How old's the oldest H.A.M.B. member?60+?Tell us a cool story

So, while looking for a 58 chevy project, i got an email from a guy. This is what he had to say:

"Just a little bit of nostalgia here. My dad use to deliver the 1958 Chevys to the dealerships for General Motors. He use to tell me how that none of the truck drivers liked delivering it.
When they would chain them down for delivery, the frames would bend/warp. They would roll them down the ramp at the dealership and park them. When they looked back at them, they were sitting like the tires were low on air on one side. The dealers were pissed cause they had to send them out to have the frames straightened! This is not a joke. First year for the X frame configuration. Even today you have to be careful about how you jack them up.... Done..."

Interesting story that i had no idea about!


What'cha got in there, kid?

 

The summer of 1964 I was 16 and had a job with a farmer that did combining and bailing hay and straw. We would bale hay and load the wagons and put it in the barn in the evening. We had a job on a horse farm about 15 miles from home in a place called beaver valley. We had bailed all the hay and had it loaded up to put in the barn that evening. The farmer took me home to eat supper then I was to go back to help the owners son and grandsons get the hay in the barn. My dad let me take the family car a 59 Plymouth station wagon 318 with 3 on the tree. So I get there and we start putting hay in the barn. It took a lot longer that I thought it would and we finished at 11:45. I had a junior license and had to be off of the road by midnight. The owner of the farm said that there was a road I could take that was a short cut. I found the road and turned onto it. This road was full of curves and I was going about 25 mph. I see a 57 mercury backed up into the drive going to a farm field next to the mercury is a naked woman. So I am driving through beaver valley and I am seeing a beaver. If I am not going to crash into the mercury I need to turn right or left. It was left and I had looked at the naked woman a little too long. I hit a large rock on the side of the road and then it is up and over onto the roof. I hear the mercury start up and he takes off gravel flying. I also hear the gas draining out of the tank. So here I am no houses and no traffic on this road. After about 20 minutes a guy comes down the road asks if I am ok and says he will call it in when he gets home. It takes about 20 more minutes and here comes a state cop around the curve and almost hits the Plymouth. He gets out and I did not see that he had a flare in his hand. When he lit the flare there was a instant inferno the road and the car are on fire. He gets his fire extinguisher and it cant put the fire out. He calls the fire dept. and they put the fire out. So the cop says tell me again how you just got out of the car when it caught on fire at 11:30. If that's your story then I didn't light the car on fire and you were not diving after midnight. So we made a deal.

 

Hello,

When I lived in San Jose, I got a part time job driving cars from dealer to dealer. It was one of those things the dealers did to line up and get rid of their inventory with some other dealer who needed a car or two. I had previously driven a car from San Jose to Fremont, so this next one was a little longer to Hayward, farther north on Highway 880.

I took off in a 1965 plain jane, Catalina Sedan and the drive was just a drive. Fast with loud music. But, much to my surprise, on the way back to San Jose, It was a 1965 Pontiac GTO. I was given the registration and pink to take to the dealer back in San Jose. I could not believe my eyes when a black GTO arrived back in the prep area of the lot. It was so cool looking and ready for the drive back to San Jose.

I was so happy that I drove very cautiously to get back to the freeway. But, on the onramp, the big motor and 4 speed came in to life to get into the fast lane. It was hot in so many ways, but it was actually hot in the outside temperature, so I rolled down all of the windows.

I was just moving right along with the wind blowing all around the cab. When suddenly, I noticed and heard something fly out of the driver’s open window. I immediately looked in the rear view mirror and saw something fluttering to the side of the freeway. I got off on the next off ramp and circled back to where I thought was the piece of paper. I parked off of the shoulder and walked a block or two, scanning the wavy grass area.

I did not find anything in the search. By now, it was getting late, so I got back in and took off for San Jose. Thinking of all kinds of stories I would tell the office manager at the dealer.

When I got back to the dealer, I was asked for the registration papers. Luckily, I had the dealer, white temp registration paper in my pocket, but what flew out of the car was the pink slip that I had put in the sun visor for safe keeping. When I told him of the story of the flying paper out of the window, he laughed at first, but said that my driving fee of $35 would go towards buying a new pink slip for the GTO. He also mentioned that the sale of the GTO would be held up until the pink slip came back from the DMV.

