End of year and catching up

     Time to fill in the blanks for all the activities since the end of October.  Club members have continued to meet on Friday mornings at New Beginnings on Michigan NE for breakfast.  Non members are always welcome to join us too.
     Classix Street Rod Association held its first Christmas party on Dec 8 in the Club Room of Riverhouse Condos.  Steve & Joke Melville were our gracious hosts and Steve even offered a tour of their 17th floor home with a fantastic view of downtown Grand Rapids.  A BIG thank you to the Melvilles!  Everyone brought a dish to pass and other than Bob & Carol Hall who winter in Arizona, all other club families were on hand for the food and good conversation.

     Most of the CSRA cars will undergo very few changes for 2014; other than a spring wash and wax.  Some members, however, have been busy during this snowy off season making improvements to their rides.  Jim replaced the ailing 383 small block Chevy in his beautiful yellow roadster with an even more potent 406 cubic inch version.  Paul & Sharon decided to have the frame of their gorgeous 1948 Ford modified to take full advantage of the air bag suspension and allow their car to sit lower to the ground when parked.  Paul had to replace the headers and exhaust to accommodate this lowering and has all these changes completed. Chip has been busy working towards completion of his second car, an English Ford Prefect.  Unlike his Chevy powered Anglia, the Prefect will be Ford powered with a Mercury Bobcat V-6.  Chip has fabricated many of the parts on the chopped Prefect sedan.  Here's a few pictures taken earlier this month.

     Jon's 41 Chevy will be getting new rear leaf springs from Chassis Engineering, Lokar emergency brake system and radiator from Superior Radiator.
     Here's some new pics of Jim's cars parked in his nice warm garage.  Editing this page to add these on 12-30-13.

     Today's Breakfast Club gathering included a surprise for honorary club member, Camden.  Cam is Rick's grandson and loves cars, trucks and hot rods.  Rick designed and built a custom flat bed trailer for Cam to pull behind one of his radio controlled 4 wheelers.  Jim welded all the aluminum components together and Pete applied his painting skills to the pin striping and custom license plate - CAM-1.  The smile on Cam's face this morning was priceless!

     We also had a guest at breakfast this morning.  Steve's son, Justin, was in town for the holidays from his home in Birmingham, Alabama.  Nice to meet you, Justin!
     Club plans include a monthly get together at the Rio Grande Steakhouse on Northland Dr for Jan, Feb and Mar.  Stay tuned for pictures.
     Hope all who read our blog have had a Merry Christmas and we wish everyone a Happy and prosperous New Year.  May spring come early in 2014!

End of season pot luck

     We marked the end of the car show season with a pot luck dinner at the Hansen's on a cold, wet Saturday afternoon.  Jon turned his garage into a club house and we all enjoyed friends, food and good conversation. 

    
     Next on the agenda was a review of the new club jackets.  Pete, Rick and Jon had new shirts for all to view and sample embroidery of the new club logo for the jackets.  Thirteen folks ordered their new jackets!   Our final bit of business was the approval of a new membership application for Phil Viviano and his wife Sue.  They own a beautiful, black 57 Chevy Belair powered by a 383 Chevy small block.  The CSRA will celebrate a five week anniversary in two more days and we've already doubled the club membership since the six founding members organized the club; twelve quality families with 17 great cars of 1963 or older.  Here's a picture of the Viviano's beautiful 57 Chevy.

Last car show of 2013

     Today's Red Flannel Festival in Cedar Springs will probably be remembered as the last show of 2013 for most of the CSRA members.  Our morning departure from 5th/3rd ball park was greeted with gray skies and rain to the east.  Rick, Paul, Steve and Jon made the trip north to rendezvous with Fred and Al.  After registering our rides, we headed across the street to Classic Kellys for breakfast.

Picture compliments of Steve Melville.  Once we had food in our bellies, it was back across the street to do some clean up on the cars.  Six CSRA cars made the trip today.  Pete and Jim were busy putting some color on Jim's new engine so he could get it installed in his beautiful yellow roadster.  Chip and Bob decided the rain had won the day and Ron had to work.  Of the six attendees, four members took home awards.  Congrats to Steve, Al and Fred for Top 30 wins and to Paul for winning the Vander Pick; the show sponsors award.

