Rat Rod Day 2002

For the last few years, Ray's Junkyard Classics and Rees' Racing have held a casual get together at their premises JUST for Hot Rodders. It's not really advertised, there's no signs out the front (although, all of the cool cars kind of give the game away a little) and there's no entry fee, which of course, all adds up to a great day out.

Follow me around the car park as I just snap whatever takes my fancy. It's called the Rat Rod Day, but as you'll see, there were PLENTY of nice shiny Hot Rods and Customs there.

Just as I pulled up and got out of the car I heard an almighty roar from a set of uncorked headers. Turned around and this is what I saw.

"Nomad Charlie" is the crazy man behind this construction. It's not too often you see a '56 Nomad and it sure as hell ain't real often you see a GASSER version!

Where you DON'T want to be! Although, with all of that ground clearance, the thing would go straight over you.

It's sure got the look. So are you going to finish it Charlie?

Like I said. There were plenty of nice and shiny Hot Rods there too. Here's one of my favourites. A fairly young guy by the name of Clayton put this one together.

He drove all the way from Canberra (about 3 hours) to be there.

A lot of people are getting a little bored with the good ol' Small Block Chev, but when they look this good, who really cares what they think!

Another Canberra Hot Rod and just as nice as the red roadster. I loved the red T&R interior and the Mobilgas decal is a nice touch too.

Something about grey and red that just plain works.

Now we're getting to the good stuff! This neat little roadster was parked down the back of the lot where most of the "Rat Rods" seemed to congregate.

The flattie sure sounded good coming out of those uncorked lakes pipes. I wonder if he went home and polished off the soot from the pipes... I don't think so!

This sensational Buick Custom belongs to Craig Fountain. I'd only seen the car in magazines and other people's photos before this day.

My photos just don't do it justice. It really is an amazing car.

Unfortunately he had recently blown up the Straight 8 that was in it, so he replaced it with a tri-carb 318 Poly motor.

This car looks great from any angle. Awesome lines and flawless bodywork.

I wonder what he'll do next?

Parked right next to the Buick was this absolutely stunning Olds 88 4-door hardtop.

The thing is practically stock, but the paint has got a hint of pearl in it and the trim is white T&R.

Sorry, just getting all "artsy fartsy" on ya. I coudn't quite catch the pearl in the pic.

This was probably my favourite car there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah..."Where's all the Rat Rods?" I hear you say. Well... they don't come much rattier than this.

This little phaeton had a seriously chopped roof, the best part of it is the shape of the back of the roof which, unfortunately, you can't quite make out in this photo.

It had a sweet sounding flattie too.

Here's a couple more shots of that damn Gasser!

Charlie sure made an entrance. With the turning circle of a Mack truck and body roll slightly better than a Rolls Royce, it sure made for some interesting parking manouvres!

Check out that stance! I think I better get out of the way!!!

Well as you can see, I didn't get hit by the Gasser and I lived to take more pics.

This great little channeled roadster was parked next to Charlie's Nomad for most of the day. As you can see, the poor thing must have felt quite neglected with all of the people staring at the Nomad.

So to make it feel better, I took 2 photos of it.

As you can see in this pic, quite a bit of the body is in bare metal, in fact, most of it is. It's just a trick of the light that the cowl looks bare metal and the body black.

I guess the paint colour is WD-40!

They don't get much rattier than this.

Apparently this was just chucked together with leftover parts.

Wouldn't that be nice!

I just saw today that this car is featured in the latest Cruzin' magazine. It turns out that it is owned by one of the organisers of the day, Nick Rees.

In case you're wondering why I only took a pic of the interior of this Hot Rod, it's because it's a shot of Matt Jansen's '35 Pickup (click on the pic to see it).

I took the pic because of the bulletholes in the glovebox. I asked Matt about them. He said they were real bulletholes, but he cut them out and welded them in!

I just love 46-48 Fords. I don't care whether they're Coupes, Tudors or Fordors, they all look cool in my book.

Especially when they're as nice as this one. Don't know much about it, but by the look of the whitewalls, he drives it a fair bit. Good to see.

Hiding around the back with the '48 was this super cool EK Ute.

It's good to see someone do one of these up "old style". So many have wheels and tyres that are too fat with that "jacked up in the arse" look.

Now I'm not really a big fan of Show Rods, but this one is pretty amazing. I think it's called "Sedoupe" (or something like that). It's actually a Sedan body that has been shortened. How much you ask? I don't know...

You tell me. Check out the stock Sedan in the background. It must be a good 12" at least!

Pretty crazy Custom Rod. I don't know why, but I like it!

Hmmm... maybe my wife is slipping LSD in to my Weet Bix in the morning???