Official 2013 MSRA Back To The 50's St. Paul, Minnesota June 21,22,23

It rained Sunday morning again but stopped and the swap meet went off just fine. A few puddles to step around, or splash in if you are in your second childhood.
Sorry, I don't know anything about the '40 Ute, except the build quality was AAA.

 

Reminds me of the flooded parking lot at the 1992 NSRA nationals in Louisville,,that was a nightmare for a lot of people. HRP

 

Same here HRP. I remember 2005 Louisville having a shit-load of rain too. Rain and roadsters don't mix, however, I still had a blast. Anyone you has not attended this show needs to add it to their bucket list.

 

I did stop by to the open area south of the bath rooms for a bit a little after 1:00 and assume it was the said knoll.
Next year i will volunteer to make a HAMB sign

 

My son and I were in a tent in the campsite to the right next to those two porta potties! Two nights in a row it stormed big time. Needless to say Fri night ended it for us and about a dozen others in tents along the south end of the south campgrounds. Thankfully my neice put four of us up that night north of the cities. A couple in our group headed home that night and four of us headed home Sat early. I've been doing the fifties since '88 and camped since the early '90s, but this was a tough one. Have to seriously start thinking about a motel room. Getting too old for that kind of stuff.

But the 50s is a must go. You just can't miss it!

 

truthfully, the rain was not an issue for me. Got there early, drove right in, parked dried the car...walking by 7AM. Left about 7PM both nights and made it to the motel without issue.

had a great time, as always.

 

Motels had their trials too - I got back to mine during the height of the rain, jumped out of the car and made a 50-yard dash to the door and when I got inside I wouldn't have been any wetter if I'd jumped in the swimming pool!! Poor me....
Seriously though, camping in that kind of weather is exactly why I started renting motel rooms. I had to head back early on Saturday due to storm damage at home and I followed a LOT of cars heading away from the fairgounds. Tough deal all the way around, but as far as I know at least nobody got hurt.
Side note - don't blame you for vacating the campground after having a couple of porta potties floating around in the water next to your tent.... eeewwwww!

 

too bad that Mother Nature delt the cards that had way too much water in them. but, good to hear some positive stories and see some Cool pics. Thanks

 

we pulled into the show on Friday as everyone else was leaving. The people at the gate were telling us "you know there is a storm coming, right" .. And we chuckled. Well, we kinda got stuck at the show, in the car waiting for the storm to pass. (no wipers!) we watched in horror as vendors tents were getting blown over, tree branches falling, and the roads turning into rivers. We even saw a couple cars that floated into each other on one of the downhill streets. We thought the weekend was scrapped. But to no avail, the day after turned out great! This show brought great spirits despite the crap weather! It was a blast and you will see me next year! Keep on Roddin!

 

no damage from the rain and wind......but i did get a scratch in my front fender from a two wheeled cart being pushed by some fat ugly chick. i was stopped in traffic Friday trying to get into the WCCO building and she just ran into me! you should have seen her scram out of there when i yelled at her. my buddy couldn't catch her

and if you are reading this and you are that fat ugly chick ....just PM me your name ,address and phone number and i will be happy to apologize

 

I got lucky and left the fairgrounds at just the right time Friday evening. drove to my motel, got some sprinkles on me going in, and then it hit. Saturday went from threatening in the morning (9 am) to beautiful toward evening. Rain overnight again but once again livable by 9 am. Great weather for the trip home, clear skies and dry air when we got home at 8 pm. I'm sorry to hear about damage others received, I was just always lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
It was nothing compared to Louisville 92, there were hundreds of cars destroyed that time! IIRC 13" of rain in 3 hrs. I spent most of it stranded with my family in our DD out in the parking lot.
I've never had the desire to go back to Louisville!

 

It was one year Im sure glad I only live a mile from the fairgrounds. We had some stuff get thrown around the yard, but nothing major. Got caught in the middle of it going home Friday night. Had to idle down the street for 6 blocks because I couldn't see the downed trees or parked cars. We were SOAKED going from the garage to the house.

36-3window, how could your buddy NOT catch a fat chick?

 

Dad and brother had a good time, got a discount on the hotel for having no power and not charged for Saturday so they took a shower and headed home that evening! They were leaving Sunday anyway.

 

We were parked on the north side, looking at cars on the south side when the sprinkles started. Thought we ought to head back to the car, but only made it halfway when the big rain and winds picked up. We hid under a vendor's canopy for a few minutes and then made a run for a building's overhang. 30 seconds later the canopy we had stood under was collapsed by the wind and blew down the block. We'd have been a mangled mess if we had still been in there.

We still got soaked, but waited a while and the rest of our crew came to the rescue and picked us up. They took us back to the car, which wouldn't start, so we then limped slowly out of the fairgrounds around the rivers and debris all over the place.

