Ozbilt's travels

[ozbilt]

Ozbilt's travels

17/9/09


Been cruising Northern California, visiting Mustang wrecking yards & visiting friends.

But I am currently in Wendover, Utah, near the Bonneville Salt Flats. Had a rain storm the day before we arrived, now waiting for the water to evaporate.

Went out this morning for the tech inspection & took some pics. More will be posted as i take them.

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... ille%20Sep...

[ozbilt]

Check this Healey out!

[ozbilt]

18/9/09

Spent the day watching the racing, have caught the salt fever & I now will probably return as a competitor. These people are so friendly & this is a true "grass roots, home grown" sport. Tomorrow drive back to Sacramento as I have work to do (ok, wrecking yards to visit).

Todays pic update is here

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... mview=grid

Check out these.... Street Luge that has engines fitted, the small one has a Honda 250 2 stroke engine & had hit 130mph The other has a Harley V twin & does 150mph.

[ozbilt]

20/9/09

Had a stroll around the Hot Chilli & Cool Cars event in Rocklin CA today. It is the next town to where our shop was, so is local to me.

Pics here, rat rods tomorrow......

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... mview=grid

[ozbilt]

21/9/09

Attended a Rat Rod Show in Antioch CA today with 3 friends. Check out the pics......

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... rods%20Ant...

Suffice to say it was different!!!!!

Token shots of a 69 sportsroof in the carpark on the way out helped the day, but not much.

Off to Gilroy CA tomorow. Will post pics of my friends collection while I am there.

[ozbilt]

Car show season is heavy from early March until late October in Nor Cal.

In So Cal it runs all year round. I attend cruises in the LA area all through winter.

One group have been meeting at a donut shop in Huntington Beach ever Sat morning at 6 am since the late 1940's. Called "The Derelict Donuts", they are a great bunch of old rods & custom cars that always have an influx of new people attending. Last time I went, there was 2 rods that were still owned by the same guys that unwrapped their cars they had built before WW2. They still have tech stickers from Bonneville racing in the 50's & 60's on the crude roll bars installed. I will post from there next time I am down that way & able to get there.

[ozbilt]

25/9/09

Went to a cruise night in Santa Clarita last night on my way to the airport to drop off my Aussie friend that went to Bonneville with us.

200 cars attended, usual crowd, although not my usual area as I was living in Sacramento before, I ran into a few people I knew well.

Here is a link to cruise nights that are in CA, just to show you how much goes on here. Cruises can be as few as 50 cars up to 3 or 4 hundred.

http://www.centralvalleyclassics.com/cruisenights.html

Pics here....

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... %20Clarita%...

[ozbilt]

25/9/09

Went to a bone yard today that had over 150 Mustangs in it. Most were 69/70 fastbacks with a smattering of 67 convertibles, 64 1/2 D code coupes. $ Boss 302's, at least 10 Cobra Jets Q & R codes. All basket cases, extreme rust, some in two pieces. The guy has a collection of over 300, did have 400. The good ones (his opinion) were not there.

Guy wants top money & will have them forever, so don't even think of asking, if they were decent prices, I would own them.

I will be back there next week so will take pics then.

[ozbilt]

26/9/09

Working at the shop in Gilroy. Here are some pics of the toys that are there.

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... %20worksho...

[ozbilt]

1/10/09

Had lunch today with the hot rod boys at Morgan Hill. they meet for lunch every Wednesday & have always welcomed me. Interesting bunch, eg; 1 retired Vice President of a Ford Division, another a millionaire car collector, a Pom that has a resto shop nearby (Pebble Beach cars), an NHRA safety chief, etc. Back to the shop for the short afternoon, then off to a cruise in San Jose.

Got to love the USA, here I am sitting in a restaurant, having a steak, downloading pics & reading the forum, how does it get any better than this?????

Pics here

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... mview=grid

Now can anyone tell me why this car would run like crap (other than being a Pontiac!)



This Vega is for sale, rare car, they go like stink, US$8500 ex LA dock

[ozbilt]

5/10/09

This is a 69 that visited the shop today. Nice car, he had "ghost stripes" made which suited the car well. I apologize for the shots as it was very bright & the car was not staying long. Could not find any shade.

The car was originally Indian Fire with white upholstery, a really beautiful colour combination.

Had to add the Torino NASCAR shot. We had it outside (open headers, very loud) & I could not resist the front on shot.

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... %20Oct%203...

[ozbilt]

10/10/09

Finally got back to the storage yard & took some pics. Something to drool over, most of these cars are big blocks or Boss cars. All are toast.

The 65 K code F/B belongs to the yards owner, he does not own the stored cars there, so don't ask!

Good news for me was that I got some wheels for my 79 F100 I have over here (coming home soon) & some stainless dog dish hubcaps for those rims. Made me a very happy boy today.

Pics here...

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... e%20yard%2...

[ozbilt]

12/10/09

I had a great day today with Andre Capella (Gessner). My friend & I went to his house to pick up some old mechanics display cabinets & came away with so much stuff it is hard to describe here.

Although Andre is now in his late 70's, he has not lost the spark when talking about the race cars he built.

He is an ex Shelby American employee from the 60's & was the man responsible for the 427 Cobra. He assembled the first one, then had all the pieces he made, copied & machined & those parts became the inventory for the complete production. He oversaw, as foreman, the complete production run of these vehicles.

Interesting chatting about the race cars & the things that went wrong over the time he was there. For all those that have read up on the Shelby years, there were many race, practice stories & other issues.

Here are some links to him, found very easy by Googling both the names he used.

http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/TwaregSpecial.html

http://www.kitcar.com/articles-kitcar/nckcc99/home.html

Known now as a professional Poker player.

Spent his early life racing bikes then cars. He showed us hundreds of trophies of his drag racing bike & car days from the mid 50's, then road racing cars through the 60's. He worked for Shelby during the early to mid 60's but was still campaigning his own car, some of that technology found its way into the 427 Cobra. He spent years gold mining in Alaska & California, so has experienced it all. Fascinating stories.

[ozbilt]

13/10/09

Spent the day playing around with customers cars. Although I did not build the hot rod at my shop, I was asked to give advice on a few body alignment issues with the car.

The MG TC was tidied up in my shop a few years ago. It will be taken out again next year for a few events where it attracts a lot of attention. Not often you see an unrestored car like this.

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... %20Oct%201...

Another MG, this time an NB, of the same guy here, I have been involved with this one from the beginning. Bob has an MG TD, 2 MG TC's & the MG NB. Some of the readers here already know Bob as he flies into Sydney a couple of times a month. I will be in Hong Kong with him early November, before heading up to the factory in DongGuan.

http://www.mgbob.com/

[ozbilt]

17/10/09

I am in LA at the moment, attending the Pomona Swap Meet. Went to Maeco Motorsport on the way, met Jim Francis & took the pics below.

That is their stuff up to the Ford tow rig. Awesome truck & trailer.

They have the 68 Shelby that was featured in a thread here, the car that fell off the truck in Sacramento. My friend with me knows the car well as he finished it for the auction (Russo & Steele) before its mishap. Took pics but not appropriate to post here. lets just say it is in a bad way. No I did not offer to repair it, but it would have been a nice job to do!

Then went to the shipping yard (Montana Exports), met Al Montana, he is an Aussie, neat guy. Seems many Aussies use him to ship including our own Lee (foresight). Good to check out his Q code 69 before it arrived at my place.

Al Montana, http://www.montanaexports.com Ph 310 965 9788
Maeco Motorsport http://www.maecomotorsport.com

Seems the Aussie Dollar is having an effect here!!


http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww28 ... ct%2016%20...