Scruffy's Christmas....

Well, Ol' Scruffy didn't get everything on his Christmas List, but I would like to thank everyone for the gifts I did receive. Most notable were the:

#1) Craftsman 94 pc. Mechanics Tool Set

#2) The Custom floor mats for the 50 Chevy from http://www.crankshaftclothes.com/

#3) The Traffic light prism for the dash of the '50.

Thanks again for everyone who made Ol' Scruffy's Christmas a memorable one! I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC New Year!

Suede and Chrome: New Look for 2009!

Well, I've always heard that necessity is the mother of invention....I could say that I had planned to make some major cosmetic changes to "Suede and Chrome" for 2009, but that would be a lie. No...Ol' Scruffy was messing around with the site yesterday and accidentally deleted the site's format...OUCH! As you can imagine, I wasn't real happy with myself.

Nevertheless, I thought I'd "make lemonade out of lemons" and use the opportunity to give the site a fresh look for 2009. If you haven't noticed, over the past few months, I've been adding some tiki art at the bottom of the site, guess I've always liked the whole tiki/surf/Polynesian thing that is associated with the So-Cal hotrod scene. At any rate, I'm not sure I really like the current "bamboo" background, and I might play with the color theme a bit more, but for now...I'm liking the new "feel" of the site.

Once again, I've added a few more pictures from the "discovered" files I found while cleaning out my media files. These photographs are some additional shots taken at the Street Machine Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana several years ago. Wish I could remember when these were taken, but once again, the little whipper-snapper in the first photo is my now 17 year old son. It's interesting to look back on these photographs. I immediately notice a couple of things.

#1) The late 80's through the mid 90's had a lot of guys using pastel colors to paint their rods. (a trend that I'm glad to see pass).

#2) My tastes in what I consider "kool" has changes over the last 10-15 years as well. Let me clarify that statement by saying that while I still enjoy checking out cars of this caliber at car shows and events. The cars built at home by your average Joe on a limited budget are the cars that I'm enjoying more and more. I'm also really "into" the whole 60's style of hotrod.

Kool Family Pics...circa mid-1960's

About 25 years ago, my great uncle pasted away. One thing I remember about my uncle was that he loved to take pictures. In fact, he was the first person I can remember with a 35mm camera and at the time an original POLAROID.

At some point in the past 20 years, I inherited my uncle's collection of 35mm slides. In the back of my mind, I always thought it would be cool to convert them into photographs (or in the past few years...digital form).

Well, they've been stored away in the back of Ol' Scruffy's closet for every. This week, I ran across them and got to thinking again about getting them converted to digital format.

I was talking to one of my "Hub Garage/Righteous Rodder" buddies and he said, "I can do that on my scanner!". Well, to see if it would work, I gave him a few slides from the collection to see how they would come out. I really had no idea what to expect, since most of the slides were taken when I was just a few years old in the mid-1960's.

Well...my buddy had the slides on a CD for me the very next day! And to my surprise, there were a lot of cool photographs of my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and even my great grandparents. An unexpected treat for me was to see a few pictures of the cars that my family has owned over the years. Now I'm interested in going through the rest of the slides and seeing what else I might find.

Here is a slide of my great grandparents Harry and Della with their 1956 Chevrolet.

Here is another photo of my great grandparents and my great aunt Helen. My grandfather told me this 1962 Chevrolet had been his, and he sold it to my great-grandfather.

Here are a couple pictures taken at a family get together, My father has very few pictures of the 1964 Plymouth Sports Fury he bought new off the showroom floor, but you can see it in the second photograph.

At first, I thought I had found more pictures of my father's Plymouth Sports Fury, but after closer examination and a talk with my father, I learned that the next couple of photographs are actually my great uncles Plymouth Fury. It was the same color of my dad's car, but the giveaway are the mirrors mounted way out on the front fenders.

I'm not sure who took this picture, but here is my great uncle Virgil with his Plymouth Fury.

O.K....this one doesn't have a car in the picture, but it reminds Ol' Scruffy of a simpler time. This is the Ol' Suede and Chrome webmaster enjoying the summer sun, my grandparent's pool, and a cherry-flavored popsicle....ah yeah, the "good ol' days"!

Sign Up and Follow Suede and Chrome

Thought I'd post a little "shout out" to the folks that have signed up as Suede and Chrome "followers". In fact, I've moved the followers widget to the top of my right column. This is a really kool way to keep up on what I'm posting.

