From The Staff
Still Crazy (About Cool Cars) After All These Years
By David Marin & The CruZin' Staff
CruZin’ into 2007 you’re lookin’ at Issue Number 1 of Volume 20. It’s kind of a momentus occasion for those of us who hammer an issue together every couple of months, but, in the grand scheme of things, we’re doing something that brings us a goodly amount of joy and satisfaction, and, we’re still crazy about cool cars.

That said, together with a huge thank you to our loyal advertisers and subscribers, we have to say that this issue has been a nasty bear. Mother Nature did a notable number on us, knocking out electricity, glitching computers and printers and phones. Suffice to say we didn’t exactly glide into our 20th year — it was more like a stumble, creep and crawl. But, we’re here, albeit late, the 2007 CruZin’ Calendar, eight pages and about 500 events listed will hopefully be helpful in the planning of your rod run and car show season. And don’t forget the hundreds of additions and updates that will appear in subsequent issues.

As for us, we’re grateful to be here, still doing what we do. We’re happy to bring you another “Rods in Progress” feature in this issue and hope to more and similar features during the coming year. We’re also looking forward to sharing with you our latest project — the resurrection of the CruZin’ blown HEMI powered 1941 Plymouth Pro Street convertible. If you’ve been with us long enough you may recall the Plymouth going together in a lengthy series of “how-to” articles way back when. The car was intimidating to drive on the street; so much horsepower that rounding corners was always a thrill. Anyway, we “mothballed” the Plymouth in about 1993 and went on to other projects. There was the ’36 Ford pickup that we put together with a 383 Chev stroker mill, a fun little truck, then there was “Da Beast”, our beloved 1958 GMC 1-ton 4x4 window panel which was finished and shown just once before burning to the ground in a catastrophic fire. Then we hooked up with the ’49 Ford Woodie Wagon which carried us many thousands of miles during the past few seasons.

Now we’ve torn into the ’41 Plymouth. The HEMI engine is in the most capable hands of Walt Austin at Walt Austin Racing in Tacoma. The dual quad fed 671 blower is gone and all the “HEMI innards” are being changed to turn the car into a “daily driver”, fed by a Hilborn Electronic Fuel Injection system. Clean up, body repair general reconditioning and paint work is happening at (Clyde) Moslander’s Rod & Custom in Monroe, WA; Clyde and his crew are superb craftsmen and do everything in a timely and professional manner. There are others involved in this project and we’ll share the complete story of the “resurrection” in an upcoming issue. Meanwhile we’re burning the midnight oil trying to get the Plymouth “showable” for the 1st annual Invitational Salem Roadster Show, February 10-11, 2007. If we don’t make that, and it will be close, we’ll be front and center at the 51st Portland Roadster Show, March 2-4, 2007 at the Oregon Convention Center. We hope to see you at one, the other, or both events.

Stay low in the curves and Keep CruZin’,
David Marin & the CruZin’ Staff