Art & Inspiration Friday Art Show

1957-59 Plymouth Custom Nomad Station Wagon

Hello,

As teens, we were all looking for something different than the others. We wanted to stand out but not make it so garish that it was an oddball car to be driven or shown to our high school friends.
Ever since this article came out in Hot Rod Magazine, it made believers in many teenagers about the possibility of owning a Plymouth Sport Fury as their choice of fast cars. But as nice as the 57 looked, the 58 looked similar while the 59 had classic, larger tailfins that made a statement.
1959 Riverside Raceway Black 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury

This 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury was sitting in the participants staging lane at the Riverside Raceway event on December 20, 1959. It was in the background of the main photo of our friend’s Red Fiat Altered from Bixby Knolls. The Rasner, Reath, McEwen A/Altered coupe was on a small trailer, but still looked fast. Because of the Fiat Altered being the centerpiece of the film, the Plymouth was overlooked, all of these years.

Lurking behind the Red A/Altered coupe was the 1959 Plymouth Fury. The roofline looked like a 57 Chevy, but the odd tail fins made a difference in the identification. The class must have been an A/Stock category with the similar weight of a 58 Impala and the 305 max horsepower. This was a first for us as we have/had been racing our 280 hp Impala in the A/Stock class.

The odd thing was/is for all of the time we had been racing since the fall of 1957 when my brother bought his 58 Impala, we never saw any Plymouth Sedans racing in any class at Lion’s Dragstrip. Nor, did we see any Plymouth Sedans cruising around our So Cal stomping grounds.

So, where were they? The modifications from the factory would have put them in the class to be very competitive, but they were absent from competition and the local drive-in cruising circuits.

The idea of a 57-59 Plymouth Nomad would have fallen in line with other wild design ideas for those cars that could have made more of an impact than they did at the time. A 4 door to two door and not call it a Suburban. The original stylish lines were there, it just did not come to fruition.

Jnaki

They had nice lines and the stuff the factory threw in as stock was pretty good. But where were they on Friday and Saturday nights? When we saw them at the dealer’s showrooms, the one thing that stood out was the cool swiveling seats for the driver. The classic swivel seating was innovative at the time. As was the 3 speed push button Torque Flight transmission.

But, the overall popularity was nowhere to be found. The Plymouth would have been different and could have had a following if the Chevy sedans did not take over the popularity factor at the time. The choice for a new 1959 car would have been a 1959 335 hp 4 speed Impala, but that was only a year newer than my brother’s 58 Impala.

The Plymouth Sport Fury did help the Chrysler factory remain number 3 in the auto sales numbers, though.

At the local So Cal surf spots, the 57-59 Plymouth Nomad Station Wagon would have hit all of the bells and whistles, including the colorful longboards... No 4 door, stodgy station wagon (Chrylser corp. pun intended) for this local surfer... YRMV

 

Done! We will give this away this evening.

 

Earlier I posted a thread about the gathering at "BARLOW POINT".
There were some really great trophies made by Lance Hoff for the participants of that cool car show.



Lance also has a beautiful truck as well.



Lance is a great fabricator indeed, he is the one in the hat, presenting a trophy to one of the winners.



So I made a couple of lamination's of the skull grille that hangs on my wall directly in front of my desk. The lamination's are 36" X 11" wide, with an inch of clear border all around.
These are a complete surprise to him as they will be presented to Lance as a thank you, from the organizer of the show, George Paradis.

This is George in his beautiful black 40 Ford.


Here's hoping that you all have a great weekend.
Thanks from Dennis.

​

 

Good day ya all !

 

My favorite rags as a kid.

 

Still reeling from Hershey. So just an old one today.

 

Our corporate Heritage Center brought one of the Indy cars to the plant this week for the visit from the Stellantis CEO. They maintain all five Cummins Indy cars, as well as other notable vehicles from our history.

This is the only one I hadn't seen, the '52 car which had a good chance of winning; it set some (albeit short-lived) lap records, started on the pole, and was in 5th position when it retired due to a failed turbocharger which clogged from rubber debris.

The straight six lay on its side in a Kurtis Kraft chassis. It was the first turbocharged car ever to run in the 500, and unfortunately the last diesel.

What a fantastic car. It was nice to have some time to soak up the details, such as the bizarre brakes; all four are dual-caliper, and the fronts had some interesting pivoting mounting brackets. I wish they'd left it here, a little sneak in on the weekend to peek under the panels would have been nice!

_DSC0440 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM

_DSC0620 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 9:03 AM

_DSC0532 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM

_DSC0635 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 9:03 AM

_DSC0575 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM

_DSC0593 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM

_DSC0491 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM

_DSC0482 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM

 

Love that era of Indy! I’m not real familiar with the Cummins cars, but It looks like all 4 tires are the same size? Hard to tell but maybe front or 4 wheel drive?

 

Hi HAMBers.
Lil' scribbles of a friend's pretty cool '31.

 

Yes, they looked to be the same type, size, and orientation. It's RWD, the engine was on its side and the driveline went to the left of the driver. You can see the top of the shift lever in this pic.

Here's a link to a site which has a pic of the chassis, pretty interesting:

Cummins Diesel Indy 500 Racers | Old Machine Press

_DSC0671 by GirchyGirchy posted Oct 11, 2024 at 8:59 AM

 

Just some paint-on-rust for an old friend.

 

Hello,
Nice usage of the metal milk can. My brother had this great idea of transforming the steel milk can that we had for our surfboard resting spot during glassing and finishing. We painted it black and then modified it the following ways.
Old backyard custom made smoker cooker.


