Notes from Colin

Kudos from the Master! George Barris picked the roadster as his favourite car at the display!







(Barb...Here's what Colin's been up to, he sent this last Tuesday at 8.23pm and the temp over there was still in the high 90's.)

Weekend before last went to Stockton swapmeet, temperature was 104...hot but plenty of bargains.
Last week worked on top fuel car to replace the engine and blower due to the high C at the last meeting. Continued working on Dave's pickup.

Friday cruised to Sacramento Vintage Ford's car display to meet George Barris. He was very impressed with the roadster, checked it over, loved the headlights, grille etc, said he'd like to take it home with him! Humbling to be praised by the master!
Got my photo taken with Batgirl and the Batmobile!

Saturday Annual Fox Hunt at Sac raceway...our top fuel car versus jet car for a bit of fun. Jet car red lit, so fuel car won!
Evenings finale was the annual 'burndown'. This years target was the beautiful 1964 Dodge art deco motorhome we had been given. Bit of a mission getting it back to NZ, so took off all the good bits and donated it back to them for the burndown instead.

The motorhome was tied to the rear of the jet dragster, about 12 feet from it. The lights were dimmed and the jet lit up the night. The video footage I got of this is incredible. Totally demolished the motorhome with the jets afterburners. It got so hot the paint on the rear of the dragster blistered. It was chained about 20 feet too close!!
Once the jet ran out of fuel, the motorhome continued to burn out of control for another 10 minutes before the fire was contained. I have lots of footage of this for all to see.

Spent Sunday going back to Stockton to pick up 2 rebuilt 289 engines purchased at the swapmeet. Temp on Sunday was 106. Temp Monday was 109. We are in the middle of a heat wave.

Pleasanton Award

At last I am no longer living with Colin Provse, who has regained his correct name! The difference between Provse and Prouse seems so small in the big picture, but when it's attached to such a precious bit of wood or formica or whatever it is...the difference is monumental! Here's the award referred to in the previous blog "Pleasanton Goodguys Car Show - Sunday.

Back home

O.K...so it's been a while since I was here, but after getting ragged, nagged and generally pushed into a corner about being stuck in a time warp in Mendocino, it seemed time to return to the travels. This is a bit difficult now, as I'm back home and have to rely on my memory to recall events since the last entry. It seemed we were too busy having adventures to find the time to write about them!

Checking out, buying and transporting cars was the main activity during the last few weeks of my stay there. Once everyone heard we were looking for old cars, they started heading off on 'tin hunts' and soon cars were coming out of the woodwork. The locals were new at this age old sport, and were most enthusiastic in their endeavor to find the best 'treasures' for us! We also found a couple of bargains practically under our noses belonging to fellow workers there. Northern California doesn't seem to be as well picked over as the southern part of the State, and we found there was generally something of interest each time we ventured out. We were out cruisin' the streets of Sacramento when this gem came burbling past. Nice to see blown cars on the street...just like home!


A neat '65 Mustang was already parked in the shed, and this was soon followed by a tidy '67 6 cylinder model. Collecting any missing parts and trim, as well as steam cleaning, fitting new tyres etc took up a few days, and we were soon steered in the direction of a field full of good old tin. This was discovered by our mate Don, who works as a weed spraying contracter and has access to all sorts of interesting places. This particular area had treasures beyond our wildest dreams, and included a couple of model A's, a 1936 Chev roadster, several '30's pickups and cars as well as an assortment of other stuff. The most exciting find was ,in a barn and was a father and son project started ten years previously, then let sit because of a change in circumstances. A very tidy 1956 2-door hardtop, half restored complete with all the parts was up for grabs. Of course Colin was on the scene just as fast as possible (at the speed of light actually) to check it out. Beautiful! A very tidy 1979 Corvette was also in the pipeline and he had work coming out his ears. I was beginning to think cloning wasn't such a bad idea after all!

The remaining time was spent tidying up the roadster and playing darts for Colin, and in the heat of the day when it was too hot to work (temps in the 100's) I took to the pool while he checked out deals on the internet. It all seems a distant memory now as I shiver in a good old New Zealand winter. Fortunately we'd got a good supply of firewood in before leaving the country in April, and I'm steadily burning it away, while Bloddy the cat luxuriates in front of the fire. Not much has changed here really!