Was going through old pictures and came across these of Bobby Wolin, he was an original member of the San diego Prowlers. Master machinist , a guy of few words but if you watched you would learn volumes. He has been gone several years now but he taught me of doing a lot with what was on hand.
Both Model A s had 327 s with tri power. I drove the roadster once, it had a floor shifted 3spd with overdrive... It was a freeking rocketship He bought it in 1959 I believe . He said it was an undrivable show car when he bought it with a flathead and 2 brake drums that were chromed inside and outside... he had a photo album with all the times he rebuilt it and it had a few back ground shots in several rod run features back when.
My friend Ernie Martin was 12 years my senior, and was one of those guys that could do almost everything on cars. He could run a lathe, mill, paint and was a professional mechanic. He had his 32 in R&C in 1960, and of all the things he tried to instilled in me was patience. In our 37 years spent playing with cars together, he handled all of the mechanics, rebuilding engines, transmissions, and rearends, quichange or otherwise. Lost him in Sept of 2020, he gave me his Track Roadster, 20 days before he passed.
We need more threads like this Lump, it makes us remember those that had an influence on us. Take care, my friend !
I don't have any pictures. None of us packed around cameras. My older cousin was a big car guy. The first time I saw an engine stripped down to the block and then reasembled was with him. We would "borrow" a forklift from sawmill down the road to swap engines. I watched him use the lathe in the sawmill to shorten a driveline. Too many stories of modifying cars to go over. He died young but I saw what you can do with a little ingenuity.
Thanks for the offer Marty, as to what I have to offer, that would take some unwrapping. There's been many times over the years I needed the use of a lathe since I sold mine, funny how one can get creative when one has to.
From 1955 to 1965 (age 8 to 18) I spent a LOT of time (estimate 90% of the days) hanging around the one bay gasoline station that was two doors from my house. Paul Bishop was the proprietor and machanic. I learned auto mechanics and tuning by watching and asking questions. I also did a lot of reading in the magazines to supplement what I learned at the garage.
A mention of my dear friend George is definitely something that needs to be added to this thread. Oldsmobile Hydramatic, Oldsmobile and Hudson Guru known to many on here as YORGATRON. We lost him in October 2015 suddenly, he left a VERY big hole in this world. Many, many people on here will remember his technical posts on here, and his more than once calling people a-holes. He was, and will be forever my dear friend. Him with my Plymouth after we uncovered it in a back yard locally where it had sat for 20+ years The "to do list" he left behind for my Pontiac The nut and bolt drawer "If it isn't in here, we are fcuked" With the Pete Henderson roadster, Pebble Beach 2007 His 54 Oldsmobile with tripower equipped 394 Helping Wayne Carini adjust the horn on his Muntz Jet at Pebble Beach in 2007 The Fez..... My permanent memorial to my friend
I live in Argentina, and hot rod culture isn't our roots here, but that doesn't mean we aren't interested in the good old vehicles. At the beginning of the century, Argentina was called "The Breadbasket of the World" because a lot of grain was exported here, and the vast fields were filled with cattle. That's how some of these landowners sons began their adventure in racecar competitions. maybe, we could also call them hot rods, since they were modified production cars. They'd remove the fenders, and in some cases, they could even put on a speedster-type body. Races of many kilometers on dirt roads, races that connected cities with others until reaching the finish line. Throughout history, there have been many drivers, chassis builders, and engine builders. There has always been a passion for cars and speed! Many cars were exported from Europe or the United States... Some were ¨pur sang¨ like Bugattis, Delages, Amilcars, and Millers, among others... speaking of Miller, we had two Argentine drivers who raced in the Indy 500. Returning to the thread, I'd like to mention Bruce Lancaster. Every time I browse the Hamb threads, I always remember him and think about what he would have said about the topic! His knowledge has always fascinated me. Also, talking to another friend I made at Hamb, he told me that many of the old hot rod gurus didn't adapt to the change from a desktop website to an app or program made for a cell phone. And I just typing with a physical keyboard and using a desktop computer! Anyway, that's what he told me... I have to thank Hamb because he's like a religion to me. I had a few years away due to life issues, as must happen to many, but this great community has taught me so much from a distance. I knew Bruce hadn't written in a while, and today this thread reminded me of him... I found out he hadn't written since 2019, and of course, all I had to do was type his name into the search engine to find out he was no longer with us. God speed for him. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/bruce-lancaster.1171151/ https://es.findagrave.com/memorial/204887231/bruce-morgan-lancaster
