The Gribble Book Build (Picture Heavy)

Hey, Jim! Long time no see! Great to hear from you. When Randy got my old roadster, I had pulled the 4-banger out and sold it to a guy in town who put it in a home-built trike. Got as far as setting up mounts for a small block but then made the mistake of tearing into my '39 too. Traded the roadster to Randy for a '47 Chev coupe. I forgot that you had the roadster for awhile too. Last I saw it, Ken Hedges in Aberdeen had it. Here's a photo I snapped the day we dropped it off at Randy's:



And here's how it looked after he got it back together with the V8. I was in Watertown one night (maybe for a Vintiques meeting?) and Randy handed me the keys and said "Let's take 'er out!" The small block was a blast allright....



And here's a shot of the roadster at one of the Watertown runs - maybe you owned it then, I think this was about '83 or so? Looks like the pig smoker is goin' nicely!



And Chris, PM me with your email address and I can send you fullsize hi-rez files of all these if you want 'em...

 

Here's a photo of another car your dad owned briefly, the '47 Chevy coupe I got from him. For some reason he wanted to keep the 'Vette hubcaps.



And these are the two rowdy salesmen that talked me into making the deal.... recognize the short guy on the left??

 

Holy Shit! Thats awesome....Thanks so much for sharing. I will have to send these his way...maybe unlock some stories!

Thanks again.

 

Ya know he still has those corvette hubcaps too.....

 

Hey Chris great thread......thanks for sharing!

 

I always look forward to Watertown and your Dad and Uncle are major reasons why. Thanks for sharing this Chris, keep them coming!

 

Thanks for the pics!! Your Dad is one awesome builder...his shop is my favorite part of the Vintiques Run!

 

Great stuff!

 

Love the pictures, thanks for sharing them & the narratives with us.

 

Hey Chris, When I 1st met your dad he was driving the 32 sedan. We went for a ride in the '32 in some small town, but I can't remember why or were we went. On post #7 who is the older man between your dad and uncle Todd? Thanks for posting, your old man has had a very eventful life and he's still going strong.

Tom

 

The Duece Roadster my dad bought as a project and finished. The 1st picture is what it looked like the day he bought it. The next is finished product withthe flathead. The car later got the 331 Hemi and is now owned by Ted Moe.

 

I always like this pick because it shows what Gribbles think of Car Shows...Although this was at an ultimate carshow with swap meet (LA Roadster Show) its always good to see another use for fenderless hotrods...

The yellow duece started its hotrod life as a Jacked up rough stiff legged hoopty...."all the right parts in all the wrong places" is what my dad said. The car was sold to a customer and transformed into this in house....New Chassis, 392,Blower, 6-speed-quicky....you get the idea.

The Street roadster was shortly owned by my traded for the 37 in the next photo and then traded for a 57 vette I dont have a photo off. He never raced the roadster. Randy Lauen owned this car too.

The Willy's coupe was bought down in AZ and sold before it made it to SD.

 

Thanks for sharing the pics, looking forward to the rest.

 

Unlock stories? Nah... most of that's prolly still "Classified"!

Damn pack rat! He's as bad as I am but he's got much cooler stuff...

 

More to Come....We are not even to Y2K....

 

This is my 1st time down the dragstrip. I was 16. The car is 58 chassis research dragster that was originally owned by the Playboys Car Club in the Fargo area. The car was last ran in 1962 with a pontiac power plant. My dad became the care taker of it for awhile after it was restored. We put the flatty in it a raced it a few years. The car was taken back by one of the original club members to be put in a museum of sort up north but I hear it sitting in a shed.

The 5 window project started out as a Fenderless Bonneville Chopped Hemi Powered hell raiser. The chassis was sold to Rick Moe and is under his 34 Roadster with the Hemi. The body was sold to Mike Rielly and is now the car in the next picture. No matter what form the car has its still pretty bad ass.

The 37 cabriolet was built by my dad for Mike Rielly. Something was traded for this car before my dad traded it for something else. Super nice car.

