CRUISING (kroo’zing) The act or an instance of driving around a city or town in search of diversion or kicks.
— American Heritage Dictionary
Cruising–driving around with no particular place to go, showing off your car, looking for something to eat, looking for girls, maybe for a quick drag race–was popular with young people after World War II through the ’60s.
Having a cool car was important, but not essential. The main thing was to be there.
Some drove hot rods or street rods, used cars that had been “souped up” for better performance. These rods often had customized bodies and special paint jobs–metallic, pearl flake and even graphic flames licking back from the front of the hood to show how “hot” the car was.
Most drove cars they had borrowed from their parents or old used cars they had purchased. These stock cars were outranked by the rods, but were better than nothing, a lot better.
In the ’60s, kids with money–theirs or the folks’–showed up in factory “muscle cars,” Detroit’s recognition of–and attempt to corner–the rod market.
In recent years, cruising has been enjoying a resurgence, with the “American Graffiti” generation now in its 50s and 60s and younger people who are fascinated with the flashy cars. Many car clubs set aside evenings for cruising and drive-in restaurants cater to the cruisers.
For 20 years, Duke’s Drive-In in Bridgeview has been the place for cruisin’ on Friday nights. And in June, Waukegan plans to allow its first Scoop the Loop cruisin’ nights in seven years.
If you plan to “cruise” at these or other events this summer, you should be putting your car together, said Paul Quinn, of Midwest Street Rods, Bolingbrook. It may take six months.
Cruisers are usually customized “street rods” built on cars of ’30s or ’40s vintage, or they are original cars from the ’30s through the muscle-car era, which ended with the oil crisis of the early ’70s.
Origins of heavily customized cars, with chopped tops and flame paint jobs, are barely recognizable. Most often custom cars retain the look like stock vehicles of the ’30s or ’40s, but with a modern drivetrain and other amenities, such as power windows and door locks and air conditioning.
The most popular engine with which to update an older car is the small-block Chevrolet 350 V-8, which Quinn said costs about $1,500 new and warranted. This modern high-compression engine replaces the 6-cylinder and V-8s that came in Chevys and Fords of the time.
“There are a number of firms which make parts for that engine,” he said, adding that a high-output engine would cost about twice that and a big-block Chevy V-8– of more than 400 cubic-inch displacement– would run around $4,200.
A GM 350 automatic transmission is a good mate for the Chevy V-8, he said, and heavy-duty front suspension and bolt-on front power disc brake kits are available at what he calls reasonable prices–generally less than $1,000. “A tilt steering column will add about $150 to $200,” he said.
“We’ll go as ’90s as you want–air conditioning, stereo CD players, power windows and door locks, it all depends on how much you want to spend,” Quinn said.
He said pearl flake paint is fashionable. A show-car candy-color pearl-flake paint job costs about $4,000, he said, about average for a show car. “We do graphics and flames, too,” he said, “but it all runs the cost up. Your finish will probably cost you more than your powertrain. But that’s what people see, so it’s what they want.”
Quinn said the most popular models for customizing at his shop are 1929-’34 Ford roadsters. Most get Chevy 350 V-8s. He said the pre-war ’40-’41 Willys is also popular because it easily takes a big block V-8.
Quinn said find a car with a good body. “A body with a lot of rust is going to run up the cost of modernizing it enormously,” he said. “Repairing the body is more costly than doing the mechanical work.”
A good place to start looking for a solid candidate for renovating is Auburn, Ind., where the classic Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg cars were built until 1936 and the annual Labor Day weekend auction at Kruse International takes place. It has become old car country.
Last Labor Day weekend in the Auburn Car Corral, an area where owners can display and sell their vehicles rather than run them through the auction, Billy Cole, of Springdale, Ark., showed his latest handiwork, a mauve and dark purple ’32 Chrysler coupe into which he had put a rebuilt 400-cubic-inch ’78 Chrysler V-8 along with the automatic transmission for that engine.
As is often the case with customizers, he installed a nine-inch Ford rear axle, a popular heavy-duty unit that can handle the torque from a big V-8. Quinn said most of the jobs he does use that nine-inch rear axle.
The car also had power brakes, steering, window and door locks, everything to make this ’30s machine into an easy-to-drive modern cruiser.
“I did all the work myself,” Cole said. “Any parts I couldn’t find, I fabricated in my machine shop.”
Cole had a price tag of $37,000 on the car. “It’s only got 2,000 miles on it,” Cole said. “It’s mostly a new car.” He said he has put just about $37,000 into the car. “That’s not counting my time and labor, of course.”
But Cole is retired and has the time, skill and interest. An easier and much less expensive way to get a suitable vehicle for cruising was parked right next to Cole’s Chrysler, a yellow ’68 Rambler Rebel SST convertible in like-new condition (cosmetically, at least), with a 343-cubic-inch high-output V-8, automatic transmission and a full array of power equipment. Its owner was asking $8,700.
That’s about the price of a good used car, but this is a vintage convertible. An advantage of buying cars from the “cruisin’ ” era is that they are not likely to depreciate unless you wreck them.
American Motors products may not have received a lot of respect in years before the company was acquired by Chrysler Corp. in 1987, but in the muscle car era, AMC was a tough competitor. Ramblers can arouse just as much nostalgia as a ’57 Chevrolet and nostalgia is a big part of cruising.
How does the cost of a ready-made cruiser compare with creating your own? Across Interstate Highway 69 from the Kruse auction grounds is the Auburn Classic Exchange, a used-car lot that deals in antiques, classics, special interests and street rods.
Among cars for sale that would make good cruisers are a ’32 Ford two-door with the original V-8, for $15,500; a ’48 Lincoln Continental V-12 coupe with 31,000 miles and excellent oil pressure, $16,500; and a ’50 Pontiac two-door straight 8 with Hydra-matic, $11,500.
“It’s usually cheaper to buy a finished car or a good original than to restore or customize your own,” said Sandy Rice, one of the owners of the business. “A lot of people buy good old cars for their cruising and avoid the costs of modernization and customization.”
In that category, she had a remarkable ’55 Mercury Monterey four-door V-8 with 16,000 miles, seat covers never off, for $8,500.
An original ’50 Ford two-door flathead V-8 stick was priced at $8,800 and a green ’57 Ford with 41,000 miles on the odometer was priced at $7,500.
If you want to re-create a particular car from your younger days and make it up-to-date and easy to drive, you may want to have your own built.
Quinn said any old car can be converted, even the odd makes. “We just recently finished a ’37 Nash,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be a Ford or Chevy. But we put a Chevy 350 in the Nash.”
He said there is increasing interest in late ’40s and early ’50s Buicks and pickups from the ’40s and ’50s.
Quinn said that while the Chevy 350 V-8 is what he recommends, his firm has installed other larger engines. “We’re working on a ’41 Willys right now which has a 540-cubic-inch big-block Chevy,” he said. “We have also put Chrysler Corp. V-8s, hemis and wedges, into rods and we have installed Ford Super Sport V-8s.
“We’ll do what ever the customer wants as long as his money holds out.”
