Features DragStrip/StreetRacer 52 Ford Convert. Survivor

Its a 52 Ford Convertible, it was raced by two friends, Ray Hamilton and Stoney Wheeler way back when........It did its fair share of street racing on the streets of Cleveland, I even met a guy that remembered watching it race on the streets, he said he was like 13 yrs. old and said that car lived one alley way from him when he was a kid,he said they were always working on it.........he asked to buy it and I p***ed.......

Wheeler owned it first, then in 1955 the new Ford 55 converts came out and Wheeler had to have it......Him and Hamilton were real tight friends, Wheeler just gave the 52 Convert. to Hamilton, and said if you ever get rid of it, you either give it back to me or you p*** it on.............

When I was real little my parents bought their first home, our new neighbor happened to be Ray Hamilton, this was in the mid 70's......my father and him became real close friends, and at the time Ray was Drag racing a 51 Ford Victoria, which after a car accident was running a 302 sbf out of my parents Mustang, years went by, We moved a couple towns away, Ray and my father remained real close..........

Ray came over one day and him and my father were leaving so I tagged along, we ended up at Ray's mothers house, standing in front of an old run down one car garage.....Ray opened the door and their was this big boat of a car with so much dust on it, I had no idea what the thing was, they pushed it out and it was this car in the old pic below with the lettering still on it, it turned out the Ray gave the car to my father...........We took it home they got it running, it still had the hot Flathead in it from its glory days, my father sanded the body down and primed it dark gray, it still had the interior that had been put in it while on a trip to Tijuana Mex., green and white paisley...........

my father would load all four of us kids in the car and mom, we would drive to Thompson Dragstrip and meet up with Ray, my father would make us sit in the stands, then drop the exhaust and put on the old original pie crust slicks, Ray would do the same on his 51, and all night on Wednesdays they would just match race each other all night.........I remember one p***, as my father p***ed through the traps the original Convertible top just shredded all at once.....................I think this was like 1977-78 and 79.

My parents divorced when I was in sixth grade, My father got this car and continued to drive it for many many years, but after the divorce he really never had a garage and the car sat outside,The first winter the Flathead block cracked and he put in a junk yard 302, soon after he stopped using it and it sat outside with like three to four layers of carpeting on the floors and trunk, why? I have no idea, well that really was bad for the car and it began to rust.............

I got older, and soon after my wife and I moved into our house, my father called me and said come pic up your car, I was their like the next day, he signed the ***le to me and told me the same thing Stoney told Ray and the same thing Ray told my father, either give it back or p*** it on, I already have it in my will going to my daughter.

I took out the junk 302, and ran into the same guy that remembered it while he was a kid watching it race..........It turned out that he had a drive train that he was willing to sell me since I would not sell him this car....It was a 292 Y block with the old 3/4 cam in it, old T-Bird valve covers and the rare Yblock truck exhaust, the entire rear end, top loader 4 speed, radiator and drive shaft, all this was in his 52 Ford hardtop that his father gave him long ago, he had fitted his car with this stuff while home from boot camp in the mid 60's, he had gotten the engine from his old High school, it was a crate engine that Ford donated to the mechanics cl***, so this engine only has like 30,000-33,000 miles on it.

He invited my wife and I over and took us for a ride in the car before we pulled the engine, ran like a rapped ape and I was sold, He sold the engine and everything but the top loader for 850 bucks and I later gave him 400 bucks for the 4 speed........So this stuff was like a bolt in for me since it had already been fitted for a 52 Ford................

I started the surgery on the floors and rockers and inner rockers, when I got the car the top of the doors when closed over lapped the top of the rear quarters, so I had to pull the cowl forward and weld all kinds of cross bracing in, I worked on the car for awhile but have not touched it for at least 6-7 years, and since I finally have room for it, I had it stored in my car trailer....and moved it inside..........

While moving it today, I stood back and looked at it, and thought some of you may enjoy part of the story, I have plans to talk to Ray and Stoney and take my notebook and get a lot more details....................Littleman

This is what it looks like today..