So, I walked out of there back to my own car, penniless, because my pay check just went back to the dealer to pay for something that I did. But, the joy of driving a new 4 speed GTO was well worth it. I was mad at myself for doing something so stupid, but it was hot driving back and I needed that air blowing all around for staying cool.(in more ways than one)

Ahhh…a hot car on a hot drive…what more could one ask for in a cool job? Besides money, of course…

Jnaki

 

Hey RP,
You mean our 58 Chevy Impala could have been bent at the dealer's lot before delivery? Well, luckily, our friend that owned a garage in Los Angeles checked out the whole car before we started driving it around. Our friend even had the Impala sent over to a place that sprayed black undercoating on the whole undercarriage. We had no alignment problems ever...We must have lucked out in our new purchase. Thanks for that factoid...
Jnaki

 

I remember White Chevrolet on E. 185th street well.
My Fathers new '56 210 4 door came from White.
Shortly thereafter, it became Jackshaw Chevy.
Yep, I'm a product of Euclid, Ohio and E.H.S.

 

I read the email you received, but had thoughts that it was not "true".
I began working with Chevy, shortly after 1958. Never heard of 1958 frames bending on transport trucks.
I contacted an even older Chevrolet employee, with many years with Chevy, here's what he had to offer to me.
"I was there in 1958 and never heard of that one. The frame rail design was used from 1958-1964 and the rails were very sturdy. Also there were three different companies that made the frames and they were all a little different.
What they did have to chain down, in 1958, was the rear end of the early cars (first year with coils). They (the factory) installed the wrong rear springs and the rear ends sat up in the air as if they were jacked up with a bumper jack. They put them on the show floor, after they chained the rear ends down, Also the early (very early) '58 cars needed the rear lower control arm supports rewelded to the frame. The only demonstrator we had that could be driven in the first weeks had air suspension and sat level.
The 1958's had a lot of problems but bent frames wasn't one of them."

 

Interesting info. Maybe that explains why my '58 got sideways if I really nailed it hard. I always thought it was the limited slip/whatever they had in 1958. Mind you, I was 16 years old in 1971 so it might have been a case of the dumbass on my part.

 

...
What they did have to chain down, in 1958, was the rear end of the early cars (first year with coils). They (the factory) installed the wrong rear springs and the rear ends sat up in the air as if they were jacked up with a bumper jack. They put them on the show floor, after they chained the rear ends down, Also the early (very early) '58 cars needed the rear lower control arm supports rewelded to the frame. The only demonstrator we had that could be driven in the first weeks had air suspension and sat level.
The 1958's had a lot of problems but bent frames wasn't one of them."[/QUOTE]
Hey Bob,
Maybe the stories get tossed around, but our 58 Impala was one of the first in So Cal. We saw several models in a couple of different showrooms. None were chained down and besides, our Impala sat pretty level upon bringing it home. Air suspension? I have never heard of that story...
In this short video clip, my brother had popped off the hubcaps for the drags and finished running it in the A/Stock class. The day after the Saturday drags, we had to go to a wedding. This was in early 1958. In all of the videos taken of the car running at Lions in 58-59, the car sat lever except when it was accelerating.
The only time we had an odd stance from stock was when we experimented with clamping the coils in the front and back to see what it would look like lowered. It looked and ran best when it was at the stock height on all four corners. yrmv
Jnaki

 

Sorry, forgot the clip...this is the old hamb thread isn't it? ha!
Jnaki

 

Hello,
Here is a compilation of several race days at Lions in our 58 Impala. We had many happy trophy days. The different wheel rims show a new set of tires borrowed from a friend, some 7" Bruce slicks (all black in the rear tires), and the later all silver(fake chrome) rim look. Those pesky automatic cars always got the jump on us, but the Impala usually caught them before the timing lights.
Jnaki

 

Being born in 1958 I'm glad I wasn't the only thing that came a little bent from the factory.

 

Interesting. So basically, some of the first 58s came from the factory american graffiti style?

 

Exactly.

