Viva Las Vegas #13 Recap

VLV passed weeks ago, and like a good little author I actually posted on it while it was happening! But…unlike a good little author, I only shared the news over at MyRideisMe.com. So, GreaseGirl fans, I’m sorry. I won’t keep you in the dark anymore…

As I wasn’t sure my new exhaust would be on, I had already decided to leave Stude at home. Not to fret, because I got to drive on over with my favorite group of car club fellas, the Throttle Kings. The drive from LA to Vegas was terrific and really, one of the highlights of my weekend! I did miss having Stude, but I sure am looking forward to the ladies car club getting together for a cruise soon!

This year at VLV was all about cars for me (the amount of rockabilly music there is amazing though!) During Saturday’s car show I believe the car count was somewhere between 800 to 1000! I’m torn between two favorites. There was a Faded Suede Orange 1953 Chevy Custom by Gambino Customs which is just pretty and catches your eye. But then I also found this detail oriented hot rod Ford Pickup that I fall more in love with each time I look at her picture. I choose these as two of my three top pic’s of the show – you can see the top 11 pics from MyRideisMe at Top 11 Car Show Favorites.

Each time I’m at Viva Las Vegas I’m both enthralled and amused at the cast of characters that floods The Orleans hotel each year. Being within the rockabilly scene, I’m in my element. But to rockabilly outsiders, it would be an absolute trip to be in the middle of all these characters! I couldn’t let another year go by without sharing some of the people watching fun with you.

And just to prove to you VLV isn’t all drunken debauchery…my favorite picture from the weekend. Dad + daughter + explaining to her what’s so cool about hot rods=priceless. As always, I’m looking forward to next year’s VLV14. Until then there’s tons of events I’ll be at, I try to keep a current list over to the right on the sidebar under “upcoming events.” Drop me a line if you’re gonna be at any of them!

Viva Las Vegas Coverage over at MyRideisMe.com

• Roadtrip to Viva
• 2010 Viva Las Vegas First Look
• People Watching at Viva Las Vegas
• Top 11 Car Show Favorites
• Photo Gallery – Grease Girl’s Pictures
• Photo Gallery – Swanee’s Pictures

Gettin’ Girlie at Viva Las Vegas

So I know ya’ll are dyin’ to hear what the ladies were up to during Viva Las Vegas 12. If you had the privilege of being present, you already know that Viva Las Vegas was swarming with some of the purdiest ladies you ever did see. While you fellas might’ve been out merely lookin’ for ladies – I was lookin’ for fellow Grease Girls.

Being that the car show at VLV draws one of the biggest grouping of home-built cool traditionals, customs, and rat-rods – I was hoping I’d find a few of those “builders” who also happened to be ladies. As Stude (my own 1955 Studebaker Champion) and I arrived on the lot Thursday evening, many other cars had already arrived, but we were the only girl-owned car so far.

By the time Saturday rolled around the entire lot reserved for the VLV 12 Shifters Car Show was full, with ample stragglers in The Orleans parking lot.

As soon as I showed up on the scene Saturday morning, I wholeheartedly began my search for fellow car ladies. You’d think finding other lady car owners wouldn’t be too much work – but with so many people, things to do, and pin-up models mulling around – finding anybody is a challenge! The first couple of ladies I encountered were local Las Vegans. One had a Metropolitan Nash – who even though she’d owned it for 17 years had never needed to do any work on it – she did tell me she’d managed to stuff all of her young grandchildren (11 I think) in there at once! Another was a 61 Mercury Meteor Mama, while she was a pro at pin-up girl hair as she coiffed her daughters goldy-locks, it sounded like she hadn’t gotten too greasy under the hood of her ride.

The day was beginning to pass by and I still hadn’t found another woman who did any work on her car. I did hear elusive rumors of the presence of a couple girls car clubs – The Vixens and The Fender Skirts – but never managed to nail down any of them OR whether they had cars present!

Just when I was losing all hope, I ran into not just another lady – but another Studebaker owner! Pinkie drives a 1958 “Pink” Studebaker Wagon. She spent 2 years restoring this baby which rolls with the original Studebaker V-8 engine. Just like me, she didn’t know much about cars when she got into this and has kind of learned along the way. But she learned enough to do the needed body and engine work – with some help from friends. She’s had the Stude for 12 years now and enjoys going to various car shows, sometimes with her fellow members of the Sequoia Chapter of the Studebaker Drivers Club, where she loves to see people’s reactions and delight in response to her bright pink baby!

