***U.S.A 1966 a Hot Rodding Trip of a lifetime.MANY pictures***

*** other photos are scattered throught this thread.***


I am just presenting these here, these belong to my old man (swifty here on the HAMB) and as the old man cant type too quickly and prefers to lurk around here and enjoy the scenery I will share this with you. This will be a long text dedicated to my old man and his trip of a lifetime. There are plenty of pictures to look at below. These represent but a fraction. Some of you will skip to the pictures straight up, but they will probably lead you back here to work out the eclectic-ness of them.

Recently I was lucky enough to finally get to see some of the old mans slides. These are photos of memories I have grown up on, hot rod memories. In particular his trip to the U.S in 1966.

The trip was purely hot rod orientated and driven. For most now a hot rod based holiday isn’t a big thing. But you have to take this all into context. Firstly this is a slice of 1966. Secondly the three traveling sailed out of MelbourneAustralia on a boat that took 4 weeks to get to L.A. And lastly people didn’t have money for such things in those days let alone a 6 month holiday solely dedicated to a passion like hot rodding.

My old man was 24 when he took this , a trip of a lifetime. These three Aussies ( my old man- peter swift, eddie ford, and barry fletcher) were hot rodders with a passion, they are credited as being the first Aussie hot rodders to do such a trip. This was a big thing back then, now a days it’s the norm. But this was written up in the local paper, as people rarely took holidays away from where they lived or surrounding areas, let alone 6 months in a foreign country that didn’t comprise of you holding a rifle.

I have grown up hearing stories of hanging around with Phil Weiand, Dick Scritchfield, Fred Steele and meeting such grates as Fred Offenhauser, Wally Parks, Ed Roth and many others.

I have been regaled with stories of being woken by the state patrol for sleeping on the side of the road. Walking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on a day that it was too hot for the donkeys to make the trip and then not taking any water with you. Or my person horror story, shooting up 32 5 windows with Fred Steele’s Tommy guns out the back of his place. For a young hotrodder thousands of miles away from the U.S.A many of these tales have seemed larger than life over the years as to hear the old man speak of meeting and getting to know people that I have only read of in books was truly amazing.

The funny thing was that until the other night I had never seen these slides. They always seemed to be packed away right up the top of the cupboard or there wasn’t time or something else came up. This is but a smattering.

It is hard to imagine now a days, but for these guys , this was like landing on Mars. Australia didn’t have McDonalds then, we didn’t have colour TV until the 70’s we didn’t have many V8’s we were still hot rodding with the Flathead and Y block. Chevs were not heard of in hotrods as very few cars were imported with them at that stage, they certainly weren’t manufactured here. Freeways were out of this world, our major highways were mostly still single lane blacktops. Most of our imports were british, big brash convertibles were a dream. I remember the old man telling me that he searched for 2 years for a 32 5 window coupe, high and low. No one ever told him that they weren’t manufactured in Australia.

This was culture shock at its best. They covered 48 states, they purchased a 60 plymouth wagon and drove, ate and slept their way across America in that car. It had the “biggest fins we could find” the old man has told me. The stories he tells amaze me I should get them on tape and they really should be in a book…



Some of the photos arent too crisp, they were shot with my small mp digital point and shoot I took to the swap meet the other day. I had also had a few angry birds so probably wasnt the steadiest
either.



Firstly here is my old man behind the wheel, better start with a photo of him. This car would have been beyond a dream in Australia, Fred Steeles ’59 Lincoln continental.





How could you not think you were in heaven when you saw this.



But its a bit of rough treatment to get the moon tank in there.







One of the incarnations of one of my favourite cars. The McGee/Scritchfield roadster. I of course have always know it as 'Scritch's Roadster' I was lucky enough to meet Dick when he was in Melbourne about 3 years ago. I got him to sign a book I have called 'The American Hot Rod' by Dean Batchelor page 71 for those that have it, I liked it there more with the steelies.






This is Dicks 'Phaeton' as you guys call them. We, in Australia call them Tourers. This one was sent out to Dick by Eddie Ford.



At long beach swap. Phil, swifty, Barry Fletcher and Eddie Ford.




This would have been an amazing site, with our speed shops being a hole in the wall, this place would have been out of this world. Cal Custom.




Another Hot Rod icon shop.




Street Shots in L.A





Since Gassers have made a come back, and its a style we never really got here, this would have been beyond wild to just see this sitting on the street.






Dad in Dodge city sick as a dog, boots hanging out the window ( bought in Tijuana) of their 60 Plym wagon, recoving from when his Milk got contaminated. I heard the story recently that apparently Eddie was asked to hand the old man his milk from the cooler, when eddie looked in the milk has tipped over and taken on board some of the cooler water, eddie decided a little water wouldn’t hurt. Left the old man sick for the day. Poly powered wagon of course. They were going to buy a chev wagon but they were too dear, plyms were cheaper go the poly!





