Car owners brave the clouds at the Hendersonville Cruise-In

On-and-off rain and overcast skies are not what you want on the night of your car cruise, but unfortunately, we can’t control the weather. The Hendersonville Cruise-In made the most of those conditions Friday night. Sure, the car count was a bit down, but the rain actually held off for the most part, and the cooler temperatures were a welcome change. You can always tell the die-hards on a night like this, and there were more Logan’s Roadhouse peanuts to go around for everyone. If you were one of the unfortunate majority that didn’t make this one, I suppose I’ll fill you in on some of the nice rides you missed.

The owner of this ’57 Chevy Two-Ten wagon is one of the most loyal car show attendees in the Nashville area. You see it everywhere. And why wouldn’t they want to show it off? The solid Sierra Gold paint looks great with the little hubcaps and whitewall tires. The interior condition is absolutely wonderful. But don’t look for too many fancy add-ons and doo-dads here. The lack of a “V” under the Chevrolet script on the hood indicates six-cylinder power. You row your own gears with a three-on-the-tree. And if you want tunes, forget it, because there’s no radio. This car is so nice and so right. It’s just how you want an old car to be.

We were telling BHo that when we were kids, there were tons of pickups running around with these big campers on them. My wife even mentioned that her family had one. So this ’70 Ford with the period-perfect Rangle Camper would have been right at home on the nation’s highways back in the 1970s. Even the color, Mojave Tan, suggests a family vacation to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. This was a pretty nice rig, and even had vintage air conditioning in the cab. The camper was nice and unrestored, and didn’t seem to have too many cooties in it. But now, instead of hauling all the kids to Yellowstone, it was transporting the Ams Oil display around.

While we’re talking about old Ford trucks, this ’73 F-100 had kind of a neat vibe. The owner basically bought it to fix up and re-sell, and it had a little bit of that quick restoration look to it. But it was a pretty bright red, and the later-model van wheels and hubcaps worked on there. He also spent quite a bit of time and money on the interior, fixing up the dashboard and adding a beautiful black steering wheel from a ’68 model. Old trucks like this are pretty hard to mess up, and whoever buys it can probably have a good time with it.

I’ve seen this ’64 Ford Falcon Squire station wagon around town a few times, and it’s a nice little car. Other than the modern wheels, this one was mostly stock. The wood grain appliques looked excellent, the Vintage Burgundy paint shined, 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. Plus, it’s a lot smaller than a Country Squire, so it fits easier in the garage. It’s kind of a winning combination all the way around.

I didn’t take the best picture of the front end of this Corvair, but I think it’s a ’66. The color is Regal Red, which seems like an appropriate name for this car. Corvairs were some of the most innovative cars in their day, with an unconventional rear-engine layout that was quite a departure from other American cars. By 1966, most of the bugs were worked out of the Corvair’s design, and they became a good-looking, reliable, fun-to-drive little car. But the writing was on the wall. With the popularity of cars like the Ford Mustang, the Ford Falcon, Chevrolet’s own Nova, and the Camaro in 1967, the Corvair did its best to hang on until it was phased out in 1969.

Even though the crowd was a little light, I still managed to shoot 118 pictures at the Hendersonville Cruise-In. CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS!