40 Ford – Timing Tower

FORTY FORD DAY, June 25, 2017

admin — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 03:02:18 +0000

If you see a millennial who doesn’t know what art deco looks like, take him/her to Forty Ford Day. The art deco-inspired styling of the ’40 Ford created one of the nicest looking cars ever built. The 41st Forty Ford Day was held in LaPalma Park, Anaheim, CA on June 25, 2017. Forty Ford, the car show, is now in its fifth decade and still going strong. The last couple of years the cars have gathered in the south end of LaPalma Park. This is a good location with plenty of shade. As always Forty Ford Day is a good show with a lot of cars. Now in its 41st year the show offers a diverse group of cars. Everything from a 1954 Sunbeam Alpine sports car to a 1945 Reo Speedwagon truck was at the show. The Alpine shown below is similar to the one driven by Grace Kelly in “To Catch a Thief”. This 1945 Reo Speedwagon, owned by Wilbur Randel III, came from the central San Joaquin Valley on Sunday morning for the show. The truck was purchased new by Wilbur’s father and used as a farm truck. Reo trucks were known for their durability and were produced into the ’50’s. Wilbur did the restoration work adding a modern 5.7 L Hemi. Of course, there were plenty of ’40 Fords. There were some very nice cars at the show – below are a few. A few more – The show opened at 8:00 a.m. with judging starting at 9:00 a.m. As in past years, the members of Forty Ford Limited had the Forties Lawn Cafe open and were serving hot dogs and hamburgers with all the trimmings for lunch. Baked goods, coffee, soda and water were available all day long. Club members were selling 50/50 raffle tickets with the proceeds split between a lucky ticketholder and the City of Hope Hospital. In addition to the 50/50 drawing, opportunity drawings were held throughout the day. The idea behind these drawings is that after you purchase a ticket, you drop half of the ticket into a bucket sitting next to the prize you want to take home. There were a lot of very nice and useful prizes given away in these drawings. The DJ, Thumper, kept the crowd entertained with oldies all day. About 12:30 p.m. the award winning cars started lining up. The club members make the 20 trophies that are awarded so each trophy is creative and unique. The award ceremony started at 1:00 p.m. as each winner paraded down the lane, past the crowd to accept a trophy. Below is a gallery of some of the photos taken at the awards ceremony. All of the photos of the award winning cars can be viewed on our SmugMug site and are available for sale. This 1934 Ford Sedan was not only the Best of Show, but served as a private limo for Tiny, who is helping to drive. We’re looking forward to the 42nd Forty Ford Day show in June 2018. Forty Ford Day is always held the Sunday after Father’s Day. All of the photos taken at the show can be seen on our SmugMug site and are available for sale.

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THE 66TH ANNUAL GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW

admin — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 07:06:42 +0000

2015 AMERICA’S MOST BEAUTIFUL ROADSTER. A 1933 Ford Roadster owned by Larry Olson built by Bobby Alloway. The Grand National Roadster Show opened Friday, January 23, 2015 and ran through Sunday, January 25 at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA. This year eighteen cars, up from the usual 10-12, vied to be America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR). 2015 AMBR winner Larry Olson’s name will be added to the base of this 9 foot tall trophy. Below is a gallery of 12 of the contenders for AMBR and below that is a gallery of an additional 6 contenders. Because of the greater than usual number of AMBR contenders, all of the cars could not be placed together. The cars in the gallery above were placed together in the center of the main building. Those below were in separate locations. The theme of the 66th Grand National Roadster Show was the Great Gatsby. The car below, although not built in the 1920’s, is classy enough to be from the Great Gatsby era. About 560 cars were on display in 6 of the Fairplex buildings and nearly 750 cars participated in the drive-ins on Saturday and Sunday. More than 250 vendors were on hand offering products and advice. As in past years the pinstriper auction was held and Friday, Saturday and Sunday and many pinstripers were kept busy striping panels, skateboards and other memorabilia which were auctioned off on each evening. The proceeds of the auction went to The Gavin R. Stevens Foundation to help find a cure for blindness. Last time more than $110,000 was raised for the Foundation and hopefully that amount will be topped this year. This year is the 75th anniversary of the 1940 Ford – its art deco styling made it one of the most iconic hotrods ever. Some of the most exceptional ’40 Fords were on display including the ’40 coupe built by Bob McCoy in 1956. The car is now owned by Richard Munz. Also on display was a ’40 coupe owned by Rich Guasco. Like Guasco’s infamous AA Fuel Altered, his ’40 Ford is titled Pure Hell. The #992 American Eagle streamliner was on hand. Driven by Skip Hedrich, The American Eagle set the B/GS World Land Speed Record at 331.178 mph at Bonneville in 2009. This is one awesome streamliner. There were a lot of customs including one outstanding ’59 Chevy El Camino. The bed cover for this El Camino was crafted from a trunk lid donated by a ’59 Impala sedan. Another fine custom was a 1949 Merc brought by Gary Chopit (Chopit was also the builder of one of the AMBR contenders). The Suede Palace was a great place to roam around. And there were motorcycles too! The drive-ins brought in a large number of cars which were parked throughout the Fairplex. One person who has been involved with the Grand National Roadster Show and the car scene since he took home the AMBR award in 1955 is Blackie Gejeian. Blackie hosted his own popular indoor car show, the Fresno Autorama, for 51 years. Now he sponsors the Blackie Gejeian Award at the GNRS. This award is presented by Bones Noteboom of Bones Concept Cars. Below are photos of some of the other cars at the GNRS. After seeing all of the GNRS a handy bench was a welcome sight. This bench offered by Lockjaw Garage provided the perfect place to sit for awhile. The Grand National Roadster Show is tentatively scheduled for January 29-31, 2016.

