on another post (hrlc's pileup pix) bftwcs said: "Clarence needs a coat of Black Suede so he fits in a little better. Or maybe Atch thinks he's a good guy amongst a bunch of Gangsters, so he keeps Clarence white...." well; y'all need to know that clarence WAS black suede for several years. i really liked the black, too. had a sinister look to him. i also believe that the cool factor meter ran a little higher with black. it was so hot in there in the summer, though, that some of my friends called it the "easy bake oven". one day at one of the americruises in lincoln i was going to ride the shuttle bus out to speedy bill's museum. it was cloudy and sprinkled a couple of times just before the bus left so i rolled up the windows and walked to the bus. well, as the bus was pulling out the sun popped out and stayed out all afternoon. when we got back to the fairgrounds a few hours later i knew that i needed to roll the windows down and open the doors to let the heat out. i opened the back doors and there was a lawn chair sitting in the back with a small crescent wrench in the seat webs. i don't remember why it was there or the wrench either. but the chair was in the upright position so the wrench was not touching anything except the plastic webbing of the chair. i was going to get the chair out and picked up the crescent wrench first to put it aside. the wrench was too hot to hold in my hand. it didn't burn me, but probably would have if i had held it longer than the fraction of a second that i did. that's how hot it could get in there when it was black suede. so one friday night a couple of my buds and i (& their wives) were sitting outside at a local sonic. it was already dark but it was still really hot. it was the night before the gasser reunion (or whatever it was called) at gateway raceway in st. louis and we were planning to go. i think that was about 4-5 years ago, but really can't remember. the weather forecast for saturday was for temps in the high 90's and humidity to match and we were trying to think of something else to do that wouldn't be quite so hot as sitting on aluminum bleachers in the sunshine and heat. one of the guys (they shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) says "let's paint atch's truck white so it's not so damned hot to ride in. i know where bill & sue (not their real names, either) keep a key to their body shop and they are in kansas city for the weekend. let's break in to their shop tomorrow morning and do a paint job." so saturday morning instead of going to the races we did just that. i ran by the local parts house that sells automotive paint and opens really early and picked up a gallon of the cheapest white enamel that they had and headed to "bill & sue's" shop. we rolled a car out of the paint booth and drove clarence in. 15 minutes of sanding to rough up the black, about 15 more minutes to do a quicky tape job and we were ready to paint. about 30 minutes later clarence was white. i never told "bill & sue" what we did. don't know if the other guys or their wives told either. as far as i know they still don't know. it surely looked better black, but it's at least 30 degrees cooler to ride in when the sun is out and it's hot outside. i'll try to add a couple of salt flat pix here to show you what it looked like black and another white.
please disregard the cb antenna, but that's how you hear the results at bonneville. anyway, if someone could please tell me how to not cook myself i'd love to paint it black again. any suggestions or comments? btw; a/c isn't really an option.
cool story "atch" aka: Mike. Is Clarence coming to KC in two weeks? Jen was wondering. Chris Nelson Kansas
I think it looks better white. I did the same thing with my 55, but it was never black. I figured that non-reflective black paint was not the best idea in 120 degree heat, so I opted with gray primer on the body and a white roof. Purely functional.
HEY, ATCH, if you took the wheels off of big C in the salt pic when he was white, you could loose him on the salt,blends right in!On the serious side I dont know what to tell you on keeping cool with black paint.All I know is to insulate it up as well as possible and if you are feeling really up for spending some mooo-laaa put in A.C. I tell you the older I get a car without A.C. $3500.00 a car with a.c.--Priceless.You cant put a price on feeling good.I hate to say it,but I think I would leave it white or go for another color other than black,blacks everywhere,me included.And just for the guys who are reading this and dont know about you and Big C, THIS THING KEEPS GOING AND GOING AND GOING!Atch probably attends more events than any of us.C has been on the road in this part of the country for as long as I can remember.Acth probably has had more fun with C than most people have had with thier girlfriends!When Acth dont show for an event, they send out a search party for him, they know he is in trouble or he would be there!All I can say is the two together is what having fun with cars is really all about, they get on the road --meet people--make friends and have fun doing it!Acth its your baby, paint it what ever you think is right.
GREAT story Mike. Love to hear ones like that. Clarence looks REALLY******in' black BUT he's yours, and your the one who has to deal with the heat inside. With all that being said, Clarence looks just fine white. Maybe not as "sinister" but he still looks fine.
