Blackie’s Chickencoop

Blackie has been gone over a month now, and I just came across the write up on his car in the May 1954 issue of Rod and Custom (photos by Barris & Moon). It tells the story of his famous black ’26 T street roadster before it was even known as ‘Shish-Kebab’. A few things really strike me reading this nice write up- First that the car was completely hand-built from scratch over a period of 9 years, by a man with limited resources and means. Secondly, his build innovation wasn’t copied from other cars, as Blackie was far from L.A., living in Fresno; Rather, he thought out solutions through practicality and innovation: Creating a ‘sub-frame’ chassis, keeping the car extremely light and minimalistic for maximum performance. Finally, Blackie did a great job keeping a perfect balance of ‘show’ and ‘go’ and the car straddles the line between full AMBR contender and drag-ready daily driver.