Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 21 to 37 of 37

Thread: Hot rod build from 1973, picture heavy

  1. #21
    New guest
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    Doubt I will return to rodding, sort of feel too old for it now, but would dearly like to think I could build another car, but all space is filled up and retired, so not enough money either!
    To do it would mean selling one of the cars I have to sort both problems out, but i will finish this story on the years after the Y Type, it might surprise a few.
    Next Chapter tomorrow.

  2. #22
    Moderator Brizey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    8,862
    Images
    10
    Some interesting reading there Graham .
    I know what you mean with regards to the Ash wood as I installed it in my Jago `32 roadster body back then, luckily there was a coachwork company nearby who cut it with their bandsaw...they still ruined 2 saws though! .
    I liked the Beaulieu photos, I participated and have a few photo`s from then!...
    "The older i get, the faster i was".
    Out to pasture ...
    My Intro My Rods

  3. #23
    New guest
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    So pleased this effort is interesting for those around at the time, let alone now.

    With all this activity, the car was asked for articles for Hot Car, custom Car and even made a bit of Streetrodder magazine when Pat Ganahl came to England for a visit. That 1976 Southern Roadsters run was a very big turning point for the car.
    Before all that though was winning the Billing Street Rod Natiionals in '74 I think, could be wrong, and the car picked up the top award, so very proud of that.
    Is that Award still used?

    Now, don't laugh too much at the pic below, I was known as 'runner Bean' at school and could run for miles, and miles, and mil..

    Anyway, back to the Glamour!
    The car was amongst many that were the staple diet of Custom Car in 1974, John's Y etc and many others, so it was with some (total) surprise I was invited down to London to a magazine photoshoot for an article on the Car for CC.
    Drove the car there (!) which seemed the obvious thing to do, cleaned it outside and messed about getting it into the studio I think in Hammersmith.
    The models came in with thin cloth covering al the bits, WOW, just look at them!
    Then, the journalist said we should go round to the cafe and have a bun and coffee to do the story....what a disappointment! No CC girls in the flesh for me a skinny 23 year old.

    I still can't grasp that I did all this at that age.

    I was sent a proof of the article that went on the front page of the magazine, January 1976 to promote the first Custom Car show. The car was on the magazine's stand with I think 2 others, hotel paid for, petrol money just out of this world for a lad from Birmingham.

    I think Wilkinson was there. The show lasted almost a week, and I remember being given a lift down to get the car back in John's new Boss Mustang, 351, nicknamed the Plastic Fantastic, chrome yellow, what a car on the streets of London.

    I think the pictures below (if not moderated) tell the story well, it was the 70's, it was free n easy, it was so exciting.

    My memory is a touch blurred on years now as it was frantic with the car, rod runs down south, sleeping out in the open heads under the back bodywork, cruising at 50/55 mph, a speed set by John's Y as the car was hard to keep straight above that!

    1976 was the sweet spot for the car at this time, it proved totally reliable, never broke down, economical (no need to be fast) and I was poor.

    I took voluntary redundancy from my boring job as a draftsman so had some money from that in '76 which dwindled quickly, so needed a job, and quick, back to reality.
    I found one as a development engineer for Salter Weighing Machines in West Bromwich. I liked this type of precision engineering and turned up for the interview having remembered how to tie a tie, in the Y Type (my only car) and parked on the front where it caused a bit of a stirr.
    Went in for my interview which was very very short. got the job! My new boss said if I could build a car like that I was perfect for the job.

    What a bonus! Even better, 2 years later I married a girl from their Export Dept, been married for 43 years now.

    Summer of '76 and down to the Sothern Roadsters rod run, great times and the Hot rod movement was in rude health. Pat Ganahl was there and the place had a great buzz.

    In the spring the front beam axle finally went, what a relief! The front end of choice then was a HA Viva front suspension, so to the scrap yard, strip and clean and the existing brakes bolted on. A bonus was it had it's own rack and pinion and dropped in a treat. Model T Phil welded the front frame onto the existing chassis/crossmember with suitable gussets and the job was done. This made the car even more drivable.

    A friend and i went down and early Saturday evening we left the site for some food and cans, normal stuff to the local village.

    Then, on the way back, BANG I piled into the back of a slow moving car in a 30 with a very strong chrome bumper smashing the front really hard. The picture says it all. My first car crash, my fault. The lady driver was sort of OK and it passed.

    The car was trailered back by Ian behind his Hillman Tiger saloon on a trailer, but I won an award! A suitably chrome plated twisted con rod as in the pic below.

