The Old Koppa Kafe was a fun Custom to create in my Garage.

No idea where the time has gone to be honest, but I always loved creating this machine, just because it has so many great Original parts on it that really did make people turn heads.

So I started off with a bunch of parts and already had the idea of how I wanted this, as the KOPPA KART was a famous Barris Kustom Truck that I had loved as a teenager and wanted to have some Copper Influence on this Motorcycle, but I had to do a ton of preparation to the Honda Duplex cradle frame to make sure all looks good when painted.

 

There was a lot of hand sanding and grinding of old Factory welds to try and make this Chassis as smooth as I possibly could, but also, I cut the neck and added a couple more degree’s to the rake, not too noticeable but I didn’t want it too aggressive, and I think this came out perfect for what I was looking for.

Also made up a Hoop and welded that to the frame, nobody was doing this back then and wanted it to finish of the seat that I was going to fit to it, and welded a bracket at the rear so I could attach the seat cowl and make it sturdy. But the most work that really needed some attentions was how was I going to extend the stock gas tank 5 inches, as I wanted a much longer fuel tank and thought that I may as well use some of my old spare gas tanks to cut up and make the change.

This is no easy task but, I was fortunate to have a bunch of K series Petrol tanks laying about in my garage rafters and thought the best way was to keep the front end and extend the tank backwards using sections from a couple of old gas tanks.

You can see the section cut and of course had the gas tank media blasted to get all the paint off so at least there was clean metal to work with, this will also have hammered knee inserts to give it that touch of Nostalgia of TT racing days and I was glad that I did go this route in the end.

You may not notice the stretch but its way past the original mounting bracket on the frame, you may also notice that I cut the rear exhaust and passenger peg supports down, this was to clean the lines up and allow for the lower part to become a bracket that my Italian rear Sets could attach too, I also braces gusseted the frame under where the gas tank sits just to give the frame a little more rigidity.

Here is the cross bracing that I did and used the pieces I cut off the bike, so it all got re used into this creation and I had not seen anyone do this before too so another added attraction I guess?

 

Putting this machine together in the garage was pure fun, I really did love the way the old girl was being revamped and as you can see, I did a lot of detail as at the end of the day, I was building bikes for a living now and this would be a great business card bike. many cool Parts and I used a pair of 18 inch Aluminum rims that were for a CB750 Automatic, of course I used to rear rims and then polished them to a chrome finish to give it a little more Bling.

So many hours were put into this and it became quite a challenge at times, but kept pushing on, I had to retap most of the thread holes as metalflake gets everywhere when you paint it and not use a booth, but I kept being persistent and it paid off, I used stainless Allen head Bolts through out the bike too, not cheap at almost a dollar per piece but makes the bike for sure.

Hand polished all the Aluminum and it took me forever to find an intake Plenum, I had one but it just would not fit, found out it was a Suzuki one, so thought to my self, ” Where the hell am I going to locate one of these Plenums for a SOHC?”  Then I got an email from a guy in Sweden who had a Suzuki and was Supercharging his but, his Plenum didnt fit and he thought his may be for a Honda.  So we traded and sure enough, when I tried to fit the Swedish one, it fitted like a glove. What were the chances of finding another eh?

What a piece of art it is too, so happy to be able to fit this to the machine and another tick off the list of things that needed to be accomplished to get the bike to the standard that I was after.

Just look how cool this Copper Metalflake looks, we used 3 pounds of the stuff to get the required depth that i was thinking of and a ton of clear coat was used to smooth it all out, but that Polished Aluminum offsets the Copper really well , what do you think?

I really was happy at the way the bike sat and looked and bit by bit I would get things accomplished, then I would push it onto the driveway to see how it looked in natural light.

I had Machined the front Lower forks and rebuilt them with New uppers, springs and this was a neat and unusual look as I had never seen anyone machine lower forks on a 750 before.

When I had these on the bike at Shows, people would ask about the forks and send me theirs to rebuild and give it that Custom look, it sure added some Custom touches as I painted the grooves Copper to go with the rest of the bike.

