When more than 400 custom cars roll up and down Broadway on Friday night, it will carry on a tradition that began some 80 years ago in small towns all across America and has been a part of West Coast Kustoms since the club was formed in 1981.
The Friday night City Cruise, which in past years has drawn more than 1,000 spectators, will kick off West Coast Kustoms’ Cruisin’ Nationals car show Saturday and Sunday at the Santa Maria Fairpark.
Returning after being canceled last year by the COVID-19 pandemic, the two-day show will include an auto-themed art exhibit, a model car show, the 10th annual Brush Bash for pinstriping artists, live music and an auto parts swap meet that’s been expanded to two days.
But the cars that will rumble along all four lanes of South Broadway between Stowell Road and Cook Street from 6 to 9 p.m. will set the mood for the show-and-shine over the next two days.
In the 1940s, teenagers who owned hi-boys and hot rods would use a popular drive-in as their base for informal cruises up and down the “main drag” of their small towns, and the practice continued into the 1950s with custom cars and 1960s with muscle cars.
Even if you didn’t grow up in those decades, if you saw “American Graffiti,” you’ll understand.
West Coast Kustoms was formed by Rich Pichette and catered to a group of people who owned 1950s-era chopped, channeled, shaved, lowered and frenched custom cars who gathered for cruises at the Jet Drive-in he and wife Penny owned in Sunnymeade.
A prime yet unusual example is Tim Foster’s 1952 Chevrolet Styleline Deluxe. Although typically chopped and lowered, it isn’t powered by the usual V-8. Instead, it has a 250-cubic-inch straight-6 mated to a Turbo 350 transmission and a 9-inch Ford rear end lurking under its satin paint job.
But Foster, who’s known as Crazy Fast Cracker on Instagram, says it routinely eats V-8s for lunch.
“They’re shocked when I blow them off,” he said with a big grin.
Even more surprising, the car has 300,000 miles on it, and that doesn’t include the trip it made to Japan for the Moon Eyes Show.
Foster said he’s hoping to have it pinstriped in time for the Cruisin’ Nationals show.
While custom 1950s “lead sleds” are the backbone of the West Coast Kustoms show, a wide range of other vehicles will be cruising Broadway and on display in the Fairpark, like the 1932 Ford 5-window Coupe that Jim Snodgrass has owned for 23 years.
Originally owned by a man known as Flathead Jack, the car was powered by a Ford flathead motor, as were all his cars.
Now it’s powered by a Chevy 350 hooked to a Turbo 350 transmission and a Corvette rear end.
“I did everything on the car except the paint and upholstery,” said Snodgrass, adding he also cut the 132 louvers in the hood.
The coupe now also has independent front suspension, all-new wiring, plumbing and paint, its original metal fenders and original seat — but 1937 Ford taillights.
“I added those because I think they look good,” he said.
