Goodbye, Lil Garage

A strange day: the funky little shed that has been my workshop/garage/practice space for 12 and a half years, is gone. 

Special Collection

I was happy to learn that the California Auto Museum will be hosting a microcar show next year, from March 15 to August 5, 2019 - especially great news for me, given that CAM is about a mile and a half from my house. A friend of mine is on the Board of the museum was talking about the show and knew I had a microcar (or, uh, four). I told him about the Crosleys and one of the things I mentioned was that my 1950 wagon had been featured in Road and Track Magazine back in 1975.  He couldn't even picture what a Crosley looked like, so I told him I'd send him a few photos.

Courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Stanford Libraries

As I got the pictures together I looked to see if the R&T article had ever been posted online. I did some googling and found what seemed like it might be an online version of the article. I clicked through to the site and could not believe what I was seeing...

The 1st Annual Jenkem Spank'em 69 Road Rally

When my buddy Marcos was in town for the Snowball Rally in April, he invited me to drive the Crosley up to the Bay Area for the first annual "Jenkem Spenkem," what he described as a half-assed, ill-planned "shitty car ride" he was organizing for his birthday, 6/9. The idea was to get a bunch of his pals with old cars to meet up in the parking lot of a nearby Grocery Outlet, drive 69 miles on back roads around the bay, and end up at his house in Oakland for an afternoon BBQ. No entry fees, no cut-off dates, no fancy cars... just a goofy fun trip on some less-traveled roads.

2017 West Coast Crosley Meet Report - Part 2

Jewell Park, the site for this year's meet, is a one-block green space just off the main drag in Pacific Grove. It has a small activities building in one corner and a bandstand on another - the rest is grass, with big trees on the edges of the park. Club pres. Rick Alexander had worked with the local Chamber of Commerce to get permission for the show and I knew the cars would look great on the grass - like a mini Concours. I rolled up a little before 8AM and waited for everyone to arrive - This will go down as the first time in history that I was the first one there!

2017 West Coast Crosley Meet Report - Part 1

Autumn means cooler weather, leaves starting to drop, Halloween decorations making their appearance, and - in my world - the annual West Coast Crosley Club Meet.

Things I Don't Need (But I Do): Crosley Bus FS on Ebay

On the long list of things I don't need in my life, a Crosley-powered bus - a PROJECT no less - would be waaaay up there.  But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be dreaming about this tonight.

A Visit to Steve's Crazy Microcar Hoard

Dave, Nick and I followed Steve and Muggsy's trailer of French micro-weirdness to Steve's place outside Upland. I wasn't sure what to expect, but a mid sixties ranch house/microcar farm in an upscale neighborhood wasn't it.  The driveway was largely obscured by a handmade tarp and irrigation pipe gate that blocked a carport. In front of the tarp structure, a faded red spaceage something-or-other [note: Steve says it is the Zeta Sport Coupe prototype, made in Australia by Harold Lightburn] poked out from under a car cover, hinting. How the neighbors haven't advanced on the compound with pitchforks and torches I'll never know.

Crosley Club Spring Meet / SWULCS April 2017

This year, the West Coast Crosley Club decided to do something different for our annual Spring Meet: we opted to combine our event with the Southwest Unique Little Car Show, meaning that in addition to goofing with Crosleys and visiting with my club compatriots, I was able to spend a couple days with hordes of even weirder, even smaller microcars.

Almost Here...

New issue of the Tin Block Times is at the printer - cover story on Crosley Cruise: The Sequel!  Very happy with the great design work from new designer Matt K. Shrugg, who filled the mighty big shoes left by Dean Seavers.  Should be hitting mailboxes sometime next week....

VOTE!

Vote, people.

It's Election Day here in the US. We all kvetch and complain about our choices, and most of us take this right for granted, but let's remember that less than half the people in the world have any real say in how they are governed, and less than 20% live in a true democracy. We are lucky.

Photo found somewhere on the web - I believe this was taken at the Hershey Swap Meet a couple of years ago, but don't know more than that.

Homebuilt Streamlined Camper Car, 1941

I picked up a stack of 1940s Popular Science mags at an estate sale this weekend and found this crazy homebuilt car pictured in the letters section of the August 1941 issue.

AMAZING Color Film of Watkins Glen, 1952

I don't know how I missed this fantastic color footage of the '52 Watkins Glen race when it first made it to the internet at the beginning of the year, but wowzers, I am making up for lost time. Twelve and a half minutes of AMAZING color footage of the last-ever races at the original Watkins Glen course, replete with Cunninghams, Allards, C-Type Jags, and of course, Crosleys! And every time you turn around, there's ANOTHER Siata.  Unbelievable.

Pete Berard, 1939-2016

Sad to say that another longtime member of the Crosley fraternity has passed: Pete Berard of Valdosta, GA died June 23 while recovering from a stroke.

El Mirage SCTA Races - May 2016

Well, my packing blanket may have done me right in Fillmore, elevation 456, but turned out to be woefully inadequate for camping at the 2900 foot elevation of El Mirage.  I fell asleep pretty quickly, but woke up every hour or so until 5AM when I just said to heck with it and got up.

Spring Meet!

It's mid-May, and that means another Spring Meet for the West Coast Crosley Club. Liv decided that 16 or so hours of driving was too much for a weekend so I headed down solo - just me and a case of old time radio shows on cassette.  As luck would have it, the Spring Meet fell on the same weekend as the SCTA races at the El Mirage Dry Lakes which I'd never been to.  My friend John McKnight was bringing his lakester out from Arizona, so I figured to make it an auto event twofer. I opted to leave the Crosley at home since I'm still enjoying my my trailer holiday. I got to about Fresno before I realized I'd forgotten to pack my sleeping bag... but remembered that I had a heavy packing blanket in the back of the truck and figured that would be fine.

1949 Crosley Craigslist Tilt-Up Funny Car

Did you buy this crazy tilt-up funny car project?  I missed out on posting this while the CL posting was still active, but I grabbed some of the pictures off the listing because it was too good not to save.

The Crosley Cruise: 2015 West Coast Crosley Club Meet - Part 2

I headed over for the Crosley Cruise kickoff at Thomi's Cafe on Sunday morning.  As luck would have it, my station wagon had developed a slight water pump leak over the weekend - I greased the zerk fitting and kept my eye on the temp gauge.  Luckily I'd brought a jug of water just in case, and borrowed another from Mike Blackburn who had decided at the last minute not to do the tour.  Mike's water jug sprung a leak as soon as I loaded it in the car.  So far, so good.

Prelude to the Crosley Cruise

Since 2015 was the 30th Anniversary Meet for the club, I had suggested that we do something we'd never tried before: a two-day meet, with a Crosley-friendly driving event scheduled for Sunday. While my proposal was overwhelmingly approved at our 2014 meeting, I came to find that my idea was going to be more of a struggle than expected.

2015 West Coast Crosley Club Meet - Part 1

I'm still recovering from the festivities at the West Coast Crosley Club's 30th Anniversary shindig this past weekend in the Gold Country: three days of Crosley shenanigans, 70+ Crosley fans, 23 Crosleys (or variants) and 160 miles in the driver's seat of a 26.5 horsepower mighty mite really takes it out of you.

Bummer.

Well, we were scheduled to have a Crosley Meet last weekend, but the Butte Fire raged dangerously close to Jackson and Sutter Creek, the HQ for the meet.  Both towns escaped the fire, (thank goodness) but the soot in the air, displaced people and general concern prompted us to reschedule for next month.