Been into cars my entire life. Father was owner owner of transmission shop and speed shop in Dover, NJ. He always had racecars, musclecars and hot rods around. He p***ed away in '07. I have what remains of his collection. Tryng to figure out what to do with them. I figured I could get some ideas here. Look forward to experiencing this site as a member. I've been following alot of the threads as a guest.
Welcome aboard! Glad you didn't just dump the cars your Dad loved....... Start putting pics of some of those wicked rides on here and feel free to aske questions. You found the best place for answers.
Was it on Rt 46 next to restaurant named, I believe, "Three Sisters"? But my memory is faded. I might remember the cars. Please post pics if you have available.
Welcome from the west coast of Florida. You have found the right place that's for sure if you are interested in old cars and plenty of excellent information on restoring them. Best of luck. Jimbo
I think that I may have met your Dad. Did his cars include a black 55 Chevy 2Dr hardtop with 265 running D/MP in 1964?
He did have black '55. I heard of it mostly racing on the street. Supposedly it was pretty tough on the street. If he raced it in D/MP, it would have been before June '64, thats when he took delivery of the Plymouth. Were you originally from NJ?
I was born in Dover and lived in Rockaway Township until I left New Jersey in 1965. I spent a number of Sundays at Island Dragway in the early sixties. I remember his 55 Chevy well. NHRA introduced modified production in 1964, and the cars running the cl*** that first year were almost all true hot rods off the street, rather than the dedicated race cars that followed. His 55 was a black two-door hardtop, running a 265 SBC. A heavy car with small cubes, so he was hitting some ungodly RPMs. I recall that he ran low 13s, which was really respectable for D/MP at the time. But what impressed me is that he ran a three-speed stick rather than the typical T10. He obviously had the gearing dialed in just right for the peak power RPMs of that little engine. But I was also amazed that his three-speed transmission survived under all that hammering. I went through multiple broken three-speeds, all of them with broken second-gear syncros. Back then, you simply went to the junkyard to fork over 25 bucks and got another transmission. I stopped at his shop several times. He was always gracious, stopping what he was doing to talk with this clue-less teenager. He explained that a properly geared three-speed had an inherant ET advantage over a close-ratio four-speed by eliminating one shift point. He showed me his design of a reinforced second-gear synchro, and he built one for me. Unfortunately, I never got to install it because Uncle Sam came calling shortly after. I kept that part for a number of years, and regret that I lost track of it over the last 25 years or so. Your Dad was a true hot-rodder, and generous to share his experience.
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