Tuesday, November 10, 2026
1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow Sedan, borrowed from Graham the fish scales in the paint innovation, to create the iridescent Pearl Essence paint finish
His rakish design evolved into a sporty sedan with a low roofline, envelope front and skirted rear fenders, and faired-in headlamp nacelles.
With its 175-brake horsepower V-12, a Silver Arrow could top 115 mph. In a sea of boxy sedans, the sleek Pierce-Arrow show car was the height of modernity. Five hand-built Silver Arrows toured 1933 auto shows, where they caused a sensation.
At the Chicago Century of Progress, the Silver Arrow upstaged Cadillac’s Aero-Dynamic coupe, Duesenberg’s “Twenty Grand,” and Packard’s “Car of the Dome,” with its audacious, aircraft-like shape.
Priced at a then-expensive $10,000, the Silver Arrow was one of thirty-eight different 1933 Pierce-Arrow models.
Priced at a then-expensive $10,000, the Silver Arrow was one of thirty-eight different 1933 Pierce-Arrow models.
After succumbing in mid-1938, Pierce-Arrow is best remembered for its magnificent Silver Arrow. This is one of three survivors.
I photographed it in person in 2014 at the Phoenix Concours, the gallery is at https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-1933-pierce-arrow-silver-arrow-it.html the spare tire is hidden in the passenger side front fender... you can barely see the break in the body work
I recommend looking at the details in the design, like the door handles.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day... and there are some companies extending some appreciation with offers to vets and active duty
Fill out the form on their site to get a voucher (a bit ridiculous that only people with email addresses can get one!) (Grrr!)
you can refuse to click the boxes
you will get this "huh... something went wrong when you didn't sign up for our nonsense spam" BUT the voucher and code still arrived in my email
and if they don't like the free publicity, they can fix their website
Monday, November 09, 2026
this post will lead you into the next one! IT's a Billy Gibbons hot rod 42 Ford with a bar/hotel hunting/fishing camp logo of a place that Billy co-owns since 2023
I see a couple ZZ Top things in the above image
The exact year that the original Wise River Hotel was established is as hard to nail down as the perfect fishing spot on the Big Hole River, but the earliest available records indicate that the property was owned by C. M. Pyle in 1900.
State and county records prior to 1900 are lacking, but Pyle’s family reported in his obituary that he established the hotel in 1896, only a few years after Montana became a state in 1889. The first known advertisement for the hotel appeared in The Butte Daily Post (Butte, Montana) on Thursday, November 12, 1914.
In the advertisement, C. M. Pyle stated that interested parties wanting to stay at the hotel could write or phone and he would have a stage sent to meet them in Divide, Montana, some 12 miles away.
In 2023, the Wise River Club, which has long since been expanded to include a bar, restaurant, cabin, rentals, and nightly RV rental spots, was purchased by Montana-native and Top 40 rock and roller Tim Montana (raised in Elk Park, MT) and Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top (Tim’s friend and mentor) along with a group of financial partners with connections and history in the valley.
In 2023, the Wise River Club, which has long since been expanded to include a bar, restaurant, cabin, rentals, and nightly RV rental spots, was purchased by Montana-native and Top 40 rock and roller Tim Montana (raised in Elk Park, MT) and Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top (Tim’s friend and mentor) along with a group of financial partners with connections and history in the valley.
The new owners strive to maintain the integrity and legacy of the Wise River Club by providing the same authentic Montana experience when you stop by, with a few updates to entice your taste buds and musical inclinations.
So, whether you are a movie star stopping by on the way to a wild west movie set (there have been several over the years), a star-crazed Yellowstone fan who moved to Montana to experience the “cowboy way”, or a local hunter looking to “shoot the bull” and share your hunting stories, Tim and the Wise River Club invite you to come on in and experience the charm of a small-town Montana past and see the great collection of horns, artifacts, and stories (some are actually true) that the club has collected over the years.
I've rarely come across cool old woodies with company or summer camps names on the doors, but I think they are a terrific segment of automotive history
Similar to my interest in surplus WW2 warbirds used after the war, by companies for exec level private plane transportation, or Reno Air Races
A lot of us have wondered how much it costs for a company to have a booth at SEMA... here's the facts from BD Performance
a 30' x 60' booth costs 15k for the carpet to be installed,
the booth space is 50k
the material handling fee to get the booth loaded from the parking lot - 15k
to have a banner or call sign over the booth, is 10k
1932 Graham Blue Streak. By 1933 and beyond, the Graham's competition appeared to borrow more than a few cues from the Blue Streak. Graham even used fish scales to create the iridescent Pearl Essence paint finish, another feature that soon caught on in the market. In 1933 Erwin “Cannonball” Baker drove one coast to coast in 53.5 hours, a record that stood for 30 years.
Sunday, November 08, 2026
the SEMA 2026 schwag haul...
there were a couple displays for air freshners.
5 decks of cards... well, not that I'm likely to play cards with them, but IF I get the notion to build a house of cards? I'll be able to
more microfiber cloths than usual were up for grabs!
And there at the top of this bottom photo are the two coolest things I was given as schwag! A bucket of "Tub Of Towels" ( I've bought a couple BECAUSE of the free sample packs at SEMA... and now I was given a bucket of them? AWESOME!)
And the coolest thing? That issue of Hella's new magazine, Dusty Times!
just one example of the great articles in it
The older issues are available online in Flipbooks by Issuu, on each issues page on Dustytimes.com
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