Projects 51 Studebaker business coupe to South East Gasser rules.

Thanks very much the fast reply Quain. Much appreciated I will be doing this for sure this year to my Coupe-and yes if you have the time pics would be cool. By the way I love the panel paint job on your Willys. Beautiful car-love the period correct style builds.

 

Quain, just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread and for keeping us updated. Your talent as a fabricator is obviuosly impressive. Also, thanks for keeping these traditional gassers on the track in your part of the country. Making it to a SEG date in the future is on my wish list. I'm a huge fan of the Pale Rider '55 which you had a big part in building if I'm not mistaken??

 

Yea I built the Pale Rider from the junkyard to the track, Headers to wiring, everything except the paint.
Building the cars is the easy part, keeping the SEG going is killing me and my bank account. It's growing beyond my wildest imagine. We now have 26 active cars and 35 new ones being built. At one time there were 8 SEG build threads going on here at the same time.

 

Remind me on the pics if I haven't done it in a day or two.

 

Seems like I remember something about a post back last Winter, but we had no idea what was in store @ Silver Dollar Raceway in Reynolds then and I posted the evening that we had that day finalized our date, and I guess you missed it even though it has a ton of posts and has been on HAMB since May11. That's only 4 days short of six months prior to the event, and about the best we could do. Sorry we both missed each other's posts. I just assumed a post on HAMB twice a day since May 11 would be seen by you.

 

Hey Quain great build!!!!! It keeps reminding me of the suicide king at meltdown!!! I got a little build thread finally going on here for ya. Me and Kayla got the slicks I found up in illinois mounted on some old slots for mock up on the 55 today!!!! See ya soon.

Stuart

 

In the last 2 years I average real close to 4 hours per day doing something that has to do with the SEG. Here's some examples of my day, 7 days a week.

Dealing with track operators, (the Dunn and Benson deal for just 1 example)

Helping someone on the phone or by email with one of our 35 new SEG builds or helping one of the 26 SEG cars that are already running with us now.

Answering SEG fan mail , y'all would not believe how much I get, I'm not complaining the SEG could not survive with out fans. But it does take a lot of time.

Keeping up with the flood of questions and comments on facebook.

Promoting the next race and again dealing with the track operators with the final details (like the date for the Greer race that is in question here).

Dealing with racers that call and send in pics wanting to know if they are legal to run with the SEG. (hundreds per year)

Going to the track a day early to lay out parking and taking care of the final details before a race.

Last but not least dealing with all the complaints like this one, and yea there are a lot of complaints. I try to deal with everyone of them personally. I type slow so this sort of stuff takes a lot of time.

don't forget that the SEG is still bad in the hole and still not showing a profit so i do have a regular job and a life other than the SEG.

I'm only hitting the high spots of what my day is like so you can see that I don't have any time left to try and keep up with what else might be going on in the area (and the race in question is not in the Greer area). As for someone posting the date on the hamb, I only check the threads I'm subscribed to when I get an email that there was a post. I don't have time to scroll through the thousands of threads per day that pop up on the hamb. (that's why I told them to contact me)
Sorry for the long off topic post but I don't want everyone to think i booked on top of Reynolds on purpose. As a matter of fact I would like to go to Reynolds myself.

 

Post a link on here to your SEG build thread.

 

Guys like me, and I'm sure there's a lot of us, appreciate what you're doing to keep cars like these running on the track at organized events. I can believe its a crazy amount of work but I hope you get enough out of it to keep at it.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/south-east-gasser-55-chevy-build.981368/

I think that will work

 

I'm going to try and keep it going, too many depending on me now to stop. It hurts when everybody is not happy but for every complaint i get I get hundreds of thanks like yours here.

 

May I suggest using the HAMB PM
(Private Message). Oops start a conversation.

 

Thank you,

 

Quain, it sounds like you need a business development officer and a Girl Friday, that is too much stuff for one guy to do without getting burned out. I know tough to swallow more costs when in the red. However, a good business plan/the right person will see where there is revenue to be made that is being missed. I love your idea, the show and the excitement of it and wish you well.

 

A big sponsor will fix everything or just a bunch of small ones. Your right it's already taking a toll on my life.

