Monday, July 23, 2007 – California Rides

Every surfer needs a woodie - cheap, large enough to carry a good number of people, surfboards and equipment, and they could be fixed up some with basic woodworking skills.  You then have your "archetypal vehicle of the surfer."  The Beach Boys mention them, and there may be more here in California than anywhere else.  It's the climate – warm, dry but not desiccating, with rare rainfall. You take an early station wagon (or truck) where the car's bodywork is made of wood, and you fix it up, or not.  There's the Old Woodies folk – if you are into such things.  Or more surfer specific, there's this.  See also the 1942 Hudson Super Six Station Wagon at thee 2007 Rodeo Drive annual Concours D'Elegance here.

This one, a Chevy panel truck from way back when, probably the late twenties, is very woody. It may be a bit over the top, what with the popsicle-stick grill and all.  But you really have to be into it.  This one was in a car shop yard, at Robinson and Charleville, in the flats of Beverly Hills of all places.

Next to the Chevy Woody was another curiosity, but this is not a Hot Rod Lincoln – "My pappy said, 'Son, you're gonna drive me t' drinkin' ... If you don't quit drivin' that - Hot ... Rod ... Lincoln!"

You might remember the song – 1955, Charlie Ryan and W. S. Stevenson. "We left San Pedro late one night…" – and Charlie Ryan is now ninety and lives in Spokane and summers in Arizona, but he still has the car.  That's explained here – it was a 1941 Lincoln Zephyr four-door sedan and he removed the Zephyr body, cut two feet off the frame to shorten the wheelbase and dropped a 1930 Ford Model A coupe body on it – and dropped in a 1948 V-12 engine along with the "3 speed + overdrive" 1948 transmission. The rest is history.

The 1959 version of the song on "4 Star" – Charlie Ryan and The Timberline Riders – is probably better known. The version that was most popular was Johnny Bond's 1960 version on Republic Records.  It's also one of the signature songs of that Texas-based Western swing band "Asleep at the Wheel."  It's a defining anthem of the hot rod community.

This one, from the late thirties, needs work, but it belongs in Beverly Hills – the likes of Charlie Ryan have never touched it.

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me.  And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Most of these photographs were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Earlier photography was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik