Crosleykook

A Look at the Almquist

2012-02-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

Almquist was one of the very first names I came across when I got the idea of looking for a Crosley powered sportscar. Back then (1997) fiberglass bodied Crosleys weren't particularly more expensive than a Hotshot or Super Sports, unless it was one of the few with major race history, of course. They were just considered old 'kit' cars, back then, so there wasn't a huge following... even if they were harder to find than a stock Crosley.

As I delved into the history of homebuilt Crosley sportscars I quickly learned a lot about the major names like Devin and Jabro, but didn't come up with a lot of information about Almquist. I did learn that there were several body types, including the Sabre and the Speedster, and that they were based on the east coast.

Then Crosley engine guru Barry Seel cleared up a lot of the details with an in-depth interview with Ed Almquist that was published in the Crosley Quarterly. Ed Almquist still lived in Pennsylvania, not far from the old Almquist Speed Equipment HQ and had vivid memories of his days as one of the country's premier distributors of speed equipment - including sporty fiberglass bodies that bolted right up to a Crosley frame.

Now the folks over at Forgotten Fiberglass have gone one better and posted three articles about the Almquist and its predecessor from Clearfield Plastics. The latest posting is a great piece on Ed Almquist by Donna Kessler... be sure to check it out parts I and II of the Clearfield Plastics story here and here.

American Pickers' Late '48 wagon

2012-02-09T21:07:00.000-08:00

Guess what the American Pickers dudes found in Minnesota? Believe it or not, that's the original paint!

Thanks to Doug Cottis for the Tip!

Midwest Drag Race Footage 1958-60

2012-02-06T23:26:00.000-08:00

Spotted 2 (maybe 3) Crosley-bodied drag cars in this flick posted on my fave Hotrod site, the HAMB. Great fun 8mm footage from the Jurassic era of straight line motorsport. First up (about one minute in) is an early Crosley sedan body sitting inside a full size frame that's sporting some real pizza cutters. At about six and a half minutes is the monster above - sadly we don't see the run. One of the very last cars in the film is a highly modified white coupe that looks to me like a VERY chopped Crosley sedan... like mailslot windshield chopped. I'm not 100% sure it started out as a Crosley, but it sure looks like it. I also don't know what else it could be... Whole show is about 10 minutes - well worth it if you're fond of mid fifties middle America - check it out!

Hotshot or Golf Cart?

2012-02-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

HAMB user '46steel' posted this great pic of his father's HotShot in a thread about Dad's old cars... looks like it's doing duty as a golf cart here. Lots of great detail - you can really see how the top was constructed and the close-up really underscores how tiny these are. Great shot!

Ebay Watch: Pick Your Pickup

2012-02-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

Not one but TWO Crosley pickups are up for auction on Ebay right now, ending an hour apart from each other! You've got your choice of a nice runner (albeit featuring some unorthodox resto choices) or a 'some assembly required' car...

First up is this bright red '48 with what just might be an authentic 9634 miles on the clock! The seller is the second owner, who completed the restoration in 1983 and has driven the car sparingly since. This is the rare 'late' 1948 model (same as the one I sold last year) and it appears to be very clean. Seller says zero rust and I'm inclined to believe him.

I just don't know what to make of the puffy seats/cover in the bed... I'm thinking two things: A) the Subaru Brat was an inspiration; B) parades were the target use... I can picture Miss Minnesota perched back there if the Vikings make it to the Super Bowl.

You might want to put on your shades for the interior shot - I haven't seen that much velour in one place outside of a Kustom Van magazine layout. I can understand the seats, I can kinda understand the door panels but he totally lost me at the dashboard. That said, you'll be the only one at the show with an interior like it.

Just under three days left and it's at $4094 with no reserve.

If you are one of those people who likes to drive a car that's all yours because you have restored every single thing yourself - then this 1947 roundside might be the truck for you. Because it needs EVERYTHING.

Floors are gone, body is hammered, engine is apart (identified as a CoBra, it's actually a CIBA), wiring is out (or gone), doesn't roll... you name it, this needs it. Wait, I take that back... the seller has spray painted the front axle, the horn and a few other parts. When you're showing off your trophies for 'Best Restoration' you're always going to have to admit that you didn't paint that horn yourself.

But don't worry, it comes with the manual.

The truck is located in Utah, just like the one I bought last Summer. Who knew Beehive State was a haven for Crosley pickups? There is an, uh, 'optimistic' Buy-It-Now of $1600 and bidding is at $255 with the reserve not met...

Dog 'N' Suds Which-Way Crosley

2012-01-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

I've seen a LOT of custom Crosleys, but this Push-Me-Pull-Me version takes the cake! Photographer Jim Hammer posted some shots of the car(s) on his flickr page and says it was parked behind the Dog 'n' Suds Root Beer Stand on Sagamore Parkway (US 52) in Lafayette, Indiana. From the bullet nose front it looks like it started out as a pair of late of late 1948s. According to the folks that commented on his pictures, the car used to be a driver and was built by the former owner of the restaurant. Miller's pictures were taken nearly three years ago... anyone know if it's still there?

Powell Would be Proud: the Hiriko Car

2012-01-29T13:29:00.000-08:00

The tiny Spanish Hiriko car (Basque for 'urban') prototype was just unveiled, getting a lot of press for its bizarre/genius design. Imagine something smaller than a Fiat 500, that's electric, that folds nearly in half when you park it, and has independent all wheel drive. !

The Hiriko was designed at MIT but built in Spain. Designed for city use, the Hiriko gets 120KM on a charge and THREE of them can be parked in a standard parking space! Small cars are an old and obvious solution to crowded city streets, and even the enter-through-the-windshield concept was used on the Isetta 50+ years ago. What's revolutionary is the Hiriko's ability to fold up when not in use - parked, the Hiriko takes up a third less space than a Smart car! It's hard to explain, but the video illustrates it pretty well.
I think the whole idea is pretty neat, but I'm particularly impressed with its ability to spin in a circle on its own axis... the designers managed to outdo the crazy turning radius of Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion car. I'll be even more impressed if they manage to turn out more than a couple of prototypes. Here's hoping...

