Cruisin' with Deerslayer

DEERSLAYER LINKS including vendor sites for parts and tools as well as sites for old truck and hot rod organizations

TINKERING WITH DEERSLAYER chronicles the day-by-day maintenance and improvements episodes for Deerslayer, a '37 Chevy farm truck hot rod.

CRUISIN' WITH DEERSLAYER Roadtrips, cruise-in's and truck show stories and tall tales.

TONY'S DUNGEON Tony Pascarella's forum entries at OldGMCtrucks.com regarding Deerslayer, particularly the 302 GMC engine build in his farmhouse basement.

DEERSLAYER MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for Deerslayer, including required tools, materials and procedures.

PROJECT NAILHEAD Chronicles the rebuild of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster 322 nailhead engine as a future replacement for Deerslayer's Jimmy 302.

2. Billetproof Florida 2009

Ever since I read about the first Billetproof, Florida show on the H.A.M.B. (Hokey Ass Message Board) last year, I've been plannin' to go to the next one with Deerslayer. I soon found a couple of other guys, at the local tuesday nite cruise-in, who wanted to go too. We started planning.

In february, Deerslayer's radiator started leaking. I ordered a performance PRC radiator from Chev's of the Forties and, on the last weekend before Billetproof, managed to shoehorn it into Deerslayer's nose. Only thing I had left to do was bolt down an old trunk in the bed to carry some tools and supplies. Two days of monsoon rain here in the sunny south delayed that into a hurry up job the nite before departure.

Sitrep

I'm up before dawn on departure day (I'm always up before dawn). Clean up, pack up and out the door by seven forty.

PRE Check

1.	Date and Time	March 20, 2009 7:45 AM
2.	Odometer	89,337
3.	Emergency Supplies	Cellphone, AAA+ membership, battery jumper, reading glasses, fire extinguisher, SHTF bag, my lucky WWII Army Air Corps mechanics cap
4.	Roadtrip Supplies	Tools, oil and brake fluid
5.	Prep	Mount navigator

Engage

I had suggested to the other guys that we meet at eight at Tom Sawyer's Restuarant in Boca Raton for breakfast. This place has been a Boca Raton landmark for a generation. The food is good and the service is excellent and, it is close to Glades Road, a turnpike entrance node.

I was a few minutes late but was still the first to arrive. Paul O'Keefe and Sam Gagliano got there about ten minutes later. There was no sign of Jon Carey but he told me that if he wasn't there to go on without him. We found out later that Jon had woke up in the middle of the nite. He couldn't get back to sleep so he saddled up and hauled ass in his '34 Ford tow truck. After a stick-to-the-ribs breakfast, We headed out as well. The plan was for Paul and Sam to follow me in Paul's '47 Ford ragtop.

The journey begins. Paul and Sam started out behind me on Glades Road. It's a pretty straight run to Big Daddy's on the turnpike so I left "Mother", the navigator, in passive mode. We kept a 75 mph pace. Paul had a Sunpass for the turnpike and they barely slowed down for the toll plazas. I had to stop to pay and get tickets and then go hellbent for leather to catch up and take the lead again.

We passed a few other rodders on their way to the show, all of 'em under their own power. We stopped for gas and I forgot to get my numbers for mileage calcs when someone asked me a question about Deerslayer. I like entrance ramps 'cause it gives me an excuse to go thru the gears. Paul and Sam told me later that it was pretty funny. As we idled thru the service plaza parking lot, a late model Cobra Mustang got between us. I saw him in the rear view but my attention was on the merge lane. Paul and Sam said as we started out the ramp, the Mustang was jockeying for position to go around me. As I put my foot in it and that steady 300 ftlbs of torque rocketed me up the ramp, the 'stang gave up and fell back in behind me until I slowed down again to seventy-five.

The run was about 250 miles and just short of four hours. The last toll stop was too close to the end for me to catch up again to Paul and Sam so I stopped to top off the gas tank at the last service plaza. When I wuz comin' off the Big Daddy's exit ramp, I did something I nebber do and answered my buzzin' cell phone. It was Sam wondering where I was and telling me how hard the Microtel hotel was to find. Mother was trying to tell me to turn at the same time and I missed it. No harm done. She directed me back to the place in a few minutes time. Jon Carey and the '34 Ford tow truck was there too. We got checked in and walked over to a chicken joint for some food.

No Where Bar

The pre show festivities were to be at the "No Where" bar, about six miles from the show site. I read on the H.A.M.B. that the party was scheduled to start at seven but that the place opened at noon and the owner expected the hot rods to start arriving at three. We decided to get over there early enuf to get good spots and headed out at about four. It was a nice rural drive on one road. I had Mother directing me but I didn't really need her. We all got spots right in front of the place.

Jon snapped a pic that well displays my antsi desire to get inside for the first cold one of the day. And a beaut of a day it is. Only one spot of rain on the way up from south Florida and none in sight here under the big trees and spanish moss.

Paul parked his stunning '47 next to a stunning '32 highboy at the end of the row in front of the bar. He later moved when the management started up the big outdoor grille behind him. He didn't relish trying the get all the animal fat off the car later. They were talking early on about roasting a pig but didn't get started soon enuf fer that. Turned out to be chicken. Nobody was complainin'. It was a good feed.

