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History Old No. Eighty Seven

Discussion in 'Traditional Hot Rods' started by Ryan, Sep 20, 2010.

  1. Damn Ryan, ask and you shall receive. Looks like you will get all the history you want about it. The Power of the HAMB strikes again.
     
  2. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    What a great reception, thanks to everyone. I am just going to do a brief history for now, to tell the whole story will take a great deal of effort. It is my intention to set up a website, www.peekbrothersracing.com which I secured the domain last night to preserve and tell the story of all of our efforts over the past 45 years. Just don't hold your breath waiting for the site. My brother Michael has all of the photos and related stuff in his basement. Our oldest brother Jerry, deceased since 1983 was better at carrying a camera than just about anything else on the cars so there are lots of photos and slides that I may have never seen or at least not for a long time.
    <O:p</O:p
    I don't recall how we got involved in cars in the first place, it was just a natural thing to do in the late 50's. Perhaps one of the most important events occurred in 1960 and led to a lot of what we did and how we did things. Meeting Roy Leslie as part of a 6th grade project to interview three adults who did something you might like to do when grown. Wow, looking back on that and the impact it had on my life is unbelievable. <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com[​IMG]Roy</st1:City> was gentleman, a successful businessman, obviously enjoyed many successes in racing and just happened to enjoy taking young boys under his wing. I was one fortunate 12 year old kid! The relationship with <st1:City w:st="on">Roy</st1:City> also involved my brother Michael and lasted until cancer claimed <st1:City w:st="on">Roy</st1:City> in 1973. If you ever had the opportunity to see a Kenz & Leslie race car you can appreciate the level of professionalism and finish that was <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:place Roy</st1:City>'s trademark...what an influence. Our roadster was never sponsored by K&L but always carried a Kenz & Leslie logo.
    Our first exposure to Bonneville was in 1964. Probably from hanging around K&L with their dragster and Continental Divide Raceways in Castle Rock, Co we met Jack Richards. One thing led to another and we spent most of the summer nights in Jack's garage in Golden, Co helping get ready for Bonneville. Jack was a low buck racer with two cars, a not very nice '29 with a blown 354 and a red '29 highboy street roadster with a Pontiac engine...both cars went to Bonneville that year. Only problem was that Jack had no way to get the red car there. Enter the Peek Brothers who found a buyer for their basket case '32 roadster. Sold that thing for $250, added another $112.60 to it and bought the 56 pick up seen behind our roadster in the photo which started this thread. It was a long wheelbase truck that managed to tow the red car to the salt. With Jack a trip to Bonneville was more of an expedition, an epic three day trip to drive 600 miles. You had to sleep in the park by the RR track in Sinclair Wyoming, the hit the sprint car races in SLC on Saturday night the sleep on the dirt ball field behind the school in <st1:City w:st="on">Grantsville</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">UT</st1:State>...then finally get to the salt on Sunday. It was a long but fun trip.
    I don't remember much about the week other than camping out and sleeping in the truck up on the hill behind the Texaco (I think) station. By the time the week was over the yellow 56 was not running to good so Jack's son Bobby drove the red car most of the way back to Salt Lake before we put it on the trailer. Going up the hill east of SLC the tired 272 ate a few pushrods but we managed to get to the top with a few stops to pour STP on the rocker arms. We finally made it to <st1:City w:st="on">Evanston</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Wyoming</st1:State> in the wee hours and pulled into the Ford dealers lot, sleeping in the truck with no heat...got down to 29 degrees that night. When they opened in the morning we bought all of the pushrods they had and headed home.
    The Bonneville hook was set, there was no doubt that we would be back at Bonneville in '65!
    In July of 1965 we started gathering parts and since I was the one who could sort of weld, I started building the car on a Model A frame...three months before I turned 18! It was a great time when a 17 year old kid could tackle such a project and finish it within a couple of months with a $500 investment and some borrowed parts.

    To be continued,
    <O:pGreg Peek<O:p
     
    HEMI32 likes this.
  3. WOW! Keep it coming Greg, thanks!
     
