Even in '59 when my folks rented a tiny little house in Downey, it had a concrete drive. Dad teaching me the fine art of brush painting the bell housing and trans out of his delivery.
hello ft. nice photo...is that a cool sedan delivery body on your side of the chain link fence? extra nice.. jnaki
Yes, dads delivery. Here it is at our Lakewood house in '63ish, we moved there in '60. My neighbor has a '29 delivery that he's owned for 40 years. He took it completely apart and its been scattered around his garage for the same amount of time. When I met him I asked to be put on the long list of guys that would like to buy it, he called me about 6 months ago and we've started a dialog about the possibility of me getting it.
This was the channeled 34 three window coupe I drove and raced in West LA in 1956/57. Memorably against Owen Miller's white 55 Chevy on Old Sepulveda Blvd where drag races were held late at night in Santa Monica at that time.
hello ft, here is a sedan delivery that i thought was such a radical looking car that i photographed it for a magazine article. it was owned by lee bright from the san diego prowlers. it just had that look... thanks...hope you get that other one... jnaki
I was driving a 440 duster in the eighties. Most of my friends were driving similar cars. Lots of good Union jobs around here, and fast cars were on every corner. Of course, fast cars have nothing to do with the Hamburg, but just sayin...
In 68, if you had a part time job, you could buy a new Roadrunner, bench seat, 383 4 speed for 100 a month for 36 months or about 3000 cash. The high school parking lot was mostly 50's and '60's cars in the late 60,s early 70's. There were a lot of Vw bugs and the van craze was starting. I was in Huntington Beach. We moved there in 63. All asphalt driveways in our neighborhood. Has to reseal it every few years. Most are concrete now. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Virtually every San Diego neighborhood from the 50's on up (including my Parent's '52 subdivision) is concrete driveways. I've lived here since 1970. The only asphalt or gravel/dirt drives are generally in rural or semi-rural areas on large lots.
I went to Orange Coast College in 71-72. I remember seeing a Plymouth Superbird in the Student Parking lot. Went to work for Sears Auto Center in 75. Worked with Jim M who kept a picture of his Hirohato merc on his tool box. I remember seeing Doyle Gammel's blown 32 Ford in the parking lot one day. One employee had a Boss 302 mustang. Another had recently bought a 69 Z/28 for 3000 which seemed like a ton of money. Steve L had a SS396 El Camino and a 65 Corvette Fuelie and still owns both. Steve V had a big block Challenger R/T convertible. One day he was showing off and revved it up. A fan blade let loose and cut through the hood. The missing fan blade was found on the roof of the building . I think he still owns that car. I went with him to look at a Hemi Coronet for 3500. I talked him out of it because it had a 8 3/4 rear end and didn't think it was original. They were just used cars then! I bought a 62 Chevy Impala SS for $225 and a SS396 Chevelle for $550 My cousin bought a 69 Roadrunner for 600. OCIR on Friday nights. Those were the days! We just didn't know it. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Please remember: chrome is only used to identify non-moving parts. Thank you and mind the fan blades.
OK here you go this is original early 60's. This picture taken in front of my childhood home in Redondo Beach in 1965, I started building this car right out of high school in 1962 and hadn't finished it when the Army called in Dec 1965. I cruised from the Hawthorne A&W to the Wichstand in Inglewood or the A&W on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance most every night. Also note my 56 Bel Aire two door hardtop daily driver in the background and original equipment concrete driveways. If I was lucky enough to score with the ladies I'd park the car at my brother's apartment and put the key under his mat. Later that night I'd see him and his wife out cruisin in my model T.
