Well I've been thinking again,.... (Yes I know the voices aren't real,... but sometimes they come up with really good ideas !). The older I get the more overwhelmed I feel with the projects still in front of me. As I am sure you have read before,.... I need to figure out how to thin out the herd.... But where to start ????? All the projects left all have some significance to me,.... not just cars, but cars with stories and history, Including The Blue Racer #424 B/SR That won the B/SR class at the NHRA US Nationals in 1964 and then the 1966 NHRA Spring Nationals in Bristol. It is thought that this is the only Modified to win a National Championship powered by a Y-Block Ford engine. I was lucky enough to find this old decapitated Roadster a few years ago with no history,... But through a few friends and the "Power of the HAMB" It was reunited with it's impressive history in short order..... I was able to track down the original owner,.. and I was lucky enough to get a lot of details, pictures and information from him as well as his 1964 NHRA National Championship jacket and a wood plaque...... I started to collect up all the parts for the car including the holy grail of Y-Block speed parts, A complete Hilborn fuel injection system (Under 130 units were ever produced) with a Vertex Magneto complete with pump drive..... As the story and the connections continued to become more and more,.... the car became more personal to me. (Not unlike other cars that I have),..... "#424 B/SR The Blue Racer" Was foremost in my mind when I found out my Brother was sick with Cancer,.... Everything stopped to care for him. Just before we lost him I was contacted by Hot Rod Magazine wanting to take pictures of the old Champion for a upcoming "Barn Finds" Issue,.... Because I was taking care of my brother I had to keep putting off Bill from Hot Rod magazine .... Until everything aligned,.. I told Bill I would try to clean it up a little,.. to which he told me,... "If you touch one speck of dust the deals off !" Bill came up and photographed the old Warrior in it's most sad state. And it appeared in the October 2007 Issue of Hot Rod,... With a suggestion that the restored car would be a perfect candidate for a feature. Sadly a week after that we lost my brother. The old Drag car sat for a long time until I was moving some cars around and it ended up in the shop,...... It all started innocently enough,... The 312 was sitting under a tarp,... and the cherry picker was right next to it,... Long story short, I started putting the major components together until it was started looking like the old race car it once was. Well today I went into the shop and looked at it and decided,. I have no idea where to go with this car,....How much would be too much to restore it,.. then it hit me. Somebody that really could appreciate this car more than me would know how much to do or not to do. I have kept this car remember the trying time I had it,... I felt a connection to it because of reuniting it with it's history..... But as the clock keeps ticking I really want to restore two old Jalopies that I have personal history going back 50 years.... The ticking of the clock is a little louder to me these days,...... Nothings wrong with Ol' Harms Way, but back on Mothers Day weekend,... I did have a little wake up call... (Nuff said ) Well,... I think I finally made a decision on what car will be the first domino to fall,..... and though it will be sad to say good by to The Blue Racer,... I am excited to see it in the hands of somebody that will know how much to restore it back to its former NHRA glory and History..... Thanks for listening to me ramble guys....
Thanks for sharing that, it was a good read. Very neat old racer, and i wish you all the best finding a new home for it. I also look forward to seeing it restored.
In no way am I trying to brag,.... but one of the "Jalopies" I have, was the very first Hot Rod/ Custom I actually seen for real when I was a kid,... It also won 3rd place overall at the first Detroit Autorama in 1953..... It's a 1936 Ford Coupe,.... When going over the list of what to let go of,.... The 36' is never a consideration.
Not the best 32 I have (actually kind of the bottom for condition),....but definitely on the "Do not sell list" This old 5/W has been in and out of my life for 44 years,..... Not much, but I'll assume room temperature before it goes,.. I have a 331 Cadillac with 3 leaker's, a 39 Trans with all the right parts and a 40' rear end, originally chopped in 52 ..... And yes,... it's in my basement
Well,.... looks like you and I are the only ones interested in this thread,.. Can't show a picture of one of the others on the "Never for sale list" cause it's O/T,... I have a car that's build date is on my Dads birthday in 1968 (February, 15, 1968,... these cars weren't manufactured or released for sale to the public until April 1968).... Dad was a Test Driver at Ford DPG and because he was a senior driver in 1968 and one of the older drivers, He did a lot of the break-ins on most of the performance cars. ( The older drivers would stick to the break in procedures). This was most defiantly a factory performance car that was a home office reserve, and then sent down the road to DPG for break-in and testing, fresh from DST,... one of two built. The chance of Dad doing the break in it is extreamly high,... the chance of Dad driving it is about 100%. Yeah,.... It's a rare car, yeah, it's really cool on its own merit...... But knowing Dad spent time in that seat, holding that steering wheel,..looking through that windshield is totally priceless to me ,..... far beyond financial value....