  4. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    A little more history from Greg:

    I have located one batch of slides going back to the original construction of the car in 1965. This set shows nice progression from '65 thru '69, now I just need to find time to scan a bunch of them. Until then here is a brief verbal history:

    The body started life as a '29 coupe which had already been eyed by someone for a hot rod. It had been chopped when we found the body only sitting in a friends yard in Sheridan Colorado, just a couple of blocks west of the South Platte River...which seriously flooded in mid June with water reaching the coupe and moving it some, but fortunately not down river. Who knows what may have happened had it gone down the river! After the flood clean up was completed to the point that we could retrieve the body, probably around the first of July we took it home and got rid of that top.

    I must like pressure, I still operate best with a tight deadline but the roadster was probably my first sizable project with a major deadline. So in approximately a 6 to 7 week period the Model A frame was boxed, a now scary looking roll bar was added along with the standard modern Olds rear end. We already had a 413 Plymouth engine and 3 speed trans from a '62 Super Stocker. The hood and grill shell were Ford parts, but I think bolted to the cowl and removable. The only tires we could get our hands on were some Goodyear NASCAR units so we probably doubled the normally large frontal area.

    We got it finished, including a dark green paint job in time to head for the Salt for our first annual 3rd week in August trip. By now the Yellow '56 PU had the frame shortened to short wheelbase size, a fresh new junk yard bed, tail gate, some brand new fenders from the utility company for about $5.00 each. She was a lovely truck which between all of the hodge podge of body parts plus primer spots sported about 5 colors and a 354 Chrysler hemi and a cast iron Torqueflite. Needless to say we didn't have the mechanical problems from the previous year.

    In '65 the Salt was flooded the first part of the week, so we took a side trip to Reno / Lake Tahoe and back in time to drive through the still flooded few miles to get to the course where we had a few days to play on the wet salt. As I recall we managed to go a bit over 150 MPH, driven by Jerry. Not bad for a car built on about a $500 budget by three kids from Colorado in 45 days. We really were kids, I was still 17 year, Michael was 18 and Jerry was 21. ( It would be great if the world had stayed a bit simpler so that kids today could have similar opportuiities. )

    You will get a kick out of the photos when I get them posted. The car was not drastically different looking in stature from lots of other cars. But when you look at the construction photos and one side view picture of Jerry pulling away from the truck you will understand what I meam by SCARY!

    Next episode, 1966 and a tube frame and blue paint...just not the right blue. That frame ironically bears a strong resemblence to today's funny car chassis. Funny cars did not have frames anything like it until about 1970 - 1971. I don't know who the first professional chassis builder to go to a narrow funny car frame was, but Woody Gilmore was if not the first, certainly one of the first.

    Greg Peek
     
    HEMI32 likes this.
  5. Thanks again Greg!
     
  6. fryguy
    Joined: Nov 26, 2005
    Posts: 1,235

    fryguy
    Member

    Came across this thread, beautiful car with racing histoy. Built with one thing in mind and it came out so aesthically pleasing. Glad to read it first hand from Greg. Hard to fathom 17 and 18 year old kids having the ability or desire to do this today.


    Fryguy
     
  7. Candy-Man
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 1,715

    Candy-Man
    Member

    Great history lesson.....
     
  8. Mr.Bomba
    Joined: Apr 13, 2007
    Posts: 358

    Mr.Bomba
    Member

    very nice! i love reading these threads when out of the blues chimes in thee original builder and tells the story from their eyes! simply awesome!!! :D
     
  9. What a small world. Greg Peek and I are good personal friends and he is the designer who I originally contacted to fabricate my Maserodi track roadster (link below). The suspension in my TR is a virtual copy of the torsion bar layout in Greg’s personal TR, which appeared in an article in Street Rodder around 1996. I contacted Greg in 1996 and he agreed to build the roadster; subsequently Greg had a series of business reversals, beyond his control, and had to withdraw from the project. By that time he and I were good friends and he took in upon himself to find a fabricator who would have the skill-set to build what I had in mind. Greg’s recommendation was to ask Jack Presse if he would do the project and the result is my TR.

    I have seen #87 a couple of times in a storage garage (where the body, engine and tranny for my TR was stored for many years), and it is outstanding. By coincidence Greg and I were shooting the breeze the other day and the topic of #87 came up and Greg mentioned that there was a HAMB thread focused on the 87 car.

