Hot Rods Caught in the rain with my roadster!

One of the best rides EVER in The Peter Beater was a run to the Frankenmuth car show. Up I-475 north in a torrential downpour. Fase Eddie and me in our T Buckets absolutely hauling ass (90MPH+). Crouch behind the windshield, let-r-rip. We still got drenched but it was fun!

 

I used to love the 4 rooster tails, 20' high.

 

I was thinking something like this you just keep it in the car rolled up and pull it out as needed better than no top. https://www.extremeterrain.com/best...YYCSABEgJiNPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#product_pics-0

 

Oh MAN. That must have came in fast and furious.

 

That one rolled in fast , was parked in that area in my 31, the rain started coming down hard, my dad and I drove to another area closer to the buildings and luckily out of the area that flooded.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Louisville 92 It rained 9" in a very short time. It pretty much sucked . Bill

 

Traveling to the 1972 Nats in Detroit Mich. with Bud Bryan & Tom Medley we hit lots of rain,---See story.

 

No pics in the rain, but yes, I have a topless and fenderless "A" on Deuce rails Hiboy.
And yes, of course I've been caught in the rain with it, and yes, I've gotten wet, and that's part of owning a roadster in GA, as is the incomparable fun of driving it on nice days.
Sort of a trade off, one balances the other.

 

Not sure why it took me like 50 years to add a folding top to my old hot rod 28 roadster, built in 1959.
Did always keep rain gear an beach towel. When RainX came out,I jumped on that stuff<great help.
Owning another car with a top,had something to do with it.
When I did get around to adding a folding top,I did a tech for HAMB;;
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...top-a-how-too-do-it-tech.857951/#post-9479688

 

You still get soaked when your moving unless you incorporate a back curtain too.

 

If you just drive fast enough, you stay relatively dry. It's those darn stoplights that always do me in.

 

I never could get the cowl vent on Clarence to seal up. It's getting a remake right now and the cowl vent is now welded closed. The first out of town trip in '93 after we finished the metal part of the top chop on Clarence was to the Springfield R&C Americruise. It had a windshield but no other glass at the time. So between the leaking cowl vent and no side glass I nearly drowned that trip. Here's a pic of Steve Osborn ("weeds" on here; RIP) somewhere on US 71 on the way from Pete & Jakes to Springfield. He had a removable top for the '29 roadster pickup in the pic, but it had been hot earlier in the day so we took that top off of the RPU and it was in the back of Clarence at the time I snapped the pic.

​

Fortunately Clarence and I were parked over on the west (??) side where the rain didn't pool. That day on the fairgrounds I met the lady who now has been my wife since 2004.



The only topless car I've ever had was a C2 Corvette. When it started raining and the top was down I just went really fast 'til I came up to an underpass. Then I had the width of the roadway above to stop from speed. As you can imagine it took longer than that, so I usually got somewhat wet slowing down. But it took only a minute or two to put the soft top up so we would be dry thereafter.​

 

Not my roadster but pictures from inside my coupe at the time.

 

I have been caught several times in the rain in my roadster, just part of the open air package. I frequently don't even bother to put the top up. The only thing worse than driving in the rain in your roadster is not driving your roadster!

 

Getting soaked on the way out is a bitch, I can live with getting soaked on the way home though.

 

Thought I was going to get in the garage before it poured....wrong! One mile to go and I got soaked. Rain drops hurt, glad it wasn’t hail. Some said when the top down the price goes up. So does the pain in the rain. But all in all, there’s nothing like a roadster, top on or off.


Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.

 

Isn't it a right of passage if you own a roadster? I'll forgo the bitching when I get soaked. I'll call it the real in to the club!

 

One of the many joys of driving a Roadster

 

A number of years ago while driving in Laguna Beach , CA. the area was hit by a sudden dense downpour of giant rain drops and suddenly here comes a mid-1960's or so Chevy Impala convertible with the top down. The young driver had a very distressed, agonized look on his face. He must have been trying to outrun the rain cell. I felt sorry for him. Every inch of that interior was going to be saturated.

 

Right around 50 MPH the rain stops hitting you and blows over the windshield so if you don't turn left you're good to go.

 

About 12 years ago I took my Roadster to the Seaway mall Friday night cruise in. They had a very aggressively enforced rule that you were not allowed to move your car or even start your engine while they were drawing door prize tickets.

A storm was coming at 9pm so a lot of people had come early and already cleared out. I was about 45min from home so I was just climbing in to leave at 8pm when they started drawing those damn door prizes. One more minute and I would have been on the road and beaten the storm home.

Because so many people had left already, they had to re-draw most of the numbers. It took forever, sitting there with my hand on the start button watching the storm roll in, waiting for a bunch of retirees in cargo shorts and socks and sandals to win a new sponge to wash their corvette with.

Finally they finished giving away samples of wax and 8”x8” chamois and I could leave.

Rain hit hard about 2 miles from home.

My friend Travis was meeting me at the house to go out for beers and had beat me by a few minutes and was waiting in his car. He knew I was coming from the cruise night so he had parked across the street so I could get in the garage.
I hit the garage door button and rolled in the garage with a big sigh of relief.

I had just shut the car down when I heard a strange crash.
My OT car was on stands in the other side of the garage in the middle of an automatic to manual transmission swap. All the bolts were arranged on a cookie sheet under the car ready to stab in the new t5 the next morning. Travis had ran in the rain from across the street and came tear-assing in to the garage. When his wet shoes hit the concrete floor of the garage he fell on his ass and slid right under my car, hitting my perfectly arranged bolt tray and scattering them everywhere.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

My neighbor had a '29 Ford roadster. One day he & his wife headed over to Panama City for a big show. Beautiful weather but at some point it started pouring buckets down there. His wife wasn't happy, car didn't stick around long after that.

 

you don't know what cold and wet is until you get caught in the rain on a motorcycle.

 

People used to ask me, " what do you do when it rains ? My reply was simple, " you get wet "

 

Pulling into GG Nashville after an hour of driving in pouring rain...

 

Preaching to the choir department and OT... if I was going to build a pure, bare-bones roadster I'd do it just like a motorcycle. I've had a few bikes and have been on long trips on them, so I have some experience there. Use totally waterproof wiring, and nothing under the seats at all. Keep all the electronics high and under the dash if possible. Have drain holes in all the low spots in the floor and lower door sills, removable rubber mats, etc.. NO wood in the door cards, seats or floor boards. Use the same upholstery materials as bikes or boats use, if not their OEM seats. I'd even consider "bucket" seats from the mower, farm or heavy equipment areas as they have drain channels or slots in the back of the seat bases to prevent pooled water. Heat / defrost might be helpful, too. A storable top and side curtains? And the obligatory pair of motorcycle rain suits, foul weather gear, gloves, etc.. Hell, even a full face helmet with intercom / cell hookups like the motorcycle guys have might also be a good idea. Luckily, I'm a coupe guy... but I have a different set of regular little problems to deal with.

 

Been There, Done That ! I wanted a Roadster, Had one, enjoyed it, but it got old getting wet/cold and after 7 years traded it for my 32 coupe that I finished and enjoyed 8 years. IMO Rain/shows/cruising never mix, here in Wisconsin it rains, ironically this spring going into summer we are having the best weather in years, myself, my cars are dressed up ready to jet and everything is cancelled = BUMMER ! A few shows coming up in July/August

 

don't you hate it when even your boots get filled with water

 

I was at that show, my dad and his car are pictured in that magazine