Show cars are another form of art. And as any art, the boundaries are pushed beyond some peoples liking. Take your pick. Look at show cars or walk through a museum with paintings and sculptures of drunk, naked women. I see X-cpe already covered my thought. It takes me longer to type.
I think we can give the Mantaray a pass. I have not met anyone in our age group that did not appreciate it. I cannot speak for everyone here but for a lot of us show rods was the bug that really bit us. I was around hot cars and hot bikes for as long as I can remember, but going to the car show was a really big deal for me. Time with my dad and his cronies, scoping out the eye candy and dreaming. I can remember having in depth discussions about what made one smooth and what one could have done without. This one (this pic may be a clone) was one that inspired me too. I actually have the original shift knob out of this car. I cannot find it but if I recall this one had a matching trailer. One of my favorite bubble top cars. Way more extreme than the Tweety Bird.
The early car was driven I remember Dave talking about road trips in it. Then it was turned into fancy yard art. Cars are made for transportation. I remember a car that won best in show that didn't even have a crankshaft. If a car has chrome headers without some discoloration won't get my vote.
That may be what separates us from the show car crowd. At least in our builds. Show cars when I was a kid often didn't run. My Ol' Man and his buddies used o make fun of them, but they looked for idea from them too. Someplace I think that it is in a Rodders Journal I have an article about a really fine '58 Chevy. It is a 348 car as I recall and has never been started. I guess it showed in a class that if you won you had to put fluids in it and start it. So the car was built and evidently never won.
Porknbeaner, I don't know if the real Silhouette had a special trailer, but the AMT model kit did for sure. I think age is a big thing on how you view this stuff. Whatever was the big deal when you were 12-13 will stick with you your entire life. I was 12 in 1969 when these things were hot. Younger or older and you probably don't get it.
"Take your pick. Look are show cars or walk through a museum with paintings and sculptures of drunk, naked women." I don't want to pick! I'll walk through car shows with drunk naked women!
I love the show cars, you sir, are living the dream to have a hand in bringing these works of art back to life. My hats off to you guys for preserving our history. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The good thing is that Art restored the car back to its original glory. I saw it in the corner of Arts shop under a cover on one of my visits to see him. What a great guy! He always welcomed us with “ It’s those guys from Wisconsin”.
You are right, Art was a genius and a gentleman, he along with Gene Adams, gave us some much needed advice, when we were sorting out a Dragster, 35 years ago.
My 57 Chevy show rod. This was built by Jim Allen for Revell the model car company to promote their line of Deals Wheels model kits. Yes it runs and drives. I was thrilled to just about a year ago reunite the car with the caricature head that was hand carved by Dave Deal almost 50 years ago. I found that caricature head right here on the Hamb https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/57-heavy-chevy.1166773/#post-13262793
Not quite as over the top as some of those later examples, but saw this at a local show a few years back and it seems to fit the thread. Sorry about the small pics, the larger versions generate error messages on the upload. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Not sure what happened there other than perhaps too many Christmas Eve nogs. Any whoo, I have not ever met Steve, just his dad that sold me some 40 PU parts for my new build. His dad knows his shit! I hear the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.
I asked the same thing. I know there’s a car, but I’m having trouble seeing it. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
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