Crosley Trucks at Barrett-Jackson

2012-01-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

Another Barrett-Jackson auction has come and gone and this time a couple of Crosley trucks crossed the block.

This nice 1947 pickup (a 'roundside' in Crosley parlance) was stated to have recently come from an estate. From the few photos it looks pretty clean and straight. The engine compartment is very tidy although the wiring should be cloth covered for a totally correct restoration - I'm sure this works fine, but it doesn't look nearly as cool. Same for the interior - clean and serviceable, but correct would be rubber mats and a Crosley radio. That heater button in the center could be a little more period correct too. Not sure what's going on with the gas filler but kudos to the restorer for finding a set of correct low dome hubcaps.

The car sold for $11,700, showing how desirable the pickups are - and how much more Barrett-Jackson folks are willing to pay than regular Crosley buyers. I'm sure the seller was doing backflips when the auction was done - if not he should have been.

Also up was this "1948" Crosley firetruck. There was a huge uproar last year when a different Crosley firetruck sold for something like $110K at auction, causing half the Crosley community to cheer and the other half to sigh in disgust. I admit that I was in the disgust camp, especially after I really looked at the $110,000 Crosley. The resto was mediocre at best and it didn't even have a Crosley engine!

This firetruck appears to be a nicer car than the $110,000 Crosley, although from the listing it sounds like it may be a homemade custom. I'm not sure why it's listed as a '48 when the front end is off a '49 or '50 - I'd kinda hate to imagine cable brakes under this thing so let's hope it's a 1949 that was sold in late '48.

Sold for $22, 000, which is either a crazy deal if you compare it to the $110,000 firetruck, or big money when compared to what Crosleys generally go for.

Thanks to John McKnight for the reminder!

Crosley Postcards

2012-01-17T22:24:00.000-08:00

I'm a total OCD collector/hoarder type, but I do my best NOT to collect everything with a picture of a Crosley car on it. I do pretty well when it comes to newer stuff, but I can't seem to stop buying old magazines with the occasional Crosley photo. I do manage to pass up most postcards for the simple reason that I can save scans that look almost as good as the originals. I thought I'd share a batch of stuff I've saved up... enjoy!

A Fine Car parked in front of a Superb Motor Hotel.

Crazy 'Art Car' that started out as a '51 or '52 Crosley.

Promo postcard for the 'Dashing' Crosley HotShot.

Prewar Pickup.

A portholed super Sports... and then of course you need a stamp:

Ebay Watch: Gasser Heaven - Dual Draggin' Wagons

2012-01-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

While Crosleys never achieved the must-have gasser status of Willys or Fiat Topolinos, there was no shortage of Crosleys (well, bodies) on the track back in the heyday of drag racing. One look at a Crosley sedan told the early drag racers all they needed to know: that thing was smaller, lighter and more aerodynamic than whatever '20s/'30s/'40s body they had in place. If Crosley wagons weren't quite as light, they were easier to find, so many of them made their way to the track and the salt flats.
A half century later there are still folks who dream of recreating the drag cars of the fifties and sixties, and a Crosley with a big ole V8 under the hood is just the ticket. There are a couple of hopeful hotrod/gasser project wagons on available Ebay right now, both in New York state.

First up is this flat black '49, already sitting on a boxed Model A frame with a Chevy 350 with a neat intake mocked up in place. The front clip is off but comes with the car, along with a box of assorted hotrod bits like a Grant wheel. The same seller has the original frame available at another auction if you're looking for a set of the late Crosley 9" drum brakes. All in all this appears to be a well-conceived project that just never got finished. Current bid is only $1000, so this might be one to watch if gasser wagons are your deal.

The next Ebay gasser project takes quite a bit more imagination to picture as a completed car, but then, that gives you more options, right? The pictures are pretty crappy, which might be a blessing - this thing looks pretty scary. It's listed as just a body. I don't think the wheels in the pictures even come with the car. You'll need lots of imagination (and parts, and money) to make this anything other than lawn art. Bidding starts at $800. Hmmm, I recently bought (and then sold) a wagon body in about the same shape for $50. Caveat Emptor!

Just so we don't end on a bummer note, here's some pictures of some cool old drag Crosleys...

His First Car: '39 Crosley

2012-01-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

This may be old news for some of you, but I just came across this great short feature about Glenn Klein's first car from the Orange County Register of July 21st, 2010.

Frank Dominianni and the Nardi 'Boby Sport'

2012-01-08T22:37:00.000-08:00

Reading through the new issue of Vintage Motorsport I came across an obituary for Frank Dominianni who passed in November. In 1947 Dominianni opened Hi-Speed Power Equipment, one of the first speed shops on the East Coast, and he was soon taking every opportunity to test his products out on the track, most famously with a string of racing Corvettes. Even though he was on a shoestring budget, he ran - and often won - against greats like Roger Penske, Dick Thompson and Don Yenko at high profile events like Sebring and Daytona in the late fifties and sixties.

Frank's name rang a bell, and not because of the Corvette connection - I had just happened to have come across a mention of him the day before while reading Nardi: A Fast Life by Dino Brunori and Andrea Curami. Like many racers who went on to fame in heavier machinery, Frank Dominianni started his career in Class H.

The story begins in Torino in 1947 - the same year that Dominianni opened his speed shop in New York. Enrico Nardi had just partnered up with salesman Renato Danese to fulfill his dream of building and selling his own race cars: the Nardi Danese Co. was born. Their first output was a tiny 750cc racer called the 'Boby Sport' after Nardi's daughter. Boby sported a smooth envelope body, a tube frame and was powered by an air cooled BMW motorcycle engine that had been heavily tweaked by Nardi. The Boby Sport competed in a number of Italian races and its performance immediately made a name for the new company.

