Great to see that she's still on the road!! That is the perfect chop and totally dig the front end. Very nice ride!!!
This is what the HAMB is all about, a historic post turns into a current post of a historic car, that has been worked on by HAMBer's.
The Bloody Mary was put together in true backyard fashion - just like the old days! Here are Murray and Mike getting another motor ready to install to keep this great old hot rod on the road.
Man, that's textbook backyard rodding right there. Glad to see the car alive and well. Thanks for sharing these.
Joey - thanks for putting up the thread! Bet you were not expecting that it would result in the story evolving to the current state of this coupe, and I hope you don't mind all the space my posts have taken up here. Just a couple more pics to show the car as it looks now - still maintains the look of the coupe in that magazine all those years ago.
Hi, everyone - I'm thrilled to see Bloody Mary on the road again, some fifty years after she won most every trophy at every show she was entered into in the early sixties....I should be more precise, ie she DID win best paint and first place full custom, best display and several People's Choice awards in ALL those shows except one! I 'd just chromed her master cylinder and had it mounted in a bench vise next to the car....and thought, yeah, how can I be sure the cylinder worked now except to fill it with brake fluid and push the plunger?...you guessed, a narrow gush of brake fluid stripped a nice path down the driver's door and through the true nitro candy red (about 7 coats over gold, not 30) I argued that the paint damage had nothing to do with the quality of the work involved from bare metal, but the decision stood - never forgave them, either. Thank you for all the great comments....Those who're interested might check out the March '14 issue of Hot Rod Deluxe, where there's a great spread beginning on p.66 about my good pal Dave Whitehead and his Oakland Roadster Show (the Grandaddy, the ultimate!) winning roadster.....by the way, that's MY pinstriping! (at least it was for a show at the Victoria Memorial Arena). Dave and I were only two of literally dozens of show/magazine quality cars built from scratch in little old Victoria in those days. Best regards to all, Barrie Neff
Barrie - thanks for posting! Nothing like hearing from the original builder. The power of the HAMB! vic
Barrie - yes it is great to hear from the original builder. You should know your old coupe is in good hands and being well looked after. Do you have any photos from back when you were building the car? This is the place to put them! If you need help posting photos here, send me a pm. And you are right, there were a lot of very nice rods and customs built in Victoria in the 50's and 60's.
The information I have is that Brian Kirk is the original builder of the car, is that true Barrie? Also now that you're on here, what is the story about the car being in the Victoria police impound lot?
Yes, that's true as far as I know....never met Brian 'tho, and the car was pretty trashed when I bought it.....the same holds for Dave Whitehead as well, since all us old timers know that Irv Ross built Dave's car in Duncan. Can't help you with the police impound story, you'd have to ask Dan Enyeart, the author...puzzled me too at the time...best regards
Thought it wouldn't be inappropriate to add a few more facts about Bloody Mary, if only for those who might be curious. The chop, which Dan Enyeart said was rough or only partly completed, couldn't have been more beautifully done, it was absolutely perfect in every way, the lead work, the gas & hammer welding, the perfect window frames....just couldn't allow Bill Fernyhough's work to remain so unfairly criticized. My best friend, Keith King and I took the car down to bare metal over many weeks in his parent's single garage, (to prep first for Honduras Maroon, which was horrible, THEN the candy red, which you could look down into for about forty feet, it really WAS the best, most utterly gorgeous paint most anyone had ever seen) but what a wondrous sight when we drove it down the street in shiny bare metal to Frank Wratten's shop at Wilson Motors in Victoria...Frank won the "Best Painter" trophy for his work, and I was honoured to present the trophy to him, which he'd been trying to win for years. Part of the prep consisted of Keith and I recovering the car every week or so to once again sand off about a gallon of primer-surfacer....If a good paint job is in the preparation, I think we sure earned our spurs at Frank's instruction, our sweat!! I put the 331 Caddy & hydro in because I was sick of replacing the chintzy Ford transmissions that I was blowing up & replacing weekly, I thought...and in my ignorance I'd especially ordered and installed Lincoln-Zephyr gears, mistakenly thinking they might be stronger...crunch! The Caddy was neat and looked great, was certainly twice as powerful as the flathead...but way undergeared....and since there was no room for a fan, there was very little idling at stoplights or the White Spot Drive-In...but I could cruise all night, especially with my photo companion, Beverly Schwab sitting next to me.....Have had lots of adventures, successes and otherwise in my life, but these memories are indelible....we didn't realize it at the time, but we were kings of the world.....
Sure is nice to see metalwork (oxy-acet/hammer welding!) on a top hold up so well. This was (is) an important car. God help us get those hub caps off there...maybe pass the HAMB hat for a set of Coker WWWs?
By the way, I will attempt, with help from my dearest Susan, to soon post my favorite pix of Bloody Mary at the top of her game, including the 24th of May Parade of 1963 in Victoria, some others if we can...best regards, Barrie Neff
Two more pics of the Bloody Mary as Murray took over the ownership - he worked on the old coupe right in his driveway in front of the garage - just like the old days! That coupe body was in great shape after years of sitting, and Murray has put in the effort to put in back on the road. Now if we can just coax the original owner Barrie to get going on posting those very early pics - Barrie, if you need help with it, just pm me. Steve
So everybody, here are our best efforts, sorry they're not better quality. The one of Bloody Mary is from the 1963 Victoria May Day Parade, the Roddin' Around shows my little Model A from about 1960, and lastly, the current project, a Zipper Lakes Modified. Enjoy.
Barrie, I think this is the same roadster from 1960. It looks like it was shorten, what colour was it?
Back in 1958, that car was for sale in Victoria. An employee of a local department store wanted that car in the worst way. So, rather than take the store deposit to the bank, he used the cash to purchase the car. However, he was caught, and the store manager put the car up for sale. We looked to purchase it, but couldn't get it to start. I lost track of it then.
In 1958 or 1959 that car was for sale in Victoria. A local department store employee wanted the car in the worst way, but couldn't afford it. One weekend, this employee took the night deposit money from the department store and bought the car. He was subsequently caught and the department store manager put the car up for sale. I lost track of it after that.
Hi,Newby - Well, I dunno what everyone's talking about, Bloody Mary or the roadster....anyway, the picture you posted is of me, driving my car.....those are my portawalls, my rollbar, my McGurk intake/exhaust, my mooneyes etc, etc, etc....
sorry, oldschool 55 - I don't quite understand what the secondary on-line names we have are all about, but wanted to thank you for your interest...and to apologize in a way,'cause on reflection, that really doesn't look like me in the photo, much missing behind the w/s post....but I don't recall any of my buddies at the time wearing Buddy Holly glasses (with all due respect) I'd suggest this is probably whomever I sold the Model A to, or even a later owner, all long lost to memory..I say this only because I never liked those little chrome bell air cleaners, wouldn't have had them on my carbs....so there. best regards
The car is begging for new wheels, those wires are horrible! Really cool to see it back in the day and hear from the original builder as well. The HAMB is such an awesome place!
Thanks Barrie, I've had that picture for a couple of years, and just put it together with you, because it has a shorten body and looks like a jimmy six. I've built many models of all the old local rods, and may try to do the roadster one day, so may ask you for more information, one day.
My favorite part of this place ... is bumping old threads for me to finally see and enjoy. What a bitchin' car.
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