Tinkering 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 and H.A.M.B. 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.

10. Revenge of the Tiki

May 17^th 2010  Took the day off friday to move more stuff from the Krash Lab to the new BillyBob Garage, then headed down to Davie for the friday nite cruise-in at Tower Shoppes. Anthony was there when I arrived and Lou got there shortly after I did. Lou and I ambled over to take a look at this army truck. It's a 5 ton, six wheel drive tractor with a continental engine. The owner paid about eight thou for it and drove it here to south Florida from Ohio. There's always a nice contingent of military vehicle restoration guys at this cruise-in every week. They all sit on olive drab camp chairs too.

SnSCC member "Boneyard" showed up to push the "Revenge of the Tiki" event we're holding on June 12th. I introduced him to Anthony and Lou. Lou is a retired policeman and was in the army. Boneyard was a LEO at one point and was in the navy. They started bantering like the barbershop scene in Gran Torino and there were some racial slurs thrown about in both directions. All in good fun but Anthony took it as an offense and I don't think he will be coming to the "Revenge of the Tiki".

After the cruise-in, I ended up at the Monterey Club and didn't get home to the Krash Pad until after three. At eight, I wuz movin' stuff to the BillyBob Garage again. At five, I met up with Anthony and Lou at the Champs saturday nite Happy Days cruise-in. "Gunsey" and "John" showed up too. We got our first time look at John's new '55 Chevy truck streetrod. Left-to-right are John, Lou (in background), Anthony and Gunsey admiring the Chevy big block engine.

On sunday, I went to an all day show in North Miami Beach. It was the Greynolds Park Love-In with several bands, vendors and a lot of grey-hair hippies. The Grass Roots played as the last event of the day. I almost didn't go when I discovered that "Coolers are not Allowed" on the flyer, but I had already committed to "Ronny", the guy who gave me the free entrant ticket on friday. I went without my cooler, only to discover coolers everywhere when I arrived. Ronny came thru and provided me with beers all day so all ended well.

One guy with one of those Chevy SSR roadster/pickups ran down his battery playing the radio all day and, since his buddies were already gone, I helped him jump it. The fact that he didn't know how to hook up the jumpers on this thing took some time to sort out. He didn't have his glasses with him so he handed me the manual after our first attempts failed. I hope we didn't burn any electronics by placing the jumpers where he thought they should go on our early tries. I was dirty by the time we were done since I had to crawl under Deerslayer to connect the cables (and I managed to find chassis grease with my arms and hat) so I went straight home to the Krash Pad and bypassed the sunday nite cruise-in.

May 25^th 2010  Only went to one cruise-in in the past week, sunday nite's coral springs cruise-in. I was the first there but Anthony, Lou, John Carey and the others were soon to follow. The heat of the day was burnin' off and it was pleasant under the palm trees behind the cars. "Dave" and his wife (of '29 five-window burn-out fame) showed up and hung out with us. He said he lost a lot of tire rubber on that tuesday nite cruise of weeks past with the Saints n Sinners. As much fun as it was, he wasn't going to do it as much in the future.

In between moving runs between the Krash Pad and the BillyBob Shop, I'm trying to get a work routine started with the trucks. Last nite, an oil change was performed on Deerslayer and monthly maintenance was taken care of a few weeks back. When I was crawling out from under Deerslayer, I noticed that the front bumper was loose. The mounting bolts had backed out a bit and since I was the last person to have the bumper off (during the radiator replacement op), I can only point a finger at myself. Maybe I should crawl around under Deerslayer soon and check for more loose connections. It's easier now that I have a concrete surface to roll on for the creeper and my hair is short enuf that it doesn't get tangled up in the wheels.

May 26^th 2010  Last nite was the last cruise-in for the Classic Diamonds in Delray Beach until the fall. We met up and cruised to a fifties diner in north Delray. Most of the group went inside to eat where they had reserved the "Monroe" room for us. No, not James Monroe, Marilyn. It has a life-size statue of the "steam grate" scene. I stayed outside with Morgan Brown, John Ray, John's neighbor, Joe, and a few others (They don't have beer and cigars in the diner). A good time was had by all.

