Blogs of The 7 Valley Street Rods - Stories and Hot Rod Descriptions

Dick & Dave Stoker's 1940 Ford Standard Business CoupeDick & Dave Stokers's 1940 Ford P/U    This is a story of our trip to Memphis Tn. for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in 1980 with our friends and Club Members Gary Volpicelli and Alan Mitchell . We drove  our 1940 Ford 2 door Deluxe Sedan , Gary drove his 4 inch chopped  30 Model A P/U and Alan drove his work in process 1940 Ford 2 door Standard Sedan . Alan had gotten the Sedan in April and it was thrown together rather quickly by him , Dick , Ron Weibly , and I in about 5 months of very late night work sessions at the garage . We put a 283 SBC with a 350 turbo in it with a Nova rear, we got it done so we thought about a week before we were going to leave for the Nats .

    Alan plans were to leave on Friday night and go to Illinois to see some relatives of his first wife Donna's with Gary and Dick and I leaving Saturday after work about 6 PM , this part of the plans went fine . Gary and us left about 6 as planned and drove to just inside Ohio for the night , got up early the next morning and drove to Kingsville Ohio for breakfast at one of my favorite little truck stops . Back on the road and traveling in the passing lane as was our usual lane we were making go time until we heard the truckers talking on the CB about a Smoky up ahead in the center so we backed it down and got to the right . We got pass the Smokey and he pulled out heading our way , he got next to Gary and then next to me and asked us to pull to the side which we did. He got out of his car and came back to me and asked if we were traveling with another car and I said no and he said there was a woman named Mitchell that had called the troopers and asked to be watching for us , now I knew what he was talking about . It seems Alan had broken down and was at the next exit at a tow truck drivers house looking for us , we got directions from the trooper to the tow truck drivers place and were on our way . Alan had meet a great guy in the tow truck driver and he had put Alan and his family up for the night and fed him and was letting him use his tools to work on the Sedan , he had rubbed a hole in his Transmission pan and lost all his fluid . when we got there they were sure glad to see us and we went to work pulling the pan off and trying to repair the hole which we did.

    We were back on the road in no time and running together and it was decided that we would run together to Terre Haute Indiana where Gary and us would head south to Smithland Ky to see relatives of Dick and mine and wait for Alan to meet up with us in a day or two. We were making good time in the passing lane again until Alan wore  another hole in the tranny pan , we made it to the next exit and bought some more fluid and used our copy of Fellow Pages to locate a guy near Indy who helped us out with a new tranny pan and the use of his home to get it back on the road and another whole chapter of stories that could be told . Again we were back on the road and stayed the night in Terre Haute and in the morning Alan headed west and Gary and us headed south . 

    It's about here where  I should tell you about the " Lightning Rod" it was a 104 inch antenna with a strobe light on top that I had gotten from one of my warehouses when I worked for Dave Cardner at Crown City Speed Shop , I had it for a couple of years and hadn't put it on anything because Dave said I would be the biggest squarrel in town. This thing would thrown a arch of light in about a 40 foot circle ,boy was it bright . We decided we were going to put it on for our trip to Memphis and use it a little , traveling out on the interstate on a flat road you could see it about 5 miles . Traveling down the interstate between Terre Haute and Evansville we used it a couple of times and you should have heard the truckers talking , you could hear them coming at you on the CB saying [ what the hell is that ] , like I said you could see it for 5 miles . We had a great time on that trip with the light and if I could have gotten any more of them would have sold a lot .

This is my street rod at the New York State Fire Chief's Conference this past June at Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Oneida, New York.  My previous employer, Spartan Motors of Charlotte, Michigan, always displays their custom fire truck cab and chassis's at this trade show.  I have always helped them with this show, even after I retired, and several years ago they asked me to bring out my Fire Chief's Car and put it in their outside exhibit area. It was such a hit that I have done it every year since. It is a good conversation piece and gets many comments from firefighters and fire chiefs.   

   Back in late 1999 there was a rumor going around that a couple of guys were going to try to put on a national type of car show in the Syracuse area , they approached the Car Club Association of Central New York about helping them with it by having members of the Association help man some of the jobs during the show . The Association decided to volunteer to help and the show would  donate money to the Association to be given to some of the charities in  the area . Our Club asked to work the gate where all the show cars entered and our job would be to check and make sure that they had the right credentials on the car to get in and that the car meet the year restrictions for the show and to take the tickets of the people in the cars . The club was allowed to do this job and we started with their first show in 2000 and have been doing it every since . After a couple of years the 2 guys started The Right Coast Association a car club association like N.S.R.A and Goodguys and the Syracuse Nationals had it's own group . The 2 guys eventually split and 1 of them  Bob O'Connor stayed with it and  with the help of his family now control  Right Coast . The Car Club Association still works for the Syracuse Nationals but  the Clubs that were working now get the money so they can use the money to support charities in their area.

