Hot Rods A nod to the best metal guy in the U.S.A.

There was a guy in San Diego when I was young. His name was Chris Thompson and he was amazing. He could build panels very well, but the amazing thing was fixing a panel with nothing but a hammer, pick and file. He could metal finish a creased out panel in no time. He was the body man at carrera Porsche, and in 2 years I never saw a panel that needed any filler.

 

I kind of like the guy in the shorts myself.

 

From what I've seen here on the HAMB our poster Flop in Pittsburgh is at the top of the list.

 

Sorry beeno..he was Australian
But hes one of the best.RIP

 

Wrong Brother Bro!

 

While in the military in 1968 in Fairfeild, California. I stopped by a used car lot and they had a Gull wing SL on the lot for $12,500. That was a lot of money back then.

 

Oooops..rip Malcom.
Thanks Kid

 

For those about to rock, we salute you.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Very true,I did a job at his widows house recently

 

my favorite metal men are wray schelin & randy ferguson -those willys parts of his are awesome!!!

 

Lots of Aussies ended up here makin a living.

This is way off the rails for the thread but I wish I had been there when they were shooting that vid and I am not much of a concert goer.

 

Clay Jensen, Neil Emory, Wayne Ewing, George Williams, Dick Bertolucci. there are many greats.

 

I remember reading about this car I don't remember who beat the panels on it but it was done in someone's driveway and all welded together with a torch. Lots of those old B'Ville cars were done that way.

Best metal man in America? These guys that built these old cars were the best ever. No one knows 'em and there was no web to make them famous but they were the real deal as far as I am concerned.

 

Beano speaks volumes!and the car had a ominous past. HRP

In the late 1930s, Harry Miller was sponsored by Gulf Oil Company to launch a cost-is-no-object effort to create cars to compete at Indianapolis and on the Grand Prix circuit, and he designed a 180-ci six-cylinder, supercharged, four-wheel-drive, mid-engined, independently sprung, disc-braked, art-deco, stream-lined beauty. Three cars were completed in 1939, however two of the cars crashed, killing one of the drivers and badly burning the other. In 1940, the third car was taken to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where driver George Berringer set an amazing 33 world speed records. Berringer and Miller returned to Indianapolis in 1941 with two cars; unfortunately one was destroyed in a garage fire, and the other failed to complete the race. The remaining car did not race during World War Two and in 1946, Preston Thomas Tucker acquired the vehicle which he renamed the Tucker Torpedo Special. Barringer drove it in the 1946 Indy, and once more the following September at Lakewood Park Speedway in Atlanta. On the first lap of the Atlanta race Berringer was bumped by the 1946 Indy winner, and their cars crashed after spinning out of control; both drivers were hit and killed as they attempted to exit their vehicles.

 

This s car was hand formed by Eddie Miller, he hand built the Pontiac Engine in it as well.
The inside of that engine is as much a work of art as the outside of the car.
I remember this car at Don Ferguson Sr. ‘s. Place in Willmington along with the Clyde Sturdy-So-Cal bellytank and Karl Orr’s 180 degree car.
AHRF Historian Jim Miller is Eddie’s son and tells of how when Stu Hilborn tore up the Former Bill Warth lakester, his dad did hammer that body back into shape under a tree in the front yard, to later become the car that broke the elusive 150 mph record.
Amazing stuff!!!!!!

 

The quick change was a work of art as well, it actually had an external quick change box as opposed to an integral gear case and was chain driven as I recall.

 

Nobody has mentioned JACK HAGERMAN from the CA bay area yet(or his son, either, for that matter)!!!

 

that is one of my all time favorites
has to be in the top 5 sexiest land speed racers
probably the only car I would love to attempt to reproduce

 

I'm not even qualified to watch these guys .I am the reason Bondo stock is always high.