Working on another story about the stuff we all love and I'm at the point where we've got enough of an outline that I can share the idea... This is the story about a shop called Al's Automotive in Brisbane, CA (just south of SF) and the straight/tube axle cars coming out of Al Fitting's shop in the late '60s and '70s. And it's also about the kids in SF's Chinatown building and running these cars on the street and strip back in The Day. A lot of these cars had names like "Lick 'N Stick," "Prime Suspect," "Yellow Peril," "Mellow Yellow" and "Underdog." And I"m specifically looking for The Underdog: a '56 Chevy on an axle that was owned by a guy named Daniel Louie in San Francisco. These cars were wild, to say the least, and were also daily drivers for these guys. Got any stories of this scene? Wild rumors? Cars? Love to hear about all of it...and let 'er rip!
Al Fitting retired to the Grass Valley area, had a shop there to the point I left in 2004. He had a semi trailer full of "stuff" at a friend of mines junkyard, and I found one of the cars he built a 56 Chevy, in a guy's yard in North San Juan(east of Nevada City) . This was 20 years ago. The trailer was moved, the 56 is probably still there, but get caught there, get shot there is the attitude. I don't know if Al is still alive or not, I believe a relative is still there, in the local car scene. That enough wild rumors for now.I did see a chassis for a 69? El Camino for sale on the SF Craigslist that he built in the day.
This sounds like the cars of the Street Freak era, sometimes referred to as High Rollers. Some were done correctly, some not so much, kind of like the RR's of recent times. There should be plenty of examples in mags such as Street Machine and others of that era, Reader's Rides allowed many to show their own examples. Here's an extreme example of the style!
Hey, this is a lead worth following-up on! His little brother, Bill, is up there (I had a great chat with him yesterday) and has been in Grass Valley since 1980. Could you locate that guy's yard now, after all these years? It's worth a trip up there...
God help me, I do love these things. I've never seen a survivor IRL, though--I don't think any of these cars came out of Al's shop. But there's gotta be at least one street freak still intact somewhere...
Yeah, Bill was just a kid when Al had the shop, but he grew up there and has some great memories of the place...
All it needs is a giant shifter coming out of the roof with a drooling doofus head out the door window.
Here's a video worth watching (the first 5 mins +/-) ...The Dead Man's Curve Hot Rod Club / N.J. Dead Man's Curve Hot Rod Club (Director's Cut) - YouTube
I do love seeing Rich Conklin on this--thanks for sharing! Now I gotta see his '55 street freak survivor on my next trip Back East...
I’m in I ran into one of ALs cars at a gathering in Richmond last year. The guy new the whole history of Al and all the tube axle cars in SF back in 60’s/70’s. Can’t remember his name but the 55 Chevy is his. Also will try to load a pic of my buddies Riviera that Al did.
If you're following along, we finally finished the 4-part series and the first episode is up on the Hemmings YouTube channel:
Wow, excellent video. I lived in SF late 70’s to early 80’s before moving north over the GG bridge. My wife worked with a gal who lived with Hank Wong, RIP, a big chopper guy. We became great friends and did a lot of riding with his posse. Hank lived on Larkin and Broadway on the north side. On the south side of Broadway at Larkin painted on a garage door was “Help Promote Street Racing”, maybe you’ve seen it, it was there for years before getting painted over. When I was bartending, Last Day Saloon and Churchill’s at 6th & Clement, I’d see this Asian guy wheeling a blown, straight axle ‘62 vette sitting high with massive rubber on the back. Reminiscent of the Paris Fish ‘62. Chinatown was always a trip. I bought my current ‘64 vette from an old boy who owned three bars/restaurants and would rotate games between them. One time a sailor got over his head after an all nighter and didn’t have the money to pay his losses. He got escorted to his ship and coughed up the title and keys to the vette. This was early ‘70’s. He said he didn’t want the thing but kept it all those years, the son in laws would take it out now and then. I wish I had more info but I was dealing with the granddaughters doing the translation in 2009. Again, a great video of the history and culture that’s Chinatown.
I'll have to get my dad to watch these. He grew up in the City and raced his 56 Chevy up & down the Great Highway & Carroll Ave. Small block, tunnel ram, dual Holley 600's, Pontiac rear with Al's bars. After many years of sitting from an attempted paint job revival I had in high school, he just had it repainted recently to match the original black and white.
VERY kewl! Ask him if he ever saw the Underdog running around in the 70s and 80s--still looking for that ghost...
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