History HAMB era hydraulics. Ron Aguirre

This popped up
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16ZtgXom3U/?mibextid=wwXIfr
trying to find a non FB link. Very interesting
A few more other than the X-Sonic

 

He is 46to64 on Instagram. His focus is on custom cars between those dates. He posts tons of interesting stuff.

 

Thanks
I’ve only seen his stuff on FB.

 

His history lessons are based on getting info from the real families and dating images published. A lot haters hating the facts he is posting. Ross is a cool dude and loves the history.
Also turns out the Aguirre Corvette is not the first lifted car.

 

Anyone have photos of how these installs were done?
Ive always been curious about period correct hydro and air setups

 

Same here. I’ve seen a few pics but they were not very good

 

I have thought about using an engine driven AC compressor as an air pump as a start of an Air system.

Hydraulics though I'd assume you'd need to be having a bank of batteries to power the pumps like we see in more recent systems.

 

The early setups Ive seen had multiple batteries.

 

There are a few pictures shared here and other places.
Here's a thread where the man himself responded.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/does-anyone-have-pictures-of-the-x-sonic-vette.101467/

 

Who was the 1st?

 

It's believed it was Jim Logue in his Fabulous X54

Seemed like a lot of the early cars only ran front hydraulics. Bill Hines did a lot of early hydraulic installs. 46to64 does a video on him as well.

I put hydraulics on the front of my Riviera and in my research I found you pretty much need 2 deep cell batteries for each end of the car as kind of a minimum unless you want it to be super slow.. The lowrider stuff you see with a trunk full of batteries is more for hopping and stuff. Basically the more power you have the faster they work. There are still a lot of guys running the old aircraft pumps and solenoids but it is ridiculously expensive.

 

Thanks for posting. I have breakfast occasionally with Jim Davis at Arthurs in Mentone,Ca an original Krankers Car Club Member with the Aguirre's. He remembers Ron working on the X Sonic in a one car garage. Next time I see Jim I'll ask him if he has any pics. He was a photographer and owned a camera shop in San Bernardino.

 

Thank you!

 

Bendix pumps seemed to be the early pump of choice and solenoid/dumps like the one below. Refurbished aircraft solenoids go for about $2500 a piece these days. The pump pic is from 46to64.

 

That’s cool

thanks

 

Was the use of lift gate pumps used then?

 

The X Sonic at the GNRS 2022!

 

I am far from an expert but I looked at a lot of hydraulics info when I was deciding to do mine because I thought using the older stuff would be cool as it's has a way better look than the modern pumps and dumps IMO (until I saw the prices) and all I ever saw mentioned was airplane parts. Now some might have used other stuff if they were not in an area where surplus aircraft parts were available but it seemed most didn't.

adexhydraulics on Instagram seems to be a good go to on the aircraft stuff. He actually owned the X54 car at one point I believe.

 

. . . and we cruised "E Street" in San Bernardino, not "D Street". His car was such a draw at car shows in that he changes and "upgraded" it every year. He also ran it at the Colton Drag Strip when it was new in 1956.

In the early 60s, I was cruising "E" one night in my '29 Roadster with Enderles, Hydro, Quick Change, Halibrands and more thinking I was King Shit . . . until Ron comes scraping up the street with the bubble top and all. Years later I spent some time with him at an Over the Hill Gang camping weekend in San Deigo. He saw the Krankers plaque on my '28 Mercury and wondered of the club was still together. I'd never been a member -- before my time. We spent some time checking on other friends and members. He was staying for the weekend in one of those GM motor homes and toured it for me. To my surprise, he showed me his ferrets(?) that he kept in a drawer!

 

Good thing Fish and Game wasn't around. Ferrets are a no not in CA. At least they used to be.

 

There’s was a pic somewhere with a hand pump in what I thought was his car.

 

Yeah I think that was originally the case don't think it lasted long though as it would have been super slow.
It's a funny thing that Ron seems to get all the credit but it sounded like his brother actually did most of the work designing the stuff to work.

 

That's what I heard from the Fishbeck twins from San Bernardino aka Heckle and Jeckle who knew Ron.

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@46to64/video/7361666476501159211

 

I see it is mentioned on the Kustomrama site as well.

 

I’m not a tic tocer either. But it worked somehow.
Was about an early pump used by Bill Hines

these are lift gate pumps Listed as “OG pumps”

 

The lift gate style pumps are essentially what all hydraulic suspension companies sell for systems these days.