Folks Of Interest My Uncle's stuff

Neat stuff for sure. Great thread.

 

Amazing. What an amazing, historical collection. Any more shots of the shop on Q street? Thanx for sharing this all, Gary

 

Gosh, what a wonderful, historical thread. It's great when folks
take and save old photos and "writings" of what they did and when they raced.
Great history that should be preserved.

 

The coolest thing about this is that he had a nephew that cared about his accomplishments and carried them on. Seems he is right that in most of these situations most people related to car guys like your uncle don't care about this stuff and so much history like this that we love gets lost forever. Thanks for all of this.

 

Amazing collection and stories, thanks for sharing. The pictures are surreal.

 

Just a fantastic thread rich with racing and hot rod history - thank you!

 

I am curious and you may be able to confirm that this had a form of skirt running from the running board up to the bottom of the body. I haven't seen many 32 framed full fender A Roadsters and obviously when done it was a custom deal always...but some I think left the frame exposed and butted the Board to the frame.

Couple more questions...

Fenders 32?

Interesting lower trunk panel was the tank back there?

Truly a beauty of a Hotrod that's for sure and quite a decorated Veteran it was...

Thanks again for sharing this History @stillrunners

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Thanks Stogy....if you go back to the early 1950 picture at the show there is a picture that shows a belly/frame type pan on a left side picture. Not much was discussed about the pans but....the Bonneville lakester of 1954/55 also had one that he did - he mentioned it wouldn't pass tech at Bonneville and I think they were going to make him run another class if he kept it on. Anyway he was in to pans for sure - just never discussed it much. That color rear picture of the roadster at the school which has the recessed lic plate - that was done by his good friend Dick Bertolluci who was also a founding member in the Sacramento Auto Club - Thunderbolts.

 

I'm not sure your seeing what I'm seeing. Your Late Uncle's Roadster as a highboy did have partial belly pans from front to just past center...what it had at the back I am unsure as I have not seen the highboy from the back.

In the transition to full fender because of the so called beauty of the Deuce frame with its reveals and smooth curved lip surfaces some did add running boards leaving the frame exposed just for that reason.

There are 3 examples of this in a thread I have featured your Uncles Roadster in due to the fact its makeup is quite similar and in fact somewhat rare 2 are period and one is inspired period.

The running boards on your Uncles appear to have a radius and 90 upright to the frame and 90 again into the frame body gap area typical to A Body/Deuce Frame unions. In addition to that you can see what I think is an end to the upright of the running board towards that chrome exhaust cowl plate. The forward highboy panning may have been removed once fenders were added.

The other thing again is the interesting panning below the trunk area. Essentially giving a Deuce like look to an area that is typically bobbed when made a highboy which was somewhat reversed in your uncle's case.

These are just construction observations and not at all negatives it's just interesting how things were done. A Body Deuce frame swaps keeping the deuce tank Setup are not all that common at least from my experience here but heck it may have been quite a period Hotrod thing to do.

 

The story he told was that as he returned from Korea - the roadster was still stored away - much to my grandpa's help - as my grandma - who hated all car stuff - grandma married my grandpa when he still had a gowl job and an auto shop in 1925 ! My uncle would say there were sooo many 1932 fenders out back of the shop - from highboy jobs - that when he said he'd put them on the 31 roadster - he was told it couldn't be done....so not sure how much help he had but they came a part of his car along with that noticeable NOS cowl ban his cousin Bill bought for him in the late 40's(Bill went to Bonneville and is in a picture or two ). . We never discussed much - mainly because I didn't see/get the color pictures - as well as the rest - until after he had passed. I was only able to talk him into - I actually asked politely if I could have - the early pictures of the fender less car which was a picture or two of the Bonneville event. He was interviewed before - he said - and as the truth didn't come out about the Northern California history - I could only guess this was his reasoning - and then I was awful respectful not to push to much. The shop truck was maybe their date vehicle.......

 

When he talked about the belly pan deal - I assumed it was with the lakester he built for 1954 - but when I look at the show pictures from 1950 - it looked like he had a belly pan on the roadster then. Any way he did say after going thru tech they wouldn't let him run class with it - so...if it was roadster class it makes sense - that they might make him run lakester with the roadster and belly pan in 1950 ?

 

I suppose this Roadster Belly Pan could be hidden under the added fenders and boards.

All these additional parts of your relationship with your Uncle and Grandparents are equally cool. Thank you...

 

That's the day I was born !!!

 

I see you missed out on much of the cool stuff too......but thanks to this great site we get to step back and experience it as best we can.

 

Sharing this digitalised 8 mm. footage Stillrunners uncle took from the 1950 Bonneville trip. Amazing footage.

 

Thanks @Rikster, priceless is indeed a great way of putting it...So long ago...many familiar revered Classic Hotrods and Customs including the Pilots of Course sharing the good times and comradery...

 

Thanks Rik - know you enjoyed Leroy's Chevy it crusin' down the highway towing a roadster to Bonneville......wish it was a little better footage - sure it was the reason my Uncle didn't care to get it out and run it on the old projector - something I haven't done as yet either. I just had it transferred over to disk to be able to share it.

 

Thanks @stillrunners for your part in sharing these precious moments...

 

The film just needs a makeover by the guy who did this:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/a-trip-down-market-street-april-14-1906.1192961/