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Ventura Nationals
Nate BeckDescription
The Ventura Nationals at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, is arguably one of the biggest and best shows on the West Coast and encapsulates all aspects of automotive culture with hot rods, custom paint, restorations, live music, and vendors. While relatively new to the car scene with its debut event in 2003 it has quickly grown to one of those “Must-Go” events.
Make certain you wear your walking shoes as this event is sprawled out over sixty-two acres, Ventura Nationals packed classic cars and vintage trucks in while local restoration shops and vendors showed off their latest work and wares under the palm-tree-lined main drag of the fairgrounds.
The highlight of Nationals has always been the diversity in the cars and trucks on display. It doesn’t matter if you’re into period-perfect professional restoration, at-home DIY restoration, or any level of customization in between, it’s all at Ventura Nationals with the builder hanging somewhere nearby excited to talk about their build process.
One interesting trend we noticed this year was the increased use of factory paint colors. Wild and crazy paint jobs have long been celebrated on hot rods and old cars in Southern California however, it seems to be giving way to a new style. Speaking with a few builders, they noted that more and more customers are going back to picking off the factory palette when choosing paint because of the iconic feel certain colors link to certain model years.
The day at Ventura Nationals always goes by way too fast but one thing is certain—you can start counting down the days until next year knowing it will be another tremendous display of classic rides.
What's up everybody? I'm Nate Beck. And you're watching Classic Car restoration Club. We are here in beautiful Ventura California at Ventura Nationals and we are surrounded by some of the best custom cars in the world. So let's go check it all out. One of my favorite builds here at Ventura Nationals is gonna be this beautiful build by JG fabrication here. A local guy out of Ventura California. So I'm here with Cody at Ventura National. Cody's got AC 10 here with one of the most unique stories that you guys are gonna love. Cody. Tell me about your ride. Hey guys. Yeah. So this is ac 10 that I inherited from my grandfather. Uh He bought it in 72 off the lot brand new. It's 3500 bucks. I got that original uh bill of sale and when he passed away in 03, it was left to me and my mom, she was the tomboy of the family and well, she was real upset when I came along. My grandpa said it's going to my grandson. So it ended up being mine falling into my hands and they got some really cool stories. So let me tell you about it. Uh, he used to pull a boat up to the, the Klamath every year for 42 years. So this is actually a crate motor that we threw in because he burns up that engine, pulling his trailer. Um, other than that, everything's original, except for this paint, this paint was redone one time in its life. It's the original factory color though. They didn't do a lot of them in this mustard yellow. So it makes this truck really special. Uh, other than that, everything's been kept original the way it was, you'll see the nice patina on everything. So we got those nice plastic door panels in here. Uh, something really neat about. This is when my mom was a baby. She was actually born the year this truck was bought. Uh, he used to put her in here and drive around with her in the steering wheel. So he got this crack and my mom's made me swear, I'd never get rid of the original steering wheel, uh, original bed deck in here. And it's always been used as a dump truck, utility truck, a truck to pull the, you know, the trailer for, for fishing. My grandmother, we share this truck still, she still use it to do her dump runs and work around the ranch in Los Olivos. But it's had a good life. It's been well used and it's gonna have a much longer life with me once again, Ventura National is showing why it's one of the best shows in the country for more information on Ventura Nationals hit them up online and on Instagram. And until next time, I'm Nate Beck. And you're watching Classic Car Restoration Club.
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