A few years later, Nardi had parted ways with Danese (who seemed to do a lot more talking than selling) and was experimenting with a variety of motors, including Crosleys. Nardi's manifolds, steering wheels and other performance equipment were selling well and his sportscars were becoming a dominant force in the major Italian events like the Mille Miglia. Meanwhile, that first Nardi Boby had changed hands, and was now owned by racer Berardo Taraschi who owned the Giaur auto company. Taraschi made some modifications and continued to campaign the Boby - now rebadged as a Giaur!
In 1952 the 'Giaur' Nardi was sold to the US where Frank Dominianni took charge of it. I don't know for sure if Dominianni was the one who dumped the BMW motor, but by the time the car was getting press in the US it sported a hot Crosley motor. (It would make sense - I've read that he started off racing a Hot Shot.) He began to race the Boby in 1952, entering it in hillclimbs, Watkins Glen and a bunch of other events before retiring the car in 1955. A couple of years later he started entering hopped up Corvettes in B production races, and the rest was history.

Dominianni never went back to H modified racing, but he kept the 'regular guy' spirit that seems to be a hallmark of the folks who raced smallbore cars back in the day. By all accounts he was a swell guy and lived a long happy life, falling into his final sleep at age 86 while sitting with his wife. His Crosley/Nardi days never come up, but here's a link to a nice interview that gives you a sense of what Frank Dominianni was all about. RIP, Mr. D.

(Thanks to Cliff Reuter at Etceterini for many of the photos!)

'Nother Crosley Midget For Sale

2012-01-05T23:30:00.000-08:00

After I posted the link to the Ebay midget I came across this car for sale on the HAMB. Kinda stubby but it looks pretty good. Seller says, "Late 40's early 50's old Crosley Midget. It has a Crosley rear axle, in out box and steering gear box. All aluminum body. It was first raced with a Crosley engine, then later one it was shortened about a foot and raced with a Harley engine." It is currently being sold without any engine. I like the larger wheels and it appears to have a vintage-type steering wheel.

It's located in Muncie, Indiana and can be found for $3500 on the HAMB.

The Optimists Club

2012-01-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know what to make of folks who list their cars for sale at exorbitantly high prices and then just keep them there. And keep them there. And just keep on keeping on. For years.

Case in point: This lil fella has been on and off Ebay for at least a year - in fact, I featured it in my very first post of 2011. And then I revisited it again a few months ago. And, here it is, still on the 'bay, still hoping to get $8K, which is almost double what I'd expect it to go for these days.

Maybe the fact that this is supposed to be an actual circus car (with documented history? not mentioned in the ad...) is making the seller hold out for just the right buyer - someone who specializes in collecting circus cars. And, you never know- that person could be out there. He may just be waiting to sell an elephant to come up with a little extra spending money.

Unique history doesn't explain the asking price on this '47 convertible which has been for sale for a good long while. No question that it's a nice car, but is it SO nice that it's priced at about triple what a nicely restored Crosley convertible would usually bring?

Uh, no. It is straight as an arrow, but it's got some sloppy bits (for nearly $20K you couldn't have done a better job on that emblem?) and it has none of the rare stuff: no Braje speed equipment, no chrome horn button (the clown car HS has one), not even a Crosley radio. And, if the restorer left that stuff off because he was going for an exact stock 1947 resto, why carpet instead of the correct mats? And, while I'm at it: crappy new tires? For $19,900 I want Coker Goodyear Wingfoots!

But, hey, these are the sellers' cars to do with as they wish. If they want to keep storing them, paying registration and insurance on them and keep buying a new battery every few years, more power to them. And I'll just keep scratching my head and linking.

Ebay Watch: TQ Midget Project

2012-01-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

There's a pretty interesting project car on Ebay right now: a '40s or '50s era TQ Midget. Seller says this started out as a motorcycle-engined car and was later converted to Crosley power. It's missing some parts, but the hard-to-find components (including the 'Kris Kraft' [Kurtis Kraft?] body) seem to be there, and it comes with a complete running Crosley motor ready to drop in.

Crosley was a somewhat popular engine in this class - I've seen pictures of quite a few of these over the years. Maybe it's just me, but they all look kinda funky.... which is saying something if they look funkier than regular Crosleys. There is some nice detail work, especially the seat.

The seller claims to have had the car for 25 years and has managed to track down some Ohio race history on the car. By his Ebay handle ('Crosleygreen') and the Super Sports parked in the background of one photo I'm guessing the seller knows his Crosley stuff. Still no bids at the $1299 opener - seems like a screamin' deal compared to the scam-artist Midget I featured a couple of years ago. I'll be curious to see where this ends up...

Craigslist Find: San Jose Crosley Sedan

2012-01-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

Good way to start the year - a fine car for sale right here on the left coast!

This '47 sedan looks pretty good for being off the road for over a half century. Seller says it was last registered in 1955 and makes no mention of how it runs, so I'm guessing it doesn't. It comes with an extra motor and trans, so maybe there was a problem with the original running gear.... $3400 in San Jose, California - if it's complete and doesn't have any rust that's not a bad price.

Since this is my first post of 2012 I should note that I made one of my resolutions for 2011: I doubled the number of posts from 2010! Bad news is that I failed at one of my others - I did not get any of my Crosleys on the road last year. I plan to remedy that situation this year - and I plan to make even more posts in 2012!

NASA Super Sports, 1952

2011-12-18T22:46:00.000-08:00

Just came across a neat shot of a JPL (Jet Propulsion Lap) Motorsports Club meet from 1952 on the NASA website. Most of these space pioneers had MGs, but there's a Crosley Super Sports and a Ford Model A (probably a hotrod) nestled in among the brit iron. Plenty of cool stuff in the background including a Willys wagon and a Hudson Hornet.

Here's a blowup of the Super Sports, or click on the main photo to see it bigger.

Comics and Crosleys

2011-12-08T02:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the world gets awfully small.

