Sunday, June 30, 2013

Who says the Leavenworth Cruisers don't get a good turnout? The cars were there in Haymarket Square

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a guy at the Parkville Cruise, and we got on the subject of the Leavenworth Cruisers monthly cruise.  The guy told me that they really didn’t get many cars there, and since I’ve never been to it, I obviously believed him.  But this week my wife actually noticed it on the HMC weekly calendar, and suggested that we go check it out.  I’m really glad she did, because that guy was all wrong.  They had a great turnout Friday night under the canopy of Haymarket Square.

One of the cars that grabbed my attention was this old turquoise hot rod here.  I don’t know a lot about it—I can’t even tell you if it has an old body.  But the way it was finished off with the cutoff bicycle-style fenders and tube grille looked like something Lumpy Rutherford would have picked up Wally in.  I especially liked the Chevy small block between the frame rails.  The Corvette finned valve covers and tall oil bath air cleaner were nice period touches.

You see this ’55 Buick Super around occasionally.  It’s definitely hard to miss, with that Candy Apple Red ‘60s Kustom vibe.  It has Lakes pipes, lights in the portholes, Frenched ’56 Buick taillight lenses, and ’61 Dodge Polara wheel covers.  ‘50s Buicks often don’t make the best looking customs, but this one really seems to work.  At least I can never resist it when I see it around.

I like this ol’ ’64 Oldsmobile 88 that was hiding in the shadows.  Overall, it’s just a nice car with good red paint and what might be the original interior.  But it does have a few minor personal touches.  It looks like it was lowered a little, and the chrome wheels and spider caps with the narrow whitewalls look pretty neat.  This looks like it would be a fun car to own, and I see it at a lot of car cruises, so it looks like they’re enjoying it.

This one wins the award for most unusual, hands down.  OK, ’55 Chevys aren’t all that unusual, but this was one of those shorties that used to be so popular.  Plus it was made into a four-wheel-drive.  Plus it had a ’57 Chevy front bumper.  Plus it had murals of girls fishing and stuff all over it.  You can go to car shows your whole life, and I guarantee that you’ll never see another one like it.

So it turns out that there’s more to Leavenworth than just the military base and the prison.  This is also a good place to go and enjoy a great car cruise.  Heck, I liked it so much that I took more than 200 pictures at it.  Check them out in the slideshow below, or click this link for a nicer version.

1 comment:

  1. Craig,
    There was a truck there JUST like yours !!!!
    Don - Basehor

    ReplyDelete