Tag: louisville

Louisville 2016

The shop will be closed from Wednesday – Tuesday while the whole staff is attending the Street Rod Nationals PLUS in Louisville KY. Paul and Dorothy are driving the ’40 down, and I’m driving the ’32. If you see me in the 32, reach in and grab a shop rag!

We will still be checking emails and voicemails while we’re away. If you’re on Facebook, please follow us – I’ll be posting pictures and maybe even doing some live videos during the show. www.facebook.com/paul.hortons.welderseries/

Hope to see you there!

I’m not bringing any cute girls with me this year 🙁
The 40 should flip 100,000 miles this summer!

Louisville 2015, Day 1 and all the other days

Note: Sorry, but this is going to be “Louisville Pics, Days: First to Last”. I don’t have time to separate them into individual days, and really, whether a picture of a car was taken on Friday or Saturday, doesn’t make too much of a difference in your life. Enjoy!

Day 1 being Tuesday Aug. 4th.

I left home after a late lunch and decided to cross the border at Port Huron instead of Detroit. A pretty uneventful drive for the most part. It still excites me to think that I can be so far away in only a few short hours. Only a couple generations of humans have been able to travel the way we have… and I choose to do it in a loud, tiny car.

As it began to get dark, I started thinking about finding a hotel. By about 10:00, I still hadn’t decided and the miles clicked on. I don’t mind driving at night, but the thought of heading down I-71 through northern Kentucky in the dark wasn’t high on my priority list. I kept saying to myself “I’ll just get through Dayton” and then “I’ll just get through Cincinnati” and even when I did stop for a room, my GPS led me right back on the highway and told me to turn right on the on-ramp. I figured that was a good enough sign for me, so I pointed south and put the hammer down. Until the traffic jam in Cincinnati.

Last stop before leaving Sarnia.
Up and over into Michigan!
Thanks!
Pilot Transport trailer is nice and shiny – a good time to check for bugs in my teeth.
11:10 in Fort Mitchell. I stopped to see if I could find a hotel and all I got was this awful picture in front of a fire station.
Kept pushing through… stopped in traffic for a little bit.
This is the bowling pin I built for a trophy for the BMX race on Saturday night.
Perfectly sitting ’40 coupe.
Great weather until I was 20 minutes from home!
Try and keep up with Dave Tucci pulling a trailer!
The BMX race podium finishers. Scott Sandoval, Tim Strange, and Dave Tucci.
The first time the 32 has been inside stanchions! The BMX track manager “didn’t want to take any chances”. Very nice of him to do.
Post BMX race meal.
A nice line-up at the hotel.
Dave can hardly believe his eyes – a coffee cake booth with his name on it, on his birthday!
Neat quarter eliptical setup.
John Jackson is getting ready to try out his new BMX bike.
This ’34 was TRICKED OUT. Tail light brackets mimic F1 front shock mounts.
Quite the fan shroud.
The heater is in the trunk and the vents run up the B pillar and out by your head.
The heater is actually a box which houses all the controls.
The panels are press-fit and just pop out when you tap on one side.
Cool hood hinge. The one section is bolted to the hood, and the other is attached to the body. If you look close, the angled piece is actually two pieces bolted together. You could unbolt the hood without losing the alignment.
Spinelli’s downtown… … …
Dave changes the brakes in the hotel parking lot… in about 10 minutes. Seriously.

Summer Show Schedule

For the past umpteen years, we’ve been attending two shows with our display: the Syracuse Nationals (in Syracuse), and the NSRA Street Rod Nationals Plus in Louisville. This year, we’ll also attend those two shows. If you stop by our usual booth location though, you will notice something different. No, Paul didn’t dye his hair. Guess again. Nope- we didn’t get one of those tractor trailers with the “not for hire” sticker on the window. The only thing that’s changed is whose display is in that spot- it’s not ours! After a lot of discussion, we’ve decided to relinquish our vendor spots and attend the shows in the ’32 as participants.

Maintaining the display will take away a lot of production and shipping time (we are, after all, in the hot rod chassis parts business), and Paul and Dorothy are getting to the point that they no longer want to stand in the same place for a few days. Since his name is on the door, if he wants to walk, let the man walk. I benefit as well, since my wife and children will probably come to Louisville with me to hang out and participate. We’ll get to roam and check out cars together!

All three of us enjoy talking with everyone who stops in to the booth, so that’s definitely a down side. Even though we won’t have a display, we’ll still enjoy talking with people around the fairgrounds. I’ll be updating our Facebook page from the show as well.

I realize I didn’t need to explain all that, but I wanted to convey the point that business is going well and this is a decision which we didn’t make lightly. For a family business, deciding how you spend your time is key. We want to keep our business sharply focused on getting high quality parts out the door quickly, and this is one way we feel we’re deliberately maintaining that focus.

I’m interested to hear your feedback.

Where will we be this summer?

I thought I’d post a little reminder of where we’ll be this summer with the Welder Series booth.

July 8-11: Atlantic Nationals, Moncton, NB, Canada
July 16-18: Syracuse Nationals, Syracuse NY.
August 5-8: NSRA Street Rod Nationals (plus 😉 ), Louisville KY.

While you’re in Louisville, come on out to the Hot Rod Industry BMX Challenge on Saturday night at the Derby City BMX track, put on by Tim “Big Guy On Tiny Bike” Strange of Strange Motion Rod & Custom Construction.  Check out some pictures of last years event: http://www.myrideisme.com/Blog/hot-rod-industrys-1st-annual-bmx-challenge/

Hope you can make it!

As usual, we won’t be bringing product to sell at the show.  What could we possibly do to make that up to you?  We’ll get it to your front door for no charge.  Place the order at the show and we won’t charge you the freight!  Sounds good to me – I’d rather not carry steel parts around at a show.

Looking forward to seeing some of you again, and meeting others for the first time.

dw

“Do You Think I’m Fat” CONTEST!

UPS is always at the NSRA Nationals weighing cars, so I thought I’d take the ’32 over and see if it needs to go on a diet.  Before I spill the beans (and the twinkies, and the ho-hos), I thought it would be really fun to see how much you think it tips the scales.

Click here to email me with your guess!  The winner will get 1% of the weight they guess in dollars.  In case of a tie, you may want to divide it up into front/rear distribution.  I’d be happy to answer any questions about what’s on the car, or you can just read the whole build-up HERE.

Contest closes modnight on August 24/09.