Projects First March Meet Dragster Build

The lovely lady was Jen Everett she crews for her husband John on Dan Horan's T/F car.(I know everyone here wishes they could say that about their wife)
Bob told me someone was waiting to talk to me after you left Rocky....
John is also the guy who trucked the car cross country in that pickup (saving me many dollars) but when he showed up at the shop my wife thought I was a total idiot shipping in an open pick- up! It was also raining and 40 degrees while we loaded. I didn't have the nerve to show the pictures my wife took! I'll post them when I get back. He moved the car to the museum today, I'll get to see it on Wednesday. Sorry I missed you guys!

 

Steve, your perseverance and dedication in getting this project done in the time frame that you had allotted yourself to the finished car is unbelieveable. The greatest reward was seeing the car showcased along side two other great WCM dragsters. Further testiment to your workmanship that the car will be kept at the museum and shown this next summer in Kentucky. So congratulations from another rear engine digger nut (Coleman Brothers) Tom

 

Beautiful!!!!

 

I don't know what say except, WOW!!!!

 

Thanks again! Already talked to Kennard Warren and Bob about building their last fuel car. It was destroyed on the 60's and had a beautiful Hanna body. They called it the rainbow car(metalflake fade paint!) Will have to wait till my bank account stops bleeding.. and finish my wife's remodeling jobs

 

Click on your photos and jump back and forth from first to last photos and compare them. DEAD ON!!

 

I am sorry that I missed catching up with you at Famoso but I was crewing on a customer's car and we had some motor issues that kept me busy. I did get to see the car in the bed of John's truck and then in the winner's circle and it is awesome--great job.

Roo

 

Thanks Roo, I heard you were busy, also heard about the Banshee frame repair from Ross.
Spent the day at the museum. Got to talk to Greg Sharpe and see some cool stuff in the office area. I've got lots more pics to share just can't figure out how to shrink them on the phone to post! Greg was fun to talk with and surprisingly new alot about east coast people in racing. Hated to leave Bob's this morning, lots of bench racing and treated me like family...

 

I'm not sure if you are aware that Kenny Warren has also passed away. He was supposed to be attending a 90th birthday party for Isky in August but expired the day before. Kenny's dad, Kenard, lives at Lake Isabella, Ca. and is a great source of info on the team. He also has a lot of pictures of the early team cars and loves to share them. I saw Kenard at the CHRR and talked with him for quite awhile. Joe

 

Keith,
Are you not running your car anymore?

 

Joe, I had heard about Ken from Bob. Spent a lot of time talking with Kennard at CHRR took some pictures of him with the car.

 

Well I'm finally back east-no more fun in the sun! mowed the lawn today, with coat & gloves on!
It was quite an adventure,I guarantee I'll be back and will try to meet all the people I missed this time. The weekend was awesome but blew by, I think I missed as much as I saw.. I've got lots of pics but I'll back up on this story to fill in somethings I left out. First is a short story on the engine. As I said before the engine went down to the last minute. I tried to use only period parts in the car and the engine was no exception The cam is a hand engraved Isky hard face cam which meant I had to find Chilled Iron lifters for it. I lucked out and scored a set from a top alcohol dragster website at the last minute then had a real interesting conversation with Ron Iskendarian about how Ed made the first hard face cams. he gave me the specs on the cam and said it was from the right time for the car. The engine also used an old set of Howard aluminum rods. When we were putting these in there was a question about how to torque them.
Any east coast guys remember the A&B speed shop dragsters? Bernie Regals (the "B" in A&B) is from this area, heard the engine was being put together and stopped by. Howards said the new rods torque at 80 lbft we settled for 70 (these things scare me and others had said they ran 65 without a problem. After Bernie went home he called back and asked "how much rod to block clearance do you have?" you guessed it-not enough
So everything came apart again for some grinding and another block cleaning!
The next story is more detail about the shipping, after plenty of $2500-$3000 quotes (out of my budget) I was then given the name of a "Standard 1320" club member who transported cars for other people in the club-his price was much more wallet friendly, we talked on the phone and he told me about the truck setup he had with a slide out platform. I have to admit the mental image I had of the truck was much different from what showed up in my driveway! the Short box Pick up I left these pictures out before because my wife thought I was nuts for letting a stranger move the car cross country in this rig- and most of you married guys know they will remind you of your mistakes FOREVER! To make matters worse the weather completely turned to crap ... By the time the car was loaded it was 9:30, we started at 6pm but John did a great job moving the car and did it in 3 days, safe and sound with text message updates and pictures almost every 4 hrs. Even the wife trusts him now
More later!

