8/16/05
CONNECTING
R.O.D.S. NEWSLETTER
MEMBER
CLUB
2005 #4 NSRA
- GOODGUYS - SSRA
The
Connecting R.O.D.S. newsletter, is sponsored by the Ramblin Oldies of
Denham Springs, Inc. to promote street rodding and the
construction and preservation of pre 1949 street rods. Articles do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the R.O.D.S. members or its officers. Classified ads are free of charge: R.O.D.S., P.O. Box #61, Denham Springs, La.
70727 or call (club secretary) Bobby Spann at (225)275-9868/E-mail:
bobbyspann@aol.com
RODS
MOVE TO BATON ROUGE
The Ramblin Oldies have
come full circle, returning to the Holiday Inn South in Baton Rouge
starting with the 2006 R.O.D.S. Run.
Our 28th annual event will be held at the newly remodeled
facility on
The Holidome features a huge atrium with restaurant, bar and
indoor/outdoor pool, beautiful rooms and (Bradley Duvernet
will love this) another 2 swimming pools outside! The date will be May 19-21, 2006. PLEASE NOTE: Since this newsletter was published the date has
changed to May 5-7, 2006. We have some great plans like free bbq Friday night with hot rod “Drive In” movies, free
shuttle to The Mall of Louisiana, more and new games, and of course our awesome
R.O.D.S. Run T-SHIRTS! Saturday
afternoon we will all cruise down to Tanger Outlet
Center for Gerry Lane’s Super Cruise Night.
Chili’s, Cracker Barrel, 200+ cars... Too cool.
***Please note the RODS club is no longer associated
in any way with the St Francisville “Cruising in the
Country” car show. ***
Put
it in “D”
The RODS Club “Wives Appreciation Day” outing at Kenny
and Cindy Spinosa’s camp on False River in July
was awesome with over 30 people attending!
There was plenty of shade under the trees and on thier
covered pier. Kenny had 2 jet ski’s waiting for us in the water, and fishing poles
& bait for the kids too. More food
than we could eat, bbq burgers and hot dogs, desserts
including one of my famous “screw cakes...” Arh Arh Arh Members were amazed at my speed
on the jet ski (turns out it was full of water), then
Kevin Abadie and his wife joined in the fun on the
‘faster’ one. Their daughter and cousin
swam while everyone hung out in lawn chairs and watched the boats go by. We will definitely do this again! Thanks Kenny and Cindy!
Wow, talk
about a cool car club meeting - August 9th we met at Tim’s
Engines in Denham Springs. They have
a spotless shop with some serious equipment including state of the art flow
bench and 3,000hp engine dyno. Tim explained how they can check each
cylinder for power, flow and temperature, and adjust
heads, carbs and fuel injection as necessary. They campaign a national record holding E/S Camaro, and by tuning the motor to a specific barometric
pressure they can rejet it for max output at any
track or altitude. Thanks to Tim and his
son for cooking us some great jambalaya, beans and a ton of desserts. It’s no surprise that 29 active RODS members
were there to eat it up! If want to put
a serious motor in your rod or just check out the one you have already - call Tim
Whittington at (225)664-4931.
TECH
DEPARTMENT
One of the
resident A/C experts in the club was listening to my long problem with a slow
leak in my hot rod. He said that by my
adding a can of freon every
year, lighter gasses were leaking out first - so eventually I had mostly heavy
stuff in the system. Course I never
changed out the dryer either which is another problem that needs to be
addressed soon.
Kenny
Allen, our own amateur Mythbuster, proved the
theory that wearing rings while working near a car battery is not on the ‘good
idea’ list. A misplaced wrench shorted
out on his battery terminal and he almost lost a finger when his wedding ring
arched! Be careful out there guys!
FOR SALE: 2 Cragar 15X6
w/P205-60/15, 2 Cragar 15X8 w/P235-70/15 Unilug 4.5-5" pattern. $200.00 all
4. Steve (225)654-2608
JUST
CRUISIN' by Bobby
I want to
congratulate the “old” clubs that are still together and still throwing real
rod runs! I think the reason the RODS
club has lasted so long is that our club is made up of ACTIVE members. They all attend monthly club meetings, cruise
nights and club functions. Moreover they
all work for and during our rod run!
Everyone contributes at their own level, but everyone contributes.
I get calls
from time to time from street rodders wanting to join
the Ramblin’ Oldies car club, only they live out of town or out of state. Our only rules are that prospective members
attend 3 consecutive meetings; #1 to show us that their wives will let them out
on the first Tuesday of each month, and #2 so we can get to know them, and they
can see what we really do at the meetings. THEN they can decide if they want to
join.
