Builds
On Friday, May 9, the streets of downtown Dayton filled with the rumble of engines, the shine of polished chrome, and the unmistakable buzz of community. As part of the 78th Annual Tennessee Strawberry Festival, the Cruise-In Car Show once again proved to be more than a car show — it was a meeting place for car lovers, families, and locals who know small towns shine brightest when they come together.
A look back at the 2006 Strawberry Festival in Dayton, Tennessee, where The Auto Builder hosted the first Rods on the River car show, drawing crowds, classic cars, and community spirit.
When we look back over the past decades and all the cars that have benefited from the creative mastery of super rodding, we should consider ourselves lucky. After all, just about every car we’ve ever dreamed about has found new life through the vision of today’s enthusiastic owners and builders. It’s like being a kid in a candy store and having a pocketful of money—it’s all within reach and we just can’t get enough. Still, there are a few favorites that are often overlooked, which has many of us asking—why?
Gary Moore is no stranger to hot rods; he has owned literally dozens of them over the years. Past rods include no fewer than seven Deuces, a couple of altered drag roadsters, three ’40 coupes, three woodies…well, you get the idea. Like many hot rodders, Moore has an eye for the unique, and while his current stable holds a Deuce highboy roadster, a ’27 roadster pickup and a ’51 Ford woody, a couple of years ago he contracted “straight-axle fever.”
If you were to check your rearview mirror and find this hunkered-down Camaro behind you, there’s no question it would get your attention. And when it pulled alongside you, the brilliant red paint would certainly require a double-take, although there would be little time for anything more as it speeds toward the horizon. This is what a well-built super rod does to people.
The year 1954 was a big one for the Ford Motor Company. That was the year that Ford’s new Y-block V-8 replaced the long-serving Flathead V-8, and it was also the final year before a major styling redesign. Thus the ’54 models are somewhat unique.
It’s a ’55 with a small-block Chevy, but Lamar Cline’s two-door sedan is no 210! But with a Chevy engine, transmission, rearend and a Cadilllac interior, this ’55 is almost a GM product anyway.
It’s a classic type of buildup: a big-block 396 in a ’66 Chevrolet El Camino, sprayed a glorious red with in-your-face yellow flames. Meticulously created by Bob Nation of Twin Falls, Idaho, like so many great builds, this one comes with a story.
Starting from the ground up, Chamberlain and his good friend Owen Hopes created a new chassis for the truck using 2X4 boxed steel tubing. Since he was intrigued with the Pro Street look, Chamberlain located some of the widest street legal tires made at the time, knowing they would set the tone for the rest of the project. Almost fat enough to qualify for separate zip codes, the 21-inch wide Mickey Thompson tires were rolled into position and Chamberlain began adjusting everything until they fit.
It’s a simple concept really. You see, when you build six-figure cars for one person, many others stand by and wish they, too, could have such a fine piece of work. Of course, all that one-off bodywork, tube frame construction and sculpted interior is just too pricey for most street rodders, and that doesn’t even consider the price of an artist concept study and subsequent drawings.
However, after spending all that time, money and effort to produce an aesthetically pleasing and award-winning design based on the venerable ’32 Ford, why not mass produce the car in fiberglass with the same great chassis and super smooth lines? That thought crossed Boyd Coddington’s mind when he did the original Boydster, a fenderless highboy roadster. The next progression was to add fenders to the car and so, being a sequential kind of guy and is good with numbers, Boyd decided to call this one the Boydster II. The car embodied all the great style of the first car, but now with fenders.
