WOW! Maybe this will motivate my *** to drive my car to a neighboring state to learn the history of my car. It was slammed to the ground before it was 8 years old and had a Laquar paint job. Was bought new in California. Great motivation guys. And people were worried an old famous custom was going over seas. I think(I know) its in good hands.
Sorry Bob!..we ran out off time! i still owe you a cold one you know! i am so freaking tired myself, and there's more work than i expected! but we will get back later! thanks to all the nice people we met up with! And thanks Rik! later palle
Palle,it was very cool to meet you and Rik it was cool to see you again. I hope my small contribution to the Jack Stewart ford archives adds a little bit to what you guys have already found. That car has been one of my favorites for a while and Palle.... your 51 is probably one of the best ones I have seen for a somewhat modern build.The chop on it is perfect and the Old Sultan used the correct window and it is just breathtaking. Like I said Palle it was cool meeting you guys and I wish you had more time to hang out. I hope you attend the GNRS this year . I am glad you have the Jack Stewart car , I dont know if anyone else would have givin it the care it deserves.
Before Palle an me flew out to the US Palle took me to his shop to look at the progress on the 1941 Ford. We drove over to the shop in his awesome **** Dean Chopped 1951 Merc... in the rain. At the shop I saw the body in one part of the shop and the frame in the other. really nice to walk around it that way and see details you would normally never see. Something I had already felt when we picked up the car in the Amsterdam was the original front wheel opening still being on the lowered front fender. We have talked to Jack about this and he mentioned that the front fender opening was never really finished the way it was supposed to be. Al Ayala was not done with it, and George Barris never worked on the area. So more than likely the flattened opening will be reshaped some to flow better with the rest... and we have Jack's ***istant to get it shaped to what he intended in 1950. Photo taken from the floor thru the rear wheel openings. In our conversations with Bob, Jack and George we have learned that it was Bob Hirohata who created the plastic items for the Jack Stewart Ford. The shifter knob and the taillights are still the original pieces done by Bob in 1951. More on the trip will follow tomorrow... I'm really tired now.
Ok.. so lets do this one over and add the right photos to it. The internet connections we had in our Hotels and Motels we used in the US during our trip was not really suitable for uploading the large photos and scans we made... So now back home, most of the stuff is uploaded and now I can finally do a better job at it. My body is still fighting all this time traveling, in a to short time... but it looks to get better already. So on Saturday October the 30th I drove up to Denmark - 6 hour drive - to meet with Palle. Then on Sunday we flew out to Chicago, from where we would drive the next day - Monday the first to Dayton Ohio to meet with Jim Street. We both woke up early, because of the time traveling, so we had an early start... it was really cold on our first stay at an hour of Chicago... frozen windows in the morning. We p***ed a windmill park in Indiana that served a s nice location for some great photos at sunrise. We got to Dayton Ohio and called Jim to get further directions to meet him We met him in his old office building and as mentioned before saw the kookie T and also the Kookie T trailer... here is one more photo of it. Jim Street is very much into old boats for the last couple of decades... and has a fantastic collection of outboard engines. This blown sample he uses on one of his nearly finished boats. Look at the details of the rodder and the propellor. After spending many hours talking to Jim and Sally about the cars and the boats, it was time to say good bye. Jim has provided us with many fantastic stories about the 41 Ford, and a lot of never been seen photos. Here is Palle, Sally and Jim. (left to right) The next day we where on our way to visit Bob Drake, but before we drove up to him in Indiana we drove to German town where Bob had bought the car in 1956. Then off to Fortville Indiana for our meeting with Bob. Palle and Bob in Bob's office. Besides having a lot of old photos and info on the 1941 Ford Bob had some fantastic old and older photo albums filled with wonderful photos. I wish I had more time and could have scanned them all... But I was able to take a few photos of some pages. Bob and Palle talked... and talked and talked while I was scanning the photos and listened to what was said in the meantime...
When Bob Drake started to work on the car in 1956-57 he found a few things in the car. Inside the doors he found two pieces of lipstick, which he has held all those years. He gave them to Palle. When we asked Jack Stewart about the Lip Stick he told us that he used the car for his daily transportation all the time during the built so he ran without interior door panels for a few years. The lipstick must have fallen into the doors during those years while picking up pretty girls. After I had scanned all the 1941 Ford photos Bob took us for a tour in his garage. TONS of cools stuff to be found there! Stacks and boxes full of old magazines... I could really have stayed for a week and still have not seen all the great stuff Bob has collected over the years. Several project cars Boo keeps everything... here is a label of a can of paint he used on the 1941 Ford. Thank you for having us over Bob. Me with Bob And Palle with Bob
Bob created the lipped fender skirts he ran on the car himself. Flat shaped sheet metal and hand made lip. George Barris visiting Bob in his garage in the early 1970's A nice photo of the cars Bob owned in the early 1970's. Carl R. Begy took the photo. After a long day with Bob we left for Chicago where we would fly out to LA the next day. We went back to the same Comfort In as we had stayed when we drove up here. Which is about an hour from Chicago. And the next day we had not to be there till about 10 in the morning. So we had plenty of time to write down all the things we had heard from Bob and Jim Street and get our scans and photos organized. One interesting thing we learned from Bob was that the very fast Flathead engine that was in the Ford now comes from a once Bonneville record holder. The engine was later removed from the car and was put into a 1941 Ford Convertible custom car. Bob Drake bought the engine form the guy who drove this 1941 Ford (no photos of this car though) Chicago We arrived in LA at about 6 in the evening and it soon got dark. As planned we woke up very early early in the morning... having no idea what time it really was. European, mid western or west coast. We stayed on the 7th floor of the hotel and had a great view over the city. Down town at sunrise Thursday we had planned for a a meeting with Jack Stewart, and it was going to be a fantastic day just as the meetings with Bob and Jim we had before this. Palle and Jack and his old 1932 Ford Roadster Of co**** Jack showed us his fantastic extensive LA Roadster show collection I would be later scanning material for a couple of hours on this really great looking old desk.
