Folks Of Interest Prized possessions

A few of my prized pieces, would love to see others. First one is Bill Burkes Bonneville shirt. Second is original 1962 Daytona poster.

 

These are some great people I've had the good fortune to meet and of course 102 year old Ed, happy birthday. Last one is an autographed picture of Jim Clark with Bruce Mclaren leaning over his car talking to him. He lost his life in Germany 3 months later. R.I.P.

 

I have some memorabilia from a few of the people who I feel were instrumental in the hobby. One of them is Jack Chrisman who campaigned one of the first real “funny cars”. He sent me this photo and letter in 1976, if only I would have bought the parts I could have retired earlier.

 

I was probably about 16 or 17, we were at Speed Week as crew for my dad's friends streamliner. There was a long line for the long course that day. Bill Burke hung out with us the whole way to the line and told us stories about the glory days of Bonneville. This would have been about 2002 or 2003. I only knew basics of his accomplishments at the time, but it was a really cool thing especially once I learned his significance. I wish I remembered all the stories he told us.

 

Is this Wilson modelling the shirt?

 

Wife is camera shy

 

Sorry should be 64 not 62 for the Daytona poster.

 

And of course Veda Orr's first book

 

Original 60's Simpson nitro mask belonged to Jim Lee from Pensilvania.

 

YEOWZA!!!! THOSE BONNEVILLE SHIRTS ARE AMAZING!!

 

I wanna play!!!

Attached are photos of the dealership 1933 Ford chassis display, the original Falcon Ranchero door that was on the Kenz and Leslie shop truck they used for years, and an original Continental Divide Raceway shirt and winners jacket.

 

Rocket88NZ, what’s in that right pocket?

 

Looks like it was a patch that has come off or worn away. Not sure what the patch was though. Cheers Mike.

 

Love Batman

 

I am super jealous of that poster. I collect vintage racing posters when I cant find them. It can be difficult to wade through what it real and what is reprinted.

 

Hello,

I was given the task of cleaning out one of my deep drawers in our newish garage cabinet system. We have shallow drawers for the normal daily stuff, scissors, X-acto knives, pencils, measuring tape plus tapes of all kinds, and Velcro rolls/pieces. That is the almost, everyday stuff. The next shallow drawer is my Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Corgi drawer. I have several custom little cars being modified in various stages and one project that has been sitting for two Christmas seasons due to “stuff” getting in the way.

But, these days, the drawers are neat and organized, plus I know where things are. The one drawer that gets used most are where my wife knows what is in that drawer for her usage.

One of deepest drawers, 4 in total, store the heavy tools, electric drill, saw, hand saws, files, etc. Everything one would need to start and finish a project or two. But, stashed in the corner of one deep drawer are some memorabilia items. They were once in a plastic container in the attic, but now, they reside in one of the accessible garage drawers. In that drawer, are only 4 things of interest from our various family history. Of the 4 things, this one is a doozy.
This guy has survived clean out purges since 1966 and used since 1950.
Vintage Hanau Alcohol Torch. Patent #1755216. Buffalo, NY, USA

The last remaining tool from our early hot rod days and model car building is still with me. My brother, when he was alive, did not want it and told me to keep it for posterity. Whenever, that time is… is it posterity, yet? To our granddaughter’s kid’s kid, it will probably be just an old oddball tool from the early 1950 time period. What great grandfather did in his spare time? What a weird guy…ha!

We can see it now, out of respect, our son would have kept this item as family history. But, we know the newest generation has little time for such a crazy looking tool. Who knows what the future generation would think of this odd ball tool and how it played an important part of our model car building days and hot rod days from 1953 onward.

It quietly sits in an automotive drawer in our garage and if it ever gets cleared out in the future, hopefully it will remain in our family history. The first thing someone would say is what the #$@!! is that black thing? And what was it used for in their lives? We don’t have a lot of stored stuff from our old family days, starting from 1946 to the present time. My wife and I have our memories together and since we are now the gatekeepers of a lot of family photos and papers, that all tells plenty of history from both sides of the extended families.

So, I can see my son going through this deep drawer and finding the black unusually shaped tool. “What the…” pops out and this tool will probably be headed for the nearest trash can. But, if our granddaughter is with him that day, she will say that is what was used in grandfather’s history from his stories. So, now, if my son has read our stacked digital written stories that my wife has been writing and my files of films, written stories, plus photographs, he may have come across this one about our first tool for our hobbies way back then.

Jnaki

My brother and I used this torch for our modifications to plastic chassis to lower cars, make them sit higher in back, and fit inside of bodies that they were not made to fit. The flame was pin point to the exact spot that we needed to make a slight bend for the fit. Matches and candles could do the job, but they were not able to be controlled for the exact pinpoint heat. It was as if we had a gas torch and heated real car parts to hammer into shape or configuration.

