AH, yes. 1960 I had a 1951 Chevy Fleetline 2 door. Lived in El Monte off of Arden Dr. Car was light maroon, lowered, white walls and full moon type hubcaps, Red and white interior. Club was the Samurai of SGV. 1962 I bought a 1955 Chevy 2 door belair hardtop, turquoise and white, lowered it, built the engine and drove it until it smoked ( couple of years). Then came the mid sixties and funny cigarettes and things of that nature. Bought a brand new 1965 Impala SS hardtop. 409. close ratio 4 speed , 4.11 gears, reverb am/fm, white bucket seat interior, white walls with vogue tires. Pimp mobile. Drove it to Martinez body shop in Irwindale and had Hydraulics installed and then to Watson for some paint. Frequented the clubs in El Monte (go go and after hours jam sessions) Funny cigarettes were taking over as I left the car with Pierre at the body shop next to watson. Wound up with custom front end, rear end, etc. Funny cigarettes allowed the car to be stored in a field for a year and eventually scrapped. It was the ciggies. While that was going on bought a 1964 t-bird, baby blue, lowered, chrome wheels and went to work at Watsons on Lakewood and Alonda and then Firestone. That takes me to 1965. Don't remember much of the next few years except I traded the t-bird for a 57 Ford hardtop and then the 57 for a Panhead basket case. That's another story.
The Gammel coupe that I knew was Rochester injected. These pictures were taken about '64 at Ord and LA. At that time was owned by a guy named DeLucca. Norm
Hello, Speaking of the area for the old “coasting contest start line” in Dana Point. If you turn right on Del Prado, you will come to the area known as the Lantern District. This is where the businesses sponsor the monthly vintage car show. In July, there were a bunch of cool cars at the show. Plus, Dana Point on up the coast to Newport Beach is one of the best drives anywhere. The ocean is on your left and there are great views all around. Comparable to many European coastal drives. But, it is here in So Cal. Enjoy… Jnaki
Norm, On the Gammel coupe...........you mention Deluca....did you know him? I've been curious about the history of this car......a Bob Porter is often mentioned as the owner during this time frame. It would be interesting to know when Deluca sold the car.
AHHH your killing me. I went to OCC in the early 90's and just bought my first BEAT '60 El Camino ($475)......I think there was one other guy in the parking lot that had a '69 Camaro with a BBC and a tarantula intake. BTW there is at least 1 house in my neighborhood that has a asphalt driveway now in 2016.
Tom I was at Fort Ord for training when I saw it coming down the street with some duffel bags sticking out of the rumble seat. It turned out he was in my barracks. Several of us hung out and even drove to LA to see the saturday night drags at Lions. The LA picture includes His '32 Cabriolet that he wanted to sell for $600-- I couldn't figure out how to get it home. It was in the summer of '64. Before Ord DeLuca was a motor cycle delivery rider in LA. before that he was from a very cold state in the northeast. He said that one very cold winter he packed up the cabriolet and headed west. The dent in the hood was from a tow chain. Lost touch with him after training. I didn't know anything about the cars history and always wondered what happened to it until I saw the Car Craft article about the restoration several years ago. This is a picture of Deluca. Norm
Cool to read about spots in Socal. A lot of them I heard of, but I was too young to drive. My heyday was 72 through about 80, when they essentially outlawed cruising. But I did have my stink bug 57' Chevy's, 8 inch shackles, L-60's with the rear quarters clearanced by rolling a baseball bat along the sidewall to get that 1 inch needed. Those were the days of the Box Factory, Sunday nights running with Big Willie and Orange County Street Racers, Wednesdays at Van Nuys....ooh, the wasted fuel and finishing up at Denny's after 2 am.
My cousin told me that in the late 50s (he lived in Santa Fe Springs during that time) he bought a 49 Mercury, green in color, and in decent shape. After he bought it, he went to Western Auto and bought a couple of cans of gray primer and sprayed primer spots on the Merc because it was a popular thing to do at the time.
If you didn't have one, your parents had one, or a sibling, or a cousin, or a neighbor, or a friend. One of my brother bought his first car, a 56 150, from a neighbor, he later sold it and bought a 56 Corvette (which he still has). He also had 3 57s. My other brother had a 56, 2 57s, and all three Nomads (at the same time). My sister had a 56 210. I had a 55 Nomad and 2 57s. I think you get the picture.
not in the 60's everybody (kinda)got along ... (especially CAR fanatics ) heck our southern friends used to escort / guide us to the tijuana upholstery shops for the 1st first few times... for those 125.00/ 150.00 *COMPLETE* naugahyde interior jobs. now play nice nice boys
Hello, The last show in the Lantern Bay district I remember was in July. It was on a weekend. We were waiting for these fabulous burritos at Aurora's Taqueria on PCH. All of a sudden, these cool cars were driving by and turning into the Lantern Bay district just off of the PCH. We have driven up and down that coast line since 1958 in numerous cars and it gets more crowded each year, but the drive is worth it. (Better than the 405/I-5) From San Clemente up the coast through Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Newport and beyond it is outstanding. After Newport, it is chain link fences and more crowds, so the view dies down quite a bit... but, the opposite direction through Newport Coast and Laguna is well worth it...as an extra bonus, your significant other will enjoy the numerous shopping opportunities in every city along this route. One warning: Laguna Beach in the summer is a tiring, crowded, two lane road with bumper to bumper traffic at just about all hours of the day. But, if you want So Cal at its best, this is the drive. yrmv Thanks, Jnaki
I'm mainly a night driver or even better a night winter driver. Sadly even the winter isn't as deserted as it once was.
