The weeks leading up the Southwest...
The weeks leading up the Southwest Nationals was a busy one for me as I prepped my '72 C-10 for it's first road trip since I've owned it. There were a few hiccups I was having with the LS engine, so before I headed east to the Phoenix area, I spent a few hours at Turnkey Engine Supply in Oceanside, California, having Kory fine-tune the 5.3-liter.
Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were headed to the Goodguys show in Del Mar, California, to kick off the show season, and now as I write this there's two weeks until Christmas and I've just attended the last Goodguys show of the year, the Southwest Nationals, in Scottsdale, Arizona. If you've never been to the Phoenix area in November, you're missing out! Not only is the weather absolutely perfect, but the Southwest Nationals is a great show. Despite all the car show coverage clichés about fun, sun, hot, cool, etc, the conditions in Scottsdale are ideal for over 2,000 '72-and-earlier vehicles to come show their stuff on the grass at West World.
While I have and continue to attend many shows across the country, we don't usually have the chance to drive something fun to any of them, but I finally had my '72 Chevy C-10 road ready after a couple of years of occasionally working on it between hibernation spells. I had driven the truck around town a bunch, but had never taken it out of Southern California and certainly never out of state-yet.
As of now, I had done most everything on the truck except body and paintwork and felt pretty confident in its roadworthiness once a couple of tuning bugs were worked out. So I headed down to Oceanside, California to Turnkey Engine Supply to have them look at my junkyard LS engine install that I used their harness with. After a short time on the chassis dyno, Kory had the engine running like a sewing machine, and we replaced the stock junkyard fuel pressure regulator that was sucking fuel into the intake and obviously making it not run right. With that sorted out, I was on my way to the Phoenix area-wished I had replaced the broken eight-track player first!
For more info on past and future Goodguys events, log onto www.good-guys.com and we'll see you next season!
After an uneventful, but nice...
After an uneventful, but nice drive along the southern most highway in the Southwest, the 8, I found myself in Scottsdale and got a good night's rest before heading out Wednesday for the shop crawl/cruise around the Phoenix area.
There was a long list of shops...
There was a long list of shops that the Over The Hill Gang Phoenix chapter car club put together. I made it to a few of them like Industrial Chassis, Arizona Street Rods, and American Built Customs, before attending to some cooling issues with the C-10.
One of the first things most...
One of the first things most people saw starting Thursday morning at the West World grounds where the show was held was Kirk Johnson's now famous Roseville Rod & Custom built '68 F-100 that was just awarded Goodguys 2009 Truck of the Year-Late. Of course, we thought it was a great pick and remember you saw the truck here in CLASSIC TRUCKS first!
The Goodguys Truck of the...
The Goodguys Truck of the Year-Early went to Betsy Rose of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, and her cool blue Ford-powered '35 Ford.
One of the sharpest trucks...
One of the sharpest trucks at the show this year happened to be one that has been around for a few years, but you'd never know by looking at it! This amazing gold pearl '56 F-100 belongs to Richard Walpole and has a 600-inch Ford crate motor that was reworked to put out 754 hp! If you never heard the simple and clean truck run, you'd have no idea. Inside the cab is a full leather interior.