Finding someone to drill the correct hole on the stator cover, turned out to be a pain in the arse, I had one so called shop in another state have a go and messed it all up, so I did it my self and under cut the hole then used a drum sander to keep adjusting until the oil seal fitted tightly, and there you go, job done.

I had an Old Drouin Supercharger that was once going to go in an old chopper/drag bike and after I got all the parts I knew what bike I was going to build.  Now, the Motor I had was a fully Blue Printed motor, costing 7000 Dollars many years ago and this was perfect for the bike and thats how this came about.

I had a local company water Jet a bracket out of 7075 Aluminum and gave them a paper template, this worked out and treat and bolted right up to the SOHC motor with exact clearances, I simply Polished the bracket once everything was test fitted and you can see the Crank Pulley at the bottom fitted perfectly too.

All fitted and this Mechanical Washing machine looked Bloody awesome all hanging out of the engine on the Left hand side, it is Belt driven too so pretty quiet to be honest with a neat Polished Aluminum Belt cover for added coolness.

Yeah, it was an intricate bit of Kit to begin with but loved looking at this Motorcycle I looked at it as a piece of art and used as many pieces from a 1969-1978 Honda as possible.

I hand Hammered the knee Inserts using a Tear Drop Hammer from Eastwood Supply and this came out so nice with the Copper paint and boy did it shine when the Sun hit it too.

There is a lot of work here and those who have tried to Polish their Hubs will know what I am talking about, I also added a Double Chain and Sprocket set up as there was a lot of Torque here in that engine, I couldn’t locate one for the longest, but Azusa Chain helped me as this was for an Old Lathe and converted it to the bike and worked really well, ran a slightly wider sprocket carrier for the offset to be right.

I also fitted an Old Lockart Oil Cooler to the bike as it will run 15% cooler with that fitted and as the Oil Filter Housing has some broken fins, I cut them off and polished the body and it looked pretty good to be honest. I ran Braided Aircraft lines to the cooler too some Dash 12’s.

That’s an Original Lockhart Cooling Radiator too, I made a thick Aluminum Bracket to mount it to the Horn bracket and then polished it to look like chrome, it worked really well too.

That tank turned out so well, I used Por15 to seal it before painting and then pressure tested it at a Radiator shop, C.F.R was for Cafe Racer but in the style of the old H.R.D Motorcycles of years gone by.

This was My first attempt at making a Fiberglass front fender, since then I have sold over 500 of these to Customers all over the world, its 22 inches and has a bead all the way around it.

Cant get enough at looking at that, even today, it was a tough Motorcycle with loads of interesting parts and so Glad that I jumped in and had a go at creating this machine, there wasn’t many Café bikes at all about, so many people used to comment on what sort of bike it was and I think i was lucky enough to inspire a few people to have a go their selves and create their own unique ride.

 

My First attempt at a Custom Gauge, using an original one, I wanted to put BOOM at 140 MPH, got many comments on that and it was a great discussion point at shows etc.

I fitted an Original Series One Yoshimura exhaust of which was the pattern for all the systems I make today, I used a CB750 Connecting Rod for the license Plate holder, I later swapped the plate to the other side as the exhaust gases would tarnish the chrome lol. They are New Old Stock FOX shocks too and they really did give the ride height that I wanted on 18 Inch rims.

 

Allen bolts all through out the build and I did my drilling style on the sprocket cover just the break up some of the glow of the polishing, I have made many of these covers and sold to customers too over the years.

Rear Hub gets the same treatment and that’s an Original Dresda Boxed Swing arm that I chromed and boy does it look sharp on the bike, it really does accent that rear end.

I used Cow Hyde to upholster the Custom seat and used Gel foam for a comfortable ride and its a nice riding position with that 5 inch stretched gas tank.

Everything I feel on this Motorcycle Flows well, its such a warm color too, I hope that you liked just some of it as I know that you understand how much effort goes into creating a machine such as this.

