Been packing up stuff for moving and like always, you find some long-lost stuff and lose some other stuff. Anyway, Sweetie found these. Both of them I'd been looking for, for a while. I wish the one with the 34 would have been found in time for inclusion into the CHR book, but that's the way it goes. First up, a 50 Ford coupe, one of my favorites. The pic, not of my coupe, but one that pushed me into radiusing the wheel wells on my coupe a couple years down the road so the slicks would fit. The fit part important, cuz this is before narrowed rear axles were common. Pic taken about 1962 or so.
These pics are a touch beat up due to my house flooded in 1978 and a lot of pics were either lost, covered with mud - which I washed off these - or worst of all, rinsed off, stacked on top of one another and allowed to dry. I got a couple blocks of glued together photos from back in the day and I suspect they'll remain that way. Anyhoo, this chopped and channeled 34 coupe was running around the high school in my sophomore year - 1955 - and it was a great one. Aside from the black primer and 56 Olds Fiestas, it was a strong runner and almost always, if the guys girl friend wasn't riding along there were a couple of his friends in it. Some Fridays, they came back from open campus lunch most happy. Probably had to do with an amber colored liquid. I don't where the car got off to or if it ever got painted. When graduation came for that year, the coupe disappeared off the streets of Ventura. Interesting part is, it's not too far from what a lot of guys are building nowadays. Pic taken on Catalina Street, looking west just up from Main and across from the high school Admin building in Ventura, California
Nice to see someone "back in the day" having kept the '33-'34 grille. Those cars never look right with a Deuce grille.
Yeah . . . it was nice with the 34 grille. This was one of the first cars I saw in person that had a good stance and more importantly, the right lines. Seems for a while there everybody who chopped a top was doing the "let's chop the snot out of it so everyone will know it's chopped." A bit of wrong headed thinking to my way of thinking. Subtle touchs go a lot farther than radical ones do to making a good looking and interesting car. Ya know what I want to see? Somebody builds a 50 Merc coupe without a chop top and sets it up right....
Yes! Like the Rebel Without a Cause Merc. Subtlety is best. But then, it's been suggested that I'm a closeted restorer who likes hot rod engines.
Jay, Thanks for cool pics. The 50 coupe pic shows the word "raceway" over the hood, but I don't recognize where it is. Just curious. The flood you speak of, was that in Filmoore? I hung drywall in a tract by the Sespe River. Replaced all drywall from 48" down. What a mess! If I'm correct, you're lucky to have saved any pictures at all.
[ QUOTE ] Does this mean you will be answering posts addressed to AZ HAMBers soon [/ QUOTE ] I hope so. Got stuff packed up in boxes, living room and dining room buried. Had a couple of serious buyers and one backed out so I'm waiting to hear on the other one. If you've ever sold a house I'm sure you know how it goes....
[ QUOTE ] The 50 coupe pic shows the word "raceway" over the hood, but I don't recognize where it is. Just curious. The flood you speak of, was that in Filmoore? I hung drywall in a tract by the Sespe River. Replaced all drywall from 48" down. What a mess! If I'm correct, you're lucky to have saved any pictures at all. [/ QUOTE ] San Fernando Dragstrip. Forgot to add that little bit. The strip was wider than it looks in the pic. Even so, the left lane was lined with hay bales and the hedge/trees you see. The river bed was on the other side and running the left lane, once you got near the traps it was tunnel vision and things seemed narrow. The river bed made a subtle right turn near the end of the strip and went under the Foothill Blvd bridge as did the strip. There was pavement going under the bridge and right after it turned into a - sorta - sand trap. There were a few low berms - 2-3' high - transverse to the direction of travel and if you went over those you were in a sand, rocks and boulder mix. The flood was on March 4th, 1978. In Fillmore as you noted. My house was on Sespe Street in the Sespe tract and was the 4th house east of D street and facing the orchards with San Cayetano mountain to the N/W. I had a 23' sailboat parked in the driveway. It floated up off the trailer and back down onto it ending up at a list. I regret to this day not opening the attic access trap with a broom and tossing the family albums and school annuals up there. I hung a lot of drywall myself. In fact we stripped most of it out of the house, did some remodeling and rewiring and did the tape and mud bit. Sweetie ended up with her very own drywall hammer and she was a big help. First time around for her I hung a 4 x 8' sheet in the bathroom, tacked a couple drywall nails in, chalked for the studs, left the rest to her and went back to the living room. I kept hearing this hammering coming from the other end of the house, finally got curious and went down there. She must have had 90 nails in the one piece of drywall. We both learned there were a lot of things we could do when we had to. Took us about a year to get the house squared away.
Tell me you'll find a way to separate those pics in your photo "blocks". Some one with insurance salvage or book restoration must know a technique..."steam"..."cool" mist? Would love to see the rest.
C9, Always cool sto see period pics. Even non Hot-Rod pics from the good 'ol days are almost artistic in thier own right. Speaking of old photos and more specifically your blocks of stuck-together photos. I am not an expert or anything so you might want to talk to photo restoration places but I think that if you stuck them together by getting them wet, why couldn't you get them wet to un-stick them? You got nothing to lose right? My dad is an ex-photographer so we have about five thousand photos of our family. It would seem like we'd could stand to lose a few and still be alright with our memories. I beg to differ....I would miss every single one. It is a true mind bender to go back through those old photos and see your life. If you choose to do so I hope you can bring them back to life. Good luck.
[ QUOTE ] Even non Hot-Rod pics from the good 'ol days are almost artistic in thier own right. [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, here's one that Sweetie found. Completely off the subject, but HAMB'rs are more than one-dimensional people. Always liked this one, it says a lot. Circa 1980 or so, on a close reach for Santa Barbara from Ventura. The Rincon barely shown in the background.
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