One year, my dad, at the insistency from my mom not wanting to cook a giant turkey all day, brought home a big smoked turkey from his grocery store owner/friend in Los Angeles. My mom was tired of cooking 17 straight turkeys and with two growing teenagers, decided she wanted a break. It had been a turbulent year for my mom and dad, with my brother in different stages of recovery from his 3rd degree burns.

So, my dad brought home a smoked turkey for something different. The brothers devoured our share of the smoked turkey and packed the rest for the 4 day Thanksgiving surf adventure in Baja California’s secret spot. We had the smoked turkey dinner on Wednesday night and left at midnight for a 5 hour drive South.

It was the hit of the 4 day vacation and we vowed to do it again the following year. So, what do two ex-hot rod/drag race teenagers do for inventions after the hot rod phase was in recovery? Why, make a turkey smoker for our backyard. My brother came up with a great idea for the next turkey smoking dinner. He bought a metal milk can at the local surplus yard.


A. We painted the vintage milk can with high heat exhaust pipe paint.
We cut off the bottom in a circular pattern. That created a hole to sit over a small Hibachi.

B. Then we cut out a side panel and made it into a swinging door with a latch.
We drilled holes into the top portion of the top curve area for smoke exhaust ports. It was close to the sealed area of the drop down lid, but away from the sides to create smoke exhaust outlets.

C. Finally, we drilled a hole into the bottom of the removable lid and we added a thick wire for the
hanging hook that dropped the turkey down towards the hot coals.

We could not hang the meat too close to the small Hibachi or it would burn and not cook/smoke at the same time. The side door slot was good to adjust the lowered height of the meat (chicken/turkey/ham/steak) for the best smoking distance.

We cooked the turkey/ham in the backyard concrete pad just outside of our custom garage. It smoked up the whole yard and backyard garage. It smelled like smoked turkey for weeks. The final touch was going to be some red/yellow/orange flames on the side of the black milk container. That would have looked cool. But, my brother said it would be too hot and mess up the paint, anyway.

Jnaki

Did our mom like the smoked turkey idea? It smelled wonderful on our test runs. My brother and I stuffed ourselves with our own smoked turkey and chicken. But, my mother saw the original metal milk can in its rusted state before we painted it black. She said she would not eat anything cooked inside of “that thing.” Aww, we wanted to surprise our dad for the Wednesday night dinner so we could take off again for the 2nd time in two years down to Baja’s secret surf spot.

Our mom drove to the grocery store to get her a giant turkey so she could cook it for our Wednesday night dinner. By 1963, despite the secrecy from all of the friends in the minimal station wagons and vans headed South, somehow it got out and in 1963, it was no longer a secret spot. BOOOO!

The smoked turkey episode will linger on forever. It had permeated our sinus senses and made us drool at the recollection of the incident in our midnight conversations, much later, when we were older.
SMOKED TURKEY...YUM!!!

Glassy head high waves in Baja, Mexico, surfing all day, naps in the warm sun, sharing stories of different adventures around the dinner campfire until the we hours of the morning and being the first ones to paddle out when the sun was just breaking the Eastern sky... YRMV

Note: The first cooking job started a fire that blasted the top off and we had to reconfigure the exit gasses and air circulation. When we figured out what was the problem, it was the possibility of more fire that was worrisome. Through trial and error, the smoker finally did well and we had some tasty smoked turkey for a week of surfing and "stuffing" our selves during a week long Thanksgiving Vacation...pun intended. (Wednesday night to Monday afternoon, gee... we missed Monday morning school... YIKES)

 

Metal timing chain/gear/barbed wire jewelry box I made for the special lady.

 

Love the new board! The fade effect is nice.

 

Thanks a bunch....did that one for a friend.

 

The trophies I built for my car show last Sunday. 182 cars - a new record! Top step L-R: PERFECT TIMING AWARD given to who got their car done just in time for the show; WINNER BEST SOUNDING ENGINE crowd voting on best sound; BARREL INN'S BEST the bar owner's pick. 3rd step L-R: GAS GUZZLER who looked like they get the worst milage; BAND PICK my band's favorite; PERFECT PONTIAC it lights up! but it got broken in transport - we'll give it next year; BEST WIRE WHEELED CAR. 2nd step L-R: BEST CHOP; COOLEST 2-WHEELER; LOOKING BACK for the most traditional hot rod or kustom; OUTSTANDING OLDSMOBILE; RUSTY WRENCH AWARD for who looked like they needed some PB Blaster. Bottom step L-R: CHAMPION OF THE HEAD-TO-HEAD SPARK PLUG CHANGING COMPETITION; UNDER CONSTRUCTION for best unfinished; DON'T PAINT IT for best patina, etc.

 

Hey @1pickup
I really appreciate the talent displayed in your creations, all of them are cool.
I really like the
"PERFECT PONTIAC", that is a great idea!
The "DON'T PAINT IT" caught my eye as well.
I have a cool old Zenith, long distance, tall boy console radio, that I have a few automotive related items placed on it.
Something about the shape of the paint spray guns, that has always fascinated me.
Thank's from Dennis.

 

Valley Custom Shop Ray Vega Ford Tub - ART

 

This hit the spot today, people. Thank you very much for taking the time to post your efforts. Some real cool stuff and stories. Makes October easier to handle.

 

As I was polishing the trim on the 47 I thought this is a cool place to take a picture lol

 

thanks to all who post or make comments,...thanks for the "likes"

 

Only one this time?

 

^^^ just a doodle...

 

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