By 9 the next morning you'd have never known the fairgrounds ever got hit by the storm. And the car started right up!

 

Hate to hear that. Which one was it? I mean, there were a LOT of them there. I enjoy the people watching as much as looking at the cars.

 

For 45 minutes on Friday night, it was worse than a hurricane I witnessed in Japan. Needless to say, the wood car didn't like the pressure washing. Anyway, Saturday and Sunday were pretty good days after the morning rains. Here are a few pics:

 

Just returned from the 40th Annual Back To The 50's. First off, I feel sorry for the folks that were affected by the storms that came through. I was fortunate as I was not affected, other than I waited until 8:00 AM Friday and Saturday to head over to the fairgrounds. It was not a washout of a weekend as the day time hours were dry and hot. However, as you know the nights were wet. Hopefully it will be drier in 2014.

I had a great weekend and spoke to a lot of HAMBer's. I met Mike Herman from H&H Flatheads, super nice guy. He had an awesome display of great flatheads. I purchased, A Sweet Sickness, The Flathead Movie.
I also met some other great guys such as Wayne Carini (I'm a huge fan) from Chasing Classic Cars. He is super nice and personable. He was nice enough to sit and talk with us a while.

Here are some photos from Registration this year. The lines moved quickly and we were in and out of the banquate hall rather quickly. There were plenty of cars to admire at the host hotel.



This '34 was really cool. All stock and what appears to be original paint.







HAMBer NoClubJoe made it in his coupe

 

Well, final car registration number.....12,033 registred cars

 

We attended a cruise-in at the Minnetonka Drive-in Thursday evening. We left early as I wanted some sleep. It was my intention to wake up early and head to the fairgrounds before the gates opened. As I awoke Friday morning it was raining so I slept for another hour. Soon we were headed to the fairgrounds. We were able to get 2 spots next to eachother. That can be tricky when over 12,000 cars are looking for a place to park. I thought the quality of cars was great. There was no shortage of HAMB friendly cars. The rock star Brian Setzer had his 1932 Ford coupe there from California, great looking car.

We parked our cars and not a minute later HAMBer Bob K. from WI stopped by. we chatted for a while and he explained to us he was heading to Alaska in his hot rod this week! Safe Travels, Bob!



Damn nice hot rod




Love the wheels on this pickup. It has a Corvette drivetrain.


This '32 photo was taken Thursday night at the Minnetonka Cruise-in





The House of Color paint on this was stunning

 

If you're looking for a BEAUTIFUL origianal 1932 Ford 3 Window that's near perfect, this one was for sale.
















This is HAND MADE!! yikes! That's some mad skills.

 

Ran into HAMBers Johnny Cola and Bob Bleed. Talked with them for a few minutes. Bob's roadster sounded great. They were looking forward to the swap meet on Sunday.



Honest Charlies staging for the Great Race.




Here is the starting line for the Great Race.





HAMB Alliance Vendor/member Corky Coker taking it all in....

 

I thought the swap meet was good. There were a lot of deals to be had.

Here is a 1930 Model A Sedan, running with a 6 cylinder, good body, $8,500 OBO. it sold for $8,500.


Here is another 1930 Ford Model A Sedan project....



HAMBer Titus (Jeff) was selling an awesome 1929 Model A Sedan with a flathead for $4,900 OBO. Would be a great project from a great guy!




Here's yet another 1930 Model A Sedan project for sale.....




Lot's of bodies to be had....how about some Ford Model T's.........


I really enjoyed the swap meet this year and thought it was better than ever. Hopefully everyone that attended found something they were looking for.

 

I purchased this wooden Radio Flyer scooter. It was just too charming not to acquire. It's in great shape as the wheels are perfect, the tassels are intact, and the wood is not worn. I dig the white walls.

 

That is a car I work on here at the shop. Neat 1919 scripts booth.

 

Thanks TinShed. I never saw it standing still so I didn't know what is was. Is it stock or modified? The front axle has a deep drop. Here it is going away.

 

Looks like fun, despite the weather.

 

I had a blast, seeing great race cars was cool, driving fairgrounds in my car was the best part.

 

The Great Race ... 188 pictures by Greg Gjerdingen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/<wbr>greggjerdingen/sets/<wbr>72157634308767038/

Back To The Fifties ... 3,275 pictures by Greg Gjerdingen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/<wbr>greggjerdingen/sets/<wbr>72157634287159583/

 

John Zechbaurer originally built it, front axle is a mor-drop chevy if i remember correctly, when he bought it it was a pile of tin, dunno if he got it running ever but i know he fabbed it, painted and upholstered it.

 

I wonder how many pairs of shoes Greg wore out....nice work!