    I thought you folks might want to know about the connection of Greg’s work to the present and the fact that he and his brother are planning to resurrect #87 and return to Bonneville...my guess this will not occur for a couple of years.

    Post # 237 on my Project Thread shows a photo of Greg’s shop about 1998. The Peek Bros #87 is in the background of the photo. Further in the background is Greg’s T-based TR with the torsion bar suspension. In the foreground is the engine in my TR and the plates used to box the 32 rails. I did not end up using the Borg Warner T56 6 speed tranny.

    Here I have posted an image of Greg standing near a VERY early mock-up of my TR.

    This sort of connection is such a cool part of our hobby.

    Go to this LINK and search for post #237 if you want to see how the #87 Roadster looks today:

    http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=356019&highlight=track+roadster&showall=1
     

    Attached Files:

  10. LB+1
    Joined: Sep 28, 2006
    Posts: 581

    LB+1
    Member
    from 71291

    Instead of Charlie, I am going to call you just plan "Cool"
     

  11. LB+1

    Thanks buddy.

    I had such a grin on my face when I looked at Ryan's #87 Thread. Who would have EVER imagined that a photo I took in 1998 would reverberate into the future with such an interesting connection...

    What fun to participate with all the super HAMB members and the "unconverted" non-HAMB hot rod "civilians" out there. I'm going to bug Greg to occasionally contribute to the HAMB.

    Stay tuned.

    trakrodstr
    aka charlie
     
  12. 6 Degrees of Greg Peek?!
     

  13. Tman

    Excellent point.

    I can't remember if I have already told this story on the HAMB, but if so, it may deserve repeating here (or maybe not??).

    BULLSHIT WARNING: The following text may bore you to death as it concerns the musings of a verbose 64 year old blowhard. Wise readers will skip to the next Post.


    Sometime in 1995 (I think) Greg's Model T track roadster appeared in Street Rodder. I had decided by that time that I was going to begin a track roadster project with a traditional theme. I was buying all the hot rodding publications and ordering books (Don Radbruch's Roaring Roadsters; ed. Tex Smith) and combing the literature for ideas. I would really have liked to construct a Miller 91 type car (who wouldn't?), but for asethetic reasons I felt that was not possible, as the Mlller 91s were so frigging narrow that the design would not lend itself to a two seater roadster. In any case, I was getting frustrated because nothing really "clicked" with me....UNTIL...I saw the photos of Greg's TR. I was immediately was drawn to the ultra clean front suspension that reminded me of the Millers and Dusenberg racers. The article mentioned Greg's name and location and somehow I was able to track down the phone number at Greg's business in Englewood CO.

    I called during the middle of a weekday and was surprised to find that Greg's secretary passed my call on to hisownself. Then came the TWILIGHT ZONE moment... After hellos, I said "Mr. Peek, you don't know me but I saw your TR in Street Rodder and was fascinated by the front suspension, it reminds me of the Miller Indy cars of the 20s, do you happen to know about the Millers?" Without hesitation or any preliminary words Greg replied "I have Mark Dee's Book open in front of me right now". I was flabbergasted. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I realized that, like Captain Renault said to Rick in the last scene of Casablanca, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". It was so cool not to have to explain about the Miller History (Mark Dee's book is the definitive text) . I am always surprised how often, when I mention Harry Miller's creations, even to self-described car nuts, I get a blank look. Here, I thought to myself, is a kindred spirit. Greg and I continue to be good friends, and as I mentioned earlier it it Greg who selected Jack Presse to build my TR.

    [Is that how you remember the phone conversation Greg?]

    There are also Greg Peek connections to my KC rodder friends — Not long after I moved to the KC area in 2000 Greg, his wife and two kids drove from Denver and spent Thanksgiving with me and my wife (at the time). Greg said I should look up Don Cain a former drag race competitor of his (NHRA Hall of Famer) who is the "Dean" of drag racers in the KC area. I eventually went by Don's shop (KC Street Rod Parts) and introduced myself. While there I ask Don for advice on identifying a first class fabricator and Don directed me to Dick Easterwood (Easterwood Chassis, Raytown MO). Dick did some amazing work for me on my 1956 Dodge D500 hardtop and we became pretty good buddies. Dick will be helping me with the steering issues that plague my TR. But the six degrees of connection do not end there.