 

I'm 67 and one summer night in '63 two friends decide to borrow his dad's '57 Olds. Neither of them had their driver's license yet. They waited until his dad fell asleep and pushed the Olds out of the garage and down the alley. They picked up a case of beer and thought they were set. Cruisin around with no particular place to go. Until a Minneapolis Police car lit them up on Lyndale ave. north. Well, they knew those cop cars had a piggy 352 in them and that Rocket Olds pulled away from them easy. After they got a 100 yards or so on them, they pull down an alley and ran like hell. My friend called home and tells his brother."Call the cops and tell them dad's car has been stolen." They thought they were pretty smart, then discovered the cops had jimmied the trunk and stolen their beer and a transistor radio they had in there. "The car thieves did it!" Payback, oh well.

 

I'm 67, a friend lived with grandma, don't know why and I never asked. Mom, dad and younger bro lived somewhere else. This was 1965 and there was a restored '48 Jeepster in the garage that he and dad had done. My friend had no license (15) but that never stopped us; Granny would turn in early, we'd push the car out of the garage, down the alley and off we'd go.
This went on for a few months until one night in early November we went out and before we got back it had snowed just a bit. Busted! Granny saw the tire tracks and confronted him in the morning. Turns out she had known all along, she was a tough old bird but I guess she had a soft side too! RIP Granny, and Milton too.
There are more Jeepster tales to come. Good times, in a simpler time!

 

I'm born in 1935 and remember driving my Dad at age 13 because his vision in one eye was gone so he had no depth perception.

One early summer evening he and my Mom had gone out to dinner with another couple and the local garage man had used his tow truck to deliver our '36 Chev to our alley garage after some repairs.

Well, I took advantage of the situation and off I went in the car. About an hour or so later when I turned down the alley to the garage coming home, there was the garage man and his tow truck insisting to my Dad that he had in fact returned the car earlier.

 

Hello,

In 1961, I tried to get a job here at Mike Salta Pontiac in Long Beach. It was just a few blocks from our old high school on the original, Long Beach Blvd “Avenue of Cars.” I wanted to be a salesman and interviewed for the job. The manager gave me a bunch of automotive questions and I answered all of them easily. Parts, motors, horsepower, carbs, axle gearing ratios, models, etc. My friend had a 1961 Pontiac Bonneville and we had gone over everything a million times.

The manager said that he would hire me since I knew more about cars than 90% of his sales crew. But, he said that it would be a bad policy to hire a teenager for a sales job. He said that he would hire me after I graduated from high school…some consolation…

This job interview was after I had gone to the old Cormier Chevrolet in downtown Long Beach. They moved near the 405 freeway in 1965. It was the same story at their manager’s office, but they were totally impressed with my car knowledge. Since they saw me drive up and park outside of their showroom in my 1958 Chevy Impala, (my brother had purchased it new, here in Long Beach.) they knew I was not kidding about my Chevy knowledge. But, they too, did not want to hire a teenager, despite me knowing more than 80% of the staff.
Since I was desperate for a job and the car salesman position was not going to work out, I got a job at a huge trailer building company near my house in the same industrial area that Clay Smith and Mailliard had their shops. My official title was “screwing apprentice.” That always drew laughs at parties and gatherings. There was this older guy that was the section chief of the cabinet division of this trailer building co…Kit Trailers. He was always yelling at everyone and gave me the official title. I was responsible for using this unusual 3 drill head drill press to drill 3 exact holes in two places on the backs of the cabinet doors. Once I had a 6 foot tall stack of doors (left/right opening ) then I had the job of screwing in the Phillips head screws and hinges onto the doors. The three holes were then predrilled by me for this job. Thus, I was the champion of “screwing” at this trailer company.

I had the bright idea that if I made two stacks of doors and had them all finished including the screwing part, that I could sit back and rest for the shift. I had to wait for the next guy to take the finished doors to the framed cabinets in the trailer shells and install them. Once he took all of the doors, then I had to go back and make another stack(s) of finished doors, etc. An assembly line process that after a week, got a little boring. I wanted to install the doors on the frames inside the trailers because they had a huge fan to cool them off while installing the doors. My station was hot with no fan.

