Painting of Tom Brizuela's 1938 Buick Century from the Ventura , Ca. "Classics on the Coast" car show on Main street .  The painting is 6 feet by 10 feet, ink and acrylic on unstretched canvas.

Tom Brizuela's.  I met Tommy at a recent street car show on Main Street in Ventura , Ca. ( Classics on the Coast).  There were over 300 cars on display and I took the opportunity to photograph this beautiful Buick Century. Tom has worked for BMW for a number of years, and, as you can see his main hobby is auto body restoration on pre-1960 vehicles and he does  custom painting. 

Some of the interesting facts about a 1938 Buick Century is that the base price started at $1,297. They made a little over 12,000 of these cars.   It had an Overhead-valve straight-eight, cast-iron block and cylinder head with a displacement of: 320.2 cubic inches.  Horsepower @ rpm: 141 @ 3,600 and Torque @ rpm: 269 @ 2,00.0.  The transmission was a Three-speed manual, floor lever.  Steering - Saginaw worm and roller. I just put this information in about the steering because I liked the sound of the words " Saginaw worm and roller."

When I was growing up in the 50's my step dad had a gas station and garage.  It had one bay and he did every imaginable kind of work on a car.  He did ton's of engine exchanges outside with block and tackle suspended from an "A" frame wooded structure,  besides rebuilds from the ground up.  Anything a customer wanted he could do.  I grew up around a lot of different cars, first working as a gas station attendant, pumping gas, washing all the windows around on the car, checking the oil, water, etc.  Later, as I got older I helped out in the shop with the engine work, starting with cleaning parts and working my way up to assembly.  I learned a lot about mechanical cars.

My first car was a 1940 Studebaker half ton pickup.  I was 15 years old and would get  about to get my driver's learners permit in a half of a year..  My step dad brought the truck home from work (as I recall I paid $100 for it with the money taken out of my earnings at the station) and parked it in the driveway.  I had already driven a few cars around so I had some confidence driving.  I remember getting into the driver's side of the cab, with my dad next to me.  He was going to let me back it out of the driveway.  I promptly engaged the clutch, put the three speed floor shifter into reverse to back out of the driveway.  I popped the clutch and promptly drove the truck forward through the garage door.  I had put it into first instead of reverse.  Thus began my experience of driving my own car.