Early hurst history - trivia

kirban 2 cents worth

Pictured here are two groups of actual color photos from Hurst files that I have in my collection. In most of the coverage of Hurst one of the key products they are almost equally well known for is called "The Jaws of Life" a great title when you realize the value this tool is in saving lives.

In the first group of photos that is George Hurst on the far left in the brown suit. Others I have no idea. Location is demonstrating how it works for a group of people in Washington DC. Time frame probably late 1960s at best early 1970s.

If you have never seen the Jaws of Life in operation it is an impressive piece of equipment.

Maybe 4-5 years ago my wife and I were coming back from a funeral. We were the first on the scene of a single car accident where this woman driving a Caddy Eldorado crossed over into the opposite lane and up an embankment. She rolled over the console landing in the passenger seat.

The car was on its side to the ground. I tried in vain to open the drivers door but in regular shoes and trying to open a huge door upright I couldn't do it. I did manage to reach in and calm her down and shut the engine off. My wife called 911.

When they arrived the rescue people used the jaws of life. That roof on the caddy was pealed back like you open a soda can.

Years ago I believe the Jaws of Life portion of the Hurst company was sold off seperately from the main portion. No idea who owns the rights today to it but I am sure it can be tracked down on the internet.

Very unusual that a company known for making shifters would make such a successful totally unrelated product.

more to come later

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kirban 2 cents worth

I was stupid years ago I had 2 of the Christmas tree ones they made 2 versions...since it came out in 1969 one version shows the Hurst wheel on it other version does not...

Some people may not be aware of that. I have none.. I do have a mint stand up Linda Vaughn...(not for sale)

However, I do know Linda Vaughn has a project in the works.

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Not really an early Hurst history trivia question ... but I was really hoping someone might have some answers for me.

In the early '60s, my father purchased and installed a HURST shifter in our Deuce 5wd Coupe:

HEMI32 Coupe Interior - Circa 1973
NOTE: We ran this HURST shifter until 1975 (when the 331 Chrysler HEMI and Cad-LaSalle
tranny were swapped in favor of a fresh 392 Chrysler HEMI and '69 Dodge HEMI Torque-flite)​

In May of '63, he received this letter from George Jr.:

​

... and after completing the questionnaire, he received this letter and this HURST water-transfer decal:

​

I have two questions ...

1) Was this questionnaire something that HURST sent to all of their customers ... or were just a small percentage of the guys that purchased their products put on the Hurst "consultant list" and "select evaluation staff"?

2) What does this "beautiful and exclusive Hurst emblem" look like? ... If I knew what I was looking for, I might be able to find it somewhere in my father's shop ... or was this "beautiful and exclusive Hurst emblem" just the decal that accompanied the letter?

 

kirban 2 cents worth

At that point in time Hurst was still relatively a small company. Actually at the time period my Dads printing business was around the block from Hurst in Glenside and I would go there and get some of their decals for my books.

Like any small company doing different installs they wanted to know how their parts worked in your application etc.

Did they do that to everyone back then I really doubt it. I have seen that decal before. I never have seen that letter even in all stuff/papers I have.

Again not an expert, but expressing my thoughts and opinion. Its neat you have kept the items all these years. That style decal with the Glenside address proves the date time period. I can't say I have seen the emblem the letter refers to. So it may be something that never got passed the planning stages. I have different old style key fobs and medallions but nothing that fits the category for what they say.

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Bought my first Hurst shifter kit in 1965 and several more after that and never got a questionnaire like that.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

You are viewing one original cartoon that Bob held did during World War ll
Bob would later have a chance meeting at a print shop in the early 1960s with George Hurst. At the time Bob ran his own art studio doing work for various clients. George was at the same printing shop getting something done and the rest as they say is history. At this point Bob was around 40 years old.

At the time he accepted the job as art director at Hurst he never thought the job would last. Not being a car guy he just did not invision car owners removing perfectly good shifters....to install an aftermarket one.

Bob remained as the art director for Hurst up until the early 1980s. He did it all, the ads you saw in magazines, the displays, the famous cartoon style decals. All have his mark on them. Heck he even told me he picked out the color blocks/bricks they used on the new building that opened in Warminster in 1965.

