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History So Cal back in the day...

Discussion in 'Traditional Customs' started by 1stGrumpy, Apr 30, 2016.

  1. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 10,219

    jnaki

    hello,
    here are a few movie clips of hot rods/ daily drivers from back in 1957-58. a 51 olds with bolt on moon discs, traction master bars, lowered stance and some go fast goodies on the engine. it was a daily driver for school and cruising, a few drag races, but mostly a daily driver.
    in the day, most kids had some money to spend on various hop up stuff. it was all in good times and fun.
    thanks,
    jnaki


    another one was a 58 black impala 348/280 hp 3 carbs, 3 speed, 4:11 posi and a bunch of chrome stuff. another daily driver, yet a 14.68 et 98 mph car that won a few A/Stock trophies at lions dragstrip in 1958-59
     
  2. rfraze
    Joined: May 23, 2012
    Posts: 2,009

    rfraze
    Member

    Cool videos, Junji. Too bad more of us didn't have cameras back in these days. Glad you did.
     
  3. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 10,219

    jnaki

    hello,
    the camera was not mine, i "accidently" borrowed my dad's camera out of the drawer. you know teenagers...i did not start actively shooting photos until the time when the second generation 35mm slr cameras came out.
    thanks,
    jnaki
     
    timmy2times likes this.
  4. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 10,219

    jnaki

    hey rob,
    please check your email
    thanks
    jnaki
     
  5. Kan Kustom
    Joined: Jul 20, 2009
    Posts: 2,741

    Kan Kustom
    Member

    I had forgotten about the scavenger pipes. That takes you down memory lane.
     
  6. 2935ford
    Joined: Jan 6, 2006
    Posts: 3,844

    2935ford
    Member

    Do you remember "Clancy's Hamburgers" on Manhattan Beach Blvd., just West of Hawthorne BLVD?[/QUOTE]

    Wow! We were almost neighbors. I lived on 176th St.
     
  7. 2935ford
    Joined: Jan 6, 2006
    Posts: 3,844

    2935ford
    Member

    Everybody drive Tri 5's?

    I did......I had a '55 HT, '55 Convert, '56 HT and a '57 Nomad! :)
     
  8. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 10,219

    jnaki

    hello,
    on our 58 impala, we were competing against the 59-60 more powerful 348 motors, we thought these would help. We tried to run long scavengers on our 58 348 black Impala in the A/Stock class. It ran faster, but someone must have complained as the tech crew came back to our car and said that those pipes were not stock. We either had to go to a D/Gas class against street gassers or take the pipes off and cap up the outlets. We took off the scavengers, capped up the outlets, and trophied in A/Stock with stock mufflers. But, that was the end of the scavenger pipes for the drags. The car made a much louder noise, but sounded like a huge pipe organ. It did increase the horsepower as we turned faster times on the average. These pipes were the rage on the streets, but most policemen stopped anyone with these pipes running on full open. Some guys bolted them under the cars to a closed “Y” system staying legal. Ours ended up in the rafters of the new garage and stayed there even after the sale of the house in 1998. They were just too big to lug around.
    jnaki
     
    timmy2times and Kan Kustom like this.
  9. 32 in sac010.jpg 57 in sac011.jpg 64 in sac012.jpg

    My three rides in 65-66
     
  10. rfraze
    Joined: May 23, 2012
    Posts: 2,009

    rfraze
    Member

    Scavengers and flex tubing could hop up anything.
     
    wbrw32 and stillrunners like this.
  11. Now see, I remember more cars like this than what Grumpy talked about ~ and I grew up in Duarte just a few miles east of Covina where he was! There weren't' too many Low Riders aorund, but a few bomb's below the tracks in Rock Town. Not many Gasser's either, except for Pat McCandles' Falcon with the 390FE motor (although when we'd head over to Pasadena there were a ton more, especially at Blair's Speed Shop). Mostly more like the pictures Carl Posted - mild cars with Mags Baby!
     
  12. deucendude
    Joined: Oct 31, 2008
    Posts: 695

    deucendude
    Member
    from norcal

    How about the racing on Haven in Etiwanda and on Pathfinder in Diamond Bar.. They were in the country then.
     
