RSchnell

My Grandmother managed a large retirement home or as she called it "Social Security Condos" in the 80s. I remember a plain jane '60 Ford like the one in your video sitting in the parking lot. Really clean and well maintained. My dad tried several times to buy that car off the old lady that drove it but no sale. She died and the car went away. I did end up buying a nice original '70 Nova from another old lady in the same building about 10 yrs later. I traded it for a rough '65 Corvette that I ended up doing well on once I cleaned it up a bit. Amazing the things you forgot about until see something and it triggers a flashback. Thanks for posting this!

Here's a couple more shots. I wanted to get more but he was leaving as I got there. The Merc was one of my favorites too. I've been itching to own one. '55 & 6 Mercs are great looking cars.

Just up the road from Daytona Beach is a smaller more intimate car show. Ironically this show has been around longer than the Turkey Rod Run. They did not allow street rods & customs at this show so the rodders started their own show effectively killing the original show. Here's a few pics for those interested. The weather was great compared to my Friday at the Rod Run. Temp was in the high 50s with a breeze off the river and sunny. Perfect car show weather in Florida!

I'd be willing to bet that you won't see many kits other than Atlantis stuff this year. Seems Atlantis did a run of assorted kits just for Ollie's. It was on their Facebook page.

They've really loosened the rules at Turkey Run, now just about anything is a "show car", which means a lot of chaff to separate from the wheat. I've never been to a Goodguys show, I don't think they do much here in the South.

I like seeing those old rods unchanged from back when they were first built. There were also a few pastel & full billet with tweed interior cars that screamed early 90s. Some flashbacks are good! LOL

I'm a big '55-56 Ford guy having owned a bunch of them. I have to say that's one a few cars that made dealing with the crowd and the cool weather worth it! You never see those down here in FL unless a snowbird brings one down.

I used to go to Turkey Rod Run every year going back to the NSRA pre-49 days. I hadn't been in about 7 years so figured I'd take a day trip. If you've never been, it fills the entire infield and some of the garages at Daytona Speedway. A lot of walking! I estimate there were 2000+ cars and just as many vendor spaces. I must be getting old, I was getting annoyed by all the scooters and people pulling wagons. It made for rough going navigating the swap meet. LOL Here's some pics:

This was from 2008, took the shop truck on a West to East Coast of Florida trip with a stop in the Everglades and up to Daytona Beach for Turkey Rod Run. 8 days and never left the state! That's the Gulf of Mexico in the background and my tent & stuff in the bed.

When I was a kid we had a family friend that drove his Model A's all over the place. Alaska, Mexico, South America etc. Interesting thing is, one of those A's was an A-400, definitely not one of the more comfortable Model A's to drive. Somewhere I have photos.

Now that I have some time, figured I'd post this: I bought a '55 Ford Country Sedan wagon in KY when I was up there getting school buses for export. Since we were going to make another trip to pickup the remainder of the buses that we bought from that county, I arranged to have the car dropped off at the school board's garage and I'd get it running enough to drive back to FL. My plan was to stay in KY and get the old Ford roadworthy then meet with the boys when they came through and convoy with them back to FL. With help from the bus garage I was able to get everything ready to ride, even gave the old girl a bath in bleach water & dawn soap which cleaned it up nicely. I loaded my tools, spare parts & clothes into the wagone and hit the road. The first 50 or miles went great! Beat the bus crew to the truck stop by 20 minutes. No sooner than our convoy of 6 buses and one 1955 Ford Wagon in the middle, got on I75 off I-24 the old Ford started running warm then a loud pop and the smell of hot coolant & steam. I pull onto the shoulder, pop the hood and realize the radiator blew apart. Not wasting any time, Hubert runs back and starts putting the driveshaft in the van(their ride up) that was being towed by his bus, I crawl under the Ford and unhook the driveshaft in the wagon, he pulls his bus up in front of the Ford and we get it hooked to the tow bar, I get in the Ford van(now my ride home) and we get back on the big slab. I missed driving the Ford, but the AC and a working radio in the van made up for it. We only lost about 45 minutes of travel time and the rest of the crew was waiting on us at the next fuel stop. I miss those days sometimes.

When I had the shop, Model A's were one of the bread & butter cars for my shop along with C1 Corvettes & 50's Fords. Anyways 80% of the time I'd get the usual "Model A brakes suck or any of the other common complaints about a poorly maintained Model A. I'd take that customer for a ride in my Model A shop truck which aside from a high compression head and a reground cam was bone stock, even 6V system. It'd run 65-70 with no problem and would put you through the windshield if you did a panic stop. After the ride I'd explain that this was my daily driver and had driven it all over the Southeast with no overheating, bad brakes, leaky rear main, etc. It was a tremendous sales tool, but at the same time showed what a properly restored A was capable of.

Used to do a road trip at least once a year. Here's a small sample: 1997- Drove the entire east coast of FL leaving central FL south to Miami from Miami to Savannah Ga. Drove my '55 Ford Club Sedan 1998- Central FL to north Alabama in a '58 Ford Ranch Wagon where I delivered it to the buyer. Bought a 359 Peterbilt and drove it back to FL. Drove my '62 Galaxie convert from central FL to Chickasha, OK for the prewar swapmeet that used to be held there. 1999- did 510 miles in Florida on my '59 Harley ending up in Daytona for Bike Week. 2001- Drove the Model A from central FL to Georgia for a family reunion 2003-Drove my '55 Ford Wagon from central FL to Dearborn, MI for the 100 yr anniversary of Ford. Stopped in TN on my way back and brought back a load of NOS Ford parts. Any rolling stock that I owned I was able to jump in and go anywhere with no worry regardless of age. I eventually quit doing the road trips as it's just gotten too dam crowded down here and getting worse everyday.

The Nomad wagon is a pleasant surprise and will definitely find it's way to my stash. Thanks Tim for posting the pics!