    Ten years later when I finally got my track roadster home to KC I was having major problems with the TR's electronic fuel injection system and I was really fit to be tied. I was whining about the EFI problems to Jack Luther who I had met via the HAMB. Jack called Don Cain, who he knows well, and asked for the name of the EFI guru who had helped Don with his EFI system (another converted Hilborn type stack injection) and Don provided Brett Clow's name. Brett in turn diagnosed and tuned my converted Hilborn system.

    I guess I need to invite Greg to KC and introduce him to Brett Clow and Dick Easterwood, thereby closing the loop on the fantastic wealth of knowledge these gentlemen possess...now if I can get Jack Presse to join us I would be in automotive nirvana.

    END OF BULLSHIT ZONE.
     
  14. das858
    Joined: Jul 28, 2010
    Posts: 1,014

    das858
    Member

    This is one of the best stories to be told on the H.A.M.B. yet, and one of the neatest cars also.
     
  15. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    Charlies recollections are pretty good on how our relationship began. One little six degree thing he forgot was that when we met face to face for the first time I drove my yellow '27 over to pick him up from a friend who he was staying with in the exclusive Cherry Hills Country Club area...ironically when he told me the address I knew exactly wher it was as it was a house we had been referred to to look at the roofing material when we were building our house. Really small world.
    I should but will not embarass Charlie by bringing up some of the strange things the weird scientist was thinking about in the early planning stages of his TR project...like the Alfa engine.
    The Don Cain connection is a little off. In 1971 I quit my day job to start building race cars full time and in '72 or '73 Peek Brothers built a Plymouth Satellite funny car for Don and his partner John Pusch which Don proceeded to crash the first time out when he sort of forgot to use the brakes. As I recall he did a good job of circle tracking it by spinning the car out to put it into the sand trap backwards!
    Back to Old Number Eighty Seven!
    The plan is to start the "restoration" in 2 - 3 weeks. Initially photograph as is, remember the car was out of our hands for a few years so there is some clean up work to do. Next will be disassembly. I gotta get the ugly white paint off the car! Then there will be a bit of cutting and hacking to clean up the frame...not much thank heavens.
    Since we are still racers at heart (the delay in getting started is caused by Michael picking up a new dragster from Spitzer next week then finishing it up as soon as he gets it home) this is not truely a restoration project but a race car modernization project.
    I expect to replace all of the running gear as I am a bit more aware of safety concerns than when I was 17. All of the original parts will go on the pallet rack for safe keeping and "show use". Since we have a 45 year old front tube axle that was chromed and perhaps not baked afterwords to releive hydrogen embrittlement I think a new one is in order and while at it replace the spindles with some new 4130 billet spindles with new hubs that I will machine. Also I am looking at rear end options as I am not sure I want to turst the Hallibrand V-8 with the modern horsepower we will build. The existing rear end has welded spiders with Donovan axles pluged in. I like the idea of a slightly larger ring gear with a higher ratio. Everything that I have found in a new quickchange is limited to a 4:11 ring and pinion. In order to get to about a 2:50 ratio (we ran 2:72ish in the '60's) will require a 1.6ish spur gear ratio which will have the pinion spinning about 12 - 13,000 RPM and that bearing speed scares me. I will also build the full floater rear end parts like I did when we were building dragsters for a living.
    I currently manufacture a couple of product lines, recumbent bicycles and wheelchairs along with some aircraft parts so all I will need to do is find time to get material on the machines. I guess some things never change, I would rather design and build my own parts than buy them. Apparently the ego and belief that I can do things better never goes away!
    Michael has been working on gathering engine parts, so far a new KB wet hemi block with some monster billet heads and a Crane cam with about .800 lift (slightly more than the Isky 550 from the old days). Needless to say we will build lots more horsepower. The intention and goal would be to run somewhere between 250 and 300MPH and hopefully be back on the Salt this year in 2011!

    That will do it for now.
    Greg
     
    HEMI32 likes this.
  16. Keep us posted!
     