  13. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 10,219

    jnaki

    Hello,
    I am not advocating street racing today, but there was this great place to race back in the early years, 57-64+ era. It was on Cherry Ave. in Long Beach near San Antonio Dr. It was the official "Cherry Avenue drags..." It was fairly isolated, as it was in front of a couple of huge cemeteries on both sides. It was nearly a mile long to the next big cross street. It was marked with start/finish lines. The racing area did not have any cross streets and was quite a ways from housing. Did I say it was also very dark?

    The start line was near the main building. There was plenty of road for the shut down, before any housing or cross streets appeared. It was only a mile or so away from the local gathering spot at Grissinger's Drive-In (now George's Diner) on Atlantic. Lots of cool cars, gravy and fries with a cherry coke...fun times, racing and a great gathering spot...

    Jnaki
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2018
  14. In 66' my wife and I drove
    out from N.C. so I could attend college at the Art Center. It was then located on West 3rd in Hollywood. I was driving a 58 Chev. Delray 2dr. It had blackwalls and baby moons(limited funds) but looked ok. These thread brought back memories of all the cool cars I saw around Hollywood. Having not grown up there (and being a transportation major), I didn't take them for granted. My brother-in-law lived in El Monte and we would go to the drags at Irwindale. I spent a lot of time in the parking lot checking out the rods. As for the Art Center I found out at 19 that I was no Chip Foose but it was great while it lasted.
     
    timmy2times likes this.
  15. You guys suck. I wasn't born yet, I got to drive in the late 80's and all the hot rods (street rods) were pastel......no chrome. Thank you all who were around then and before, for saving me from hanging myself with a neon rope.

    Between the stories I heard and the little books I'm here today.......one day at a time :D.
     
  16. I had to laugh when I read you post and then looked at your screen name ~ maybe it should be 1notsooldtimer ;)
     
    wbrw32 likes this.
  17. ChevyDeputy54
    Joined: Sep 1, 2015
    Posts: 19

    ChevyDeputy54
    Member

    Love the vids! Great pics!
     
  18. Blues4U
    Joined: Oct 1, 2015
    Posts: 7,579

    Blues4U
    Member
    from So Cal

    Concrete driveway in 65-66? Seems more like a mid 70's pic. But yeah, as hotroddon said, this is what I remember, all over the place, everywhere you looked. Brand new muscle cars too, Big block Chevelle's, Chargers, Road Runners, Super Bee's. My older brothers and their friends, I can recall many hot rods, 40 Fords, the guy across the street with the 62 Vette convertible. I graduated high school in 76, the school parking lot then would pretty much be a car show today. Our school sat on top of a hill, and it was a ritual to get to school early and watch everybody come up to the student parking lot, burnouts half way up the hill were common. Grudge matches were sometimes settled right out on the boulevard in front of the school, with a crowd of students standing out at the end of the hill looking down to watch the action.
     
    Oldb and stillrunners like this.
  19. bchctybob
    Joined: Sep 18, 2011
    Posts: 5,509

    bchctybob
    Member

    I notice that Roseville Carl still has at least 3 cool cars at any one time! Hard to chose, eh Carl?!

    Although I grew up near LAX in the '50s and '60s, I never made it to Clancy's Hamburgers. We had a Tiny Naylor's in downtown Westchester that drew a good crowd, but mostly we headed for Hawthorne Blvd to do the 'Wich Stand - Foster's - A&W cruise route. In the '70s it was Van Nuys Blvd.
     
  20. thanks guys - enjoyed the thread.....and thank somebody - that took pictures !
     
    henryj1951 likes this.
  21. Rusty O'Toole
    Joined: Sep 17, 2006
    Posts: 9,716

    Rusty O'Toole
    Member

    1oldtimer I sympathize... Oh the horror of the 80s when all you could do was buy a 4 cylinder shitbox and soup up the radio lol.
     
