One of those once in a lifetime things "Hernia J"

[four-thirteen]

The story begins in 1991, I was just an impressionable eight year old. My father and I went out to the MSRA's "Back to the 50s" car show at the Minnesota state fair grounds, like we have every other year, before and since. Saturday, parked out on Randall and Cooper, there was a funny little white '53 Henry J, flat towed there by another '53 Henry J. The White Henry J was something special, it was an old race car powered by the drivetrain from a '63 plymouth max wedge car. An old gasser, a real piece of history. I shared my Father's enthusiasm for the car, and we stopped back several times that day in search of the owner. We never found him that day, and that was the last we saw of the car for a very long time.

A buddy of mine, Shawn, worked for FedEx as a delivery driver. On his route, he delivered a box to a guy named Rich with some old cars in his front yard, 80s late models and other junk, but among them a beat up old pro-streeted Henry J. Shawn inquired if he might have any speed parts for sale. Rich Told him he had some vintage pontiac speed parts and Shawn should stop back later when he'd have time to dig through the garage.

Shawn brought me down to Rich's place some time later. Rich wanted to know what kind of car stuff we did, and, not wanting to boast, we just said we did some drag racing. Rich perked up at this, and pointed over at his old pro-street Henry J, telling us that it used to run in B/Gas in and around Indiana in the 60s and 70s. He went off about how the guy he bought it from screwed it all up by building a pro-street car out of what was a neat race car. Then he went off about how in the back yard is his old A/Gas Henry J, which ran a 426 max wedge. He blew up the motor back in the 70s and never bothered to fix it. We all went digging through the cavern that is Rich's garage, and found a 389 pontiac with a 6x2 intake and a blown up 426 max wedge. In the back yard there was indeed an old race car, in fact the very car I had seen 15 years ago.

I told Rich I wanted to buy his car, and he promptly refused. Shawn ended up buying the pontiac from him and we left. Shawn and I made several trips back to Rich's place to see if I could get him to sell the car. Somehow Rich and I ended up friends from all the negotiations over his car, and once I told him my plans for the car we struck a deal. I ended up coming out way ahead on this deal, I got a bitchin car and made a damn cool old buddy.

I'm just going to do a few mechanical things to the car, re-engineer the front and rear suspensions and some general things. Turns out the motor might have been blown up, but the only thing that really got broke was the block, the crank, rods, pistons, heads and everything else were fine. I found a good solid industrial block to replace the original max block, and I'll put all the motor parts back on that. The tranny was built by "Hydromotive" out of chicago in the way back, and its still in great shape after 40 years, I'm not going to bother rebuilding it. The rear end is a 4.86 sure-grip 8-3/4 with big chrysler brakes. Everything about this car is pure '60s back yard, from the VW front end to the surplus seat harness. Every bit of weight that could be shaved has been; this body is flimsy as can be.

The car only ever ran at US 30 in chicago starting in 1968, Rich told me he never went anyplace else with it. The first time out it was called "Hernia J", but the track made him change it to something less sugestive as they said. Branded "Tuff Enuff" it raced hard every weekend until the motor got blown up in 1972. Rich hauled it up to minnesota when he moved up here and it has been in his backyard ever since. I'm really lucky to own this piece of history, I love this car.

[Cshabang]

COngrats man...hell of a find..best of luck with it

[Bugman]

Nice car dave. Looks like fun

[Psychobilly Boi]

Killer!

[FWilliams]

what happened to the slingshot , and how come you werent at the hamb drags?

[slim53]

Dave, I'm glad I finally got to see your car. So cool man. I gotta stop by some time to check it out in person......slim

[the duke]

awesome story, glad to see it in good hands!

[40 & 61 Fords]

So do you have the new alias four-twenty-six?
Neat car, glad to know there's still stuff being found around here.
I keep telling my buddy I bet there's a ton of cool stuff like this hidden away in garages/yards inside the 494/694 loop!

[dragrcr50]

hot damn, be very proud, that is a killer history and car, I love it.............my very 1st car was the same deal, a 426 max wedge 52 J.....

