Quite the variety at the Sam's Club Car Show in KCK

Last weekend while I was taking pictures at the Tonganoxie Days Car Show, someone handed me a flyer for the “first annual” Sam’s Club Car Show, which took place at the Sam’s Club in Kansas City, Kan.  I thought that sounded interesting, so this weekend I grabbed the camera and headed out to The Legends.  It was a pretty hot and muggy day, but they still got a nice turnout for their first-ever event.

You don’t see too many ’63 Rambler Classic station wagons, but there was one here.  This one rolled right off of Main Street, U.S.A. with 195-and-a-half cubic inches of inline six under the hood and a chrome luggage rack to which a family could strap their suitcases for their trip to Mt. Rushmore.  The interior even had the capability to completely fold down, making a complete twin bed.  This was a pretty nice, original old car that looked just like it rolled out of someone’s carport in 1967.

Another solid old family car was this ’49 Chevy Deluxe four-door sedan.  This one had been refinished in a bright teal color many years ago, and those white whitewalls have been on there so long they are now yellowwalls.  It still had its Stovebolt under the hood and the original three-on-the-tree, and it just had something about it that made you want to go over and look at it.  A car like this might not be a blue-chip collectable, but there’s something about it that attracts me more that some cars that are worth ten-times as much.

That’s not to say that I don’t like the cars “everybody else” likes.  Take this ’67 Camaro SS.  Marina is one of the best shades of blue ever conceived.  This one had a matching blue interior, redline tires, and a white stripe around the nose.  It also had Rally Wheels, and that ever-important 396-c.i. big block under the hood.  I’m not sure if an inaugural-year Camaro can get any more appealing than this. 

There were a number of late-‘60s/early-‘70s Ford pickups in this show, including this big, ol’ ’67 F-250.  This was not the nicest one in the lineup, but it had the most character.  It has always lived in the Lawrence/Eudora area, and the owner brought it to this show from Lawrence.  He probably put 30 gallons of gasoline through that 352-c.i. V8 to get here.  This truck did have an advantage over a restored one.  It might not have been perfect, but you can tell it isn’t hiding anything, and it’s a decent, solid truck in spite of its flaws.

This ’60 Impala convertible twern’t no slouch either.  I like these cars better all the time.  They might have been run-of-the-mill Chevrolets back in the day, but I think they’ve almost reached exotic car status today.  This one had a big, W-headed 348 nestled between those pontoon fenders.  Often when people restore these ’60 Impala convertibles they insert the seats with period-correct cloth material.  That stuff actually came in the coupes and sedans, but convertibles are supposed to have the vinyl with the pattern printed on like this car. 

You want to see 156 pictures from this show?  I can help.  Check out the slideshow below, or click this link for a nicer version.