Featured Folks Of Interest 1955 Hudson Wasp(what not to use a fan belt)

This story takes place in the Summer of 1965, in McMinnville Oregon. Just one of the foolish/dangerous things I did that Summer as a 16 year old.

The 1955 Hudson Wasp Story ( How not to use a fan belt)
Mike McKinney, a friend of mine stopped by to show me his new purchase, a 10 year old, but like brand new Hudson. It was pristine in and out, and waxed to the hilt. He had something to show me at his house 2 miles away, so I rode along. When we were going to head back, it wouldn't start, and being 6 volt it turned over very slowly. Without any jumper cables, a chain or a tow rope, we needed a solution. His Dad had a 52 Olds, but we couldn't push it, because the Olds was missing the front bumper. I looked around and found a fan belt, thinking we could hook it over the rear bumper guard of the Olds, and the front guard of the Hudson, and tow it to the 18 or so mph for the Hydromatic trans to kick in, and start the engine. The problem was, with the forward angle of the Hudson guard, the belt would slide up and come off immediately, and not even move the car. It was a hot day and I didn't want to walk the 2 miles home, so we hatched a plan. I would ride on the hood of the Hudson, holding on to the ornament with my left hand and use my heels to hold the belt down, and release it when the engine started. It all went fine, I felt it come up on compression, the engine started and Mike clicked it into neutral. The problem started, when I lifted my heels off the belt and the Olds was pulling away, my shoes slipped off the bumper, and luckily I landed running. Mike was busy looking at the gauges, and was unaware I had fallen in front of the moving car. With the bumper hitting me in the calves, I sped up and dived off to the right, with Mike coasting on by, oblivious to the situation ! Just another time the Good Lord was watching over me. The car pictured is not the one, just a sample. Thanks for reading !

 

Seems as though a person is missing in this adventure? like who`s driving the Olds?

 

The wasp almost stung you good!

 

Mike's Dad !

 

We Strodes never had much luck with Hudsons. My Brother Jerry had a pretty hot 52 Olds Hardtop, we took it to the drags and he won pretty easily. Went back 2 weeks later and there was a blue and white 53 Hornet. Turns out, it was purchased from a guy in California, named Jack Clifford ! The National Record Holder for the class !

 

Thats about as smart as strapping a aluminum lawn chair to the center of the front bumper of a IH scout with Bunji cords and trying to rope deer in the middle of night t 60 MPH like your on Mutual of Ohama Wild Kingdom . It all goes great until you actually rope the deer .

Also towing a buddy on a big wheel with 4 belts used to hold up your pants out the back of moms 64 Ford station wagon at 45 MPH at 2 AM is not a good idea either .

Now towing buddies on a 40 ford hood on snow and ice worked out great . That plan was a keeper .

 

We used a 53 Ford hood, it it belonged to a shiftless brother in-law of ours, we didn't like him anyway !

 

I think of the adventures I had as a kid. If I ever caught my daughter doing those things, I would lose my marbles.

 

The 2nd date with my now wife (of 42 years) involved flat-towing my Model A with a chain about 2 miles (and through town) with her Monte Carlo to my buddies muffler shop to build the headers. She had never towed anything before but did a pretty good job...and didn't complained at all. Decided right then and there, she was a keeper.

The Model A


The (now) wife and her Monte Carlo (my Ranchero in the background).

 

Love the stories! I’ve often thought that the hardest part of raising my kids was remembering all the stupid things I did and worrying about them doing similar or worse.

 

I learned a better way with a chain, stick it in a piece of pipe, an old farmer's trick.

 

At 16, my first night out in my dad's 54 Ford, a friend who was with me convinced me to remove the crossover pipe on the 239 Y block. The crossover pipe went across the top of the engine. Open exhaust sounded great. When I went to put the crossover pipe back, I found the 2 very nice burned spots on the hood. My father had no sense of humor

 

In regards to hotrodjack33's towing story, this didn't happen to me but I did see it happen. Was sitting at a stoplight and saw a 48 or so Chevy pickup being towed with a chain behind a car. The car and truck were sitting at the stoplight across from me, waiting to make a right turn. When it was clear to go, the driver of the car, I'm assuming his wife, took off like a bat out of hell, the chain had some slack in it, when the slack left the chain, it tightened up and ripped the front bumper off the truck. The assumed wife continued for a ways before stopping. She got out, he got out of the truck, arms flailing, mouth going. I sat through the green light just watching. This was a very long time ago in San Leandro CA. Another time a neighbor had a stock 36 Plymouth sedan. Pretty nice original car. The motor was stuck. He asked me if I would get in the 36 Plymouth while he pushed me bumper to bumper with his car, I think his car was a 56 Chevy. I was 16, the only other one there with a driver's license. I said yes. He told me he would push me up to around 35 MPH, blow the horn, and I was supposed to let the clutch out. The 36 Plymouth was in 2nd gear. This was in a residential housing track in San Lorenzo CA. He's pushing me down the street, gets up to speed, blows the horn, I sidestep the clutch. The old Plymouth locked up the rear tires, and he ran into the back of me. Made a hell of a noise, between the tires squealing, the crashing sound of the two cars hitting each other, it brought people out of their houses to see who just crashed. I think the neighbor needed a change of shorts after that. I was young and dumb, and really didn't think much of it. The surprising thing is that there was no damage to either car. We didn't get the motor unstuck that day.

