The vintage bicycle pics bring back lots of good memories from my childhood. Simpler times. Thank you to all that post these great pics here!
Hello, Having gone through the intense process of changing the hubs/axles to Buick bolt patterns, the wire wheels from a Buick Skylark convertible was my bright idea for the next phase of the custom 58 Impala. The machining was done at a place called Henry’s Machine Shop or Machine Works. They were the go to place for any metal work and machining anything to work in hot rods and drag racing, located in Bixby Knolls. Yes, the same Bixby Knolls we used as a cool cruising grounds and drive-in restaurant parking lot hangout as teens. The whole area was residential zones with a variety of homes from simple two bedroom homes to large golf course located giant homes. But, the one area in the northeastern part of Bixby Knolls was an small industrial area that we all called “Hot Rod Central.” The area of industrial shops and mechanical custom work melded into a row of buildings that included a chrome shop, a wheel/alignment place, a full service tire sales and service shop, a welding shop + a muffler only shop all in a row. And, across the street was the famous Jocko’s porting service shop. That area was within several blocks distance from the famed “Cherry Avenue Drags” location. During the day a busy street connecting various places on this street that ran from far inland in other cities down to the ocean in Long Beach. But, the short distance away was a long two mile straightaway the was the best high performance power run area located within our cruising/racing area. There were plenty of older folks that had used this area prior to our times. The history was long and some famous drag racers all were associated with the Cherry Avenue late night action. Jnaki Henry’s Machine Shop reworked my hubs and axles to allow the fitment of the Buick Skylark wire wheels. But, while they were doing the machining, I had the wheels respoked and modified to almost leak proof wheels. They aligned each spoke, tightened it to keep them aligned and put in loc-tite to keep them secure. Then each wheel was hand spun to get the alignment straight. Then the whole thing was done again to get every spoke in line. Finally, when all 5 skylark wire wheels were finished, the tire shop installed a 2 inch wide, circular rubber gasket all around the inside, spoke nubs on each rim prior to mounting and filling it with air. Each spoke end was already sealed with an air tight sealing compound and now the rubber circular band went over the exposed nubs. It was the shop’s way of using a double seal process to assure no leaks would come from the zillion spokes on each wheel. Since the wheel guy did such an intricate tightening and straightening during assembly, the balance shop was impressed with the alignment, but also, used the spinning wheel alignment to assure a straight roll and drive. Mounted, balanced and aligned gave me a straight action without any speed shakes or swaying down the street. To make sure it was done well, I took it a couple of blocks down the street to the cherry avenue drags location and did a straight line full acceleration down the two mile stretch of highway. Yes, it was relatively empty in the afternoon traffic. YRMV Note: Washing the whole car was now an extra detailing item that took intricate cleaning and soft cloth drying each spoke for the surrounding chrome areas. Washing was the same, as each spoke got its own wash and wipe each time. Then the many drying towels for the dry procedures. But, what a final look for the 58 Impala. It was still blazing fast and now it was a blazing fast custom car that made others think it was an example of … “if it does not go fast, chrome it” philosophy. When the final results were in, guess who was giving the 6 red tail lights to see at the end of the power runs… thanks to @themoose
I've seen this pic before...check out the guy in the smock and hat laying pinstripes on the '32 Sedan!
The Jalopy Journal