Car clubs
aren’t for everyone. Just think about it
- we are in a hobby where individuality is the rule! So to get 20 or 30 guys all thinking along
the same lines is really impressive. Now
I realize there are so called “car clubs” out there with no dues, no meetings,
etc. but in 27 years of being a RODS club member I have found that you get out
of a hobby what you put into it. And
without the active, working car clubs we wouldn’t have any more real 3-day pre 1949 rod runs to
attend! Give ‘em
a big hand and better yet, your registration money.
Cruise Safe
LETS
CRUISE:
August 18-21 = Two State Rodders Run - 2000 Morrison Blvd/Hammond La. (Holiday Inn) Randy
(601)684-2609 Pre ‘49
September 2-4 = Freedom Rod Run - Covington La. Hosted by the
I.R.O.N.S. club. Dash plaque AND awards
for everybody. Call Bobby for more info
(985)643-4224 Pre ‘49
September 17 = Golden Oldies 4th Annual
Auto Show - Zemurray Park in Hammond.
Dash plaques, 50/50, goodie bags, oldies music 3:00-7:30. Call (225)294-2525 for details. Goldenoldiesmotorclub.org
September 25 - NSRA Louisiana Appreciation Day South, Metairie La... Larry 225-665-6961
October 22 - S.O.B. Benefit
XVIII, Clearview Mall on Veterans Mem. Blvd in Metairie.
Every
Saturday Morning: R.O.D.S. “Cruise
Breakfast”, Rick’s Drive Inn - Florida Blvd. At
Second
Saturdays: Golden Oldies Cruise
Night - Hwy
190 in the Hobby Lobby parking lot, Hammond La.
BBQ & Burgers, 50/50 and wall to wall spectators...
Third
Saturdays: “Super Cruise Night” sponsored by Gerry Lane Enterprises; Tanger Outlet Center in Gonzales La. Next
to Chili’s. Sound
system, cold drinks, 50/50 & door prizes, $1.00 entry fee.
Fourth
Saturdays: Walker Cruise Night, Walker La. off I-12. Sound system, cold drinks,
50/50.
.060
OVER
Just mailed
off some 2005 RODS Run shirts to our friend in
Elections
were held in August and the new RODS officers are: Lee Laurent Pres, Danny Frederic
VP, King Hardeman Treas and myself
(Bobby) Secretary. This would be a good
time to thank Homer Thornton for all his hard work in promoting the RODS
club as club President for a record number of years!
I am not
making this up - a reliable source tells me that shortly after Randy Wilson bought
Bruce’s convertible he went and picked up Tuna Thompson for some drop
top cruising. Apparently a sharp eyed
policeman figured they HAD to have stolen the car and promptly pulled them
over! Go figure...
All my RODS
buddies went to the NSRA Street Rod Nationals this year, and all I got
was an autographed poster of Norm Grabowski! Ha!
More than a dozen club members had a 20X20 tent rented by the entrance,
and the movie star hung out with them most of the weekend - even following the
crew home! Took his big “Henway” down to Jimmy Meyers shop in New Orleans to
put an aluminum bed on the back to lighten it up a ton or two...
Homer
was sitting across the way from the club during the concert one night when Bruce
started dancing up in the stands. Some
guy next to him looked up and remarked “Oh that’s just those crazy Louisiana
boys!” Ahhh Eeeee!
Last
but not Least
Speaking of
Bruce Broussard... he returned from the Nationals with a ‘40 Chevy coupe
and that thing is bright RED. Said he
needs to put a cruise control in it though, cause the
thing wants to run on the highway! Doug
Miller just added another streetrod to his stable also, a 1934 Ford Panel truck. From what I hear it is another fine
automobile. He loves those commercials!
On a sad
note, long time antique car collector John Copes recently lost all of
his cars in a warehouse fire. In addition to some very rare vintage stuff, the
fire also destroyed all of his papers and a lot of memorabilia. I know we all feel for him.
I’m gonna have to give the “Dukes of Hazzard”
a thumbs up. I mean 90% was awesome car
chases and 5% was Daisy Duke! On top of
that the ‘must have’ soundtrack included ZZ Top, The Allman
Bros, AC/DC, The James Gang... I’ll buy
it!
The
next R.O.D.S. club meeting will be Tuesday September 6th at Danny Frederic’s
shop in Prairieville. We usually start
gathering about 6:30 for supper, and the meeting starts at 7:00. Visitors are welcome to come out and see what
we are all about. Call
Lee Laurent 225)673-8562 for details.
R.O.D.S.
P.O. BOX 61
DENHAM SPRINGS, LA. 70726