 

The fan belts of the fifties must have been a lot stronger than they are now.

 

Flathead Ford and others were 5/8" wide, and made out of good stuff.

 

A couple of pieces of pipe, a chain long enough to go through both and wrap around the bumper of the pulling vehicle and something on both sides of the towed vehicle, some threaded rod and nuts to match and Bob’s your uncle, you got a flat tow setup. Just try to get the pipes long enough to clear the towing vehicle when you turn into a driveway. Or have someone ride in the towed vehicle so he can step on the brakes… don’t ask how I know this

 

And hopefully a lot longer too . . .

 

Jack Clifford was one of my mentors along with Bill Albright

 

I wonder what percentage of HAMB members did things with cars in their teenage years that could
have easily ended in tragedy. I know I sure did.

 

My dad also had a '54 Ford Customline with the 239 engine. I also found at a young age how easy that crossover was to remove. The ole Y-block did sound pretty good that way. I never got caught, tho.

Al H

 

Hey @Marty Strode
"One is never so alive in their youth, as to when the wings of death, flutter by your cheek, and you feel the vortex of the moving air, but not the friction of the pavement at speed"

 

I'll be a 1% in that discussion for sure!
I replaced the three speed in my second high school car in 1971, with a B-W T-10 4 speed, it was a 1957 BelAir 2 door hardtop, it had a tired 283 out of a 64 Impala, talk about an immediate transformation.
The problem was it made me want to test it out in some less than safe situations, the most memorable time was when I was driving myself and my classmate to school, with a 17 year olds' lack of common sense (and patience).
I underestimated how long the school bus was, we did manage to get around it but not with a lot of clearance for oncoming traffic, my pal said we cleared by a pack of cigarettes, and yes, he smoked.
I'm pretty sure he left grip marks in the armrest!

 

It only had to reach around 2 bumper guards.

 

Percentage is probably close to 100%. I should have died a hundred times, and deserved to die from stupidity at least 4 or 5 times.
Bet you didn't know that a regular galvanized home garbage can will hold up a 65 Fairlane while 2 16 year old dumbasses lay underneath and install dual exhausts, did you? Took a helluva long time to jack it up that high, put more boards under the tires and the floorjack, jack it up some more, repeat, and repeat again until the back bumper was high enough to rest on Mom's garbage can. Now, this wasn't a sudden impulse thing, it took a long time to accomplish this awesome solution. Never once did we think this was a bad idea. How I missed winning the Darwin award is a mystery to me.

 

It was kind of like riding a bull, you don't think about the "get off" until it's time. A couple years later I was learning that too !

 

Early spring of 1973 when I had just turned 14, it was time to move my 1951 Pontiac (that my dad had traded an old stationary engine for) from his friends farm to our newly purchased home in a town 12 miles away. No car trailers, just a bit of chain about 15 or 20 foot long attached to our 1964 Dodge 1/2 ton. No brakes in the 51 but the emergency brake seemed to work. The car had a broken crank and was locked up tight but clutch and transmission worked. I was told that since it was my car I got to “drive” it home behind the Dodge.

Because we were towing and going slow we were taking the back roads and my instructions were simple, use the emergency brake or if necessary, put it in gear and use the clutch and locked up engine as a brake…just don’t run into the truck! I was a little concerned about a couple things…Well actually a few things…short chain, no real brakes, early spring prairie gravel roads just to name a few. We start out fine, going slow and I test out the 2 methods of braking. The emergency worked well but meant one hand on the wheel and one on the pull-out emergency brake handle. I quickly realized that wouldn’t work on corners where it took both hands on the wheel to turn. The transmission in gear and using the clutch worked but was hard to regulate between no brake and full lockup but this would work if necessary on corners. As we approached the first corner I readied myself to turn and clutch brake…worked perfectly…this is going to be damn easy I thought and began to relax… and if you know anything about Alberta early spring prairie gravel roads you know that they are straight and unpredictably muddy and you also know I was wrong about it being easy. About 3 miles into the drive we hit a muddy section for about 5 miles that had very little gravel on it and by the time we got to a drier section I could barely see out the windshield and had almost hit the Dodge a few times when they would slow to go around a mud hole. We made it to town and into the backyard with the car but I could hardly walk after from having my foot pressing down on the clutch for the past hour. I was so happy to have “my” car at home and will never forget the combination of excitement and panic that day. I still think about how awesome my dad was to encourage me to buy the 51 that I wanted so bad, encourage me to “build it the way I wanted it” and then help and teach me how to do all this stuff. Cheers all!