Folks Of Interest Who influenced you and why

As I sit here down in New Zealand I had a thought about the guys who have influenced the cars I like and the culture that surrounds it all. You see I am a young buck really and I have looked up to various people over the years but it seems so unreal that these people that have always been there are passing. Yes, of course I know, thats the circle of life but it is natural to feel this way as these people have always been there in my life? Make sense?

I thought about the guys that have inspired or influenced me, I will keep it to the USA based influences and then you may like to add your two cents worth?

Gray Baskerville - his writing style and passion for rodding, drag racing and land speed racing was second to none, he truly lived the dream and he wanted us and the whole world to know about it with the preservation of history and what seemed like his own language to decribe it all. Not to mention the COOL roadster he had - a true driver!

Pat Ganahl - whilst a different writing style, Pat also gives the reader the true feeling of being there as he is a hands on rodder that shows the epitomy of rodding - building your car, your way at home. His preservation for rodding is second to none and his cars have always interested me greatly.

Steve Coonan - his photography and vision has been highly influential. He is a true artist and has captured the spirit of rodding, racing etc in so many ways that compliments the high end journalisim that makes the Rodders Journal.

Pete & Jake & P-Wood - traditional rodders that have built too many bitchin cars to list and have been involved with some of the best, iconic and influential cars in history. Their eye for traditional detail, stance and style has made history many times over.

Tom Prufer - I havent seen a bad car yet from Pruf, he nails it so good! Stance, style, rake, vision, total eye candy - his cars SCREAM hot rod.

Mark Morton - his ability to revamp an old magazine title - pull all the old guys and their cars out of the closet to mingle with the new guys and their new/old recreations has really put traditional hot rodding on the map all around the globe.

Bruce Meyer - his car collecting and restoration has placed an important part in hot rodding, drag racing and land speed racing to give younger rodders an indication or insight into the way it all was back then.

There are many more guys and cars but its important to recognise this every now and then to remember who we are, where we came from and where we are heading

 

My father is my major influence with cars (and most everything else I do in life). I could do no wrong trying to be as good as he is.

Another influence in building hot rods was a local hot rodder named Bud Otte. Everyone in town knew him, and I don't think the guy had a single enemy anywhere. He knew how to have fun building cars, and most everywhere else in life. We miss him.

My biggest influence in the style I build cars was a '32 roadster being built over 25 years ago (and still not completed) by Harold Duffey. The parts he was gethering and the concept he was using have stuck in my mind for decades. If you look at my projects and parts stash, you could see the style is derived from that singular car.


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Tman, because once I saw his shaved legs, I knew he was a hot rodder.

 

I am inspired only by the voices in my head.

 

I saw this car on Craigslist. Culver City QC, and all kinds of other goodies, 150k(?)
Quite a project, great parts and concept! About 145,000 outta my price range though! ha

 

My Dad. He taught me in family, business, and play, do the best to your abilities, and you will be happy.

 

Well the first inspiration was cars in general then came the quest for speed.My first engine lessons were from Tony Foyt and his partner Dale Burt. They ran and operater the B&F garage in Houston Tx and was just a few blocks from the house.They were in the beginning stages of a flatty for a jalopy that AJ was going to run at playland park. I looked and listened and some times ask questions and that was the beginning and the rest is history.

 

High School Teachers

I had a high school teacher that was into traditional rods & customs. It was the first time I really found interest in working on cars. Its interesting how teachers have an influence on many generations to come. From the littlest thing to teaching someone how to use a HVLP paint gun and lay down a decent coat. Now, I’m a student Tech Ed teacher in Wisconsin hoping to teach at the high school level and involve students in working with customizing cars. I gotta say that if it weren’t for my high school teacher I wouldn’t have found the classic cars so appealing.

 

As far as drag racing goes... Ken Veney and Bob Newberry. Ken for his ability to innovate, fabricate and win races. Bob for his ability to see the "big picture", make the right adjustments at the track and win. I got to work with Ken and Bob back in the 80's and 90's. Both are mechanical masterminds.

Kelsey Martin builds the coolest Kustoms.

The Rolling Bones build what I think a real hot rod should look like.

 

My Dad and his friends..his circle of friends goes from guys that can build a custom that slides down the street to the guys that will build a wild and wooly hot rod that is as much at home on the track as it is on the streets

 

That would have to be my dad, who according to legend, in the late 30's, had the hotest '39 Ford flathead with 3-2's in four states, and was one of the orginal "Thunder Road" drivers, hauling illegal hooch, from New Mexico to Oklahoma. He was the same guy, who was in shadows laughing at me trying to open my dumps on my '60 Sunliner Convertibe, after returning from wheat harvest. It seems he got bored one day, and thought it would be funny to spot weld them closed, while I was gone.

 

1st and foremost my Dad, but a lot of his friends influenced me as well. I grew up being around a lot of the original members of the "Hoodlifters" of Dayton, Ohio. My uncle Jerry Ziegert, Johnny Reid, Bob "Gump" Andrews all added to my understanding...

 

Tex Smith, Pat Ganahl, Steve Coonan, Spence Murray. My Dad, who's not into cars but can make anything with nothing and spend no money. Not HAMB oriented, but Jean Lindamood (whatever her name is now) made Automobile Magazine worth reading too.

 

My Dad, Budd 'The Kat' Anderson, Bill Cushenbery, Gene Winfield, Darryl Starbird, and early Barris work. The first two for the inspiration, the others for the styling.

 

My Dad, for taking me to car shows, and race tracks, across Ontario and several US states.

Bob Downey, for letting me work on his racecar when I was 16.
Racing was fun back then.

