Mancunian Shenanigans - August Update

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Oldham actually if we're being specific. The Rainy City Cruiser's cruise at the Old School Bus

This is the first Rainy City meet I've been able to get to for ages, despite it only being 15 minutes away from home. In fact I wasn't actually sure it was happening this time until I got to the venue. Ok it wasn't the biggest turn out of cars; Storm Hanna had been chucking her business all over us the day before so that probably put some people off dragging their rides out of the garage. But the quantity was well made up for in quality.



I think this is a '47 Ford but it could well be a '46 or 48 as they're very similar cars and anyway this one has probably lost whatever distinguishing features in the process of becoming a rod.



Last time I saw this Ford F100, I speculated that it had some history. Now having met the owner I can confirm it was customised back in the 70s and bought by the current owner (partly) because the yellow and green colour combo reflects his Australian heritage.





Later model F100 (late '60s?) was different in being shiny painted and stock height.



Mid '60s Buick Wildcat. I'll admit to not knowing much about this. I could bamboozle you with a bunch of facts I've copied from wikipedia but I'll just say it's a cool old full size hardtop and leave it there.



Moving a few years on we have the unmistakable boat-tailed Riviera. It's rare to see one of these that isn't a lowrider. If you'll excuse an over used metaphor, These are definite “Marmite” cars. I like them, even though I don't like that brown sticky stuff.



El Camino is yet more proof that the 70s look is back. Perhaps it never went away?



More 90s style but still top quality. This Fordson looked so tiny especially with the roof chop and stance. The oversized rear tyres and engine just emphasized the effect.




Bright enough to cheer up any day was this '40 Ford. The custom bike in the bed was a nice touch too.






My photographic efforts can't do justice to the paint job on this Moggy. The roof chop is obvious but did you notice the flush fit glass and the re-shaped belt line molding going over the rear arches?

Nice to see people can still do new things with very familiar base vehicles.






The inevitable Mustangs. The '65 looked flawless, while the 2nd gen Mustang was a lesser seen notchback version.





Subtly modified '50 Ford “shoebox” has a 60s small block Ford V8 in place of the flathead.



What was I saying about the 70s? Don't come knockin' etc.....




Some might say the pro-street look has gone out of fashion but not for me, especially if it's got the power to back up the looks.



Chevy Pickups. We're used to seeing ratty slammed 50s examples at every show but these two earlier models are rarer sight. Properly painted and shiny, and all the better for it in my opinion. The green one is a '38 and the red/white one is a '47.









Can't argue with that.



And that's all for now, though I think some more cars were arriving just as I was going home (do'h!) so I may have missed some good stuff.

[grizz]

I would swap the Blazer at the drop of a hat, or sell and buy a Boat Tailed Riveira.

They certainly are my Marmite.

And I do like Marmite

That one is cool,and even better from being “two tone”


Thank you for posting and sharing.

[keyring]

Some truly awesome looking cars there!!

[tonycocacola]

That red and white/ beige / cream '47 pick up is a honey.

[jaws]

I used to own that 65 Wildcat,sold it about 7 years ago and its certanly a well traveled car. I bought it about 14 years ago sight unseen from a company called Classical Gas (now defunt) in Colorado. I did the deal over the phone and the car was put in a contaner and onto a freight train bound for California. Unfortuanatly a devastating wildfire broke out and was all over the news, and when the car didnt turn up as expected, I rang Classical gas. Last theyd seen of it it was being loadad on the train ,but they'd make enquiries and get back to me. Weeks passed, and I rang again, the wildfires were still burning. It eventually turned out that the train had become cut off by the fire and the driver had abandoned the train. It didnt look good,but about 8 weeks after it left the car turned up safe at the shippers in California, phew. The car was then shipped to Liverpool, and then brought to Hollyhead where I picked it up and took it home to Dublin on the Ferry. I stuck it in a long line of projects until I decided to sell it to a mate when the celtic tiger crashed and another baby was on the way. Funny enough he already had one with a slightly damaged bonnet and grille, so a few years ago he decided to thin out his collection, so he swapped the bonnet and grille and sold it to another mate who dealt in classics. He emigrated to Rominia and took the car with him. There it had the bonnet painted to match the real patina of the rest of the bodywork and the interior was recovered in vinal, and put up for sale on the web. The rest of this story I got secondhand but from what i understand the car was bought by someone in London and dispatched to the Uk on a flatbed across Europe. Anyway the car doesn't turn up when it should and the buyer starts to panic because he thinks he's been the victim of an internet scam. The seller cant find out where the car is because all the towing company know is that both their truck ( and the Buick) and driver have dissappered somewhere in Germany. Finally the buyer says enough is enough, and demands his money back,so the seller (who is a genuine stand up guy) refunds him his money. The next day the buyer calls him up to say the cars arrived and he wants it out of there pronto. Turns out the towtruck guy had no insurance and his truck was impounded in Germany. So the car was sent back to Rominia to be resold, funny it ended up in the uk again.