The other thing was an even flow of heat to make wax rods for headers and custom roll bars. We just had to know that on hot days of the summer, the heat sometimes melted the sturdy forms into worms. But for the headers, we used my mom’s extra needles melted into the backsides of the individual pipes to keep the shape. This flame source gave us even heat, pinpointed at what exactly we wanted to heat/bend or meld together.

When we were connecting real electrical wires together, we used this torch to melt solder and then shrink the insulated coverings. It was perfect as we could control the heat and where it was pointed. It was a handy tool in model making and in real automotive uses.
The wick lights up with a nice flame. When the trigger is pulled inward, then the air gets shot out of the small hole with a bent precision flame hitting the object in question.

So, the future great, grand kids or whoever, please don’t chuck it in the trash. It was an important part of the two brothers growing up and using a funny looking tool to help us out in our mini customizing or in real hot rod mechanics.


Note:
This little flame thrower had been sitting around all of the houses we have lived in as a decoration. I even polished the shiny black exterior and it was a conversation starter. Yes, someone asked if they could use it as a different lighter for candles and such. It could shoot a flame down to the unlit candle on a cake surface without touching any other candles. Today, we have those click flame thrower/starters that do the same. But, they do not have the history of this black oddball shape item.

It fit the need of an antique item (to display), to go along with our then, antique furniture. But, when those were exchanged in the next furniture purge by you know who, it was given a nice resting spot in the garage cabinets.

To me, it has always been a miniature flame thrower. The wick made the flame go upwards and the needle valve outlet shot out a stream of air to push the flame towards whatever direction it was pointed. Those little green plastic toy soldiers had no chance against this flame thrower.

Over the years, it has occupied any garage cabinet. Once in a while, I will get it out and look at it. It was used as a flame thrower against the hordes of little green army men and cars. But, also as a pin point heat source to bend those “wax resist” rods for model dragster frames and header pipes.

Later on during the hot rod days, the flame thrower was used to heat shrink the thin rubber tubing. As part of a art jewelry class I took in college, I used almost the same “wax resist” rods with a needle nose pliers and this flame thrower to meld the rods into a custom ring or piece of jewelry for what was called, a “lost wax casting” project.

This was one of my favorite college classes to make some jewelry for our own uses and possibly to generate some source of additional income. I wore a nice lost wax ring for a year until we got our own custom made wedding rings from a jeweler, for both of us.

The old, reliable flame thrower is still old and still hanging around. It has been my friend for 66 years. Will I ever get rid of it? Who knows, there are fewer items from back in those days that have stayed with us over the years. Many house to house moves always created a situation that the “extra junk” from the old house gets stored or thrown away. No more gawdy sticker walls or street signs we found. Just nice clean walls of a garage that looks as if it was a hospital room.

So, since we are on our last house move, it is safe from the “roving junk, purge character” that has been with me for a long time running. Still safe and hiding behind a few, old, car model boxes. For now…

I loaded up some alcohol into the compartment, primed it, and lit the flame end while depressing the trigger. I found some 5o year old wax rods and tried shaping a dragster frame. The old wax did not want to cooperate (too brittle and the composition melted/crumbled when slightly heated) and the project ended up in the trash. The flame thrower was drained of alcohol and stored away for another rainy day project in So Cal.

 

If anyone should need one of those Alcohol torches, I have one that looks almost unused. In the box yet.
$54 to your door.

 

Here is mine. An Isky patch. But the kicker is I found these patches in a thrift shop run by non other than Bob Berdella. This was before he was caught and found out to be serial killer. I met this creepy dude and I do remember a very creepy vibe while dealing with him. He ran a corner thrift shop at the Westport Flea Market & Grill. It must have been about 1987-88....I was still in highschool. These two and another patch were on display in his shop in a cheap Walgreens type frame with plastic "glass". At the time I thought I hit the motherload. It was years later I had that "oh SHIT" moment when I realized who I had purchased these from.

 

The air cleaners were Jere Sheehan's. Founder of our club. I am honored to be able to run them

 

Can anyone tell me anything about this shirt..

 

My granddaughter Veda with a Veda hubcap reproduced by Steve Sellers. HRP

 

Tribal Jackets...

 

This was a prized possession before I sold it for twice what I paid for it.

 

Bobby Allison's hat from his 1983 Southern 500 Victory!
Mom and Dad saw him coming out of the press box and asked if he would hold me for a photo. I was just under two years old, I reached out and started playing with his hat he handed it to me. After a few minutes Dad said, "Give Bobby his hat back." Instead, Bobby autographed it and put it on my head!

 

In 2018 I was a pit crew member for John Mullen' H.A.M.B. special . At the salt flats we were set up next to Danny Thomson . Every time we need a porta-john break it a a 1/2 mile bike ride. After Danny set the new record he was done except for taking pictures . Now we have full use of a large handicap porta-john. Lots of people purchased from Danny but i am the only one who got the sign from the porta-john that says Welcome Thomson Crew. It hangs ln a display cabinet in my garage ,