Hot Rods 54 vette strait axle surivor woken from a long slumber

So back in April at the Gopher State timing Associations 66th Annual Rod and Custom show i had run home to give a couple out of town friends a tour of my toys, when i pulled back into the show to park, and this thing greeted me......

i parked and ran over to it, the grandson of the long time owner was hanging out with it, the car was possibly going to be for sale, they were testing the waters, needless to say i was interested, he mentioned who his grandpa was and mom, both of which i knew, but i never had any idea they had this car, a few more pics of it out in front of the show


During the show i started talking to Rich Polkinghorne, who had bought the car in 1967 for two other GSTA members, Ray Suwalski and George Wepplo, i believe they were partners in the car. later that night my buddy found a pic of it on facebook posted by my friend Gene Sonnen, it was taken at the 1965 gsta show.

 

I was invited over monday to talk more about the car and look at it some more... Rich had given the car to his Daughter Leia 20 or so years ago.
we talked for a while and Leia said it was up to her son Jameson to decide if they wanted to sell it, they liked my plans for what i would do with it and a deal was made and home it came.

 

So i started digging into it right away, i dug out an old sbc for mock up and a B&M Hydro
shoved it in the car and had to mock up a 471, since that is what it had back in the day...


love the headers in good company? heres the B&M hydro, it has some killer history, it was removed from the Mazmanian Corvette when it was converted back to a 4 speed.

 

Wow, That is one interesting car. Along with parts out of your stash that have a history of their own.

 

As i did more research i found a few more pics of it back in the day, it was at the 1965 show, the 1967 show and 1968 show
Leia still has the show sign from when Rich showed the car at the 1968 GSTA show

65 show front view same show just zoomed out
heres a zoom in from the 1967 gsta show, yes that is the batmobile across the isle

zoomed out

 

So heres a few month ago, finally found some halibrand sprints for the front, started cleaning up the body

 

The Fall Out Drags at Rock Falls Raceway was coming up and i promised the family id have the vette there so i hit it hard
i had planned to build a stout 283 for it but ran out of time on that, even tho i have all the parts for it, just couldnt get the machine work done in time, so a buddy borrowed me a decently built 9-1 sbc that would take the blower.

 

Got the car running and made it to the fall out, Jameson got to come see the car running and i let him drive it around a little
i think he had fun

 

Great find, congratulations! Nice to see the history, absolutely love the headers. That scoop looks tiny on there. lol.

 

cool the previous owner got to drive it , you kept your word...thats a biggie..

 

Wow .
I thought my 57 was cool.
some great history and documentation.

 

Wow, that thing is cool!

 

And the beat goes on…

 

Wow! Amazing find, your stars aligned on this one. Cool how you found those super rare front wheels and a friend just happens to have an engine sitting around.

 

Love it!

 

How do you keep coming up with these awesome cars

 

Just woke up to find this.
Now it looks like it's a good day.

 

Unbelievable! Thank you for putting it back together as it should be preserved! PS I really like the color as you can see by my avatar I owned back in 1968.

 

the smile after that little romp is priceless.....nice score..

 

That’s How you “Restore” an old Vette!

 

That little car is awesome. The headers are rad, tits and gnarly.

-Abone.

 

"Everything old, is new again"
"Money has no true value, unless it's spent"
"You have spent your money very well"
It's great that this marvelous piece of automotive history, was found by the right person, to bring it back to life!

 

Show us a picture of the SPRING-E -THING-E up under the front of your pulsating vehicle. We think you got a nice AXLE.

 

That is WAY cool!!! Made my day!

 

Looks like the right guy found the right car. Congratulations Jeff. Brian

 

Please explain the spacer blocks on the header flanges. Don't think I've seen that before.

What did it run for times back in the day?

 

Killer 'Vette!!

 

Great story about a great old Corvette.