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Thanks for that. It certainly is a car with a chequered history!

[89mustang]

I was told the red chopped Fordson van is the ex Keith Atkinson Tivoli Kitchen van and used to be orange.

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Back again for May's get-together. I was experimenting with a borrowed camera today, and I can say as an experiment I can say it was totally successful in that it proved the camera is rubbish. Science one, photography nil! With the aid of photoshop I managed to save a handful of photos which you can see here, but if anyone has any better ones you're welcome to add them. 

I think the cars themselves are quite self-explanatory. 

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Episode Three

Third Sunday meant it was Rainy City time again. Due to competing events, in particular the NSRA fun run (and probably to a lesser extent, Pendine and The 'Pod) the venue wasn't really heaving. Still it was worth trundling over to see what turned up. 

Here's the best of the rides, sorry (not really) if I'veposted any of these before.

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Bobbed over to a small show in Rochdale this morning. A fairly low-key affair but good for a couple of hours browsing and chatting. There was a decent showing of 70s and 80s Fords and miscellaneous other classic and retro cars. The usual suspects if you will plus a few surprises. No points to the classic car club who decided to rope-off their cars and surround their pitch with banners which meant nobody could get a good look at their cars (so you won't see any of them here!) but otherwise there was a nice friendly atmosphere, with owners happy to talk about their rides.

[Mercdan68]

Nice pics thanks for sharing them

[gtviva]

Nice cross section of cars, thanks for posting oh and it didn't bother me one bit there were no Porches in the pictures!

[Deleted]

Love seeing pics from places I cant go, cheers!

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Jul 14, 2019 17:24:20 GMT gtviva said:

Nice cross section of cars, thanks for posting oh and it didn't bother me one bit there were no Porches in the pictures!

There were a couple of Porsches there, I just didn't get any photos of them. Sorry. 

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Well it's the third Sunday of the month which means it's back to Oldham with the Rainy City Cruisers. Most of the cars there were regulars but there were two or three that I've not seen for ages so that was nice. I'll make no apologies for showing you cars that I may have posted before because they're cool and deserve another look.

It's a Studebaker pickup which makes a change from the more familiar Fords and Chevys. This one's also had extensive custom work too so it's a lot lower and smoother than standard.




Chevy truck. Either a 1955 or'56. They're basically the same but cleverer people than me could probably spot the difference.


And these two are Fords. The black one is a '56 (wraparound front screen) while the red one is a '55


And just as ubiquitous as classic trucks are Mustangs. They seem so common at shows and meets that I rarely bother to photograph them but I like this one, with Shelby style scoops (real or not?) so here it is.


I've not seen this buggy before but it looked like a real hand full,in a good way. I expect it's a lot of fun on twisty country roads, probably less so on motorways among the HGVs.



Immaculate '64 Thunderbird was oneof my favourite cars of the morning. Rather confusingly it had a "Vote for JFK" sticker in the back window, but i won't hold it aginst them. (In case you don't remember your history lessons Kennedy died in '63.)


'30 or '31 Model A Tudor. As with the Chevy truck above the differences in the two years are very hard to spot though that sort of thing matters more to restorers than hot rodders anyway.


All black second gen Camaro, and all I can say age wise this time is mid to late 70s


I showed this pro street style van before but I wanted to get some better photos so here it is again.


Ditto with this Riviera.


And this Challenger. There aren't enough purple cars on the roads are there?


Lovely Ford Pop is a rainy City regular, powered by a Mustang V8.


And right at the opposite end of the hot rod scale from the subtle Pop, is this '32 Coupe. It started as an "American Graffiti" styled car but has evolved into the hardcore street and strip machine you see now.




Next Month is the club's proper show at Hollingworth Lake - 18th August. Check The Rainy City Cruisers facebook page for all the info on that one. 

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In the words of Robbie “Rabbie” Burns; “The best laid plans of mice and men,something something b***cks” or something like that and whilst I apologise to the whole of Scotland, consider the delicious irony that Manchester's Rainy City Cruisers' show had to be cancelled due to flooding at the Hollingworth Lake venue.



However, in the best spirit of Broadway, the club re-grouped and said “let's do the show right here!” at their usual cruise venue. Thankfully the word got around and a healthy crowd brought their cars along. Top rides of the day for me were the Mercury custom – a rolling work of art, the Pop gasser and the red '56 Caddy, though everything there was worth a good look actually. A few trophies were given out (I didn't stick around to see who won) the Old School Bus Cafe did a good trade, and everyone seemed to enjoy the show.



Hopefully Rainy City will have another go at staging a “proper” show next year and with any luck the gods will play ball next time.

[rickygolf83]

Looked a great turnout 👍

And from a resident of the "rainiest" city in the uk I totally feel your weather pain 😣

Summer finished here during the 3 week of July 😡

[Deleted]

Brilliant!
"Crawling" is class looking