May 30^th 2010  Not much accomplished this week except some detailing on friday nite for saturday's "Where the Boys Are" 50th anniversary celebration on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Saturday morning found me up at dawn and heading down to Fort Lauderdale's Holiday Park where the fifty preregistered, pre '65 cars were lining up for a police escort cruise to the beach.

We were provided coffee and donuts and cued up by our assigned numbers. The police arrived with six cars and we waited for the mayor who was to ride in the lead car. The mayor didn't make it and we set off just after nine.

The police ran the operation like a funneral procession and their cars kept leap-frogging the line of fifty classics from intersection to intersection. We didn't have to stop for lights and they were successful at holding most traffic back. Some numbnuts in a delivery truck got in the line at one point and rear-ended a '65 vette roadster right in front of a cop. The damage turned out to be minimal. This fella here was in charge of the police contingent.

We arrive at the beach. Weather report for rain today is 50% and we're getting ours right up front. The Cobra behind me backed into a parking garage at this point while we were waiting to get to our assigned parking spaces. A '58 Plymouth owned by a gal named Rita was behind the Cobra and she took up the slack. She ended up parked next to the Deerslayer.

We were directed to our numbered spots on the beach road A1A. The two blocks from the Elbow Room on Las Olas north to Cortez Street were blocked off from traffic for the event which included a screening of the movie in the evening and appearance by Connie Francis as well as several bands throughout the day. My spot ended up being right about where that '55 Chevy is in this pic.

I sat in Deerslayer until the rain died off. The '41 Caddy that the mayor was to ride in was one of the last cars parked. The mayor eventually got to the event in time to introduce Connie Francis. The rain was gone by ten-thirty and never bothered us again. The car show was judged at five in the afternoon but those of us who wanted to stay could stay parked where we were until they opened the road to traffic again. After the sun came out and I got a beer in my hand, I forgot about taking more photos.

Ended up a good day sitting on the sidewalk with my friends, Anthony and Fred, enjoying all the eye candy of the swimsuit crowd. Anthony and Fred left around six but I stayed around until ten. Then I went down to the Monterey Club where the Cupcake Burlesque Troupe were giving a "For the Boys" performance in honor of Memorial Day. They make their own costumes and they had made up WWII era Army and Navy uniform type outfits. I backed off on the beer early and went home tired and happy.

Cupcake Burlesque Troupe beauty, Leah, later presented me with a pic of her and lovely Tania, another girl in the troupe, and me in my full "You're my boy, Blue" glory. It's Leah's birthday but it looks like I'm havin' all the fun.

June 3^rd 2010  Went to the sunday nite cruise-in and handed out some flyers for our Revenge of the Tiki event on june 12th. Performed monthly maintenance on Deerslayer at the BillyBob Shop on tuesday nite after hoisting a load of banker boxes up into the loft and building up a sweat. Last nite was a Saints n Sinners organizational meeting for the Revenge of the Tiki show at the Monterey Club. One of the bands, Kings of Hell, backed out because of a death in a bandmember's family. That still leaves three bands.

June 8^th 2010  Nothing happened friday, saturday and sunday 'cept moving stuff to the BillyBob Shop. Heat indexes are in the hundreds and it's slow going. Sunday nite, I went to the cruise-in. Anthony was there but Lou was working. It ended up raining pretty hard for the last part of the evening but I got a few "Revenge of the Tiki" flyers handed out and Rockin' Rich, the DJ, announced the show for me between song sets.

Last nite was an organizational meeting at the Monterey Club (five days to go). The Monterey Club is closed on mondays but regulars are served if they show up and the owner is there. When I walked in, there was a guy behind the bar with Rob, the owner. Rob introduced us but I didn't focus on the guy's name. He gave me a firm, friendly handshake. Turned out to be David Cassidy who has a house down here and likes the Monterey Club for the anonymity it affords him.

