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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 11, 2013 20:09:48 GMT -4
First thing, let me remind you that a lot of these are old Polaroid shots from the late 60's, so forgive the quality. This was my first Race car to take to the dragstrip. In this thread, I won't go into how/why I could no longer race at "other" type of races. In a word, Tickets.
It was Bob Lambeck's fault, that I picked this car for my first venture into the Darkside. Here is his car, that began my trail to an empty wallet. Thanks a lot Bob.
So with this in mind, this was my low buck attempt to become a real racer. At this time, I had done the street hotrod stuff and had reached a point, where it was time to get off the streets and go racing. I had more dreams than money back then, but to me dreams are what gets you there. I just had to work on others cars to help pay for my toys. Looking back on it now, I was darn lucky to be able to be part of this great sport called Drag racing back then.
Anyway, let's take a ride down old memory lane. I'll try to stay focused here, I've turned on the tunes from the old days and it does help kick in the memories.
This shot is at Irwindale Raceway in 1968, just got it together and was shaking it down. As I recall, it was a Ford verses Chevy King of the Hill day. After the third round, we ran out of Fords. OK, OK, settle down Ford guys, I'll admit there were more Chevies there to begin with.
OK, you can see I got the body part right. Now for a few details about how things worked for me back then. I bought it empty, with a tow bar. So first came the 327 cu.in. small block, next got a set of F.I. heads and Sig 990B Titan cam. I was able to find an old Crossram manifold with 2 600 cfm carbs. Cleaned everything up and had it balanced.
Got some Hedman headers, 11lb. Schiefer flywheel, pressure plate and disk. For a scatter shield, I got the old Ansen 2 piece.(Ugh, remember they weighed a ton) Borg Warner T-10 4 speed, with a Hurst shifter and T grip handle and 5:13 rear gears in the Chevy rear..
Set it up with 90/10 shocks up front and T- bars on the back. All this fun, had to be done on a 7" Casler cheater slicks back then. Hence the light flywheel. Here we are tinkering under the hood. Notice the Hi Tec ram airhorns. I think that's what they called them. More to come.......
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 11, 2013 20:15:21 GMT -4
This is in the back yard area of a house I was renting in El Monte, California. I was able to have a two car garage, seen in the shot. I donated some lumber and help and the Very cool Landlord built it for me. Lucky for me, he really liked me and my cars.
In this shot you'll notice the colored marker name on the door, it shows how long ago, I was thinking it was a "Madness" and a good name for my cars. You will see later on, in my racing days, I used the name on many cars. As great as it looks, ha ha, I never did continue my artistic career.
Getting serious now, got my decals on. Starting to have some fun now and going rounds. This was shot on the road near the entrance of the old Irwindale. I say old one because it is gone now. They sold the land to a Brewery. Really miss that place and the many friends I met and raced there. There is a new Irwindale now, but it's only eighth mile. I grew up racing the quarter mile, never race anything else, but have heard from others it's about the same, just less damage and wear.
This was back in the day of flat towing and the "Race car in Tow" decal on the back window. Us low buck guys didn't have trailers. You just made up or bought a set of tow hubs.
For those around here not as old as dirt, like me. Tow hubs were made to fit on the rear axles, with bearings and let your tires roll freely, without turning the axles and rear gears. Once at the races, you remove the tires, take off the tow hubs and put on the slicks and your good to go. Poor boys trailer. It wasn't anything fancy, but the truck and car, did the job. Lots of fun and that's what it's all about to me.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 11, 2013 20:19:52 GMT -4
Here is a shot of the tow car of choice for me. I thought they made a great set. I'd love to have them both back now. Fun set up and always got me to the races. As I was always tinkering and testing in the old Mfg. area near my place, I had made up a muffler setup. Just flanges and mufflers, bolted to the headers.
Anyway, I would "drive" it over there and do a couple of burnouts and launches to make sure it was ready for race day. Once and awhile I had to use Old Yeller to bring it home. Hey, if it's going to break, better testing than on race day. Old Yeller did good. Later on I replaced the rearend with a Poncho, must stronger.
Earlier I spoke of the Aluminum case Borg Warner Trans, this is a event I'll share . When running this first race car, I made many changes. Most were in the hunt for more power and many to repair the damage from said power.
