Hot Rods It’s Getting Warm, Let’s See Those Convertibles

Sold this one back in the spring.

 

1949 Dodge Convertible with chrome wire wheels

Hello,

Well, summer weather is now officially here in So Cal with the past two weeks at 80-85 degrees at the coastal shoreline. But, somedays, it has to be after 11 am. Why? Well the heat inland is winning its daily battle with the coastal fog. The heat keeps the fog from continuing to roll inland. The heat wall fights back and tries to push the fog back out to ocean with higher temps.

Late in the afternoon, the heat wall starts to recede and the fog now sees an opening here and there in the coastal canyons with wind gust shooting inland. So, as the fog makes its way inland little by little, the whole coastal area starts cooling down and as it gets covered with fog. During the night and early morning, despite the temperature still getting to 85+ along the coast, the fog takes its time to recede out to the deep blue sea.

Sometimes, taking a coastal drive up the coast is interesting. In the Dana Point/Laguna Beach area it may still be fairly thick in fog. But as one goes toward Newport Beach and the santa ana rivermouth in north Newport Beach, the fog lifts and from Huntington Beach into Long Beach it is bright, sunny and fog free. So, why the difference? The Laguna/Newport area still has coastal hills and small peaks. The Huntington Beach area is flat as one can see the whole flat area all the way back to the base of the large San Bernardino mountains. The heat has not stopping point and is stronger in their fight against the fog.

Jnaki

Yes, it gets foggy in Huntington Beach, but, it gets cleared out faster due to the open spaces from the shoreline inland, as nothing is there to slowdown the force in movement or direction. We have seen more convertibles in Newport/Huntington Beach than Laguna Beach/Dana Point area by comparison.

So, perhaps, that is the reason we have seen more overall convertibles out and about, farther up the coastline. YRMV

Newport Beach/Huntington Beach vs a convertible at Ruby’s South Laguna Beach

 

Hello,

When the sun comes out, the tops go up… that is odd due to the fact that most convertibles we see should be driven by a long hair flowing back with the top down cruising scene. But, for this 1962 Chevy Impala for sunny days on a consecutive series of days, sometimes a little sun is a little too much and the top goes up.

But, wait… further investigation brought up an interesting fact that could possibly fill in the blanks. In So Cal, the old trend was flip flops sold at low cost bins in the 50s-60s for most pocketbooks. As time moved on, a small company started making sandals with high density rubber and leather.

The era of leather sandals became a lifestyle portion and the sales went through the roof. Surf shops all over So Cal and elsewhere were stocking leather sandals made from So Cal. Even simple rubber soled ones, elevated ones and multi-color soles were the rage.

So, what is steps in front of the 62 Impala convertible? It was a bright sunny day and the top was up.

Jnaki

Why, it was the world famous Rainbow sandals shop and old factory compound. Bordered on a small concrete lined water outlet to the ocean and small other shops in an industrial area. So, parking at the original shop was once an easy thing. But, even today, the trend is still comfortable leather sandals created by the Rainbow Sandal Company. It celebrated its 50th anniversary recently and talk about no parking for miles around… yikes..

But, most days, the small parking lot just ahead of the Impala convertible is quite busy as the sandals are still popular in the coastal circles. With all of the different types of sandals around most stores, a small coastal shop still does fantastic business for their new/old sandals and the outstanding “seconds” corner of the showroom. YRMV

Note: With the recent hot weather streak, (of about 10 days of extremely hot weather) the top probably does stay up and the A/C gets blasted. Even in coastal So Cal, it was 90 degrees. But at our old Long Beach Airport they recorded 109 degrees… So, there is that !!!