The Drifters had 3 cars as I remember and they totaled one car. It was a mess. I've seen the pictures somewhere, possibly over at the Drifters site on HAMB. I'm thinking I was over in Korea at the time. It was hard to get Nitro in that era and after I got back, Wurn and I and some of the other guys would go to Santa Ana on drag day and lie to the Drifters and tell them we had found and bought a barrel of Nitro. That got them real upset. After we built 96, the first time we went to Santa Ana we beat Jack Chrisman or one of the other Chrismans in the final with Emil Wurn driving. using aviation gas. I think I still have that trophy in the garage somewhere. I think we turned 113.95 MPH. That I believe was in 1953. Our club started as a normal car club sometime in 1947 or 48. and that year another club member and I put the Millwinders name together when we decided to get plates. Another clubmember and I put the plate design together and took it to the foundry to have them cast. Of course we screwed up and didn't slant the letter and border areas so it would pull out clean from the sand. Back to the shop and we slant sanded the whole thing. All of the Drifter members and the Millwinders went to school and grew up together in Redondo Beach, Ca. Some of them grew up in the same block as I did. Wurn and I normally did the driving. When we put Jack Ewells Ardun engine in the car, he drove it because Wurn and I didn't want to blow the engine so we urged him to drive at Paradise Mesa in 1954. Wurn always cost me a lot of money. After we quit racing my wife and I went over to his house one day and he started telling me about buying a motorcycle and riding in the desert on the weekends. I said lets go to a dealer and see what is available. I came home with a motorcycle sitting in the back of the Pick up and my wifes eyes got really big. Move on 5 years and everyone had campers and bigger bikes. I bought a brand new Maico Motocross bike one day and life was complete. My wife was even riding. We were always going from one thing to another. My kids grew up riding motorcycles and they started when they were about 10 years old. I'll be 85 in a couple of months and its been a hell of a trip. Emil Wurn passed about 5 years ago and I still miss him.
Ness, Wow. Thanks for sharing the stories about the Millwinders. I have found the article from Car Craft in 1955. In several days I will post the pictures from the article. As soon as I get a scanner which will work with windows 8.0.
Karl, thanks for showing those pictures. I guess you have your new computer figured out already. In the picture of us pushing the 96 coupe, that's me right behind the 9 and pushing holding on to the door handle. The car wasn't really that heavy, and I think we were just showing off...
Nes, I didn't want to wait so I copied the pictures with a camera while waiting on a new flatbed scanner. I will redo the photos when I get the scanner to correct the distortion. I noticed the license plates on your car and also on the Drifters car....
Karl, great pictures and thanks for posting them. We ran at different strips winning trophys, but my memory isn't very good about which places and what dates. Emil Wurn could have listed each place and date. He was something else... Nes
Karl, I know of another stripped, fuel or gas '32 three window drag coupe that survived (at least the body) in it's original 50's race configuration. It also came out of Southern California decades ago and looks virtually identical to your Shinoda/Montgomery Coupe in profile (I'm referring to the picture in post 8 of this thread) If your survivor coupe hadn't already been identified as the Shinoda/Montgomery coupe, I would wonder if the one I have in my shop isn't that very coupe. I also wonder if both of our 1950's era fuel/gas coupes could have been chopped by the same guy in Socal? 'Wishing that I had the California drag/race history of my stripped, survivor. How many identical-looking 32 race coupes were there in Socal back in the day? Wonder if there's a picture of my survivor in either the Greg Sharp collection?
Southfork....Wow. That was a surpise to see your posting and photo. I have to say it took my breath away in how similar it looks (bitchin'). Would it be possible to post more pics? The taillights look unique. Are their other unique features to the body or doors? Are the inner doors cut out? As far as Bob Lee who chopped the top. All I know is that he was Chinese and that he chopped it in 1953, and worked for Phil Weiand. Larry Shinoda knew him and said the "he was a pretty good body and fender guy." That sounds like an understatement to me. Some may disagree but from all the pictures from the day that I have seen, there were not a huge number of cars chopped like that in the fifties in socal that ran the lakes or drag raced. Just my observation. That should help in finding the identity of your car. Greg Sharp was working for the NHRA museum back in 1994 when I contacted him. I already knew it was the Shinoda/Montgomery car and I asked if he had any photos in his collection of that car. He may have pictures of yours but you will probably need to identify it first. Maybe Don Montgomery may weigh in with some possible cars from back in the day.
'Thinking that Bob Lee was unique in his manner of chopping '32 competition coupes back in the day. How many three window coupes were chopped keeping all three door hinges? That is very difficult to do (to keep all three aligned). Looking at historical pictures of competition Deuce coupes, seems that virtually all of them kept only two door hinges when the lids were lowered. Some kept the upper and lower hinge (like the Rolling Bones clones do today), and others kept the bottom and middle hinge. The Shinoda/Montgomery coupe kept all three hinges, as is also the case with my survivor. Whoever built my competition coupe back in the day was somebody who was fiercely competitive. In addition to the radical chop, the builder or subsequent owners removed virtually unnecessary ounce of weight. Yes, the inner door panels were cut out, except where the door latched are mounted, and the deck lid was removed for racing (even the deck lid's drip channels were removed as you can see in the pic above). Here's another profile shot of the coupe, any of the HAMB's oldtimers recognize it?