Anyway, I'm at Irwindale going rounds and having fun. Just for an FYI, I'm running a Borg Warner T10 W/ Alum. case and the old Hurst T gripe shifter. So, I'm on a great pass, small block is screaming, life is good. When I yank third gear, I feel an unusual vibration, yank fourth and reach for the wheel and BANG, I'm air born and bouncing.
Well, I get it shut down, make a turn off and stop. Look down at the floor and it's gone. There is a whole in the floor and I'm looking at the ground. We went collecting parts off the strip and I still have the T handle, that was ground up pretty bad. Seems the trans case cracked and decided to come apart in high gear. It left the input shaft there, but everything else left the car.
When it broke, it dropped down with the drive shaft, going into the track and lifted the back end for a moment, until the drive shaft bent in half and let it back down. It was quite a ride and made a great story after.
Then my friend says to me, sure glad you weren't holding the shifter. (Gulp)
And finally a class win. After many changes and tuning, I ended up winning the first of my Trophies in C/MP at Irwindale. Felt like king of the world that day. (If you look really close, you'll see it.) As time passes, they became something to dust.
Hope you enjoyed the time travel, now on to my next toy.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 11, 2013 20:33:12 GMT -4
My Dream Gasser was my second Race car. If you have been following along, you've seen the first. With that car (57 Chevy C/MP) I was starting out low buck and learning, while going faster. After having many times to race and make new friends, many repairs and parts changed, it was time to try the Gas/ Altered classes.
While learning more about what was needed to run gas classes and the money it would take, I had told my friends about this next project. Well, a friend said he had heard of another 57 for sale and it ran C/gas. Well, my budget was better off now and I knew I was going to have to spend a bunch, to make my car competitive. Sooooooo, we went to have a look, like kids going to the candy store.
The car had most of the things I wanted and he was selling it as a roller. No Motor, trans. He had some Cragar's wheels on it, but we agreed he would keep them, to get the price down. He had a matching silver 57 Panel delivery too. Yup, I would have loved to get that too, but I'm stretching the budget buying this, as it is, and he didn't want to sell it. Seems he was moving back east somewhere in a month. Needed the money soon.
After some of the usual buyer/seller stuff, we came to terms. I gave him $950.00 cash and promised him the other $ 200.00 in 30 days. I needed some time to sale some parts. I went home and took off the Crossram setup and some rims, for him to hold until I paid the balance. I wanted to take the car home NOW. He agreed and I brought it home.
I even found the old paper work on it. Man, I've got boxes of this stuff. Really fun to look at and day dream about the good times and all I did to get this gasser going. Here's a peek at the deposit paper.
and here is "The Lone Ranger" at home with my old wheels off the other 57. As you can see we've been busy. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures earlier, but I was in the "let's go racing" mode. Got to sell the old 57 and start getting serious about this thing called "Drag racing".
I came across one other shot from when we brought it home. You'll notice the tow bar hangers on the front. Had to flat tow it home, no trailer and didn't want to waste the money on non racing stuff.
It's got a straight axle and a lift off glass front end and a Roll bar. These are some of the things that would have cost a bunch and a lot of labor, to do on the old car. Figure it save me a lot of time and I'd be racing sooner. As you saw in the earlier picture, I have been working on the small block and have it in only temporarily, measuring for motor mounts to be welded in, fitting headers, checking clearances and drawing up a list for fuel line parts and fittings, bell housing, etc. Note nothing is really bolted in, just doing a mock up for now. Remember this had a big block in it before. So not much fits right.
All this stuff, so far is off the old car, seeing what will work and what needs replacing. Some good news, I've sold some stuff, paid Roger his money, it's all mine now. I also picked up a lot of extra work, to help pay for more racing stuff. I remember this part, all to well. I was working about 40 hours at my job and about 4 hours a night on other peoples cars for money. Then about 25 hours on the weekend on my gasser. So I'd had some really busy months. Don't know if I could do that now. Ah, the younger days.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 11, 2013 20:45:31 GMT -4
More good news. A very good, long time friend bought the old car, so I'd gone shopping. Bought some new wheels and tires. Thought these rims went well, with the car. Put some decals on and put a "Race car in Tow" sticker on the back window. I've taken off some of the lettering, Blair's was removed and I'm having Jack replace it with the word "Nobody's" ( got to have a sense of humor) and made an appointment with Jack, to get some more lettering put on.
