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State Fair Park was an exotic spring garden of painted metal and chrome Saturday at the 25th annual Southwest Street Rod Nationals.

More than 1,600 vehicles were registered for the event — the 18th year the southwest nationals were held in Oklahoma City, National Street Rod Association spokesman Jim Rowlett said.

"It's like a family reunion with cars. Just camaraderie of people with like interests,” he said.

Cars displayed license plates from Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado, and one man came from North Carolina with his vehicle, Rowlett said.

Keith Bright of Bright Built Hot Rods traveled from Salina, Kan., to show his 1932 Ford Roadster.

"Working on cars started out as a hobby,” he said. "Then I started working on other people's cars to support my hobby. Eventually, enough work came in to make it a full-time job.”

Others, such as Tommy Castor of Choctaw, are strictly hobbyists. Castor brought two 1935 Ford pickups — one red and one black.

Castor, a National Street Rod Association member since 1976, has worked on street rods all his life and has traveled to car shows around the country with his pickups.

"They get around 18 miles per gallon and can get up to between 65 and 70 miles per hour,” Castor said.

Castor, now retired, drove his red pickup and his wife drove the black one, each hauling a grandson in the small cabs.

In the past, the after-hours cruising on Meridian Avenue near Interstate 40 has posed problems for law enforcement, but Friday was mild compared to recent years, Oklahoma City police Lt. Jay Freeman said.

"We want people to go down to the fairgrounds and see the hot rods and to enjoy what Meridian has to offer,” he said. "It's the environment of public intoxication and public indecency that we want to avoid.”

Some citations were handed out and a few arrests were made Friday, but officers were able to keep traffic moving, Freeman said.

The show continues today from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.