The body that he has is the Crucifier and it was "Custom Rod of the year in 1967 at Oakland. The running gear did get purchased seperate from the body to Cushionberry. It was very electronic/futuristic....no steering wheel , etc. He will sell it...$15000.00 and it includes a running gear that it now sets on. Chief Silver Cloud “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
This is the Hot Rod magazine cover and article of October 1960 and Rod and Custom cover of October 1962.
Curious does anyone have any pics of the corvette he built X-RAY.. ?? I think i found it.. just need to compare pics..
Man, that bubble Vette is pretty darn nice looking for a custom Vette which is hard to pull off. Not too sure about the crazy teeth grill, but the rest of it is super cool. With a more classic custom grill, that would be a grand slam. Would be nice to see a color photo of it. Is that thing still around somewhere? I would love to stumble across that at a yard sale. What year was that? Was that before the '68's were officially introduced? If so, he is maybe a soothsayer as well. That has got a lot of design feel of the '68's. Maybe Chevy saw it and ripped him off for the final design.
The 1st show was in 1966 at Oakland Ca. I saw the Moray at Indianapolis around 1968 or 1970 with an Aquarium with gold fish in the grill !!! The next time I saw it was about 15 years ago in South Bend In. The Kid that had it didn't know any thing about it but claimed he built it I gave him some pictures messed up his mind. I had color pic's I don't know if I can find them now. Don't remember his name but he lived in Elkhart In. Any photo's I have are 44 or 45 years old not good.
You can drum scan the photos and photoshop any rips/tears/fading etc. Historical photos are always so valuable! Especially from those of us who have been there, done that...
How did you know I gave up my hobby of sports photography to get back to my first love. Finish the build of my 1933 Ford 3 window that I bought in 1964 for $250 in San Francisco. I'll try to post some pictures of Joe's 1st shop and some cars.
Stumbled across a rather cool Crucifier pic on another board. Evidently an under construction shot. Who can ID the other cars in the garage?
This picture is the front of Joe Cruces house the black T is theTall "T" the gold 29 belongs to Gary Alvernaz from Sacramento. these pic's were taken between 1963 and 1966. When I worked for Joe.
Wow! Cool pics of some great work. I became a fan when I saw the Tall T feature in Hot Rod in '60. Beautiful treatment of what had previously been a clunky looking car. Joe showed it was real hot rod material.
WOW, I didn't realise I knew Joe so well. All this time and only know know who built some cars that I seriously love. That black tall T is the shit!! Doc.
I second that. I would love to find out anything and everything about that car. Is it just me or does it look like everything is molded onto a t-bucket?
Could that be the Crucifier chassis in post #44? The induction system and front axle sure look the same as the fiinished car pics.
looks like it. but i was going to say that because the motors are the same and it kicks up in the back like the un-finished version did.
Viv la HAMB..I love this place! I found an old magazine today with the Crucifier in it. Went on here to look for it and ofcourse it has been covered...I didn't expect anything else! The car is absolutely awesome! / primerkid
Look like this thread went quiet a few years ago, but here's what I know about the car - it was built in his Vacaville shop, won awards, had the model made, got separated from its chassis, with the body staying with Joe as recently as the last time I helped move the thing around his shop on the Esplanade in Chico. He closed that shop years ago. It's probably still stored in the area. The plexiglass and interior were also separated from the body, but the headrests were intact, and were in good shape. It was never outside, and despite resting flat on its belly, it looked ready to polish up and show again. As the photo shows, it's all metal and heavy despite its small size. It was a neat car and I learned a ton working for Joe. He'll remember every tiny detail about that build, and would probably be willing to guide someone on its rebuild if he were to sell it on.
Saw Joe and the Tall T at the Exsposition building in the late 50"s the once grand national Oakland RS. Set up night , he was jawing with Big DER and the Barris crew. Took several pics with my Kodak brownie cub, still have those pics today. Next saw Joe in Chico, he had just sold his Salsbury motor scooter collection ( 50 or 60 ) to a guy in Az. I bought a rare Offy tall two duce aluminum manifold he had on the wall, he said it was a prototype that Offy lent to him in 1959...Wow I still have that too, under wraps, had it stolen from my garage by a "friend". Story is about Joe though, we don't get these folks forever, just to have those stories and several pieces of history is so great. We should have a Bay Area Hot Rod Hall of Fame, step up dot com's and give back to the area that made you rich !! Sorry for the rant but true enough; we all take the local history for granted; me included. I would donate that manifold and my pics in a heartbeat !!
A hall of game is a good idea - I got to work with several of his peers as well who did their share of really outstanding work, but who didn't get the kind of press time of Barris & Roth. I wish I knew then what I know now, as they say
A couple of obvious things about the crucifier - as already mentioned, it was not set up with a conventional steering rig; it didn't have provision for engine cooling; it wasn't clear how the braking system would have been arranged, and there wasn't much room for all the fuel all those webers would have needed. A new build might be able to incorporate some Tesla running gear and solve for most of that, but it would be a shame to not have that type of original motor in the car...
The VW double-torsion tube would accommodate a VW steering box, which would drag link transverse to the passenger spindle arm. All those Webers were chrome Stromberg 97s...six of them. Never had 97s get in the way of my brake pedal...
The Jalopy Journal