Great read there!! But everytime I see a picture of Clarence or here his name, that "Strokin'" song gets stuck in my head....
To keep 'clarence' cool when black, you can tear a page out of the Bus-converted-into-a-motorhome book. Use Elastomeric roof coating. It has tiny ceramic beads in the paint and can drop the surface metal temp by 30 degrees. Then insulate the inside with spray foam. These will stop an enormous amount of the road noise from getting inside too.
Just cut a hole in the back and slide a 110v Window A/C unit in there. You have plenty of room for a gas powered generator, just cut another hole in the side to run the exhaust out of. Hell, i'm such a nice guy i'll even give you the A/C Unit. Throw a small waterbed in while your at it, and you can save your Hotel money...
sodbuster - if you're talkin' about the kcspm i guess not. i'm not an invitee. probably couldn't come this year anyway, as starting next monday i'm working 6pm to 6am m-f for 2 or 3 weeks. that means i'd get off of work at 6am, drive to kc by 8-9 or so, party with you guys for about 16 hours and probably kill someone by falling asleep at the wheel. thanx for thinking of me, though. if an invitation shows up in the mail, though, i'd probably show up; sleep or no sleep. and please tell jen hello for me. from the short time we had together in august it's pretty apparent to me that you got a keeper there. scarliner - you make clarence sound like superman. and in a way he is. it's true that he has probably been a participant at more events than about 99% of the hot rods on the planet. anyway, thanx for the good words. ingnutz - ell, f e eet gain on't e urprised f i ntroduce yself gain. ou now ow crs s. deyo, hrlc, hack, & olcars - thanx for the words & suggestions.
Did y'all hear about Boudreaux (pronounced boo-dro) and Clarence down here in Louisiana? (pronounced lou-zee-anna) I live in Shreveport (pronounced shree-port) Back to the story-----Boudreaux lived right by the river and on the other side of the river lived a guy named Clarence. There was no bridge near so they couldnt visit each other but they could holler across the river. So they got along ok til one day Clarence said something that made Boudreaux mad. Boudreaux told his wife that he was mad at Clarence and if they ever built a bridge across the river, he was gonna walk over there and whup Clarence. No matter how many times his wife told him, "Thats not a good idea." Boudreaux was determined that he was gonna walk over that bridge and whup Clarence. So it came to pass that they did build a bridge and Boudreaux told his wife again that as soon as they finished the bridge, he was gonna walk over and whup Clarence. His wife kept telling him it was not a good idea to whup Clarence. They finished the bridge and Boudreaux told his wife, "Today is the day". He started up the bridge and his wife watched out the window. When Boudreaux got to the top of the bridge he looked around and his wife saw him turn around and start home. When he got home she asked if he changed his mind because she had told him it not a good idea to whup Clarence. Boudreaux said, "No, I decided it was not a good idea to whup Clarence when I got to the top of the bridge and saw the sign that said "Clarence 13' 4"
deyo, hrlc, hack, & olcars - thanx for the words & suggestions. You notice he didn't include BFTWCS in that list...
When it was black it was..... CLARENCE AKA "THE BAT CAVE". Hey Atch you got any of the old pictures when there would be about 20 of us on and in Clarence cruzin the Mini Nats? I can still here the scaping!!!! ------------------------------------------------------- "OPOSSUM BENDERS" Central Missouri Chapter
Scraping! I can hear it too! and that wobble, what the hell is that? Atch and I were heading toward the Salt this year and as we hit HEAVY morning rush hour traffic in Denver we found ourselves stuck between the center barrier on our left and a semi on our right running about 70. When all of a sudden a large plastic trash can pops out from under the car in front of us. Atch guns it to lift the front end, but we hit it square and proceed to drag it. I says "We stoppin?" Atch says "Hell NO, not right now". 20 miles later we pull over at a mountain overlook and drag the rest of said can out from under the truck. No more scrapin. and the wobble. Just a broken main leaf. Nothing a little welding? won't cure. It's only 1,6000 miles home. (Fingers crossed and praying that it doesn't shatter the first bump we hit) My guess is Clarence has logged another 1,200 miles at least since we got back home. Spring is still holding. That old truck is unbelievable. It's hauled my**** down the black line AND around the brickyard, so I don't care what color it is, as long as it keeps going.