Such was the case today when Georgia Crosley nut Pete Berard posted a page of a comic strip about a Crosley convertible that looked just like mine, asking if anyone knew the source. I didn't know where it came from, but I recognized the artist instantly: underground comix legend Justin Green.

Justin Green started doing comics around 1970 and is credited with creating the first autobiographical comic book: Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary. He used to live not far from me in Winters, California, which was then also the home of underground cartoon legends Robert Crumb (Mr. Natural) and Robert Armstrong* (Mickey Rat). Green had a regular strip in Pulse! Magazine and also did a comic for the signpainter industry magazine - signpainting was his dayjob.

I googled 'Justin Green Crosley' and quickly found the original source of the page: the June 2006 issue of Cincinnati Magazine. A little more sleuthing and I managed to get a copy of the two page strip (click on the images for bigger versions):

Finding Green's comic strip reminded me that I'd actually put a Crosley in my own comic strip! I snuck a CC sedan into the comic strip I did for my college paper around 2001:

This Crosley/comics overlap is probably not that amazing to most of you, but for me, it was all kinds of worlds colliding. I have been a comics obsessive for 35 years - more than 75% of my lifetime. I've drawn comics since I was about ten years old, and even worked as a professional comic artist for a while. While other kids looked up to sports and movie stars, my heroes were cartoonists like Will Eisner, Alex Raymond and Wally Wood. Comics have probably shaped my life more than any single thing outside my family, so stumbling into a Crosley comic strip by a respected cartoonist - who used to live practically in my backyard no less - was pretty amazing.

Perhaps more amazing is that this isn't the first time the two worlds have collided. An ultra rare Crosley-powered Bandini racecar popped up for sale about a decade ago. The ad said it needed a total restoration (there was a tree growing through it) and didn't have a price, so I called, thinking that maybe I could swing it. I was a little surprised at the price ($75K). I was a lot surprised by the provenance: it had been Alex Raymond's car.

If you don't know the name Alex Raymond, you know his work: Alex Raymond created Flash Gordon. Raymond's sci-fi comic strip debuted in 1934 and promptly set the comics world on its ear. An immediate success, Flash made Raymond a star. His stories were imaginative and his draftsmanship was nothing short of incredible. Raymond's art set a standard for adventure comics, and his style is emulated even today.

Raymond himself was a bit of an adventurer, and he began racing sports cars after World War II. He acquired a Bandini in the early fifties and liked it so much that he ordered a new Crosley-engined Bandini Barchetta from Italy in 1956. Soon after ordering the Bandini, Raymond took his friend's new Corvette out for a spin. Losing control on a rain-slicked Connecticut road, Raymond shot off the pavement, hitting a stand of trees 60 feet off the road. He was killed instantly. The Barchetta arrived months later, only to be sold as part of Raymond's estate.

Alex Raymond's Bandini sold quickly - even with the high price tag. The owner completed an immaculate restoration and I found the pictures you see here on the Hemmings blog. I wish I still had the 'pre-restoration' pics... that was some project.

When I learned of the Bandini's Raymond connection, I couldn't believe it. I'd known that Raymond had been killed in an auto accident, but not much more than that. Discovering that one of my heroes (I'd actually done a tribute comic strip called Alex Raymond in Junior High) had actually owned a Crosley-powered sports car was an incredibly exciting revelation - I'd found a connection to one of the best cartoonists who ever lived. Not much, maybe, but I'll take it!

*To get really incestuous: Robert Armstrong provided the cover art for the Sol Hoopii LP which features 'I Like You' - the soundtrack to the Crosleykook movie.

Six Engines, One Wagon, a '37 Chevy, Two Siatas and a Couple of Dodges (More or Less)

2011-12-05T01:19:00.000-08:00

You never know what's going to happen when you respond to an ad; I sure wasn't expecting the chain of events that started with a pile of Crosley parts and led to six engines, a complete 1948 station wagon, a 1937 Chevy coupe, two Dodge pickups, a wooden-wheel bicycle and TWO Siatas... all from one quick email about a Craigslist posting.

I couldn't resist: a Craigslist ad for a pile of Crosley motors, plus more parts, for sale an hour from my house, $995. Now I don't NEED more motors but who could ignore that ad? I sent an email when I saw the ad on a Sunday night, and the next morning the seller let me know that there were a half dozen motors, and that he'd just put the lot on Ebay, and that there was a 1948 station wagon that was also up for sale but not listed yet.

Turned out the guy was selling the parts for his friend who was getting toward the end of a battle with cancer and wanted everything gone so his family didn't have to deal with it. Not a fun deal. He also mentioned that someone had called about the motors and that they were probably going to be sold the next day. Prepped, I called Lynn, the owner, to ask about the 1948 wagon.

Someone Lynn knew had fully restored the car about 25 years ago, driven it for a few years and then parked it. Lynn had picked it up 12 years ago, registered it in his name and then also let it sit. When he first decided to sell it (a couple of years ago) he'd had the rims blasted and painted, and put all new rubber on the wheels - other than that it hadn't been touched in over 20 years! He said there was a small spot of rust on the roof above the passenger door, but that otherwise it was nice. He wanted $2700. I had a crazy work week ahead, so that same night was the only time I could possibly go look at the car. With visions of that dream 'barn find,' I hit the bank after work and sped toward El Sobrante.

Barely an hour later Lynn was walking me through his carport. He was moving a little slowly, but for someone with lung cancer he was doing great. He was really sorry that he'd never gotten around to getting the Crosley running again - he thought it was a pretty neat car.

The wagon was straight and complete, but had been sitting outside for a very long time. The bay area's salty air had not been kind. The only rust-THRU (a nickel-sized hole) was over the passenger door, but there was a liberal dose of scaly surface rust on many of the exterior surfaces. The interior metal was solid (the floors were beautiful) but the gauges and upholstery had cooked in the California sun. My favorite part of the car was a really neat vintage accessory taillight on the back with 'stop' cast into the lens. Sadly, the matched blue '70s California plates were no longer registered to the car, but the good news was that Lynn had non-opped it, so there would be no DMV fees due. It clearly had been a nice car which just went to pot from neglect.