    Yamagrant and timmy2times like this.
  22. D.N.D.
    Joined: Aug 15, 2012
    Posts: 1,385

    D.N.D.
    Member Emeritus

    The 50's & 60's factory hot rods were a thing to behold ' Priceless '

    DND
     
    Atwater Mike likes this.
  23. Ron Brown
    Joined: Jul 6, 2015
    Posts: 1,734

    Ron Brown
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    my first car when I was 10 was a Wartburg that I terrorized the neighbors grape vineyard with. Got my license in 69 and got my first road car, 55 Nomad followed by 55 two dr hardtop them a 65 SS 327 4sp Impala. The Impala was our honeymoon car when I married in 72..... many 55s since. They were affordable and bitchin then, they are expensive and way cool now. Loved 'em then, love them now.
     
  24. O.Hove
    Joined: Feb 12, 2006
    Posts: 772

    O.Hove
    Member Emeritus
    from S.D.

    I still live with primer spots
     
    Spoggie and 1stGrumpy like this.
  25. Since I grew up on the Right Coast back in the Day..I think the
    Greatest E-leagle Strip was the Connecting Hyway in Astoria, Queens
    back in the50;s Sixties & 70's it was a 1/4 mi. with about a 1/8 mi Shut Down
    you could Stand all around the Race area & watch them go
    and when the Cops Came it was off to Laurel Hill Blvd. where they were Racing
    or for Faster Cars in front of Shea Stadium for Big Money Runs
    were are talking about 9 second cars & 5K or Better
    Just my 3.5 cents
    or when the Cows
    Come Home...!
     
  26. Flathead Dave
    Joined: Mar 21, 2014
    Posts: 3,989

    Flathead Dave
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from So. Cal.

    Riverside, CA. I wasn't old enough to drive in the 1960's. I still drove. I didn't get my license until 1971. I remember the cars were gasser style, some street rods, a few low riders and then cruisers. Everyone would cruise Magnolia Ave. to go to Tuxie's Burgers or Van Buren Blvd. and hang out at Guy's Grinders or the Taco Tia. Then we would head over to E St. in San Bernardino or off to Whittier Blvd. This is all when Riverside was still citrus. Citrus every where. Drive for miles and see nothing but citrus. You could smell the orange blossoms everyday. We could smell the citrus cooking to make the orange juice from the Corona plant. Plenty of 25 cents per gallon of gasoline. My dad would say ,"Here's $2, fill it up!" Life was good!

    The races would be on Victoria Ave or on Cajalico Rd. and sometimes on Arlington Ave. and Van Buren Blvd to the bridge.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2016
    fms427 and lonestar395 like this.
  27. joe clotfelter
    Joined: Apr 8, 2016
    Posts: 58

    joe clotfelter

    The 60'S where all done by the end of 1967
     
    Atwater Mike likes this.
  28. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 10,219

    jnaki

    hello,
    concrete driveways were a thing in so cal. we lived in a house built in 1946 and we had a concrete driveway with grass in the middle. other homes had full concrete driveways. they were in most houses...speed up to the later 60's and 70's and the housing tracts started using black top filler to save money. then it all reversed in the late 90's with concrete again...full circle. our cars loved concrete as it was easy and usually level to set up jack stands in front of the garage for those late night car repairs or changing the 4:11's with 4:56 gears for the saturday drags.
    jnaki
     
    A-BoneHead likes this.
  29. Blues4U
    Joined: Oct 1, 2015
    Posts: 7,579

    Blues4U
    Member
    from So Cal

    I grew up here, moved to So Cal in 1960 when I was 2 years old. I grew up in Orange County. Just my recollection, but I don't recall ANY concrete driveways in the 60's.
     
    Flathead Dave likes this.
  30. flyin-t
    Joined: Dec 29, 2004
    Posts: 1,508

    flyin-t
    Member

    I'm 2 years older, mostly I don't remember anything buy concrete driveways especially the kind my grand pa had in Hollydale (house was built in the mid 30s and my dad grew up in it), 2 strips of concrete with grass in the center. The only dirt driveways around here that I remember were in Paramount and Bellflower, the house I grew up in that was built in 47 had a concrete driveway, even my aunts house in Huntington beach that she bought in '61 had one. It's funny what we remember, the driveways with the grass in the center are still my favorite.
     

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