In these shots, it's cleaned and prepped for paint and waiting for Jack to come by, to do his great work.
Notice the great work he does. Jack did the original work on the car. The words "Lone Ranger"are in Goldleaf, in case you can't tell.
On a sad note, I would be remiss, not to mention the passing of Jack Burr a few years back. He was well know and well liked here in So.Cal. He was a great guy to be around and know. Also another Drag racer. I had him do two more of my cars later on. R.I.P. Jack Here's one of his cards, from back in the late 60's.
More to come....... As I get further along with my project, I found myself getting caught in the old trap. If you paint or put in new parts, the old stuff doesn't look right. Well, in my case, as I'm putting new parts on it, I'm thinking this new car of mine, is going to be towed down the highway on the ground? Darn it, it's time to find more money? This gasser business is going to require more serious thinking now.
After much thinking and measuring, it is time to see about having a trailer made for this car. So I get a guy to make one up for me, so it will be ready soon and I can continue with the car and motor. While going over the latest budget, it became clear, that I needed to sell more parts and continue doing extra work. Guess I can rest NEXT YEAR.
This is the price we pay, to have a dream. So while putting the word out, on what things I need and trolling all the speed shops, I'd managed to get a lot done. Found some Hilborn's had them flowed and got what I thought I needed in nozzles and pills. Got it ready to put in. Here is a shot of the motor being fitted up on the stand.
All these years and I still find myself drooling over this. As we got closer to getting it going, I think being tired and rushed, I didn't get enough pictures of the events going together, but I'll put up some later stuff to show what I'm talking about.
In this first shot, you can see the things done so far. Notice the solid motor mounts welded in, Braided lines added, new Hooker fenderwell headers ( needed clearance for mounts and easy plug changes ) and the Joe Hunt Magneto. Always fun to Zap yourself with. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but you get the idea. Also note the little guy, hanging from the mirror? He has gone on many wild rides with me. It's been 25 years or more and he's still hanging around. See next shot, here he is today. I found him in my old tool box.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 11, 2013 20:55:17 GMT -4
Here is a shot showing that we have made the lift off front end, into a tilt front end too. Makes it much easier to do things quickly without 2 people. Man, how I hated working with Fiberglass. Itched for a week. It was a wise thing to do though, as it worked very well for us.
Another shot with the motor going in. You can see some of the new lettering by Jack Burr. :cool: Found another deal, that worked for me. Old Yeller has been replaced with a newer truck, with V8 and a sleeper. This setup will work much better for this car and traveling.
Picked up the new trailer and loaded up for a test drive. Things worked great and looks good and safer too.
The car still says "Nobody's speed shop", but I need new lettering. Here are a couple of shots my neighbor took. In the first one I've had it out a few times and making changes, as needed. Notice the front end is still lift off only. The tilt was made later, when it was down for freshening up, in the winter off season. At this point it still says " Nobody's". The reason that I keep pointing this out is coming. It started as a joke and it paid off.
At the races, I would fill out the entry sheet and where it asks for Sponsor names, I would always print "Nobody's" Speed Shop, very clearly and they would talk it up on the PA system, when I made a pass. :wink: I also put out the word at shop's that I bought parts from, that I needed some Sponsor's.
Here it is on the trailer in the garage, getting the battery charged and making more adjustments. Notice the "to do" list on the windshield. I found that if I kept a list there, I wouldn't forget anything and it did seem to work. I've got some new extensions on the headers, to be cut yet, must be on the list.
Along the way, I managed to get a Meguiar's Badge of Beauty award (see decal) which got me some free Jackets and wax and conditioners. Nice ego booster and every little bit helps, right?
As you can see, Jon's Speed Shop came on board. I like to think that him being at Irwindale one night, when I'm going rounds, that he got tired of hearing all the talk about the car and not hearing his name. So now things are really looking up. Free plugs and oil and parts at a discount. Also paying my gate at the races. Life was good.