Glad to have found at least one fellow Grease Girl, I headed over to catch up with the Pin-Up Angels (article’s on the way!) when I ran into Becky Sue and her not just one car, but two! The first car, a 1952 Packard, was her VLV 11 project. Her first classic, she got it just a month before the show last year. Within that time, she and boyfriend Matt of Department of Customz(matt@docustomz.com), completely restored the Packard to a nice and clean (with some fun details) classic. The only thing they didn’t get to within that tight time-frame was the headliner. In it’s place they painted the interior roof white and leave it open for new friends to leave their mark with Sharpies (myself included!)

As if the Packard wasn’t enough, Becky Sue’s car for this year is a 1963 Comet. This one didn’t require too much work from them – as it’s in super-terrific original condition as-is. What I love about Becky Sue and her car’s is that they’re fun, driven often, done with style, originality, and her own hard-earned sweat.

I was glad to meet the ladies I did – and hope that next year more will come out of the woodwork – I mean, er, engine grease. Who knows…since Becky Sue and I are both in So Cal there’s already been mention of a car club forming. Whose name is exactly what I pondered as I made the drive back across the desert to home sweet home.

This year’s Viva stood up to it’s reputations. Cool Cars. Purdy Women. Plenty of Pabst and Lots of Music. Stude and I will be back next year – and ladies, I’m planning on there being more Grease Girls represented – so start gettin’ your hands dirty now! If I missed any fellow Grease Girls at Viva – leave me a comment and let me know about your ride. All you ladies out there who call So Cal home, drop me a line, I’d love to set up a gathering! Viva la Grease Girl!

For more fun Viva photos check out my photos page for Viva Las Vegas-the cars or Viva Las Vegas-the other fun…or check out tons more from other folks over at MyRideIsMe.com!

All Sorts of Workin’!

This past weekend has been busy! First of all, I would like to introduce you all to MyRideIsMe.com – who I’ve been lucky enough to pair up with! It’s a super cool site that lets you connect with other car folk from near and far. Grease Girl articles will be featured over on MyRideIsMe.com - we’re just unveiling my first introductory piece, check it out!

Other than writing, I’ve been doing LOTS of working this weekend too. Many preparations came down to the wire getting ready for Viva Las Vegas. At home there’s been outfits to sew (gotta look good!) and in the garage the transmission needed switched out in the Stude and the headliner finished. I had wanted to get a little pinstripping done, but I think that’s gonna have to wait.

Believe it or not – everything was accomplished! Well…everything but that vintage-era bathing suit I wanted to make. So click on over to MyRideIsMe.com and check back soon for the finished Headliner How-To as well as a Transmission 101 article!

And you know where I’ll be next weekend!!! I hope to meet lots of you then, but if you can’t make it to Viva, you know where to find pictures of the shenanigans and crazy rockabilly custom cars and rat rods afterward!

Studebaker sighting

I began this post to mention another blog post I found on the 50-51′ airplane nose Studebaker. It has a great little summary of some company history, which is what I like so much about it. It can be found at FinsandFenders.com

However, as I typed “Studebaker sighting”, I couldn’t help but remember the day I earlier this year when I was headed towards home down the 110 freeway and rolled right up on this brother car. I mean, what are the odds!? The funny thing was, I’d seen this picture of the car before, on a club website, as I was searching the internet for Studebakers. (I believe its the Orange Empire Studebaker Drivers Club.)

We gave each other the thumbs up while eye’n one another’s car. I was so excited on the inside…I wanted to pull over together and do a little dance. But I kept my cool exterior and headed on home. I hope one of these days we’ll met again around town.

While we’re on the topic of brother cars, I should mention my buddy Scott, who drives a 53′ Champion. Out of approximately 800 cars showing at Viva Las Vegas last year, Scott had the only Studebaker (I heard there was one more, but failed to sight it)! Of course we became immediate buddies and our little Studebaker cruise truly topped off that weekend. Aren’t our cars so cute together!?
Speaking of Viva Las Vegas…I’m looking forward to being there again this year (this time with the Stude in the car show)! So if you can make it to Vegas this April – it’ll be tons of fun and I’d love to meet you!

Howdy!

For all those guys who thought girls were just purdy. And all those women who thought cars were just dumb.

I’ll always be all lady – but I hope to increasingly become more of a grease monkey! My daily driver is a 1955 Studebaker Champion. I had some help getting her on the road initially – but I’m doing my darndest to learn all I can as we go from here on out.

So this blog will be the place to learn about cars through my eyes. There’s all sorts of things that car guys take for granted that they know. Like what in gosh darn is a gasket?! I’d been hearing that word for years before I figured out exactly what it is.

So enjoy this journey with me…it’s been fun so far! And if I do say, my car and I are usually the cutest ones in the garage!!!