    The drive back was time to reflect on the car, and what to do next and basically went along Bigger, Bolder, brighter, a a bit faster, and that will be the start of the next episode in this car's life that stayed with me for several years to come.
















    Last edited by 911; 14-02-21 at 01:23 PM.

  4. #24
    NSRA member
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    4,657
    Images
    2
    Brilliant stuff!!

    I could be mistaken but I seem to recall the car at the RAF Woodvale (near Liverpool) in the late seventies, correct??

    Chris

    Sent from my SM-T515 using NSRA mobile app
    Bumper sticker - This is an historic vehicle and only has three speeds....... if you don't like this one you sure as hell won't like the others.

  5. #25
    NSRA member Captain Scarlet's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    6,324
    Images
    6
    Quote Originally Posted by 911 View Post
    Doubt I will return to rodding, sort of feel too old for it now, but would dearly like to think I could build another car, but all space is filled up and retired, so not enough money either!
    To do it would mean selling one of the cars I have to sort both problems out, but i will finish this story on the years after the Y Type, it might surprise a few.
    Next Chapter tomorrow.

    OH no no no no,your in here now ,and were not letting you go after all this time ,something will have to go to make room for a Hot Rod

    Great write up Graham

  6. #26
    New guest
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    I went everywhere in this car because I had the time, pennies came in from the welding at the barn weekdays and that covered a lot of the money for the weekends, but time was making me understand the need to get my furture together or could have been locked into casual working. I had a decent Engineering qualification and didn't want to waste it.
    I can remember going to a lot of random places for rod meetings, almost shows at time, nothing huge.

    I only did the one CC show, John Wilkinson did a lot more, I even remember taking the car down a drag strip somewhere, might have been Blackbush.

    A lot of things happened to the car and to me over a very short period of time, I seem to have 4 years of memory that are in a 2 year period!

    One day, you ALL will be old.

    Sllippping back to hot rodding?
    No, the 2 car garage is full, the 911 that will soon 'feature' in this saga and the hill climb race car that followed years later, both seem 'permanent' fixtures. One/both would have to go, and I doubt the people in this cul de sac would not appreciate an angle grinder in the middle of the week...
    Times have change, 'live and let live' has gone a long time ago.

    Next time we go V6 and ponder section and channelling.
    Gulp.

  7. #27
    Moderator Brizey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    8,862
    Images
    10
    Quote: ["Before all that though was winning the Billing Street Rod Natiionals in '74 I think, could be wrong, and the car picked up the top award, so very proud of that.
    Is that Award still used?"]

    You won the Billing Fun Run `Participants Choice` award in `75, Graham. I recall being one of the participants who voted for your `Y`!. And yes, the award is still given today...
    "The older i get, the faster i was".
    Out to pasture ...
    My Intro My Rods

  8. #28
    NSRA member Acker's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    148
    Sllippping back to hot rodding?
    No, the 2 car garage is full, the 911 that will soon 'feature' in this saga and the hill climb race car that followed years later, both seem 'permanent' fixtures. One/both would have to go, and I doubt the people in this cul de sac would not appreciate an angle grinder in the middle of the week...
    Times have change, 'live and let live' has gone a long time ago.

    I still have my last hill climb/sprint car. In bits of coarse!
    I got back to The Hot Rod ownership back in 2008, but I still plan to rebuild the sprint car.
    Regards noise, I have started another rod rebuild last month, no complaints yet!

  9. #29
    New guest
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    Shhhh! very quiet round here!
    Good to know that huge trophy is still in use, the base must be equally huge if all the winner's names are on it.
    Never liked sprinting, one day meetings too short for us here, hence the 2 day hill climb events (Shelsley, Prescott and Loton)

    So, the V6 idea.
    Not sure why a lump of cast iron that engine was, but from a 3 litre Capri, Ford, available from my 'new' local scrapyard down in Tipton, Dudley. £50 with a BW 35 auto box and complete with Scrapyard warrantee...

    It dropped in but only after the accident damage was fully understood.

    It was bad, far worse that I and the 'Team' thought, the stock chassis had twisted so decided a full and far reaching rebuild was needed, also, I was getting bored and fancied changing the car, everywhere.

    I fancied doing a channel and or section on the car and experimented by cutting up a few side view pics of the car, and after that exercise decided that it was best left alone!

    The chassis I felt needed to be far stronger so a plan was launched to build a 2 x 3 box section perimeter chassis that used the original for body mounting, but the stresses of the new mega power engine etc would be on the new chassis. The pictures below will help explain better than my typing.
    Just after all this welding and painting and endless things like brakes and much more, my mother decided to move house!
    Moving a house is easy, moving a garage with a semi-dead hotrod is another thing!

