Hi Michelley, I love your stories and the time and effort you have put into researching the true story, sitting down with the people, and organizing the photographs. Being a History Major myself, I can appreciate the hard work that takes. I was pretty surprised people were rude enough to complain they couldn't read it. I read through it just fine...it's the story and detail you get out of it, not the format. People are funny nowadays. Keep up the great work and I love the fact that you are going one step further with your writing than most people have in the kustom world. These guys won't be around a whole lot longer and this needs to be done! I definitely learned some interesting things I would have probably never heard by reading this. Maybe I will see you around at a show and we can talk kustoms...take care, Rob Thank You, Rob, for your Moral Support. Thank you for also noticing the CONTENT of this concise article. Yes, indeed, I have more prepared. I appreciate you! ~Michelley
Good eye, Jason! I forgot about that Bradley illustration...can you imagine seeing those two cars coming down the street in the early '50s?! shit.
Just those little things ive always keep. i would have loved to seen these car cruse around. i would love to see more cars ( not bagged ) rolling low. Also here is another illustration by Harry Bradley of the two cars. These two cars must have made a big impression on him. Since he did a couple of pieces on them. i think it shows how much of a early custom car guy i am.
Fantastic post Michelle ! Thank you very much for taking the time yo put it together, and posting all those great pics!!
Thank You. Fantastic story, one I'll read over and over. A true treasure for Custom cars enthusiasts, especially me. Ken
Jesse Lopez – Lo! & Behold Part 3 by Michelle M. Yiatras Timechanic™ Jesse didn’t attend Trace’s Motorama this weekend because he just got home a few days ago from a week in the Veteran’s Hospital. I didn’t either because I was taking care of family business. So we spent Saturday night talking on the phone like homebodies. “Just so you know, when you fight a war on the frontlines, it’s not like in the movies when a guy gets shot and just falls down. In real life the guys get shot up and blown up, and they are torn apart in pieces, and you hear them make cries like you never heard any human make. And you can’t run out and get your buddies like they do in the movies because you’re next. Sometimes you can get them, but most times you have to stay put. You remember that your entire life. It affects your sleep. I talk with other veterans from WW2 to Viet Nam to Afghanistan. Post traumatic stress happens to us all.” He reveres Fritz Voigt since childhood friendship. “Fritz was my main man. I was into speed before I was into custom cars. Before drag racing was legal there was a lot of speed racing. Fritz was five years older so he got a head start. After the Second World War socially they didn’t like Germans, and they didn’t like Mexicans, even though Germans and Mexicans fought for America and the Allies, so we sorta teamed up. I ran with Fritz’ younger brother, Art, we were on the same football team together in high school. We tagged along with Fritz. When you’re young 5 years older is quite a bit, but Fritz was good to me. Fritz was at the beginning of everything, along with Cook and Edelbrock. Bob Rufi had the pre-War record in the sand at Muroc with his 4-cylinder Chevy motor in a rail frame. We didn’t like the name ‘hot rod’. We liked A-V8’s, T-V8’s, roadsters, or buckets. A lot of guys ran buckets without the beds or tops, just the windshield. They ran better without the weight. In 2009 Fritz got inducted in the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, with Don Garlits and Snake Prudhomme.” “The Santa Ana Drag Strip at Orange County Airport was the first legal drag strip. They gave it to us in 1950 to keep us off the streets. It was slightly downhill, wasn’t entirely flat. The cars got a rolling start before they gave you the flag. The rear ends, axles, and trans would come apart at a standstill start, we’d blow them. They weren’t built like they are now. That’s why there was a rolling start. Fritz’ first records came about 1950. He was already turning 133-136 mph with his Chrysler hemi in a rail frame. A lot happened after I was away in Korea. Man, the speed went up.” “Fritz did so much for Mickey Thompson. He oversaw the design and engine build on Mickey’s car, the 1960 ‘Fastest Man on Earth’ record for him, exceeding 400 mph at Bonneville. Four Pontiac motors in the Challenger 1 streamliner. Fritz set them up to run simultaneously. GM approved them brand new Pontiacs for Fritz. GM wanted the advertisement for their Pontiacs. Fritz preferred Chevys and thought they could have gotten ten more mph out of them, but GM insisted on the Pontiacs. Thompson was a fast talker and made the deal with GM to push the Pontiacs. Fritz went through and redid them to crank them up. Fritz didn’t get the credit he deserved. Mickey didn’t like to get his hands dirty, he was the driver. Fritz was our mentor.” Jesse was very attached to his father and his mother. Henry worked at a cast iron foundry and as a truck driver. Frances was an angel who never hollered at the eight kids. She wore her hair in a lovely braid wrap, and prepared handmade tortillas and pinto beans for their sustenance. “In 1937, my Dad went to buy a lot in Bell Gardens, the LA River separates Bell on the west bank and Bell Gardens on the east. We kids learned to speak English in Monrovia Catholic School in the first and second grades. We were so far ahead of the public schools, I have really nice handwriting and penmanship and spelling as a result. I get teased, ‘Man, you write like a broad’. My Dad put the money down payment on the lot. His best friend who also worked at the foundry, another Mexican named Cordero, went to buy the lot next to my Dad’s. They told him they ‘don’t sell to Mexicans’. He said, ‘You sold to Mr. Lopez.’ My Dad was fair complexioned like me and they didn’t know. When they found out they gave his money back. That was tough how they treated Mexicans then. Joseph Cordero’s son Richard taught me how to drive. So my Dad and Mr. Cordero bought a couple lots next to each other in Cudahy, and built our houses and farms. Fresh milk and eggs and produce are why all of us kids have our own teeth today.” Jesse’s Mother passed away in 1957 at age forty-nine, from a botched goiter operation, when she was starting to enjoy some leisure after raising all the kids. He took it hard, he was her “consentido” favorite. Regarding the fraternity with George Barris and Hershel Conway, “In those days it was so different, as friends a handshake would do it, you didn’t need paperwork. We didn’t sign receipts, your word was bond. People were so decent then compared to now. I gave George the formula for ‘Kandy Lak’ as a gift to his wife, Shirley. She was all for him. I gave the formula to Junior because he was doing the painting. That was for Shirley’s ’58 T-Bird, just like mine. We wouldn’t ask each other for money, as friends we didn’t owe each other anything. Sam and George didn’t make any money doing my car. I worked on everyone’s cars in exchange for the work on my car. I worked on Nick’s, Hirohata’s, Snooky’s, George’s, Sam’s, Fuzzy’s, Shorty Brown’s, Pete Morrison’s, many different cars in and out of the shop, doing dashes, engines, stretched Diego axles, metal, paint, anything that needed to be done. In 1961 I gave Junior my shop. Junior is a Kentucky country boy born in a log cabin with a dirt floor. He didn’t want to go to Hollywood with George. He came to me to run my shop during the day. I was working at night in the shop. I had a day job selling for an auto parts store. I was ‘bookkeeping’ during the day and running the shop at night. The heyday of custom cars was a tight ten years. We didn’t know there could be money in it. ‘House of Color’ I named it. It was my shop originally. In ’62 I was doing so well at my day job, I said, ‘Junior, if you ever get ahead, you owe me.’ I walked out and left the business, customers, and tools what we had to him. It wasn’t a big time shop, you didn’t need much to do custom cars and even drag boats then. He laughed and said, ‘OK’. As friends we looked out for each other, just like Barris. We were different than people today.” Getting sleepy, “Right after the 1950’s it was the end of the custom car. Even we didn’t change the cars much after that. It was over. A lot of work went into those customs. Now the guys are coming back with it copying what we did. Today they put a lot of money into restoring a car to original, but generally they don’t customize them. Winfield’s chopping a few, not radical though. At the GNRS Fairplex last winter 2011, I really liked so many nice ones, Hirohata’s, Junior’s, a couple Birds cause I like Birds, ’34 coupes, the ’36 roadster. Wished I held on to a few of my roadsters and customs. I went to keep Junior and his wife company. The dinner was fun at the Hyatt with Greg Sharp, Blackie, Dean Jeffries, Peep. I was a bit shy and embarrassed. I left after a half hour of signing my name the next day. I left cars for roosters because they’re alive, and it’s a bigger challenge to make a strain of thoroughbred families. We all quit when the dragsters went to fuel, and when they stopped customizing. By the end of the 50’s. Then it spread from California to every State in the Union!” Photos © Michelley / Timechanic™
Great, well-thought-out post...thank you for sharing and for all of your efforts. Now...for those of you having trouble reading the copy, if you're on a PC, you can simply hold down the "CNTRL" key, then tap the " + "key until it magnifies to your satisfaction....to go back to normal, hold down " CNTRL" and tap the "-" button until it zooms out to your satisfaction.
Thanks once again, Michelley. I love reading your story and especially the quotes from Jesse...keep the story alive!!
You have done 'Good' again.....I really enjoy your writing, and the info that you are sharing with all of us here on the H.A.M.B. I look forward to more, THANKS ! firstnomad www.angelfire.com/jazz/flatlandstudio
So much great stuff here, this is why talking to the pioneers is so important!! The material about Fritz Voight is spot on, Fritz was a hot rod genius who contributed much to Mickey Thompson's legacy, and Jesse's memories of him are interesting and revealing. Same with Junior Conway, one of the greatest car painters ever. Hopefully others who live near these pioneering customizers and hot rodders will follow Michelley's lead, and get their stories before it is too late. This really reflects what the HAMB is about, connecting and preserving our past. Michelley, THANKS AGAIN FOR TAKING THE TIME AND CARE TO PRESERVE JESSE LOPEZ'S LEGACY!
I second that....some people just have to complain....it is in their nature THANKS for the story it was great
Michelley........Your posts are amazing. Thank you so much for the contribution. I love reading them! Great job.....
The Jalopy Journal