That list is very long! Just a few for right now. My dad's buddy, Bill, used to own dirt track cars back when they still raced the coupes locally. His cars were always in the top five in the feature races at three local tracks. Over the years he had some big name drivers (at least locally) that had driven them. From about the time i was 8, dad took me along when he went down to Bill's garage. Bill was the kind of guy that always had suggestions of some thing for me to do when I was there and became bored. For instance, he and his sons junked cars to pay for their racing habit. One day he asked me if I wanted to tear a real motor apart. No doubt, that sounded like fun to a 12 year old. He gather up a bunch of tools and lead me to a motor they had pulled out of a junk car. His instructions were, get started, if you run into a problem, come and get me, I'll help you, which I did several times, and he did several times. As I got it closer to being completely dissembled (heads off, pan off, pistons out) the process continued through the morning. He would check on my progress, and tell me he wanted it completely apart, and when I thought I had it done to come and get him. He made sure it was completely apart. When we finally got to the point, he told me to put it back together again! He would help when I needed help, which was often. My dad was watching, as well as both of Bill's sons (they were older then I was). After we got it back together, he asked me if we should see if it would run? Everyone got involved with that. Through the fire and smoke, it did chug along for about 10 seconds before it locked up with a thud. Bill was like that with nearly everything. Make a suggestion, help me when I got stumped, then walk away until the next problem. He taught me a lot of stuff, I would often go down there by my self on Saturdays, Bill always had something for me to learn about. The 2nd guy was me boss at the gas station, Ben. The gas station was a 3 bay auto repair shop with 8 gas pumps. Ben taught night classes on auto repair at night at our local college, and ran the gas station during the day. He was a very smart man, he had a masters degree in psychology and a masters degree in business administration, but he ran a gas station! Ben was another one of those guys that thought people learned the best from some instructions, then hands on experience, and would make suggestions when I got stuck on something. He was fun to work for, and treated his employees like they were family. The pay wasn't great, but paid the best he could (he actually showed me the books after I had worked for him 4 or 5 of the 7 years I did work for him). The learning experience was worth more then the few extra dollars a week I could have earned elsewhere. The guy that rates 3rd, Mr Walters, was my 10 grade Power Mechanics instructor. Mr Walters was the kind of teacher that had years of experience teaching so he had an established set of goals for the students to progress through the class levels. We had 6 weeks of basic automotive electrical systems and ignition function (points based) we had to pass before we were allowed in the actual workshop. It involved a written test, then a hands on with a Chrysler flathead 6 By the time I'd gotten there, I already had 4 years of training from Dad's buddy Bill. I already knew that stuff. I'm sure he thought I was a punk know it all (it was the fall of 1971), but he gave me the written test, which I passed. For the hands on test, he pulled the cap, rotor, plug wires, points, condenser, and the distributor, then turned the motor over. To pass the test the student had to being #1 up on compression, and correctly install, and set everything to the Motor's manual specs, with just the basic hand tools, a battery, and a test light. Passing the test allowed you to be able to work in the shop with the advanced students. I passed both tests the first day of class. When Mr Walters found a student that he determined wanted to learn, he worked with them very hard. Mr Walter's high school shop was equipped with some very up to date technology. He even had a complete Bosch Electronic Fuel Injection set up that was being installed on the 72 model year cars, in 71, as a learning tool! I was able to learn how to use a Sun Distributor machine, and also learned how to understand and grasp the workings of a Sun oscilloscope operation on the top of the line Sun tune up machine that even had emission testing equipment on it. At the end of my sophomore year, Mr Walters left our school to set up the program for a place called the Wyoming Technical Center. It was through one of Mr Walters advanced students that I got the job at the gas station, as soon as I turned 15 1/2 (the legal are to get ac job at the time).
