When parents surprise you.

[Bwana]

This is SO out of character for my dad but I am so tickled for him. In the early 1960's he had a baby blue convertible version but he sold it as it wasn't a family car. Not exactly the same but if he is happy, I'm happy for him...plus I want to drive it!


7740

[airbud7]

That is one sweet looking ride^...57?

[Bwana]

Yes it is.
Hey Thump, any chance this was your high school car?


7741

This is in the trunk.

[LJ3]

Wow, nice ride!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Wow, spinners and all. Nice ride!

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

Nice! I'm glad to see a retired guy treating himself like that.

[BarryBobPosthole]

You don't see many old classics up north where y'all salt the roads so much. Somebody has taken great care of that one!

BKB

[jb]

That is so classic, I can relate, good for him.

[Nandy]

Awesome, my dad did the same a bit over 15 years ago. he has always been a corvette enthusiast but of course, it was not a family car. A few years before I left he bought himself a Stingray... he prep it, chrome it, you named it... few years later he sold it and marked that one off his bucket...

Hope he gets much enjoyment from it...

[Thumper]

Wow Bwana! My favorite ... the hardtop! That is really, really nice. How 'bout some details? Has it been retro'd? What engine? Drivetrain? Brakes? Etc?

It looks like he's got the (so-called) California front bumper ... very nice. Any idea if it has the 1-piece frame? Considering your area, could that be a Canadian production?

[airbud7]

Agree Thump^ we want more info.....Man I would love to ride that through town on saturday night with a cute country girl by my side! ...your Dad did good Bwana.

[johnboy]

Nice! Glad to see that he's pissing away that inheritance and having some fun. :D My next door neighbour has (had? He's recently deceased) one very similar to that.

[Captain]

That is a sweet ride. Reckon a deer rifle or shotgun could fit in the trunk? ;)

[Bwana]

Not sure if the details as I'm in Philly & Dad doesn't text.

7744

[Bwana]

7746

Thump, a few details after a phone call.
350 high-performance motor, 4-barrel carb, with the powerglide transmission. Dad says it is the original frame and that it will talk to you when you step on it.

I'm so excited & happy for him.

[Big Skyz]

LIKE!!!

[Thumper]

Bwana, the only reason I asked about the frame was because of my "old school" experience helping a buddy restore his '57 many years ago. I've been away from the "car crowd" for so long, I've become a dinosaur, but back in the day (and possibly still?), the tri-5 ('55-'57) crowd was hung up on the old "California frame/bumper" thing. Supposedly, a "California manufactured car" had a 1-piece lower bumper ... others had a 3-piece. The 1-piece (which appears to be what's on your dad's car) was seamless and more desirable. Supposedly, the 1-piece bumper deal was some sort of safety requirement by the state of California, but I always found that hard to believe as dang seat belts weren't even mandatory until the late 60's! The 1-piece frame was another highly sought after deal and again, was "supposedly" an indication of a California manufactured car. The way to tell the difference is to look under the car and see if there's a welded seam down the center of the frame rails where the two box sections were joined. The "California" frame has no seam.

I'm sure the old California bumper/frame argument has been debunked by now (I'm sure it was simply different suppliers), but for all I know, the tri-5 crowd may still be arguing about it to this day!

I'd love to see your dad's car up close and personal. After quite a bit of drooling, I'd start mentally dreaming of how I'd personalize it. The wires would be replaced with old school Cragers for example, but that's just me. The builder put a LOT of work into that car and if the job was done as well as it looks, that is a VERY nice car and a lot of money/effort has been put into it. It wouldn't have been my choice of interiors, but that's the builder's personal taste and we all have different ideas. The a/c is a nice addition and I know some of those aftermarket units are made so that there is NO interior modification, so the dash, etc. stays stock. (I can't tell from the pics.) It has a "modern" front seat and it appears the steering column (at minimum, the steering wheel) has been updated. Have the brakes (fronts) been converted to discs? That would be a MAJOR plus and is usually done with a high-end resto. Man-o-man ... the mental image of that car sitting in MY garage puts a big ol' smile on my face! Very nice ....

[BarryBobPosthole]

Thumper, here's a bit of gearhead trivia for you.

Remember the '55 in American Graffiti? What's the dead giveaway that they retrofitted that car with a bigger (likely a 409 if its authentic) engine than was stock?

There was a '55 Chevy truck rebuild around Owasso several years ago. I saw it several times and finally pulled over one day at a gas station and talked to the owner. He'd built his truck on an older 60's era Corvette chassis, drive tran, and engine. Said it was a lot more straightforward project than you'd think. Of course, he'd replaced the entire front end of the body with a fiberglass one that tilted forward using some old convertible lifts to lift the front end forwrd. It was a piece of work. The guy said he was getting ready to sell it after he finished it. It was still primer grey and various other colors when I saw it.

BKb

BKB

[Bwana]

Thump,
When I get a chance to see it in person I'll see if I can get answers to some of your questions.

[Thumper]

P-hole, just off the top of my head, I'm not sure. I could prolly pull up a few pics and tell you though.

Now, as long as all o'youse dufes promise not to give me holy Hell over it, I can tell you a Thump story about that '55 Chevy. I have extensive knowledge of it (actually there were 3 of them, 4 if you count the junk shell they burned). I spent a full week (maybe 9 days?) with that car (those cars) during filming.

The cooling fan went out on my p/c today and I have to put it in the shop tomorrow, but I'll be setting up my laptop in the morning. I'm on my iPhone right now and I hate typing on this thing.

FYI, two of the cars were 454's and one was a 427. Two had 4-speeds and the one for interior shots was an automatic (not as jerky for inside filming).

