Above 1200 Sq/FT building my BIG PARTY garage

[don long]

Since you brought it up Caddyman
I have been working on the Zephyr this week.
We have been given an invitation to put the car into the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona January 29 - 31
So I've been busy detailing the car. I lifted it up on the 4 post and started cleaning and touching up some ruff spots when I decided to remove the old exhaust and replace it with something a little more hot rodish like glass packs
and reroute the exhaust from the rear to in front of the rear tires.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Lookin good Don, I'm sure we can meet up at the show! Gary aka 1949 caddyman

 

[HOTFR8]

Good luck with it at the Show.

 

[CoopVA]

Good luck at the show Don. Zeph is looking great!

 

[dlcwent]

It's been a while since I stopped in here. As always Don, you never cease to impress and amaze me. Everything you do is with great perfection. And thanks for stopping by my thread and have one of those diet cokes next time your there.

 

[Garageke]

Figured you would be busy getting the zephyr ready for the show. Looks great.
Coming to Cali from the great white North for the Winternationals, would love to check out the party garage and the cars.
Terry. Winnipeg, Manitoba

 

[don long]

Lookin good Don, I'm sure we can meet up at the show! Gary aka 1949 caddyman

Thanks Gary
I'll be sure to make that happen

Good luck with it at the Show.

Thanks Simon
This will be a first for me so I'm a bit nervous

Good luck at the show Don. Zeph is looking great!

Thanks Coop
It's a lot of work getting the car perfect

It's been a while since I stopped in here. As always Don, you never cease to impress and amaze me. Everything you do is with great perfection. And thanks for stopping by my thread and have one of those diet cokes next time your there.

Thanks dlc
I will do that next

Figured you would be busy getting the zephyr ready for the show. Looks great.
Coming to Cali from the great white North for the Winternationals, would love to check out the party garage and the cars.
Terry. Winnipeg, Manitoba

Terry
Thanks for dropping in. The garage is always open to all my GJ friends.
Drop me a PM when you have your schedule down and we can figure out how to get together I'm only a short distance from Pomona

 

[1/2 Cup]

All the best with the show Don I am confident that the car will speak for it self.

Regards

 

[Lyndon]

Don

That Zephyr looks fantastic.

Keep up the good work, and if you ever venture back Down Under, don't forget to give us a yell.

Lyndon
Having a nice white on a wet Friday night (but Boy, is it humid).

 

[HOTFR8]

What is there to be nervous about? Go along and have fun and if you win even better and if not who cares you have a ride you are proud of.

Victorian (Melbourne) Hot Rod Show is on at present.

 

[Davenr]

Hi There Don and Ann.
It was great to see you again about ten days ago and my friends were so impressed not just with the garage but also your hospitality-many thanks for that as always.
You have given Phil an incentive to showcase his car collection even better and he is already working on plans.
Look forward to seeing you again in August and look after Ringo for me!
best regards, David

PS Hope you enjoy the 800 or so photos I mailed to you on the USB-taken over the last three years of visits!

 

[BuickFarmer]

Have fun at Pomona and good luck. Look forward to pics.

 

[JC23]

That's a great retro show. They are gonna love yer boat! haha

 

[don long]

All the best with the show Don I am confident that the car will speak for it self.
Regards

Thanks Cup
I enjoyed spending time with you getting to know you better at dlcwents garage the other night (cool thread)

Don
That Zephyr looks fantastic.
Keep up the good work, and if you ever venture back Down Under, don't forget to give us a yell.
Having a nice white on a wet Friday night (but Boy, is it humid).

Thanks Lyndon
I'll be sure to do that. I think it would be a blast traveling around your country visiting all my Aussie GJ friends

What is there to be nervous about? Go along and have fun and if you win even better and if not who cares you have a ride you are proud of.
Victorian (Melbourne) Hot Rod Show is on at present.

Simon
I'm just concerned over the hastle of getting the car ready and parked in the building I know the wait in line to get in and parked will be a long 3-5 hour deal

Hi There Don and Ann.
It was great to see you again about ten days ago and my friends were so impressed not just with the garage but also your hospitality-many thanks for that as always.
You have given Phil an incentive to showcase his car collection even better and he is already working on plans.
Look forward to seeing you again in August and look after Ringo for me!
best regards, David
PS Hope you enjoy the 800 or so photos I mailed to you on the USB-taken over the last three years of visits!

Thanks David
I'm glad to hear that you made it home safely. I did get the pic,s and do They look great. Makes me want to go visit the place
I'm posting a picture of Ringo so others will know what we are laughing about

The new bar tender Ringo

Have fun at Pomona and good luck. Look forward to pics.

Thanks Farmer

I'll be sure to take my new camera

That's a great retro show. They are gonna love yer boat! haha

JC

I hope so
Thanks for the visit

 

[HOTFR8]

Simon
I'm just concerned over the hastle of getting the car ready and parked in the building I know the wait in line to get in and parked will be a long 3-5 hour deal

Part of doing the show thing and I admit no fun but for every comment you hear that says 'wow' that thing looks nice mark my words it is worth the effort.