It looks like our timing was right on the button. New arrivals started comin' hot n heavy after this shot. The stock '32 Chebby sedan still has its 194 ci inline ohv engine and belongs to the owner of the bar. There were several nice Ford shoeboxes here including one I see on a regular basis at south Florida cruise-ins. It showed up at the No Where too but I didn't get a pic.

A lot of these vehicles had neato details and others had comical details. Some were both. The flat black '55 Chevy here had a cupholder anchored to the dash with an "emergency" can of rattlecan black primer in it. Some details were so subtle that they were easily missed. My buds pointed out several that flew under my radar.

By the 7 pm scheduled starting time, the place was rockin'. looks a bit like American Graffiti 'cept for all the old geezers like me and the fact that it's a Florida biker bar, not a south Cali burger joint but you know what I mean. As close as I'll ever come to it anyway. The owner had rolled the beer cart out on the porch so we didn't have to keep going inside to belly up at the bar.

They were lining up and down the road by this time too. Paul had moved the '47 Ford up here. It's just behind the Buick surf wagon pulling in. the guy who usually acts as the bar's bouncer was directing traffic and he was doing a pretty good job.

The artist who created this thing was here and he had a good story to go with it. He made it in the early seventies for a Hollywood movie studio and lost track of it after that. It turned up again a couple years ago after someone had got it at an auction (I think) for a few thousand bucks. The artist tried to buy it back but the new owner wasn't interested in selling. Time passes and the artist gets a call from a warehouse owner whose tenant skipped on rent. He threw the thing in a dumpster and it was still there. He told the artist to come and get it if he wanted it. Hope I got that right. i was a few beers down by the time the artist told the story.

I've always been drawn to these big block Ford engines. It is one rare gem to see in a rod. but it looks good there, better than being hidden under a hood. I like the way the louvered sheetmetal work is scuplted around the engine on this rod. I think this is a Boss 429 Hemi. The flathead pickup behind it has some nice big bearing racing wheels.

Jon jumped in the tow truck and went back to the hotel. This Caddy ragtop pulled into the empty space and set up as a picnic table. The owner (red shirt) sez it's a daily driver. That windshield is clear and there is no fog along the edges.

Another beautiful hiboy pulled in not long before we left. We split when it got dark and the music started. I'm an oldtimer now. Early to bed, early to rise. I put on a lot of nite life mileage when I was a younger fella. I'll leave it to the young guys to carry on. We did hang out in the Microtel parking lot for awhile when we got back to the hotel where some were takin' it easy in lawn chairs around their cars and others were wrenchin' on theirs.

Show Day

We were all up early, sipping on coffee in the Microtel lobby. The gate at Big Daddy's was to open for show cars at 9 am. After talking with others we had decided to get in line at 8 am. I led our three vehicle convoy out of the hotel lot and down the street to Big Daddy's. Thought I was going the wrong way when I couldn't find the line but our timing turned out to be perfect because the line was very short and the Poor Boys, Tampa chapter, were well organized. We were parked, side-by-side, in the third row fifteen minutes after leaving the hotel.

This Merc and stovebolt belonged to the SFCC out of the Altanta area. They were also based at the Microtel hotel. They drove several cars to the show and at least one bike and were active in the hotel lot both partying and wrenchin'. Next year, I hope I end up at the same hotel they are again.

This guy is the owner of the fine old Jimmy longbed. I didn't get a chance to talk to him. The Poor Boys were parking cars fast n furious and if you stayed in one spot too long, you could get run over, or worse yet, mess up their rhythm.

We were parked with Deerslayer on one side of paul's ragtop and Jon's tow truck on the other. After some show prep (for me, that amounts to opening the hood), we went for our first walkabout. It was a chilly morning and Jon lent me a pullover since I had left my jacket back at the hotel.

Since my interest is geared towards trucks, that's what I concentrated on during the show, Chebbys and Jimmys in particular. The Ferd was one of the few big trucks in the show field. like a lot of the non-traditional vehicles, it had many unusual details.

At first, I thought this old Chevy was a ute from downunder but after lookin' at it for awhile, I think it's a coupe that was turned into a pickup with El Camino inner bed parts. Nice body work. The two-tone paint job doesn't do much for me but I like the way the ss trim on the visor runs back over the door and down.

Many of the trucks had the "antiqued" door sign painting on them as well as pinstripping. The shop truck look is the current trend. I think I'm sticking to the farm truck look for my rigs. This Advance Design Chevy was nice n clean without any signs of rust.

This is a twofer shot. The paint is almost too "eighties" on the Task Force truck and the wheels on the Advance Design panel truck aren't quite right for this show but they are nice trucks, never the less. The Poor Boys applied the rules with a bit of flexibility. I think they were more concerned with not causing a bottleneck at the registration gate and I thank them for that.

The clean firewall on this '54-'55 1st series Chevy tells me that the weathered paint on this rig has been artistically distressed. The owner also appears to be taking the same "one section at a time" approach to painting the engine that my friend John Ray and I are doing with our trucks.

