Hippy rods?........

Carl Casper Must Be A Dirty Hippy.

 

I been down on South Street many times.. But speaking of old hippies and their vans...

 

The mid sixties to mid seventies were a bad 10 years for hotrodding in general. The biggest "trend" to appear in that time were the physcodelic paint jobs featuring ribbons, lace, freakdots, cobwebbing and colour blended panels. The vans featured a lot of murals, the mainstay of which were big breasted women, scantilly clad, and Frank Frazetta type "supercavemen".
T-buckets with lots of br***, and carriage lamp type thingies on them. The Ed Roth type of fibergl*** creations never caught on in a big way---they were just to difficult to recreate from scratch, and no-one was selling that type of body in gl*** anyways. There were a lot of fibergl*** "kit bodies" being marketed, which were in general patterned after European sports cars and running Volkswagon ch***is. The automobile factories were putting out cars that could be bought new off the show-room floor and would beat the pants of most "home-brewed" hotrods of the more traditional (flathead and smallblock chev engines" style. As a consequence, a lot of young guys didn't bother trying to build hotrods of their own----why would you when the nerd down the street could buy a new Charger of the local dealer that would hand you your ***? Yes, hotrodding suffered big time during that 10 years. In 74 due to the OPEC oil crisis and the rising cost of gasoline (sound familiar???)everybody started pulling the V8 engines out of their rods and putting in 4 cylinder engines. Hot rodding didn't really begin to regain its sanity untill close to the end of the seventies.

 

Had to be the VW's If you couldn't afford a van then it was a beetle.

 

Chili is the coolest Geezer I know.

 

phil - you ****in rule brother!

 

This pretty much sums it all up!!
Tingler=RULER

 

i wouldn't call them "hippie rods", but there is an awesome book by andy southard jr called "hot rods and customs of the 1960's".

here are some photos i scanned from said book:

all taken between 1967-1969, should give you an idea of what was going on at the time.

i doubt you'd find many hippies at places like this. i'd bet you'd see more flat tops and zipper boots than long locks and jesus sandles at all of these shows.

 

Mr Creosote, where did you find that pic? That's around '72 0r '73. Handsome devil, I must say.

If you really want to entertain the folks find a pic of Rick's Thames Freighter 800. That out hippies most VWs.

 

Well said 'Phil...poetic justice. I love it. Warpigg, every one of those cars is a perfect representation of those days. And some of em just plain ****in rock.

I don't care for a tag of any kind. I'd never claim to be a true "hippie" but I did my share of rebellion and stood and cheered when nixon resigned. My uncle was in "Nam flyin choppers. Never had anything but respect for ANYONE that was there. They did what was right at the time (again with the "sound familiar?"). I never protested soldiers. But I sure as **** did and still do rebel against the "system" that's stickin to most of us still. So I try to build loud, snarly, rebel, looking things that beg others to run and get the women and kids off the streets.

A favorite moment...I'm at a parking lot type weekly cruise with the race car. It's time to go. I rumble around the lot some to get the motor to full temp before pullin on the trailer (it wasn't street legal so put your trailer comment book down!). A crowd of posers and onlookers were kinda eggin me to light em up. Not a smart thing to do with a 700+HP race car in a parkin lot. I was followed to the main outlet and met an even larger crowd there. So without further ado I backed up just a bit waved everyone aside and started to lean on it just a bit. The smiles and thumbs were flyin. So I said **** it, hit the transbrake and got "on the chip" to like 4500RPM. Most of em must not've known what that was cuz they ****in ran like it was ready to explode!! I hung there for 4 seconds and let it loose and headed out. I never went back but the fear in their faces was worth anything johnny law mighta done after that (nothing, luckily). If that makes me anything, including the "equal opportunity ***hole" that I kinda pride myself on being, so the **** be it.

I alo didn't notice too many MI natives commenting here. Anyone remember Plum Street?

 

....

 

hahaha...it's about time

Bryan

 

Not picking a side, but whether you want to argue about terminology or not, hippies were and are real. Check out the 4th pic on this page:

WARNING: don't look if you're at work, if you've recently eaten, or if you ever want to eat again.

http://www.zombietime.com/hall_of_shame/

"Punk" was a word long before the *** Pistols and it didn't have anything to do with Mohawks and safety pins...and anyone that takes the time to carefully peg themselves in any one category - hippie, punk, rockabilly, whatever - needs some more substance in their life. If you try that hard to be somethin' I gotta think you're starting from nothin'.

Everybody shake hands and go build a car.

 

Whoaaaa…geez, post a question, go away for work for 2 days and return to this, you lot been drinkin too much red cordial or something? …maybe I should have asked "what was the rodding movement doing in the late 60s?" honestly though, thanks for the insight..sounds like it was a potent time back then for all, I was born in 67 and in Australia it probably wasn’t as prominent a movement, it was there though........anyway, I mainly had this vision in my head of no rods from that era, that’s why I asked..we had a huge van scene over here though, I remember that, more 70s though.....and I wasnt trying to pigeonhole anyone or any scene, it was just in jest....……..well thanks anyway, lotsa stuff explained. If the truth be none, whenever I think of hippies I think of cheech and chong .....which they werent anyway ...................bert

 

I need to set up my keyboard so I can hit a single key and print the phrase "Chili Phil kicks ***"

 

Well said Homie!

