Projects Racing Accident Sunday at Immokalee Raceway

If you look close at the picture above, and you look at how the lift is square, you can visualize the tweak in the roof area. Plus, you can see the trunk lid is not square, and the bottom corners of the trunk itself are both cracked in the middle

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Kind of makes me a little sick to my stomach to see those pictures.....

 

That sure doesn't look like any "1935 Henry Ford Steel 3 window" to me. Looks like a Chevy body. DD

 

I know. My other friend who has a 35 chevy 3 window steel car said it took him SIX years to find those same fenders and running boards.

 

Correct. It is a Chevy. Forgot to correct that. LOL. I miss-typed that and forgot to change it. I know the difference (my wife has a 34 chevy 3 window) lol. I. Am. An. Idiot. Sometimes.

 

Sure as heck is.

 

Go to a thread about the worst car you ever fixed......there is some junk in there that guy I have a huge amount of respect for brought back.....some of them made your buddy's car look ready for pebble beach......and fords shouldn't have Chevy shit in em anyhow


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Come-along and a port a power. Time and patience. Or a boat load of $$$$.

 

Immokalee Raceway is located between Fort Meyers and Moore-haven, Florida.

Jimbo

 

"A ship is safe when docked in port, but that's not what the ship was built for............."

 

Nobody hurt- the rest is just details. As somebody said:
Come-along and a port a power. Time and patience.

 

Not nearly as bad as I feared. Definitely repairable.
Good grief, look at the "Before" shots of some of the build threads here on the HAMB; they start out far worse than this.

 

The car is repairable, you just need the right equipment and experience.
If the body still has the wood in it, it should move back easier.

 

Thats sad.
Looks more than one inch to me.
Good luck.

 

As others have said, it coulda been a whole lot worse.
Now it's just time and $$$$$ - at least your buddy is healthy enough to get on it.
Cheers.

 

Yeah, all the original wood is still in it, unharvested.

 

Both the front fenders have damage, too. I just couldn't get a pic of it because it's now up on the lift.
Somebody here made an interesting comment about the rear end. Is that a common failure?

 

Once you get the quarter area near straight again the roof MAY move back towards where it should be, the wrecked quarter is dragging down on the roof area.

 

Like all the others here I am glad the your friend is OK. All damage is repairable, I have seen far worse repaired and made good, I have seen rusty hulks returned to life. The hardest part with this is repairing a once pristine rod.
I wish you all the best.

 

Yeah...he must be kicking himself for that.

 

It can be fixed but if your friend is unable to do the work himself he is probably going to spend more money repairing it than finding another body and salvaging usable parts from this car.

He is probably not thinking about racing in the distant future but I would suggest a 9" Ford rear axle in the future. HRP

 

You guys, WTF. That'll buff out!!

Ok it would be a big ass buffer, but I digress. Very repairable. It would save him some measurable $$$$$ to "gut it" himself. Take out the motor, interior, any accessories like AC/HVAC system, radiator, etc. Remove and keep around what didn't get hurt and get it in the hands of a confident and accomplished shop/tech. 1 section at a time and it would be done faster than it seems. Once he sobers up (based on what you reported) and realizes he has to walk the walk ("...if you can't afford...") all will be bright and happy again. Us frail humans can thrive on a peronal challenge sometimes. He's got a story about that car that will be hard to believe and last a lifetime.

 

I spoke with him for about a minute last night on the phone. Seems sober now.
I have two friends that are going to the Iola swap meet in Wisconsin this Friday, and I asked him if he watned them to look for fenders and running boards. He said YES. So, that tells me he's going to try and fix it. However, he doesn't have the skills to do it himself, but has the $$$$. A very good painter in town here (Tom's Kustoms) says he's sure he can fix it other than maybe the right rear fender (which he says is stretched a lot). I'll update more this week after I stop by the shop and then talk to Joe (the car owner) on Wednesday at cruise night. Should be a very interesting thread by the times it's done.

 

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Tell your friend to relax and take a deep breath . Then jump back in with both feet . Looks like the biggest bitch will be working around that STUPID wood inner body structure , while they work the metal back in to square . Good luck with it .

 

I have a friend that would be licking his chops to get at that car. I swear he could take that thing after it was run over by a freight train and make it look like it just left the factory. Problem is there are less and less of these individuals around and some day they will all be gone.

Frank

 

Hard to tell from the pictures, but I don't see anything that isn't saveable there. We have never been to Immokalee, usually go to Bradenton, but I hear that track isn't the best maintained or smoothest.

Have a decent body guy look at it, it might be less damaged than you think.

Don

 

When we were oval racing years ago we found (the hard way) that Chevy used two different axles, on "cast" the other was forged. The forged ones have a smooth transition from the flange to the bearing race area. The cast ones had one or two deep steps. The step ones would break on the first turn.....the forged ones would not break unless they were hit.

 

What's the point of this thread, Green Rodz? To condemn the guy for racing his car? If the guy has the cash you say he has, I am sure the car will be repaired. Sounds like he was enjoying himself until the axle took a shit. Nothing wrong with that in my book.

 

The point of the thread was to get ideas from people who know what they are looking at, with the goal of helping him get a game plan on it.
Now, the goal of the thread is to show the car as it gets fixed (most likely).
So, I guess the thread changed.

If I felt the need, I'd condemn him to his face. But that's just not me.