Is that the same '36 Ford coupe turned roadster that was called "BLACK DAHLIA" from So.Cal that was runnin around about 8~10 years ago ? Or is someone bite'n the name & slappin it on another car ?
Sounds like it...Jefe`s 36 is turned roadster...this is the last pic i have found of it.lost all my pics i had of the car.
The car was built out there, so it's probably the same one yer thinking of. It's still cruisin' around Austin with the 303 Olds. One of my all time favorites!
Tha Car was built by Jim Bruns in So-Cal about 8 years ago.. Jim was in the process of building the Black Dahlia 2 but I don't know what happen to that.. evel
It was funky...It was a sedan that they chopped the roof off...it looked like a big tub... I think #1 was the best,,,I use to Drool over that car...still do.
he sold the Dahlia 2 alittle while back....was the same style(as is all the Bruns' cars) Very smooth, clean lines. Heard theyre building something else bad ass and Jimmy Jr. Is peicing back together the McCord special too.
That's not the original Olds motor... The original was pretty hairy and finicky... I was at their shop when they were building the new motor for it and redoing the rear suspension... They pretty much rebuilt the car at that time. It's one of my favorite Kustom of the Modern era.
I remeber Dlack Dahlia 2 was wrecked on the way to Back to the Beach Or Primer Nationals in Ventura. Don't know if Jim sr. was driving it but the rest of the Yakety Yaks showed up and were tellin us bout it. I think Jim Sr. was driving the Snakes old Chopped 59 Impala that year. This pic was on the HAMB.
That's interesting dirtybird because I remember hearing that he spun Dahlia I on the freeway as well, before he sold it to Steve W. I think the front leaf spring pack came apart. All of the leaves spun out of the pack and the fenders dropped onto the tires. Something like that.. Hi Ojai!
Jim Bruns is one of the coolest mofo I know and should be up there with the best of them.And Steve is one of the best damn people you will ever meet...............................
Yea, Jim Sr. did spin out Dhalia 1 comming back from the blessing a while back. He had originally built the car with a flat head and then dropped the Olds in latter. Only he cut the springs in the front with the flattie in it, so whenhe dropped in the heavier Olds motor, the car sat on the ground. So he threw some of those rubber spring spacers in until he could get new springs...well he hit one of those expansion joints on the 101, the rubber spacers fell out of one side, dropped the driver side to the ground and caused the car to spin out @ 70+ mph. Scared the hell out of Jim Sr. and he sold the car soon after. Funny thing is, as Steve was driving it back out to Texas, he hit a spot in the road, caused the whole trailer to jump and the decklid flew open and folded in half. That why the Dhalia lettering changed from Mageneta to red...that car hates rough roads...and both of the Jim's are cool as hell.
Wow that car has the perfect name. i never saw the crash pic.i love the car even more now...that is a real survivour
for years rollin through that side of the valley i always take it at about 10 mph rolling by bruns pad. always the badest shit goin on over there.
Dont mean to hijack the thread but I have to ask. Is that the same 2-toned green 59' Impala that brought me to my knees at Paso a couple years ago? Id heard about someone chopping a 59' and thought they were crazy, till I saw it. Any pics of it floating around? I havent seen it since, but the image is burned in my brain. One of my all time favorites.
The first year I went to Paso was 1995 and I took my '57 Caddy. Franco convince me this was the show to come to so I made the journey. Well it was something special just like Franco said. On the Friday night cruise night, which was much more cruisable(sp) back then, I am driving the Cad up and down Spring St taking it all in.........then all of the sudden, I see this thing, this creature coming at me, I am like Holy Shit, look at that..........what was that.........it was a slammed kustom w/ a sound and a look like I had never heard nor seen. I was not that familiar w/ the westergard style of customs yet as this was one of the first big kustom shows I had ever been too, and I was just blown away by this sculpted piece of art. The rest of the entire weekend, I just kept hanging around the car, trying to figure out how this guy did it. I was too afraid to approach the guys hanging around the car, which turned out to be a big mistake, cause they are the coolest folks and family in the world, and dicuss it, i just stood back and kept taking it all in. I did the same thing in 1996 at Paso and 1997 at Paso.............every year I came looking for The Black Dahlia and just continued to admire the flow of that car and the subtle changes every year. Hood to no hood, Flatty to Olds, etc, etc, but for the most part not much else changed on the car, it was perfect in my opinion and something very special. Well I finally got to the point when I could not stand it any more and starting looking for a '35 or '36 Ford that I could get and try to build something like this car. People in Texas would freak......well I told Franco to keep his eyes open also cause he knew how much I loved this car. Well as fate would have it, sometime in 1998 or 99, Franco hears through the grapevine, The Black Dahlia may be for sale and he gets me Jim Bruns phone number. So I call Jim and of course he turns out to be the nicest guy in the world and I tell him about all those early days in Paso, and I was the wierd guy stalking him and the car every year from a distance, but never able to talk to him about it.......... Well we talked about the car which he had built some 10 years ago about '88 and what it did to me and how I thought it was perfect and would never do anything drastic to change it's appearance........and we worked out a deal. I couldn't believe it, but I think Jim knew it would be preserved and that made it a little easier on him. I mean that car was his personality. You never saw Jim w/o The Black Dahlia and visa versa. So I drive to Cali w/ my trailer hauling a car out there for my future wife and we go find Jim at the Brun's Kustom Compound in Chatsworth and we look around and see everything he and Jim Jr are working on and its a step back in time.....so cool and then he open the garage door and rolls her out and I know then, that The Black Dahlia is coming back to Texas. We talk about it and discuss this and that and hem and haw, and then finally my girl sez, "would you just come on and get the car already.........you know you are going to". So I listened to her and loaded it up on the trailer and we headed back to Texas. Like I said only minor changes have been to the car from the early days, the doors were capped, the windshield corners were rounded, an interior was put in and I traded out the packard 3 speed for a T5 so I could do some long distance highway driving. And long distance I have gone in this car, All over the state of Texas and from Texas to California TWICE !! just the way she sits. Folks that see me cruisin across the desert, think I'm crazy.........I probably am.........crazy about this car. Oh yeah and as far a the change in color on the name on the spare tire cover, I had Franco redo it and do the Jimmy The Greek style teardrop striping in red and cream which I though better fit the period of the car. Jim Bruns and his son Jim Jr are rulers and build some of the most sinister customs out there. I just happen to have one..........
Hmm, cant think of a better end to a good day, 12:07AM, finished a sammich, and one last PBR then read this thread...............life is good.
The Jalopy Journal
