Hello, This old Plymouth Station Wagon was one of the first ones to show up at the local surf spots. One of our high school friends bought it in rough condition. But, as teenagers, it was equal to the money or lack of, spent. It was a reliable running station wagon and despite the normal teenage stuff… gas money, oil, parts, etc. It made it 30-40 miles to go surfing down the coastline from the Long Beach hangout spots. Directly from our high school, it was not that far to go to Belmont Shore when the Peninsula surf spot broke with the South Swells rolling into the shoreline, inside of the Breakwater rocks. this is how it should have looked. this is how it looked originally with stock hubcaps and a faded paint. Jnaki But, after we all realized the open rear door lift window or roll down window or even in my 40 Ford Flathead Sedan Delivery for surfboard storage, did we notice the aroma of exhaust coming into the station wagons or sedan delivery. So, we used left over T-shirts and towels to stuff up the openings around the surfboards to keep the aroma of exhaust out of the inside of the surf cars. Due to the large rear opening, even with more surfboards, the opening was too much and sucked in the bad air inside. So, this is how it ended up until we all graduated. All longboards on top, tied down well, to keep from blowing off of the station wagon…YRMV
Ed Donovan was later a supplier of Top Fuel engine components, but one of his first jobs was at Offenhauser Engineering. He tried this Offy powered dragster but I recall reading in an early Popular Hot Rodding that it twisted the flywheel bolts off the crank at the starting line.
The Jalopy Journal
