Hot Rods What were you thinking?..you can't do that!

The average enthusiast didn’t have access to it, therefore NOT traditional. Nitrous Oxide was used on high elevation aircraft in WW2 but it doesn’t make it “traditional” to use on your car. There were electric cars in the 1900s, is that traditional too?

The newfangled neo-traditionalists reinventing history again...

 

I did this with a 56 both worked awesome

 

The " Blue Flame Wrench " will let you put anything you want into the space you need it in

 

54 car suspension would fit the truck a lot better, almost a bolt in.

 

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When someone says it can't be done that just means they can't do it.

 

You can't run a spool in the rear end on the street!!
The Frankland QC in my '27 T roadster came right out of my last race car, spool and all. I can feel the axles wrap up a bit in a tight turn, but 20K miles says it can be done. You don't really want to be caught in the rain with cheater slicks and a spool though! Talk about tippy toe driving!
I remember, when building the car, wondering if it would want to push the front end in a turn after hearing all my life that you can't do that and if I would have to put a differential in it. It works just fine with the spool.

 

When we were building our front engine dragster I had a know it all ask me if I had ever driven one . I told him no , but I thought I could do it. He thought we were crazy to build something we had never driven . I told him where are you going to go to do front engine dragster test drives ?

 

Hello,

In an area of hot rods and cruisers that were mostly Chevy sedans, there were a few Ford coupes and sedans during our time in Bixby Knolls. But looking at the other cars, they were family sedans borrowed for the Friday and Saturday night festivities at the local drive in restaurant parking lots. At least, the lots were packed and everyone(guys/girls) were having the most fun talking about teenage stuff and of course, hot rods/drag racing.

So, a friend decides that he likes the look and sounds of the Gas Coupes and Sedans when we went to Lion’s Dragstrip. He liked the power that my 58 Impala had on acceleration. And over time, with the other modifications, the Impala got faster. By this time, he decided to get a Henry J for being very lightweight 2300 lbs vs 3400 lbs for the Impala.

We all said…a what? Then he went on to talk about the cool lightweight coupes and sedans with big motors for the Gas Coupe/Sedan classes at Lions. He wanted one like those. (Small car, big motor = go fast.)

He decided that the 348 motor was ok, but the newer 409 was better. He did not get any argument from anyone on that point. But, to put it in the Henry J was going to be a first and no one had the attachments to do the swap and frame modifications. So, the major comment was…you can’t do that!!!

Jnaki

It took him awhile, but one night, he rolled into the drive-in restaurant parking lot with a blue Henry J. It had a level stance, slightly lower in front, but not a deep Cal Rake. It was probably the heavier 409 motor. It idled quite nicely and then he pulled out to go up the street to make a run on the nearby Cherry Avenue dragstrip road. All eyes were on that new unusual build, something not in the norm of the usual hot rods from Bixby Knolls.


PREVIOUS POST INFORMATION:

In 1963, we encountered a 327 powered, dual quad, XKE during the Spring Break Vacation at Newport Beach’s Merle’s Drive In Restaurant parking lot. It sounded very healthy and had challenged almost everyone in the parking lot before we had arrived. He must have been successful as he had a ton of cash, a big mouth, and had the attitude of invincibility. We just happened to be in my friend’s newly built 409 powered Henry J for the classic coastal cruise down to Merle’s drive in during the vacation. It was supposed to be just a cruise.

The thing with this Henry J was the big 409 motor. It had aluminum panels in the whole interior, two bucket seats, a 4 speed and a narrowed Chevy rear axle/4:11 gears. The headers ran under the body, into the tube muffler system. The ride was slightly on a rake as the front end would come up with the full throttle pedal. But, during our rides around the cruising area, it was on a "mean looking" lowered rake. We never knew how much horsepower it had, but upon acceleration, it was faster than the 58 Impala with the mods we did after our drag racing days. (It was not faster than our 671 SBC Willys Coupe)

My friend was kind of a shy guy and did not feel he was ready for the action at Lions Dragstrip. He was content to go to the drive-in restaurant parking lot and do the normal Friday/Saturday teenager bantering. Did he race on Cherry Avenue? It took him a long time to do an actual race. But, we did practice a lot, just in case something came up and we could not turn away.

He was comfortable with the weekend acceleration runs late into the night. He might have done some on his own, but never mentioned it to us. I could get the 58 Impala with the C&O Stick Hydro version off of the starting line faster than his 4 speed stick Henry J. I knew my limitations and could shut off with bright brake lights showing before the Henry J whipped by me around the 1/8th mile. A win is a win…

Then, the Easter Vacation (Spring Break) came along and our cruise was to go to the Newport Beach/Balboa area for some fun times. It was a long drive and in those minimal bucket seats, it was not as comfortable as the Impala. But, who wouldn’t want to go in a modified Henry J, just because…? He was afraid of ruining the cheater slicks on the back, on this long coastal drive. We knew the cheater slick sales guy, so all was well. If anyone was behind us, it would have looked like a race car driving on the streets, lights and all. Those wide slicks fit under and inside of the rear wheel well, so no CHP tickets on our cruises.

As things would have it, there was a race against a JAG XKE with a big loping Chevy motor and dual quads. The SBC/Jag had just dusted off several hot 55 and 57 Chevy sedans locally, near the Merle’s Drive-In spot in Newport Beach. The guy was older and kept at my friend to race for money. We had about $25 dollars between us and that was for gas/food. It was looking bleak. Finally, since it was going to be the first official race for my friend, he wanted me to drive and race. We drove out to the Westminster Naval Depot for the empty street race. The Jaguar/SBC guy did not care it was a drive, he knew he was going to win some money. For us, it was on the way home to Bixby Knolls.

At the empty darkened street, the other SBC/Jag driver said no to me driving and I was to be the starter. My friend was nervous, but we went over how the start would be and remembered the practice runs on Cherry Avenue. He was very shaky, but after the SBC/Jag guy said something, my friend was pumped up. He won the first race, lost the second when he missed a shift, and won the third race by two car lengths. We won the Jag guy’s money and had some gravy/french fries at our own Bixby Knolls drive-in parking lot, later. The SBC/Jag guy drove off in a huff.

This Henry J drawing and story, keeps reminding me of those great, teenage times in that small powerful street cruiser/racer. Thanks for those memories...
Bixby Knolls Henry J

 

Well, this is a dodge dakota, 1986 to be exact, figure it out.

 

A lot of things were done simply because the guy doing them didn't know any better and didn't have the resources to find out not all that long ago.

In 1973 I was at the Minnesota street rod assn repair station at the nationals at Tulsa using their torque wrench to torque my head on my 48 and they were telling about going out to deal with some stalled rod near the fair grounds and the guy had used electrical conduit with the ends hammered flat with 3/8 bolts trough it for the 4 link suspension on the front and had actually driven it several hundred miles to get there. The guy just flat didn't know any better.

I saw some photos of a Model A frame the the other day that a guy had bought that someone had done an engine swap on years ago and just welded in what looked like foot long pieces of 3 or 4 inch channel iron to set the motor mounts on. crude but they probably not only didn't know better they probably didn't have access to the equipment to make better looking mounts at the time.