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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Fred Stokes Ranch Car Show

Last weekend, the Redwood Empire Classic Chevy Club in Santa Rosa sponsored a car show up at Fred Stokes Ranch. Any car built prior to 1970 was eligible for entry into the show and the cost was $5 per person to walk in or $10 per car to drive in. Since, it was just as cheap to ride right through the front gate and park in the middle of the show than it was to park miles away and hike to the event, my friend Matt and I went along with my father and sister Rose and we went up in a pair of Dad's 1930's vintage International pickups. As we rolled up, it was pretty clear we were in the right place:

Fred Stokes Car Show
Fred Stokes' ranch is an interesting showpiece in itself. This is the second time I've been up there, but I didn't have my camera last time. Here's a shot of the entrance to his workshop:
Stokes Garage The left-hand end of the building houses what is likely the largest collection of unopened, antique oil cans in the world. Inside the rest of the building there's several automotive works in progress and enough frame and body parts to make half a dozen more.

The rest of the ranch has all sorts of neat features planted all around, including this antique, pre-fabricated filling station:
Signal Station

So that was the venue, now more about the cars. There was a wide variet of perfect restorations, vintage hotrods, gassers, and fascinatingly modified rat rods. So without further ado, here's a handful of pics of really shiny cars:
Chrome
This Chevy pickup was parked right inside the entrance. My mother drives around town in a very similar truck most days:
Shiny Chevy
I'm not sure why this one caught my eye, but it's got lots of louvres:
Louvered
Next to it was this gorgeous Chevrolet Sedan Delivery:
Shiny Chevy Sedan Delivery
Among the shiny cars was this nice, red Mustang:
Shiny Mustang
And this Oldsmobile:
Shiny Olds
On the subject of Oldsmobiles, someone showed up with a stretched limousine version:
Stretch Oldsmobile Limo
Speaking of modified:
Satin Black Hotrod
I'm not sure why, but for some reason this Hudson really grabbed me:
1937 Hudson
There was also this nice, black Ford pickup:
Shiny Ford Pickup
With all sorts of shiny:
Ford Chrome
But as Ford pickups go, I still prefer the 1949-1951 versions:
Black F-1
I really liked the yellow one:
Yellow F-1 Front
I got another look at it as it was leaving:
Yellow F-1 Rear
There were some fun rat rods there too:
Blown Rat
I really liked this super-tacky one:
Tacky Rat Rod
But my favorite from the whole show was this monstrosity:
Scary Black Monster Truck

I even liked the details:
Skull Details

Those were the best of the pics I took, but here's a slideshow from photobucket user "Vet65te":



Not a bad show.

4 comments:

  1. That’s a lot of beautiful cars in one place! How I wish I have one of these beauties. They all look stunning! The owners of these autos definitely did a good job on the maintenance and restorations. It looks like they came straight from a time machine and gathered in one place so we can admire them, especially that limo-like auto. Isn’t it cute?

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  2. Look at those vintage autos! They are all eye-catching and stunning. Well, most of them are still working, which is a relief. Seeing them rollin’ on the streets makes you wonder about the life way back then. One thing is for sure – it is classy and stylish like these cars.

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  3. When is this years show?
    2013
    irish.dee@att.net

    thanks

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  4. Michael Thomas18 April, 2013 10:57

    Hi, checked out this site on a referral from the RECC as we are looking for a "get in and go" classic car. We have a 1965 Chevy truck that was my husbands grandfathers and we are currently restoring it from new crate engine, to new floor mats, window rubbers etc., but just do not have the time to just work on it constantly until it is done. Don't know how to do the electrical, but will pay for that to be done right. The seats are already reupholstered, but really would like to invest in an already done Chevy that we can just get in and drive with no worries. If anybody has one that they are listing for sale please email us a pic, the info and price. We pay cash so that should tell you how serious we are. email is thegreekone@comcast.net. we are here in Sonoma County, California. Thank you so much.

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