History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Have him contact Lance Turner at Turner Auto Body in Kenosha Wisconsin. Lance and his crew have restored many cars built by his father [Hall of Fame member Harry Turner] along with several others. They are currently finishing up the Ernie Fredrickson roadster and the only Indy car Harry built. Still on 39th Avenue in Kenosha, same shop Harry used.

Chuck Schultz
Winfield, Illinois

 

Where do you keep finding these amazing cars Guffey!!!! That little midget style road racer is very cool! I want to drive it!!!

 

Thats nice,, you should make a mold off of that to reproduce the bodys. that would make one hell of an affordable & small vintage road race car...make it so you can mount a readly available water cooled motorcycle engine like the legend cars!

Paul

 

You might try posting over on Tams site:
http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/MysteryCars3.html

 

Look in my albums and see my work metal bender pm me

 

I absolutely love that thing. I am just west of Milwaukee. Do you have any more of the story on where it came from and when ? As close as we are to Elkhart Lake/Road America, there were some very neat road racing specials made in the Milwaukee area.
I remember seeing a Devin bodied car with solid 12in. Halibrands advertised in Old Car Weekly back in mid 1990's. I still kick myself for not pursuing it. If I remember, it was in Oklahoma.
I have a larger never-installed Devin body hanging on the wall and lots of extra midget stuff on the shelves.......does anybody know how to properly shrink a fiberglass body ??
Thanks again for sharing. What are the future plans for it ?

 

If you haven't you should post it on the Devin thread, someone should remember seeing it. Looks pretty cool.

 

Rosie was not only a great driver who would drive anything from the Roaring Roadsters to Midgets & Sprints Etc but he was a nice guy that would help you anytime and you did not have to ask him. When If first started racing back in the 60's he would come up to me and put his arm around my shoulders and said kid your getting too close to the fence common off 2 and 4 and told me how to fix my problem. The last time I saw Rosie was in 1985 at Ascot and he never forgot me and he was in the announcers booth talking about me. I wished that I would have gotton to know him better than I did.

 

Guffey,

I remember seeing one of these in the late 60's or early 70's and it was Red also, it belonged to Jim Hall of Houston who owned a sports car dealership by the same name here in Houston. He also had a Kurtis midget with an Offy and was a long time supporter of racing. I have no idea what happened to the car after he passed.

 

Are these shirts still listed on ebay?
I have had a look today but cannot find any listing.

 

Anybody going to Madera, CA. this Sat. nite. Vintage midgets on pavement

 

Just type in Kurtis Kraft Tee Shirt it will come up. If you are interested please send me a message as to color and size I will ship it to you.

 

My falt I only listed 1 shirt and when it sold they took down the listing. I have fixed the problem and is now ready to sell more. Guys this is a nice Vintage Kurtis Midget Tee Shirt and not a cheap one, this is top quality. Arlen and I worked to get this one right it is as good or even better than the origional.

 

Stan,

I was wondering if at all possible maybe I could take a ride to where your at and get a look at (maybe take a picture or two as well) the nose piece of the #38 Hull car and the purple suit that you have. I know we don't know each other, but would love to see even a piece of the car my grandfather drove.

John

 

another "what did they use back then" question for you fellow midget hamb'rs. what did they use for flooring between the frame & the belly tank on a midget back in the 1940's?
I want to make some sort of floor to attatch to the steel ribbing that the belly pan will eventually go to on the outside, I first thought of just sheet metal but a buddy said why not expanded metal...I wasn't sure if they had that stuff back then and I want to keep it as close to period correct as possible. I have an abundance of expanded metal and I have sheet metal.
Your thoughts on the issue...
thanks,
Paul

 

Belly pan is the floor

 

my midget has metal hoops that are welded to and hang below the main frame, I am going to attatch the aluminum belly pan to the frame on the outside but I do not want to stand on the aluminum belly pan when entering or exiting the car on the inside? that is why I want to put in a sub floor on top of those hoops on the inside to be able to put wieght on etc.

so I guess it is my choice as to what material I use, I just want to know id expanded metal was used and or around in the 1940's racing community.

Paul

 

Paul, if you are a normal sized person in a normal sized midget, your floor needs to be your belly pan, period.

In my opinion, I can't think of a place I would use expanded metal on a car of that vintage (or any vintage).

 

Hmmmmm???? now I am wondering if I should cut out the framework that was installed by the last owner & just go with the bellypan as you say. I assumed that the last owner installed new ribs where the old one may have been, maybe he just added them instead. I want it to atleast look correct for the period.
here is an old pic that shows the 2 rear ribs that were added to the frame, they are easly cut off if I wanted to (the frame is sitting on a rolling work frame)

thanks 28dreyer

Paul

 

The thing that most needs cut off is that hoop and the bar stock or angle iron half way up the kick ups that it it is stuck to.

The other horizontal angle iron between the rails looks like a seat mount.

 

Here are some pictures of an old Hillagass frame and belly pan. The pan bolts to the bottom of the rails. And yes ditch the roll bar its is useless the way it is mounted. I hope this helps. You need to be signed in to see the pictures.

 

could not see any pics can you post them again?
28dreyer & sideways the hoop you see in the pic actually is a suport brace for the back of the seat on my rear body, it also helped support the original fuel tank some how? I do not have the fuel tank so I don't know what it looked like but there was some bracing coming off of it at one time and someone cut it off.
any idea's what I vintage/early fuel tank would have looked like & how big it may have been (gallons)?
Paul

 

I am also looking for examples of early midget fuel/throttle pedals, I had one for my car but somehow it got misplaced (maybe scrapped), I think it was a re-worked ford spoon shaped pedal but I don't know if it mounted off the frame or off the floor? what was the most common.
Paul

 

No idea who built the aluminum body or for that matter the frame (steel). Could find no info on the car.

 

Try this again
Here are some pictures of an old Hillagass frame and belly pan. The pan bolts to the bottom of the rails. And yes ditch the roll bar its is useless the way it is mounted. I hope this helps. Note: Hillagass tails had the seat built into the tail section.

 

For what it worth: the '65 Edmunds midget that I am restoring had a "sub floor". It was an old Speed Limit sign. It was mounted with the signage down, I just thought it was a piece of aluminum until I blew the car apart. Don't know if it was in there in 1965, but because of its' uniqueness I plan on keeping it in there.

Blacki Suede

 

Most of the throttle peddals and brake pedals (If they had one) were directly mounted to the motor plate. Regarding the old rail midgets most were hand brake levers on one side or the other mounted to the frame rails on the outside of the cowl. This was a drivers call and it they had a brake peddle it would have been a mid to late 40's frame or updated earler frame. I have had both, left hand lever and brake peddle.

 

my midget has a hand brake on it already (manual brake), thanks for the info on the throttle pedal, I have an old spoon pedal I'd like to use I am just curious as to the mounting of it? coming off the frame rail or motor plate is not an issue I can do that.

what I don't understand is the orientation of the pedal, should it be up and down since your foot is more parallel to the floor or angled like a conventional throttle. Seems to me that would be uncomfortable to have to pivot your foot off your heel while sitting flat foot in a midget?

i tried to make a crude drawing of what i mean-

 

I was bored so I decided to figure out what the R&P gear was in my midget banjo, I believe it's a 4.55 (9-41). I guess it worked it was still together in the rear?
Paul

 

There are several methods for doing this I will take a few pictues of some of my cars and you can get an idea and do it the way you like. What motor are you going to run?