Do we have any traditional rodders on here?

Your wish is my command.

I stopped by Mom and Dads on my way home from work tonight not only to get a few facts from Dad but to pick up a couple of photos to scan that I thought you might enjoy.

Dad hung out at 2 Shell stations on Fort Street. One on the westside of the street between Southfield and Champaign.

The other one was on the eastside of the street alittle further down, across from Sam's beer store. This one was owned by his buddy Pete Gentile who had a white '55 Ford with a white Carson style top done by the Alexander Brothers. It had an oval back window with blue glass that was imported from Italy. It had a dark blue engine compartment with a Pontiac motor and it sported real angola hair interior. After 40+ years, Dad looked up Pete and him and Mom have had dinner with them at Petes home in Milford with alot of the old "gang" in attendance. Pete has a garage and car collection that would make anyone proud.

Dad also mentioned a guy named Jerry Yetch, he said if any of them you would probley know or remember this guys because he drove a '39 Merc with a padded top. From what Dad said the guy had it stored for over 30 years, someone finally bought it, restored it to it's orginail splendor and was seen recently at the Pebble Beach event. He said Jerry also did a '59 Chevy with very wild tail lights.

This is the '49 Olds Dad was driving back then. You can kinda make out the Jimmy Jones skirts on the rear.



In 1957 Dad drove it to TX. Well I say drove but raced it to TX might be more appropiate. Him and a buddy actually raced their cars from Gary Indiana to Houston Texas on two lane roads. Loser bought dinner at the local drive In in TX that they hung out at. Dad won by 30 minutes.

In 1958, in Corpus Christy, Dad was racing a '55 Ford with his '49 Olds and winning, when he ran a red light doing 80 MPH and broadsided a guy in a '54 Plymouth. He hit the guy between the A and B pillar so hard the front seat and the guy got slammed outta the car. Both cars were totalled.

By the very early 60's Dad met Mom at the Lincoln Park roller rink. She worked next door at the A & W root beer stand. Mom graduated from Allen Park High in 1961. Dad's 6 years older then Mom. By this time Dad has a '56 Olds and Dec of '61 they got married.



They drove the Olds to Mass where they lived while Dad went to some kind of Navy training school. They came back to Michigan just in time for me to be born in '62. I was picked up from the hospital in the above Olds and two weeks later placed on my Moms lap for the drive to SanDiego and that's where I grew up.

Mom and Dad will be in Florida during the Detroit Autorama BUT would like to get together this summer if you make it back to town. I'm a HUGE photo nut and plan on going thru somemore of my folks photos this winter. If I find more that are Detroit auto related I'll certainly post.

 

Denise, thanks for the response. Small world because I went to Allen Park high school also and in fact lived one block from the school. I remember the Jerry Yatch Merc and it was my favorite car of all time. I went to every show that car was in and it always took first place in full custom. It was found and restored by Hank McAuliffe there in Detroit and in my opinion he deserves the credit for the Pebble Beach appearance. I hung around Bill Hines shop on Dix and that is where I saw him build the first "Lil Bat" 1951 Ford Coupe. He also painted my skirts and customized my 1956 Chevrolet 210 Hardtop. Really familiar with that area and drive around and look for the old places whenever I return to Detroit. Many have disappeared, and my Dad's old lumber yard is the western lane of Telegraph Rd. in West Dearborn. I still would love to have that Mercury, but it surely is far out of my reach now.

Your folks go to Florida, and I retired to the Georgia Mountains, but either is better than Detroit in the wintertime.

Thanks again for your time and efforts and I look forward to meeting you or your folks someday.
Bob N

 

Cool story Denise, your dad is a real Hot rodder. And a good friend.

 

Interesting old thread from almost 10 yrs. ago deserving of a bump.

 

Joe, that's my buddy Ray Cass! He's put a couple of years on ( Ray is a lean, mean 82 now) and he just found your post (quoted above) from 2005. He's never had a brother, though. He sends his best wishes!

 

I was around in the '50s and the Ol' Man used to let me play with his creeper and jack, does that count?

 

My dad was a hot-rodder in the late 50's around Rogue River/Grants Pass, Oregon....he was always tinkering on some old car, trying to date my mother in his current running car in High School....finally getting her to go for a soda, albeit sitting on up-turned 5 gallon oil cans for seats in his 31' Ford coupe...later; he loved the sparks created from dragging rear bumper on his 1950 Merc (painted pearl-tangerine with a Hoover vaccum cleaner), by filling the trunk with filled sandbags----my dad always drove ''cool'' cars, and had lots of them....and thanks to him, and his early 'hot rod ways'.....gave me my love of the old car hobby!....I got to ride around in some of his cars, while he honked his horn, and white t-shirt and Ray-Bans to anyone who he wished to acknowledge....Really cool memories for me...he's 75 now, and likes comfort now....till I show up in my hotrod, then he's back in 1958 mentality...and I gotta hide my keys!!!