Here Jack gets the final lettering done and it's time to go racing. The tilt front end works great on the trailer too. Makes last minute checks a lot easier now.
I think it was a great looking car, for back in 1970.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 11, 2013 20:59:15 GMT -4
The Lone Ranger rides again. Hi Ho Silver. Here is a shot at Irwindale, sorry it's B&W but that's all I got. We didn't do pictures at night. This was taken by a track pro photographer, don't have a name on it. I had to buy it, as this was the last night for us to race for "Nobody's".
This was a dream come true for me. It took a long time and lots of extra work, but it was well worth it to me. I felt that I had stepped up a bit and could be very proud of my results.
Anyway, as time went on, I got everything working great. We made a crash box and it really helped when the small block is screaming and your yanking gears, you forget about all the work and life is great.
I remember many great times and all the good friends I made while racing. That is a big part of racing to me. Friends and racing, you got to love it.
I hope you've enjoyed the ride. Doing this has brought back a bunch of great memories for me. Perhaps some for you too.
I'll be adding my other race cars on this thread later, need a break for now.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 12, 2013 10:07:15 GMT -4
This is some shots of my old Chevy II from the old days. This is the car I was building, when Dave and I got together on the Corvette to race, that you'll be seeing next. All you, do it yourself guys out there, might appreciate all this work. You can see all the work going into making a real race car come together back then. Remember, that we're talking about early 70's here. Hope you enjoy the shots, I'm getting tired, just remembering all this work. Here is #1 of 6. #2 You can see the removal of parts, chrome bumper and stuff. Getting some weight off the front end. Filling in all the holes. Glass hood being added. Change the wheels and tires. #3 Changed the rear end and cut the wheel wells for a little more tire. [ #4 The work continues. Got the roll bar work done and the glass hood fitted sitting on the roof. Doing some filling in on the wheel wells. By the way, sorry for the poor picture quality, but all these shots are from an old Polaroid camera. #5 As you can see in this shot, we have done some prep work for interior painting. Also worked the trunk area, in prep for a large Bus battery, with for and aft positions for weight adjustment. This puppy was going to launch. #6 Well here is the last shot and what can I say? Here is the paint going on the roll bar. As you can see, it's far from a stocker any more. You can see this baby was going to do some moonshots. The plan was to put my injected 331 cu. in. with a 4 speed in this bad boy.The combo we put in the Corvette later. Anyway, while racing the Corvette, someone who had been watching the build came and made me a cash offer, I couldn't refuse. The guy bought the car and the trailer in the first picture. Sorry, I don't have any pretty pictures to end this story. As I said at the beginning, this was for the DIY's to see the work and see how we played in the good old days.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 12, 2013 10:20:43 GMT -4
While working on the Chevy II , Dave Annala had a car and I had the engine and trans and parts. So we went together for some fun, in the gas/altered classes. This first shot is the only color shot, that I can find. It is before we had Kenny put the Sponsor's name and mine on the car. Cool looking car. Remember this is way back in the early 70's. A couple of old Black and whites after lettering changes. Testing and racing at Irwindale. Ended up in D/Altered. Injected small block, high rev's and banging gears. After a few passes, it was decided that I'd be the driver of this one. Wheels up every pass, it was really fun to drive this puppy. Last one of this car. Hope you enjoyed the ride. You can just see my last name on the roof. I found one more. 8) On to my next ride.....
