Vintage race car pix

[sodbuster]

Here is a link to some pix that I found.

http://www.memaerobilia.com/raceway.asp

http://www.memaerobilia.com/images/cars/jgmgt6.jpg

http://www.memaerobilia.com/images/cars/jghemid.jpg

Malcolm Campbell's
http://www.memaerobilia.com/images/cars/jgblbrd.jpg

[fuel pump]

Cool stuff.... thanks for the link.

[4t64rd]

Take a look at the Jag near the bottom of the page, proves you can't get it right 100% of the time.

[Paul]

where is this car now?

http://www.memaerobilia.com/images/cars/jghudsx.jpg

[sodbuster]

It said that it had a periscope? Hmmmmm.

[memaerobilia]

Regarding the bizarre Jaguar full custom. My late father, Joe Gertler Sr. could make just about any compund curve out of steel and aluminum. The full custom Jag was a brand new car, picked up at the docks and then customized for the World Motor Sports Show in the early 50's. It WON a trophy for its class. (he was Very embarrassed to have done that car, in later years-but it sure got the beer baron who ordered it, the attention he wanted..)Dad also entered a custom Fordillac and a custom Allard.. The car with the faired-in wheel wells is the famous Bluebird, World Land Speed Record Car, as Dad was doing more streamlining work on it in his shop in The Bronx, NY. He had a lot of famous customers and some who became famous racing drivers in later years (John Fitch). The race and sports cars covered just about evey category from World Speed Record, to oval track to Carrera Panamericana, to Speed boat records and circle tracks, to hot rods. Great years.
The "periscope" was to see over sand dunes for a wealthy Oil Sheik on a Hudson Chassis. That is ME standing there. I'm 57 now...All the history is on my website with over 100 car photos. www.memaerobilia.com (http://www.memaerobilia.com) Would LOVE to find that Jag and take it to Goodwood (making sure that I am wearing a bullet proof vest) http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Spedley]

Hey memaerobilia, just a warning, some of the people round here will get on your case for not posting an introduction, not me, but some people. I just checked out your site, very cool.

[k9racer]

Joe great web site.do a intro let everyone know who you are and you will fit in well.

[Rix2Six]

[ QUOTE ]
where is this car now?

http://www.memaerobilia.com/images/cars/jghudsx.jpg

[/ QUOTE ]

Wasn't it the spaceship from "My Favorite Martian"??? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[memaerobilia]

Glad to put those old race car, custom car photos up to honor my late Dad, Joe Gertler Sr. on www.memaerobilia.com (http://www.memaerobilia.com) He taught me how to build those type cars from Scratch! Start with drawing the car full-scale in three dimensions on cut up refrigerator cartons, then making the cardboard templates in three dimensions and start cutting steel and aluminum. We made our OWN chassis (20 pieces of steel cut with a band saw and then welded to make a complete frame with kickups at rear and braces. body frame & mounts, our own wheels (band saw the centers!) our own steering wheels, springs, engine mounts, firewalls, steel radiator shells with demountable tubular grilles, fuel tanks, radius rods, bumpers (hand filing and sanding ALL welds at seams for neat chrome finish), brass radiators (from drawn & cut cardboard templates; scratch built tapered headers. rolling out the aluminum for the bodies, sometimes bending it over pieces of telephone pole in the shop..Fitting and trimming each body part and mounting bracket -sometimes a dozen or more time per piece to get the perfectly even sixteenth of an inch spce between each panel. engine turning the dash and firewall with a 1 1/2" round wire brush in the drill press, by eye,,,Lathe, milling machine & drill press all were leather belt driven..Those were the days...Won National First Prize at Hershey one year (in the race car clas) with a car that was about the 25th best of the 38 cars we did together from 1973-1990. Dad built some 200 cars from 1937-1990 and worked on or major modified-customized MANY more. NO FIBERGLASS! I have four of the cars here. Kept them to hand down one to each of my kids...I have Thousands of Early photos (and misc boxes of parts)from Dad's shop days and hundreds more from our days together, after I joined him in 1969. We didn't get BACK into race cars until a few years after I joined him. We were just doing rare and vintage aircraft, and parts and aircraft salvage when I first joined him..

[jerry]

welcome. don't worry about an intro. i think that one will do.

that is one hell of a history there.


jerry

[metalshapes]

What Jerry said...
Welcome.

[wingnutz]

Hi and "Very welcome to the board"!

I assume your Joe Gertler Jr....? I've collected many published photo's of your dads creations over the years!

I am truely honored that you've joined the board!

Have you been a "Lurker" or were you prompted about the interest in your fathers cars??

Nice seeing the website with all those photo's ..., Thanks again!

Mark

[Tman]

Some of you guys are just dumbasses! When a guy walks into a post with as much info and history as this one, he dont need no stinkin intro!!!! Welcome memorable one!!!!!!!