The Nomad was a good daily driver but needed some TLC. It had a history of being an Ex drag car at some point. This was always one of my dads dream cars. I am sure he will own one again down the road.

 

I talked to your dad about buying that Nomad... thought long and hard, drooled over it a lot but bottom line I just didn't have the cash. My wife wanted it even worse than I did. Should've tried harder... it was a neat car. Ran a small block with a tri-power on it when I looked at it. I think your dad told me it was owned by Eric Aurand?

This is fun - keep the pix coming!

 

Your right, Eric Aurand owned the nomad, I had it stored in my barn north of Watertown for a while. I believe it was during the time when Eric moved to Iowa to start working for Chassis Engineering. It is a sweet car. Scott

 

I felt the same way about that Nomad (the C1 that Chris is sure to post up too)

 

Man this makes me miss making the trip to Watertown every Sept. Love wondering around Randy's shop. Is Ken Treloar's coupe still there or did he finally get it going?

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Ken is out here in the hills and owns Paul Shade's 55 (Volga SD) that ken finished. Do not know about the coupe.

 

Yes the coupe is finished and its spectacular. Ken drove it to Watertown from the Hills for Vintiques....

 

Man that looks awesome. Last time I saw it was probably '06 Vintiques rod run. That's the last one I was able to make it. There are some fantastic cars coming out of the Gribble's shop. Ken sent me a new "Lake City Rod and Custom" shirt not too long ago as I have worn my other one thin.

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Thanks for sharing the pix and history, a real treat.

 

More to come....Stay tuned.

 

This rail was took in on trade for the Camaro Funny Car. Its said to be Mark Williams ride in 1969....

We ran the Midwest Wild Bunch circuit for about 4 years with this car. It was a blast racing some of the High Dollar Equipment cars that class has. The car ran a best of 7.20 @ 198 mph on a mild tune.

We had the smallest engine on the circuit and the only car without aluminum heads.

Engine: 1958 .030 Chrysler Hemi with an 8-71 huffer.
Trans: JW PowerGlide with 5500 stall

The 1st pic is from Thunder Valley. This was the 2nd pass on the car. Obviously the lead bar on the front axle didnt work.... It came down from this wheel stand popped both front tires and still ran 8.50 that pass before banging the blower off through the lights. My dad never complained about blower restraints again....

The 2nd pic is at Fargo/Moorehead with the Wheelie Bar installed.

The other pics are the last version of the car with the Ed Pink Blower, new injection and scoop my dad made.

 

Chris, Great Pics!

The Chassis Research dragster was put together by my uncle (Jerry Ekstrom) and some of his other buddies in Forman, ND in 58/9. My grandpa footed a lot of the bill the story goes and did a lot of the machine work on the engine and narrowing the banjo rear. It was called the "Wild Hare". After Jerry passed one of the original builders went and got it from your dad with intentions of putting it in the Sargent County Museum in Forman. After it showed up and had the Playboy bunny on it that was the end of that. Now it just sits at his place... I've got a picture of it at Marion with one of you two running it and the wheels off the ground. I'll have to scan it and post it here.

There's some awesome pictures on this thread. A lot of cars I'd heard about but never seen. Your dad still has the Drag Fast shifter from that Nomad in his house garage. Just one of the neat pieces I've always admired.

 

Thanks Man! I figured you would chime in sooner or later on the thread. Hope all is well. Didnt see you at vintiques this year? My question is to you....When are you going to get the old dragster? That car needs to be shown and even raced....Lots of history there.

 

This thread just keeps getting better and better.

Keep 'em comin'!

 

I made it to Vintiques but was busy catching up with everyone since I don't live there anymore. I had Dorneman's '51 Fleetline as a loaner for the weekend while he was at Drag Week. Ya, my cousin and I kick around the idea of asking the remaining guys from the dragsters original days if we could put it back together and run it but we never seem to get around to it with all the other projects we have going on. I'd like to look the car over again. I probably haven't seen it since '94 or '95 when you guys were running it. Every time I run into your dad he gives me grief for not having that car in my garage.