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 12, 2013 11:01:53 GMT -4
This is a Nova that I got after racing the Corvette with Dave, as he was getting married and wanted to put the Corvette back on the street again. I had sold the Chevy II and needed to get another ride. So I bought this car at an OCIR swap meet deal. I got it minus engine and Trans and rear gears. I don't have many pictures of the build, just a few before and after shots. We got it home and started making changes and body/paint prep work. Hard to see the primer in a black and white shot. You can see some of the full roll cage and the scooped, lift off hood. Here's a few more showing the colors. Black with gold wheels looked good together and I had a plan for the "Madness" theme in mind. You can see the primer better in this shot and you can see my 70 Corvette in the other stall. That was my first Big Block car, with a 454/ 4 speed (fun car) and it changed my direction with this car. Also a shot of it painted and trying it out at Irwindale. As to the build, I wanted to get some seat time in a faster ride. I've had all small blocks before and now owning a BB Vette to work on, wet my appetite for the bigger motors. Was time to make noise with a Rat Motor. This was to be a Bracket car. So I started rounding up the goodies and got lucky. My Sponsor, Jon's Speed and Sport found out about a 454 LS6 crate motor that a guy ordered from Chevrolet and ran into problems and was going to lose his deposit on it. We got together, I gave him his deposit and we went to pick up MY motor, with the balance due in hand. Here's another shot in early testing at Irwindale. Well, to make a long story short, I took it all apart for the usual clean up and Balance stuff. Bought a B&M Turbo 400 for it,as I wanted a consistent piece for the bracket wars. Put a Holley 850 dp on it and was off to the races for some shake down runs. Next came time for some lettering for the Sponsors and get my name and the car name done. Had Jack Burr (RIP) over for the day and got to watch him do his thing. Got the "Madness" put on this one and added the Gorilla attacking the tree. You'll see him on the back of my coming Altered too. The Madness begins.... remember my crude writing on my very first racecar? Look on the door of the 57 Chevy years before. Had lots of fun and learned some of what the BBC liked. Some later shots, more...... That last shot appeared in Drag Scoop, as seen below. Anyway, had fun running at Irwindale and OCIR with it. Ran around 10:90's with it and did most of the chasing in my bracket. It was a good car for back in the mid 70's. Never really went after it heavy, as I had other thoughts to go faster. I just wanted and enjoyed the seat time and not breaking parts. It worked out very well for that. As to going faster, I'll step up a bit in my next ride, stay tuned. Found another old picture, back in June of 1974. Anne and I in our younger days. Just found this shot on another site. This was shot at OCIR after I had sold the car to Smith. That's why my name and Jon's speed isn't on the car. Just noticed he took the wheelie bars off it too. I'd never seen it before, it's little blurred, but I'm glad to have it.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 12, 2013 11:37:39 GMT -4
Hello again. This is going to be a slow and steady one. I'll show you some early shots, when I first started bracket racing this one and then move back into NHRA Comp. Elim. class racing. This is the 'In it's white days' because this will be in different stages for the car. As we progress through it, you will see the transition from brackets to serious ($$$) NHRA class racing. This portion will probably be the shortest, as it is before the major rebuild. Anyway, hope you enjoy the ride. If you've been following along, you'll remember me saying, that I had ideas about going faster. Well I began thinking about/looking around for something to go faster and break less parts. As luck would have it, I'm picking up a part for the Nova and hear about a 32 Bantam that's for sale locally. So I go and take a look at it. It's for sale as a package deal. It's got a BBC with a 400 turbo and comes with a single axle, light weight trailer too. Looks to fill the bill for my local bracket racing needs. Now all I have to do, is find the money. So I gave him a deposit and asked him if he could hold it for a bit, while I round up the rest. I guess I should mention here, that it was on display at a Service Center speed shop. We got their approval and I was off and running. I put out the word and said I was selling the Nova and first come, first serve. First a friend wants my motor for his race boat. (SOLD) Then Rob Smith comes over to look over the car.