Hot Rods Pics of real Gasser pickups in the early days

Some really nice ones too....

 

As far as the whitewalls go, I think folks that are building modern g***ers are just looking for something to make people think "vintage g***er". Something that points folks down that path.

 

Not really the "early days" and a bit past 1965. Unknown, Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, Chattanooga, TN, circa 1970

 

Well, by early days I mean before the g***er, street driven craze started.

 

The Strip Tripper

 

Cool pics. Keep em coming.

 

Another photo of Shallcross Brothers PU. Now painted green and moved from gas cl*** to modified production cl***. Truck was later made into a street driver.

 

I built almost the same thing for my 40.

 

Dang, that looks pretty close to what dad had in there.

 

Really cool g***er trucks! Real ones

 

Hello,

After our 40 Willys explosion and fire in 1960, we were in a state of shock / limbo as to what to do next after the recovery. My brother and I talked about building a different gas coupe and hit the big time. We wanted to go after the A/Gas and AA/Gas supercharged racers with a vengeance.

There were a lot of choices, but we found a 40 Willys pick up truck in another sideyard being neglected, again. But, this time, it was going to cost more money. The medical recovery was not going as well as possible, but the idea of us starting again kept coming back into our conversations. So, several ideas popped up. One was this funky drawing I did to see what it would look like. We still wanted to stay with the small block 671 Chevy, but bored and stroked, and with Hilborns, M&H, Halibrands, and a B&M/C&O Hydro.(no more clutch housings for us) Also, it was everything we were going to do to our Willys coupe.
(not a nose in the air stationary stance, it was supposed to be firing off of the starting line, I could not draw smoke very well.)
previous post :
By 1964-65, my brother and I had gotten together many times before he went off to college. Our drag racing days were coming to a close and he was entrenched in his college studies in L.A. So, from our respective college living quarters, our conversations were done on paper…a letter… remember those? When both of us got home from college at the same time, those late night, reminiscent subjects, and memories/thoughts came to the forefront. We still read Drag News and sometime Hot Rod Magazine. (during recovery, my brother was a fictional character that wrote to Drag News about all things racing…)

But, our attendance at Lions was down to nil and I actually went to two Saturday night events at Fremont Dragstrip in Northern California. (a 17 mile drive to the dragstrip via a freeway from my college in San Jose.) I needed something to get the home sickness blues down. The drag races helped, as well as those great Santa Cruz, Pleasure Point waves.

One topic of our conversations was always our hot rod builds. After the tragic 1940 671 Willys Coupe, our thoughts were still on us building some other race car. Thoughts went from street legal cars to altered coupes/sedans. He even thought he might want to dabble in a FED. (an FED? Our parents would have had a giant episode of the “FITS”…) So, to look into the future with some appea*****t of parents, we stuck to gas coupes and maybe an altered.

Back then, if the legal set back was 10% for street legal Gas Coupes/Sedans, a 25% set back was appropriate for the Altered Cl***es. But, if any street legal gas coupe/sedan did something to not make it street legal, then those race cars got plopped into the altered cl***es. This was not that bad as the times were pretty much the same. (remember, this was pre-fuel altered roadsters being called “Altereds.”) So, many times we would see a street coupe racing in the altered cl*** because they did something that made them non-street legal. (No mufflers, missing license plate, non working headlights/brake lights, etc.)

My brother’s first choice was to go up a cl*** or two in the street legal Gas Coupe/Sedan Cl***. From our 671 SBC Willys Coupe to the A/Gas Supercharged Cl***. By this time, the A/Gas cl*** was almost as popular as the top eliminator FED race cars. Those gas coupes still made spectators envision driving those modified hot rods on the street, 671 hemi motors and all.

So, both of us started drawing what we thought we would like to build. A Model A Coupe, a Willys Pick up, and Model A Roadster Pick Up were some drawings that popped up now and again. Now, the favorite SBC motor would be subs***uted with a big block Chevy motor 396/427. The A/Gas Cl*** was almost limitless. So, the 1940 Willys pick up with a 671 427 Chevy motor would power the pick up truck for our finished version. The roadster pick up was next on our list.

We had the build experience, now it was the effort behind the future build, that we had to get over. Besides, finishing college with its expenses, the hot rod build would have put us in a deep financial dark hole. Satisfaction, yes, but being in a deep dark hole is not conducive for a happy life.

The new shapes, pattern sheet, a new curvy pattern sheet, a circle sheet and different pencils as well as my limited computer skills now make drawing a little easier. Now the supposed, future Willys pickup looks a little better and somewhat detailed. The only problem we never discussed was if we big teenagers would have fit in the “smallish” truck cab, without modifications.
An extended cab? Maybe?
Jnaki

When it was time, we both sat down and said what we wanted to do at that point in our lives. I wanted to travel after high school. He wanted to start desert motorcycle racing in So Cal and in Baja, coinciding with week long surf trips. We both were going to postpone college for a year or two. That was the final postponement of building an A/Gas 671 supercharged Chevy in a 40 Willys pickup for the drags. Up to the time he p***ed away in 1992, we always thought about this postponement of our drag racing careers and how it affected our family, good or bad.

Here is another fast C&O sponsored Willys pickup. Gene Ciambella of C&O Stick Hydro Company
with Keith Martin and Steve Montrelli.
C&O at Lions 1964

 

Thanks for sharing with us. You guys sure lived the life back then.

 

Ralph Catafalo''s 'Jersey Engineering' Willys P/U at CT dragway.

Pat

 

Hey R,

Thanks for the nice comment. We were just a couple of inquisitive kids from the Westside of Long Beach. Our early influences were similar to most here on the HAMB. Old Hot Rod/R&C Magazines, a couple of cool, local hot rods to see some in real life. Then once opened, the advantage of living a few miles from Lions Dragstrip and the Bixby Knolls cruising scene came into play.

It also helped that our dad was all for the both of us to become individuals. He supported us in any endeavor we decided. Our mom was the opposite. She did not want us to do "dangerous things" and just grow up to be good kids. Well, we did both.

Jnaki

It took a long time for her to get over the 1940 Willys accident and resulting burns to my brother, plus his recovery. We did not have a single day that we did not hear... "I told you so..." Plus, much later, it is/was hard for her after our dad p***ed away to see her oldest on his last round, too early for departure.

When I came home one day from surfing with a big ****** cut on my head, again, she jumped at the chance to drill in a little deeper. But, she was getting tired of her sons giving her early grey hair and fitful nights worth of no sleep.

So, yes, we did live a life, but it still rings true in our photos and memories. For us, it was the only way to just be normal teenagers with sports, hot rods and friends before we had to get serious for the future. Now, that I am an orphan, my own family is very comforting. We are secure knowing that they are getting along in society, quite well.

Our next generation, granddaughter is the highlight of our continuing family.

Thanks again for the nice comment. My wife thanks you, too. We have been together through thick and thin, but continue to live life as fully as possible, even during the pandemic and mask cover up days.

 

My friend (Baby Cakes Willys) keeps sending me photo's of guys we knew. Another of Ralph Catafalo.

Pat

 

We tell him not to stop....

 

These old pickups are jus plain cool!

 

These may fall more in the Altered cl***es but still cool IMO