I sold the "First 49" back in about 1962 and have recently tried to find out where it may have ended up. I've traced it through three subsequent owners to the last sale which was made to a person who was stationed or worked at Holloman Air Force Base near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico in about 1967. If anyone has seen it or may know about the car shown in these pictures, I'd really appreciate a contact. Thanks, guys ! ! ! P.S. the link below the picture will take you to my NEW and IMPROVED '49 Coupe, "The Judge"..
The side trim is off a '55 Dodge Lancer.... and I'm still looking for those parts to install on "The Judge"..... My brother and I and some friends built it when we were in HS... '58 Pontiac Tri-power, Cad LaSalle transmission.. we whipped everybody's ass in south texas back in the '50's and early 60's
cool... plus he used the same Dodge hubcaps but they were/are only 14"..unfortunately I didn't know that when I put the 15" on "The Judge".. little black squares around the perimeter... nice...
That car is so bitchin. My memory is really foggy on this, but I remember a survivor mild custom '49 or '50 coupe that turned up about 10-15 years ago that at least in my memory had some similar details to your old car (color, trim, etc). I thought it was out west (New Mexico or Arizona maybe?), and I thought Michael Harrington photographed it, but searching around the internet I haven't found anything. This ring a bell for anyone else? I could be totally wrong, but that thing just looks really familiar. Either way, it's killer.
Thanks, Curt... it was sold in New Mexico, Holloman AFB.... it would be really great if is showed up somewhere... short story for ya'll.. High School kids don't know crap about steering geometry.. So to lower the front, we flipped the spindles upside down, but that made the tires tip out at the bottom, so we took it down the AG shop and took a torch to them and bent them in until the tires "looked ok".. problem was, when you turned the steering wheel, it would "suck" you into a corner.. we all thought it was funny... but reaeeeaaal dangerous at high speeds.. anyway, I talked to the sister of the last guy that had it/sold it, and she said he had taken it to three or four alignment shops in San Antonio to have it fixed and everybody that looked at it just shook their heads and could not get any amount of adjustment to make it work right....
Wasn't that a rather common thing to do back in the day? I thought that I heard you swapped them side to side as well?
I had the same situation with my 49 coupe after flipping the spindle supports and heating them. I put the car on a dead level surface and used a big square to get the hubs 90 degrees to the ground with the adjustment set in the middle of it's adjustment. Heated and lowered the steering arms to get the tie rods level again, thereby shortening them...left the pitman stock length, making the car really fast steering! Took it over to our "old car" alignment guy and he had me file one of the upper a arm mount holes to bring the upper arm back toward the engine a little over 1/4 inch. Took it back and he was able to align it. I installed a Camaro Z-28 1.25" stabilizer bar to keep it flat in the corners...drove like a slot car!!!
I love the trim on those. I was wanting something to put on mine that looks good. The search will start. Thanks CN
I just emailed my brother to ask if he may have been inspired by LeRoy's car trim.. will report back..
Nope, HRP's coupe is a 1950 with ford power and mine was a '49 and I put chevy power in it. Sold it right after DesMoines Goodguys in 1993.
My brother texted back that he thinks he remembers he saw that trim on a shoebox in a magazine. I'm guessing it may have been the Goulart car....
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