Projects A late introduction-Junior Conway coupe build

Jer, I just ordered your book.



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Thanks Truk, you're the one who started all this, waaay back then. While it was a surreal experience writing all this down, there are times when I wish this was somebody else's story. My wife turned out to be the best editor, and at the end, when it was time to comb through this "one more time", it became obvious that we had some PTSD because of all these events that "we" shared. THANKS AGAIN, "I THINK."

 

You’re welcome, I think. I just finished reading it and it has been quite a ride for y’all. Well worth the energy y’all put into it and well worth reading.


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I want to thank everyone who's purchased my book. I would appreciate it if you would give me a positive review. To do that you go back to the amazon site that you purchased it on, and scroll down, down, down to the bottom and there you will come to the place to leave a review. Thanks again.

 

Jack, you got me. After reading a portion of your repost of mercman’s original post, I opened it up. I realized that after thinking about it in the shower this morning, as well as your addition to it, I need to reply.

I’ve always been interested in native Americans and their part of our history. When they procured horses it completely changed their lives and history. This became known as their “horse culture”.

The same thing happened to us when cars became plentiful and affordable. This was during the depression which was very difficult, but you could buy a model T for five bucks. Those kids learned that they could modify them and make them go faster.

When world war two came around they became the group that did the fighting for our country, and the rest of the world. When the war started winding down these young warriors where thinking about the cars they were going to build (in the barn) when they came back home, and it became the topic of a lot of conversations. This resulted in our “car culture”, and we were loitering in the cross hairs of it.

The idea of taking parts off of one car and putting them on another car was something that I had never known about in the part of the world I was in. It completely captured me and over time I realized that this was something that I wanted to be involved in.

The creative genius that was involved in the styling/design departments of the car manufacturers, can you imagine what it must have been like to have been part of that? The history of that part of the process, of offering something that would be so compelling that part of the populous would do whatever it took to own?

I think a big coffee table book on the history and evolution of how the American automobile changed over the decades of the last century would be a fascinating look at our “car culture”. I know that these exist, what would be new is if it would include the style/design departments efforts from all the manufactures, especially the ones that never made it into production.

There is a picture of a billboard that was done in the late thirties and it shows a family enjoying an outing in their new car, I can’t remember the make or model. The purpose was to visually expose “The American Way”, and standard of living. That phrase was used and dominated that sign to show the world where America was at and where we were going. This was put to the test shortly after that by WW II.

So, as this was picked up by the youth of America after the war (that’s us), we gradually learned that you can’t just chop up a car and throw whatever is nearby on it without suffering some consequences. If you were careless about what you did and how you did it there were social consequences as well as monetary ones, just like trying to get it right, or wrong in Detroit.

So you had to take the time to expose yourself to the hobby and study what appealed to you, carefully. Some times your first car wasn’t what was popular and you had to work with what you had. Sometimes if you had a good designed car you just had to shave it here, smooth it there to have a car that looked better than what you started with, and made everybody look. Sometimes the job was nearly impossible because of what you started with, but the standard was always enhancing what was there, rather than just throwin’ stuff at it.

A great example of these two extreme’s is Junior’s ‘50 Ford coupe and Larry Hutchinson’s “Satan’s Pearl” ‘50 Studebaker starlight coupe (do a search on the HAMB). One car was a great starting place, the other wasn’t. They both ended up as excellent examples of what I’m talking about here.

When my high school car was wrecked and repaired, Hutchinson's car was in the same shop having the trunk lid“pancaked” (in my book).
So when we ask about the current state of the hobby, we must understand that what my generation, and the one before it experienced, represents a place and a time that will never be repeated.

It’s interesting to see young people come into our hobby with all their energy and drive. The landscape for them is waay more broad than it was for us. I don’t think we can say yet what will become of the hobby regarding how its origins influence its future. I do think that the power is still there regarding the history of how the early guys got “caught up in it”, and what that means to the future.

As I write this I realize that history can’t be separated from our present like we see in the school system these days, and if we experience an "American renaissance" and an attraction to what we were, compared to what we are, we might find ourselves in a very good place.

I hope that happens, and we might have a say about that very thing soon.

 

Just stumbled on this. Are you related to Jr? Is so it is a small world. He's my first cousin. His father & Mine were brothers.

 

Only in spirit Glen, so you must be from Kentucky?

 

Hey! Look what I found.

 

Hey guys, after finding and reposting this old thread, I thought that maybe there would be interest in posting some of the back story of this build. These would be never seen before pics. After I opened up the "Junior drawer" this thought came to me.

I'm going in Wednesday and getting a new family member to bring home, a new knee. So, I'm going to have some down time and I need something to do

 

one of the best builds I watched on here.. Thanks Jer for sharing this with us here... all best the best on a speedy recovery on the new knee

 

I for one can’t get enough.. looking forward to what your going to post!!

 

These have not been in the story, for some reason I didn't post them you'll recognize the car.

 

I finally got home, hurts like hell.

 

OUCH! Hang in there.

 

This will be the type of post that will show my "process".

 

This document must be examined carefully, this will reveal the color code for the car, the size of the rod for the lights, the correct steering wheel. The size of the grille brackets, whether there was a tv in the car, or not. I had to make sure that I covered up Junior, and Dick Jackson's phone #'s, and many other things.

 

Just read the other day Junior official retired.... Have a speedy recovery and back your feet soon

 

Here's another pic that I'm posting larger for easier examination.

 

Another larger pic.

 

More process.

 

We've gone through the pages with the car/notes. This is the back side of those pages. This one has my first discussions with Junior about doing his car.

 

What great reference material!

 

This one reveals the level of detail that I'm getting "sucked into". My goal was to be able to show everybody what the actual car really looked like.

 

Love this thread... Thank you again Jer for sharing this with us.. your attention to details.. top notch !

 

Junior (Hershel) was about ten years younger than everybody else at Barris Kustom, thats why George put that name on him. He was a wealth of information and you see that in these notes.

 

Chrome list, and underhood/body detail.

 

OH, THOSE DETAILS.

 

More stuff.