Time has moved on and this bike now resides somewhere in Australia and hope the owner is having fun with that Custom built CB750 HONDA.

I took this bike to many shows all over the USA and had many great conversations with like minded people.

I think this was Seattle show but ALL the shows were super fun and made so many friends and acquittances etc. it’s a healthy industry now and I am still making many parts for these super fun inline four motorcycles.

I used a headlight from an Old DeSoto Automobile as I think it fitted in between the fork ears really well, I hand drilled the front Rotor using my drill press, I even made the bike stand.

One of the last photos before the bike made her way to the other side of the world but am proud to say I created that Monolith of a Café Racer.

As you can see, on the Right side of the bike, I fitted an old 1974 ARD Magneto, that too is Belt driven and gave the bike its Status Quo, she sure does sit well on the Tarmac too.

I used a Pontiac Taillight for the rear on My Custom Rocket Four seat assembly and I still sell them to this day and send all over the Globe.

Thank you for reading my Blog today, I just wanted to show you a bike that I really did have fun creating and love seeing what you lot are putting together. Below is a before and after shot.

Have fun with what ever you are creating and if I can help, you can call, email or even text me, I am always here to advise Thanks again and keep on building and Riding.

.

Mooneyes Christmas event Irwindale

Well, Saturday Morning soon came around, a little apprehensive about the trip to Irwindale today as yesterday we had Rain on and off all day and the forecast was dry as a proverbial bone.

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But it was a nice morning and no sign of rain, but, we came to the decision to jump in the wagon, and head out to the freeway and see what this years Mooneyes show had in stall for us, on many occasions the sky’s have closed and it has poured down with H2O, so this time we were prepared.
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The traffic was pretty good on the 5 and the 605 was even more clearer, so it took us maybe 25 minutes to make the trip to the Drag strip, but there was the usual line to get in and, I could see there was many vehicles already at the show and knew that this event would indeed be a doozy!

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We parked on the Oval track where they race the Speedway, so kinda cool being lined up on the third turn and headed down the incline, trying not to walk like a professional shopping cart pusher.

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Once in the show, the air was filled with BBQ and Hot Dogs, as well with a good sprinkling of Rockabilly Music, and high revving cars as they staged and drag raced up the 1/8th mile strip.

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So many cars had turned up and it was fun to walk the lines of machines, checking them out and seeing what the trend is this year in the Custom world and I noticed a few Lavender painted cars in a flat finish, so that seems to be the go this year.
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Mooneyes is always a fantastic annual social event for me and was great to be able to approach some well known names in the Hot Rod industry, just to shoot the breeze etc.

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Shige from Mooneyes is always there and will stop everything he is doing to chat and genuinely ask how you are etc, so great to see him and Chico, along with Bob and Go manning the busy station, selling their infamous wares.

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There were many vendors this year and ranging from cool plaid Pendletons, to custom pomade, there seemed to be a little of everything at the show and was a enjoyable checking different vendors booths to see what they had created for sale.

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I saw Vintage Hot Rod Club Coats I would of given three arms and a leg for but wrong sizes made it a unsuccessful scavenge for me this time but, proves that there are still wicked clothing out there if you are at the right place at the right time.

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I saw Big Nick Barns, another Ex pat living in SoCal and has been dealing in the Vintage Clothing industry over 30 years and always seems to come up with unique apparel and love seeing it.

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Jennifer and I watched Buddy Dhugi and his wonderful wife Suzi, play as they always do for the moon show and this year kitted out with Christmas sweaters, albeit it was bloody hot this year.

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But their set was pretty cool and they rocked the event as they usually do, we made sure to stop and chin wag as these are the best events for an annual social gathering for us.

Next band was my mate Big Dan and he plays in the Dynotones, an awesome 60’s Surf Guitar combo and boy do they rock, loved every song and hope to book them for my annual party in march 2016.

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We grabbed some food and hung out with some good people, I spoke to some mates I hae not seen in years, like Dean from Dice Magazine etc and Dennis Roth was in his element having fun with people in his Crazy Custom Flaked machine.