 

cars of the 60s

 

That's EXACTLY right -- there were as many flavors of "hippies" as there are of "punks", and there is good and bad in all.

late-60's/early 70's was my "prime time", aside from the musclecar era being in full gear, this was also the beginning of the foreign invasion, lots of jap motorcycles coming across ("You meet the nicest people on a Honda"), jap cars started being taken seriously. And '71 - '74 or so, those were lean times financially, plus the oil embargo, and remember Nixon's wage/price controls? Can you imagine putting that **** in front of the American people now!?!?!

 

Munster drags......

 

Wow,

That 4th pic is some ****ed up ****! Also, why don't strippers and models go to those Berkeley marches? I might pay attention then...

But I think FBB is on to something; I never really got into the punk scene or any other group because I didn't buy into whatever some group said or did. It always seemed that whoever was real ******** into any group (name your group) was always kind of a nerd.

-bill

 

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I'm privileged to have been invited to participate in some very interesting invitation olny message boards. While we were discussing hippies and the Far Out sixties here, some pretty good stuff was being p***ed aroud on those forums. I'm going to cut & paste some stories, deleting names where appropiate and share them here to make my point that those wild, freaky times were worth remembering. Enjoy…

"Setting on my front porch...Drinking a bottle of two buck Chuck...This weeks **** puppy out getting me some smokes...Reading TEXAS MUSIC Mag...Next to James Lee Burke...That ***** guy is my fave...Auther...I even sent some money to him...So he can be your Gov...Ya' I sent money to Jerry Brown also...Nitro knows no bounds..."

"Good choice of reading amterial. ***** ain't one of my favorites. All he's looking for is free room and board at Texas taxpayer expense. Just like our present and previous governors.
The latest from Texas music scene is Willie Nelson bought the church in his old home town of Abbot. I hear that when they p***ed the collection plate the first time it come in with three reefers and a guitar pick in it."

"I have all of Burke’s stuff as well, he is probably crazy enough to fit in with old Nitro Racers and he has excellent taste in music as well.
In one of his early books one of the characters was talking about listening to Jimmy Clanton (Just a dream) from WLAC in Memphis.
Burke had a short bio on the inside cover and he was still teaching at the time so I called him..
I told him I had enjoyed the book but WLAC was probably the biggest musical influence of my generation and was in Nashville---Sponsored by Randy’s record shop from Gallatin, Tenn.
50,000 watts after Midnight of R&B/Blues.
Anyway he laughed and said it got changed during editing and he didn’t see it until it was printed and when he pointed this out to the NY editors they said “Who could possibly know or care about something like that”
But I was the third person to call about it.
This seemed to be an old music crowd so one more
I was living in Texas and working on the Gay Pontiac Nitro GTO in 65 (Raven was old then) and I was hanging out with a couple broke-**** would be musician’s—In fact we rented a apt together for a while but they were about to make some noise on the charts—BJ Thomas (Long before he found God believe me) and Roy Head (Treat her right)------The big hangout was Nesadell’s in Pasadena before the house band-leader bought it and changed the name to Gilley’s.
Any way Roy was a local Drag Racer before his m***ive number one hit so he drove one of Gay’s cars at Pomona (66)---His agent was from Calif so one night he took us to the big deal at the time” Whiskey a Go Go” in Hollywood.
The PR guy had called ahead so when our group came in the band stopped in mid song and put the spot light on Roy and started doing his song------The band’s lead singer that night was a young kid from Ga.—Otis Redding.(Remember this was a year before Monterey)
Anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking to it------Now am I the only one old enough to remember any of this stuff?"

"I 'member Don Gay way back when he was still running stockers. There was a big old boy wrenching for Gay, I can't pull his name up right now, maybe H.L. something? Later his wife did some driving..(Shahan ?)
First of Gay's fuel cars I remember was a Pontiac with a real ugly paint job..Did you ever make it over to Six Flags Dragway in Victoria with him?
If so, I was probably there.
Small world ain't it.
Roy Head was supposed to be the main event at the big Chilympiad chili compe***ion one year. We kept waiting for him and waiting for him. He finally showed up about three hours late. He had borrowed some money from a guy there in San Marcos when he was starting out and never did pay the guy back.. So, the guy got a lean on the performance and Roy couldn't go on until he come up with enough to pay his bill..
Later that same night Roy showed up at a party I was attending. I wasn't all that impressed with him...
A buddy of mine in Taylor bought one of Gay's stockers that wouldn't run. It was a black 61 Grand Prix. You talk about a purdy car....
Now if I could just rmember where I left my pants.."