I even have Bobs dog tags in my private collection. Bob did attend art school prior to entering the military.

more to come

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kirban 2 cents worth

here is an actual cover, one Bob did again during World War II that was used as a cover for Colliers back in 1944. Youngsters reading this will have to ask your folks about Colliers....it was a magazine similar to Look and Life that also disappeared years ago.

Notice the colors and detail. This is when you had to draw, no photo shop etc. Again same guy who became the art director at Hurst as explained earlier.

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Dennis,
This covers so much. Thanks for sharing the history lesson. Slim

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Here is the original banner Linda Vaughn wore during her appearances for Hurst vintage mid 1960s time frame. Granted more than one may exist but this is an original. In the Linda Vaughn thread this is dead on to matching the post I refer to earlier that someone else posted.

Remember MR AMC Guy has to post my photos reason his name shows up related to photos from me.

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Hard to place a value on this item......

 

How did this thread turn into Linda Vaughn Vol. #3? God do I love the HAMB.
Thanks Dennis. I’m dying here. Would LOVE to see Linda re-create this shot again. But I bet its not her favorite. Slim

 

The Hurst decal your Dad received is what the letter referred to. It's a nice, hard to find decal.

Ken / Pastlane

 

Dennis (dennis kirban) & Ken (pastlane) ... Thanks for the answers ... kinda what I expected to hear.

I agree that the decal is a very cool item to have ... but when I read "we are very pleased to present you with this beautiful and exclusive Hurst emblem", I guess I envisioned it to be some sort of unique medallion ... complete with the logo and the words "Select Evaluation Staff" inscribed across the bottom.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Last but not least here is another Colliers cover shot again done by Bob Held during the war years.

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kirban 2 cents worth

This is basically a rough sketch probably for a sign Bob was doing. Most sketches never survive 35 plus years but Bob kept a lot of his work which is good since it backs up the history of Hurst.

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kirban 2 cents worth

I probably showed this earlier in either one forum or both forums. It is worth repeating. The far back view shows the entire laid out ad all hand done. Close up shows the small print is not actually words probably done for spacing etc. Interesting if you look real close in the lower rite corners by the Hurst logo the word PERFORMANCE is actually mis-spelled!

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kirban 2 cents worth

Here is a mock up of what probably became a sign for the Open House etc of the new Hurst plant in Warminster. This would be early 1965.

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Stuff like this you don't see at swap meets or most Hurst collectors would not have items like this.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Probably seen these before. Viewing the 3 production caps Hurst did make for the Hurst wheels. Most popular one was the flat cap. The spinner is very desirable and just slightly more common than the bullet. The spinner and the flat cap took the same size decal. The bullet or cone style took several decals and they were smaller.

The spinner is difficult to find in mint condition and darn near impossible to rechrome since it is a die casting and has such tight ribs in each of the prongs. This spinner you may recognize is a modified existing spinner. Going by memory and what I was able to find I believe it came off some Ford model in the mid 1960s. By modified I mean the back side was to lock onto the Hurst wheel. I am 99% certain it was a Ford spinner from a wheel cover Ford used.

The other two caps of course were their own design.

 

kirban 2 cents worth

While the chrome style Hurst wheels and related parts are most popular they did do some gold anodized Hurst wheels and flat caps and lug nuts to match. Here you are seeing the flat cap and one gold lug nut. The most famous set you may have seen are on the 1965 GTO contest car that has been fully restored.

That car also received a gold anodized shifter as well. Others exist as well I am sure as some of the head hunchos back then would have had them done up special. I never saw the gold anodized ones offered in any of the catalogs however. So they would be super rare in my opinion.

Keep in mind the facts as I state them I am going by memory and what employees etc told me way way back in the day. I never worked at Hurst.

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kirban 2 cents worth

What you are viewing here is a brand new Hurst center section that was never used or installed into the actual rim part. I am told the rims Hurst used where from an Oldsmobile station wagon which reportedly where very strong wheels.

I bought two of these years ago and sold one. I can't remember the story on how I came across them.

On a similar note, The Corvette plant or the Corvette museum located in Bowling Green Kentucky offers from time to time blem Corvette wheels. What they do is cut the wheel and sell the front side of them. Since they are not in the production of making blems supplies probably vary. I a not sure if the practice is still done but I did buy a C5 one from the factor maybe 2-3 years ago.

Prior to this any blem parts at the Corvette factory where destroyed I imagine to prevent thefts.

