Well, I figure I've lurked around long enough that it's finally time to introduce myself... My name is Darryl and I've been into Hot Rods and old iron sense 1965 when I was 16 years old... It all started when I was in high school I got a job at a muffler shop in Costa Mesa. My boss was Jeff Jahns. He and all his friends were into Hot Rods and every kind of racing you can think of... He knew I was being raised by a single mother and that I didn't have a father so they all took me under their wing and took me to Lions Drag Strip and Flat-Track motorcycle racing at Ascot Park every weekend, and they taught me how to weld & fabricate metal (that was the job)... I've had many old cars and Harley's, mostly traditional hot rods over the years... My friends call me Double D or O2 Darryl because about 3 years ago I was diagnosed with a rare and chronic disease called Pulmonary-Hypertension which requires oxygen 24/7... There's no cure for this but if we take the proper meds, some people live quite a long time (8 to 10 years or sometimes longer for younger people) for old guys like me the jury's still out... So I plan on doing as much as I can for as long as I can... I have always thought that "Life is Big and Grand" and "Ya Gotta be Tough"... I live in Huntington Beach, Ca. which is a great Hot Rod town... We have a large group of car guys (and a lot of wifes too) we go to car shows and events together, hang out and cruise right down Main St. near the pier every Wednesday night, people and tourists come from miles around to watch us on "Cruise Night" (sometimes 60 cars)... Then we all go to "El Ranchito" and have beer & tacos... We also have a local donut shop "Donut Derelics" where Hot Rodders come from miles around to meet every Saturday morning EARLY, very early starting about 4 am and every weekend maybe a hundred, sometimes more beautiful hot rods show up... Jay Leno, Chip Foose, the head of Peterson Automotive Museum, never know who will show up... Loads of fun... My current driver and (near the end of a long project) is a '64 C-10 short step-side with a '68 1st generation 327, on a '78 suspension, buckets from a '65 GTO and wide white-walls... It's a good looker... On December 2nd (a few weeks ago) at the big Christmas Car Show & Toy Drive, I won 1st place trophy for "Best Truck" and it blew me away because there were some really nice trucks there... I've got a great wife and a great life and I've learned so much from you HAMB guys over the years and many happy hours of reading about all you're projects and it would be an honor to be part of the HAMB instead of just reading about you'all... At my age and condition, I can't do much of my own work anymore. Being on oxygen I can't get near a welder or a spray gun anymore and when I try to get down underneath the dash to do wiring I get light-headed and dizzy, so I pay the younger guy's to do it for me now... I have a few that do exactly what I tell them but it's still a little humiliating when I realize that I'm not actually building it myself anymore... View attachment 3753835 3753839[/ATTACH] View attachment 3753835 [/ATTACH]
The Jalopy Journal