 

[Davenr]

Hi Don,

Ringo looks better with the sunglasses on!

cheers David

 

[Davenr]

Hi Don,

As you can see Ringo looks better with the sunglasses. What is even better with this is that Ringo Starr actually owned this-I wonder where he had it on display.
See you again in August.

cheers david

 

[theglassman]

Hey Buddy,
Congratulations on the invitation to the GNRS...well deserved!

 

[TerryH]

Congrats Don!!! The GNRS is a big deal!!!

 

[don long]

David
thanks for posting a much better photo of Ringo the bartender He's ready to entertain lol.

HOTFR8

GLASSMAN

Terry H

Thanks guys. Tomorrow is the big day. Rick Dore (The car builder) called me yesterday to make sure that I was putting the car in the show. He said he was anxious to see what I have done since getting the car back from him.

It will be a lot of work getting the car set up, but should be a blast seeing everyone getting theirs ready to show and seeing all those cars without the crowds

I'm ready

 

[HOTFR8]

Good Luck.

 

[Homebody]

Good Luck Don! I'm sure that headache getting in will be long gone the first hour of the show.

 

[don long]

Thanks Guys

The car is in the building. Had to wait in line for 3 hours waiting my turn to go in and park. I trailered the car over and unloaded it in the back parking lot.
Then I pulled it into the line and turned it off and went out and made friends with several of the other car owners.
The line finally started to move but slowly and as I got to the door to drive into the building the car started burping hot water all over the place so I pulled out of line and let the car cool down. I went walking around for about 15 minutes and when I got back Rick Dore and a few of the discovery crew were there wiping the car down and cleaning up the engine compartment.
The car is finally in the building, cleaned ,waxed and ready to show

Here is a few shots of my day. Enjoy

The car is loaded up

The car being unloaded

We're in the building

My message board

SO LET THE GAMES BEGIN

 

[BBChevro]

Looks good Don

 

[akdiesel]

don

Congrats on the presentation. Looks very nice sitting there with the others.
Three hours waiting in line. I would go stir crazy.

 

[1/2 Cup]

All the best Don.

 

[HOTFR8]

You are in and set up. Now enjoy the show.

 

[BUGTHUG]

How did you come up with the name of Caribbean Queen? Maybe you said earlier and I missed it? Car lookin good.

 

[CoopVA]

Looking good Don. Give 'em hell!

 

[BuickFarmer]

Lookin good Don! Thanks for the pics, looks like that new camera is working well. That car's Wow Factor is really up there, you should do well. Let's see some people pictures. Is Ann there with you, if so y'all have a great time, some of my best memories are of when Rita and I attend car shows.

 

[Stevelj]

Nice! I like the name of Caribbean Queen.

 

[WarrenJ]

Looks good. Enjoy the show.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Don, great meeting you & Ann at the show. The car looks great! We left Sunday, how did you do? Oh wait its only 2pm there, you may not know yet!

 

[Bears Fan]

Looks like you got all the members of The Garage Journal pulling for you

Good luck and damn that thing looks good

 

[Bob Heine]

Don mentioned his 3-hour wait to get the car into the arena. Check out the photos posted on Hot Rod Network 2016 Grand National Roadster Show a Peek Behind the Curtain Hours Before Doors Open

http://www.hotrod.com/events/1601-2...k-behind-the-curtain-hours-before-doors-open/

Photos 50 and 52 show Don & Ann's Caribbean Queen in the waiting line outside. Looks like light LA traffic from 40 or 50 years ago.

 

[shortykorte]

Awesome! Your car really stands out and runs too.

 

[don long]

Thanks guys for all the support.
We didn't win any trophies but had a great time. We spent a lot of time visiting with Rick Dore and the discovery crew (most of them were there) I had several friends with cars in the show so we were among friends the entire 4 days of the event.We did meet up with Gary (1949 Caddyman) he spotted me walking through the crowd and called out my name!

The overall show was a disaster for the Zephyr
1. We over heated driving in line and as we got up to the building the car started boiling over so I had to back it out and let it burp all over the front of the car.
2. we finally pulled the car in and cleaned it up. One of the guys with me wanted to spin the front tires so he grabbed the bottle jack and jacked up the front end (on the radiator) and we pocked a hole in the radiator so we were sopping up water/coolant for quite a while
3. I grabbed the keys for the car as we were leaving thursday evening.
when we returned to take the car out of the show building I realized that I had left the keys home so I couldn't drive the car onto the trailer
4. the trailer had a flat tire so I had to change that before loading the car up
5. the ramps for the trailer were too far apart. When we pushed the car down a slight hill to load it on the trailer no one was watching the right side and the car missed the right ramp and it struck the trailer at a fair speed and damaged the grille and right front fender.

The car is in the garage now and I can't make myself go look at it.

 

[CoopVA]

Ouch... At least you got to spend time with some good people... ***** about the Zeph...

 

[Homebody]

Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield....

Good learning experience and next time everything will go flawless!

 

[1949 caddyman]

So sorry to hear that! The car looked great!