Friday, May 2, 2014

Check out the Gallatin Square Fest Car Show

Gallatin, Tenn., is a quaint little city with an historic downtown area. And every April they close that area down for their annual Square Fest celebration. Their website says there are crafts, food vendors, and live entertainment. I’ll have to take their word for it, because I never actually got to the main area. I was too distracted with the Gallatin Square Fest Car Show, which took place in a couple of parking lots near the center of the action. I think you’ll see why, though, because there were some pretty nice rides out there.

This ’54 Chevy Bel Air two-door sedan was one of them. This one is finished in a beautiful springtime combination of Fiesta Cream with a Bermuda Green roof. I really liked this car. It was just so pretty, and so nice. I can’t imagine anything you could do to it, including making it into some kind of hot rod, that would make me like it any better. The Bel Air was the top-of-the-line trim level in 1954, although the hardtop is a little more desirable. The V8 would have to wait one more year, so this inline six was the best you could do. But as a whole, this was a good one.

Over here we’ve got a ’62 Oldsmobile Starfire. These cars are awesome. They basically took a normal Olds convertible and trimmed it out with enough chrome and stainless steel to make it worthy of the Motorama. The leather and chrome-drenched interior in these is the stuff of legend. There’s not one detail that the people that designed this car missed in there. Seriously, find the pictures of this car and study them. The valve covers are special. The door panels are special. The freakin’ pedals are special—and that includes chrome trim on the emergency brake pedal!

This ’37 Chevrolet sedan was pretty great too. It’s not necessarily because of the car itself, although it was a really nice example of a ’37 Chevy. But it also had a cool history, as the owner had it in high school in 1945. He had some pictures there with it, and it looked just like this back then. It even sported the wide whitewalls in the vintage pictures. This car had some neat little accessories, like a sun visor, fog lights, and a windshield-mounted compass.

Here’s a 1971 Dodge Charger R/T SE. The little sign displayed with it had all kinds of interesting information, like it was one of 198, the 440 Magnum under the hood had 370-hp, and the color was Hemi Orange. I liked it because it looks like something Richard Petty would have driven, that color really grabs you, and you could tell the owner is really into it. This Mopar muscle car really stood out.

Finally, let’s wrap up this wrap-up with this ’64 Ford Falcon Squire station wagon. Other than the modern wheels, this one was mostly stock, and it was nice. The wood grain appliques looked excellent, the maroon paint sparkled in the sun, and that luggage rack was ready for some suitcases. You could even stay cool in that black vinyl interior with that Ford air-conditioning. Oh, and it had a 289-c.i. V8, so you could make some good time on those family road trips.

You can tell I liked this show, because I took 206 pictures. Check them out in the slideshow below, or click this link for a better version.

4 comments:

  1. You certainly are covering the local car scene in the Nasville area, Craig. I knew you would and we all enjoy your stories and photos. It makes us all realize that the classic car culture exists all over our good old USA. Thanks..

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  2. That 62 Oldsmobile Starfire is just an absolute beauty! Great Photos of those beautiful Car

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  3. That 62 Oldsmobile Starfire is just an absolute beauty! Great Photos of those beautiful Car

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  4. Craig:
    Some AWESOME classics out there...glad to see you've kept the blog going, too.

    Happy Motoring out there.

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