Carlton Taylor of Maud has dropped by the Headers Friday Night Cruise-In to show off his 1966 Chevrolet Impala. It’s a two-door hardtop. He is wearing his black hat to match his car’s color. Both are stylish.
Steve Quinn is at the Headers Cruise-in meeting Friday with his 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet, a car he restored and which has been in his family for more than 60 years. His great uncle Will Tolleson had bought it brand new.
Clay Collins, left, and Steve Quinn are pictured here in 2017 as the originators of Atlanta’s monthly Friday Night Cruise-In event.This is when special people with special cars come to talk with each other.The two are standing in front of a colorful adv
WHERE IS IT?
IS
Answer
Those colorful pipes are exhaust manifolds. They are called “headers.” Headers are exhaust manifolds made especially for car engines to gain a little extra power. Up until the moment they are twisted, angled, painted and put up on a roadside frame, they are usually quite ugly. A rusty red if iron. A blueish bronze in places if stainless steel or chrome.
When Steve Quinn and Clay Collins were looking for a name to call their cruise-in car club, headers came to mind. Quinn, who is a painter by profession, sanded and painted several headers. One shown here at the top is different. It is chrome steel and came from a jet-boat engine.
Quinn and Collins organized the Headers Auto Club and its cruise-in almost 13 years ago. Drivers to the cruise-in meet at about 6 p.m. on the second Friday of each month at the former Jewel Mason Phillips 66 service station on West Main.
There’s a lot to talk about. New folk are almost always coming on the scene, stopping to ask what kind of cars these are, how much they cost, how long to make them.
“Do you owners take them out in the rain or leave them inside the garage?” is a typical question. The answer is, “Leave them inside. They are not daily drivers. Too much work and time has gone into them.”
The cars are the works of art. But at Headers Auto Club, the announcing sign is a pretty swell piece of art, too. It may be saying to the public, “Come ask us what this sign is. We’re ready to talk.”