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Corvette's at the
World Space Expo
Kennedy Space Center
November 2007
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The Friday Nite Cruise at Old Town
as reported by Gregg Nelson Sr.
October 7th, 2005
As Published in V2-I41-#61 October 13th 2005
I think Eddie Rabbit was not a fan
of classic cars and cruising. If he was he surely would not have sung I
Love The Rainy Night. I also think the song writer who wrote about rainy
nights in Georgia may have been a little south of Georgia. You guessed
it, another rainy Friday night. As a result there were a total of
fifty-nine cruisers ready to cruise at nine. Again there were four
checker flag winners.
The first winner is again Gerald Vanmeter with his black 1978 Pontiac
Gran Prix. Gerald must live right or be under a shinning star as he
seems to win often. I over heard him say to another flag winner while on
stage that he has won about 38 times in the seven plus years of the
Friday Night Cruise At Old Town. He said this year alone he has won just
about once a month. Some guys are really lucky.
The next winner is Stanley Mule with his light blue 1977 AMC Pacer
wagon. Stan's car also has a blue interior and a six cylinder engine and
an automatic.
The third checker flag winner is Leonides Rivera with a brown 1976
Toyota Corolla. This Toyota is a four door sedan and has a brown vinyl
bucket seat interior. It was powered by Toyota's Bullitt proof 2 TC four
cylinder engine and a manual transmission. It is a fine example of what
Toyota offered at the time and is responsible for the reputation Toyota
now has.
The fourth checker flag winner almost didn't cruise Friday night. The
reason for this is because he was riding with Ken Tiggleman in his black
and silver 1978 Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car. As Mike T. was walking past
the Vette, he put his head in the window and said to me we don't give
flags to passengers, you might want to go get into your own cruiser. I
then got out of the ‘Vette and went back to the stage where my wife Emma
and Wanda Tiggleman were sitting listening to the band. I told Wanda
there was a good looking guy in a Corvette looking for a companion and
she should go and then I told Emma we won a flag. Emma said Cool, I'm
Driving. I found myself in the passenger seat again, at least I had a
checker flag in my hand.
The fourth Checker flag winner is Gregg and Emma Nelson with a Deep
Cranberry Purple 2002 Plymouth PT Cruiser four door sedan. This Pt
Cruiser has many custom additions to it. The car stated out as a
Chrysler. Shortly after buying the car in April of 2003 I knew that I
wanted to turn it into a Friday night cruiser. At that point I decided
to start researching the PT Cruiser beyond what I needed to find a car
to purchase. I found that when the PT Cruiser was a show car it was a
Plymouth Branded car. It first was the show car The Plymouth Pronto and
that later evolved into the show car The Plymouth PT Cruiser. The
Cruiser show car was almost production ready and Chrysler wasn't yet
ready to announce a production date. It was on the show circuit for
almost two years before it reached production. I thought that
considering my PT was going to be a part time show car it was only right
to return it Plymouth heritage back to it. Daimler Chrysler Corporation
decided to close the Plymouth division just before the release of the PT
Cruiser so there fore the PT became a Chrysler branded car. That was my
first custom touch. I then took issues of Collectible Automobile
Magazine and began looking at pictures of cars of the thirties and
forties to see which styling cues from these eras of automobile
production would compliment the PT Cruiser. I then added the spears to
the front doors and fenders as well as the rear quarters that were on
many cars of that era and can't credit one car specifically. I then saw
the three chrome sweeps that are on the trunk lid of many Pontiacs from
the thirties to the fifties, so a version went onto PT. I then saw the
hood on the forty-one Cadillac and those beautiful grilles on the side
of its hood. Fortunately I worked at the MGM studios at the time and
there was one on display there at the time. I got to see it first hand
and it was even better than the pictures show. I had to have it on PT
and went to two different graphics shops with the pictures I took and
the magazine before I got what is almost a perfect recreation on PT's
hood.
Most cars of the era I was studying had chrome grilles and chrome belt
line moldings so to PT they were added.
Many of these cars also had visors over the windshield and I found on
the internet
www.californiacruisers.com that had a perfect recreation of those
visors. I had to have one for PT. I also found
www.raceandstreet.com and they had available a set of running boards
that looked correct as well as rear fender skirts. These were added to
PT. This all set the "period" the car was from. I then wanted to
customize the look a bit and so I added front headlight eyelid covers
from California Cruisers and taillight covers and stainless steel pillar
covers from Race and Street. Many of these cars from this era were also
the buggies used to bring the surfers to the waves with the surf boards
strapped to the roof. I then added a factory roof rack to hold my board
and a rear spoiler to keep the rear window clean. I then added a few RON
JONS surf stickers in a few key places, a hula girl to the dash and my
car is in its present state. It is not done yet, but will probably
always be a work in progress. So I present my 2002 Plymouth PT Cruiser
Retro Touring Edition.
This concludes another edition of the Friday Night Cruise Report. So
until next week have fun and cruise safely.
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