Issue No. 15 October 1998
By Geoff G Rea
A few years back I headed down to Port Fairy for the Rod Run that's held down there in early January. Over the weekend I got to stripe quite a few cars, and to actually take a ride in Wizzie Scott's Merc Custom, with Rick 'Hoey' Beljan at the wheel. During the weekend I had thrown the keys to the coupe to a number of people, one of which was Tom Knezvic (who is building a real nostalgic '34 roadster). Most people thought it was real neat to take a ride in and drive my old coupe. Anyhow, this unbelievable weekend (you had to be there) soon came to an end.
As all Victorian rodders know, the annual VHRA rod show is held at the end of January. As the DLRA had a stand at the show, I cruised down in the coupe on the Sunday to lend a hand. At the show I ran into quite a few people who I'd met with at Port Fairy a few weeks earlier, including Rick Beljan. Rick told me that everyone was heading out to Craig & Tracey Watson's for a BBQ and invited met to tag along. At Craig & Tracey's we had a very enjoyable couple of hours. Around mid afternoon, Rick asked me if I'd like to go around to his place, and check out his models, which we did. At Rick's place, Craig suggested that we go and check out his father's cars. Anyhow I threw the keys to the coupe to Rick, not expecting him to toss me the keys to his Merc. Well, we headed off, with me in the Merc with Tom Knezvic and a couple of other guys, following the coupe (it's not often you get to see your own car going down the road, hey it sure looked good).
Picture this. Here I am at the wheel of Wizzie's chopped Merc, and Tom strikes up a conversation that went something like this. Tom says to me as he's watching the coupe go down the road "I can't believe it. I first saw your coupe on the cover of Custom Rodder when I was in my last year of high school, and now I've actually driven it". Tom then asks me has anything that neat ever happened to me? Well, I say to Tom, "Yes, as a matter of fact, it's happening right now." Yes, for me it was a really neat experience riding in Wizzie's Merc, and then to actually drive it! Let alone the fact that it was the first car I had ever striped for someone else!
It's funny how such a couple of simple little experiences like these can leave such lasting memories about a particular time in your life, or an event that your participate in. Actually, I'm sure we've all had many hot rod experiences like these. Hey, that's Hot Rodding!
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