Wow the 60's were something special. My friend Jack Lowe had a 31 4 door sedan when he was 13 and we drove it on his driveway and horse corrals. Then there was Jack brother Dean with probably the best looking 29 roadster pickup with a blown small block cruising the street of West Covina. We also had the Geer brother Black 32 two door with a big Olds under the hood with Phill Glass across the street from the Geer brother with his orange 32 two door sedan. Then Jack got old enough to have something a little nicer and got a 32 4 door sedan with a small block Chevy that was just beautiful. Can't forget my 36 five window Ford coupe, Mike Hogans 27 T-bucket with a 392 and tons of 97 on top. And last but not least the famous 15 Oz. Fuel Coupe owned by Les Hawkins, not driven on the street but all these cars within 3 blocks of my home. Yea life was grand in the 60's
The name Dave "Monk" Therman doesn't ring a bell. But maybe what he drove would? Would this be in 1956/57? The only other 34 I recall at the time was a 5-window full-fendered coupe that used to show up at a drive-in in Culver City late at night where hot rods gathered, powered by a flathead with the lot, very fast. I ran 4:44s in the rear end which was great on the street for stop-light starts. Most competition was usually sorted within a block, corvettes in particular. I remember watching a fenderless 32 four-door sedan being built at a speed shop on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica with a Buick nailhead. It was on the cover of one of the hot rod magazines at the time. Couple of months later I passed it burnt out on Sunset Blvd just before the approach to the San Fernando Freeway, dead and apparently abandoned in the middle of the street.
Back in the 50's, a popular after-school hangout was Scrivner's, where Art Laboe broadcast his live dedication show on KPOP radio. We cruised through there a couple of different times but never could find a place to park. Those kids must've ditched 6th and 7th period to get down there early enough to get a spot!!
I don't know, but he is a long time member of the LA Roadsters. His 32 coupe was pretty well known in Southern California. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Thanks McD. Bill Snodgras had a 48 Chevy sedan delivery that ran pretty strong in the day. His dad I understood worked at Moon. These fellas must be getting up in years since this was 60 plus years ago...
Don't forget, San Diego is considered a part of So Cal! Lee Bright also had a chopped Ranchero. Crower Cams, Schnider Cams, Scheifer Flywheels, Autopower, Jerald's Mufflers, CAE and a host of smaller shops were located in San Diego in the fifties. And don't forget Paradise Mesa drag strip and the Bean Bandits, Cyr & Hopper. Jesse VanDeventor and a bunch of other racers with national recognition. Cruising El Cajon Blvd. led to the infamous drag riots covered in the national news. Gas was 19 cents a gallon at the Golden Eagle station at Texas and El Cajon. Oscars was the place to power park. The Hoover High parking lot looked like a mini car show every day. The Prowlers, Old Timers, Piston Pounders and a number of other clubs met at the old Hine Pontiac dealership at 16th and Broadway and formed the San Diego Timing Association.
I've had 'em on my '55 F100 since 2011. Still on there, (that truck has had 9 exhaust systems since I put it together in '72. The original owner had stacks on it in '56, then belly burners 'til '63 or so.) I've put scavengers on probably 6 different cars I've had (back around '58-'67)
Hello, As I think back to the So Cal time period 58-64, in Long Beach, there were the established hot spots that we all know for the car enthusiast gathering locales. The city being divided into east, west, north and south. But, as the places for the so called street races and challenges got overrun or patrolled on a nightly basis, we went farther outside of LA County. There was a hot cruising street called 2nd St. in Belmont Shore. It was a local hot spot with a ton of places to eat and have fun. But, if you continued east on this street, cross over PCH and the San Gabriel River, it turns into Westminster Ave.( just on the other side of the LA County border near Seal Beach.) Lo and behold, we found the longest strip of straight road with only a handful of cars on the street. Remember, this is 58-64 and Orange County was not as overdeveloped as it is today. So, there were empty streets perfect for tuning and speed runs. It also had the ammunition storage facility on both sides. This storage facility was designed to look like residential streets from up in the air, lighted street corners, blocks of what looked like buildings, but were ammunition berms, etc. I am sure that the older Santa Ana Dragstrip guys found this stretch of street a long time ago, but for teenagers from Long Beach in 58-60, it was a gold mine. We called it the Westminster Drags. It is a very busy street today and probably is patrolled by base security and the Highway Patrol constantly…but, back then, perfect for our own speed trials… Jnaki no scavengers necessary here...full open exhausts for the speed runs...