Since I've been trying to post on a regular basis, chances are that something new might appear on this site since the last time you visited. It isn't always easy to check in, but if you sign up as a follower, you will get a thumbnail and a short synposis of my latest posts. That way, you can decided if you need to visit again.

I am currently following a couple of blogs myself (you can scroll down and see what blogs Ol' Scruffy is following further down the right column).

As I continually try to improve this blog and readership, I'm always interested in who is reading Suede and Chrome and comments. I think it's pretty cool that a couple of folks have decided to become followers! I would encourage the rest of you to do the same. By doing so, it helps me get a better idea of who is reading and what interests them.

I've included a few photographs that I found the other day while cleaning out my media files. These were taken several years ago at the Street Machine Nationals at IRP. I'm not sure of the date of these photographs, but the 'little guy' in the first photograph is my now 17 year old son, so you can do the math. I've got a few more pics from this event that I'll post later in the week.

Have a GREAT week!

'Scruffy'

Tubbed Corvair!!!

Ran across these photographs that I took a few years ago in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Super Chevy Show. I can't remember the year, maybe 2001? At any rate, this Corvair was extremely COOL!

Those of you who are familar with Corvairs will remember that they were a rear engine automobile. My grandfather had one when I was a kid and I always thought it was pretty unique even at a young age.

I'm not really old enough to remember the whole Ralph Nader "Unsafe At Any Speed" ordeal. But I've been told that it was this report that forced Chevrolet to pull the plug on the Corvair. Those of you "in the know", please feel free to post comments to "educate" the rest of us!

It's amazing how many Corvairs are still around. There is one that sits in a yard you can see on Interstate 70 on the way to Indianapolis. It's been there for as long as I can remember. There is actually a world-wide Corvair club, check it out at: http://www.corvair.org/index.php

There is also a Corvair Museum that I would like to visit someday. For more info, check out:

Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Collection

100 E Cross St., Ypsilanti MI 48198

(734) 482-5200
Mon. – Fri. 1:30 PM - 5:30 PM • Sat. 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM • Sun. 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Suggested donation: Adult $2.00

Bob McDorman Chevrolet Open House

Wow! Ran across these photographs while cleaning out my desk this week. I took these photos a few years ago when my father took me to an Open House/Cruise In at Bob McDorman Chevrolet in Canal Winchester, Ohio.

As you can see from the photographs, Bob McDorman has SEVERAL metal barns on the Chevrolet dealer property. The barns are FILLED with his personal collection of cars and car memorabilia.

Looking back at these photos, I'm mentally kicking myself for not snapping more photographs. This collection is TRULY amazing. Imagine one large building filled with Corvettes, lined up by year, starting with 1956 to the present. Most of these Corvettes are VERY low production numbers, many are #1!

Now imagine the next building, set up the same as before, but this one filled with Camaros, then one with Impalas, then one with trucks, etc.....Absolutely INCREDIBLE!

You can see 3 of the buildings in this photograph. Not only were the buildings packed with vintage Chevrolets, the walls, rafters were filled with antique neon signs, pedal cars, and vintage parts.

If memory serves me, this private collection is only open to the public during this annual open house/cruise in. I haven't heard anything about it in recent years, but I would assume they still put it on annually. I will have to watch for it this summer and DEFINITELY take more photographs!

Editors note: I received an email today that confirmed that this event still takes place. It is scheduled for Sept. 11 and 12, 2009. Watch the Bob McDorman Chevrolet website at: http://www.bobmcdormanchevrolet.com/ for more information.

To find out more about Bob's collection and buildings....check out: http://www.bobmcdormanchevrolet.com/MiscPage_11

Stimulus for the Winter Gearhead...

Winter blues got you down? Can't take your cruiser out in this weather? Can't work on your project in an unheated garage? Well, Ol' Scruffy's got the cure. Check out the link below to play a cool automotive trivia game!

http://turbo.discovery.com/games/road-rally/road-rally.html

Get out of the Winter Blues and hit the "mental surf"! COWBUNGA DUDES!

Last of the 2008 Retrospective Pics...

More Suede and Chrome Retrospective Pics...

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures I took in 2008. Once again, I played around with Photoshop and gave them an "aged" appearance.