Features TWEETY BIRD, JIM GOVRO'S BEAUTIFUL CHANNELED 32 ROADSTER RETURNS AFTER 50 YEARS, KERVILLE DRAGS

Very few channeled 32's survived, especially full fendered. Glad you posted so many pics to share here.

 

Jim in 1954 headed out to Bonnieville to the salt flats. His mom took this picture and had it made into a post card and Jim took it with him and sent it back to his mom while he was there.m This was about the second stage of this car now with fender and a flat head motor. There is so much cool history of this car.

 

"There is so much cool history of this car. "

That's an understatement...and pics from 1954..
.

 

WOW....this is a great story about a very COOOL Roadster & Builder, Thanks....Subscribed !

 

Thank you for your feed back, there is so much to this story,It's what hot rodders dreams are made of, or least what mine are.

 

As a youngster this Car really inspired me. I bought the Rodding & re Styling when it hit the shelf and still have it. Tweety is one of a couple Roadsters that has inspired my latest Channeled Roadster project. With your parents health not getting any better, a Stand Still on the project wouldn't be my choice. What, as an extended group of Friends can we do to help you along? I think Tweety needs to move along A.S.A.P. so You and your Dad can enjoy it together as long as possible.
Put a list of things you need together and post them on this link. Your going to be shocked the reaction you'll get.
The Wizzard

 

If need be I'll follow all the threads! Such a COOL car!

 

Great shot, I never knew the car had been anything but yellow. So good to see a car like this come back in its original form.

 

I can tell you one of the secrets of the car. It was channeled much more in the back than in the front. This took the front fenders and tilted them more down in front as the frame moved up in back. The lines of the car are way better with the fenders more level.

 

Wow!!!

 

Eagerly watching. Great History & great to see restoration started.

 

I need to to tell all who read about the Tweety Birds story. There is a awesome hot rodder in the Texas hill country. His name is Andy. He didn't take one second when Jim asked him if he would sell Tweety back. Andy has a heart of gold and has a true love of deuces. My eyes fill with tears when I think of how much he is apart of this story.Thank you so much for helping Jim's dream become reality.

 

Although I do not know Jim it is kind of strange about meeting & becoming friends with Don. When Don won class & set a new record at 58 NHRA nationals in Oklahoma City I was there as a spectator on my Honeymoon.
Then run into & become friends with Don all these years later at local club meeting.
I was not able to make the LSRU this year due to prior commitments but definately plan on going to it next year. Hopefully Jim & Tweety will be there.

Jimmie

 

Tweety Bird's bare shell and frame was owned first by August "Hands" Hartkopf. Auggy as Jim knew him went to high school together. "Hands" as everyone else new him had only one thing bigger than his hands, it was his heart and his love of racing. My uncle Thurman Lovejoy also knew him. Thurman was a circle burner in the 50's and said no one could tune a carb like "Hands"

 

What a great story, really lookin forward to the first time Jim gets to drive it again!! Would be even cooler with the Flattie in it again

 

Wow. Hartkopf was a Texas badass. Had a wicked '55 with an engine that screamed at 10,000 rpm. That guy has been gone a long time, but his engine building prowess was unprecedented. Long live Ables Lane and Dallas' Texas' very own ... legendary racer's alley ! Hands Hartkopf !

 

Kid,true Auggie was a Texas badass,however his car was a 56...

 

Yes ! Thank you. Beat me to it. Where is that car I wonder ?

I either first saw the pictures on Zig Ebel's or Machinist George's wall. An older racer named Corky Wells has an incredible Green Valley Raceway movie collection. Drank beer on a glorious Friday night on Ables watching that car run everyone down. Bad indeed. Still today, I wish those old movies had sound capabilities. Couldn't hear sh#t .... but you can see that car just get it ! High tens ... Low 11s ??? Corky did not know.

Tweety Bird just gets better and better.

 

Kid...I guess I am one of the more fortunate ones..I saw "Hands" run many times at the old Caddo Mills strip back in the 50s also saw him lift the rear end of car high enough for someone to slip jack stands under it..

 

Don't worry about the multiple threads. Most of us are on the HAMB enough to find them all easily enough. It's more than worth a little searching to find stories like this. To find the car 60+ years father it was built and have someone understanding enough to sell it back to your father-in-law/you is awesome. One story like this makes the Alliance Membership well worth the cost. Thanks and I'm looking forward to the resurrection.

 

There is some 8mm footage of Tweety at the 1957 Oklahoma NHRA Nationals. Tweety and Jim pull up to line at the 10:40 time line in the footage. I can't seem to find the other footage that was on the Hamb site. There was a couple of snipits of Jim and Tweety that it said from the video above. It had a closeup of Tweety and Jim's brother inlaw backing up to pull the roadster back to the starting line. It also had Tweety racing twice down the track. Can anyone help me find this? I saw it about 3 months ago.

 

Jim took Tweety and a friend to Bonnieville in 1954. Here are a few pics from that trip.

 

We are starting to gathering up the parts for the the frame. We bought a 390 caddie, and found on ebay a 4 deuce intake,valve covers and valley pan. we found a adapter for a modern tranny that will be 1 of the 2 things we will change on the car. We plan on adding power steering on it also, other than that it will be the same as it looked in H.R.M. in 1958. The drive line is something I can do along with the rebuild of the caddie motor. The body is really straight,fenders, hood,deck lid,grille, shell, are really straight also. All of the floor pan is still all there. I think our main set back will be the body and paint work. I stopped in at Austin Speed Shop and what a great bunch of guys. I saw the picture on their wall of August Hartkopf who once owned the 32 shell. So Austin is the car,the story,and the man Jim is. It would be great if we could afford to take it to such a shop. Mike at Nick's Hot Rod Shop fell in love with Tweety at the Lonestar Roundup and has offered 40hrs on the car and helped start off a Gofundme.com/tweety site. It took us 2 years to raise the money to buy back Tweety and was worth every penny of it when Jim told me to look inside the rear quarter panel and pointed to a weld. He said that was the first weld he ever did in his life and it was in shop class at Austin High School.This morning at mom's house I saw Jim's hands that are swollen and looked more like Auggie's hands. I hope this is not where the story ends. What occupies Jims day are my mom. She has not been home since last November. Jim is with her ever day, a kindder hearted man i have never met. he's my step dad no he is my real papa. I thought getting the car back was the hard part. I don't
if we be able , maybe put our trust in our fellow HOT ROD JUNKIES

 

When Jim went to Bonnieville, Frank Barnes rode with him. Jim had lost all of his photos of the trip. Thanks to Frank who still had his pics. Here is a great photo of Jim in Tweety in front of the Bonnieville Salt Flat sign.

 

Linkie no work for me.....

 

...........................................................Same here.

 

me three

 

It's maybe the spelling of journal that's wrong. ;-)

Edit
Its the spelling, correct one letter, the "e" in journel, to an "a" and you are golde B-)

 

Wow factor times infinity! Here is some footage at the 1958 NHRA Nationals in Oklahoma City. In part 1 at 2min 38sec Jim's brother inlaw is backing up to Tweety to pull it back to the pits. It also has at 4min. 37 sec. has Chuck Porter's shop truck a 49 ford that he tried to trade Jim for Tweety. You can see why it was the same color and was also powered by a caddie motor. Chuck's shop truck and drag car are now in the NHRA museum. In part 2 Jim is racing Tweety down the track. I don't know why tyhis link does not work on the HAMB site but it does if you google it.www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-1958-nhra.265313/page-4