1958 Corvette Survives Car Hop Date Night
By Scott Strenzel, aka Scooter from Scooter’s Garage
I bought one of those plastic wading pools for Harv. He’s camped out in it, chilling. I did have to build an in and out ramp system so he can use it. He’s too much of a “Low Rider” to just jump in and out of it.
Anyway, I also have to thank the many good people at the Auto Round-Up, Jane Lew Cruise-In for asking about him.
Next up another one of the “fun times” old Scooter had back in the day. My good friend Al was about one and half years younger than I was and this happened on the 4th of July or maybe the 5th back when I was 15 with my 1958 Vette. I had come home to hang out a few days for the holidays from summer work in Grand Rapids. The small Northern Michigan town of Lake City has what is advertised as, “The biggest 4th in the North! So hey, two single cool dudes have to ”make the scene”. Low on green backs, so we’re up to camp out in the Vette, and spend our money chasing any and all chicks we can muster up from the parade, the carnival or the camp ground on the lake that’s actually in the city limits. I wax up my butch cut. Al slicks back his duck tail; we’re cruising all over searching to get lucky. At the parade we see these two likely girls…..a taller blonde (about 5’6″) and an extra short dark haired cute looking friend of the blonde’s. We rack the pipes, slip it in neutral and and slide off the blacktop to just in front of where they are standing before the parade gets to this part of the route. We both do such a sales job on “us, the Vette, and having fun”, that they actually tell us what camp site they are staying at with the blonde’s parents.
We are quickly told by a city cop to “keep moving on and NOT to block the approaching parade.” So as we “lightly” throttle away the short cute one says “if you can’t find us at the camp site, we’ll be at the pavilion by the beach, later on! It’s a date! Score one for cool guys and cool cars! Now we’re in need of some Sunoco 240 grade at a whopping 33.9 cents a gallon for 98 octane fuel! Best check the oil, the radiator, and tire pressure. Maybe we’ll get into a drag race just to show off for OUR gals. Ok now its time to belly up to the local A&W for a couple of foot long hot dogs with fries. We cruising guys had already figured it out that it’s cheaper to brown up the curb side gal and give her a tip ahead of time. This way 98% of the time she’ll let a guy order a quart of A&W and two baby mugs! Reason, most places even back then want you to be eating or drinking something, so you can “take up” a parking space for as long as it takes you to finish. Well, we just sip our little mugs of Root Beer at a snails pace. Checking things out being cool and passing time till it gets dark and the fireworks are over. Then its pavilion time…… No need to have to meet the parents for us out of town cool dudes.
Of course we HAVE to make an entrance more than the normal, just to impress everyone that’s there. So we figure out that all of the “other cars” are parking on the far side on the concrete on the end of the open pavilion. Some one has run an extension cord to a VM aka Voice of Music 33 1/3, 45 & 78 RPM single player, record player. The old flat vinyl 45′s at $.69 each are screaming out the hits, just like American Bandstand. Rahl Donner, You Don’t Know What You’ve Got, and I’m sorry, from Brenda Lee, and more. Al & I figure we’ll make a run thru the sand at the side of the pavilion so we can end up revving to a stop right in the middle of all of the dancing and dealing. We’ll stop and shut down just shy of the three brick high wall that keeps the drunks or whatever off the cement floor of the big covered pavilion. Bet you got it figured out? WRONG!
OK we get it done and come off decent. Thankfully, the gals had made their choices of who they were attracted to before we got there. I got the short one, Al got the taller blonde. Now remember, I’m 15, Al is a wet behind the ears 14, and the gals tell us they are both 16. So we’re both gonna LIE like a dog about our ages so we’re the same as them. Al is a better dancer than I was, but we both are getting things done at an acceptable pace. Hugs, cheek kisses and close eye contact at the end of Sleep Walk by Santo & Jonnie as we dip them. Old Scooter makes his move! Hey how’d you like to take a ride in my Vette! She says, oh yes I’ve never ridden in one. Can you burn rubber for me? No problem, lets take off. Al, we’ll be back in a “while”! Heck I don’t even remember if I got to do my free tonsil inspection or not! I did dump the clutch at about 3500 RPM’s with the 4:11 posi and lay down a few feet of bias ply rubber on a side street. Enough to fill the cockpit and enough to have to pull over and drop the top so we could breathe and see again. OK, then we headed back to our special parking spot, and went back to belly rubbing.
Al’s gal was suspicious of his age! She asks me if Al is 16 and how come he won’t show me his driver’s license? I’m thinking on my feet. I ask Al if it’s OK for me to tell her the “story”. He says YES I guess so! I tell her Al’s ashamed to tell her he’s already lost his drivers license for to many points from racing and out running the cops. His car is impounded and he won’t get his license back for a few months yet. But IF you like Al, I can let him take you for a ride in my Vette too. He runs it all of the time when I’m tired, when we take long trips to far away places to race etc.
Al opens the door for the blonde and she slides in & he fires it up. He lets the oil get to the pressure and racks the glass packs and off they go! I’m thinking he’ll also get to maybe first base with her. He’s gone a lot longer than I was. COOL! Al’s taking care of business. Then I hear my 3/4 Duntov cam and solids and the exhaust a ways away. Al comes powering into our special parking spot. WHAM! Crack! Crash! Thump! Al forgot to hit the brake once he put his foot in on the clutch and let off of the gas! OK I’ll break (no pun) it down! Wham= the sound it made as the front bumper of the 1958 hit the three block high wall. Crack, the sound of the split seam on the passenger side front fender, Crash, the whole car almost getting the rear end bounced off the ground, almost, from the impact. And thump, the sound the 10 or 12 cement blocks made as they fell to the pavilion floor with out hitting anyone! Now I have to insert this at this time, back then I literally had my fiberglass inner fender wells painted and would do a Blue Corral wax job on them besides of course the exterior of my 1958. I spoke as Al probably died a little at that moment. Hey Al, looks like we’ll have to throw on another 12 coats of lacquer and do some light fiberglass work on the old hot rod! No biggie, Al that damn extra HD clutch some times gets shitty with a guy that forgets to MAN HANDLE it all of the time! Hey, when you’re as much of a street racer as we two are, this stuff can happen at any time. Throw on an Elvis record; I want to dance with my pretty lady! Al and I are still friends. When he was in the service he won big in Vegas. He bought a 1959 Vette with that cash.
The garage or rather the BODY SHOP is closed!
Originally posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Category: Auto Round-Up News