 

Quain, I totally sympathize with what you have to contend with, trying to make a living, startup and support SEG, build cars for competitors, offer advice to builders and owners, and put up with old farts like me! And I must admit to my failings in this potential conflict of dates. I now, after your reminder, remember that you posted somewhere that you wanted to be informed of date for RWYB @ Reynolds. And that I made a mental note to inform you when we had a firmed up date.
But I must plead to being a victim of "CRS" (can't remember shit), because at almost 78, a mental note is about as effective as scratching it in the sand on the beach at low tide, LOL! I just plain forgot all about it! At the time I had so much shit going on that I even had to get an extension on filing my taxes and now I've got my CPA on my ass to do that, LOL!
Anyhow, while the 2 tracks are way apart in miles, as you commented, many of those who are in and around ATL's Northern suburbs are roughly equidistant to the 2 venues and have past involvement with both SEG and RWYB. The SFCC, being in that group for the most part.
So please, if there is a choice that will work to seperate the 2 events dates, and yours is not yet firmed up and announced,and published by you and the track, I and many others would appreciate it, as ours is posted online all over the place! Really sorry I didn't remember to contact you.

 

Same here CRS, I make sticky notes and they get piled in with 50 others so that don't do any good either. Sorry but the date is set just haven't announced it yet (i guess I just did). The only other open date for us / track was Halloween and that just wouldn't work. Later in November don't work for us just too cold, done tried that several years ago.

Private message me for anything else on this subject because we are cluttering up my build thread with this. I'm going to get back to building a Studebaker.

 

I feel your pain. 30 years ago I was trying to organize Nostalgia Super Stock drag racing. I gave it almost 25 years before throwing in the towel. It was straining on my personal life putting in hours that needed to be spent elsewhere. Like you, it was not rewarding financially for me but I don't regret it at all. There were hundreds of Nostalgia Super Stockers built and most are still on the drag strip.

 

Quain,
Hopefully you will get that sponsor and keep the SEG rolling. Your passion, skill and work ethic are all admirable for sure and appreciated by many on here and racing and gasser fans in general.

I have One small suggestion which could help with funding issues; sell more t-shirts. I'm not saying you are not selling them or doing anything wrong, but I was at the Greer race wanting to buy a couple and could not find them. I'm just guessing others may have had the same issue, either they where for sale there and I couldn't find them or perhaps you guys where sold out.

Just my 2 cents hope it helps. Any way keep up the amazing job, hopefully the sponsors will come and I'm hoping to fit at least 1 or 2 more SEG events into my schedule as my son and I truly had a blast in Greer.

 

Your right the shirts would sale good. I done real well with them when running the pro mod for all those years. I'm working on getting some now to see how it will go. Problem is someone has to be out there with them and by the time I pay them I'm not sure what is going to be left. Cynthia and i have our hands full at the track already. My biggest reason for wanting to do it is to get the South East Gasser name out there so people will recognize the name so when we come to town they will know it's going to be our deal.
Problem I'm having now the gasser name has been ruined at the track we go to for the first time because they have advertised gassers in the past and didn't have gassers when the fans showed up to watch. It's like going to a restaurant and getting bad food you never go back. The shirts will help get the SEG name out there so when we advertise gassers they will know it's going to be us.

 

Put me on the list for a couple of shirts when you get some done Quain, would be nice to spread the word in England some more.

 

I'll buy a couple...only if they're old school though...otherwise I'll have to wear my 123 speed shop shirts at Greer this fall.lol

 

You show up with a that Kip I won't let you in LOl. I'll put you and ray on the list for shirts.

 

Put me and the wife on the list for shirts also.

 

I totally get having too much to do at the track and having to pay someone to sell em, perhaps if it's a track you seem to be in really good with like Greer they could add em to their concession stand with the food? Just a thought, a bit outside the box but it could work

 

Back to the build Mister!!! [put a link on the SEG web site for the t shirts]

 

Not to clutter this build thread up but yeah the wife a i would take s couple shirts each also thats without a doubt.

Ps. Awesome work on this gasser, like always.

 

I went by the body shop where the Studebaker is being painted. David the owner being a very large Studebaker collector he has decided to paint it an original 1957 Studebaker Color to stay true to his love for studebakers. Here's a few pics of the body panels. The main body will be painted tomorrow.

 

The dash, if you have followed the build you remember we made it removal and moved it back 3" for the firewall. The bracket welded on top is for the old cable driven tach, everything else is factory.

 

The trunk lid.