[memaerobilia]

Yes, I'm J.G.Jr. Wasn't a lurker. this site is GREAT! I found it in a strange way. I only check my own website's traffic history reports every couple of months. It is more for fun and sharing the aviation and race car history, and a casual thing for me. My site usually gets about 15-40 visits a day. ( nobody really counts "hits') A couple of days ago I was stunned to see the visit graphs shoot through the roof with over 500 visits on one day and a lot more for the few days around Feb 24-and all were referred by this site. This is one INFLUENTIAL site. So I looked it up and saw all the great rods and restorations and ideas. And the enthusiasm was wonderful to see. I'm very lucky to have found it..I have a lot of photos showing step-by-step building and fabrication (by two guys with just a lot of hand tools and an OLD milling machine, lathe, & drill press-all leather belt driven!) A couple of albums full. Don't know how useful they would be in showing some of the steps that worked well. Like this site, there is a lot of problem-solving that goes on, in the process. Most of the cars we did in Dad's Second-phase (when he saw some vintage race cars in 1973, and decided to get back into building and restorations for the fun of it) after I joined him in 1969, were featured in Open Wheel or Circle Track or other magazines. I was really glad to see him get the recognition.
He was the most unpretentious guy you ever met. Always wore shirts with buttons missing, holes from welding, welts & scrathes, dirt under the fingernails most of the working day, but a perfectionist. As to that last part-Here is my favorite story of his standards. One of my first metal working exercises was to hammer a steel sheet into a curved gas tank end with a quarter inch lip to be welded. It was one of my first pieces that was going to actually be used in a real race car. There were other cutomers walking around our shop admiring the cars and vintage aircraft engines we collected. I proudly handed him my finished piece and asked "Is that good enough?" He promptly threw it across the work bench and hit me in the head with it! and yelled, "There is no such thing as "Good enough." It is either RIGHT or it isn't" Don't ever say "Good enough" again..." Boy, I never forgot THAT lesson. Seems like yesterday,,,Instead of 30+ years ago.
THANKS for the welcome.LOVE this site..

[Petejoe]

Wow, welcome to our humble garage. You sir can have the chair right next to the fridge. Help yourself to a beer and shoot the shit all you want. You sir are a product of the originals. You sir belong ...and are the essence of what we copulate. Hamb juices flow through your veins. Again http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gifwelcome!! wow!!

[tinyelvis]

WELCOME.. I think everyone here could learn a lot from a guy like you, especially me!

[Hackerbilt]

"step-by-step building and fabrication (by two guys with just a lot of hand tools and an OLD milling machine, lathe, & drill press"

THAT is exactly where most of us are right now!
PLEASE show us what you can about the simple approach to building that you guys obviously learned to master!

Pass the torch! You have a captive audience here I can assure you. This stuff is dying out for the most part but many VERY capable people here are totally against that ever happening!
WE try our best to walk the walk...
Show us the path! Rest assured the skills will live on!

Bill

[memaerobilia]

[ QUOTE ]


THAT is exactly where most of us are right now!
PLEASE show us what you can about the simple approach to building that you guys obviously learned to master!
This stuff is dying out for the most part but many VERY capable people here are totally against that ever happening!
WE try our best to walk the walk..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, Bill....Where to start. Simple stuff first. Best way to pick up skills, add and improve your capabilities...
Here are a couple of things that come to mind. There is no better way to learn or improve skills than watching a "Master" the older (more eperienced,) the better. obviously. Mot of the guys don't have the time or the patience to have you interrupt them. If you don't know each other, flatter them and assure them you won't be in their way. Go in with a cup of coffee, or a sandwich & drink for their lunch, Tell them you are Serious about learning these skills and wish to carry them on. Tell them you would like to do a magazine or newpaper feature on their "beautiful work." In the beginning, while trying to build some rapport, ask as FEW questions as possible & Don't get in the way! take photos, take notes. AFTER the guy is DONE working, or on a break, ask a few questions. Maybe bring a photo of a project you have finished or unfinished. Ask for constructive criticism.
Ask for permission to take a LOT of photos of details of construction when he is on a break. You'll NEVER remember the small details-many are the difference between excellence and puttering around.If you can be truly enthusiastic (without being childish about it)He'll probably WANT to answer your questions and -Once in a while-take you aside a SHOW you a neat little trick, or a way to make something a lot better, even if it's only filing or sanding or a better hammer or dolly to use, in the beginning. Bodywork is ALL in the fingertips and what they tell you.. and he'll show you what that means. Yes I know, I learned these things as a Father teaches his son. But BEFORE me, I know of a LOT of guys, Young & old, who just "hung around" and haunted his shop and he would pass on these skills or help them improve their own, as best as he could. Some young kids, eventually opened their own shops, built their own rods & race cars after getting this "basic training" Maybe pay for a small bodywork or fabricating job and be there -without bothering him_ while he's soing it. My Dad learned bodywork from an old master by btinging him a case of beer and a salami after work, and they would do some bodywork projects until 2 in the morning & have a good time while doing it. Hope that is a decent (modest) little start..

[Hackerbilt]

Yup...gotta get your foot in the door! But that isn't very hard really.

I've picked up some useful skills from older guys by just showing an interest in what they could do!

I did some limited lead working in school but learned way more from the older guy I worked with later. He was more than happy to show me how he did it...even though we (officially!) used plastic filler only at work. He dented up some old parts and showed me what to do when work was slow...even gave me one of his old paddles to work with!
I STILL have it!
He's retired now but we're still good friends and often talk on the phone or visit.
Your suggestion WORKS.

Lots of guys like that still around but the numbers decline every year. Gotta get to it now guys!

Hopefully you will add some input into the various threads that pop up concerning metal forming. I'm sure it would be appreciated by all members!

Bill