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The sound of bands playing, and Gassers racing up the strip every few minutes is an awesome experience and one you should at least try Once, just to be able to truly understand what I am on about, it is a really cool show- busy but cool.

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So many cars to see, make sure you allocate a few hours just to observe these fantastic machines as we walked isle upon aisle and people were more than happy to tell you about their car and how it came about etc.

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Now this Roadster you see is a show car, something many of you and I dream about, Jennifer asked the guy if it was his and with a smile on his face he said yes.
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I asked him about the 40 ford dash and he said it was a 40 ford dash but- he did not build the car, he won it in a raffle.

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I was gobsmaked as i remember the Roadster being as a raffle car at Ventura a few years ago, he said he had watched the Roadster being built via instagram etc and he bought ONE $20 ticket, he went to the show but came home as it was his 32nd Birthday, the phone rang and he thought it may be one of his buddies wishing him all the best, but infact it was ventura asking him if he had abought a raffle ticket for the car. He said yes and then she said, well you have won it!!

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Jeez, for $20 a $40,000 Built Roadster, they even had the builder drive it to his house and he drives it every weekend, lucky man, I always hear about raffles and never believe they are legit and you never see the winner, but this was the real deal and for $20 he won that awesome machine.

Jenn informs me she is doing Raffles from now on and, I tend to agree with her it seems like it may just be worth the chance, but such a great story on that Roadster.

 
Mooneyes always brings over their super cool pinstripers from Japan and they turn out some super cool work quickly.

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A great event and so much to see, make sure you get here early to be able to take it all in.

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Another Pinstriper is Hot Rod, he has been doing this for many many years.

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This Blue 29 Roadster was pretty cool parked up and sun bathing.

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I loved this tough 55 Gasser in Candy Paint, sure sounded menacing too.
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This mid 60’s Ranchero was so bang on the money for styling .

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Legends in the Hot Rod Art world, Robert and Suzy Williams were in attendance too.

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Here is my mate GO hat works at Mooneyes and is a super nice fella.

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Organ pipes on this roadster sounded like a broken fan in a fridge.
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29 roadster pick up but too low to pick anything up.

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This green T was pretty cool.

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Another channeled Roadster sits on the deck.

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Now, I would drive this home no problem.

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A nice sprinkling of Roadsters were here this year.

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A few Custom Low riders too, a lot of masking to do this.

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Like I said, there are all sorts f machines here, enough for everyone’s taste.

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Well, it is the Christmas show.

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Now this is what I am talking about, I love the straight Axle Gassers.

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This was a sweet 58 I would love to own.

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Amazing, as I live in SoCal, youd think you seen all the rides and then you come to Mooneyes show and loads of cool stuff not seen before.

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Plenty of Chevys thats for sure.

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I dug this pick up, would be a fun parts ride.

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This was pretty cool to see and I am sure he has fun with it with that Motor.

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Even the Old Bill were cool.

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Loved this Kustom Pontiac.

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Nice color scheme I thought.

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Always great to see some classic Tin here.

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Frenched Lights and a floating grill was cool.

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These are Custom from right out of the show room.

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How can you not like this Lincoln front end.
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Always loved these and the body goes on for miles.

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Now this is right on the deck.

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Rather odd choice of color but it works.

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Loved this 57 Belair as a gasser, the best years for me for gassers are the big straight axled heavy Bricks.

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Slammed Custom Roadster for the use of a better word.

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Three hungry birds.

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I loved the artwork on the trucks door.

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How clean is this and I love the color.

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This sedan sat really well.

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The sun was out and so were the Hot Rods this weekend.

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A cool 56 Gasser awaits its turn before going up on the 1/8th mile.

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This 1948 Rag top was cool as hell and loved the color.

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A couple of car club guys shooting the breeze.

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Off the the strip to tear it up.

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This Caddy is pretty straight bodywork wise.