Finally, after two weeks of doing the “screwing” part over and over, I had made three stacks of finished doors and was sitting around waiting for the procession to move along. The manager came by and yelled at me for sitting around. When he was told that I had just finished three 6 foot tall stacks of cabinet doors, he still yelled at me. This was getting old by the minute. He said that I was a lazy teenager with no outlook in life and that I was just peddling my gears in this job. (then he proceeded to tell me about job security, a good salary, insurance…blah, blah, blah) He then assigned me to do another job of making frames with 1” by 1” square dowels in a “T” fashion. There was no set way to make these, no patterns, or jigs. He said to hold them in a “T” fashion and take the automatic air powered stapler and put it on the top of the “T” and blast a staple into the section, finishing the cabinet size “T” section.

The other guys in the next section (that drove cool cars to work) said that it should be placed in a jig and stapled from the side. But, since the supervisor said there was no jig or pre-set frame, I had to hand hold the two pieces of wood to staple together. I made several large stacks in the summer heat and was ready for the 2 pm afternoon break when I made one mistake. The top 1” wood piece shifted and when I pulled the trigger of the air powered staple gun, the staple went into my thumb. These were 1½ inch staples that had to go through both 1 inch square dowels…and it hurt like hell. I immediately pulled my thumb down and pulled the staple out. It started bleeding all over the workplace counter and I had a hard time stopping it from getting all over the raw wood.

I went to the manager’s office and the secretary gave me a Band-Aid to put on it…a Band-Aid? What??? Once I put something on, it bled right through, so I had to go wash it out and hold a paper towel on it until it stopped bleeding. The manager put two Band-Aids on it and wrapped it with more tape. Then he told me to go back to work. Again, What??? My thumb was throbbing, it was still bleeding and it hurt every time I put pressure on my hand. So, the wise old manager gave me the great new job of sanding the doors, manually. I needed two hands to finish this new job as the doors slid all over the counter. I could not put any pressure on my left hand, so I told the manager that this job was not going to work and that I needed to go see my family doctor. Of course, he said that if I left the job to go see my doctor, that I would not have a job the next day. He also said that I would be passing up a great, lifetime job with good benefits if I quit. I immediately went to the cashier and demanded my salary for the week and rode my Schwinn back to my house. So, my job as a “screwing apprentice” came to a sudden end…

Jnaki
The trailer company was too close to drive my Impala, so I rode my trusty Schwinn. that looked like this after a few mods…

 

CHEVROLET near downtown Long Beach

Hello,
Reading all about how the current crop of high school teenagers have had their world turn upside down is rather sad. If we had this happen back in 1960, our activity and hot rod/drag racing history would have taken a long time break. How would it have survived with a year or two missing or held back? That also goes for the high school curriculum. It has been documented that the current crop of teenagers as well as the 80's to now, group has no future counseling from the staff of certified faculty career counselors. Those were the staples during our time and they gave a pretty good outlook for our futures or tried to with what they had.

My goal in high school was to get a job in the auto industry, since we were going to high school within walking distance of an area that should have been called the “Avenue of The Cars and Stars.” Before the property values went sky high, most automobile dealers in Long Beach were situated in downtown Long Beach. Our high school was also located close by in the bordering areas of the downtown section. So, it was a natural to drive down the main street leading to the ocean right through the new and old car section of Long Beach.

It depended on who we picked up in the 58 Impala or Ford Sedan Delivery on the way to high school. We always drove by those block-long, car dealers on American Ave, then, one day, the main drag changed to Long Beach Blvd. The car dealers grew by leaps and bounds. Several of the car dealers were on the corner of our street that t-boned into the campus dead end on 16th Street. The car dealers lined the corners of Long Beach Blvd. This street was the showcase street as it got closer to the high school campus. On the first block near the school were “THE” parking spots, as almost every person walked by our hot rods and cruisers on the way to the front school entrance. That included our friends, for more bantering and of course, the girls.

But, ever since we were little and being friends with our neighborhood mechanic played a big part of growing up, that automotive job appealed to me in leaps and bounds. Sure, being a fireman was close to the top, flying jets in the Air Force was at the top, but that was a dream. So, we liked cars and the mechanic was his own boss with no timeline to get things done. He just did everyday work on repairs or once in a while, a custom car, hot rod, or truck would be in the next stall for some work.

Jnaki

Actually, that appealed to both my brother and me for a future job. In our high school counseling meetings for vocational prep, we had to do an assignment as part of the high school curriculum. Yes, back then there were counselors and future prep for each student coordinated with the school’s class choices and the City College campus for the future.

