Early hurst history - trivia

Nope its OLD,,shows up on there 1959 Catalog

 

Would that be for a Packard? Seems like there were some late 30's & up makes of large luxury cars that used a top cover but ran the arms out the side of it to connect to steering column linkage.

 

Also some other old Hurst items

53-57 Rear trans cross member for Chevy

Oil filter block offs for ovh Ford ,Lincoln and mercs

4954 motor mount replacde by th AC-5- plus the CV 202

 

kirban 2 cents worth

way before my time....my recollection of Hurst did not start until around 1962-63 time frame.

reason I thought of the lightning is I have some sort of 3 shifter stick set up with blue print that I think is for a Linco or doug nash transmission.

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Only thing hurst made for Packard was a rear transmission support..All Packard side shifts are kinda neat in that since teh early top shift days they never really changed the case.. ( 39 and up were better stronger cases as earlier ones were known to crack as they had a thin wall ) but then never put holes in the case to go to side shift ( like Lasalle ) They made the conversion to side but kept all the components int the top cover ( why mak a whole new transmission when one part can do teh job ) There are a few conversions out there to make side Packards top shift,,also for 47 transmissions ( NON od ) you can mount a shiftert to the tailshaft and use Hurst,Ansen or what have you

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Here is a one of kind wooden sign probably 1962-64 vintage. Note the Hurst decals show the yoyo split knobs on the chrome stick rather than the ball. It measures approximately 2 feet by 4 feet wide. When my friend passed away who was the art director for many years at Hurst, I discovered this up in the ceiling of his garage. It was upside down so I did not see the printing until I was up in the crawl space.

I tried calling every company listed but none are still in existence
except Warshawksy which is JC Whitney I believe and I did not contact them. It was probably used as a display at some show or event. Much of my collection is one of a kind. Most items like this would have been thrown away.

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kirban 2 cents worth

I forgot to point out in this same photo this original sign is sitting on an original Hurst/Campbell wooden crate. Not sure what came in them. But being it reads Hurst/Campbell dates it prior to 1969 time frame since the Campbell word was dropped.

Kinda like in the old days it was known as Sears & Roebuck....now its just Sears....youngsters probably never hear it being called Sears & Roebuck. Speaking of which....the little house near us was or is an a original Sears Catalog house. Time period early 1950s.

I had 3 of these crates having a friend of mine carve out the hurst/Campbell logo in the shape of the T handle so they can be hung up. I may offer 2 or 3 for sale not sure yet. Kinda big displaying the crate.

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kirban 2 cents worth

If you look at the photo of the Hurst wooden sign to the far left is a very rare item. Made just a few years 1947-1951 time frame called a Kar Bike. Guy up in Wisconsin made them, never did get picked up by a major toy chain such as Sears & Roebuck....so not many were made. Mine is an early one which had a metal steering wheel. Late one had a plastic steering wheel.
Power was transfered by a car fan belt to the rear wheels. called a Kar Bike since it resembled a car. All metal. As to value anywhere from $300 to $500 from what I remember.

Won mine at an auction maybe 10 years ago. Bought it because I had never seen one before....kinda neat since its a 1947 vintage same year as my birth. To the rite is a more late model site...R2D2....

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I have a friend who also lives in a Sears and Roebuck house. He is restoring it. Thye are called Craftsman Houses and you ordered them out of the catalog. They were delivered and you assembled the pieces according to the instructions. You could choose different models. Kind of neat. As he is restoring it he has found the original owners name stamped on some of the trim. Figures the name must of been stamped on the bundle of material. Some of the pieces came precut such as the outside siding. It is a compound miter cut that results in fitted corners rather than a trim board at the corner.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

When you stop and think of the scope of building a home from scratch, I don;t care if every piece was numbered I would reach old age before I had a roof over my head on a project like that. Just getting an TV DVD etc to work in conjunction is a major project for me!

My phone probably does 20 more things than I know it does....my computer being a iMac can do probably thousands of things I don't understand let alone building a Sears house from scratch.

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kirban 2 cents worth

Pictured here is the silver Hurst wheel cuff link set that Hurst offered for the whopping sum of $9.95 a set. The gold looking set to my knowledge never appeared in any Hurst catalogs and are very very tough to find. My thinking is only a few sets were made for the VIPs in the company.

The boxed set with the tie tac was recently made by Doc Watson out of Michigan. Similar in design to the original ones.

The Hurst wheel cuff links probably represent the smallest item from their history that fetches big money.

I can recall seeing a set for sale for $500 the silver ones. The gold looking ones would probably fetch more providing seller had two or more interested parties at the same time with deep wallets and an understanding spouse!

