they built 7000 2 door coupes so bet that wagon, if it is a Custom S, is fairly rare. I'm thinking its a Custom S mainly from the badging on the front fender and the stainless trim pieces around the windows. Info from Wiki.
