Give or take a year or two, Spencer Murray has been working in the Hot Rod and Custom publishing industry for sixty years. For all intents and purposes, he is a living legend. He was one of the first employees of Hop Up Magazine. He was the first edi... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I love that story, could you imagine coming home in the company tow truck when you have a nearly new chevy fastback? There were pictures from his trip in rodders journal that showed a stop by high school, that school was in Omaha. couldn't imagine the crazy interest from all the fascinated teenagers first seeing a full custom on the streets.
Great observation, Ryan. I loved the originality of the car even as a little kid when it appeared (those pipes!), but did not realize it was Spence's car back then. My first recognition of the name was when the Dream Truck started to dominate everything Rod and Custom. You gotta meet this guy!
Why Murray's Chevy rules: 1. Stance. 2. Balance of brightwork (not too much tacked-on trim/ bling). 3. Subtle, tasteful customization. This winning custom combination still works today, my friends...
Always loved Spence's Chevy. One of the very few that used the long Pontiac side trim. I remember Spence from way back. I was just a little kid then. He hung out at my aunt and uncle's house all day one Saturday in '67 taking pictures and interviewing my uncle for an 8-page article in Motorcade, while he and my dad prepped for a race that night. Uncle Jerry was a novice up-and-coming stock car driver in Saugus, CA. Met Spence again a few years ago at the Long Beach Autorama. Great guy!
There is a great article by Spence on this car in one of the quarterly Rod and Custom mags from the late '70s early 80s. Has some construction photos, plus a pic of the less successful first paint job, a 2 tone which unfortunately de-emphasized the subtle chop. Got it here someplace.
I met Spence in 1997 while in Vegas to receive an Automotive Journalism Moto Award. Spence was their at the reception and I recognized the name. His name tag said something about a boat company. I tried in my mind to age the guy in front of me to the picture of the Spence Murray shown in Rod and Custom magazine about 30 years. prior... I asked a few people standing around at the reception... nobody knew. So I gathered up my courage went up to him and asked...are you THE Spence Murray of Dream Truck fame. Startled he paused for a long moment and said yes I am how do I know you....a big smile came across his face. So I explained how I had followed the Dream Truck build and him and his career. We talked for a long time and finally he says... "do you want to know the whole story of the Dream Truck, the part that did not get in the magazine?" Absolutely !! Here is my card, call me when you get home and I will explain. I did and we talked for an hour plus on the phone, and he explained the whole story. Then he mentioned that they used a super 8 movie camera to film the crash site near Pratt Kansas and the tow truck coming to pickup the wreck. Then they filmed the damage to the dream truck at the local Chevrolet dealership along with the damage to the then new cameo pickup truck that was towing the dream truck. He asked if I would be interested in a copy of that movie. Absolutely !! A few days later he called again... and said in looking for the movie in his basement he found a complete set of the prepress issues of ROD AND CUSTOM from all of the years that he was editor. He wanted to know if I would be interested in them as well? Absolutely !! Name your price....he did and the check went into the mail. Three weeks later the box was delivered that had the complete set of all of the issues plus about fifty extra copies of the dream truck issues...and the copy of the dream truck movie. He also included a letter of authenticity so there would be little doubt they came from him. He is a stand up guy! Part of the rest of the story.... The wreck happened when the right front tire on the dream truck blew out causing it to come unhooked from the cameo pickup that was towing it and land upside down in the ditch. The then new cameo pickup towing the dream truck was also damaged but was drivable. Towing one show car with another show car using a tow bar was common practice in the old days....money was always tight. Spence had to drive the damaged cameo pickup back to California to meet a production deadline, get the cameo fixed, then come back three or four weeks later and get the dream truck and haul it back to California. That is where the happiness ends. He pulled the engine out and sold it but never got paid the full amount. A lot of the interior pieces got stolen as did most everything else on the outside of the body that could be removed. It was eventually sold for scrap. The rest of the build story is very interesting, including how they got a hold of one of the then new Chevrolet V8 engines and a brand new cab that arrived in a crate. The whole story is a good read I will wait and see if there is any interest.
Subtle to a "T"... I remember reading the story on the car years ago. Love the pipes on it, also. Any pics of other Paola cars??
Link had a hand in one of my favorite customs of all time... The Bill Faris '38 cabriolet... It owns me.
Nice to see a little recognition fro Spence's Chevy. It's not really a mild custom, but it's definitely subtle. More than meets the eye, as they say. Sure would like to hear more of the Dream Truck story. Thanks for the post, Carp
Cool to read his article in the current R&C about the old days. Pipes are unique (read: cool), never seen them on any other car.
FIFTHAVE: "The rest of the build story is very interesting...the whole story is a good read I will wait and see if there is any interest." You bet! Love to hear more...and it'd be really cool to see that 8mm film too!
I still remember Spence's story about building the car in an early R&C. Link worked at sort of a slow pace, and even though he promised to chop the top, it took months. Finally Spence bugged him enough and he took to the job, with a cutting torch ( a custom no-no, though Barris and others sometimes did it!)...still it turned out pretty well. As noted above, Spence drove it to the midwest for a car show, the pictures of him stopped in front of a high school in Iowa with the kids crowded around are priceless!
As nice as Spencer's Chevy is,to me the Bill Faris '38 cabriolet makes me want to build a custom,,this car just does it for me. HRP
Murray's Chevy is said to have had quicker steering, from shortening the stroke of the tie-rod idler-arm. I would like more details. Have any of you Chevy owners done this?
One of my favorites then, and still looks great to me now. Perfect chop, and I love the Plymouth grille in the Merc frame. The tailpipes might have been better curved to fit the shape of the quarter, but they were novel and were certainly the car's signature detail. Great to see it again!
We could write all day and not say it better than that. The car is a lesson to guys who think that adding gee gaws and clutter is customizing in that it shows that restraint in customizing works better. The car retains it's identity as the model of Chevrolet it is but the details set it off from the run of the mill cars on the street at the time.
Hi All, I'm not sure if my last post went through, so will try again. I spent many hours talking with Spence when the Truck was resurected from the ashes, and he is always full of great stories. He was one of my idols back in the fifties, and he still is to this day. There was a great book done by Mark Gustavson and Bill Aitchison in 2001. It tells the entire history. Actually, when found,the Truck, although a mess, was amazingly complete. All of the chrome stuff, like grille bars front and rear, mesh grilles, buick reflectors (turned antennas), interior door mesh, even three of the four laminated bar end lenses, were still there. The interior cloth was there, and about the only things missing were the headlights and gauges. Spence was involved in every phase of the restoration, and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, he or I.
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