  17. roygoodwin
    Joined: Feb 4, 2011
    Posts: 1

    roygoodwin
    Member

  18. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    Thanks for the Winters link, I had not seen that center section which is better looking and more appropriate than anything else I have seen. Tomorrow the work begins! I guess you could say we will start the restoration / resurrection. We intend to chronicle the rebuilding starting with photos of the as is condition with the body on. Tomorrow we will start by setting the new KB block in and determining how much clearance we have for an induction system. Need to make a decision on Hilborn port injectors or a fabricated manifold with a bugcatcher. After that we will completely disassemble the car so I can start what ever needs to be done to the frame.
    I'll keep you posted.

    Greg
     
    HEMI32 likes this.
  19. Thanks Greg, pictures please?

    You may also want to post on the www.landracing.com in the message board section. There are some folks there interested in what you are up to, you will recognize some of the salt veterans!
     
  20. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    Sorry for the photo delay, I had a computer rebuild issue sidetrack me and I am off to a trade show next week.

    Last Sunday we did take the car completely apart and piled up all of the parts. It was amazing how much stuff is in the trash pile which were primarly things done by the previous owner. There was no regard given to things which worked, but an attitude of let's take the working stuff off and put on some stuff that does not work as well. We got it down to the bare frame and cut off part of the roll cage, the rest to come off later. There are a few more things to cut off to get back to original, then I will get the frame blasted and start the rebuild. When I get back from my trip next week and finish rebuilding the computer I'll get the photos going.

    Greg
     
    HEMI32 likes this.
  21. Whats that old Gene Autry song " Back in the Saddle Again " Nice to hear an old race car will breath with new life. Looking forward to the pictures . Rob.
     
  22. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    It has been a while since I posted an update so here goes. We finished disassembly a while back and spent a few hours with a cutting torch and body grinder. There really had not been a ton of junk welded on to the frame, but none of it was necessary in the first place. Previously owner should have left well enough alone!
    Anyway the frame has been blasted along with the Ford portions of the body and ready to start rebuilding. We discovered a need to replace the shoulder hoop due to one roll cage replacement and more grinding to remove the cage than I feel comfortable sitting in. I got the current SFI Funny Car specs to make sure everyone will be happy with the tubing for the new shoulder hoop and the roll cage. To do things right I had to measure the frame from stem to stern and do new drawings. Somehow the old drawings didn't survive the last forty odd years. This past July 4th weekend marked the 40th birthday for the frame. I built the current frame (a chromoly replacement for the original mild steel frame built in '66) over July 4th weekend 1971. Tubing will go to the bender in the next few days.
    I finally decided on a new Winters QC center section, which just showed up yesterday. Now I can do some measurements and design the rest of the full floater parts and startbuilding all of that.
    I tracked down Darrell Roberts in Colorado Springs who was partners with Rick Hansen on the car for a while. Darrell still had the original Crager wheels which I purchased at a very fair price...and they still look like new. We will not be able to use them for anything except show with the old tires on them but that will look much better than the new aluminum wheel and current Goodyear tires we will be running.
    The engine pieces are slowly coming together. We were going to try to get the car done for this October but with the time it is taking to get the parts all rounded up we decided to push it back until next year for a debut. For some reason things just don't happen as quickly as they did 45 years ago. That is fine becasue I have always enjoyed designing and building the parts as least as much if not more than running the or any car.
    I still need to get the old slides sent out for scanning so I can get some ancient history pictures posted.

    That will do for now.

    Greg
     
    HEMI32 likes this.
  23. Thanks Greg!
     
  24. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    I finally took a batch of slides, 102 of them in to be scanned. I should get them back in two weeks. I'll start showing some ancient history before long.

    Greg
     
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  25. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    In going through the slides I came across a couple of our car and Holmes & Kugels '32 sitting side by side, front and rear views. It is a nice comparison showing just how much small a 29 is.

    Greg
     
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  26. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    I have photos ready to post, just not smart enough to get them inserted into the post. HELP!

    Greg Peek
     
  27. gapeek
    Joined: Nov 17, 2009
    Posts: 27

    gapeek
    Member

    For anyone still interested, I finally got a website started if you are interested:

    www.peekbrothersracing.com

    so far only two years detail but I have all of my photos from 1965 - 1969 scanned and ready to be resized. I probably will not get much if any more done until about the end of the year as my December is totally booked.

    Greg Peek
     
    HEMI32 likes this.
  28. Thanks Greg!
     

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