Norm, Those are great pictures of an iconic hot rod and I think your information and pictures really help enhance the history of this car. BTW that is Dennis Deluca and he owned that car until around 1967. Sometime after he sold the 32 he was driving a Tee Roadster pickup and while exiting the freeway in Burbank he was tragically killed.
Hello, Back in 1947-48 my main form of transportation was this classic, vintage, pump mobile, tricycle with a very early version of “Moon” discs. That is what I called it 16 years later, when I saw this photo. Little did I know that in today’s world, this tricycyle was one of the first pull/push trikes to use this propulsion method. I remember that this trike did not pedal and steer like a normal trike with the pedals in front. I would pump all around the post war aircraft worker's, housing trailer, parking lots since I did not have to go to school for a few more years. This shot was taken in front of my dad’s 41 Buick Coupe at the aircraft workers housing trailers (where we lived) in Long Beach, CA at the corner of PCH and San Francisco Ave, near the LB Freeway. The giant Goodwill Store and warehouse sits there today. (A little LB history)…By the way, these trailers were about the size of the one at the LAB (antimall, Costa Mesa) selling those old LP records. , but not quite as nice…It was very basic, flip down kitchen table served as the bed for the brothers, etc. Ahh, carefree days with little to do but explore... Thanks, Jnaki
Hello, Also, here I am riding my early hot rod at the Long Beach Pike Amusement Park 1948. Look at those cool headers and fender skirts… Jnaki
unfortunately I think the photos that the original poster was looking for just might be on other forums. I love the history of lowrider and kustom relationship. Since I'm too young to really abide by the guidelines (i grew up in the 90s) of the original post, here's my contribution: the photos at the bottom go into the 70s but geez what i would give to cruise fridays with the OGs http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Duke's
I loved everything about this car except the mechanical brakes. But it got me around So Cal in the 60's
Hello, In 1949, my dad was tired of having two boys messing around in the back of the 49 Buick Roadmaster with the windows rolled down. He was also tired of my mom saying how hot it was driving around. So, he like many others at the time decided to put these giant window coolers on the outside of the car to cool down the cabin while driving around. I can’t remember the brand name, but it was filled with water and shot the cool mist inside the car as you were driving along. It worked for a while, but then everything inside of the car got a little moist if you ran it a long time. Also, every time you stopped, the water dripped outside of the car. Being the fanatic that my dad was about his cars, he got rid of the cooler and went back to the open windows for cooling. He did not get air conditioning until several model years later. Thanks, Jnaki
Ahh yes, the Martinez Brothers shop. As I recall they were located in Azusa, the shop was 1 or 2 blocks south of 66 and east of the r/r tracks, this would have been 1965. A guy I used to run around with, Richard Batista, had a '58 Impala that had a lot of work done to it at Martinez Brothers... hydrualics front and rear, chopped top, shaved handles, frenched antenna, and molded in lake pipes. It had little frenched antennas on each side of the dash, you would push down on them to pop open the doors. The last time that I remember seeing the car it was painted a light purple primer and had purple metalflake roof.
Dennis Delucca was from Milwaukee, Wi, originally.He was a serious and avid hot rod/custom car guy and a good friend, it was a loss when, he died in his T bucket crash. There is an issue of Rod & Custom with a bunch of cars from the Early Times Car Club on the cover, supposedly, one of the T buckets in the group shot is the T that was in the crash. When, he left Milwaukee, he flat towed the 32 cabriolet to LA, as I recall, it was Olds powered. At that time, I had a chopped 50 Merc, Cad ohv, Cad LaSalle gear box. Before Dennis went to LA, we would street race the Merc against the 32, the win/loss ratio was about 50/50. Curt R
Curt The cabriolet was Olds powered and it had a '39 gear box. Isn't it amazing that we are talking about cars and events from 50-60 years ago and we are adding details not previously known. What I'd like to find out now is what happened to the cabriolet? The most identifiable part of the car was the dash. Anyone remember this car? Norm
Hello, THE GOLDEN BEAR was a restaurant and music venue in Huntington Beach on PCH. In the late 60’s, they drew some top acts from all over to perform. It was just a short drive down the coast from Sunset Beach and was an excellent live music place. We heard that Janis Joplin was going to perform and got some tickets to see the show. We stood in a line outside on Coast Highway. When we got inside, they showed us to a small bar height table right on the edge of the stage. We did not know at the time that Janis Joplin would be performing just 10 feet away from us. The rest of the band walked in and started tuning up. It seemed like it was going to be loud. When it started, IT WAS EXTREMELY LOUD. Here was Janis Joplin singing at the mike and moving around the same floor as the tables. It was like she was singing directly at us. We were looking at each other saying “…this is outstanding!” Out of all of the concerts we went to during this time, this has to be the one of the best ones ever. (Jimi Hendrix at the Shrine plus this one) This one was up close and very personal. Reach out and touch someone…as the ad says on TV. Thanks. Jnaki
went by it a million times but only went to the Golden Bear once to see Cheap Trick back in the early 80's. I hear plans are in the works to build a new 'Bear but it'll never match the charm of that dump.
My God... one of the best threads ever!!!! Love the pic's. Never had the chance to live in the area, but in the PNW, we read / copied / emulated what we could about what was happening in the "car world".
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