Down in our ragged-ass-end-of-nowhere Alabama, Bo Fields was the man. He had been there, done that and came back home. I remember him working a full day shift as an equipment mechanic at the Jefferson County yard, then working every night until 10:00 P.M. in his shop. Those of us who hung around and swept the floor learned more than any trade school could have taught. Bo could build anything, fix anything and make any car go faster. His black '57 Chevy Bel Air hardtop looked stock, but no one in that end of the county wanted to run against it. In the early '60s, when Bobby Allison was getting established, Bo gave him shop space to build the Modified Specials which won two National Championships. The Mud Creek Racing Team eventually became the feared Alabama Gang. Again, just washing parts for Bobby was an honor and an education. Racing four times a week, Huntsville on Thursday night, Midfield on Friday night, Montgomery on Saturday night and Fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon, was something only the young could survive. If he won, we ate hamburgers. Good he seldom blew or wrecked, because that meant going back to the shop hungry, working all night and having a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. Wish I'd spent even more time and paid more attention; just too much going on to take it all in and remember it all. Bo was always Bo and until his funeral, none of us knew Bo's given name was Elmer Edward; scary to think what would have happened if anyone had addressed him that way, as he always had a wrench in his hand. Come to think of it, no one knew Bobby's given name was Robert Arthur. Sixty-five years later and still some of the most vivid memories and times I'd like to have back. jack vines
My good friend Charlie was the first person that introduced me to the Larry Watson style of paint firsthand. I had read about Larry for years, but until I met Charlie I really didn't understand all that Larry did for the hobby. He showed me the right way to do Watson style work, and gave me a ton of "dammit, don't do that" tips. Charlie is also the first one to help me get my first custom car off the ground, and as they say, the rest is history. Sadly Charlie passed away in March of 2008. The 17th anniversary of his passing will be coming up soon. I think of him everyday and I miss him very much. Rest in peace, Amigo. Here's Charlie with his Ranchero at The Flying Eyeball Reunion in August 2004. He hated having his picture taken, so I snuck this one in. And here is a great shot taken by Roger Jetter (@40StudeDude) for a magazine article. One of my all time favorite pictures. Thanks Roger! E
Not the earliest photo during our hot rod/drag race days, but a giant smile none the less. Hello, From these old memories, comes a flurry of photos that started it all for me. Having an older brother was a great advantage. When we lived in the trailer park from 1946 to 48, he was always in my face as a pushy older brother. It might have been from having to sleep in a converted kitchen table that made into a small bed, smaller than a twin for two little brothers. A café diner seating that had a table dropped to make the base of a bed. Then the seating was our mattress. It was fine for me as I knew of nothing else at the time. It was there and we slept nicely… as far as I can remember. An extra cardboard table for advice about growing up from the big brother. After we moved to a real house, the advice kept coming as he was the “older” brother and supposedly he knew more than the little kid. Pointing out mechanical workings of our first actual hi-fi record player/radio cabinet unit at our old Craftsman house on the Westside of Long Beach. Then helping our dad lug his huge camera parts around for “family photos.” Which led to finally, getting older and moving to our last Westside of Long Beach house into the actual hot rod stages. Jnaki It was not the “sit down and let me teach you something.” At first, he said things that I absorbed. Then as we actually got down to building a motor or transmission, he showed me the steps and assumed I knew how to use the tool(s) to finish the project. For me, it was the beginning and I learned a lot about techniques, set up projects and how to actually finish our projects and maintain them to perfection running for all sorts of adventures. Then the adventures started and there was no stopping the learning process. It all led to a vision of a low key lifestyle with my girlfriend/wife and knowledge. Then, later on visits to our house were plentiful and the conversations lasted into the wee hours for more information and our recollections... family life at its best. Thanks, James The original concept for our first hot rod drag race build: A Paxton supercharged, 352 c.i. stroked SBC in a Model A Coupe. The dreams were actual ownership to a running Model A coupe that both of us worked on, before it got sold to fund a new 1958 Impala... YRMV
Not car related , but work related . I worked in a gas production plant and gas industry for 36 years , I stated with the crew of men that built the place . A vast array of knowledge was passed on to me by a few stubborn hard azz men . It was “pay attention or get the hell out of here , you don’t belong and someone will die in the accident you cause “ . Once they retired it was up to me to pass on to the new people . I was the same if not worse about learning the trade , I had no tolerance for incompetence , way too many dangers to stand there and look silly . I have a few chosen friends , I help and always will today . No time for someone that isn’t interested in learning to obtain knowledge to help themselves . If someone is honestly interested in learning , I will take ever how long it takes for them to understand .
The Jalopy Journal
