Folks Of Interest Charlie "Chaz" Morse

I think some of you might find this photo interesting. It was taken about 1969 In Redlands, California. All four vehicles belonged to one person, Charlie. He was a well-known and respected race car, custom car, sports car, and hot rod fabricator. He wasn't hung up on just one faze of auto building.

He didn't build the 1930(?) Cadillac Limousine he got from his grandfather, but he built the others. The '34 Sedan Delivery had an injected early Olds in it for a while, later to suc***bing to SBC. I believe he built the 29 Hiboy while working for John Butera (I had it for a month or two while he crew-chiefed a funny car in Japan. I didn't like it. It wasn't anything like my roadster. It started every time, ran well, stopped well, didn't rattle – wasn't much fun at all). Long before, he built the red 39(40-41?) Studebaker from scratch. It ended up in Hot Rod (or Rod & Custom?) showing a guy who claimed to have built it – you know, Valley Customs, Barris, etc., etc. It showed the guy with a rag polishing the fender. From what I could tell, that's the only thing he had done to it.

Charlie and I were drafted the same day in 1964. Overnight we went to Ft. Polk for basic and didn't see each other 'til we got out. He fabbed a set of headers for the second edition of the Model A street roadster I had. He stopped by the house with some flanges and bends and in less than an hour had them tacked together. He returned the next day with the completed set.

He suc***bed to cancer I'd guess at least 20 years ago, but his memory lingers on with his many friends throughout California and beyond.

 

Thanks for sharing this story...Reminiscing is a big part of What the Hamb is and Charlie would have fit right in nicely...we remember him with you...He sure had a cool collection.

 

Nice read - with pictures - happy you guys made it back for some more fun....

 

Lived in Redlands since 1966. Don't remember seeing the cars but they look real nice. I'd ask a good friend of mine who was a hot rodder back around Charlie's time but unfortunately the big C got him last Black Friday. Thanks for the photo.

 

Old friends are some of the best. Nice tribute to your pal. I'm blessed to still have a few who have been around since the early 60's. We do "memory checks" every so often.