Lynn took me back to his storage to show me the parts. There were a lot of them: six motors, nearly as many transmissions, an axle or two, plus several radiators. There was a guy coming tomorrow morning to look at the stuff, and I advised Lynn not to go down too much on his price- $995 was a good buy for all that stuff. I told him to call me if they didn't sell and I'd help him find a buyer.

While we were there Lynn opened his workshop door to show me his pride and joy: a 1937 Chevrolet business coupe that he'd owned for 42 years. It was a California car from new and Lynn was the second owner. It had a neat accessory truck bed that was sold through Chevy dealers when the car was new - Lynn had driven almost halfway across the US to buy it in the early seventies. The car still had its original inline six, with immaculate Nicson valve cover and sideplates and Fenton intake. He fired it up and it ran so smoothly I almost couldn't tell it was running - until he rapped the throttle. Just for fun he had a matching engine perched in the bed. I saw an ancient 'Inliners' decal in the window and asked him about it. Turned out that he's known Sacramento hotrod/kustom car legend Dick Bertolucci (also an Inliner) for years.

Lynn had all sorts of fun stuff in the shop: ancient engines for Overlands and Model Ts, tools that were so old I wasn't sure what they were for, and a wooden-wheeled Crown Bicycle from the WWI era. He really liked that bike- he'd had a wooden-wheeled bike as a kid so he'd always wanted another one. It was neat.

Out in the yard we passed two Dodge pickups - a 1939 and a '46. Both seemed fairly straight, complete and nice - the '39 even had 1939 California plates. Lynn said, "$3000 for the pair. They gotta go." I took a couple pictures to show to a friend.

We got back out to the Crosley and I confessed that I didn't want it. He asked if his price was high and I told him I thought it was, considering the condition. Turned out he was asking about what he'd paid 12 years ago, but he realized it was probably unrealistic. He asked what I thought it was worth, I told him, and I also mentioned that I knew someone looking for a Crosley and that I'd send his number and the pictures along. He said that'd be great.

I got home and called Lloyd. I'd met Lloyd at the Crosley Meet in Buellton this past September. he and his wife had pulled up Friday night on their way to a vintage Ford meet nearby. He was VERY intrigued by the Crosleys and said they'd be back tomorrow after the Ford meet. They showed up bright and early, hoping to find a CC sedan or wagon for sale, but as luck would have it, my Utah pickup was the only thing for sale at the meet. Lloyd was interested, but I did my best to convince him that if he wanted a sedan or wagon he should hold out. I also told him I'd help him find one and I'd been keeping my eye out ever since. Sure enough, Lloyd was very interested in the El Sobrante wagon, so I sent him pictures and Lynn's phone number along with all the details I could remember.

I also called my pal Johnny Crasharama. I met Johnny when I rented a warehouse from him nearly 20 years ago. We've gotten to be good friends and it's hard to remember that to a lot of folks, he's not a person - he's a legend. Johnny has been a professional stuntman for 40 years and these days his 'day job' is running the Hell Drivers stunt show. When he's not crashing into walls of fire or doing ramp jumps, he's collecting old cars. He's got well over a dozen classics, ranging from a 1913 Model T, and a 1937 Ford business coupe hotrod to a 1947 Buick convertible, all of which sport a heavy dose of patina. Those Dodge trucks looked to be right up his alley. He looked at the pictures and said he'd probably give Lynn a call.

The next afternoon I got an email saying that the motors had sold to a guy from Berkeley named Paolo, and that Lloyd had called about the Crosley. The guy that had bought the motors had said he planned on keeping only some of the stuff and Lynn's friend suggested that I could call the guy if I wanted to buy anything he didn't want. I didn't so much care about the motors, but I was intrigued by a Crosley guy in Berkeley - I didn't know there were any Crosley folks there. I got the number and called.

"Hi, I got your number from the guy who sold you the Crosley motors. He said you might be interested in selling some of the stuff you're not going to use."

"Yeah, I got a lot of stuff. What are you looking for?"

"I might be interested in the generator motors."

"That's what I wanted."

It turned out that the buyer was a sportscar mechanic named Paolo who wanted the motors for parts for a wrecked Crosley-powered Siata he was restoring. He was surprised that I knew about Siatas until I mentioned that my friend Marty Stein had one. He laughed. "I was at Marty's place last weekend." Paolo's car is one serial number from Marty's, and he also has another, non-Crosley Siata. We talked about Siatas and Crosley stuff and he invited me to come check out his shop in Berkeley. He restores all kinds of vintage sportscars... so, he has the job that I and many, many of my pals dream about. I'm scheming on when I can make a trip down that way to take him up on the offer.

Now, a couple of weeks later and it's all said and done. Lloyd spoke with Lynn and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. It took him a few days to get up from Solvang to pick up the car, but he called me this week to say that he got it home and he is very happy with his project.

Johnny drove up to El Sobrante and bought the trucks the day after I sent him the pictures. Lynn had all the paperwork in order and even had receipts for engine work done on one of them - they'd been sitting for some time but Johnny says he's got spark on the '46 and expects to fire it up this week. Lynn also sent Johnny home with an extra Dodge flathead, new bearings and a crankshaft.

I never could have imagined all of this coming out of a one sentence ad for Crosley parts. But, I'm not surprised. Crosley folks are interesting people, so you never know what will happen. I've met some wonderful people through the Crosley world, and Lynn is just the latest in a long line of really nice folks. It's very telling that his friends are going out of their way to help him through this - that tells you a lot about a person.

He's leaving his beloved Chevy to his son. I'm sad to think that he will never get to see his other cars all dolled up by their new owners, but I don't think he minds. He just seemed happy that it was all going to good home. Lynn, I hope so, and god bless.

Another Field Find: New Jersey Super Sports

2011-11-20T23:13:00.000-08:00

Checked back in on Lazlobasset's NJ rust field find and discovered that he'd posted more photos, including a Super Sports that's doing its best to return to the earth before the crusher comes.