Bonneville, Duane Kofoed in white shirt, Eddie, Tom McMullen Barry Fletcher. Duane at this point Owns a track nose roadster. The Dick Flint Roadster. Duane was working as a stage hand for “Peyton Place”, a 60’s desperate house wives



flathead powered coupe on the salt.





Dean Jeffries shop , modifying a ford torinardo.

 

[FONT=&quot] Eddie Ford, Peter Swift,Gene Scott (out the front of his shop in [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Watts[/FONT][FONT=&quot]) and Barry Fletcher.[/FONT]











The old man with Wally Parks, apparently Dick Scrithfield told the blokes to go down to the NHRA and see Wally, so they did, he gave them seasons pass's to all the NHRA events across the U.S.







Eddie Next to 58 Plymoth Gasser at the ’66 Nationals at Indianapolis.







1917 hemi powered T at the concorde NH show.








Back of Phil Weiands House in Glendale L.A. With Eddie Ford. They got to meet Phil though Dick Scritchfield who was renting a house from Phil, He took the blokes under his wing and showed them around.






Plym out the front.




another at longbeach.




Joan and Phil weiand , Scritch , Steve Kelly from car craft.



various car show shots. the old man will have to name these.




















The old man with a 35 3 window.




This is what you think it is, they even took a photo of colour T.V, as we didnt get colour T.V in Australia until the 70's so this was unbelievable.



A real live jack rabbit!!
well a real dead one anyway.

 

This truck was in Marselines wrecking yard the truck had an olds mill in it.






66 charger in Lindners Wrecking Yard in Mass. A brand new car!!!






Fred Steele showing them all the new cars wrecked.




more yard shots.look closely at what is in the background!! man, these would be saved now!!!













The engine room, remember we didnt get many V8's, heaven...





they bought back the roof off this A for Eddies brother, remember we didnt get early coupes, only sports coupes.







dont know about this




Or this!




T.V Tommy's Trailer, apparently it was all glass and lit inside so at night you could see the rail.





indy







The old man in Hawai with the rented chev convert. heaven. Apparently they made Barry drive so the old man and Eddie could sit on the back and ride around.







Lastly, dressed up to shoot 32 5 windows with Fred Steele's Tommy guns.






Well, I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have hearing about it since childhood, as I said, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

cheers flatoz.

 

Thats an amazing story and post corey, thanks so much for taking the time to share it, your pretty lucky to have an old man like that.

Bit sad to see all those cadillacs and old tin at the wrecking yard!!

Luke

 

swifty.... If you don't have a slide night very soon to show us what you have experienced in your life time, then I will personally come over to your place and chain myself to the kichen table until you do.
As a warning to you I can be very unbearable to live with so this better happen soon.
Corey thanks so much for an insight into your modest fathers life..

And to what I have seen so far all I can say is Faaaaaaarking AWESOME

Binga

 

Protect these slides, they are priceless.
Thankyou for the show, I love seeing old holiday pics.
I hope our shots from 2000 mean just as much to our kids.

 

What a blow out and what an experience that must have been.

If theres a slide night im coming down.

Thanks for sharing and the story Corey and Swifty.

 

Thank you & Dad for showing us these fantastic slides. That straight axle '50 Chev was the very car that made me love gasser's. I seen it in the first issue of custom rodder.
Thanks again ,Cheers Dago .

 

Awesome stuff! One of the best threads ever!

Btw this is the Barris built xPac 400

 

What an incredible time-travel, i really enjoyed it. thanks so much for sharing that, your a lucky man. mike

 

There were many more than this, but my camera was just my point and shoot and it ran out of memory.

heres one I forgot with Ed Roth. bit blurry, but I cant be blamed for that!

 

thanks for sharing! theyre awesome!

 

Flatoz,

wow, your father took a color picture of my roadster! That is the first time I see a vintage color slide of it.
awesome!

 

Thanks for that...what a great post!

 

wow, just wow.

Thanks so much both of you.

=]

 

Wow, wow, wow. So cool.

 

WOW!!!! One of the best posts ever, Thanks!...........OLDBEET

 

Flatoz: thank you, thank you, thank you!

This is arguably the single best HAMB post I have ever read.

 

This is amazing. You definatly need to contact a publisher and get a book together. What an awesome trip for those guys to take at that age. Hell I would love to take that trip now and I live here! Then withthe pic of anton's roadster? That's awesome!

 

wholly shit.Thanks for shareing.

 

AWSOME............Thanks for sharing some truely amazing photos of the past with us.

 

Great story and photos.
I can hardly wait for more of the iceberg.

 

Thanks Flatoz. Very entertaining. Great shots and commentary!

 

That's awesome. Absolutely awesome.

 

WOW - love the glimps back to the past.
Thanks man...........

 

Great stuff. That had to be an incredible trip for them. The photos are a super time capsule. Thanks for sharing them. Mike

 

Go through all of the old man's pics and get him to re-live! What a fun way to start my Monday! thanks to Flatoz and Swifty for the awesome thread.

Jon

 

awesome. What a great start of the week I got to go back to 1966.

 

Wow, what a great set of photos. The HAMB at it's best!