Where was there a flat spot on Pathfinder. It was mostly one long rolling hill as I remember. I lived on Evergreen Springs and used to cross Pathfinder everyday going to and from school. No stoplight then. Ok... Ready...RUN! Seems a million years ago [emoji22]. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hello, In this time period in So Cal, even the small kids in junior high school ,(now called middle school) dressed like that, white t-shirts, Levis with the loops cut off, or Dickies with creases, no cuffs, and spit shine toe shoes. The only things we could not afford were the leather jackets, so black nylon or dark blue jackets were the thing. The hair…everything from flat tops to big waves with sideburns, any style was ok if it looked nice. We even wore dark sun glasses that looked like Wayfarers, but were inexpensive, rip off copies from the local stores. We were little guys that wanted to look cool. But, we were not a bunch of “hoods.” Those guys in the photos, were hot rodders, who in the eyes of older parents, were considered hoods as well as a bunch of other names…you know those kinds of parents... Thanks, Jnaki
Hello, Later on in the surf scene, these same guys that came to the beach in hot rods were labeled "hodads" or "hodaddies" for lack of a better name. They were labeled because they did not fit in to the surf culture and were usually from inland areas. But, very few people could afford to live on the beach then and now. Thanks, Jnaki In 1959-60, we could not drive to the beach to go surfing in our 58 black Chevy Impala with our boards sticking out of the back. It was not a surf car. We got a lot of stares and comments until they saw us out surfing most everyone else. But, we had to get a VW van for our future surf trips. Even the parents did not like the 58 Chevy...too much like a drag racing car, not your ordinary 4 door mom and pop car. Thanks, Jnaki
We had a concrete drive way in our neighborhood in the late 1950's. Sent from my SM-G930T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
1960-61 we surfers (LB/HB/NB) took our wagons (my 40 Ford sedan delivery) VW vans, plus various surfer cars down the coast and joined the Dana Point Coast Highway Coasting Contest. During these times, there was only PCH running through town. There was only one stop light. So, this was perfect for a coasting contest. From the west end of town to the east end of town was all downhill on PCH. The word spread fast in the surfer circles. (From Long Beach to San Clemente) The race was on and the trophy was the bragging rights to the “longest coast in neutral” down PCH. The area was well known if you were going south to surf, so the honor system was put into place. Everytime you went through Dana Point, the contest was on for everyone... let the races begin. Where were we going on this coastal trip? Why the world famous Trestles surfing break just south of San Clemente. The coasting results were varied with short runs that stopped at the red light (poor timing), stick shift cars vs automatics, and of course, traffic. There were very few automatics as coasting in neutral ruined the transmission. The vans were at a disadvantage because of the large box design pushing the air. The sedans, well they were sedans with boards strapped to the top…poor aerodynamics. The woody wagons just did not roll well, but my 40 delivery with skillful driving, that pointy nose/ smooth fenders, and timing set the record that stood for a long while. The course was to stay on PCH all the way, even under the Amtrak RR bridge overpass. We had to go underneath using up valuable speed, but the rest of the road was flat and long. Some speed secrets were creative weaving like skateboarders on the drainage ditch on the side of the road. And of course, Moon Snap On Discs for streamlining. Hey, this was a serious race. There is a Mexican restaurant on the inland side of the road that was the best distance. The restaurant is still there today. Just up the road was the old Capistrano Beach Pier with its weird waves and sand. What a way to spend your youth….creatively. Can it happen today? Today, the PCH is still there, but there is so much traffic it is unbelievable. The street is narrower and there are 6 lights and a stop sign near the RR tracks. Can it be done? NO... maybe at 2 or 3 am... but,who goes surfing at 3 am? Jnaki
The Jalopy Journal