Some trophies Jack had won with the 41 Ford.. and the great stories Jack had to tell about them kept us busy for a long time Later in the 60's Jack was really into boats for some time. This one has a blown nailhead engine... all chromed. Making notes of the many great stories... and getting ready to scan.
Jacks MG was a magazine feature car as well.. it even appeared on the cover of Car Craft. Photo proof sheet... photos by George Barris. Here is another great photo of Jacks 32 Ford. And the chromed nailhead in Jacks boat. Palle invited us all out for a lunch at Bob's Broiler on Firestone blvd, for a great burger. What a great place! And after that Jack took us over to Junior Conway's Shop... What a nice guy Junior is.. and what a fantastic body work and paint does he and his team do. Like Palle said it before on the thread.. the absolute BEST paint job I had ever seen. More later...
Rik (Rikster) - That "once Bonneville record holder" is none other than the famous Fred Carrillo Bonneville Roadster ... currently owned by HAMBer frank morawski. Frank (& HAMBer Rich Venza) found the car many, many years ago ... Frank finished the restoration earlier this year ... and debuted the car at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance: Frank Morawski and Rich Venza with the Carrillo Roadster @ Pebble Beach (August 15, 2010) There's several HAMB threads about the car, its restoration, its debut @ PB (including my Lakesters & Bonneville Racers @ Pebble Beach '10 ... PICS!!! thread) ... and most recently, its appearance at Jalopyrama ... just "do a search". __________________________________________________ Palle (emiliedk) - Since you're reinstalling a Cadillac flathead in the '41, I ***ume the Mercury flathead is available? ... Before selling it, you might contact Frank to see if he is interested in reuniting the Carrillo Roadster with its original flattie
Yes I know... and it will have a full feature in the next issue of The Rodder's Journal... At the time Bob told us I had no knowledge of this car. But when I got home and found the latest TRJ with the announcement of a feature on this Bonneville racer I knew. Thanks for the links.. I will take a better look at it.
no wonder Bob said it ran like a ****d monkey ha ha! i better put in the roadster, and try it out! palle
When we arrived at Juniors House of Color shop he was busy Color sanding a yellow porsche. I think it was they already had 12 Color Sanding sessions with different sand paper done on it. And they still had to do three more before it was ready for final color buffing. The paint detail was amazing Junior showed us some of his amazing old Custom Car and Hot Rod photo collection. And Palle asked Jack if he could remember the photo that was shown in issue 49 of TRJ at the Montebello Show. Jack was not sure... could be I have been to many shows with it. But in the overview photo we do see Jacks 1941 Ford all the way in the back. We are only not sure if it was still owned by Jack or by Jim Skonzakes at this time.
On Friday we wanted to visit Brad Masterson at his old Barris Shop. But unfortunately he was not there when we got there. We did not have an appointment, but he had mentioned to just come by whenever we wanted. To bad we missed him, since the stuff we could see thru the windows was absolutely amazing and we would have loved to have a full tour. As for the old Barris shop... there is not much to see anymore... what a shame! Hello Brad!!!! where are you???? So instead we went up to Chino to meet with the Holmes family who sold the Lee Lucero 1951 Mercury to Palle some time ago. The Holmes where the parents of Lee's wife and inherented teh car after they p***ed away. We had a very nice afternone with them. Later that day we went out to the broiler again to make some nice night shots. On Saturday we had an appointment at the Barris Shop. So on our way to Holliwood... Me with Piero (Evel) checking out a few of the MANY... MANY paper sheets with contact photos. Palle showing Piero some of the photos we had scanned in the previous days. If you look really hard you can see the photo we found at Jacks house showing the 1941 Ford before it was chopped from 1947! There was some ABSOLUTELY amazing material in the archives... I would not have mind to stay there for a few month!!! The photo album with the Marcia Campbell photos of Sam Barris chopping the Jerry Quesnel 1949 Ford is now also at this shop. Many thanks for Cleatus to put it back together and making sure its in the right hands now. Here I'm holding a very old photo of the Sam Barris 1949 Merc. This photo was used in some of the magazines back then (but this one is not the one with the photo retouch on Sam's pants that was used in the 1951 Motor Trend magazine) The photo had a really nice patina. This box contained all the photos and cards George had took and bought while on his European tour in 1951. Some really great coach built cars in it.