Nothing could be further from the truth.............I am enjoying this thread a lot, and I bet others are too. Sometimes it might seem no one is out there because the feedback is low, but I think it is just because we sometimes just like to follow something without posting. Please keep this one going. I would have a hard time parting with the blue racer. First of all because it just has such a great history, and secondly because it would be such an easy restore. It isn't a complicated car, just a vey straight forward 50 ish era drag car that was evidently built more for go than show. That isn't saying it isn't well done, just that it isn't a Grand National Roadster Show car. On the other hand, being 67 myself, I see the clock ticking on how many more cars I have in me to build. While I still like them I don't have that burning desire I once had to have as many as possible, so I understand where you are coming from. Don
Great story on the Blue Racer. I can understand it being hard to part with it, but you have made an enormous contribution to preserving the history of the car without "building" it. You've reunited it with its history and that is a very impressive history at that! Please keep this thread going. You're a talented writer and have a way of expressing your thoughts beyond the rambling rants most of us are able to muster! Subscribed!!
what you talkin about , i like this stuff. im about in the same boat , just different water...lol. im only 57 but my health since a bad bike wreck in 05 has went south in a hurry and i dont have the energy in my body to build much more.my mind used to say build until you drop. but then i wouldnt have time to drive them anyway. so im cleanin out the herd also. but mine dont have a history like your do. my just are cars that i would drool over as a kid wanting his own just like it. well i got the bodies and some of the engines now but no energy to make the 2 go toghetr.
While this is not the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln thought people were not impressed with his speech that day in Gettysburg because there were no cheers. That speech is chiseled in stone at the Lincoln Memorial!! This thread is a great read and leaves me waiting for more. Please continue as I think most of us who are reading it are simply huddled around waiting for the next chapter.
Wouldn't it be best to let some of these cars that mean so much to you find a new home with some of the HAMBERS who you know will take proper care of them? I would pick a number of projects that you can realistically finish and then make sure the others have good homes, I would want to know they are being taken care of while I was around, W had a guy out here who collected Packards has a field of them, but he kept them so long many simply have nothing left usuable and have mostly turned to rust, he died suddenly in his sleep at 84, If you were to go, who is going to make sure these cars find homes where someone cares as much as you do? I would be scared that someone who knows nothing about cars sees them as money for scrap metal, I've see it happen before, There was a collection of Falcons at the U pull it here, almost 30 of them, they won't sell complete cars and within 2 weeks they had all been crushed, it was the same situation, The owner held on to them to long and then his family sold them for scrap
Glad to see this thread, it's like someone was reading my mind. I know where you are coming from, I'm starting to show my age, and like you and others, I know that the clock is ticking, and I've come to know, that my priorities are not what they once were.My story is the same,except, I dont have the quaility cars that some others here, have, but do have several, mostly parts cars and projects and in my mind, they mean as much to me, as I'm sure yours do to you. My plan was to reduce the numbers, try to get more done on the keepers, and just drive and enjoy the keepers, more, after all isnt enjoying these things, what got us all into this thing to begin with? But I have had very little luck moving anything, not sure if its the economy, or if what I have is just, not that in demand,or too much of a project, for most. I'm usaully over optimistic when I by stuff, I look at it as what it could be, instead of what it is, and therefore get into some major trouble and work.I would like to see this stuff, go to someone that would use it and appriciate it, but I have found, most folks, want instant gratification, and either dont want to do the work or just plain dont know how to. I sure dont want to see this stuff scrapped, but can also see why others have, they just get tired of listening to excuses. So like you ,I'm trying to make the best decision, as what to do, but so far have'nt decided what to do. And at the same time, I have to keep fighting this bad habit of always seeing another car and thinking how much I would like to own that, its definately a sickness, but dont we all have our bad habits, and I just happen to love this one.
Maybe we can get a special rate if we go together. It has been my personal policy to offer anything that's not O/T to the HAMB Brotherhood first at a lower price than I would sell it to anyone else for....... If there are no takers I move it to "Da-Bay"
good deal, just a thought to make sure they all find good homes, I know that it's easy to get attached to a car and then it becomes more then just a collection of parts, this is why I always think of the yards as being like organ donation, it's always sad to see old cars that have survived this long turned into scrap metal
I have just gotten really lucky over the years with the cars I have found.... And what I have, compared to some of the stuff found by the rest of the "HAMB brother-hood" ,... Is lackluster.
The HAMB realm regularly delivers to us the right person, and I guess I was thinkin' about DOC.'s wisdom and how HAMB-Andy then had a car to drive as built by Hacker and the Newfie clan. The value in some of the projects that you mentioned will be appreciated, even if sold for a fair price to the builder chosen. (My new GF might offer us a group rate, I await seeing her turn a wrench. ) She has a 'thing' for incorrigables!
Any update? Has the blue racer sold? If not what is the price to a fellow Y-Blocker and hamber? Chuck PS The picture is of my latest engine. Might work in there?
The Jalopy Journal