This is an old 8x10 photo of the car, like 1962ish



A pic in 78-79, my father at Thompson DragStrip....





The Y Block.....






Plans are to paint it like the old early 60's pic..................Littleman

 

Kick ***! Knowing your craftsmanship that thing outta be better than ever!

 

cool,kewl,kool,and so on....thumbs up!

 

thats a great story.. that drivers side rear quarter gl*** is so cool... thanks for the pics LM- its in GOOD hands.

 

The pic of the engine doesn't come up, shows up as a duplicate front view of the car, please post it. Very cool car and history.

Also, not to be a douche, but could you break up your big paragraph into some smaller ones? Makes it really hard to read when everything is all ran together like that.

 

Good for you man. Nice history, and a link in your chain of life. I like those krazy add ons under the taillights too. I look forward to seeing it progress.

 

Hope this helped, thanks for the heads up, I never was good at English, but I did use spell check..........Littleman

 

Whatever you do during the restoration, be CAREFUL with that gl***!

 

Sweet !!! Keep us posted.

 

Very cool car, sounds like an awsome history it has. good luck with it!

 

Highlander, its funny you mentioned those lights, I remember as a kid they were still on the car and were chrome. I have no idea what happened to them, and am guessing they may be some kind of JcWhittney type add on, and am searching for a pair................anyone have any ideas of what they may have been ? ...... the small lights on the rear bumper were for when flat towing, I even have the original tow bar they used, it was painted like gr*** green the same color as the large lettering that was on the quarter panels...Littleman

 

That is very cool Dave.

 

I love you.

 

Yep!

kinda cool option really, thems Ford factory reverse lights homie

them stainless pieces on the rear of the quarters under the lights in the "today" pic of the back are also Ford options... bumper quarter-guards. sweel options both of em, kinda a ***** to find

 

Thanks FiddyFour, for the info, I will end up removing the rear quarter guards, for they were not on the car as seen in the photo. But will be on the hunt for the factory reverse lights........Kool I am glad that I posted this, Littleman

 

cool story,,,nice project to,cant wait to see the out come

 

Wow, very cool Dave. It seems mild compared to what you've have been doing but still a very cool project, especially with its history.

Gus

 

Beatnik, That's why I think I stopped working on it, it reminded me of the same kind of body work I used to do in the body shop I worked at when I was young , we did regular everyday cars and full resto's..........I have to put this one back together per the photo, so your paint canvas is already painted for you, its the same if you build and copy something , for me its building to a recipe that you have in front of you.....no fun for me..but can still be challenging...I need to finish this one out of respect for it and the story behind it...............Thanks, Littleman

 

Am really glad you saved it despite the work it needs.....way cool with the Y-block . Yeah, man, keep us posted on it!!!!

 

That is too ****ing cool!

You'll either bring this to the HAMB Drags or at least run it down the quarter mile and report back to us... please!

Sam.

 

Neato!

 

Sam, A friend of mine bought Ray Hamilton's 51 Ford as described above and I have the 52, The idea is to get them both back up to par. Take my father and Ray to the track on a Wednesday night as they did so long ago, put them both in the cars , and let them go at it! Racing in the animal eliminator cl*** as they did back then.............Littleman

 

I love the Speed City sign on the bridge at Thompson....When is summer????? Glad to see you remembered you have that car, with all your other cool stuff. It will look cool in your new garage and evan better when its at the track.

 

Deeetroit, right?

Hugs!

 

Littleman,
Very cool, Are you trying to make sure that you get into heaven Your REALLY makin' the rest of us look bad.
Congrats on a great score.
Don

 

you always get the coolest **** and your just on the otherside of the tracks

 

I am Stoney's daughter. I googled his name and came across this.

 

I am former employee who considered the late Stoney Wheeler a mentor and friend since I worked for him in 1972-73.
Now I miss bring my latest car to him for his opinion and to see all his stuff he still kept. Where is the 55 sunliner he bought to replace the 52 with?
J. Jahn

 

We still have the '55 Sunliner. She's in rough shape.
Did you work for my dad at his gas station?