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I appreciate all the nice emails and compliments I have been getting. I try to answer them as quick as possible.

 

kirban 2 cents worth
Pictured here from my collection is the original artwork for the 2 prong spinner that Hurst considered using or making for the optional center cap on the Hurst wheel. Various times this style or a similar style may have been used in actual ads but to my knowledge never saw production.
Below it is an actual spinner that they used for the drawing or vice versa.
I have no idea what this spinner was used originally on. Spinners were popular on foreign car spoke wheels back then so it is possible it is from a foreign car. Again just taking a guess on my part.
If you have my book on Hurst wheels they do show up in there also.
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One thing I never see,,are any of teh Hurst Drop suspension parts..no one seems to talk about em either

 

kirban 2 cents worth

I don't have anything on that segment of the company outside of the air shocks they had.

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Dennis,
Great stuff! Do you have any photos of the original Hemi Under Glass doing test shots (wheelies) for the employees in the parking lot in Warminster....Slim

 

A Nascar Pro-stock? You wouldn't happen to have a picture of that would you? Thats a new one on me...

 

kirban 2 cents worth

I do not have any still shots....I was able to save of my friends vhs tape 2-3 mins of footage he taped way back in the day of them doing testing of the original Hemi Under Glass for the employees in the parking lot.

That footage show sup on the DVD I made showing many of my rare items. But no still shots sorry. I may have sent you that DVD....did I?

I have the actual model of the hemi under glass that sat on George's desk along with the Tornado model. Nothing special it is small scale one. Somewhere I have proof its the model as I have a black and white photo of George at his desk with Bill Campbell and it shows the models.

Will have MR AMC roll more photos......he does a great job for me.....

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kirban 2 cents worth

Pictured here is the Hurst Heritage Book published in 1983. They had two different color covers as you can see here. Actually another version exists as well which we will post later. No matter what version you have or seen they all suffer from loose binding and are prone to fall apart.

This book came out just prior to Hurst moving and being owned by Mr Gasket in the mid to late 1980s time frame. The one copy I have has been signed by Linda Vaughn, Bill Campbell, Bob Held Don Lane and few others back in the day.

Even with the poor binding these books bring $100 or better. To my knowledge this is the only book that was ever done covering the Hurst story.

enjoy

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Dennis,
Yes I got the DVDs!!!!!! The several minutes of the original Hemi Under Glass is NUTS. Love it, just wondering if you had promotional still photos from then of it. Great stuff Dennis, Thanks. Slim

 

Nascar ain't just about what you watch on TV ya know and all Pro-Stocks aren't drag cars. Maybe it's a New England thing but this is what alot of Nascar sanctioned local short tracks call a "Pro Stock". Laughlin chassis that was formerly a Busch North car back in the mid to late 80s, 355 Chevy smallblock, Muncie 4 speed with 1st & 2nd gear removed and using a 3 speed shifter. 1 linkage rod goes for 3rd & 4th and the other for reverse. Full floating Ford 9" with 6.20 or 6.50 gears depending on which track we were at hence the reason why 1st & 2nd gear were useless... Fiberglass 98 Monte Carlo body. 10" wide slicks, Wilwood 4 piston calipers with directional titanium rotors. Fun times. More pics here from when we raced it in 99. http://www.deadhorse.com/dhRACING.html For a little more history on this particular car Google Stub Fadden . It was one of his cars originally and was sponsored by NAPA. The corporation, not the local parts store. They used to give him a million bucks a year to have their name on his cars. His crew chief back in the day when this car was new was Frank Stoddard. Maybe you've heard of him ? He's the crew chief now for Boris Said in the Cup series. And to stay on topic we did use a Hurst shifter of course...

 

kirban 2 cents worth

Have to find it I got a photo or two somewhere of them loading the hemi under glass on a airplane...Hurst was big on entertaining the troops etc....probably recall the one newsletter they did for the arm forces..someone posted a decal earlier in this thread related to that.

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kirban 2 cents worth

Here is the 3rd version of the same Hurst book. This was an entirely different looking cover from the previous two versions we posted earlier. Content is identical to the others. It also suffers from poor binding. I have no idea why 3 different covers exist for the same book. Appears to be from the same print date. Coypright reads 1983 on all of them.

Overall size is identical. I can't even say for sure if these are the only 3 cover versions that were printed.

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