Folks Of Interest Larry Monreal, Land speed racer, built a 33 truck in 53/54 ? anyone know about this?

First off Im going to declare my interests here, I believe I have a Truck in my shop that may have been built by Larry Monreal in the early fifties, and I would love to verify that.
'Flathead fever' here on the Hamb posted five pictures of a 33 truck, taken in 1954 attributed to Larry Monreal, that he scanned from the originals(which says that he may know him personally) .they were posted in the ''32-34 truck pics' thread.(page 19) When I saw these shots i immediately recognised the similarities to the truck I am currently restoring..the louvers in the hood are identical in number and pattern, the chop is identical, the headlight bar is dropped the same way and is painted the same..the colour, everything says to me this has to be the same truck.
Now I believe Larry may still be alive.. (from an internet search he was in 2009 at least.) and living in San Bernadino. he would be eighty four years old or so.
Larry was involved with a VW land speed racecar until recently, and may still be actively campaigning it for all I know.

Does anyone know him, or the guy with the user name 'Flathead Fever' ? I have sent him a message but he hasnt been on here in a while.

I would love to talk to them both about the truck, and find out if it is the one Im currently working on, and that Larry built it.
For what its worth the truck is undergoing a ch***is restoration, the body , for the moment is staying exactly as pictured.the paint has been on the car since 1956 at least (theres a lube sticker from this year over the yellow paint)

Oh and if anyone can see any glaring differences that Im not noticing becuase Im too excited, please point them out!!

 

Did that truck make the cover of Hot Rod? I'll go check my collection, but it sure rings a bell.

 

Thats truck looks *****in, the stance is perfect. With fenders and running boards, thats the right look. Cool project.

 

Sorry the January 1952 Hot Rod cover truck is a different one but the same color.

 

Nope not the cover car,I think you mean the Jan 52 issue of Hot rod, which was built by Roy Descrow, nor is it the very similar one built by Wiley Miller only a few years later, both those trucks were Channeled..this one never was.

 

I'd say it the same truck.




Great picture. Love the big C.O.E. in the background.

As stated the yellow '32 on the January '52 HRM cover is not this truck, that was Roy Desbrow's.

 

Scaling from one photo to the other, the chops are both the same.

Doc.

 

What part of the US is it from?

 

Spooky, its from somewhere in SoCal I believe.
Yeh Im pretty convinced, the clincher for me is the photo of it in primer with that wicked Flathead twin and chick..If you look at the bonnet side, there is a bright dot below the louvers..on the hoodside I have here in front of me there is a chrome eyelet in exactly that position, I think it was used to fasten the hood side in against the cowl. Both the old photos and my hoodside have seventeen louvers in the top row. what are the chances of two different trucks having seventeen identical louvres??

 

Doesnt matter who built it originally - Restore it because some hot rods need to be preserved. We've lost too many of our hot rods to Become non descript street rods.

 

OOH i just noticed something else..look at the bottom of the right front stake pocket!

Missing on the truck now, and in that top photo..see the dark spot? was it missing then too? the paint around it now looks to have been that way for a long time! almost looks like it was removed to access something..battery cutout maybe? the battery was under the floor.

 

what Stovebolt?? of course it matters who built it! especially if he is still alive and can help with info on what parts were on it, what he did with it, where he drove it/raced it.. History is the reason it won't become an updated street rod.History gives a reason to preserve it.

 

My emphasis was on restoring it, not the who built it side of my statement.

I need to figure out how to do different fonts

You might want to go to Landracing.com and ask over there is he's still around.

 

oh I see. cool.

italics are the slanty I above the box you type in. just highlight the required word and hit the I ****on. easy!

will try Landracing .com Thanks for the tip!!

 

Same truck. *****iiiin!!
Lookin' at that Harley too. Oh boy!

 

Found a Larry J Monreal, 83 years old, in San Bernadino.

909-889-8241

Give it a shot...

 

Yeh I got it too..thanks Dave! Bit worried that if it isnt him, gonna scare the hell out of an old man with my accent!

 

Hard to tell any difference from those photos. Good chance it is.
Did this have a 303 olds?

 

Headlights look a bit different Ben. Looks like you have BLCs and the originals look more like King Bees. Easy swap though.

Hey, you should reproduce the Harley shot with Carl Cerra's Harley!

Pete

 

Head light buckets look different to me, may just be the picture. The ones on your truck look bigger.
Damn, Striper beat me to it.

 

I too believe this to be the same truck. Heres a picture from when it was first discovered a few years back.

 

I too came up with the same number for Larry from a Sidewinders club roster. That is his wife Annett sitting on the bike in the one photo. So, looks like you are getting closer to the right guy.

BTW, Larry was at Speedweek last year running his Karmin Ghia. Unfortunatly a late model Honda put about 40 MPH on the record and it looks like the KG will be retired.

DW

 

WOW! Love the truck, I'm going to be following this thread closely. I hope you find more info on it.

 

Cool truck! Neat to see it identified and soon restored. Off topic question though, In the pictures with the bike where it is painted, is that a big twin Harley, or is it a 45 based bike? I'm a Triumph BSA kinda guy and usually not too much for harley stuff, but that thing is cool!

 

Larry's still around and in San Bernardino. He was a fireman -- thus the station pictures. There was a 2-page story of his Bonneville exploits in the 2010 SpeedWeek program on pages 106 and 107. In 1961 he went 168 on a blown outboard-motored 2-stroke bike.

 

Larry Monreal has been lusting after the ELMOBILE (my '36 Tudor) ever since he saw it at Speedweek in '04. He and Jim Harber built the Sctty's Muffler Tank. They are both really nice humans. Wayno

 

Make the call Ben, sounds like the guy would definitely be worth talking too!

Imagine the history you might uncover...

 

You'll kick yourself for not calling. What's the worst that can happen, he can hang up on you?

Google search popped this up from http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1709686:

More on yellow car: http://www.myrideisme.com/Blog/larrys-old-volks-home-land-speed-racing-hbagc-record-holding-ghia/

 

There you go Ben...more in common with Larry than you might have expected. Hot rods and VWs.

 

Ha yep you are right pete!

Im calling him first thing tomorrow, friday afternoon LA time I think.

Will let y'all know what transpires!