Hope some east coaster can save all these cars before they get crushed...

Dual Carb Crosley Motor w/Headers For Sale: $250 in PA

2011-11-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

Just saw this motor posted for sale on the HAMB for $250. With that header and dual intake you couldn't go wrong at the price even if the crank is broken in half. Seller says the cam is not installed but it comes with, plus a pile of other parts including clutches, a tranny, an axle and more. Seller prefers not to ship, and the whole lot is in Newcastle, Pennsylvania.

Ebay HotShot Clown Car Back Again

2011-11-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

This 1950 HotShot was the subject of the first post I made this year- it popped up on Ebay with another clown car back in January. Bidding went wild, reaching $8500. I'm not sure what happened, but apparently the high bidder came to his senses because here it is for sale again 10 months later.

Current bid is $3205, Buy it Now is $8K.

Resto Debate: HotShot and Super Sports Floor Covers

2011-11-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

There has been a vigorous debate raging over at the Crosley Gang Yahoo Group for the past couple of days, begun when 'Cutworm' posed a seemingly simple query:

"All my Hotshots either have or show signs of carpet being glued to the floorpan. I also have pics from Wauseon showing black carpets used. Is this right? What about the goofy cover over the trans-shifter assemblies?"

Determining what would be factory-correct is easy for almost any other auto of the period, but like so many other details of Crosley build history, there are no stats, no notes in the manuals or parts catalogs, and dang few factory photos. What were the floors of Crosley roadsters covered with when they came from the factory? I'd always believed that they came with rubber mats, but I realized that I didn't really know.

User L. E. Hardee weighed in, saying that he didn't believe any Crosley came from the factory with carpets. "Black rubber mats are what I have seen," he said, and then offered an interesting tidbit: "The drive shaft hump was just paint." Phil Rowland disagreed, noting that while rubber mats were correct, the drive shaft hump was definitely covered. Club prez Dave Anspach and Pete Berard came in on Hardee's side: uncovered hump.

Phil took it to the next level, actually digging out some documentation. Sure enough, Tom McCahill's 1949 Mechanix Illustrated review of the HotShot shows rubber covering the hump. Jim Bollman jumped in with even more detail:

"...no regularly built Crosley ever was delivered from the factory with carpeting. That is not to say someone might have pulled strings to get a one off or a dealer may have added carpeting to get a premium price.

"The June 1951 Mechanics Illustrated shows very clear pictures of the interior and it shows a pebbly surfaces rubber mat that is one piece over the hump and all. I have seen the same material in a very original HS (have 35 mm slides around somewhere showing it). I also managed to salvage a small piece of the material from a mat that was beyond saving, for my files, it has a fiber material attached to the back side to absorb noise and retain moisture to insure a rusted out floor."

Then Phil went even one better, adding personal side to the story. "I looked over a NEW '49 Hotshot in a Crosley dealer showroom and remember it well. It definitely had a rubber mat covering the tunnel. It surprises me that so many people believe otherwise. Must be they're too young to have been there back then. I have advantage being 80 years old." I did a little digging myself, and in a Crosley factory photo it sure looks like the hump is covered with a rubber mat.

Pretty amazing that the conversation started without a consensus and ended with that question definitively solved, details on the exact coverings used, and even including a photo of factory-correct interior from the period.

As if that wasn't enough, the conversation then shifted to a discussion of the material on the storage area behind the seats. 'Brawnybug' quickly responded with a description and then a photo from his very original Super Sports: "Here's a picture of the material covering the floor and fender wells.... It's gray and stipple textured, kind of a linear pattern."

And there we left it. This is the sort of thing that used to only happen among experts at the annual Crosley Club meets - now it's any time, and all out in a public forum, documented for everyone. This has become THE site for Crosley nuts, and it's really pretty amazing. The Crosley Gang rules!

Can You Identify These New Cars?

2011-11-14T23:44:00.000-08:00

Found a copy of this great old Motorola auto radio ad on the HAMB. Can anyone identify N?

Curbside Classics' Brief Bio of the Crosley

2011-11-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Jeff Nelson over at the Curbside Classics blog recently offered up a concise and very accurate rundown of the Crosley story. Nice pictures, straightforward story, and best of all, no repetition of the common Crosley canards ('The Hot Shot's experimental sheet metal engine...') I find in 90% of the articles I see about Crosleys.

Check it out here.

New Jersey Junk

2011-11-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

Today I came across two separate reports of rusty Crosleys that are rotting away in the wilds of New Jersey. First up was this CC sedan that HAMB user 'Lazlobasset' found mouldering into the dirt. Car looks pretty straight and complete (note that the front badge is still there!) but I suspect the interior may not be as good as the rest.

The same spot had this half-a-CD. This one looks too far gone to be anything but yard art, but those grill bars seem to be pretty straight. The owner of these (and a field of other neat stuff, like Cushman scooters) has been priced out of the area so these cars are for sale and will presumably be moving along soon.

On the Crosley Gang Yahoo Group, 'racerpete' posted some pics of a CD Crosley station wagon he found last weekend on top of an old delivery truck at a show at a South Jersey junkyard. Hard to tell much from the photos, but since it's got roll up windows it may have been a 'Super' model. That's an original 'flat top' hub cap, too.

Neat stuff, and good to know that Crosleys are still fertilizing the dirt of my home state...

Hemmings Find: 1950 Crosley Hotshot For Sale in Maine

2011-11-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

This clean '50 Hotshot popped up on the Hemmings Blog the other day. It is supposed to be super solid and runs great. Sure looks nice in the pictures.

Owner claims it was recently reawakened after a long storage, and that's kinda what it looks like. Gauges and carpet appear to be faded, and the upholstery could definitely use some attention. But, the paint looks pretty nice, it's got the accessory doors, and you can't argue with the radio in the dash. On the down side, I'm not sold on the red steering wheel, I think the taillight lenses are wrong and something looks weird about the rear gravel pan.