"Its a crazy life we live...as I was turning on the puter to see what was going on at the lounge...Otis Redding is on the CD...Next is Lee "Scratch" Perry to be followed by Tom Russell's Love and Fear...you might not belive this , I was at Monteray...Otis,Janis,Jimi,and the Who...Growing up In SF in the '60's was a time and place never agin to be repeated...Hanging out at the Goat's speed shop...working for Jessie Perkins...and hanging in at City Lights book store in North Beach, or the Ballrooms as they called them back then (Filmore,Alvon,Family Dog) I felt and still do that I was the luckest guy in the world...Still do...When I look back at this whole mess called my life...The best thing about it is all the people that I have meet drag racing that I would of never meet if I spent my life in front of a TV...Mike Cevelli my long time partner in crime had dinner in Santa Fe Sat with Joe Ely whose music is in our movie, and the great Southwest artest Paul Milosevich...This **** goes on all the time with the FMA guys...My late father...Was a world cl*** trap shoter, and a Undertaker...Who was friends with the Goat and the 50's and eary 60s Indy car driver Jim Davis...When I was young he gave me this advice..."See that slab over there...It dosn't matter how much money you have...Who you are...What you are...everbody ends up there...I've put thosands of them in the ground...and I've never seen one come back...So live your LIFE...cause its the only one that you will ever have...Go for your dream...so you never have to think when cashing out I wish I would have...George Buckheart Jensen...."

"Yes--As I remember it's all concrete--Great bite.
I do remember HL and James Ostein from Gays and Gene Snow had a used car lot down the street.
When I visited John Wilson early this year I found he now lives about 2 miles from were I was living in late 65.
Pete I saw that great philosopher Evil Knievel on Carson one night and he said he as a young man wanted to do three things in life and he had done two.
Carson said what have you done-----He said " I have gained ***ual knowledge of a Afro-American on a ferris wheel and I jumped Snake river canyon.
Carson said what was the third thing and Knievel said--"Ah hell Liz Taylor went and got too old on me""

"Why God made nitro...not so sure it wasn't the other guy..
city lights bookshop..this place, *****'* Nitro lounge, right now reminds me a little of Ferlingettis subversive bookshop, the gathering of the beat poets (reachin')...Ginsberg reading Howl with Neal C***idy on bongos...C***idy/ Dean Moriarty.. now there WAS a guy with a guardrail to guardrail, no rev limiter nitro heart.. maybe one of you guys can read "cackle"
Pondering what drag racing could or would have become without nitro reminds me of a tale i was told about a journalistic student who thought he might delve into the intellectual center of a 1%er...tags along with a friend to a biker all night party and ends up sittin' around a campfire with his friend and a couple of patch guys...asks one of them if he can answer a question he's been wondering about...biker says " yeah what?" new found friend asks "now, tell me this...is HD responsible for the biker image OR...is the biker responsible for creating the image of Harley Davidson?"...he goes on...."Now ....imagine this..lets say there was NO SUCH THING as Harley Davidson??..what would you ride..would your life be the same etc. etc. challenging, stimulating hypothesis...prompt and consise answer came in the form of 250 pounds of murderous pshychopath leaping across the campfire ....beats the **** out of the young fellow and tries to burn his face off by pushing it down into the hot ashes....Harley Davidson....Nitromethane....if you don't know then be careful how you ask"

"While rummaging around in my Dad's shop I found an old leather gas mask with a gas pet**** brazed to the front where the filter hose once attached. I asked him what it was for and he said he used it to dive in the Neches River (40+ feet deep and pich black below the surface) and salvage stuff. He said he hooked it to the oxygen bottle from his oxy/acetylene cutting rig and dove in. When the mask flattened against his face he'd open the pet**** a little more to let in more PURE OXYGEN. Dad did this alone with no one in the boat above to help if he got in trouble and didn't think anything about it. He just wanted to see if he could do it.
Dad didn't know about nitro but he sure had the soul of a drag racer."

"a feelgood story about Otis Redding..story goes that when he was with Atlantic records he'd often visit the founder and music industry heavyweight Ahmet Etergun (sp?), Otis would never pronounce Ahmet properly and it would come out "Omelette"....well apparantly Etergun had a soft spot for young Otis and instructed the office staff not to embaress him by correcting Otis about how to say his name and just go along with it, so it would be like ..."is Omelette in?" and the secretaries would just think "poor dumb *******" and just reply "sure Otis, Omelette is here, go right in"...this would go on everytime he came to the office right up until he was killed. After his death a researcher brought it up while interviewing his brother and get's told..."yeah, that was funny what he done..,Otis always got a BIG laugh out of that,....hah hah hah"

Normally I don't cut and paste this kind of stuff, but I thought that before you fat mouthed the Freak Years, you might like to know what and who you might have missed. I wonder if the days we are living now will produce such stories. Maybe. But I'm betting against it.

Chili

 

i got one for you, the first car i drove. a 60's VW van. 21 window at that.

 

hahaha... he said ****** like on the TV

 

Damn,,you Newbies sure can drug up some old dead threads,,Man,this thing is 4 years old! HRP

 

hey, some of us are teenagers. so that's dirty, lazy, red neck'd, zit faced, gear heads

 

yep...and it's still four years old...

 

c'mon guys, just like sittin' around the campfire, this is a place for cars, not for politics.

 

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