Bensenville Cruise Night 9-26-2012 Season finale post

the bandstand

Another helluva night for cruisin’ Bensenville with perfect weather, lit up trees in the park and a bright moon, although not well paced for many car photos. And sadly, the season for Cruise Nights in Bensenville came to an end.

The three piece Soul Patch Monkey band entertained and they covered lots of Beatles tunes. My teaser gallery for the event includes night shots, because that’s my favorite, but I have many daylight images that I will post when I catch up.

My teaser gallery of night shots is here and a section devoted to familiar cars (to avid readers of my blog) is at this link. Two new cars, of Frank and Frank, Jr, being original, special and having matching numbers can be found here. Click on this for my music section.

1954 Mercury Monterey

Stu’s orange, restored original, 1954 Mercury Monterey drew my attention the moment it backed in. Would you argue with me if I said this car is a ‘time machine’? He’s only had it since January 2012. This was the first year Ford Motor company went to the Y-block eight cylinder motor, with overhead valves; abandoning the long employed flat-head V-8 motors. He did a lot of electrical rewiring work already. The motor is a 256 with 161 horsepower; the carburetor needs to be cleaned so performance isn’t yet up to par. He’s the third owner.

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Familiar cars

1965 Pontiac GTO

Bill’s original 1965 Ponitac GTO and I owe it a story page; he is the only owner! Bill purchased this black 1965 Pontiac GTO in June 1965 and has owned it ever since. He had no idea he’d keep it ‘in perpetuity’ so he eschewed undercoating “Why, for the next guy?”, FM radio .. “there’s nothing on FM”. The car had a 389 V-8 with a 4 barrel carburetor. He didn’t get power steering or power brakes although he did add power brakes and tri-power and AM/FM radio. His dad had bought a ’63 Pontiac at Star Pontiac so that was Bill’s first stop when it cam to trading his 1962 Ford; they gave him the best deal of a large number of other Pontiac stores. The car was delivered with no air cleaner and when he went back, they found one from a ’64 Pontiac; Bill found the right one later at a swap meet. His wife drove it but when it quit on her at Diversey and Laramie, she said ‘never again’.

1939 Graham Coupe

Jim’s amazing rare Graham coupe is chronicled here.

1970 Oldsmobile 4-4-2

I have many photos of Dave’s red 4-4-2 from Wood Dale & Bensenville and am overdue making a page for his car.

1947, I mean 1949 Plymouth

I can’t seem to remember the year of Carmen’s red Plymouth even though I see it at least once a week.

1966 Dodge Coronet

John has owned this Coronet two-door post since 2007. He bought is as a frame-off restoration.

1962 Oldsmobile Starfire

I wrote a page about Jeff’s Starfire at this link.

The names and the numbers match.

1964 Chevy Impala SS

Frank and Frank Jr. each have an original car with ‘matching numbers’. Senior owns a white 1964 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport which has fatory air conditioning, power steering, pawer assist brakes. It was a frame-on restoration; Frank Jr convinced him to rebuild the original rochester carburetor to keep it ‘original’. He and his wife drove it back from Florida in 2000.

1970 Plymouth AAR ‘cuda

Frank Jr.s Plymouth is a racing car with a track suspension and 346 Six-pack. Grand Spalding Dodge was the original dealer. Only 800 of these four speed machines were ever built; see AAR Cuda Archives.

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