Suicide Al Sanders passed away Sunday

met him a couplle years ago from some friends had a lot of long talks about nothing sometimes but,quite a character,I helped grease the wheel that netted Hollywqqd with his 33 ford coupe,that was the first car Al had sold in more than 25 years,and he still gave justin a run for his money to get that car, "you willing to pay 4 for it,so 42 would work" then up and up dont know how justin got him to stop,then Al hads me the cash and wants me to count it outfor him! then pulls his pants down to show his hernia!! sad day to see guy with a lot of knowledge gone

http://www.herkimertelegram.com/obituaries/x1959337083/Richard-Al-A-Sanders

 

Al "Suicide "Sanders was one hell of a guy! here are a couple links to some info on Al !

http://www.ottosraceaction.com/RA-VIN-2.html

http://midstateantiquestockcarclub.com/articles_Al_Sanders.html

i got this 33 ford from him last fall . i had heard he was considering selling the car , i was told 3500.00 would buy the car so me and my buddy Kustom set out with an envelope of cash and some directions to his place scribbled on a napkin. ken (rcranger) met me in town and i followed him over to Als place. I apparently couldn't hide my excitement cause Al says " i know i told ya 3500 but i think i want more like 4 grand for it " so i said OK Al i 'll take it! he looks at me and says " well if you can come up with 4 how hard would it be to get 4200 i said well Al i'm already putting off my mortgage payment to buy it so i'm pretty much tapped out at 4 ! so he says "well my friend said he'd give me 5 grand for it but he is just going to sell it to try to make some profit so i'll sell it to you for 5 grand" i said Al i only have the 4 grand but if i move some money around i can make the 4200 mark if you are willing to sell it for that . he says " well, if you think you can get to 42 , how much harder would it be to come up with 4300." he's got me on the line at this point and he's toying with me !! knowing to my self that i would pay 3 times what he is asking i know i'm going to buy the car i just don't know how much its gonna cost me yet ! i said Al if you promise me that by agreeing to pay 4300 you will quit raising the price on me i'll go for it but i really can't afford anymore . he says " well , if you are willing to go 4300 then i'm sure you would be able to come up with 4500.00 " finally i very reluctantly said I'm sorry Al but i just don't have any more money! if i can borrow some money from my friend Kustom i can get you the 4500 but if he doesn't have it i am going to have to go home without the car . i'm simply just out of money ! for some reason he stuck his hand out and said "OK 4500 it is " i must have found the magic number cause it's in my driveway now . imagine the surprise on my face when i first saw this car that i know can be bought reasonably cheap and it is an un finished hot rod project that has been untouched since 1949. he actually rode an Indian motorcycle cross country in the late 40's and brought the drilled dropped axle that is in this car home with him from California on that trip . i wanted so bad to get this car running and go take Al for a ride in it !!! now i am only gonna be able to have him with me in spirit!!!

this is a pic of the car as i saw it the very first second i layed eyes on it !!




and this is the car just cleaned up a little with a set of bent spoke kelsey hayes wheels on it !

 

Cleaned up a bit? I have a few cars here you could clean.

 

ha ha .... no really all i did was pressure wash it and lightly sand all of the surface scale off of it with a flapper disc on a hand grinder and mount the wheels. it obviously still needs some love but it looks much better just cleaner. the first pic was as it sat for over 60 years . what amazes me is that ol man Al raced cars for a while and these cars were a dime a dozen back then and this 33 sat next to his house while he wrecked dozens of cars and for some reason this one was left alone . anyone that has any stories about AL i'd love to hear em!!

 

Sincere sympathy goes out to his Family, and friends - sounds like he was quite the negotiator. lucky that you did not have more $ with you because it might have cost you double of what you paid.

 

i had a lot more with me . i just was able to get him to somehow believe i didn't.

 

check out the links to some info about Al that i attached in post # 2 .....well worth the read .

 

Al was my neighbor ( I am the old farm on the east) and I spent a good deal of time last year helping him barter or sell his prized possessions away. Most of his hand crafted cars still sit behind the house. He told great stories of the early days of local stock car and also of the races in Daytona when it was still a beach course. I have several engines that I bought from him, one being a Lincoln V-12 that he was gonna put into a car to run Big Daddy on the sand. Yup the V-12 in Garlitz's museum was king of Datona Beach ad-hoc racing one nite against the crazy moon-shiners and Al was there along side. Al raced outlaw NASCAR under a pseudonym and eventually walked away. Many good stories of him just driving fast, crusing the country and wrenching.

I think I have the last picture ever taken, he is standing next to the V-12. I will see if I can post. Al was the person who first started the dirt track sliding, invented the "reverse rim" and I got to wonder if he would not have been one of the NASCAR greats if he had stayed in the game.

Ride on my friend.... RIDE ON!!!!