It’s time for the last post of 2007 and we’re looking back at the last 365 days of Ted’s Garage Blog.

10. Barrett-Jackson Scales Back - Barrett-Jackson announced that it is scaling back its January event “for the sake of quality” according to Barrett-Jackson President Steve Davis. The 2007 auction sold 1,270 vehicles for a total value of $112 million. Come January, Barrett-Jackson says it will sell roughly 20% fewer cars and re-route an estimated 250 cars to a yet-to-be-announced Barrett-Jackson event.

9. Bill Thomas’ Cheetah Reborn - Only a handful of the Cheetah were built before the tooling for the car was lost in a fire in 1965. The loss of the original tooling put a halt to any hope that the Cheetah would one day compete head-to-head as a Chevrolet-powered competitor to Shelby’s Cobras. Instead, the original remaining Cheetahs would go on to be valuable collector items, and all Cheetahs produced afterwards would be kit cars… until now.

8. Largest Car Collection Becomes Museum - For decades, Harold LeMay and his wife Nancy collected cars. A lot of cars. Their collection counts roughly 3,500 automobiles, and is large enough to qualify as the world’s largest privately owned automobile collection as recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records. Before Harold LeMay passed away six years ago, the family donated the collection to a public museum.

7. Tucker #46 (was) on eBay - Damn, we’re too late! The listing for Tucker #46 on eBay expired already. Fortunately, eBay keeps their old listings around for a while, so we can still get a glimpse at what was a relatively rare opportunity. There were 53 bids total for a final price of $202,700. Keep in mind this is a modified Tucker. The listing says reserve was not met, but there is a winning bidder, so I am not sure what’s up with that. Perhaps there was a second chance offer or something.

6. Beginning the Retro Craze - When the New Beetle was introduced in 1998 it truly kicked off a retro craze that brought us an entire host of cars inspired by vehicles from our past. Today we have retro PT Cruisers, HHRs, SSRs, Mustangs, Thunderbirds, Challengers, Camaros, 300s, Ford GTs, 350Zs, S-Types, MINIs, Chargers and others. All of them lean on history for styling cues.

5. Riding in a 1957 Dual Ghia - I find the Dual Ghia to be one of the most interesting cars built in the late-1950’s. Born from the Chrysler Firearrow concept cars, the production model Dual Ghia was a short-lived endeavor which came to an end after roughly 100 were built. The car combined a chassis built by Chrysler with a body built by the Italian company, Ghia, which resulted in Italian curves hiding American horsepower… and a huge price tag.

4. Homemade Sandblasting Cabinets - Cleaning parts is a pain, especially when there are 15 different layers of paint, each a different type or brand than the one below it, intermixed with primer, rust, and who knows what else (using WD-40 to shine up an old paint job has its downsides, but dang if it doesn’t look slick as snot when it’s fresh). Sanding takes forever. Paint strippers remove some paint like magic and then turns some primers into sticky goo. Commercial dip tanks are few and far between. The most logical solution is media blasting.

3. Cardboard Garage Flooring - In the October 1, 2007 issue of AutoWeek there is an interesting photo on page 25. In the “REVS” section the feature article is “Before Plastic and Chrome” by Phil Berg. The article looks at the works of a gentleman who restores and maintains a small fleet of brass era and other early cars and includes a few neat photos of the workshop. What caught my eye wasn’t the immaculate antique cars nor the Buick on a shelf, but instead the floor of the shop.

2. Mopar Top Eliminator Awards Announced - The Mopar Top Eliminator awards are awarded to muscle car restorers and customizers who exhibit an unusual passion and skill for the task. Mopar announced the winner as part of the drive to create buzz for its participation at the SEMA Show as all winners will be present at the event. The awards are issued by Mopar Performance Parts and the editors of Mopar Muscle, Mopar Action, and Mopar Collector’s Guide.

1. Hot August Nights - Show Coverage Part 1 - Participates and show goers alike easy back into the week long Hot August Night event held in Reno, NV. As summer heats up, so does the celebration of vintage iron. Kinking off last Friday and running through this coming weekend, there is plenty to see and do at Hot August Nights.