[GARY?]

i pulled somethin' looking at the pics. old name suits it well.
cool

[titus]

sad thing for Dave is that i know where he lives and the car is sitting outside

but seriosly, the car is bad ass.

jeff

[Brad54]

That is absolutely AWESOME!

You know that engine is probably worth what you paid for the whole thing. If you got a good deal, it's worth more.

Honestly, I think I'd sell the original Max Wedge stuff to a restorer and help him out, and with the proceeds buy a 440 block, fresh Max Wedge castings from Mopar (Same light-weight iron head design, probably some improved flow and technology), stipulate that you will TRADE for an original Cross Ram Intake if the guy has to have that one for casting numbers/date codes, and come out ahead again on the deal.
You'd end up with a more powerful engine that's original looking to the history of the car, and a guy with a gennie Max Wedge would have his piece of history.
And don't throw away the block just yet either. There is a Mopar guru out there named Galen Govier who has a ton of research on mopars and numbers, and has reunited more than one car with it's original engine after decades being apart. If that block is from an original Max Wedge car, his database might have the current owner of the car. Now THAT would be cool!

Awesome car--I'm green with envy (and I rarely get that way over other people's luck and stuff!)

Brad

[DocWatson]

That is about the coolest thing I have ever seen. I LOVE the "J", your one lucky sumbitch!

[Tim]

with the pile of wedges and hemis at daves place im preety sure hes aware of what its worth.

our previous deal with that car is still good btw dave

tim

[four-thirteen]

Originally Posted by RACEFAB

what happened to the slingshot , and how come you werent at the hamb drags?

Both good questions Fred, but neither has a good answer. On the slingshot, some members of the club got a hair up their asses about the car being "unsafe"; It's looking like I'm going to have to back half the car before it can go out again. The tubing is supposedly .049" when it needs to be .069". Whats more likely is that we'll just screw the club and build our own. I wasn't at the drags because after buying this car and paying for another year of school and just quiting another job, I had zero dollars to go roadtripping with. It hurt that I didn't make it, I can't even look at the pictures other people took. I'll be back next year in a big way. David

[four-thirteen]

I had considered swapping this motor for the max motor in my '63 dodge or '62 plymouth because all these parts are much nicer than the parts I was able to find for either of those motors. The only reason I shot that idea down was because this motor belongs with this car, and I promised Rich I'd put it back together just the way he had it.

As a side note, there is no way to tell what car the motor came out of, they didn't start stamping VIN numbers on motors until the late 60s. David

Originally Posted by Brad54

That is absolutely AWESOME!

You know that engine is probably worth what you paid for the whole thing. If you got a good deal, it's worth more.

Honestly, I think I'd sell the original Max Wedge stuff to a restorer and help him out, and with the proceeds buy a 440 block, fresh Max Wedge castings from Mopar (Same light-weight iron head design, probably some improved flow and technology), stipulate that you will TRADE for an original Cross Ram Intake if the guy has to have that one for casting numbers/date codes, and come out ahead again on the deal.
You'd end up with a more powerful engine that's original looking to the history of the car, and a guy with a gennie Max Wedge would have his piece of history.
And don't throw away the block just yet either. There is a Mopar guru out there named Galen Govier who has a ton of research on mopars and numbers, and has reunited more than one car with it's original engine after decades being apart. If that block is from an original Max Wedge car, his database might have the current owner of the car. Now THAT would be cool!

Awesome car--I'm green with envy (and I rarely get that way over other people's luck and stuff!)

Brad

[Brad54]

Originally Posted by four-thirteen

As a side note, there is no way to tell what car the motor came out of, they didn't start stamping VIN numbers on motors until the late 60s. David

Yup--I forgot that.
That being the case, I'd do EXACTLY what you're gonna do and drop the original engine back in it.

Damn that's one of the coolest cars and stories I've heard.

Have I mentioned I'm totally jealous?

Brad

[BigBlockMopar]

Awesome find and nice story. Congrats!

[Ruiner]

awesome dave, just what you needed...so which is the current project, the A, the shoebox or the Henry?

[hotrodladycrusr]

AWESOME story, gave me chills reading it. It REALLY needs to be at the HAMB Drags '07.