Todd was this kid who was a mechanical genius. While I was still trying to figure out how to use a tire machine, Todd had built a complete 39 Ford Deluxe Coupe with a 302, c4, pinto front end and a granada rear axle. It came out mint.
Three carloads of dudes headed West for a Hot Rod Magazine event in Indianapolis. I rode with Foof in his 66 Catalina, Todd & Bert rode in the coupe and Scott Kvadas had a nova.
We did the car thing in Indy, then I got shotgun in the Ford. The other crews had to be back home for work, but we headed South.
Driving a red hot rod during the ZZ Top Eliminator days was quite a trip. We wandered down the Interstate to Florida. The strong feeling of freedom. No rules, no schedules, no parents, and no job for a week.
Spent a week at Daytona beach, a place I had been to several times. You can drive your car up and down the beach. Like cruising the local Parkade strip mall times 1000. Girls were hot in the big 80's. The coupe had a loud radio. It was quite a week of Body Glove bikinis and Coors.
Met a big, black Georgia State trooper on the way home. I can still hear his words as we both thought we were busted and the rod dragged off by some hick tow truck.
"You gotta mighty fine looking car heah, Tom Junior. And I knowse you wanna be spendin' yo' money on paintjobs instead of speedin' tickets. So why don't you do us boff a favah an' keep it under sixtyfiiiive in the State of Georgia."
We also snuck in to the Smithsonian Air & Space museum after hours on a Sunday and checked out the cool shit for an hour or so before security asked us to leave.
It was a great trip and has been the inspiration for the million miles afterwards.
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