Roadmonster.org

Today we took our friend Harry to his second car show.

Considering that Harry is 91 years old, and this is his only his second car show EVER…

…that is pretty cool!

My buddy Dave Campbell, my daughter Sam, and I thought it would be cool to take Harry to a show, especially since Harry had such a great time at the Avamere Show last week.  He told everyone that last Wednesday’s car show was “the best three hours of his life!”…

Here are some pics of Harry getting ready to go in Dave’s VW Type 181.

One of our therapists Andrew was kind enough to assist Harry into the VW.

With Andrew’s help, Harry felt safe and secure.

Now we are ready to go!

And here we are!

There was a lot to see!

Our friends Wes and Cathy were there with their 1950 Ford.

Harry remembered Wes from the last show.

Harry met lots of nice people.

Dave found a truck that he really liked…

Dave liked this truck so much…

…that he asked the owner to park next to the VW for a photo op.

All too soon…

…it was time to go.

I am pretty sure Harry had a good time!

Harry is enamored with Dave’s VW.

Dave and Harry really hit it off last week.

These two are like two peas in a pod!

It’s been a good week!

Good friends.

Nice cars.

New friends.

And great weather.

What more could one ask for?

-Stewart

p.s. Thanks to everyone who helped out today.

There were MANY players who helped get Harry ready for this.

Thanks a lot!

You guys are great, and you did a great thing!

AirCooled Motors is owned and operated by my friend Jeff Campbell.AirCooled Motors specializes in everything for the Air Cooled VW.

“Everything” meaning everything from an oil change, valve adjustment, or tune up…

…to a complete show quality restoration.

Rob and I dropped off the ’64 Beetle today…

…and I took a few photos of Jeff’s shop.

Jeff’s shop has two lifts and four bays.

I am very impressed!

Dave and Jeff just restored this beautiful white Westfalia Camper Van.

It is gorgeous!

This last photo is of a customer’s car on one of the lifts.

I should have taken a photo of the wiring Jeff is doing on this car.

Jeff is completely re-wiring this car.

The quality of Jeff’s work is second to none!

The wiring on this car is a work of art!

Jeff and his dad Dave are Volkswagen Gurus.

The first creation I saw of theirs is this camouflaged Bus…

…that was at the shop today.

I absolutely LOVE this bus!

I saw it three years ago at a local show.

(This bus inspired me to build my military themed rat rod.)

Seeing this bus got me planning the rat rod…

…and then I saw this pair of their creations.

These cars are so cool…

…that I seriously lost it.

I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.

I was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY by these VW’s.

I love everything about these cars:

The attention to detail, the theme, the accessories, and the overall build quality.

These are my kind of guys!

Here are some pics I took of their rides:

Jeff and his dad Dave are as enthusiastic about VW’s as I am about my projects.

I highly recommend Jeff and AirCooled Motors.

If you own a Bug, Bus, Karmann Ghia, Squareback, or ANY aircooled VW….

…you need to contact Jeff at AirCooled Motors.

Address:  430 Main Street.  Dallas, Oregon

(Right across from the Bowling Alley on Walnut St.)

Phone:  (503) 559-2100

Do yourself a favor.

Stop by the shop and say “hi” to Jeff.

He’ll take excellent care of your VW.

I promise you this…

…you won’t be disappointed.

-Stewart

p.s.  Stay tuned as I add three aircooled VW’s…

…to my own personal fleet.

One for Rob.  One for Sam.  And one for me.

All of them will spend time at AirCooled Motors…

…in Jeff’s capable hands.

…was today.

We had a great turnout.

Our parking lot was full!

Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon!

This was our sixth show in the past five years.

Today’s weather was perfect!

I know the residents had a great time.

I had a great time too!

I saw some friends that I’ve not seen in awhile…

…which was an added bonus to a really good day!

Thanks to everybody who took the time to share their vehicle with us!

-Stewart

p.s.  See you next year on June 15th, 2011!

Thanks to Dave & Jeff for the loan of the towbar.

Thanks to Scott for the loan of the ball mount.

Thanks to Cindy and Joe for the car and help too!

Here is Rob with his new baby:

Poor kid…

Mom made him pose like he did in his pedal car.

Rob and I are going to do some cleaning on the car this weekend.

The tags on the car are from 1993…

…so it’s been awhile since this car has been on the road.

Overall the car is pretty straight.

It’s straighter than my ’59 was.

It has the usual rust issues in the battery tray area.

Also, it’s still a 6 volt car.

It’s amazingly original for a 46 year old Beetle.

In fact, this is the first Type 1 that I’ve had that has a functional parking brake, without having to fix it first.

Woohoo!

I don’t have to fix the parking brake!

Stay tuned as we begin our VW adventure…

-Stewart

As I was going to get the mail…

…I saw what I thought was a blimp in the South Eastern sky.

It wasn’t a blimp.

It was a ZEPPELIN!

I’ve seen the Goodyear Blimp on several occasions…

… and this looked much bigger.

Which it is.

This thing is longer than a 747!