My project was to get a job or at least go for an interview with some local businesses. What luck, I wanted to be a car salesman and the dream avenue was right down the street from the high school. This should be a snap.

Since my brother bought his new 58 Impala from the Cormier Chevrolet and we knew the son, who attended our high school, it was going to be a snap for the interview. The sales manager was very nice, liked my extensive knowledge on the Chevrolet cars in the showroom and some history. He was impressed with the mechanical things we had done growing up and the local school automotive program. But, they could not hire teenagers to roam the lots and sell cars. That would not appeal to the older parents who were the main buyers of cars. He did offer me a job in the back area as a car detailer and car exchange driver with other Chevrolet dealers in So Cal. That was not what I wanted to do.

So, off to college, clueless as to what my future goals were other than being a world class surfer. My parents laughed at my future goal of touring the coastline of the USA and Europe, finally ending up in Hawaii. What was a teenage kid supposed to do other than do what was right? College, job, family, more cars, etc… It all worked itself out in the end and for the last 60 plus years, we have been happy. Wasn’t that the goal of parents? To have their kid grown up happy?

EARLIER highlights:

Cormier Chevrolet in Long Beach 1963 in, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World movie.

This was our favorite place in downtown Long Beach. It was several blocks from our high school and close enough to run down there for some needed parts, etc. My brother bought his 1958 Impala there in the fall of 1957. We had many runs down to the parts department for getting new ring or pinion gears, Positraction oil, hydraulic linkage tubes for the three carbs, and other parts, etc. (The son of the Cormier Chevrolet owner had a Corvette as his first car, as we all expected.)

The owners were Long Beach locals and if memory serves me correctly, they were named the top Corvette Dealer in the USA during the downtown dealership days on many occasions. It did not hurt that one of the sons always drove a Corvette.

 

Hello,

Back in college, there was a Kinesiology Class that I had to take. It was supposed to be one of the hardest classes in the upper division of courses. It turned out to be a fun class that taught us about how our bodies work, what muscles do what, push/pull and what it takes to recover from strenuous physical activities. Throw a baseball? What arm muscles do what and how, how an injury occurs, all fun experiments in this supposedly “difficult” class. The finer points about the arm position being slightly off and not as efficient in the complete throw was one result.

It has always been a key point in drag racing to show who could react the fastest to the stop light going from red to yellow to green on the streets. Then red to green at the drag strips, etc. This was way before the countdown Christmas tree lights. The physics of reaction we learned and to adjust to the situation played a big part of how fast it became. In normal driving, it took approximately 2 seconds for someone to see a red light come on, send the brain wave down the body and to react to stepping on the brake. Of course, the car keeps moving until the brakes stop the movement.

It did not matter how many times the stop watch was used, it was around 2 seconds for the reaction to happen. So, despite how old or young, it does take a second or two to get the body reacting to the stimulus and step on the brake. Being 20 somethings, the reaction time was supposed to be the best as the physical qualities of the fairly young body is at its peak performance stage.

Jnaki

That sounds like it is all downhill from the twenties… that may be true for most, including us old guys. Here is a reaction test given to many local drag racing guys from a long time ago. We are all older and still hanging around. It was fun to take the test as we knew nothing about the parameters, but was given the test with a “just do it.”

reaction time test for anyone https://www.justpark.com/creative/reaction-time-test/

using the mouse click as the reaction time for the first try.


using the space bar as the tool



After several more tries, the reaction got better, not worse. I believe the anticipation was built in and therefore made the reaction faster. Plus, I used the return key and not the space bar. If that matters. The first several tries had the mystery of not knowing what to expect. We train, get defeated, then we learn fast. Not bad for an old drag racer/ hot rod guy.

Have fun...even if you are not quite up to super speeds, you will be safe if you have a defensive area all around your hot rod, when cruising around during this pandemic or when the all clear is given later. Be safe...




reaction time test for anyone
https://www.justpark.com/creative/reaction-time-test/

RESULTS?

 

Old enough to know better, too young to resister. 74, fought a war, raised 7 kids, still have my first wife

 

Into my 81st orbit and thinking seriously about a '32 3-window with a Dodge Hemi, T5 and a quick change. If you live long enough you can have a second childhood. Take care and stay well.

