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Story and Photos by: Roger Rohrdanz For 23 years Larry Wood has taken his friends on a tour of his favorite garages. This year the “Garage Tour” started at Steve’s house, thanks for the hospitality. Larry arrived and passed out the maps, that’s when we get to see where we are going. This year 6 of the 7 stops are in Orange County. At the first garage Glen said he collected “original” cars that had some meaning to him. “Original” means cars that have not been restored. He got in his very original ’32 Ford sedan, with lots of “milk glass” windows, and followed the Tour to the next stop. Dave’s Machine Shop had several nice restored rods including a wooden cabbed early 1910’s Ford truck. All of the 100 or so cars on the Tour moved from stop to stop at their own pace, so we get a little strung out over the route. The infamous Stan Betz opened his garage for us. He was there with his amazing collection of movie memorabilia. Gary Dagel had been cruising with the Tour from the beginning, next we stopped at his interesting shop in Orange, CA. The map said the next stop had trailers? Wow! These were cool old trailers! At Mike Keenan’s garage he restores small Airstream, Spartan & other aluminum trailers. The woodwork inside is absolutely gorgeous! Obviously I liked that stop. Now we jump on the freeway and give our Hot Rods a little exercise while going to Yoder’s Sign Shop. He produces some very unusual signs and has collected enough cool antique signs to cover all the 20’ high walls of his shop. Next we walked to the magic metal shop of Steve Davis. He is currently crafting 2 landspeed cars, and very cool place to finish the Tour. Thanks to Larry Wood and these garage owners for opening up for us on New years Day!! Thanks for the show! |
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For 23 years Larry Wood has taken his friends on a tour of his favorite garages. | Steve always has breakfast ready for the start. Thanks Steve. | |
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Early arrivals start lining up. | Larry Crane, Editor of Auto Aficionado magazine, arrives in his cool 1953 Ford. | |
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This cool bike is a VREX form Travertson in Florida. It is V-Rod powered, the "Travert" front end is very unudual. The owner is Jack Reynolds of Lake Forest, CA. | ||
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The red "batwing" 1959 Chevy belongs to Carson Lev. | ||
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Tom Sneddon brought his Pontiac powered '30 Ford "Lakes" Coupe all the way from Encino, CA. | ||
Sitting on the front wheel of his flamed '26 Ford "T" Raodster, enjoying some time in the warm sun, is the co-host of America on the Road, Mike Anson. | ||
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A couple of other interesting cars on the tour | ||
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Haulin' a special Richard Graves built Midget pedal car is what Jack Plymell from Long Beach, CA likes to do with his '30 Ford pickup. | ||
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At the first garage, Glen said he collected "original" carss that had some meaning to him. | ||
![]() Cars lined up waiting to go to the next garage. |
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Styled after a 1911 Ford, Steve Pennington's totally custom, small block powered woodie is as his license says, "WAWHOOO". | ||
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![]() At Dave's Machine Shop this Ford injector intake manifold was laying on a beach with a very rare Ford/ Autolite inline carburetor sitting on top. As far as I know, the carb won't fot the manifold, but maybe that's why its here? |
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Dave's Machine Shop had several nice restored rods, including a wooden cabbed early 1910's Ford truck. | ||
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The unique Peterbuilt Deisel joined thee Tour at Dave's Machine Shop. | ||
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Looks like Betz had his way on this asphalt. | ||
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Next we sstopped at Gary Dagel's interesting shop in Orange, CA. | ||
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At Mike Keenan's garage he restores small Airstream, Spartan & other aluminum trailers. the woodwork inside is absolutely gorgeous! | ||
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Yogi's Sign Shop produces some very unusual signs and has collected enought cool antique signs to cover all the 20' high walls of the shop. | ||
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The magic metal shop of Steve Davis. He is currently crafting two landspeed cars, and a very cool place to finish the Tour. | ||
Thanks Roger! | ||
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