The Hobby loses a great one...

I loved his work. His Chevy sedan delivery was like him...unique and rare.

 

For those of us still going, life has lots of sadness. If you have sadness, you have friends. What could be better?

 

i'm not sure what that all means. all i can say is i met the guy once sometime in the late 70's at a gas station in the San Diego area and i still remember him. he gave me his card , and i looked at some of his stuff at his place. i took a few pictures .

i asked about him here a couple years ago because i was curious about someone i met 30 years ago and 2000 miles from where i live. i guess he made some impression on me...if that is not a sign of a good life i have no idea what one would be

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197070&highlight=john+pickle

 

True stuff right there...John definitely made an impression on you...a few times a year customer's reorder tee shirts from me with art that John designed and it's always a cool trip down memory lane...

 

I know this post is late, but I just found out a couple of weeks ago about John's passing. I lived in Ramona for seven years, and came to know John as a friend, mentor, and the most decent human being I have ever met. I first met John when I approached him about redoing my '66 Mustang. When we got into the teardown, it was obvious that I had gotten in WAY over my head. Damage was extensive. John just looked at me and said "Don't worry about it. We'll make it work." And he did. Absolutely fantastic man. He will be sorely missed, and my heart is saddened by his passing. About his roadster, I was actually in the shop the day he brought it home. I razzed him because it had a 6 banger in it. I told him it wasn't a REAL hot rod unless it had V8 power. He quickly shut me down in the nicest possible way that only John could do. Man I miss those days hanging out at the Toystore. RIP buddy.

 

Heres a picture I took of John's Sedan Delivery at the 1976 NSRA Nats. Car is now owned by one of our car club members Donny Sewell from the Berdoo Over the Hill Gang.<br>

John's ride is still trucking down the road.

 

Thought about John again when I heard of Carl from Antique Automotive passing, your still in my thoughts and stories.
3 years

original OTHG artwork by John

 

THIS SUCKS! I just lost my best friend/cruisin buddy a couple weeks ago, it get better but its still hard. RIP

 

Did someone mention his Chevy pickup?

 

this year I went to the Streak in San Diego, lots of stories told over drinks about John. forty years of over the hill gang and memories...

 

Was just thinking about John and found this thread. I'm a friend of his son James. About 10 years ago I was 21 and doing some website work for Johns Shop and his Mr. Pickles Fun Art when I fell in love with his daily driver. A '47 Sedan Delivery, needless to say he made out on that business transaction. Haha. He was my client and I ended up buying his car. Unfortunately college, career, marriage and other things have distracted me and the car sat for a decade making little progress along the way. She's running again but still far from complete. Thought I would post some pics of how it looked when I bought it from John and the little progress I've made. He had such an amazing eye. I love everything he did to the car. I love the way it sits, the 3/4 windows he added, and all the other subtleties, he really had a gift.

When I purchased the car from him it was still a work in progress, it was just kind of his beater that he drove around town in. It was a cream primer with a hot orange dash.


and here it is in its current state....



Just thought I would share for all of you who may be wondering whatever happened to the car. John is missed and his legend lives on in my garage!

 

Just stumbled on this design I had put together for his family shortly after he passed. It was never used for anything but I think it captures his essence well.

 

That was johns. It has a cool story as well. It seems he was driving down an alley in LA and spotted a kid with 2 cases of flat black spray paint. He was just about to make the little roadster 'rat rod cool' when john Rescued it. By the way that car has history. It belonged to an automotive cartoonist from back tin the day, then john got it. Seems it was meant to be a cartoonists car.

 

Just to keep everyone up to date with Johns legacy I thought I'd mention that his son James has re-opened the toystore in El Cajon. Doing all kinds of fabrication. Still doing hot rods in addition to offroad stuff.

Here is a link to his FB page
https://www.facebook.com/thetoystorehotrods/?fref=ts

 

Rita and I still remember and you have seat (angels roost) at our fire pit for festivities....

 

Selling Johns old shop truck (47 delivery) if anyone is interested...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1947-chevy-sedan-delivery.1070868/

 

Thinking of John and remembering the "bean dip art" he and Kip did on my "A".
So many good times with OTHG.