 

That’s fun! I first got an age of 32, seeing as I’m almost seventy , I thought that was pertty good. I kept playing and got a top score of 18! Not really sure how accurate it is, but it made me feel good! Lol








Bones

 

Said I have the reactions of a 37 year old,not too bad for a 70 year old fart. HRP

 

Well I left hi school by way of graduation in 1957 at 18 years of age. That makes me as old as the grand canyon at present, headed to be as old as earth itself. (81now ((just to save you the math)
My story and my 34's story are on Kustomrorma.com under Jerry Bergs '34 Ford coupe. Google it if you want to.
A very brief run through goes like this.
I saw the coupe in Rod and Custom, Car Craft and Hot Rod in 1958 and 1959. I was in the Air Force in Wichita, Kansas, a love sick and home sick punk kid at the time. Loved it and was all excited to see it in the magazines because it was from very close to my home in Seattle. Fast forward (37)years, (3) daughters,(3) careers, (4) homes, hundreds of thousands miles, (2) wives, hundreds of friends several civic responsibilities...…………... and I inadvertently bought it with out knowing what it had been and that this was not my first introduction to the car. It was a ghastly sight compared to what it had been, so I built of it what is in the Avatar. I know the original owner, (older than I, his son and grandson also). The car had been thorough at the least (4) owners with the 2nd being a show promoter and taring it down and rebuilding it at least 4 times that I know of and finally selling it with it having (2) more owners before I got it. It now sits in my shop getting new brakes and a new MSD Distributor and wires.
That's the story in short, but there's plenty more about the car and its travels though time until finally landing in my care and lap. I have owned it longer than anyone ever has, buying it in 1995. One thing more it that is not HAMB friendly as the 2nd owner installed a 1961 E-type front and rear suspension but it does also have a 331 Hemi again that I put in with a 727 torqueflite replacing the smaller DeSoto that was in it in its earlier life.

 

Ancient thread I know but a lot of you cats have reached geezerdom by now too. Back to my buddy who's family owned the Chevy dealership. (Refer to post #492)

Spring of '67 and the midwest weather had finally broke so cruising with all the windows down and wearing t-shirts at night. My bud had put a set of cheater slicks on stock steel rims on the '65 409 SS. There's four of us, all high schoolers in the car cuttin' the gut doing the usual; looking for girls and stoplight races. Close to midnight we're lined up next to a couple guys at a light with the revs high when he dumped the clutch and there was the loudest shring I ever heard. He had a 3:23 or maybe 3:55 posi gear set but all the teeth got cleaned off with the cheaters. We all get out and pushed the hulk to the side of the street while he went looking for a pay phone to call the dealership for a tow. This was back when service departments were open all night and the parts counter until midnight.

It didn't take long to get to the dealership and we're all talking to the service manager, my bud begging him to not tell the old man and to fix him up on the spot. The manager disappeared for awhile and comes back to report the only chunk they have on the shelf is a 4:88; well, ain't nutten wrong with that!

Within an hour everything is buttoned up and we're climbing back in the car. The manager is telling my buddy to take it easy for 50 to 100 miles to break it in. Sure, sure yeah okay. He fires up the '09 and backs it all the way to the back wall of the service bays. By now all the mechanics have stopped what they were working on and are lined up behind their lifts watching and grinning. He launches this thing on the polished concrete floor and starts slamming gears. We're hardly moving on that concrete but I notice the speedo needle bouncing all over the place. Just before the garage door he nails fourth and as we leave the garage we hit asphalt where there are used cars lined up on both sides. Big fishtail, how we didn't swipe a bumper I don't know but it was close. Leaves the lot to turn on Johnson Drive, lights 'em up all the way up the street.

 

UPDATE!!!!---------Now 87 years old!

 

I am also 87 as I type this

 

I Am 72 And Grew Up In A Small Idaho Town That Was Known Around The Valley For Fast Hot Rods Especially One Deuce 5 Window Coupe That Would Go To The Big City (22,000) On Saturday Night And Call Out The Fast 55-57 Chevy Guys... ...

 

YEP!----The doodlebugs couldn't keep up with my Whizzer! It went 35 mph full out!

 

UPDATE!----Now 88.