and i remeber that truck from back in the late 80's early 90's....the dude that owned it,(if i rember correctly) was tall and had a white beard,,,he would show up everywhere all over So. CAl.....
Off-topic: I saw that swingarm at the LARS, and you're 100% right. I must of looked at that thing for a good hour, and I was speechless. If you remember, the caliper was machined into the swingarm. If you think about the entire package being whittled out of a solid 2' x2' hunk of billet, it's almost too much to fathom. The precision that you would have to build that part leaves you with nearly zero margin for error. The rifle drilled fluid passages sent that part over the top. Buttera's machinist skills were legendary. Do you remember when he was working for Mr. Gasket and selling his stuff through his Eagle product line? He used to make a billet front plate motor mount set-up that was beautiful. Buttera had the personality of a prickly pear, but he was one damn talented guy. Another Buttera story.........One of his pals, Bob Bauder, told me years ago that John had bought his first CNC and had basically threw the instruction book in the trash. He set up the machine for his first job, and it proceeded to completely destroy the platform table on the machine. His calculations were wrong. Undeterred, he figured out his error, and got better and better with the machine. Within a year, he had Okuma executives from Japan making special trips to California to try and figure out what he was doing on their machine that no one had ever been able to do before. Here's a guy with no degree, and no formal training showing the engineers how to use the machine that they designed!!
Last one O/T about Buttera and his first CNC... He put a down payment on it so he could build some parts for his Indy race car, and then had every intention to let it be repossed 'cause he just really didn't think that there would be too many hot rod type things he would need something like that for! And yes, I did forget about the caliper one piece with the swing arm...
Yea. Lil john was a guy I wanted to meet. Too bad he was taken from us too early in life. -Danny Sent from the best app on the web.
When I first saw the filled in quarter windows and yellow color of the Rudy Coupe, it reminded me of one I saw for sale at an auction here in Honolulu several years ago. Had no idea it had any history at the time. I'm now certain it's the same car I saw that day. Wish I had taken pictures, but I do remember the old paint cracking here and there and that it didn't sell. No other info on what could have happened to it afterwards. Great old photo's. Really great to see Rudy Rocking his own style back then.
Very interesting, keep your eyes and ears peeled as you never know this old coupe could be floating around in Honolulu somewhere and nobody even knows what it is!!!
I will for sure. I really hope it hasn't been Street Rodded. There are only a small handful of guys here that look to preserve time pieces like this. If it's still here, it's most likely running around with giant billet wheels now. I will poke around for some info though. Aloha Jason
Blackie Gejeian.......ian he's Armenian. Even seen him this year at LARS. Also seen him at LARS again this year (and for many years prior).
Not yet, I've really looked too. They are around here somewhere. If they ever turn up I'll be sure to post them. If I remember right I got some shots of the Dick Scritchfield (sp?) roadster which had a big For Sale sign on the windshield. I've been following the current coverage of the Roadster Show with interest...hope to make it back out there for the 50th next year.
Cal's '33 still looks spectacular if not a little better owning it's chips and chin creases! His Dad's roadster is fukn bitchin'! Cal is a pretty nice guy too.
I did find a few slides from a show that was held about the same time (1989) at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Just a few pictures survived. These are scans from the original Kodachromes...here they are.
I am positive that the roadster in the background is the same one from page 1 of this thread, and this is the undercarriage of it. It was in my uncles shop for some work. I should have taken more photos. Hard to tell from the blurry photo, but it looked identical to the one on the first page, and it was unchanged.
I completely agree! The proportion of Cal's car is spot-on. The rear wheels are placed perfectly at the fender lip, the fronts are the perfect width, the stance is right, the color and the flames kick ass, it's louvered in all the right places, and it has the "correct" headlights. To me, a '33/'34 looks "wrong" with tiny headlights. The car was built in the late '80s, but it's timeless. The fact that Cal drives the crap out of it put it over-the-top for me. Love that car!
It wasn't so much he didn't think there would be a demand for the stuff. Just that "attaining" the machinery was a means to an end to get his Indy car parts made.
That picture of Cal Tanaka's car has just left me sitting here drooling and making weird gurgling noises....
How things have changed. Back then you could actually walk the WHOLE show, swap meet AND the inside parking/show area in ONE day
this thread NEEDS a bump....hey Seadog..got any more ?? (btw..if theres a thread on Rudy's yellow coupe I'd sure love to read it! hint)
Haven't found the other film yet..still looking. It bugs the crap out of me that I've apparently lost this. If it turns up I'll be sure to post.
I am amazed that I missed this when it was first posted,there are so many cars that helped influence me and I'm sure many others. Tom,when you were living in California did you own a hot rod at the time you took all these cool photos? HRP
Danny, I've always been into rods & customs, since about age 12...but from time to time I strayed. I went through a sports car phase in my 20's and later, when I lived in CA I was deep into sailing. In 1989 when the LARS photos were taken I was driving a Jeep Cherokee that served as a support vehicle for a sailboat. Through it all I kept an interest in cars and in my doteage I have come back to my roots. See you at the Deuce Run.
The Jalopy Journal