Between walkabouts, we hunkered down in lawn chairs behind Paul's ragtop. It's pretty amazing that my friend, "Bartender Dave" Earle found me here. He had come from Sopchoppy in his new El Camino. His friends were leaving and he didn't have time to chew the fat. Dave got a short tech review of Deerslayer before he took off. Five minutes later, I emerged from my senior moment and wondered to myself how I let Dave get away without a Deerslayer pic of him or walking back with him to see the new cruck (car+truck).

'Nother nice AD Chevy. Mild chop, shaved and smoothed. Cowl vents filled in. By the position of the front wheel, it looks like it has an IFS clip of some sort. My taste in these trucks runs to stock but I can appreciated a fine custom treatment as well.

This is a nicely detailed Chevy stovebolt engine. My best guess is that it's a 235. I didn't look close enuf to see if it has the 261's "captain's bars" on the side of the block. Looks like his front carby was acting up and he slapped a replacement on to drive to the show.

There were a lot of these rust rodents at the show. I don't have a big problem with them that some traditionalists do and I enjoy the well engineered ones. Sometimes the Beverly Hillbillys look is a bit contrived but it's no big deal to me.

The other end of this rig sports a real "rat" motor. You can see that the important parts are no nonsense and that the rustbucket image is limited to cosmetics. This vehicle was at the No Where bar and "terrorizing" the neighborhood around the hotel too. Great fun!

We walked the show a couple of times including Big Daddy's museums and the swap meet areas. We missed most of the music set tho' and that was a shame because "Knock Down Drag Out" blasted out some great rockabilly sounds despite the sun beating the hell out of theam and their equipment. I'd like to see these guys again. Too bad I don't live in Orlando.

Even Elvis was in the bullding and he stopped gryating long enuf for me to get a pic (Thank you very much!) One of Big Daddy's outbuildings was open with parts for sale. We wandered in and looked at some of the parts until I realized I was in a line. Big Daddy was at the other end selling parts and signing autographs. I'm not a autograph collector so I got out of line and went back outside. From the people I talked to, Don was selling parts for about one third the price they would bring on eBay. He was a gracious host. One of his Swamp Rats and a hemi powered air raid siren were on the lawn and he would fire them up periodically.

My camera was filled up by now and it was just about award time. Paul and Sam were driving back to south Florida after the show whereas Jon and I had booked our rooms for another nite. Paul and Sam and I went back to our vehicles. Jon was off somewhere so I left Deerslayer right where he was while Paul moved the ragtop across the field to the entrance and we set up our lawn chairs under the trees to watch the cars as they departed. Saw a few we missed that way. At one point Jon came by in the tow truck but we couldn't get his attention.

Paul and Sam and I watched about two thirds of the show vehicles leave before they thought it was time for their own departure. I walked back to my truck and got a Billetproof tee shirt along the way. Lines were long all day at the booth so I avoided getting one earlier. I talked to some guys back at the truck for awhile before heading off to the hotel where I linked up with Jon again.

Show Aftermath

A lot of activity out in the hotel parking lot for the rest of the evening. Sittin' around in lawn chairs drinkin' beer. The SFCC was holding a seminar on how to change the rear springs in a Chebby pickup to carry a motorcycle.

When Jon and I got up the next morning to depart around sunrise, some of the same guys were back out in the parking lot. I talked with this fella for some time. He drove this Jag powered tee bucket over 700 miles to be here. No top, no mufflers, just a leather face helmet to keep the skin on his face.

Jon and I checked out and gassed up at a station next to the hotel. Several others were gassing up here too. I had such a good time, I was sorry to leave. I haven't been to a lot of shows but Paul and Sam have and they said this is one of the best they have ever attended.

Jon took the lead and we cruised at sixty-five most of the way. The tow truck is lighter than Deerslayer by a lot and Jon sez it can get a little squirrely at speeds above seventy when there's some wind. It was a nice run back without rain. Paul and Sam hadn't been so lucky. They hit a hard rain the night before when they hit the Palm Beach County line.

Last gas stop before home at one of the turnpike service plazas. Jon and I were back in Boca Raton shortly after noon. We both made it to the sunday nite cruise-in later in the day. We didn't have any problems with the vehicles and it turned out to be a great roadtrip.

Billetproof Run POST Check

1.	Date and Time	March 22, 2009
2.	Odometer	89,918
3.	Odo Mileage	581
4.	Elapsed Time	53 hours
5.	Navigator Stats	523.9 mi Overall Avg 52.5 mph Moving Avg 61.4 mph Max Speed 83.0 mph

The difference between the odo mileage and navigator mileage above is because the navigator was not turned on all the time (when we were just "running around town" and not on a roadtrip leg). The speedo gear is also not a perfect match and runs a bit fast.

I had a great time and am already planning to go back next year. Many thanx to all involved especially the Billetproof folks, the Tampa Chapter of Poor Boys, Big Daddy Don Garlits and, oh yeah, all those cute gals who dressed up like hot rod wenches.

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued Monday March 30, 2009

Updated Monday June 25, 2018

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