Hi Southfork.... Maybe you have seen a picture of a car that was associated with "California" Bill Fischer in the early or mid fifties, a chopped 32' 3w coupe. He wrote books in the early 50's on inline engines. I think that it looked very similar to Don's coupe without fenders. Don may have pictures or info on Bill Fischer. A couple of more questions that I can't tell in the pictures. Are both taillights mounted as shown in the picture? Is there a stock type windshield frame? I will keep looking for the pictures of the Fischer coupe. It may be in one of Don's books.
No, I'm not familiar with the Bill Fisher coupe, but I appreciate that possible lead. I have done only a little research on this old competition coupe , mostly on the Internet. By the way, I did find pictures on the Net of another survivor coupe that looks almost identical to the Sinoda/Montgomery Coupe and and the competition coupe I have out in the shop. That one belongs, I believe, to a 'John Barnes,' who may be in the "Aces" car club. The first pics I saw of that stripped competition coupe were from a car show put on by the "Aces" anyway. About the only obvious body difference from the John Barnes-owned survivor and our coupes is the door hinges --- the Barnes coupe has two hinges rather than the three that our coupe bodies have. In answer to your questions: Yes, both tail lights are mounted as in the above picture. Also, the current windshield is not the stock Ford 3W metal frame, but is flush-mounted, and I believe that it could be plexiglass --- I'll have to go check.. Also the interior dash is a light wood insert with guages rather than original Ford, metal dash. Like I said, the builder did about everything possible to minimize the competition coupe's weight.
By the way, I understand that back in the fifties, many of the guys that liked to race would use their roadster or coupe for daily drivers, dry lakes racing and drag racing, depending on what drive train was in the car. That is why I refer to mine as a "competition coupe." Is was probably not just a gas coupe, but also a dry lakes racer at one time. When I got the coupe many years ago, it had a 59AB flathead and 39 Ford transmission in it. The flathead was locked up, so I took it and the transmission out and put them in a shed. I suspect that after it was retired from racing, it got that coat of reddish paint. Showing through the weathered reddish exterior is blue paint.
Interesting about the blue paint...John Sauer used to race a chopped 3-window with a Dodge on fuel...I think it was dark blue, will look for a picture of it...John usually ran Colton but also raced elsewhere, maybe Santa Ana?
I have one tire with this interesting tread pattern on it. And I have to say this is one of the greatest threads I have ever seen on the HAMB. I love it.
Stovebolt, that coupe has three hinges alright, but it's not chopped nearly as much as My survivor is, so it probably can't be mine. By the way, Karl, I was able to locate and telephone the late California Bill's wife (Helen Fisher) today, and she remembered her husband having a '32 Coupe with a radical chop early on.. She graciously offered to send me a copy of an early (1946 or 1947) hot rod-building publication done by her late husband that has a picture of that hammered coupe in it. Maybe when the copy of the 1946 publication arrives, I'll know whether or not that coupe could possibly be mine. 296ardun, I would really appreciate seeing a picture of the John Sauer race coupe, if you can find one. -Southfork
I knew it wasn't yours, I thought it might have been what you were talking about with regards to the Fisher 3 W.
I have searched my collection, and through the George Klass collection, can't find it. I have posted in on the Drag Cars in Motion thread on the HAMB but can't find it through the search function (??!!) Damn!...I did find this shot, originally from the Norm Grudem collection that used to be on Byron Stack's Gasser Madness site (but now the Grudem collection is no longer on the revised Gasser Madness site, at least I cannot find it)...I don't know whose car it is but it looks close to what you have -- I will continue looking for the Sauer coupe.
The profile of that competition coupe SURE looks like mine. Looks like only two hinges per door, however. Another stripped, vintage race coupe that recently surfaced in California (and now owned by John Barned, I think) is also near dead ringer except for the hinges. I'll try to post a pic of that one (may have been on HAMB before):
Oops, that should be John "Barnes," not John Barned. I think I read where he may have updated it somewhat from its stripped race configuration. It looks an awful lot like mine, including the filled cowl vent, but again has only 2 hinges per door.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...ng-history-on-this-1932-ford-3-window.722674/ This is the Thread to the John Barnes Coupe's identification. Fascinating story.
Karl, Thanks for the link to the HAMB thread on the Barnes Coupe and its being recently refreshed. In that thread, I found it interesting that Atwater Mike wrote: "The screwed on plexiglass windows and windshields first appeared at the drags in 1953-53... The first ones were screwed onto the outside perimeter, then later ('57) it was generally screwed on from the inside, trimmed to fit under the garnish moldings, which were optional. There were no less than 8 cars with plexiglass windows screwed on that ran 'Little Bonneville', San Jose's drag strip on King Road at the time..." My drag/race coupe has the plexiglass windows screwed from the inside in the 1957 style. The posted picture of the red coupe is close to right ---- but still two hinges per door.
Southfork.... I read that too. That is interesting about the plexiglass. Maybe your car was raced last in the late 50's or early 60's? About the choice to leave 3 door hinges. I am suspecting that once the car was chopped over a certain amount the top hinge was left out. That's what it looks like to me looking at the old pictures. Is there a floor in your coupe? Or was it cut out? Also are there window moldings for the doors? Are the Plexiglass windows colored blue? The Plexiglas windshield on Don Montgomery's coupe was screwed to the outside of the cowl. Can you tell if it was center steer?
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