Realized I forgot this step, and have had a few posts....so here we go. I am Eric Hendrickson. Yes, Brother of Steve Hendrickson and most of you probably knew Steve. Still miss him everyday. He was a really neat person, and a great brother. I admired his way of life and the fact he chased his dream and passion and made a great living at it. Interestingly a mutual friend told me Steve admired me for my fabrication skills. We both have a passion for cars that has been passed down by our Dad, Roger (many of you have seen his flat purple chopped and channeled 40 ford coupe.) I grew up watching Dad build Modified's and Sprint's raced in Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. This mostly entailed handing him wrenches, holding the trouble lights, looking through the welding helmet, chipping welds, and generally getting in the way. Racing gave way to a '38 Chev coupe in the early seventies. This became a family project with Steve and I wire brushing rust, helping with dis-assembly, and****embly. After the car was finished we travelled to many weekend rod-runs, camp-outs, and family trips. An early highlight was attending the '73 Nats in Tulsa and have a great picture of Steve and I peering into Jake's (of Pete & Jakes fame) Yellow '34 coupe. Dad eventually built a '39 Chev Delivery, which was traded for a 36 Plymouth pick-up. These gave way to the '40 coupe and a '29 Roadster project (with a 292 six and QC). In my high schools years (graduated in '83) I worked fast food and later a gas-station job to save money for a car. At 15 I bought a 40 Chev 2 door sedan partially street rodded in black primer with tuck and roll seat covers for $1500. It had a fairly strong 350 and easily took care of most of the local Camaros, Nova's and Mustang's North of town on a marked off quarter mile. I Have some neat stories of shredding a radiator with the fan due to excessive wheel hop, and nearly burned the car and house to the ground after rebuilding the carb! The '40 was finished while in High School, built on a budget and painted in lacquer in the neighbors driveway (came out really good) and upholstered in the garage with help from my Uncle. I also shared Steve's '69 White Chevrolet Biscayne 2 door. An ex-Nebraska patrol car with cop 140MPH speedo, suspension, sway bars etc. Buried the speedo the first night I had my license on I-90. Launching sparks out the exhaust when I let-up! Must have been carbon build-up....This would have made a great 427 clone car today. In College I sold the 40, and bought a 29 Model A closed cab pick-up (which I took out a student loan to finish), followed by a 33 Plymouth coupe highboy, 61 Belair post, 32 Ford pick-up, 39 Ford Deluxe Coupe, (2)46 Ford Coupes, and numerous low-rider pick-ups and misc. Now have a 47 Ford Convert, and a 34 5 Window Coupe. Family and work slowed the pace, the '34 was back-burnered to finish the convert (8 years when I thought it would take 2!). Now I am ready to get back on the '34, and thinking it would be cool to have it ready for the 07 HAMB drags after seeing the pics. After this...Don't know have alway liked Track Roadsters, another 61 belair or biscayne would be cool, maybe a 56 F100....... Eric
Eric, welcome from the great white north. You will make a great addition to the hamb family. Always liked your brother's writing. Truly a loss all around. Looking forward to seeing your progress on your rides. Pat.
WOW- nice 34 welcome to the hamb- hopefully I'll run into you soon. Your whole family has some awesome projects! Tuck
Thanks Tuck, I've been lurking watching the progress on your 34. Looks great. I actually started mine in about '95---before the really trad. stuff was taking off. So I went with my own tubular crossmembers and a "hot-rod" theme. I planned (and still do) on some drag racing duty. May try to swap the BB Chev for a 500CI Cad motor, and will go with a vintage late 60's early 70's theme. (white headers, 2 fours on a hi-rise?, factory colored motor, Metallic color, and maybe even some fogging cob-webbing or panel painting, in a tasteful place (firewall dash etc) Kind of wish I would have kept the original X and went with the 40's-50's route though..... Eric
Eric, I knew Steve pretty well, and have talked 40's with your Dad a few times. Steve introduced us once at 50's a few years ago. You all definately fit the "Minnesota Nice" personana! You'll have to keep us updated on the progress of the cars on here now that we lost our magazine connection to you. I bought one of Steve NU Road Sirs Plaques when he had them cast. I think of him every time I see it on the wall.
Yeah, I remember...Recognize the car too. All these years and still cannot find a hood? The plaques are rare. I think we made 20. In high school a friend of Dad's had a 40 sedan that he ran with the hood off. Always thought that was really cool. Exposed voltage regulators, and fuel blocks, are right at home on a 40 firewall!
I actually have a beautiful original black paint hood hanging on the wall in my Dads pole barn. I figure when I redo the car I'll put it on then. There's so many red 40 coupes around, but everyone usually knows which one's mine when I say the hoodless one. In 12 years, the only real problem I've had running hoodless is frying the module on my unilite...that was the year we got something like 7 inches of rain at 50's in one day. Besides, running hoodless I never have people ask to open the hood so they can see the motor!
The Jalopy Journal