Seller is asking $7950, which would have been nuts just a couple of years ago, but prices on these have been going up. I'd want to know if the floors and sills look as good as the rest of the car, and if it has the top assembly, but it might be worth a call for an East Coaster who knows how to haggle.

Vintage Picture: Kid and a Crosley

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today we've got a great vintage pic of a kid checking out the air conditioning on a CC (1946, '47 or '48) Sedan. Sharp-eyed Cros fans will note that the car has the rare in dash radio, which makes sense since it's also sporting an antenna. Crosley nut Doug Cottis bought the pic off Ebay and posted it in his 'Crosley Automobiles... Fun Little Cars' Group on Facebook and gave me permission to share.

Thanks Doug!

A Crosley-Based Mystery Special from the HAMB - H-Mod???

2011-10-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

HAMB user 'Mr Forty' just posted some pics of a handbuilt all-steel race body a friend of his had acquired a few years ago. It came with some Ford V860 heads and matching tranny, but no other running gear - or even any wheels! The measurements match up with Crosley components, and, as John McKnight quickly noted, the steering wheel is definitely Crosley. Hard to say from the pics, but the two largest holes in the dash look like they'd match Crosley gauges too.

The body came with a story (ah, don't they always?) Here's what the owner was told when he bought it:

"Sometime in the late 60's a long haul trucker was in Midwest when he spotted this body in a warehouse. The guy storing it wanted it out of the warehouse, the owner had not been paying storage on it for some time. He said it was a prototype sports car that Ford commissioned but all that was left was the body and a few other items. The trucker made a deal and brought the car back to California where it was stored for almost 40 years before my friend acquired it."

Uh huh. Well, If you count Edsel's personal 1934 Speedster Custom, Ford did make one car that kinda-sorta-but-not-really looked like this, but no one, including the current owner, believes this is a Ford prototype.

But, what is it? The steel bodywork is all leaded (no bondo) and from the description MrForty posted, it sounds like the frame could be Crosley too. Some HAMBers came to the same conclusion I did: it was probably conceived as a Crosley special and then had a V860 stuffed in when the builder realized exactly how heavy all that steel was.

Don't know if we'll ever solve the mystery, but if any group of folks can it will be the HAMB. One way or the other it's a neat piece of work and MrForty is hoping his pal will build the car based on specials of the period. I'll keep you posted.

1952 Crosley Super Sedan For Sale

2011-10-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

BarnFinds.com is a fairly new website that basically cloned the Bring a Trailer model, albeit with a less distinct editorial voice. Where BaT leans heavily toward driver-friendly sports cars, Barn Finds tends toward immaculately restored oldies with a smattering of exotics.

What should pop up today but a resto/kustom 1952 Crosley Super Sedan in BRIGHT turquoise. Fit and finish look good in the pics, but the choice of materials on the door panels and seats aren't really to my taste. I'm half mystified, half fascinated by the front bench seat. Crosley buckets are easy to find, so this would seem to be an aesthetic choice. I'd have to see how it works in person to comment, but I kinda like it, at least in theory. I really wonder how much it restricts access to the rear seat?

Bad news is that the seller, Exim Cars out of Lexington Kentucky is asking a whopping $10,500 for this baby. That's about double what comparable cars have sold for recently. Add in a radio, a full complement of Braje speed equipment, a shed full of spares and a baby food jar full of the original owner's tears and maybe you could get close to that amount.

But then what do I know? I'm a cheapskate - that's probably why I got into Crosleys in the first place.

SOLD! Minus One Pickup Truck

2011-10-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

This is the way you want your Ebay auto auction to end: a phone call from the buyer two minutes after the auction closes and the car being loaded on a trailer 24 hours later.

I listed the '48 pickup on Ebay just over a week ago and it got a LOT of attention... 2827 views, 85 watchers, two bids (one retracted) and a bunch of questions, although most of them came in less than an hour before the end of the auction. (Who waits til the 23rd hour of the ninth day - of a 10 day auction - to ask the seller a question? Sorry I didn't answer, dudes - I didn't even see 'em til the auction was over.)

New owner Ron drove down from the Gold Country this morning to load 'er up. He currently has a small fleet of vintage Mopars, but this is his first Crosley. He told me he'd driven a Crosley exactly once in his life - the memory of piloting a '51 Crosley station wagon on a four lane freeway has haunted him for decades.

Since the auction had gone so smoothly there had to be a wrinkle, and when I went to get the truck out I discovered a flat tire. I grabbed my hand pump to fill it back up, and after putting about eight pounds of air in the tire felt a peculiar 'grab' in the pump. That was the cue that my $70 bike pump had seized up. I could move the truck with one hand when the tires were up, but I could barely manage to push it to the street with the flat. Luckily Ron had a winch for the trailer.

Ron's not sure exactly what he's going to do with the truck. He seemed unfazed by the bodywork it's gonna need, and wondered aloud how a V8-60 would fit in the engine bay, so I suspect the little truck may be in for some extra horsepower at some point.

We got everything loaded up and I waved goodbye as the little truck headed off in the middle of that huge trailer. I can hardly believe that it was only six weeks ago that I was heading to Salt Lake to pick it up, and that I've dragged it over 1000 miles since then. It was all a fun adventure and I'm glad it's off to a good home. With any luck I'll see it at next year's Crosley meet. We'll see.

One 1948 Crosley Pick Up Truck FOR SALE!

2011-10-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Got the little truck cleaned up, got the parts organized, took some pictures and posted it here on Ebay. Good luck to the bidders - this is somebody's dream winter project!

Pickin' Up a Pickup Finale: Thunder Mountain

2011-10-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

After getting the the truck on the trailer we loaded up on coffee for the road and headed west. We didn't have a set itinerary, but we both had to be at work in less than 48 hours so we wanted to get as far along as possible before we stopped for the night. We made good time - we would have made even better time if I hadn't stopped every hour or so to check the load.

