Cool McCool's Garage

Being off work while recuperating after my recent shoulder surgery is both good and bad.  Good because I have time (while I’m not supposed to be doing things involving moving my right arm) to socialize with my hot rod pals, and bad because socializing with my hot rod pals makes me itchy to start a new project.  Which, I promised Kim I would NOT do until the chopped ’59 Thunderbird is painted and turned into money to finance said project.

Yesterday morning I drove up to Caledonia to my friend Kirk Brown’s (AKA Crafty B) shop for geezer coffee.  Not only did I get to see the remarkable progress he and Jeff have made on the car (seen at left wearing its fresh coat of powder blue paint), but my friends John Hall and Jeff Bell were there too.  Plus, I got to park up front with the cool kids!

Kirk’s roadster is a former drag car, which sported some of the worst cobbled up, 40-year-old body modifications ever, that he and Jeff have transformed into a work of art.  Kirk makes a living whittling out cast aluminum hot rod parts, and the car is (going to be) a rolling catalogue of the coolest stuff he makes.  From nose to tail, the car is decked with Crafty B parts that give tradition a new, razor-sharp edge.  Check it out:

Not only is the ’32 inspiration for my own next project, but it’s also reaffirming to know I’m not the only guy who has to paint everything twice!  It’s easy to color sand right down to bare metal, isn’t it Jeff?

As if the roadster getting painted and coming together (in a staggeringly short period of time), the cars in the parking lot added to my lust to start my own roadster project.  I hadn’t seen Jeff Bell’s ’32 three window since he’d painted it in a beautiful shade of red that looks like glossy red oxide primer, and John Hall’s ’34 three window with its fresh flattie.  He’s planning another cross-country trip this summer, and said he was tired of wiping oil slung out of the wheezing engine fogging the windshield.  Too bad he put the hood sides back on!

Jeff, John and I went to Caledonia for a late breakfast (OK, second breakfast for me!), and I got them to stand still long enough for a picture in front of their cars, and some old fire-truck, to take their picture.

Seeing all this hot rod creativity in one place makes me itch to start on the project in my head, a ’27 roadster on Duece rails, but I promised Kim nothing happens untill the T’Bird is completed and cleared out of the shop.  So, as soon as my arm is up to block sanding and holding a paint gun, it’s going to get done.  In its place, a pile of parts will appear that’ll make me forget about the recently departed ’36 Fordillac, and actually (unlike it) be comfortable and capable of some long distance touring.  The plans are complete, I just need the parts and garage space to build it.

Thanks for the inspiration, and for letting me park with the cool cars up front guys!