     We always tease Steve about his comfy chair and he's earned the nickname "Sleepy" for quite some time.  Pete even made Steve a special Sleepy license plate.  Today he was captured "in action"!

New member

     The ClassiX Street Rod Association is 18 days old and we've just added our 11th new member to the club!  A big welcome to Ron & Teresa Shooks and their awesome 1951 Chevy.  Powered by a 383 cubic inch small block Chevy, the Shooks pro street 51 is a real road warrior.  Ron & Teresa love to travel to the long distance shows like the Frankenmuth Show, the Ducktail Run, the James Dean Run and the St. Ignace Show. 

     Welcome aboard Ron and Teresa!

Rockford Harvest Fest 9-28-13

The weather was more like June than September and just perfect for a cruise to Rockford for the 37th Annual Harvest Fest Classic Car Show.  The small parking lots prevented the eight CSRA members from parking together but we all managed to find spots on the lower level and spent a relaxing day.  Breakfast at a nearby restaurant was followed by greetings with many other car friends in attendance.  We were told the final count was just under 100 cars.  This was a judged show with the Top 10 and Best in Show recipients selected by the Rockford Firefighters.  Club members Al Rose and Rick Nielsen picked up Top 10 Awards while Paul Dishaw garnered the Best in Show award with his beautiful, flamed, gold and purple 48 Ford deluxe coupe.  Paul's wife, Sharon, was working today so, unfortunately, she missed a photo op!  Here's the eight cars that made the show today.  We parked the cars together after the show to get this picture.  The green GTX on the end was late leaving the show so we included him in the shot.

 

Steve, Pete, Jon, Chip, Rick, Paul, Al & Fred

 

Here's all eight guys with the winners holding their plaques.

 

 

Pete, Fred, Steve, Rick (Top 10), Paul (Best in Show), Al (Top 10), Chip and Jon



Welcome Janet & Fred!

We added new members to the ClassiX Street Rod Association today.  A big welcome to Janet and Fred Clark of Belding.  They are the proud owners of this beautiful 1947 Chevy Fleetline.  The car is powered by an old style Chevy big block LS6 crate motor.  For the uninitiated, these engines came installed in the 1970 Chevelles; 454 cubic inches rated at 450hp.

Breakfast Club 9-27-13

First meeting of the ClassiX Street Rod Association "Breakfast Club".  Breakfast on Friday morning is a great way to plan the weekend street rod activities.

Left side; Chip, Jim, Pete & Rick.  Right side; Jon, Steve & Paul.

Alto show 9-21-13

Some of the ClassiX SRA cars made it to the Alto Show.

Left to right, Steve's 34 Ford, Rick's 57 Chevy pickup, Pete's 34 Ford, friend Phil Viviano's 57 Chevy and Jim's 37 Ford. 

ClassiX SRA members relaxing at the show; Pete, friend Phil, Rick and Jim.

Club logo

Pete has been working hard on a unique design for our club logo.  The X in ClassiX uses a combination of a 2 lane blacktop and a shifter handle.  The 32 Ford coupe is THE iconic street rod/hot rod recognized by all.  No one in our club has a 32 coupe so we aren't showing any partiality

 

As Paul Harvey used to say "Stand by for NEWS!"  There will be more coming soon!

In the beginning.....

     The founding of the ClassiX Street Rod Association (CSRA) took place September 8, 2013.  The formation was a collaborative effort of six like minded men who opted to create something new in order to enjoy a more clearly defined organization.  Based in West Michigan around the Grand Rapids area, the CSRA is a club for owners of 1963 and older cars and pickup trucks.  As community and civic minded people, we have plans to assist and participate in several upcoming community and fund raising events.  Our primary focus will be that of building a solid club foundation while attending area car shows and automotive events.  Club membership has already expanded to nine families while several others seeking membership have their applications at this time.  Here's a picture of the six founding members.

     Left to right are Jon Hansen, Rick Nielsen, Ray "Chip" Hansen, Steve Melville, Pete Derridinger and Jim Banfill.  The graphics on the board are Pete's first renderings of the proposed club logos.