Mt. Juliet picks up the American Jewelry Cruise-In

The weekly cruise at the Mt. Juliet/Providence Chick-fil-A was still going strong right up until they decided to stop doing it last season. The demand never went away, however, and now there’s a new place for the car nuts to go on Saturday nights. The new Mt. Juliet Cruise is still in the Providence area, just moved to the American Jewelry parking lot. It’s still in the early stages, so they don’t have any music or D.J. or anything, but the turnout was pretty strong, and there is definitely some good potential here. And this was all happening on the same night as a Predators game, so that ought to tell you how bad people around here want to get their cars out.

I have always thought these ’78-’79 Malibu coupes had hot rod potential, and here’s one for which that was completely realized. They really got a lot right on this one. The stance, the wheels, the bright blue paint, all transform what was a fairly mundane car into something very cool. That LS-1 power and stick didn’t hurt anything either. There were a lot of nice little details here, like the way the exhaust tips came through the bumper, the little spoiler back there, and the splitter out front. If this car is as potent as it looks, it could be a pretty serious little Malibu.

These two Volkswagen Beetles are “his” and “hers” participants from the same family. Hers is the green ’63 DeLuxe Sedan that was loaded to the gills with accessories. We’re talking about fender skirts, wheel spats, bumper guards, and a luggage rack, complete with a full load of luggage. His was the yellow 1951 model with some nice Volkswagen wheels and the desirable, full-length, roll-back sunroof. There is something undeniably cute about a nice, older-style Beetle, and when you get two of them together, you completely peg the cuteness meter. Adorable.

I would imagine that this ’41 Buick Special four-door sedan was made into a street rod several years ago. They even decided to stick with Buick power and stuff a 455 in there. Honestly, the thing that drew me in on this was that it’s not sitting on some kind of modern, shiny wheels. These black smoothies and baby moons just work on here. Inside, they did away with the beautiful chrome speaker and Art Deco gauges with machine-turned surround for flat metal and standard aftermarket fare. The large, ornamental steering wheel was replaced with a little aftermarket wood wheel on a tilt column. Seats were done in a red ostrich pattern.

Plum Crazy is a great color for this ’70 Dodge Challenger R/T convertible. The 383 “Magnum” V8 was good for 335-hp, so you could get plenty of power without packin’ a Hemi. This car had a white interior, the ever-desirable pistol-grip shifter, and those nice-looking Rallye Wheels. These care are always popular, whether at a car show, cruise, or auction. They’re so popular, in fact, that you can see virtually every styling cue on the recent-model Challengers. Dodge clearly decided not to mess with what’s working.

I took 143 photos at the Mt. Juliet American Jewelry Cruise on Saturday night, and you can see them all at this link. When you get to the old Hover Motor Company truck, you know you’ve reached the end of the pictures.