(SOLD) In this first shot, you can see the new lettering and the Service Center name left on. I left their name on it for awhile, kind of a thank you, for holding it for me and for selling some stuff off it at their store. It had a Tunnel ram setup on it, that I had them sell for other parts I wanted instead. I went with a single 850 Holley again., as I wanted something consistent and could use mine. This allowed me to sell the ram setup for other things needed too. Loved the old straight axle and spoke wheels. This was my first ride in an open car and took some getting used too. As I recall, he was running around 9:70's with it. After a bit of playing and getting some seat time, I was running 9:90's pretty consistently. Was having a blast running bracket 1 at Irwindale. Here's a shot under the lights, at the Dale. This is back around 1975, so it wasn't bad for that time period. I really enjoyed chasing them down. With this car, I had to hold my breath at night races, once I staged, as my face mask would fog up. Not a good thing, if you know what I mean. Notice good guy Larry Sutton (black hat) in his younger days. After awhile, I started getting the itch, to get back into class racing. My comfort level with the car was there and I just couldn't seem to leave it alone. I had to tinker with things and try to go faster. What a shock. ;o) NHRA had a class called Econo/ Altered that caught my interest. It was a 5 lb. per cu.in. class with one 4 barrel max. and Automatic Trans requirement. Well, it seemed like I could give it a shot, without spending to much money, ya right. Welcome to $$ Comp. Eliminator. This meant adding around 200 lbs. to the car and rounding up some better parts. I probably should have waited longer, but once you get that itch...... Here's a couple of shots from the now Famous March Meet back in 1976. My experience at the Patch was shall we say, less than I'd hoped for. Two passes and the Trans goes south. Long story short, by the time we get the trans out and parts from Burbank, back in the car, it's time to head on home. It was a learning experience and at least I got a few laps and these pictures. I hadn't really made many changes, only added some decals and changed the cam and scoop at this time. I'd added a second battery and the rest of the weight needed to be legal. Just wanted to get my feet wet again. As I'm going through this stuff, it's funny how things pop back into your head. I remember having to drill the rims and screw the slicks down to keep them from turning on the rims. What started out as a light weight/easy to work on ride, is now getting to be more serious. Surprise huh? Here's a few shots, see the little trailer and El Camino set up. It worked great for local bracket stuff, but now running NHRA events, with all the spare stuff and travel, things are going to have to change. Also a clipping from the old DragScoop days. That's me in my younger days. Just noticed the garter on the tachometer, guess I should mention that I got hitched too. Well, the need for speed has arrived. It was time to go for it or get back to the brackets. What would be the wise/smart move here? So you know I did the only thing a racer can do, earn more money and get going. Here's a shot after making many changes and testing at Irwindale. Notice the Alum. heads and new dropped axle. Added a better fuel pump and braided lines. Ever notice how when you take weight off the front and start making more power, the front end spends more time in the air. Yup, bent the axle and rods up real good. Had to make some changes to the crude wheelie bar system too. This shot looks about right, after all the moon shots I was doing before. Here's a bad shot from the rear, you can see the Ape is on back on this car as I mentioned earlier. The Madness continues. I picked up Buck's Mobile for a small sponsor deal, every little bit helps. That's Larry Ofria of Valley Head Service fame, in the colorful shirt, helping us put away some food. I've been making more changes, gears and TC and such too. We're doing some testing at OCIR and I'm running better each time, but I know I'm in for some major work, if I want to reach my goal. These shots show the crude rear bar setup I spoke of and the last tear down and inspection, that made me go nuts. That's my good friend and helper on the car, Bill grinning at you. Great guy and a great sense of humor. That's me trying to look busy, working on the heads. Dirty/greasy arms almost looks like I've got tattoo's. Here an old belt buckle from back then. Don't remember which photographer was selling them. Never did wear it though. Found it in a box with this other stuff. Here's my Comp Lic. from NHRA, man this stuff takes me back. Well, this has been the White phase of the Altered. I hope you enjoyed the ride down memory lane. The next one will be the rebuild of the whole car, motor, chassis, body, tin work and more. Lots of build up shots in that one. This work took time and money, but it paid off. Stay tuned.........