Hey Ben D. what ya been up too? How was the big meet at Hershey? I'll watch my spelling this time. So Atch and I are headed your way to Rods and Relics run a year or two ago and the wobble thing starts, but this time its up front. Atch said, "I bet one of those darn ET mags has come loose again." So we pull over, get the key out of the glove box (you know the routine)get the lug wrench...nope there tight. But the wheel bearing is way loose. If the spindle nut would have left, it all would have been in the ditch.What Fun that old truck is. Man did you see the size of that Salt Turd Clarence dropped at the hamb drags? ----------------------------------------------------------- "OPOSSUM BENDERS" Central Missouri Chapter
ok, so crs is gettin' worse. sorry sean, that i missed you. yes, you have a good idea about the a/c. it'd probably take that much cooling to keep it comfortable in there. the bat cave moniker is another story for another day. i'll get around to it sometime. but some folks still call it the cave. i don't know if anyone ever took a pic of us with people hangin' off of clarence everywhere you could get a handhold. i never counted the max number either. of course it's never too late to do it again and find out. i remember the time we were gonna check out registration numbers at wings callahan's trailer one time and he looked up while broadcasting and said something like "holy sh*t, would you look at the people hanging off of that thing" or something like that. i'd already forgotten about the trash can incident. for you city folks out there traffic is a normal routine. i hate it. not that i can't handle it, but i like the solitude i get out here in the boonies. so you get the idea i'd rather be cruisin' the country roads than scootin' through denver rush hour. what ben was saying about hammerin' the pedal when we saw the trash can is that there's not much room between the pavement and my front crossmember. maybe you could set a coffee cup under there and maybe you couldn't. my floor jack won't make it. so i try to get some lift to make it over this trash can; at the time we didn't know what it was, it happened so fast. i don't know what i was thinkin'. lift the front end of a 3500 pound truck with a 185 horse 283 goin' 70 already? right. maybe got a couple of thousandths lift, if any. so there we are, denver rush hour, 70 mph (maybe more???), scrapin' sound coming from under clarence, 3-4 lanes of traffic wide, boxed in by other traffic. whatcha gonna do? keep going 'til theres a safe place to pull off, that's what. the first really good place is that scenic overlook about 5 miles up the mountain from denver. turns out it's a brand new blue plastic trash can. still has the sticker on what's left of it. we had gotten over it with the front crossmember (or at least had dragged it off eventually), but where the left exhaust pipe turns from parallel to the driveshaft to perpendicular to exit just in front of the rear end it had caught on the exhaust and had melted itself in place. i guess we should have kept it for a souvenir, but at the time we were only thinking of getting to the salt. guess i should crawl under there sometime to see if there's any of the blue plastic still on the exhaust pipe. the main leaf? we don't need no stinkin' main leaf. but a really nice guy in wendover welded it up for us. i'll get it replaced this winter, but it's not time to put it away yet. i'd be at the quincy color run tomorrow night if i didn't have to be at a wedding in chicago this weekend. can't remember the guy's name (i've got it written down somewhere, just can't remember where) who did the welding for us, but his wife is one of the counter "guys" at the local parts house. he put aside his (34?) chevy project long enough to weld up the main spring for us. when i asked him how much after he was through he said "well, i'd have to have two dollars for the welding rod i used." we left something a little more appropriate, but he protested that $2 was enough. next time i'm out there i'll take something from here (maybe a smoked ham or something) and look him up. he really saved the day for us this year. i don't really know how many miles it's racked up. the odometer broke years ago. speedo still works, so why fix it? it's been to the buzzard run, bennet springs run, and the hunnert car pileup since b'ville (not counting the hamb drags on the way home), along with routine cruises and what not. hey, visor, what is that cotter pin for? think i need one? well, i've rambled on enough about clarence for a while. i really hope all of you guys and gals can drive your personal rod/custom wherever and whenever you want and have as much (or more) fun with it as i do with clarence. if it's half as good for you as it is for me you're doin' better than all those folks getting from here to there in their late model econobox pos. and thanx, bftwcs, for getting me started on this toot.
I drive my Truck just about everywhere too. Thats the main reason I have never lowered it too the ground, or gotten to serious about painting it. I still use mine as a Truck. High centered Gravel Roads and Stumps in the Woods keep me from lowering mine as much as it oughta be. The trips through the Woods would scratch the hell out of a decent paint Job too...
The Jalopy Journal
