Hot Rods So I may have found the guy who originally built my 40 as a hot rod in 1958.

This is Ron Hamrick junior. I bought my 40 from his dad back in 1971. As soon as the world gets back to normal we're going to see if his mom has some pictures of it when his dad owned it. In the meantime I took home some good barbeque.

 

Man this is really cool!

 

Gary, it appears as though you are making a lot of progress, I hope you find additional photo's from Ron's mom.

On a side note, I've seen Gary's 40 in person and it looks great just the way it sit's. HRP

 

Wow. How cool is that ? Nothin better than owning a 40 and just keeps getting better for you and the original owner. Happy for you man !

 

HRP I agree 100%. All 40’s are that way. Henry designed a beautiful car, it’s hard to improve perfection

 

Thanks for posting this thread.......UK doesn't have much hotrod history like this.....there is some but not much and it's great to read stories like this

 

Great story

 

This entire thread shows why it's so important for each owner of a car
to maintain a written history for the next owner and provenance.

 

This is eerie
My car was hot rodded in late 50s
Bought by my father in 71.
I have met the first owner builder
Someone changed the seats to fold down for the drive in... Crazy
Very cool car

 

Me too. He even let me lean on it.

 

Nice

 

It makes a good leaning post don't it?

 

Sure does, and it's nice that it gets other people to come by and have a "brief" discussion on the rodding community.
Hope all is well, stay home and stop the spread. Maybe, we can get out this summer?

 

hey gary! finally got to read the end of the story on your 40! thats a great read! havent been on here much since we got back from california. fell and broke my leg pretty bad on the ice! hope to see you sometime this year! rich

 

Love it

 

A friend from South Carolina sent me this picture yesterday. It was taken in the late 80s or early 90s in Medina Ohio.

 

I haven't had any luck getting together to find more pictures because of the virus. But look what I got back yesterday. I sold this dash to a friend back in the late 70s after selling it I thought man you should have kept that. I told him if you ever want to sell it I'd like to have it back. Never heard from him. He ended up selling it at a swap meet to another friend. Had been trying to get it from him for years. Both have since passed. I called Genes son yesterday and asked if he possibly still had my old dash. He said yes come and get it. I ask how much. He says nothing it's yours i tbelongs with the car. Thanks little Gene. All the stewart warner gages were gone but the dash is still in decent shape. I have some of the smaller gages but I will have to try and find the larger ones.

 

Amazing!

 

great story looking forward to how this one turns out...

 

The tale that keeps giving, way to go.

 

Love that dash! What’s with the Deuce?

 

Very cool story.
I was able to get to know the man (now in his mid 80's) his wife, son and grandson who had my car built for him back in the mid 50's. He and his son, and grandson have visited me and last year on one of their visits I took each and everyone for a ride. Jerry, (the one who owned it) told me that was the first time he had ever ridden shotgun in it. (Google "Jerry Bergs 1934 Ford Coupe).

 

The 3 window was sitting in the garage where I got the dash. It's a steel body. There's a hell of a story on that one. They traded it for a fiberglass 32 three window body about ten years ago.

 

Sounds like they got the best end of the deal!

 

I thought it was your next project......thanks for Sharing it though...survivors are kinda exciting...

 

I know that spot.

 

That is such an awesome story. I’ve love your car since I was a kid. I’m going to send those pictures to my father in law see if he remembers him or the club. He moved to Elyria in 1970. Any tricks I should know when I put my 56 324 in my 40?

 

Was this when Goodguys was still there?

 

So glad he put the olds back in. That's an extra level of cool that the average street rod doesn't have. That custom dash is way cool too. Way more cool that the regular catalogue instruments that most use.

 

Gary, it seems that you have some Great Carma, what else are you lacking that was with the 40?!