I got to drive the Mary today to a local sign shop that specializes in making old patina style signs and had them paint the Bloody Mary's name and some pin striping on her. Sure got a lot of people honking at me and giving me the thumbs up when I drove it back to Keith's shop!
Hi again, everyone - I've been simply overwhelmed, rather overcome in truth, to the renewed interest in Bloody Mary ('tho she never went away, just restin') I was one lucky duck to have come to own her, and cherish her. Which is why I'm writing today. I have a few beefs, and I think I'm a bit more entitled to do that than most. First of all, as I've shown Bloody Mary's present owner, I'm going to build (and have begun) Bloody Mary Too...Keith's seen what I have in mind, and I intend to bring Bloody Mary into the 21st century, that is to say, candy red, full, complete 2004 Cadillac drive train, that same beautiful profile & stance, and yeah, a full set of gorgeous Buick Skylark wires from the day (couldn't afford them back then) with real wide whites...NO PORTAWALLS THIS TIME....Keith clearly wasn't too thrilled to hear this and has stopped speaking with me, lots of buddy stuff until my news, since then, nuthin...too bad. I must say as well that I'm rather tired of Keith's gopher endlessly crediting Brian Kirk with Bloody Mary's fame & fortune...THAT IS SIMPLY NOT THE CASE!!!!!! I acknowledge again that I've never met or spoken to Brian Kirk, wouldn't know him from Adam, and neither do Keith and his mouthpiece...I do know this, to set the record straight for once and for all. Brian Kirk, whoever he was or is, was in essence just one more owner (maybe, maybe not) of probably 30 to 35 owners the car has had, believe it or not..... and I have that on the authority of the one person who owned her longer than anyone else, for some 30 or more years...what credit does he get, for heaven's sake. I have no idea, really, if Brian Kirk had Bill Ferneyhough chop the car, I really don't....but that was about it and the car was never in a show of any kind to my knowledge...and wore the same crummy, crummy half-assed paint job it does now....it was a rolling wreck and little more when I got title, and I don't think it was Brian Kirk who sold it to me for a couple of hundred bucks...and it was Keith King's and my WORK..and MORE WORK that made Bloody Mary really pop...to this day, I have NEVER, EVER seen a candy red that could match Mary's depth, don't even try to tell me, 'cause you just don't know...you THINK you know, but very, very few of you were there to see her pop..blahblahblah....also, and just one other example, I commissioned the best sheet metal shop in Victoria to hand-form and hand-fit the bright satin stucco finish aluminum firewall that set off the beautiful timeless 331 Caddy air cleaner..still an icon to this day. ok, I'm done. gosh that feels better..and I trust what I've said will resonate with those very few people who actually did the work, had the taste, had the fortitude to actually build a show-winning car, not only show-winning, but a little bit of history that will outlive us all. Lastly, my very best regards to all of you who've followed this thread and delighted me with your kind remarks & support. Barrie Neff
Its cool the old ride is still around. Definitely not what she used to be but none the less still around.. if anything the spirit of Bloody Mary still lives on in that Ole Girl.
Saw it blasting down the highway today. This car has never been so cool. A great job by Keith and John to put it back on the road.
Then back to Keith's house where a couple of guys from the local Ford V8 club came over for a visit. Keith has probably put over 3000 miles on the car this year.
John - thanks for posting the pics. The Bloody Mary looked good with the other hot rods at lunch the other day. Good to see what was a pile of parts for decades back on the road and creating so much interest.
That's my '37 next to Bloody Mary at Cobblestone Pub, in Cobble Hill, BC, where I live. I bought the '37 from a friend of mine in Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA and drove it cross country to Vancouver Island. Makes me proud to be in such company.
Drama posts going back and forth are going to be deleted and or get this entire post closed. I left posts about what was pertinent to the car. The other snide comments are drama and were deleted. Thanks, Moderator
Thanks to Richard AKA H.A.M.B. member Internet we found some old pics of the Bloody Mary at a car show in Vancouver B.C. in 1964 and 1965! Thanks Richard
Yes, this is Don Shaw, to whom I sold Bloody Mary in '64? for, I think, 2 grand, which I spent lavishly by becoming a beach bum w/three cdn. buddies for just over a year in San Diego...we rented a garage on Pescadero Beach as a sort of gathering place, but kept getting invited to a series of pool-side cabanas 'cause of our weird accents...mygawd, it was just an awful time...but back to Don, who, entirely by his own self, made and installed a really well done, and complete, black button-tufted interior, including headliner, that I think Keith Smith has re-installed in our baby.
I posted much of the following during the H.A.M.B. crash, so will try again, 'cause I think it's important to the history being compiled about Bloody Mary that Bruce and Sylvia Chater get a great deal of credit, along with Murray and Keith Smith, for saving her from the crusher...the Chaters particularly, 'tho, sheltering our baby for years & years & years. I clearly recall Bruce taking me, in 1977, to that barn in Happy Valley (what a true barn-find, hmm?) to show me my old car, albeit in pieces & parts. Bruce related, with remarkable clarity & detail, 8 or 10 other owners from the interim, and as well no shortage of anecdotes about each of their adventures with BM...wouldn't it be great if we could talk him onto the H.A.M.B.???? I took a fair number of Kodak flash snapshots, and they're pretty awful, but I'll see if I can get someone expert to enlarge them & get some clarity, for posting. I don't think many readers will believe their eyes, just a shell, basically, stripped as stripped could be...BUT, you could still see down a foot into that candy red, where there was any...I especially remember Bruce showing me what was left of the original frame, where, coathanger welds galore, someone had tried to mount the front suspension from, yes, a '53 Chevy..who knew? No shame, tho, with the coathangers....I, my own self, installed the 331 Caddy & hydro in the wrecking yard with an acetylene cutting torch and the best darn coathangers I could find...and that tranny never fell out once! not even once....
A bit more history re Bloody Mary, and I can't prove a word of it, except the following is to the best of my declining memory. ie, How did Bloody Mary get her name?? And what a great name it turned out to be, just can't imagine anything better, especially now with her own legend, sorta. As far as I know, I think Brian Kirk, Bloody Mary's true dad, not only orchestrated one of the best chops anyone has ever seen on a pre-war Ford coupe (you'll see some of that workmanship when I get my Kodaks up, I hope) but also named her, in this manner: I learned, maybe just gossip since I never met Brian, but, that he was dating a girl who lived "up island" as we say in Victoria, in the shipping port/town of, yeah, Port...Alberni, a pretty far hike from Victoria...and her name was Mary, and so he named the car after her, perhaps with a bit of negotiation about the "Bloody" part, or, gosh, who knows......
This is Murray reunited with the Mary after he sold it to Keith Feb. 2016. Murray bought the car off Bruce in 2009 and deserves a lot of credit for getting the car back on the road after a 35 to 40 year slumber. He can be seen on page 2 of this thread working on the car. Like most hot-rodders do Keith went over the car and built it to his vision of what the car should look like and drive.
Keith built the car to enjoy and drive it everywhere and not worry about somebody putting a scratch on it. Here he is out in the rain a couple of weeks ago, those vacuum wipers sure work good! The heater also works great.
This is Mike giving the Bloody Mary the thumbs up seal of approval after a test ride. Mike helped Murray get the car back on the road two and a half years ago.
Little bit of rain and fog isn't going to slow the Bloody Mary down! Went to Cobble Hill 30 miles north of Victoria for lunch and then over to see this cool 32 pickup.
The Jalopy Journal