   Our Club has worked the Car Gate [ Gate 10 ] at the New York state Fairgrounds for the Syracuse Nationals since the first show and have had to make a lot of changes in the last 15 years to keep up with the growing number of entries , to keep the cars moving and not cause any bottle necks . We work in 3 different shifts with the first shift getting there about 3:30 - 4:00 AM to start the day . Over the years the early morning shift has been getting more and more cars there early for that special spot everyone is trying to get in on the grounds . We go out and walk the line and check the cars and take tickets on the first group of cars so that when the gate opens they can get right in and create less time for them to move , that first group of cars through is something to watch as they go thru . the first crew works till about 9- 10 in the morning and the next crew takes over for them till about 1 when the 3rd crew comes on . We have a pretty good time working the gate and have made a lot of friends as they come thru having fun  with them is part of the job .

Hello everybody, my name is John Zachary I live in Cortland,NY. I have always been a car guy. I grew up watching my dad (Ron Zachary a founding member of Seven Valley Streetrods) chopping tops, and spraying Candy Colors on friends cars in our garage in Scott, NY. Dave Johnson Sr. and dad painted a lot of show cars in that garage, I remember most of them winning awards at most of the shows in the 70's. During the summer we would travel all over the east going to car shows. Like the Hickoy Rod Run, Norwich, Little York, the East coast Nationals in Maryland, and  Carlisle, PA.  It was a great way to grow up. In the winter dad would go to the indoor shows NY.  The Club would always win best club display, and most of the cars in the club would bring home some tropheys. When I was 18 I bought a 76 Monte Carlo from St Petersburg Fla. My dad painted it black and I polished and cleaned that car all the time. I drove it for 8-9 years storing it in the winter, it only had 78000 miles on it the last time I drove it. After a divorce it sat in a garage for 12 years, just sitting there. My sons said that they wanted to get it back on the road but never really had the chance to get it running again. Just last year I sold it. I really didn't have any kind of cool car while I was raising four children, but now they are all adults, so this past summer I bought a 2010 Camaro.  It feels great to have a car to clean and polish every weekend, and to have people say nice car when ever I pull into a gas satiation or store. I had forgot what that felt like, It's really cool. My son Cruz and I went drag racing with it this past summer 5-6 times. We had a blast doing it.  I made it to two semifinal rounds,and Cruz won the whole thing at ESTA in the street trophy class. After that we were hooked. So now I am back into the whole car scene full bore, with my Camaro, and writing and taking pictures for Hot Rods & Harley's Magizine.  I don't own a cool Street Rod, but covering car shows and writing about them lets me enjoy the hobby as much as the next guy.  I love seeing what guys are doing these days to their rides, and how some of that old school  stuff is creeping back into the cars being built today.  I hope that we can get some young blood interested in the industry, that is the future of the Club, and the future of Hotrodding.

Our 40 Sedan had a very good life in the early to mid 70's - 80's , we did a lot of street racing with her which meant she was always getting new parts put on her . Not from being broken but to go faster . When we got the 40 from our sister-cousin-aunt Jeanie " that's another story " she was all a part , her 1st husband Ed had raced her on the streets of Syracuse for a couple of years and done real well and had taken her a part to make a Drag Car of her . She came to us with a 66-67 Chevy 327 Cu inch engine out of a Elcameno  which meant she had a good steel crank in her belly , we wasted no time in putting together parts for a killer engine . We went through several  sets of heads until we ended up with a good set of 2.02 's , we did the same thing with cams and intakes . One of the best intakes we ended up with was a polished Edelbrock tunnel ram which we put 2 / 600 cfm Holly's on , we ended up with a GM experimental cam for Tran's Am that gave her a lot of RPM's and Pete Jackson Gear Drive in her nose . We ended up buying a Borg Warner Super t-10 from Dave at Crown City Speed Shop and went to work there with the drive train , she got a 50 lb. flywheel and a 3 finger clutch for the shifting . Then came the Hurst Competion Plus shifter and the 4:88 gears in the rear . For headers we used a set of Stahl fender wheel exit  headers that we picked up from the Place-Harris -Outwater 55 Chevy . With this bunch of parts she lead a good life on the streets and was one to be feared .     Her life today is a much easier life , the old 327 had a piston come apart in her and ruined the block but I'd have to say she was probably one of the strongest small blocks in the area for her day . Today she has a 355 Cu. inch block from Racing Head Service in her with the same intake but with 2 / 390 cfm 's on top a Comp Cam with Rhoades Lifters and air conditioning for travel  and a TCI automatic Trans.                

    In  the mid 80's a local band The Rods asked if we would let them use our Sedan in a video they were making for their song Hurricane we said yes and this is the video

http://www.frequency.com/video/rods-hurricane/8363079

THE RODS are a classic heavy metal trio that rocked their way through the 80's with a powerful, raw energy that led them on tours with some of today's greatest metal bands—Judas Priest, Ozzy, Motorhead, and Metallica, to name just a few.

Listeners will find that THE RODS are still a force to be reckoned with today, as they come screaming full-throttle into the present day with a forceful vintage sound.