And then they always want me to pose for some photos... I did not really have time for that... so much stuff to see, scan or take photos of.. oh well. And after a long wait (well we sure where not bored during that wait) we did meet with George shortly. George was dressed to go to this party, but had about 15 minutes to talk to us. At first it was a bit hard, and he was not really into it. But as soon Palle and me explained what we where doing, and that we had seen Jim Street, and Jack Stewart and that Palle now owns the car he opened up, started smiling and grew an inch or so. He told stories and asked questions about the car and about Jim and Jack... and we had a great time with him. We will continue with this at a later date. Put some questions on paper and will be emailing and on the phone with George to get some more info on the car from him. Palle going over some of the scans with George. George was very interested in hearing all about the car and our trip. This was the only photo they had for us on the car. Taken in the early 1970's when Bob Drake had just finished the car and when George Barris visited him to take a look at it. We had a really great day at the Barris Shop, and thank you Brett, Piero and George to have us over. Saturday evening we went over to Jack once more and he was sitting on his talking chair.... We spend a few more hours with him, and he was answering all the questions we still had after our first meeting on Thursday. Sorry about the bad photo.
On Sunday we drove up to Paso Robles for our Monday meeting with Paul and Pat Bragg... What a nice drive that was! Paul and Pat's garage must be the ultimate dream garage. To the left you have Pat's 1950 Sectioned Ford, then Paul's 1951 Mercury Convertible and barely visible their Hemi powered 1932 Ford 5-window Coupe. Paul's 1949 Mercury was in ned of some small paint touch ups. But looked so fine in real live. This one has been a favorite of both Palle and me for many years.
Then Paul took us to his workshop... Pat's soon to be finished 1954 Mercury.. Paul explaining what he had done tothe rear quarters. Then we went to look at his 1941 Ford.... WOW! While I was shooting the 1941 Ford Paul and Palle where talking.... a lot!
After the Work shop we went to see Paul's stash of cars... we had to take a 6 mile drive to get to his warehouse. Just a couple of Mercs Some extra gl***... Some extra bumpers... Lost shoebox Ford Palle showing all the stuff on the computer to Paul.... He was amazed how much we had found. Paul and Pat... thank you very much for having us over at your place. The Trip back to LA was fantastic... we had great weather (a bit of rain on the way up here so this was really nice) And right before we headed out to the airport to fly back home we met with Cyclone Kevin for a few minutes. On Tuesday the 9th we flew out of LA to Chicago, then on to Copenhagen Denmark. And from there we drove in two hours to Palle's home. Then a quick cup of Coffee and back in my own car to drive home to the Netherlands in 6 hours. And with all the time traveling and a night flights from Chicago to Denmark I was really tired so I stopped a few times on my way, even slept for a minute or ten. But made it home in one piece on Wednesday night. It was a FANTASTIC Trip... and we have gathered so much more info and photos than we had ever hoped for... Thank you Palle for inviting me on this unforgettable trip. And like I said earlier on in this thread we are planning a book... or if that is not an option there will be several magazine articles. And until then we will have to keep the extremely nice photo scans we made to our selfs. But Everything will be available in print and online on my site. But it might take a while... possibly after the car is completely restored.
Here are a few photos of the car from the time that Bob owned the car that we can share here. Thats a young Jack Walker in 1981... Jack would later together with Doug Thompson built the Hirohata clone. Flat rear tire.. the nightmare of any extreme lowered custom car driver. While at Bob Drakes house he showed us also a copied article from the August 1952 issue of Hot Rod magazine with the 41 Ford being showed by Jim Skonzakes at the Indianapolis show. If anybody has this magazine and access to a scanner, we would love to have a better scan of this photo.
Bob thought at one point he had a photo of the car before he started the restoration. But he could not find it, so he might have been wrong about it. But according to Bob the real damage was not really so bad after all. The "hit by the train" was more like kissed by the train as I mentioned before. The photo below shows the car in 1957, and shows that the front bumper was still there as well. In another photo we can see some damage to the front bumper due to the crash, but nothing severe. The drivers side had some damage, but now where near as much as we always thought after hearing the words Train wreck. And as for the comments the cars looks so wavy after the crash. Well is has never looked really super straight in any of the photos we have seen. Perhaps it was a little straighter before the restoration by Bob, but not much. Jack told us Al Ayala never did do the finishing metal work on it, that he planned for it. Money was tight, and when another Balboa weekend came up Jack decided he just wanted to have it finished and had George Barris do it.
So fantastic that I got tears in my eyes reading it. Tears of happiness that is. A million of thanks to Rik and Palle for bringing us this.
A trip like this is usually on your bucket list, all I can say is thank you and I cant wait to see the finished restoration.
The Jalopy Journal