I'll tell the whole story tomorrow if I have time. (Have a bunch of errands to run)

[BarryBobPosthole]

A good friend of mine was a bona fide 55 nut, and we took a couple of gals from Fort Smith to the movies when that movie first came out. In the rollover scene, when everyone else was in horror all he saw was a crossmember where there shouldn't be one, which was a sure sign they'd added a bigger engine. We figure 409 since it was technically still a small block and would have been a much easier conversion. We talked about it the rest of tye night.
And no, neither of us got laid.
I'm kind of disappointed they put a 454 in there. A 409 would have been more fitting For that genre I thnk.

BKB

[Captain]

"The stunt car for both movies, which was used in American Graffiti’s drag race scenes, had a 454 motor, TH 400 automatic and unknown Olds rear-end. The third car, used for the explosion after the drag race rollover, was a non-running salvage yard ’55 Bel Air 2-door hardtop with a wood post installed in the "B" post area by Henry." http://www.americangraffiti.net/the-cars/
https://youtu.be/QOgqUHk-zDY

[Thumper]

The key words there are "both movies". I worked with the crew on the movie Two Lane Blacktop w/ James Taylor, Dennis Wilson (of Beach Boys) and Warren Oates. I can't remember the girl's name ... I keep wanting to say "Lady Bird" ... but that's the former First Lady. I heard she committed suicide a few years later.

Anyway, I worked on building my street racer the whole year of my senior year in h/s, then started driving it during the summer between h/s and college (1970). One Sunday, I took it out the the Memphis drag strip as I was curious what the car would do in street trim (I simply wanted a time slip). I had been driving (and racing) on the street, then drove it to the track. I remember they had a heck of a time figuring out what class to put me in because the engine was behind the driver (mid-engine) and the car was not stock. They finally settled on "A/Experimental Gas Dragster"... so basically, anyone with a rail dragster could have blown my doors off! I turned an 11:65 in total street trim ... street tires, closed exhaust and I didn't even change plugs or jetting ... just drove it out, made a pass, collected a time slip and parked it in my pit.

Some guy walked over (I really don't recall the exact conversation) and asked if I wanted to participate in filming a movie about drag racing. I had my girlfriend with me and she got super excited and said SURE! ... before I even got the word out of my own mouth! Anyway, the guy recruited some of the top regulars at the track and we went out there every day (and some nights for night scenes) for filming. We didn't get paid, but they did have a commissary truck out there and fed us well. ;)

We all took turns racing the '55 ... but always had to let him win. It was a good running car, but I noticed one of the carbs was a "dummy" (at least it wasn't hooked up at the time). I don't know if they were having problems with it and simply pulled the linkage, then fixed it later or what. (I've never found any documentation that it was inoperative, so it may have been temporary) They had one car for exterior shots, one for inside shots and another had left & right hand brakes installed as a "stunt car" so they could throw it into a slide. I was told the movie was to end with that car coming up on a wreck on the highway and rolling over as it tried to dodge the wreck. BUT, the dufus driving wasn't able to roll it and the movie ended totally differently. It's odd Graffiti used the roll-over thing. BTW, 2-Lane Blacktop supposedly took place in 1962 (I think the same as American Graffiti), so they never showed an "under hood shot" in the movie because, as you pointed out, it "would" have been a 409 in 1962.

Anyway, they must have filmed ME (and my car) for about elebenty bazillion hours! There was one time I had my little brother in the car with me (he wanted to see the movie stars) and they filmed us coming through the gate into the pit area ... a million times! Pull in, back up, pull in again, back up, pull ... well, they must have used up miles of film! They filmed me getting in and out of the car, making a run on the track, pretending to tune the engine, even making a dang sandwich (on Sunday)! We all gathered and sat close together in a section of the stands for "crowd shots". Anyway, I was filmed (along with the others) all week long with the final filming on actual race day on Sunday. I even went through practically 1/2 tank of gas driving in circles around some microphones they'd set up, revving my engine for sound effects. When the fun was over, they gave me a bucket full of free passes to see the film when it was released (sometime in 1971). It played at the drive-in and I took every friend I knew to a free movie and we took up a huge block of real estate at the theater. After-all, they didn't know too many big-time movie stars like me, who'd played alongside big names like Wilson, Taylor and Oates! ;)

Ummm, that was the night I learned all about EDITING!! During that whole movie (only something like 9 minutes was spent at the Memphis track), I managed to spot about a 3" piece of my hood sticking up behind another car in one of the pit scenes! That was it ... zip, nada! A full week of having a camera in my face and I wasn't even in the frigging movie! Of course, all my buds gave me shit, but we had fun anyway. I understand that movie has (or had) a huge cult following, but I think it was a bit of a flop for the most part. One night when I couldn't sleep, I caught it on TV a few years ago at something like 3:00 am. I've seen it quite a few times through the years, but it's doubtful any of the video stores carry it.

Now, those same cars were also used in the American Graffiti movie a few years later, but I believe it was also supposed to have taken place in 1962, so again, the engines were not period correct.

[Captain]

They were gonna put you In the movie, but they would have had to got a bigger screen for that head shot.... ;)

[Thumper]

I'll be out and about most of today, but if you'll get your stool ready, I'll deal with you later.

[Captain]

Why do you think they came out with wide screen view....
:D

[Captain]

Oh and they kept trying to film you but the cost of the movie was skyrocketing with all the cameras breaking. ;) I can hear the director now: "That's our last camera boys, don't lift it above the hood of his car!"

[Thumper]

I'm home now and I see you may need more than one stool.

[Captain]

:D