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A Candy red 58 Pick up look good basking in the Sun.

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Now that’s a lot of work.
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How straight is this and love that color.

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Some intricate masking here to get this effect.

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I think this is Keith Weesners 5 window and boy is it nice.

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Suicide doors on this Bow Tie.

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Whats going on here, his own Smoker?
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Clean, low and bell flowers too.

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Nice 56 for belting around town in.

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So clean.
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Jeez, that push bike must weigh a ton?

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Yep. that will give it some giddy up.
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Thats one way of making sure the hood closes on that Caddy.

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More random shots for you lot.
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I am way digging that color.

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Matt from Australia’s ride that he painted himself.

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Plenty of GM rides here.

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Different and nice to see from the Norm.

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Hanging in some shade on this hot day in December.

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Plenty of flake in this design, so many hours.

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This is one tough looking 58.

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Plenty to see today.

RUBY’S CAR SHOW WE ATTENDED

59 club meet up

What a great little venue Ruby’s diner is up in Whittier, A stones throw from where I live and thought that a trip to check this Car show out would be fun to attend and get some cool grub at the same time, seeing as it is quite light until at least 8;30 pm, we took advantage of the weather and headed out to Whittier for a great evening with my 59 Club.

 

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Caution indeed,as we parked up and took in the sights and sounds of Ruby’s Diner and what a great selection of cool stuff they had to show us here.

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How about this awesome flathead Indian Chief, I would love to have been the owner of this ride and loved everything about it, even the oil leaks!

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I painted this design on My leather jacket a few decades ago now and always loved the Indian logo, what a cracking American piece of History.

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I didn’t see the owner as i wanted to hear it fire up and cruise down the road, but this show is always cool to see as you never know what might turn up.

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Green seemed to be a popular choice of color for many of the cars that showed up today but its a cool color none the less and loved the rides.

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The fairlane below was super clean and had every factory option available o it, a sweet long and wide machine that was just nice to look at.

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The Pontiac Star Chief was also a hit at the show, Big Chromed D- Cup Over riders and sat lower than a snakes belly, this was really a nice car.

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The 5 spokes and Lakes pipes on that Star Chief was a nice touch too. Blew a soft green Lincoln Continental Convertible looked awesome.

 

 

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Four Door Galaxy was super clean and all original trim too, this has been cherished for many years that’s for sure and I loved it.

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Below, this Yellow T Bucket had more tickets than cheap Angels deals and was Blown with open headers!

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I would of loved the Dodge Lancer as the Body work was all original and loved the paint patina, not sure where the Hood went though.

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Small Block Powered 1930 A Bone was sitting pretty on steelies and lakester headers.

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I loved this49 Woody, awesome Super deluxe Model and Flathead powered with a three speed.

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56 Wagon was clean and I have seen a few of these out here, loved to own one myself as I had a 55 4 Door in the UK in the 90’s.

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Another Green ride, this time a Bowtie on stock rims and cleaner than many cat’s Arses.

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Super smooth and clean 56 Belair that had custom 60’s tube grill, just lose the dice and this would be fab!

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I know, but as I said, there is something for everyone at this weekly meet and this was really clean too.

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Mopar at its very best here, plenty of people looked at this Plymouth, love the big intake scoop.

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How can you not just stop and stare, such a menacing front end.

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Little Canary yellow and Red 40 ford is so cool, an early owner so a Hot Rod for many years, flattys gone so now a street rod but loved it.

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I loved this 53 it sat right, looked right and would of loved to own it and painted it a candy Root Beer brown with lake pipes.

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This tidy 55 is a nice model and other than the Dice, I would of taken it for sure.

 

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This show is Every Friday in the Summer and people are so friendly, if you get a chance, come over as I know you will enjoy yourself as much as we did and we continue to do so.

Many thanks to you all for coming out, we really enjoyed your company and the ride on this Hot Summer Night and look forward to our next meet, check out Carpy’s Cafe Racers on meet.com for more rides that we will be doing, come along, we are fun to be with.