 

Finally I have a chance to post some event pictures. I got into LAX just in time to hit rush hour traffic, I was warned about this but really didn't think it would take 4 hours to go 130 miles! That got me to Bob's house around 8pm and we went to get something to eat. Over dinner I found out someone already told Bob the car going to be displayed in the winner's circle-so much for my surprise! We got to the track early on Wednesday following a nice model A coupe, (probably someone on here) I couldn't believe how many cars were there already. After wandering around and making some phone calls we found the car. It had just been unloaded from the stacker trailer and a bunch of people came out of nowhere and started asking me questions, separating me from Bob. As I turned towards him a photographer asked Bob what he thought and all he said was "It's Perfect" Can't tell you how great it was to hear those words...
We pushed the car on to the track as photographer Scotty Gossen ("Jangleguy" on here) wanted to take some pics of the car. I wasn't smart enough to do the same - so I can't share those shots with you
We were soon chased off the strip by the "track police" who were starting to get nervous and took the car to the winner's circle. Where Grand Marshall (and all around great guy!)Steve Gibbs helped us push the car around! I had to get a shot of him and his 50 Ford that doubled as a push vehicle all weekend. On Saturday I got my picture of the two remaining teammates as Kennard Warren came to see the car and tell stories of the 50's and 60's. what a weekend!

 

You just got to like a racecar with a hemi in it that can fit in the bed of a pickup truck.

 

That dragster is bitchin'!

 

OK, if anybody is still out there, I've got some pics from the final stop on this trip ( or at least until I see the car again) after Sunday's racing was finished we had to do the load up again. This time no rain or wind and the temperature was about 40 degrees warmer. Nice! I also decided to let others do the work this time. Wayne from the museum was there with the museum tilt bed an John called the shots-it went much faster the second time! When I got to the museum on Tuesday the car had just been placed for display but before I had a chance to check it out Wayne dragged me off to the "employees only door" for a backstage tour-the office area. Lots of cool items on the desks & walls here! I got a chance to sit and talk for a while with Greg Sharp,curator of the museum -great guy! he had a copy of the R&C little book with the car on the cover sitting on his desk and gave me a couple old programs that had more car pictures in them. On the way out I met the gals who do all the work there ( they both had relatives in upstate NY -go figure!) The car is all set for the winter But I'll be out there for the GNRS- another item on my "bucket list".....

 

just found your build , GREAT JOB!! That car is Awsome

 

I had a good look at the car at the CHRR, it's beautiful! Damn nice job!

 

Nice!! Now I have an excuse to go to the Museum this week.

 

Congrats Steve, I was near the Museum this weekend and should of checked it out

 

You did an awesome job recreating this great car!

I saw it at the CHRR... stunning.

I was at the museum last Wednesday... on our way to Phoenix for Thanksgiving... but unfortunately traffic prevented us from getting there in time to buy tickets to see anything! The nice lady did let us buy some shirts in the gift shop and use the restroom though! Haha!!

Again, great job! And I enjoy your story tellin'!!

Sam

 

I went to the museum on Thursday and while I was there I took some pics of your car. It looks amazing in person. Great job.

 

Thanks again for all the compliments, but where were all you left coast guys when I was out there! I know, wandering thru the swap meet area most likely scrounging for that missing part!
I still have a few photo's you might find interesting so here goes...
The first one is a shot from the wall of Bob's den. In the upper left corner you can see the car in the muffler shop, it's the only one he has. in fact this frame shows most of his pictures of the car. Next is back to Famoso. Since I was there with one of the remaining "Smokers" I got to go into the original tower turned clubhouse. I'm pretty sure the entrance sign is supposed to say
"No alcoholic beverages" not "No Alcoholics" Inside the walls are covered with plenty of cool old pics, They had cleaned the place up for the event- it was much neater than I had pictured in my head... Upstairs you had a pretty good view of the action and when the wind changed direction plenty of smoke & fumes! The last picture is the Tony Water 32 roadster that ran 200 at Bonneville. It's had a bunch of updates to make it street legal but still had some nice 50's vintage decals on it. Hope to run into more of you guys on my next trip out...

 

Don't know if anyone is still reading this thread it's been a busy year for me and I have slacked off on the posting. Still have plenty of stories to tell. Right now I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to LA. Car should be in Bakersfield about the same time I get there. This year it's running! I don't know where it will be parked but if you are at the reunion stop by. Especially all you guys I missed last year.
Steve

 

Don't know if anyone is still following this thread but it's been a busy year and I've slacked off on posting. Still have plenty of stories that I'll recap soon but right now I'm waiting at the airport for my flight to LA. The car will be in Bakersfield about the same time I get there. This time it's running! So if you are at the reunion this weekend stop by and say Hi. Especially the guys I missed last year!
Steve

 

Sorry for the double post.damn phone!

 

Happened upon this story in HOTROD Feb 1960. With out scrolling back thru this old thead did you have this story or photo?
If so here it is again.