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 12, 2013 12:21:47 GMT -4
This thread is showing some of the time, work and dollars spent chasing my dreams. I'll try to post things that show the many changes made on this rebuild. It's been a long time, so if I skip something or you have questions, fire away I had decided to pull the motor and make some major changes to it. This was going to give me the time to do some chassis/body changes too. Well, one thing leads to another and it seemed time to do it all now. Time to start selling stuff again. The price of Toys, just went up. As you can see in this first shots, I've been busy taking it apart and starting to remove the paint. Anyone that's done this knows, how much fun this is. When will I learn, what a mess. I was going to make changes, that will allow me to remove the Trans and Convertor, without pulling the motor. Also give me more leg room and enclose the gauges too. Update the tin work and a few other things. After getting things ready, we've moved it over to the shop and started working on many area's at once. I'll try to cover most of it, as we go along. You can see where we put the rear motor plate and are designing it to hold new Tin from there back to the body. Also glassed in the gauge area. The Body is being lowered and some cutting and filling, to get it to look right and get things closer to the ground. You can see where we have lowered the body, as much as possible. We even had to notch around the cage and cut open the rear of the car and re-glass spots all around there. (Itch, itch, scratch, scratch) We cut and raised the fenders and made a bunch of adjustments to make everything fit properly. Of course, now I need new Tin inside. Once you start down this road, well you know. So now comes the Tin work and chassis paint. Starting to see shiny stuff now. Remember while this is going on, we're building a motor, reworked the chassis, new parts are being gathered and there are parts being chromed. If it didn't haul ass, at least it would look pretty. Here's the body prepped and ready for some paint. We have gotten to motor put together and moving it. Notice my fancy motor mount in the back of the El Camino. Must have spent my money on other things. ;o) Things are starting to come together now. Got the motor painted and the chassis is done. Got the axle chromed and the new wheels and tires are on it too. Here's the old cards from Earls and Larry's shops. I'd like to thank them again, for their help and the use of their shops to rebuild my baby. Thanks again guys. Motors buttoned up and put in and she's out in the daylight again. Now it's time to put it all together and go get Jack (Hooker Headers) to make me up a set of custom pipes. Also to then take it over to Kenny Youngblood's place, so he can start doing his thing, designing the paint scheme. I've got to thank my wife Anne, for being so great about my racing and the time and expense, of doing this. This period was a lot of long days and late nights getting this done. Through all this, what does she do? She buys me a Carter paint job for the Altered, for a Birthday present to me. Got to love a woman like that. We've been together for over 40 years now, I think she's going to keep me. In these shots, you can see that we've got it all back together and got it home. The headers are done and we have made some noise. Looking at the trailer rims, you can see where the money and time hasn't been going. Once you start making things pretty, that bad stuff really jumps out at you. More swap meets to attend and must sell more old stuff. As the money tree is looking pretty lean. Here you can see the new Chute mount and the required puke tank, with the brake light. We passed on the turn signals though. That's a narrowed Dana 60 rear, with some new lower 4.88 gears. I left the old wheelie bars on, until I see what is needed after testing and dialing in all the motor/cam/header/gear and torque converter changes. Got the shoe polish on, time to go for a test & tune. Going to shake it down real good, before painting and putting chrome on anything else. This is the last post about the rebuild. The next post will be the racing story, with the finished car and some pictures of it at some great old dragstrips, that sadly, are long gone now. I'm sure I've left out a bunch of the small stuff, but you get the idea. Lots of time, work and money spent chasing my dream. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Great times and memories.
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 12, 2013 13:06:34 GMT -4
Here are a couple of shots of the car in the garage. These two shots, show the true colors of it. Thanks again, to Mike for brightening them up for me. Pictures in the daylight, just never come out that well. If you look closely, you can see the great colors and lettering. Remember that this is back in the 1976-77. The design is by Kenny Youngblood, with the paint by Carter and John Pugh did the lettering. After doing some more testing, we were making good gains on the class. We had to add a 50 lb. weight bar on the front and put on a long set of wheelie bars out back, to get it to settle down on the launch. The car was now running in the 9.20's. So with the quicker times and new paint, the car was getting a lot more attention. Here's a shot of us in the pits at Irwindale, testing while running in bracket one. Dialed in at 9.20 and hoping to get in some laps. The NHRA A/EA index was around 9.15 back then, which NHRA set off the National records back then. So we're really gaining on them. This one shows us prepping for another day at the races. Notice the weight bar on the axle that I mentioned earlier. After