dyawger's blog

Like any hobby, being involved with old cars should be fun. If it isn't, don't do it. It's that simple. What's fun?

Let's do a moment's fantasizing about what would really be fun with vintage vehicles. About the ultimate in fun would be to have a 1932 Ford highboy roadster. That means it has no top or fenders and running boards. They say the Deuce roadster is the ultimate goal for a street rodder or hot rodder, and I'd have to agree. Buying one or building one would cost the equivalent of a modern luxury car. It's worth it if you could swing it. It's out of reach for many people.

It's not realistic to expect to see vintage vehicles mixing it up with the Toyotas, Hyundais and Ford Focuses every day in Merced. The old relics stay garaged during the week and only come out on the weekends, when the weather is nice. I manage to keep my appetite for old cars satisfied with my stack of street rod and custom car magazines and occasionally a Web site for vintage vehicles. Winter usually is the slack time for car events and you can go a long time without seeing something interesting in person.

I call it motoring mildew.

This less-than-scientific term applies to the condition of many paint jobs on cars running around Merced. There are funny white-rimmed splotches seen all over the roofs, hoods and trunks of many cars--and it's not a flattering appearance. Cars with this "condition" generally are at least 10 years old, I'd guess.

Years ago, it seemed as though factory paint jobs only lasted a year or two at best, particularly if they weren't waxed regularly. In the mid-1960s the manufacturers boasted about "never-wax" paint finishes on some of their products. Contemporary paint jobs now include primer, a color coat and several coats of clear paint. When the sun burns off the clear coat, it eats into the color, and the mangy-appearing "crop circles" appear all over the vehicle. Getting stuck in traffic along G Street today, I couldn't help but spot a forlorn-looking Acura four-door sedan that could be a poster boy for splotchy paint. I would guess all this old paint would need to be stripped off before new colors are applied, and that's not cheap.

There are a couple of things about newspapering I don't think the public understands.

First off, reporters don't write the headlines. Never have and never will. Reporters write the stories, and copy editors create headlines and page design. Occasionally, a headline doesn't reflect what went on in the story or gets something wrong. It's almost a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.

I dig custom cars. Stock ones are nice, too, but I really appreciate tastefully built customized cars.

One of the best car customizers of the last couple decades is East Bay resident Richard Zocci. He has turned out several dozen killer customs since the early 1970s, but I think the latest may be his best. Zocci seems to be in perennial competition with another Bay Area customizing guru, John D'Agostino, to see who can outdo the other one. This time I give the edge to Zocci.

For years I've seen newspaper and television pictures of weapons seized during drug busts--and a few confiscated firearms in person as well. But the sight yesterday of nearly a dozen menacing handguns and rifles seized by Merced County Sheriff's Department deputies was downright intimidating. Lined up on a big folding table, those weapons looked deadly, like sleeping rattlesnakes ready to strike at a moment's notice. Thankfully they will be destroyed before someone else gets to use them.