Lil John Buttera, his articles in Hot Rod showed how a
regular guy with a few hand tools, could make real neat parts.

Bill Hines, seemed like he was in Custom Rodder every month
(back when it was a good mag). making it look easy.

Every Pinstriper and Sign Painter I ever met, for sharing their hard earned skills.

 

Frank Mack,... He taught me if your building a car to please or impress someone else, your building it for the wrong reason. also that whatever you make for your car, look at it long and hard and make sure it the best you can build, because if you compromise on your own standards it will stick out like a sore thumb (probably only to you) for a very long time. and finally, there is always at least two ways to skin any cat.=( there is always two or more ways to solve any building problem).

My ol' pal Frank,......., you are missed my friend

 

I guess a lot of you guy's weren't influenced by anybody ?,.......

 

Jim Jacobs in the early 70's R&C magazines. The how to chop it yourself articles while he was building his 34 coupe were a big influence on me.

 

My Dad had a few cars from the 50's and 60's. I thought the models he would buy looked like crap. The one's I told him to get I would eventually own myself. So I would say my Dad and his bad taste in cars.

 

my Dad,,
even though he wasn't into cars at ALL,,, couldn't even change his own oil,,
he always inspired and supported me to do what I wanted and be who I was,,,
dependant on the day, it could be vintage model, tomboy mechanic, suzy homemaker, mommie dearest, or punk rock squatter,,,
he always loved me and challenged me to be the best at WHATEVER i was doing,,
and told me that no matter what i was a SURVIVOR,,,
I miss him everyday,, and I hope I can one day inspire my children as much as he did me,,,

xoxox
miss hellbound hootch

 

My parents....Mom told me I could do anything and my Dad let me try.

 

my dad , grandad and uncles and along the way some of the finest damn bros a fella could have!!

 

I liked cars when I was born, but when the newly designed Mustang came out in 2005, I really got into cars and had a passion for them. After a while, I started liking the classic muscle cars from the 1960s and early '70s. Then in an airport store in early 2008, I got a HOT ROD Magazine called HOT ROD Readers Rides and I saw this black, flamed, Model A coupe and I started liking hot rods. That same spring I went to my cousin's house, and he had some really really neat stuff and after going to his house, my love of traditional hot rods took off. Once I was into traditional hot rods, traditional customs just sort of followed along. So, my biggest influences were the 2005 Mustang, that black Model A coupe, and my cousin.

 

My dad. I grew up in my dad's tire stores and was supposed to take them over til business went south. After that he encouraged me to fix my own cars since I had just turned 16. He never told me I couldn't fix something, so I never had a problem giving it a try. It helped that he was a borderline car nut and my brother was handed down my dad's first ever new car he bought when he got out of 'Nam ('69 Olds Cutlass S).

The other person is Richard Van Guilder (but everyone calls him Van). A kid couldn't ask for a better neighbor and I'd say adopted grandfather. He taught me all kinds of real hot rodding stuff and would always tell me "why". He's a retired steel man and his metal working skills were magic to me. I need to look him up, I know some guys on here know him and he's back up here in Atlanta area again. Good guy, and his wife Fern always had a glass of ice tea for me when I was helping Van in the garage.

 

No blood relatives I an tell you that much. All my family can't stand me bringing home old cars. My father-in-law is the one who inspired me. He is passing down his mechanical know-how to me so I can one day just do all this stuff on my own. Also, the HAMB members give me inspiration. Without you guys I wouldn't have any good answers to my electrical questions!

 

I grew up hanging out with a friend of my dad, Charley Crisp, who had (still has) a bucket he built when he was like 19, and old Ford truck and a whole yard full of all kinds of junk. He's the kind of guy who doesn't pay to have anything built or repaired. I mean nothing. This guy will build a toaster out of stuff he has lying around before he will go by one. He was the first person who showed me that damn near anything is possible. His car is absolutely the most amazing thing when you're 8 years old. It still makes my day to ride in it.

 

My Father . Who still can't understand why I have so "God Damned Much Money "
in that old crap .When for what I have invested I could have something nice (New).

The 70's Street Rodders that I used to see traveling on the freeway with trailers in tow rather than towed on trailers !

"I can't help it I'm ruined "

 

Charles Manson, who taught me that short of murdering everyone around you, nothing's impossible...even flying a schoolbus full of people to a remote ranch at the top of a cliff...but seriously, my biggest inspiration is Jagermeister and rejection...

 

as I was brought by my Grand mother and Pops till I was 10 or so I lived around older folks. My uncle Jim was areal car guy, in 1960 he built a 51 ford glass top car with a bobby meeks flathead that car was bitchin. but the one that hit me hard was my great uncle buck. they lived on pacific coast HY, in I think it was torrince, any way he was always chopping merc's I would watch him on weekends I was around 6 or 7 at the time I still remember the sent of lead, and how heavy that vixson file could get. My grand pops brother My uncle John Underwood from redondo beach he gave me my first car a 29 ford pick up.( I was 13 then ) what a fine man and father he still is to this day.
My cuz Johnny Ray always had a bad ass ford seting around. He had the nicest 55 ford ever built in my young eyes. after moving to my mothers home at 15 My world changed alot till I met my Uncle Hershel Blaylock, he owned a wrecking yard in rainier ore. I was in teenage heaven ! this man I owe my very everything to he was a boss an uncle and moreover a father to me. many times I got the you cant save them all talk. But in 1970 I had one of the first 1956 chevys with a 454 I think. When I came home from nam in 72 I had a car waiting for me a 64 SS 327 4 speed.

 

Skot Ingram, as a high schooler growing up with his son an always seeing his 32 in the garage, always put a little bug in my head and I probably would not have the same interest in them, if it was not for him.