Saturday at the C.O. P. S. car show

[electra225]

I finally got to meet Deputy Frank Sloup who does the videos I have linked on here before. And we got to ask the deputies of the Sheriff's department to set on the road behind our house if they wanted to catch speeders and clear the national debt with appropriate fines......

Most of the cars present I had posted pictures of before. Two really interesting cars there I hadn't seen. A '56 Chevy BelAir 4 door sedan and a '55 Belair hardtop, both owned by the same man. The '55 was the most option-laden Tri-Five Chevy I have ever seen. V-8, power steering, power brakes, PowerGlide, power windows, power seat, power antenna, Wonderbar radio with rear seat speaker. Bumper guards and over-riders, gravel guards, front and rear, wire wheel covers, and finally, Guidematic. The man said it was a Power Pack car, but they had so much trouble with the four-barrel carburetor, they changed it to a two-barrel when they redid the car. The only thing I saw on the car that was not right was it had radial tires. Absolutely beautiful black and white car. The '56 wasn't as loaded but it had a six with power steering, power brakes, PowerGlide and wire wheel covers. They both had door edge guards, gas door guard, floor mats, tissue dispenser and compass. Both of the cars were in the family since new. I don't believe I have ever seen a six-cylinder Tri-Five Chevy with power steering. The guy likes finding options for his old Chevys. The '56 was black and white as well.

I won my class, so that was good. There were only three cars therein, so it wasn't that big of a victory. It was a nice day for a car show. This is one of our favorite shows. Tomorrow is BOP-C-GMC show in Mesa. They have included all of GM, minus Chevy. The Pontiac guys who put on the show don't want to have to deal with the Corvette guys, or it would be an All-GM show. The show used to be predominantly Buick and Olds 30 years ago. The Buicks and Olds are getting so scarce, they decided to include Cadillac, and new this year GMC.

[William]

The BOP-C-GMC is now in Mesa? We always went as March was our time in Scottsdale. Now I'm forgetting the name of the place where it used to be.

Bill

[electra225]

The Pavillions. That was the best venue for a car show ever. The McDonald's changed hands and the new owners are not car people. That had to be the biggest business blunder in history. The old owners made money hand over tickleberry on Saturday evenings.

[William]

Dumb, dumb, dumb, and thank you for remembering for me.

bill

[walyfd]

"They decided to include Cadillac... "

Gee, the oldest remaining Detroit car company (1902), the base that Billy Durant built GM on...

Sorry but it makes me kinda laugh.

I still remember the first local AACA show I took my '57 to in 1993. I was 24 and an old member said I should be driving a Chevy at my age... my daily drivers were Cadillacs since I was 19. The '57 was my first antique.

I never did join the local region.

[electra225]

When the BOP started, the Cadillac club was included as was Chevy. The Chevy guys wanted so many classes, it would have taken two months just to hand out the trophies. The Cadillac club management was far too haughty to lower themselves to associate with commoners, lesser makes than Cadillac. And they certainly were not going to hobnob with Chevrolets. The Buick club proposed the show. The Pontiac club had the most members and the most active members, so they took it on and have done a nice job since. The GTO wing of the Pontiac club is about all keeping it going anymore. The big cars, like Buick and Olds, just don't have the following. There might be a dozen Cadillacs there, if that. I hope the '53 SDV with a Dynaflow makes it this year. This show is pretty much stock cars, no hotrods. They have a modified class, but they lump everything modified into one class. That discourages modified cars, which is fine with me. The Cadillac club did not want their billing under Buick. If it was called the CBOP, they might have been on board. The decision was made to call the show BOP, since that is how GM built the cars. Cadillac had their own assembly. I personally believe having trucks in the show will be as big of a pain as Corvettes. I don't know of a stock GMC truck appropriate for the stock BOP. Most of them are modified. When I was the Director of the local Buick Club, we proposed a Buick, Olds, Cadillac show, then a Pontiac, Chevy, GM truck show. The problem was venue. Nobody could agree on a venue.

I can remember when there would be 250 Pontiacs, 150 Buicks, that many Oldsmobiles at the BOP show. One year we had a 1905, a 1910 and a 1917 Buick at the BOP. Now we will be lucky to have one older than the middle 1950's, same with Pontiac and Olds. I estimate there will likely be a tad over 100 cars total at BOP this year. Though lower in number, Buick, Cadillac and Olds cars largely retain their original drivetrains. You seldom see a Chevy with the correct engine. Pontiac is going the same way. Lots of GTO's running around with LS V-8's under the hood. I spoke with a man today at the show who had a 327 rebuilt recently. Just a tad under 10 grand to have a Chevy engine rebuilt. You can dig an LS out of a wrecked truck including the electronics for $1500 and there are plenty of hop-up/go fast parts for those relatively inexpensively. Aluminum radiators, outsized tires and wheels, electric fans and air bags/juice are only a few of the atrocities foisted on older cars.

[TC Chris]

That's why my Chevy is original. Its engine block was cast about 20 mi. from where the car sits right now. The car was put together 50 mi. away. Yay for Michigan! In fact, the salt that dissolved parts of the sheet metal probably came from the mines under Detroit.

I've only driven one GMC. It was built in Pontiac. yay for Michigan! My brother has a '58 GMC pickup that he bought 40 years ago in SC. He was living in NC then. When he was moving to VT, he lamented having to sell the truck. I asked why he would sell it. He said he had no way to get it there. I suggested that the easy way to move a vehicle was to drive it. So I flew down to NC and drove the GMC to VT. We replaced the generator and topped off the fluids in all the leaky drivetrain parts before leaving and the old truck drove happily to its new home. He still has it.

Chris Campbell