He hung with us until we started our meeting. He has a Callaway vette he might bring to the event. We told David he would have to park it out front with the club cars as it was too new to enter the show. I said that if he brought the Partridge Family bus, it would qualify as a show entry. He said it would be hard to get it out of the Smithsonian. He was kidding. The original bus sat behind a taco joint for years and was carted off to a junk yard when the lot was repaved.

June 14^th 2010  Revenge of the Tiki is over and I am bone-tired. It started on friday nite with our last organizational meeting at the Monterey Club. We met there at five in the afternoon and, after the meeting, jumped in our rods and customs to cruise to different south Florida locations to advertise saturday's event. Clubmember Johan was riding with me in Deerslayer to our first stop, the friday nite crusie-in at Tower shopes in Davie. We were going west on State Road 84 and I decided to open Deerslayer up to give Johan an appreciation of the truck's performance. We outdistanced the other club cars and did some lane-changing to clear traffic. Johan is Wyotech trained and he noticed some pinging when I wuz slammin' the throttle. I probably have the carby a little too lean. We were coming up on a stoplight when Johan said "It runs pretty good . . . Does it stop too?" It does and it did.

After handing out Revenge of the Tiki flyers at the cruise-in and running into friends there we stopped for gas then went to the Quarterdeck restaurant in the same area for dinner. After dinner, Rod's '65 Chrysler Newport would not start due to a dead battery. Johan had gone off with his gal in her car earlier so Rod's wife, Kelly, rode with me in Deerslayer to our next stop while Rod and Boneyard went off for a battery. They would catch up to us later.

We cruised back to Fort Lauderdale for the Hukilau tiki event. We parked at Bahia Cabana and gave the valets big money to keep our cars up front and to move them ourselves. Then we walked down to Bahia Mar where the Hukilau was being held. Timing is everything and we were off. It cost us twenty-eight bucks a head to get in. We had to show the flag so we coughed up the dough. When Rod and Boneyard arrived later, they had stopped taking admission and those lucky bastards got in for free! We went back to the Monterey Club afterwards as we were too broke to promote the Revenge of the Tiki anymore. I got home to the Krash Pad at about a quarter to four.

Saturday was Revenge of the Tiki day. Club members got to the Monterey Club at noon to setup for the five pm event start time. Club cars parked out front to draw people in and because our rides were not entered into the judging. Shortly before this pic was shot, a little beatup red econo-box drove up and parked next to Rod's '65 Chrysler Newport (last car on the right). I walked over to tell the guy that he couldn't park there. In broken english, he said he just wanted a look at the Newport. He said "It is just like KGB Zil in my country!"

Deerslayer got a favored spot on the sidewalk in front of the Monterey Club and Kreepy Tiki Tattoos. If David Cassidy had shown up in his Callaway Corvette, this is where we would have put him. As it happened, he didn't make it and Deerslayer was in a good position when we set up a beer keg station on the walk after the main part of the show was over.

It wasn't long before we had a few SNAFU's. You know, no clear chain of command and more than one guy giving orders, often conflicting. We worked our way thru it tho'. We had planned on letting in cars at four but the guy with the most experience thought we had to be ready for cars arriving much sooner. My job grew to include gate guard and registration at the show entrance point. It was more than a one man job and a friend of the club, Joe, helped me. The guys parking the cars packed 'em in facing the stage (low bed trailer).

Almost the first cars to arrive were the Salvagers, a north Palm Beach, club. The wheels fell off immediately. I had my hands full handing out registration forms and wrist bands and taking in fees. Car and driver were $15 and passengers were $10. Walk-in's were $10 a head too. Some of the Salvagers' cars were overheating and I made a command decision to park them and do the registration work in place while Joe held down the entrance.

This act caused both the guys who were giving orders to give me hell (There were times when they were consistant). It wasn't long after that until I was replaced by the two guys who were originally scheduled for registration duties. I became a roving ambassador for the Saints n Sinners Car Club and filling in where I could.

My friend, "Burnout" Dave, arrived just after my friend John Carey and his tow truck. Dave went to Kreepy Tiki to get a large, multi-color tat he had designed put on his arm. John joined me in my "mall walk" as roving ambassador. I was drinking water and put off having a beer until after the sunset started.