Course that is the key to any high dollar sale!

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I came across these old Hurst waterslides on an old rod at a local show. What year would they be from. Cool as hell. One side had most of it missing with the printing at the bottom.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

You have to look real closely at this. Actual size is about a 5 inch square. It is a hand drawing of one of the record album covers for one of the records Hurst made around 1964-1965. This is all hand drawn using what appears to be color pencils. The woman pictured is Janeen Welch according to the caption Miss Hurst...this would be prior to when Linda Vaughn came on board and quickly became the icon for Hurst in the position as Miss Hurst for many many years.

Its amazing this hand drawing on paper has survived 45 years since it was just a sketch.

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kirban 2 cents worth

Here are photos of the Hurst gloves. The one in the wrapper is an original, the all black one I believe came out later when Mr Gasket owned the company. I am not sure on this.

The glove does not appear in the 1969 catalog...package on the glove is dated 1964 and of course is only the right hand glove.

Without looking further the glove was probably a $10 item....you seldom ever see them for sale or on ebay. I never recall seeing one. Based on that factor alone means they are probably pretty valuable for an original one.

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Um ,,so are you in NC or PA ?? you have 2 different screen names

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Here is the deal on where I am....

I am in PA...I got a good customer in my turbo buick business who I email my photos to and ask him to post in the forums I am on. I lack the skills to down load them from my camera so I have my secretary to do then email to me then I email to MR AMC GUY.

Like my phone my iMac computer has far more ability and stuff that I have no ida how it works....

Reason you see my stuff under 2 addresses.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Based on the product it is showing transmission/engine mounts...it appears to be mid to late 1950s. My friend beca,e the art director around 1962-63 time frame and did all the later decals and ads some of which I have posted already. One of the most popular decals shows the street rod with the shifter coming out of the roof of the car....which has ben reproduced or copied since then.

My friend did it all as the art director...he got the job by chance as he was at a printer in the Willow Grove area when George Hurst walked in needing some printing done and was looking for an artist....the rest as they say is history. My friend was already close to 40 years old at the time and not a car enthusiasts....and could never udnerstand why car owners would want to change out the shifters in their cars.

His talent was top notch....some of his work during World War II made covers of magazines including Colliers back in the day..Old timers may remember that magazine went by bye as did Saturday Evening Post and many others Life-Look....
This is back when being an artist took a lot of hands on skill.

I am not knocking artist/designers today but lets just say back then work took alot more time or was more tedious.

My friend was a keeper reason I was able to purchase so much original art work from him.

Its always the stuff that would normally get thrown away that becomes valuable in later years....as that is the stuff that is scarce.

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I was just reading about one of the rarest Hurst cars ever made. A 1968 Olds 442 with.......Front Wheel Drive. Yep George made ( possibly 3 ) . Over at Yenko.net there are pics and an article

 

kirban 2 cents worth

I could not find it....George always liked the Olds over Pontiac even though Pontiac made him probably the biggest money since far more manual shift GTOs were produced over the Olds models. George owned a Tornado...I have the actual model of his Tornado that was on his desk...also I own the Hemi Cuda model that also sat on his desk....

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kirban 2 cents worth

Here is some info concerning the Hurst Hatches that were made popular in the mid to late 1970s.....the one photo is the actual instruction manual....case someone wanted to attempt the project in their driveway.

One sure case where you want to measure twice before cutting your roof of your car! Actually, it is for a service place to do the install.

I was never fond of T-Tops....water leaks were bound to happen in most cases.

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Does your friend (or you) have the artwork this decal was made from? I'd love to see the whole thing...

~Jason

 

Old Hurst Dealer Updates 1964 and 1962

 

Here you go:





And some other cool Hurst decals:

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Its good to se so many have various Hurst info....notice on the roll control decal Hurst wheels are featured.

I have a lot of these decals just not at my finger tips. One partial way to distinguish older decals from more current is older ones lacked the register mark...or copy rite mark....

Also the style....kinda like coca cola earlier coke ads say drink and then somewhere aorund 1963-64 switched to the word enjoy....pepsi use a = sing between pepsi and cola then switched to a - single dash between the 2 words.

Not that I am an expert on the 2 big soda players but something I remember for some reason!

The company that produced the decals originally was called decalcraft....and still is in business from what I have seen in passing the building about once a week. In my business we get a lot of chrome plating done so I pas that way on the way to the platers...

If you think about it....whatever shifter was 2nd in sales behind Hurst must have been way way back in numbers...no idea even who that would be?

Like Don Galits with 144 National wins in 50 plus years....who is in 2nd place behind him?

Certain people and companies are #1 by such a wide margin makes you forget who comes in 2nd.....