    Help on the day came with Phil and Roger Hamilton who arrived with his A55 pick-up and trailer, and armed with a mile of washing line, the Y was tied down and moved. I think the pic below of the 3 of us is funny, me, Phil and Roger, left to right.
    I enjoyed this big change for many reasons and felt the car was so much stronger for it esp with the roll hoop over my head and the front scuttle hoop to tie the body in firmly. Doors shut so well after!

    I got married! 1978 I know for sure, so the car was moved yet again but the garage of our first house was a single but deep stand alone unit with a longish front drive, space at last!
    First job was to widen the garage by 50%, should have doubled it as things got busier.

    The car needed more to change it, and this came in the form of full wide fibre glass rear wings which I think came from Wisbeach Engineering (?) along with a full rear apron covering the tank for the first time. I think they had just started to sell plastic Y Type bodies. Could be wrong!
    Also, the brown paint had to go too, light ivory all over made the car look huge (as in wide), wings etc painted in my new luxury garage in cellulose using an airless spray gun!

    The tinted plastic roof insert just had to go, I now hated it and decided to fill the hole with steel.

    Found my local yard had a Volvo Estate in there, so they sliced the top off for me and delivered it. I've never seen such a HUGE gently domed panel in my life, but it was a perfect match.
    Careful measure (3 times) careful cut (once) saw it resting on the top lip of the body.

    Welding this panel in place made chopping the top look a breeze.
    The length of the weld line was about 12 feet, all gas welded. It needed a little lead in one corner, bit of filler to ace the curves, so proud of the finished result once painted.
    The whole car was now ivory.

    I notice from my pics here Roger also chopped the A55, don't remember him doing that!

    The interior stayed the same, FIAT seats and 2 Mexican blankets. Wife and I used the car for what seemed years.

    In 1980 the car was featured in Hot Car magazine and even a small French Street Rod magazine too.
    It drove so well in comparison to the 4 pot and manual box, the car ran and braked and cornered well and it was almost quiet (ish) Then someone asked if I would sell it.

    That of course led to another chapter, but not in this car's time with me.

    The car sold to Bob (last picture) who was on this forum a few years ago.
    He took it and I saw it a few years later, but I believe the car eventually went to the USA which is a surprise to me, maybe someone knows for sure the details and will let me know. I do know the registration fell off the DVLA radar in the mid 80's.

    Stack of pictures to do the talking next, but I'll finish this little story off with the '31 Ford Tudor, the sale of that, and the New World of competing on the hill climbs, all due to 2 reasons.

































    I
    Last edited by 911; 15-02-21 at 04:25 PM.

  10. #30
    NSRA member
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Posts
    413
    Images
    7
    Great stuff Graham, I remember all these cars at the time. Small fords are my favourites. You could park another one on the drive now, I'm sure you'd love it.

  11. #31
    New guest
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    All Good Things come to an end. I was changing my interests and really wanted to start again. I think i enjoyed the build more than the action, the Journey more than the Destination, a mind set change.

    It felt right for the Y to go, and we are now 3 as a family, my daughter born in '85 and us feeling all of a sudden 'grown-up' and getting to be honest a feeling of not fitting into the hot rod thing was growing.

    A bigger more sensible hot rod then as I couldn't think of anything else to do other than a hot rod, but that was about to all change.
    To the Model A Tudor.

    Roger Hamilton was ever deeper into hot rods, and had found via Paul Haige in Huddersfield 2 USA Model A cars, one a '28 and quite complete, and a '31 which really was NOT complete.

    I bought the latter cheap off Paul, and bought also one of his chassis designed for a beam front and Jaguar rear, a stout center cross member and various brackets for a Super Bell axle and parallel arms all poly (Urethane at the time) bushes.

    I came home with a big pile and it was a great start. The chassis was superb. The Super bell front end came from him too I think, rear end from my local yard, an S type. I found myself working in California for 2 months, so bought fenders, side aprons (steel) and bonnet etc and shipped them back as excess baggage!. Found a perfect '31 grill surround at Beulieu and lots of handles etc all new. Model A's must be so easy to live with, parts are everywhere.

    Getting the body ready to mount on the chassis was a bit of a game, rust, angle iron etc all needed sorting (loved it) and finally i had it all in place on a new 10SWG channel floor perimeter, repair panels gas welded in and then of course chopper the roof which went really well, easier than the Y was and it looked great. 3" came out and the body was stripped of years and years and years of USA paint. Layer by layer came off reluctantly, even found Flower Power paint on the original black that Henry painted on which turned out to be the hardest to get off to steel.