getting the car painted, the trailer wheels and tires really showed how bad they looked, so I had to get some new stuff there too. Got rid of the rusty chrome ones. When will it end? Here's a shot of us at Orange County in 77, testing in prep for the NHRA Div. 7 points meet coming up in May. Test results are looking good so far. This A/EA was to be an econo class, but it sure isn't cheap. Chasing a dream requires a bunch of parts and lots of work, but hey, that's racing isn't it? Between a gear change and new torque convertor, we think we're loaded for bear. Here we are at the 1977 NHRA points meet at Orange County. That's a younger Partridge in the red, white and blue jacket from NHRA checking over my car/engine at the tear down/barn. We managed to set the National record @ 8.96 for the class. First car in the eights. A dream realized at last. Got the honor of having Pappy Hart signing it too. Two shots from that race at OCIR. What a great place and a great time. Sure do miss that place and the many racer friends. Also an ad from National Dragster after the race. Notice in the first tear down/barn shot, we're still towing it around with the El Camino. It's been working fine up til now, but I'm running out of room, if we want to race the division #7 series. So I sold my bike and the El Camino and bought a transporter. It held a lot more spare parts and was safer on the highways. Here's a couple of shots on the truck. Here it is, "For Sale". Wish I could crank up that o'wayback machine and go get it. These trucks were used by the Flopper guys and roundy round racer's back then. I bought mine used, but you could buy the beds alone back then. You would have liked this one. Had saddle tanks and a water tank with pump, to cool the racecar. Now with the ramp truck, we were able to travel and have some fun. Here's a shot from the NHRA points meets at Fremont and at Irwindale Raceway. Some of the older guys know of these great strips, but unfortunately all four of the strips that I've shown you are long gone. Many happy and fun times have been had at and around these great places. Old time slips from some great strips too. The slip from the Patch (Bakersfield) is my early try at the March meet, in the white car. The half second improvement was very expensive, but well worth the costs and effort required to follow a dream. Loved getting there and sure enjoyed the journey too. Here's a copy of an Article in Popular Hotrodding back then. These were taken at "The Last Drag race" at Irwindale Raceway, when it closed. It's in the gravel area of the turn off return road. Many fond memories there. After lots of fun and good racing, it was time to move on. Here's an ad in National Dragster, as we prepared to make our move up here. Also a shot from Dragscoop. Looking at this ad really says a lot, about prices and how much things have changed over the years. I probably had 25K total, in my whole Comp. Elim. operation. Today, that won't get you a motor for Comp.Elim. Boy, does that make you miss the good old days or what? I hope you've enjoyed my trip down memory lane. I've enjoyed putting this together and sharing my story and the BS along with it. I'm still going through junk around here, so I'll add a few bits now and then. I got this email below awhile back out of the blue, on another site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Seeing your unusual name reminded me of this photo from 1978 taken at Brainerd Optimist Dragstrip, Ringgold, Georgia. Are you related? Wayne." So I replied to him: Hello Wayne. That is /was my car. Sold it to him in summer of 78. If you or anyone has shots of it, I'd love to see them. Thanks, Jean "Jean, here's a night time shot. These photos were taken by the late, great, Marty Johnson. Gary McGill passed them on to me. Wayne." Wayne, this must have been right after he bought it and had just took it out for the first time. Loved that old hotrod. Thanks, Jean ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, is that cool or what? Two shots from Marty Johnson. Do any of you, from that area, have any information. The paint was later changed, but if you look for the boxed in gauges glass work area, it stands out. We custom made that for it. Anyway, I thought the stuff was cool to get. As Mike lOVES to hear, "it's a small world after all". Just wanted to add these in here. It's a shot that John (WC1) played with. I thought it was very cool of him. Great stuff, thanks again John. On only 80% Then the whole can... Came across another old shot and thought I'd post it up here. Burnouts were fun even back then. That's my dear buddy Bill, getting ready to guide me back. I hope you've enjoyed this long thread, of my good old days of racing. Thanks again to Don for the space here. Also, a special thanks to Mike for the time/space and effort on his site and for me being able to save this stuff for myself and others to remember and hopefully enjoy. Thanks again everyone, for your help.
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Post by wildcatone on Aug 12, 2013 15:27:01 GMT -4
Your hot rods are awesome, Jean! I see a truck while I drive through Alvin, Texas on the way to gigs that looks just like "Old Yeller". It's sitting outside of a mechanic's shop there. Same color and I think it's the same year, make and model. Next time I drive through there I'll stop and take a picture of it. I can see from the road that it has some rust around the lower panels...WC1
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Post by Mr. Jean on Aug 12, 2013 15:32:27 GMT -4
Thanks John. It's a lot of work getting this stuff over here, but I felt it's worth saving.
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