Just yesterday saw on TV very bad truck accident guy got off went over an embankment got trapped in the cap rescuers had to be lifted down by cables and they shows the Jaws of Life with the Hurts name clearly on the tool that they used to rescue him from the truck.

I have seen once in my lifetime the Jaws of Life in operation....it can peal back a solid roof off a car like you opening a soda can. Its amazing....

Hurst rolled the dice years over 50 plus years ago....and the name has stayed in view ever since.

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On a side note....you have to watch it, as some of the decals have been reproduced like the shirts etc have. I have seen phony Hurst jackets on ebay over the years....someone takes an original Hurst patch sews it on a 1970s style jacket and presto claims its a rare Hurst jacket.

Its one thing to advertise it as a repro or copy or clone but it another to mislead potential buyers.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Here are 3 original displays I purchased years ago from my good friend at Hurst. They may have been used at a Sema like convention or some sort of display. The round stick...was what Hurst sold to Pontiac for their 3 and 4 speed shifters....lst year 1964 GTO Hurst was not permitted to have their name on the chrome stick.

The dual gate you are viewing is a 1967 GTO plate the 1968 GTO plate was thinner and popped into a vinyl covered console. The 1967 was screwed into a metal like console. As for the curved stick in the dual gate I think the GTO was straight and the 442 Hurst Olds took the curved one...going by memory on that answer. Experts feel free to correct me.

Colored ball knobs were probably more of a novelty than a big seller. GTOs used white knobs a number of years then switched to a black knob. GTOs I know more about since we make parts for GTOs going back to the late 1970s.

Mr AMC posts this for me in several posts so I try to keep my wording the same regardless of whatever forum it appears in.

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Engine Mounts, on display at Blairs.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

This is probably from the early 1970s as Hurst explored several different avenues of products to make with business falling off. Its highly unlikely that anyone has ever seen anything on this possible Hurst product at an swap meet or ebay or craigs list.

Hurst also explored offering oil in cans as well. Possible playing cards and several other ideas were considered and probably never got off the ground.

All major companies go through learning curves. Some products make it to production some don't Hurst was no different.


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The decals shown above are fantastic. I want them. And the Armed Forces one is the best. Thanks.

 

Great thread!

I had a small speed shop in the late '60s - and of course, Hurst products were king. There were simply no other shifters in their league. I recall the Hurst wheels as being ultra-high quality too. I believe they were forged - super strong. Unfortunately, they were at a premium price and we could never get anyone to pony up that much cash.

I had totally forgotten about the "fuzzy" T-handles. We had one or two in stock and could never sell them either. They just seemed silly. The gloves however, were another story. They were great sellers - as they gave you an absolute rock-solid grip on the shift knob (due to some special sort of material on the fingers and palm). Never a slip when you power shifted. Every "hard-core" 4-speed guy HAD to have one.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

It is amazing when you think of how Hurst revolved and the amount of PR they pumped out. On the Hurst wheels I know quite a bit about them having sold over 20 sets to GTO owners in the 1980s....

They only made one size 14 by 6 unfortunately....which did little to fill up the opening in the a Body cars in their day. Had they had some success I am sure thy would have done 15s etc....

The actual wheel part the steel part was an Oldsmobile wheel I think from a station wagon. Hurst had their own test equipment....to test the strength of the rims. I have papers somewhere showing the results.

At the end wheels were offered to the employees for something like $50 a set. Hurst to my knowledge never discounted things that where slow sellers.

One proof of this, is years ago I did what many of you did in your youth...go to junk yards now they are called recycle places or whatever...anyhow....I came across batches of new Hurst wheels each one had a c stamped in one of the spokes and the rim was torched making them useless....

Its ashame they had a good product may not have been as attractive of say a Cragar...but unlike any wheel I have seen the chrome trim ring in the sunlite and even some shade will make a halo effect on the blacktop.

Originals fetch big money today with matched sets in good shape bringing 5 grand or more especially if they have the GM 4 3/4 bolt pattern....Mopar and Ford people as a whole don't pay the big bucks like say a GTO GM owner would....again based on experience.

Reproductions of course have been made but nothing comes close in looks to the originals.
Decals are far easier to reroduce!

I did the Hurst wheel decals years ago now others have/////plus I wrote a book on the Hurst wheels which is available from Amazon.....probably under my name dennis kirban - Hurst....
Not a huge seller but a very informative book once you realize how many different varieties and looks Hurst tried on the wheel.

Its all about memories......

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I am very very close to closing a deal that will interest quite a number of the readers of this forum. This particular item will be available from many of the major suppliers you deal with.
No more clues don't wanna jinx the deal.