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38TH ANNUAL FORTY FORD DAY – LA PALMA PARK, ANAHEIM, CA, June 22, 2014

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 06:31:52 +0000

FORTY FORD DAY – LA PALMA PARK, ANAHEIM, CA For 38 years Forties Ltd has hosted this event to showcase the 1940 Ford. This show, however, is about a lot more than the ’40 Ford. This year the event awarded trophies to a diverse and unique selection of automotive history including a Plymouth GTX, a Pontiac Silver Streak, a Pontiac GTO, a convertible Edsel, and a 1955 T-Bird. Cars started filling LaPlama Park in Anaheim around 7:00 a.m. and by 9:30 250 cars were on display – 102 ‘40 Fords and 150 of everything else. While the ‘40 Ford offers the styling of the art deco era, other examples of iconic designs could be found as well: the ‘59 Chevy with it’s fins, the ‘49 “shoebox” Ford, the classic 1955-57 Chevys, Woodies, the vehicles of choice for the surfers of the ‘60s, the custom ‘49 Merc, and the always hot rodded ‘32 Ford roadster. Below are a few of the cars in the Park. This outstanding 1961 Lincoln Continental, which belongs to Bob Ankeney, is in original condition with 38,000 miles. The morning started with a huge bake sale where it was easy to find muffins, donuts and other good stuff for breakfast as well as coffee. These baked goods were also available for desert after lunch. Lunch could be had at the “Forties Lawn Café” where the club members were cooking up hamburgers and hot dogs with all the trimmings. Of course soda and water was always available. Two 50/50 drawings were held. The first generated $1,020 with $510 going to a lucky winner and $510 going to The City of Hope. The winner generously donated back $100 so $610 will be donated to The City of Hope. The second drawing gave $230 to the winning ticket holder and $230 to The City of Hope. Throughout the day 3 opportunity drawings were held giving away a lot of sought after items. The lucky winner of the 2nd 50/50 drawing promised to share the loot with her sisters. Thumper provided tunes during the day, with a few folks dancing to the music; and, an NSRA safety inspector was available to inspect cars and hand out safety 23 stickers. This is a good service and provides those who can’t get to an NSRA event another avenue to have cars inspected. At 1:00 p.m. the award winners began lining up with the award presentation starting at 1:30 p.m. Fifteen awards were given to some very fine cars. All of the awards are one-of-a-kind made by a member of Forties Ltd. The photo to the right is the Kids’ Choice award. The award categories were: Best Non’40 Open Car; Best Non’40 Coupe, Best Non’40 Sedan; Best Survivor; Kids’ Choice, President’s Choice; Ladies’ Choice; Best of the ‘60s; Best of the ‘70s; Best Non ‘40 Commercial; Best ‘40 Commercial; Best ‘40 Coupe; Best ‘40 Open Car; Best ‘40 Sedan; and Best Original ‘40. (The ‘40 Ford category includes 1940 Fords, 1939 Deluxe Ford and the 1941 Commercial Fords.) Here’s a look at the award winning cars. More photos of the award ceremony can be seen on our SmugMug site. www.timingtower.smugmug.com By 2:30 p.m. it was all over for another year. LaPalma Park is a nice park with a lot of shade and a lot of grass to park in, sit on and walk around on. The ‘40 Ford Show is held annually on the Sunday after Father’s Day. This is always a very good car show because the members of Forties Ltd. work hard to make sure that it is. Mark your calendar now for 2015. Check our Images for sale on www.timingtower.smugmug.com You can order photos directly from SmugMug or contact us at timingtower@gmail.com.

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