The Salvagers made themselves right at home and set up their tent spanning their two rows of rides. The were strategically placed between the two beer tents and they had a good view of the stage. We had a lot of our problems ironed out by the time the bands started playing. There were still a few people who thought they were "entitled" to enter the event without paying the cover because they knew a club member, etc. One of our members suggested that we have shirts made up before we do this again that said "No, I'm not Rob and I don't know where he is!"

We had a good showing of vendors with some neat stuff but, 'cept for food and drink, not many were in a buying mood. Fernando had his hot dog stand set up and was offering Mexican delights as well as the hot dog concoctions and we had the BBQ guys that work many of our events. They had two whole hogs, one wild, cooking and they were busy way into the nite.

The Monterey Club's own DJ Stace was whippin' up the crowd between acts with his Elvis stylings and his vast array of rockabilly, blues and jump music. Where else would you have a stage on a flat bed trailer with a beer bucket next to the mike stand?

Burnout Dave and wife, Pattie. Dave was in the tattoo chair for a few hours. The resulting art is high on the "WOW" scale. He was smartin' and it was time for a few beers. Pattie asked if I had a lead on the burnout photos that were taken by the fellow who is doing a documentary of the club. I had to tell her that I didn't think I was getting the pics because I turned the documentarian away at the gate when he didn't want to pay the $10 to get in.

There were three headliner bands and two local bands. One of the local bands were a headbanger metal band that didn't fit well with some of the older fellas (like myself) and we started to lose some cars when they played. My friend, Bill Carroll had arrived without his car because he came late and didn't want to risk not getting it into the show. He was one of the ones who left at this time.

I ran out of memory in my camera before the first act appeared on stage. It doesn't take good pics at night anyway. The one band I did watch was the headliner "Cadillac Bombers", a rockabilly group. They were great and they played an early set and a late set at the end of the evening.

Late in the evening after the car show awards, the Polynesian Productions dancers performed and later the Cupcake Burlesque Troupe. Sometime around 11:30, I had a PBR toxic attack. I was sitting with Dave and Pattie watching the Burlesque troupe and I got nauseous. I struggled over to the porta-potties. There was no waiting. Everybody was watching the show. I sat in there until the dizzyness left. No more beer for me. In fact, I had finished my last beer an hour before the attack.

After the entertainment started to wind up, I went out front to sit on Deerslayer's tailgate. While I was there, a keg was dragged from the show area and and a table was set up next to me to sell beer from. Things were starting to wind down but we still had about three hours for them to run their course.

Several people came by to sit on the tailgate with me. Some were club members and some were strangers. The first one to sit down was this old drunk chick who I had turned away for not paying the $10 to get in. She eventually wore down one of the other clubmembers enuf to get a wristband. She wanted to talk about why I was an angry man. I didn't want to ~!@#$%^ talk about anything. She eventually wandered away again.

Then, there was the case of the malignant dwarf. This guy was not only a dwarf but also deformed and one of the Saints n Sinners thought he looked like a little T-Rex. I don't feel bad about saying these things because he was an obnoxious little prick. He had wandered over from the skating rink next door and it looked like he had been roughed up a bit there (or somewhere). His act was to mutter obscenities and grab any butt or boob in reach. He was also demonstrating what he wanted to do to the gals with his tongue. The guys kept running him off without hitting him but he would be back ten minutes later. This went on four or five times before he didn't come back. Maybe someone stomped his ass at the other place.

It was almost four before we were clear of patrons. We did some preliminary cleanup and got the expensive items inside, mostly electronics. I made it home to the Krash Pad about ten 'til six, just before daybreak. Managed to nuke some food and eat it before I faded. Met a bunch of clubmembers at four on sunday afternoon to do the rest of the cleanup. I slept good sunday nite.

< Back to IntroNo. 5 Cylinder >

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued Monday June 14, 2010

Updated Thursday May 10, 2018

copyright © 2008-2018 Larry R. Kephart all rights reserved