After returning home from the hospital yesterday where they removed my gall bladder,I found a pleasant surprise waiting for me:A rather thick envelope from my old friend Vito Venuti,a founder of the M*** Street Rod ***ociation and one of the guys responsible for starting the All-Timer's Gathering.We have been friends since high school and I have striped many of his cars.One of his wildest(in the enclosed pictures)was a really low T-bucket that he drove year round equipped with a top,side curtains and HEATER! Anyway his son VJ peruses the HAMB and noticed some of my posts on here and mentioned it to Vito.He has sent out some really cool memory stuff in the past including a video tape he had put together from some old 8mm movies that his wife Sally used to take at all the events. Sorry I couldn't reproduce them individually but my scanner is broken.I photographed them in pages as he sent them with my new camera which doesn't have very good closeup qualities. The Autorama catalog is from 1962 and has a couple of interesting vehicles in it.George Gould's T bucket was driven from Waltham M***achusetts to Indianapolis in 60 or 61 for the Indy 500 exactly the way you see it;no top or fenders.George eventually went on to work for Boyd Coddington in the early years and sadly p***ed away awhile back.The car was painted black(the pictured color is 55 T-Bird aqua)after he sold it in the mid 60's and as I understand still exists. Len Legere's radically chopped 51 Ford was a show car for many years and he built many vehicles for ISCA compe***ion afterward.I think that one he still owns. The 40 Ford sedan by John Silva was originally built by Bill Welch of New England Speed Equipment.John purchased it and did some really radical body work(the picture shows body work in progress). The 56 Mercury belonged to Vito and was originally owned by his brother Sonny who got it new in 56.The car is still around in Puerto Rico somewhere.Sonny built a clone to it awhile back. The 55 Chevy convertible is I believe an earlier picture of one I posted awhile back that sported a bubble top and a miniature version parked next to it. The 33 Ford next to it has been pictured here many times;the name was actually Skip LaJoie and it was metallic blue with a Chrysler grille shell. The bronze T bucket and the pearl 27T both belonged to the Carroll Brothers(Tim and John).The Little Moose still exists but as I understand it is in pretty sad shape.After Tim p***ed away it was sold and whomever bought was intending to restore it.They also owned the Whale;a chopped 56 Ford that John bought new and chopped in 1957.It had a Hilborn injected Lincoln motor. The aysmmetrical 56 Chevy was Vito's car and was built by John Silva in the early 60's.The blue 34 Ford was built by Richie Silva's(no relation)dad in the early 50's and has a 312 Ford in it.Richie still owns it and keeps threatening to restore it someday.A fellow HAMBer on here(Tom May who owns a BEAUTIFUL chopped Deuce 3 window) I met awhile back through Richie indirectly.Tom's daughter is married to Richie's son.Long story. The T bucket next to that belonged to Fran Olson and sported a Hilborn injected 392 Chrysler with headers INSIDE the frame!Fran drove that car everywhere even to the first Street Rod Nationals.Took him months to get the Hilborn to perform properly on the street.Last I heard he had built a Deuce with a Lamborghini V-12 in it.He was ALWAYS puching the envelope. Anyway my thanks to Vito for sending these to me and I hope everyone enjoys them.
Here's to a speedy recovery...cool pix...Vito sounds like a cool guy and it's awesome that he took the time to get those to you
Well my friend Vito came through again today.This time he sent me two pictures that he had gotten from a mutual friend(Paul Donahue;the p***enger in the T roadster).I don't have a scanner anymore so I attempted to reproduce these by photographing them with my digital camera which takes terrible closeup pictures. These were taken at New England Dragway in Epping NH in the fall of 1969 or the summer of 1970.The first picture is of the Norm Wallace roadster when my cousin **** Manley first bought it.I know it is an early picture because the name on the side was only used for a short period of time before being changed to "Big Boy's Toy".It is now owned by Larry Hook of ***berland RI.**** is shown driving it and the bearded hippie riding shotgun is me. The second picture is the T roadster owned by Ken Frederick.He owned the Iced T originally which was the first car I had ever striped that appeared in a national magazine(Hot Rod of November 1963).He owned many T roadsters and I believe this one was Tim Carroll's old T that was pictured earlier here that had a Hemi Chrysler for an engine.Riding beside Ken is Paul Donahue who built several outrageous cars including a Triumph Mayflower with a SBC for power.He went on to campaign several alcohol dragsters.
Yes it was Rich.We used to meet up there on a more or less regular basis for cruises.Not like today when most cruises are held in a parking lot with folding chairs we actually went somewhere.A lot of them were down Rte 133 into Gloucester and along the ocean.On a good day we might have a dozen cars.
The Jalopy Journal
