Real Chopper: Dogwood Show and shine,

 This will be the second to last post on the dogwood show and shine photo blogs because I have other exciting stuff to get on with as far as content goes. But the last one will not disappoint, at least I hope it won't, well you'll see.

This old roadster was an eye catcher to say the least. I honestly don't know to much about these old rigs and would be giving false information if I tried to spell anything out. Above is the engine, and below is the back of the car.

I never got a chance to talk to the owner but it was easy to see that the build quality of this pump was up there with the best of them especially with the interior and engine in mind. This is the inside of the cars, usually containing a steering wheel, a couple seats and an instrument panel.

This was really an eye opener for me, these type of cars have never been of much interest to me along with old choppers, like the one below. But after taking a few minuets to admire them, all I can see is dollar signs and tireless hours being invested into these, and if you can't appreciate anything else about these pumps than at least appreciate the work and money that went into them. I try to do that now with any build or project that I see. These are some neat leather seats.

Whether that be a riced out Honda civic, a Factory spec all original hand build Aston Martin or a street rod that I never even got the manufacturer year of. these builds took time, and that I can fully appreciate that. This is the front tire.

This chopper I found in the bikes section does indeed still count as an "Air Pump" it has an intake and an exhaust, which is basically an air pump, therefore I could have just about anything on this site that pumps air. I could have an airplane if I felt the need, or I could have a vacuum cleaner, or a human for that case, considering the fact that we are constantly breathing.... air. but I digress this is a Harley and I took photos of it.

Once I saw the bike section, I almost didn't go over there just because I don't have to much interest in in them to begin with, I mainly went over there because this bike looked like a lot of time had been put into it, and boy was I ever glad I checked it out.

After talking to the guy who owned this bike I appreciated it even more. And the more time I spent looking at it the more I found little details I liked. This bike was built by the owner and his brother back in the late 1960' through the seventies. This old geezer was proud to tell me that it was an original Harley, chopped just like they are supposed to be, with only 30 percent of the frame still intact.

Now I personally had no idea that a chopper was called that because it was literally put into a shop and hacked at by a couple of guys. I was very happy to hear this because the owner later said that now a days anyone can buy a prefabbed chopper frame and build one out of a catalog.

The shop that built this bike, is called 8th day cycles. From some place in Idaho... again, details. I'm not sure if that is supposed to be some supernatural symbol for power or something, but they know how to make a bike, and purple used to be my favorite color, back when I was like twelve.

Joshua Sewell.
Instagram:josh_sewell_photo

Porsche 924: Dogwood Show and Shine

The Porsche 924 was the first car with a Porsche badge to have a front water cooled engine. While this may not have been the prettiest or best way to start off the front engine Porsche. It began the trend which produced some of the world’s fastest and most expensive pumps at the time.

This Porsche 924 was a little gem I found at the Dogwood Show and Shine in the Lewiston Clarkson valley in north Idaho. This car was in the process of a restoration but for the exterior at least, it looked like it had already been done. I talked to the owner and he said he’s been in the restoration process for a while and started to list some of the mods he had done on it, including how he stashed the tire grease rag under the rear tire, very tasteful in my opinion, I mean if your going to use a tire grease rag you might as well show it off too. This one looked really clean and I think speaks of the cleanliness of the tire before it was greased, all I can say is Wow.

He first pointed out the closely matched new paint job the Porsche was sporting. With only a slight color variation between the engine bay being the original color and the fender being the respray color. He also mentioned that he did a five lug swap to fit the bigger phone dial wheels which I think are a great contrast to the hard edges found throughout the car.

 Additionally he did a rear disk break swap to provide a bit more consistent stopping power and finally mentioned the duck-tail spoiler he added from the Carrera variant of the car.

After talking to him a bit I popped open the door and peaked inside, disappointingly it wasn’t much to look at. Once I saw it though, he was quick to spell out how he planned to get the seats reupholstered in the same pattern with some fresh leather as he would also do with the worn and cracked dash. Black leather with pea green thread to match the paint sounds like the perfect combo to me!

Knowing that this little 924 was in the middle of a restoration,  I found it refreshing at a classic car show full of American muscle. I see the draw to these cars and have dreamed about owning one myself, and after watching this old top gear episode, I feel even better about the first water cooled Porsche. Whether the engine really did come out of a Volkswagen van or not.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo