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Every year, cars flock from all over the greater pacific northwest region and beyond to attend the Rod Run To The End Of The World in Ocean Park, Washington. The show attracts upwards of a thousand cars and has been going on for more than 3-decades.
The city of Ocean Park is settled on the northern end of the Long Beach peninsula in Washington State. Every year around this time it is overrun by classic cars—literally. As we were driving in the Friday night before the show, the closer we got to the town, the higher the density of classic cars became. The townsfolk even setup in their lawn-chairs or pickup-beds by the side of the road to watch as their own private parade of classic cars drives through town.
There were cars there of all type and variety from rat-rod to high dollar pro-touring builds. It was awesome!
Although the event is held in September, the Washington coast is not known for dry weather, so the first day of the event got a little wet by around 1:00PM and most of the spectators started to dissipate. The second day had better weather and the show went on as intended. Most of the guys out there, especially the ratrods, couldn’t have cared less about the weather.
As with any show this large, there were way too many cool cars to count, and we loved them all. In addition to the cars there were plenty of options for food, vendors with cool gear and gadgets for your car, and a swap meet section with some unusual goodies and a couple cars for sale.
Although it’s hard to settle on just five, we’ve got a handful of amazing cars that we think you’re going to like. They’re all unique and worth a second look, so read on to see our top five picks from this year’s Rod Run To The End Of The World In Ocean Park, Washington.
The three big winners from last years show parked in their own section until the new winners were crowned.
Ryan Sweets ’65 Mustang Built While Working Through Tough Times
We love a good Mustang. It’s hard to go wrong. Whether it’s stock, modified, pro-street, pro-touring, a survivor, or a daily driver, Mustangs are awesome cars. This nice, modest, gold Mustang belongs to Ryan Sweet of Maple Valley, Washington and it’s a really cool car, but part of what makes it so cool is the story behind it.
I was only 21 when I got it – Ryan
We love seeing a good, mild build every once in a while. It's a refreshing take on the different ways people like to build cars.
The story takes a bit of a turn in 2009 after the car has been sitting for a little while on the back-burner and Ryan’s kids have grown a little. “My wife was diagnosed with bran cancer,” he explained. “And in the mess of that I started working on this. I call it my therapist.” After his wife stabilized and things started looking better, he got on the project to take his mind off of other stuff in his life.
“I worked on it for about a year,” he explained. They did a lot of mechanical work, but Ryan was lucky enough to start with a good project that came with a straight body, gleaming paint, and a clean interior.
The engine is a 289 cubic-inch small-block ford with GT40 heads, an RV camshaft, and a 600cfm Holley double-pumper carburetor. It’s also got a 4-speed transmission and 8-inch rearend. Ryan also re-shoed the car with a set of American Racing wheels and added an Auto-Meter tachometer, walnut steering wheel, and 2 and ½-inch Flowmaster exhaust.
While it’s a simple build, there’s a lot of pride in making a reliable and modest Mustang like what Ryan has. We love what he’s built and think that there is no better therapy than building a car. We’re also happy to report that Ryan’s wife is doing very well.
Allen Hunt’s Black And Blue ‘66 Ford Galaxie 500
The dark blue flames against the black paint of the body are what brought us in with this Galaxie 500. We saw it from across the field and knew that we were going to have to find out more about this awesome looking car.
It belongs to Allen and Alisha Hunt of Kelso, Washington, and they’ve had the car for four years. “It was completely stock when I got it,” Allen explained. “And it was springtime yellow.” It came to Allen with a 302 cubic-inch motor, but originally had a 289 cubic-incher from the factory.
The straight lines on this Ford Galaxie are part of what defined the muscecar genre. It's no-nonsense look made it popular then and now.
Allen had plans to go back to completely stock, so he put the drivetrain back to factory with the correct 289 cubic-inch motor. Only one problem: not enough power.
I wanted big-block power – Allen
Allen and his wife have done all the work to this car inside and out. They stripped it all apart and Allen did the paint and body and they installed the interior themselves, including the door panels that Allen custom made.
The blue flames are a House of Kolor, Kandy blue, and the black is a metallic. It’s hard to see in the pictures but the black has a serious shine to it. As an artist though, Allen is his biggest critique and he is planning on stripping it to redo the black a darker, jet black color and redo the flames.
The flames coming across the inner fender wells are a nice touch.
Wally Sowins’ Freshly Finished ’66 Chevelle Convertible
We’d be doing our coverage a disservice if we passed up on this build. This recently finished ’66 Chevelle pegs the perfect combination for a classic musclecar: a drop-top, a big-block, and a 4-speed. This convertible is powered by a 427 cubic-inch big-block Chevrolet engine, a 4-speed manual transmission, and a 12-bolt 3.73:1 geared positraction rearend
This car belongs to Wally Sowins of Warrenton, Oregon, and he’s been working on it for the last eight years. “This is it’s first outing,” he explained. There is still a little left to do with the interior of the car, and a few final touches to be added, but for the most part it’s a completed restoration that’s drivable, and that’s what it’s really all about.
While it looks nice now, it took eight years of work to get it finished to this point. “I got it eight years ago and started working on it right away,” Wally explained. A buddy of his bought a lot of 20 cars and this was one of them. “It was all taken apart when I got it.”
It’s kind of cool having a big-block, 4-speed convertible – Wally
The black with a black-top color combo is a really good lock for these cars.
Roger Wikel’s Completely Built ’67 Notchback Barracuda
It’s not everyday that you see a ’67 Barracuda quite like this one. It’s built about as far as you can go and it’s setup to take down the track. It belongs to Roger Wikel of Albany, Oregon, and he’s had the car since 2005, granted it was nothing like this when he bought it.
“This was an eight-year pay-as-you-go project,” Roger told us. “It was pretty much stock when I got it.” He had been thinking about this project for years. As a UPS driver, he had seen a Barracuda like this on his route everyday. As he watched the car when he drove by he formulated a plan in his head as to he was going to do one day if he got the car. “I asked about it and they said they’d never sell,” he explained, “But I drove by one day after I retired and it was gone. I knew that I wanted one of these.”
This car is spotless, and those meats in the back look awesome. Keep in mind that this notchback sits on Art Morrison frame rails and an Art Morrison crossmember.
Although he didn’t end up with the car he originally had his eye on, he ended up with this one and that’s obviously worked out just fine. The final build you see here is powered by a 540 cubic-inch Chrysler mega-block with an F-2 procharger, a completely built 727 automatic transmission, and a Ford 9-inch rearend with a 4.10:1 geared Strange spool and 35-spline Dutchman axles. The drivetrain was primarily built by B and B Speedshop.
The body and paintwork was done by Marx Hotrods and the upholstery work was done by Andy Smith at Larry’s Upholstry. One of the thing’s that Roger is proud of is that he had all of the work done as locally as possible. “I knew all the guys locally that could do the work,” he told us. “And I’ve known most of them since they were kids.”
The folks that he had help make his dream into a reality did a great job and he loves his car. “When you straighten it out and nail it, it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It should easily run the high eights, but I’ve never tried it.”
Gary Rogers’ ’73 Z28 Camaro Owned Since 1979
“I bought this car on February 14th of 1979,” Garry Rogers of Vancouver, Washington, long time owner of this ’73 Z28 Camaro explained, “My girlfriend broke up with me and I bought a car. She was pissed.” It was his ex-girlfriend though, so isn’t that a good thing?
He was a senior in high-school when he bought the car and he’s managed to hold onto it all these years. We always hear stories of people that are buying cars and building them as tributes to their highschool car, but this is the real deal.
“It had 38,000-miles on it when I bought it,” he explained. “Now it’s just over 103,000-miles.” When he bought it, the Camaro was practically brand new, but with 70,000-miles of use on it however, that kind of wear shows and he tore it down for a complete restoration and in 1990 and finished it about ten years ago.
That's a good looking motor for sure.
The drivetrain is made-up of a 383 cubic-inch stroker motor, Muncie M-22 4-speed manual transmission, and 10-bolt positraction rearend with 3.73:1 gearing. The other cool thing about this build is that since he started the project in 1990, he bought all the parts he needed for the restoration at the time and everything came direct from GM.
We had a great time at the show, and if you can make it out there next year, we highly recommend you do so. Make sure you check out the gallery for more pictures of the other cars at the show!