 

I remember in the early 60's as a kid, my uncles had a black '40 coupe with a 283 and Zephyer gears. Me and my cousin would ride behind the seats while they ran 'er through the gears. What a thrill !!!

 

..........................Of course these were the Uncles that your Mom warned you about hanging out with right?

 

Anyone still following this thread? My Dad is mentioned here but they didn't know his name, only posted a pic of his car. I am doing a thread with him if anyone wants to check it out.
Ray Cass Revisited - 39 Custom Ford "Survival Convertible "

Sent from my SM-G900V using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Good thread. Thanks for bringing it back to the top.

 

Hey I hate to admit this in public but I worked on an HEI this morning. Can I still play with you guys?

 

You get a pass, 'Beaner.

 

50's i was 4years old watching ...
dad bought me a car (he was funny)1948 non-running ford,
at the age of 8... i got my first legit car myself at 12 a 1951 pont,
also a non - running car...
i was working on the older guys cars (yep they let me)
there were stunned at my get after it skills...
they all had those 30's -n- 40's cars...
so i'm a jonie come lately
so i 'm a 50's 60's kinda car guy...

* and yes i made them non-running cars run....no school...no books...
i was a monkey see monkey do kid...*

 

I am pretty much a '60s kid myself. I was born the last year of the epidemic, was handing out in the shop before I could walk but my earliest recollections of cars that are really solid in my brain would have been the transitional years fro '50s-'60s cars. I never built a car on my own until '68 but my dad was trying to teach me to grind crank by the time I was about 5 or 6 and he was letting me play with the path and vertical mill before that. LOL

Sometimes I get a little less than patient with some of the fellas who ask questions, I just want to say, "Well figure it out that is what I'm going to have to do." I fortunately have Tim who reminds me that not everyone is me and that they wouldn't ask if they didn't need a little help. Good to have younger friends who are stone traditional hot rodders.

 

Hotrod1940 when you were flagging at oldsmar do you happen to remember Randy Peyton? ("Peytons rail").Just curious.

 

I was born in 1947 and have been hot rod crazy for as long as I can remember.
Me 1949 my first roadster!
Our 1949 Plymouth. I drove it when I was 10. It was standard shift and I drove it like I have been driving for years the first time by just watching my Mom and Dad drive.

The Black Road auto club. My inspiration. Some of my cousins were in it a generation older than me.

My 1st try was a 34 roadster I bought for $65 and it never got off the ground. the only thing I got finished was an insert I made in metal shop for the grill shell. Sorry no pictures. It was blue and I sold it for $45.

Some of the Black Road cars! 50's/ 60's
Then my first Roadster that I drove to High School and parked it in the teachers parking lot 60's
My next was a Coupe. I built it in late 60's and had it when I got married. 1972
Then sold it and built a sedan and a family.
After the kids got too old to go with us I hot rodded it up a bit.
My next hot rod was a few years back.
then this Coleman Coupe
Sold the coupe kept the roadster. Then sorry I sold the coupe so I bought this! It was too nice to cut so I sold it to a friend.
So I bought this! It need some work so that is what I did this past winter and then I traded it for the Coleman coupe. Now everyone is happy! At least I am!

Yes I had other cool cars even a 32 sedan some place in there. But these I think make me a traditional rodder or maybe just a traditional old guy! Also restored a couple of Harley's along the way a 59 and a 69 Sportsters.

 

I remember R L Peyton. I was in the stands at Bristol when he got screwed over by the starter. His rail was on the line, ready to go and the other guy was nowhere in sight. Should've let Peyton make a bye pass, but they kept holding him at the line until he finally shut down to keep from melting his engine down.

About that time the other guy pushes out at the far end, fires up, loops around Peyton and up to the line in the other lane. The starter trips the tree and away the guy goes on a bye.

Peyton gets out of his car there at the line and starts raising hell with the starter. And rightfully so. Got lots of sympathy from the fans and within a couple minutes bottles and cans began to rain down on the strip from the stands. Took over an hour for the track crew to sweep and shovel multiple truckloads of cans and bottles and haul them off so racing could continue.

That incident pretty much instantly brought on the "no glass thru the gate" rule that's still in force at most every big track across the country.