    Fitted a fuel flap hatch to the one side panel, a Triumph Spitfire fuel tank and lots of details.

    Engine was a good Rover V8 with BW35, stock and simply stripped, cleaned and detailed.
    I wanted this to be a reliable family cruiser of a hot rod.

    The body was quickly 'painted' in dark royal blue mainly to protect it. I never fully painted the car.

    The front bulkhead was reversed to give lots of engine room. The cowl fuel tank had already been cut out in the USA, so a glass Haige one bought and fitted and a RHD steering box from a Mk1 Cortina, a Haige design.

    Steering wheel a huge Grant item bought at Santa Pod.

    In the middle of all this was a body rebuild of my MGB GT that gave way to a fleet seemingly of Ford Capri's, all of them superb.

    It was a holiday to the Channel Islands that did it for the Ford Model A and stopped it and us in our tracks.

    On Jersey we found the front main streel closed. 'What's going on'?

    Then we happened onto the hill climb event running up the hill from the Brewery to the top of a very twisty main road with no curbstones.

    Karts, Saloons, Formula cars all manner of things racing up the hill as a speed event.

    Up hill drag racing!

    We were smitten. When we got home we started to visit weekend events at Shelsley Walsh and Prescott, both venues quite local, great atmosphere and child friendly and very friendly all round, a stark contrast to our then perception of how hot rodding had changed in the UK.
    There were notable cars racing, but of our top 3 one was a Porsche 911 driven by Josh Saddler of Autofarm fame. God, that car was fast, sounded unbelievable, and what is a Porsche 911 anyway?!

    I had done lots to the A in our first house and with a better job (money) moved house and that as good as killed the enthusiasm for the A.

    1988 came and the A went. Sold for £2000 to 2 lads from the south who were enthusiastic too and it went with a 1/2 sad heart, but I had a plan. I believe the A was chopped about to their taste (SBC/9" rear tubbed) and later exported to Germany. (true?)

    2 weeks later I bought a crappy 911, 1973, which needed everything to fix it and would be perfect for the family and hill climbing alike.
    I still have the 911 and the 32 years with the same 911 I have 'storied' a few years ago, and quite a life changing, enhancing and influencing 32 years it has been, but not for this forum, though to conclude this little story, we hill climbed the 911 for 14 years, retired it, bought a Subaru Impreza, tuned that to 370 bhp and hillclimbed that for several years, and finally bought a '78 Lola Sports 2000 race car and put a 3.2 litre Porsche flat 6 in it, the car I have hill climbed for 9 years, all pictured below.to give you the flavor. Hard to stop tinkering...

    I hope you have all enjoyed this account of my hot rod life from about 50 years ago and it has not been too tedious.

    Hill climbing has become a real way of life, we are very involved via a Club who has it's own big (long) hill climb track of it's own, and really the reason why a return to hot rods will not happen.































    Last edited by 911; 17-02-21 at 03:22 PM.

  12. #32
    Moderator jsf55's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    14,970
    Images
    59
    Damn fine read ! I still have that copy of custom car !

  13. #33
    New guest
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    Thank you, it has been good to do it, good memories, some head scratching, and nice to remember what I did when young and brimming with confidence!

  14. #34
    NSRA member rocker's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    891
    Hi ya Graham, great to read about your Rod builds, i remember the car being in the mags way back bud, top read thanks for taking the time to put this up real interesting read .
    Your never to Old mate im 74ish lol and still doing it and finishing a build now had lots of help but getting there...keep at it thanks for the real good read.

  15. #35
    New guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    47
    Was this the car that had all the Hoo Ha over the fact it was built and run with only one rear light ?

  16. #36
    New guest
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    I never had grief about the single light but certainly did about the non white lights glowing under each wheel arch!
    Today, I'm embarrassed to say that, but the friendly Police men who stopped me several times in Stratford and Birmingham were ok, but the Highway Code says only white lights at the front and red at the rear, I had orange wheel well lights...so pulled the wires, I like a simple life.

  17. #37
    Moderator Brizey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    8,862
    Images
    10
    Quote Originally Posted by Roymck View Post
    Was this the car that had all the Hoo Ha over the fact it was built and run with only one rear light ?
    When building my roadster in the 1970s I mounted the lights to the correct dimensions on the vehicle (height from ground, distance in from side of vehicle etc). At the time, and today, vintage/veteran cars were allowed a single rear light to the centre or offside if so originally fitted as such...
    "The older i get, the faster i was".
    Out to pasture ...
    My Intro My Rods

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •