Mel's Memories

Mel Eggleston, Boise, Idaho - Retired Furniture upholster, dutch oven salesman, and currently enjoying and working on some of my street rod projects that are on my bucket list. We love traveling in our collector cars attending events and enjoying the friends we have meet over the last 40 years. I have owned my 40 Ford Opera Coupe sense my senior year in high school (Buhl, 1965). I just finished a 62 Chevy Nova  Convertible the wife bought and actively working on a 40 Ford pickup project. I'm a founding member of  United Street Rods of Idaho. USRI is an Idaho all automotive lobbying organization and I have been very active since their first meeting in 1979. I have compiled their yearly automotive schedule of events for the last 27 years, which includes anything automotive orientated that happens in our state.

 

My interest in cars all started when I was old enough to build car models. That was in the mid 50's.  I seemed to like the hot rods the most. One of my best friends in High School, Jeff Fehrenbacher, had a cool 49 Ford Sedan and that became our cruise around car for years. I grew up in a small town in Idaho with a population of around 2800 people on a Saturday night. There were several hot rods that were owned by older boys in town. The one I remember most was a 32 5 window coupe running a 327 Chevy and 4 speed. It was painted metallic blue with a white tuck n roll interior. I remember one Saturday I helped the owner, Dennis Clark change tires and rear end gears to do some outlaw drags that evening out on a country road. He let me ride with him through the quarter mile and I knew then I had t have one. I decided on either a 40 For Coupe or a 40 Ford pickup. In my senior year I bought a coupe for $100 from Gary Sams and it was only a block from my house. Dad said I would never get my money back out of her. That was 50 years ago and I still have her but I have never told dad how much I have put in her.