We were in the convertible with the top down…

…we saw it again as we were headed downtown to run some errands.

The airship moved pretty quickly.

I was amazed at how quickly this thing could do a 180 degree turn.

This airship was also pretty quiet.

We could not hear it at all above the traffic.

We didn’t have a camera with us…

…so Rob used his Droid Phone.

If you click on the above pics, they will get MUCH bigger.

When I got home, I did a bit of research on this craft.

I found three really interesting sites documenting this exact Zeppelin.

In addition, I found these stock photos of the…

…Airship Ventures / Farmer’s Insurance Airship.

For instance, the Farmer’s Logo on the side is bigger than a house!

NOT the word Farmers, but the logo at the front.

Yes, that logo is HUGE!

Also, the company that built this Zeppelin…

…is a descendant of the company that built the Hindenburg.

I thought that was pretty cool!

The following links are VERY interesting.

Here is some information about this Zeppelin.

And here is some more information about this airship.

Finally, this site tells all about the Airship Eureka.

I wish I could go for a ride in it!

-Stewart

…was this fine example seen below.

(This picture of Rob and his Beetle was taken back in 1994)

This pedal car was being thrown away at a child care facility.

My wife and her mom saw it…

…and rescued it.

They knew that I loved air-cooled VW’s, and that I would want it.

The wheels were broken.

The paint was faded and scratched.

Basically, it had been well used and abused.

It was a piece of junk.

So…

…I rebuilt it.

The car received a fresh coat of red paint after a little body work.

The windshield had faded from black to gray, so it was repainted…

…as were the tail lights.

I rebuilt the pedal powered running gear.

The seat upholstery was replaced.

Finally, I bought a set of four wheels / tires from a hardware store.

Small wheels for the front, and larger wheels for the rear.

The wheels weren’t made for this type of application…

…so I did a bunch of fabrication.

The VW pedal car came out really nice!

This coming weekend we are going to pick up Rob’s red 1964 VW Beetle.

I can’t wait to have another father and son project!

-Stewart

If you have a WordPress blog and spam is an issue…

…you might want to consider downloading WP-SpamFree.

I did, and I am glad.

WP-SpamFree has blocked over 1000 spam posts…

…on this blog!

Wow!

That’s a lot of spam!

In addition to automatically blocking spam…

…WP Spam Free makes managing posts VERY easy.

Thanks WP-SpamFree!

You have saved me lots of time!

-Stewart

This show is at one of my favorite venues.

This one of the Willamette Valley’s classiest car shows.

It’s a classy venue, but not “snobby”.

This show is one of my all-time-favorite events.

Here is a scan of this year’s flier.

As you can see, the show is on Sunday August 29th.

Hosted at The Oregon Garden in beautiful Silverton, Oregon.

Hours are 10am – 4pm.

Not only is the venue absolutely gorgeous…

…but there is great food and drink as well!

If you can make just one more show this season…

…this is THE ONE to go to IMHO.This will be the RoadMonster’s 3rd Stop & Smell the Roadsters Show.

We are pre-registered, and as far as I know…

…there are still a few spots left for both participants and vendors.

Hope to see you there!

-Stewart

…on August 25th.

This will be our sixth show here at Avamere Court at Keizer.

We put this show on for the enjoyment of our residents.

These shows are a lot of fun!

Here is the new dash plaque for this show:

I think it came out great!

I bought them HERE at Flying W Awards eBay Store.

Flying W Awards also has there own website.

Take a look at what they have to offer.

If you need dash plaques or a custom trophy…

…I highly recommend Christa and her crew.

They do EXCELLENT work!

If you have a car that you would like to show…

…please bring it and show it!

The hours are 11 am – 2 pm on Wednesday August 25th.

The address is 5210 River Rd. N. in Keizer.

We will be providing lunch to all participants.

In addition, dash plaques will be given to the first 50 entries.

The cost of entering your car = FREE!

Lunch is FREE too!

Hope to see you there!

-Stewart

…Metal Artwork.

I found a guy who makes plasma cut steel artwork.

I am going to use this piece on the tail gate of the rat rod.

It measures about 12″ wide.

This will look good on the tail gate.

We’ll probably paint the body behind the star white…

…so the star stands out.

I’ll use one of these gun cut-outs on each side of the rear bed.

These measure approximately 12″ wide.

Each gun will face forward.

Placement will be between the rear wheel and the tail light.

As mentioned earlier…

…these are plasma cut from 14 gauge steel.

This will allow me to add machine guns to the car.

I’ll weld bolts to the back side, and them bolt them right to the body.

Or perhaps drill holes in them and use carriage bolts to bolt ‘em on.

I’ve been thinking about all the different ways to add a gun to the car.

Everything from a full sized machine gun to the bed on a tri-pod…

…to adding machine gun barrels to the firewall.

None of those ideas seemed “right” to me.

Also, I’d have to use bright orange “safety tips”…

…on any gun that remotely looks “real”.

That would ruin the looks IMHO.

These plasma cut steel pieces seem perfect for the car’s theme.

I can’t wait to get them!

Stay tuned…

-Stewart