History Eastwood & Barakat

WOW 10 years. I remember how I studied the first car on the cover of Hot Rod. I must have looked at that article a 100 times. Inspired me over the last 30+ years to build 3 chopped deuce black suede highboy sedans. First one has disappeared, the second one is owned by Scott Lorenzini and is a regular around the So-Cal Speed Shop and I just finished the 3rd in Feb. It's been featured on pewsplace.com for a while. I always tried to get the Eastwood/Barakat look. Nothing beats the original. Thanks

 

Nitrobrother-
Please feel free to call me as I'm having trouble getting to my PMs.
My cell number is 626-622-4488.
Thanks!

 

. GOOD MORNING... RICK

 

Jack-
Good to hear from you. Brings back a lot of great memories hearing from you and Greg Stokes.
Thanks to the HAMB I was able to make not only a lot of friends through the internet but also to spend time with many of them in person. The HAMB fraternity is without a doubt the most generous and friendly group of people I have encountered in my life. In retrospect, I don't know if the sedan would have been completed without them.
Rick

 

Hey Rick, hope all is well, good to see you back on the HAMB, hope to hear more from you.
Sure do miss our lunches during LARS.

Mick

 

Mick-
Those lunches were the best! A great thing about that group is we all could take a good ribbing. I miss those also. I would enjoy having everyone over to my home for a BBQ the next time you are in town. That goes for you too Jack and Greg. Now that I think of it, Greg has had my cooking. He may not want a repeat!

 

Thanks to Andy (Nitrobrother) the wheels were picked up in Arizona by my friend Tim Mings yesterday. I should have them by next Thursday upon his return. I will then turn them over to Eric Vaughn to perform his magic.

A little history on Tim. He is the premier restorer of Honda 600s in the world! These were the first cars imported by Honda to America in the 1960s. His restorations are in the Honda Museums in Japan as well as in America. He also is the one one who found and restored the serial #00001 for Honda. Look it up. It is an interesting read.

 

@Barakat did I hear Eric retiring?

 

I've had Eric do custom aluminum wheel widths for me both widened and narrowed. Great work. He is probably at the point in life where he can be selective on the jobs he chooses to do?

 

Kelly-
Eric is not retiring but he is scaling back a little. He wants to work on some projects for himself.

I'm just grateful to have him as a friend and for him to be willing to help me.

 

@Barakat Thanks for clearing it up and the reply!

 

@Barakat Any updates?

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^
What he said!

 

For those of you near Pete & Jake's in Missouri, The Sedan is back there for their 50th Anniversary.

 

Looking forward to seeing it

 

The front wheels look great!

 

I couldn't pull the trigger and put aluminum wheels on the Sedan. Even though I hate polishing the magnesium, it seems to be worth the effort. I do have a full set of aluminum wheels modified by Eric Vaughn to replicate the look of the Halibrands.

 

Rick, are you attending the Open House?

 

Absolutely! How else will I see the Guy who painted the California Kid, Jake's Coupe and the Super Bell Coupe???? Looking forward to seeing you there Dale! Jason Slover said you would be driving in in your coupe.
We will be arriving on Thursday and leaving on Sunday. And you?

 

I’m looking forward to seeing Dale and your car both.

 

Rick,
We will get there Friday afternoon and actually head back towards home Saturday after the festivities are over. If you are going to the BBQ, I will see you there. Looking forward to it.

 

We will be at the BBQ on Friday. It should be a great time to catch up!!!!

 

Would really like to be there with my latest chopped deuce highboy sedan but unfortunately it sustained some damage on the way back from the ROC last fall and has been in body shop jail since late Oct. with no signs of the shop having any interest in doing the repairs as promised. It's my 3rd highboy sedan, # 1 went thru several owners, was painted gold and disappeared in CA, # 2 is owned and driven by Scott Lorenzini, and I have #3. All 3 were inspired by the original Eastwood/Barakat sedan when it was featured in Hot Rod. Gary at Cornhusker Rod And Custom

 

It's a small World! Scott lives near me and we occasionally drive places together. We actually traded cars on one of our trips. It was fun.

 

Absolutely!!

 

I’m so excited to see this thread pop up. This car was my all time favorite Hot Rod cover car. I’m so happy to learn that it still exists, and owned by the original owner/builder no less. It was part of the inspiration for my T Bucket. At least the primer and rough around the edges part, lol.

 

ttt

 

The 50th anniversary event at Pete & Jake's was incredible. Saw a lot of old friends and made some new ones.
The Slovers are the most gracious, generous and sincere people you would ever meet. The best part of my trip was to see 3 generations of their family working together in harmony. That is something that is lost in our society today.
I left the sedan there so that if you weren't able to make it to their event, and would like to see it, you can go there. I'm hoping to find some events around there that I can the sedan to. Any ideas???