***U.S.A 1966 a Hot Rodding Trip of a lifetime.MANY pictures***

Again, the HAMB RULES!
Excellant story and photos, Thanks to you and your Pops!

 

I was really enjoying the story and the pic's and then i saw My 32' sedan getting some background props behind the 1917 T at Concorde in 66' . My car had the MA. Deuce plate at the time. AWESOME!

Thanks,
Johnny-Deluxe

 

For those of you out there that are not up with the Oz rod scene, Swifty, Eddie Ford and Barrie Fletcher are icons of the down under rodding scene. To this day Pete's poly head Mopar powered T bucket is one of the best looking of its genre ever built in Australia.
I guess that the closest equivalent to Eddie Ford on this side of the Pacific has to be Tex Smith or maybe Tom McMullen. Eddie published several magazines for many years and also had a serious street rod stable. I can remember seeing Barry's rod at the Riverside (Melbourne, Australia not So Cal) drags in the mid 60's along with Hans Klemme's 34 coupe (remember that one Corey) and Eddie Thomas' dragster.
If Swifty could talk Larry O'Toole into puting these pix on paper with the appropriate words I, for one, would take a couple of copies.

Roo

 

Dean Jeffries shop , modifying a ford torinardo.

That's a 66 Oldsmobile Toranado.
Thought you might like that cleared up. I remember the car. I would have been 8 years old and I live I Lansing, MI where that car was built by Olds. Dad worked there. Man they were cool cars anyway and Jefferies put that one over the top.

Thanks for sharing those pics and stories

 

Absolutely fantastic post and a trip down memory lane.

The yellow roadster with the flare up over the front tire looks like a Joe Wilhelm creation. He used that flare on a couple of cars.

Looking at Barris Air car you can see how fast the lacquer and pearl paint jobs of the day deteriorated. That car was only a couple of years old.

 

I had no idea anyone had ever thought of doing such trip from oz as far back as the sixties. that is just awesome stuff. great pics as well.

 

Thanks for sharing those! Tell us you have some more to come.

Alex.

 

WOW, this really made my morning, thanks mate

 

* I'm inspired by the photos, they ROCK.

* I'm inspired by the facts of time, I can imagine your dad taking a photo of that rabbit.....dead...

* I'm inspired by the openness of our rodding pioneers, the way in which they just made a group of Aussie 'nobody's feel welcome, the fact that they were just 'little guys', but little guys who made a dramatic difference.

* Similarly, I'm inspired that these Aussies, are now each pioneers in their own right, having influenced Aussie rodding in different ways, again, little guys having a go...making a difference.

* I'm inspired by the fact these photo's are finding their way out of the shoebox, a big achievement in it own right.

*I'm inspired, that whilst we live in a new era, I firmly believe that we, like those before us, can make a difference, it's all about perserverance and attitude.

Thanks,

Drewfus

P.S. hey 'Swifty', looks like its time for a 'Hardcourt hoe-down'

 

that's just awesome.....get that camera fixed and get some more up on here for us to drool over....

seriously, thanks!

your dad is the kind of guy the American hot rod foundation would want to interview...

 

I was lucky enough to be there while Swifty showed me and Corey and Corey's mum these slides.....man, what a TRIP....and i don't mean that in a travelling sense! These pics are cool. We'll have to get them scanned for sure.

{Sorry Flatoz...didn't get a chance to email these ones over to you yesterday!}

A little Grand Canyon sightseeing that Flatoz mentioned above...



For me, the above photo is an interesting shot as I was pretty much right here just about 6 weeks ago......check out the spiked peak just right of centre and compare it to my pic! The timelessness and sheer scale of this place freaked me out a little while I was there...this just confirms it!












"The Chrysler 300C was Phil Weiands car. Phil took us up to his house in Yucca where that pic was taken for a weekend."


"Pic of Plymouth in the snow was our overnite stop at Crater Lake in Oregon. Arrived in the dark, got up at daylite, took a pic of the Lake then got the hell out of there before we got snowed in! We were not used to that white stuff!"


Glendale....clearly around Christmas. Check out the street decorations.




"Shots of Fred Steele's A Tudor - Fred took us on a tour of the Fall colorings and the covered bridges in Mass and Vermont but Fred had chopped the A 6 inches and left the stock seats so we were always glad of a chance to get out and stretch our necks!"









Just one of the MANY pix of T-buckets that we saw....


And a thunderbird from an indoor show.


Some souvenirs from the trip!


Some stuff to send home to Australia.

 

Unreal thanks for posting

 

I'm certain that is the "Mannix" car, used by Mike Conners in the Mannix TV series. I had the model kit when I was a kid. One of the best "mod" 60's customs.

 

Well boys, now we have seen how they looked in 1966.

You need to sit down with your Dad, put the slides in chronological order, get a few beers, a tape recorder and let him start telling the story.

You definetely need to get a publisher.

 

What an incredible post ! THANKS!

 

One of the 3 IS a publisher.

I think it was the "few beers" which probably ensured we didn't get all the details!

 

Absolutely amazing.

Fred Steele.......good god....he's still a nut!

 

Awesome stuff. I have read some stuff on that trip in some early Custom Rodders, but those colour slides are so much better!

And add my vote for getting a book produced - or at the very least a nice long Rodders Journal article.

 

I'm certain that is the "Mannix" car, used by Mike Conners in the Mannix TV series. I had the model kit when I was a kid. One of the best "mod" 60's customs.[/quote]
-----------------------------------------------------------
Not car used in Mannix it was conv

 

Awesome stuff. I have seen some stuff on that trip in early Custom Rodders, but those colour slides are so much better!

And add my vote for getting a book produced - or at the very least a nice long Rodders Journal article.

 

this is what life is all about.....pure life!and it warms my hearts on and on...

definately the dad's story trip needs to be published...

take your time to show something cool to new generations to come,and keep our kustom kulture memories alive...

this stuff will be more and more appreciated on worlwide gearheads...

make them published too....


also appreciate the enourmous effort back then,to realize a dream..

looks easy now,but that was a real adventure...

unreal thanx to share the cool ,sled

 

Classic, some things don't change, when I was over buying the Olds 13 or so years ago one of the wreckers yard pics I took was 1/2 dozen corvettes..... down here a Vette would have to be flat to be in a wreckers.

 

Best thread in a looong time!!!!Thanks...

 

Yeah, thanks for sharing. Great pics and cool story

 

Thanks for the pics. A great trip down memory lane.

 

I love this one!
Plowboy, does this give you any ideas??????

 

That was pretty cool! Thanks for posting.
Nothing like seeing the picts and hearing the stories from those that were there.

 

Just amazing !!!

So much for the winter doldrums.

If that doesn't inspire a road trip, nothing will.

Thanks Flatoz.

 

Penny loafers, Pendleton shirts and cool hot rods......a "frozen in time" slice of Americana. How cool is that!

 

awesome...thanks for sharing.