Liv's obsession with Basque food was still holding strong, and when we hit Winnemucca around nightfall we decided to go straight to the restaurant at the Winnemucca Hotel. Their Basque meal was even better than Louie's and we ate at a long table with a couple of other travelers - two kids just coming back from Burning Man. They were funny hippie kids- kind of a weird mix of Burning Man and Tea Party. Liv burst out laughing as soon as we left, pointing out that the guy had obviously been tripping on acid the whole meal. I hadn't noticed.

They had mentioned a cool old motel in town called Scott Shady Court Motel. We decided to check it out and it turned out to be a highlight of the trip. If you're ever thinking of staying in Winnemucca, the Shady Court is the place to stay. The motel is in great shape - the furniture in our room was original - and there was a big enclosed pool. We ended up watching a 1925 silent movie called the Vanishing American which happened to be on TV. We didn't know it, but it was the perfect prelude to the next day.

About 40 miles west of Winnemucca is the dot-sized town of Imlay, Nevada. There isn't much to Imlay - it's not much more than an exit on 80. But, as we'd passed Imlay going east on Friday I'd noticed a strange structure just south of the freeway. I couldn't tell much from the car, but it was odd enough that I made a note of where it was so we could stop on the way back to check it out. It turned out to be Thunder Mountain.

Thunder Mountain is one man's monument to Native Americans. Frank van Zant left Yuba City, California with his family in 1968. He got as far as Imlay, Nevada. Whether a medicine woman commanded him to stop there (one story), or his truck broke down (another story), van Zant had arrived. He promptly set to work creating one of the strangest places in the west.

Renaming himself Chief Rolling Mountain Thunder, he called the place Thunder Mountain. He began the site by encasing his camp trailer in concrete and had soon begun constructing a much larger compound out of whatever he could find in the desert. Trees provided lumber, windows were made of bottles or the windshields of cars. The cars themselves were used as fences or berms. Nearly everything was covered in concrete. The site covers several acres just off the freeway.

Van Zant worked steadily on the project for the next twenty years, raising a large family as he pursued his vision. Finally, his wife had had enough. She left him, taking the children with her. Van Zant began to fail without his beloved family and he killed himself on the property in 1989.

Though the state of Nevada has designated Thunder Mountain as a historic site, there are no funds to maintain it and the weather and vandals have done some damage. Still, there was a ton to see. We parked and walked around the grounds in a sort of stunned silence. Besides structures, the chief had sculpted life-sized brightly-painted figures of Native Americans, often with long, rambling inscriptions near the statues. The whole place is like a cross between Watts Towers and Reverend Howard Finster's Paradise Garden. Liv and I were both amazed that we'd never heard of it before.

As we walked the property we were approached by an older man and his dog. He turned out to be a volunteer caretaker - a friend of one of the Chief's sons who was working to save the monument. We talked for a long time, and he gave us a tour - and then offered to take us inside the three story main house, which was locked up to keep vandals out, and because parts were unstable. The interior, even unlit and full of desert dirt, was incredible. The bottle windows made for beautiful light, and the rooms were organic and strange. The chief had inset childrens' toys and large chunks of quartz into many of the interior walls. The top floor was accessible only by a log ladder which seemed spindly, but turned out to be totally solid, even after years of neglect. Writing this a month later I'm still awed that we had such an amazing visit. We donated to the fund to restore Thunder Mountain and plan to go back again soon.

We got back in the truck and headed west, sad to be leaving, but exhilerated to have discovered a semi-secret treasure not too far from home.

Pickin' Up a Pickup, Part III

2011-10-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've said before that the last thing I need is ANOTHER Crosley project car. So, then what am I doing driving 700 miles to buy a partially-disassembled rusty heap of a Crosley that hasn't run in decades?

The month before I'd seen the ad for the pickup I'd been thinking about what car I was going to bring to the upcoming Crosley meet in Buellton. My first thought was to volunteer to haul Frank Bell's wagon again, but the more I thought about my trailer, the more I thought better of it. The trailer just holds the weight of Frank's station wagon, but if anything went wrong on the road it could get ugly fast - something I'd never want to risk. I'd love to bring Frank's car again - when I have a better trailer.

I thought about bringing my H-Mod again, but it's still in the 'rough project' stage - and it's still in parts spread all over the garage. I'd like to bring it when It's gotten a little farther along. I also thought about bringing my '49 convertible, but since it's non-opped and needs work I thought it was better to leave it home. I'd half-heartedly settled on bringing my station wagon.

The wagon ain't pretty- I call it 'The Heap.' It was stored in a shed in 1961- I bought it almost a decade ago. It hasn't run in nearly 50 years, but I did get it to turn over with the key. I started thinking that it'd be kinda cool to actually start it up AT the meet. There would certainly be a Crosley brain trust on hand to help. I'd more-or-less settled on that plan, half-heartedly.

Then, when I saw the ad for the pickup, my brain got to turning - how cool would it be to bring a 'surprise' car - something nobody would be expecting? I figured I probably already had most of the parts it was missing in the garage, so I could spend the few days between Utah and Buellton cleaning it up and replacing the missing stuff. With a little luck I could sell it at the meet for enough to cover the purchase price and the value of the parts I put in. If not, well, that'd be the price of adventure.

I can hear you thinking now. "That's nuts."

A little story: A few years ago I saw a Craigslist ad for a Hotshot body in Vallejo, California. I spoke with the owner and it turned out that it had been his Dad's car. The seller had inherited his Dad's estate, which had included several Crosleys, the rest of which were already sold. What was left was a rusty, disassembled Hotshot body. The body was off the frame, and the frame had no wheels, no axles, no motor - no nothing. And, the whole mess was buried in blackberry bushes. He was clearing the house out to sell and he needed this gone. He wanted $250.

I didn't want the car - in fact, I really didn't want the car - but I left him my number and told him I'd buy it if no one else wanted it. I was in the middle of a series of 80 hour weeks at work, didn't really have an extra $250, and didn't own a trailer yet, so I had no way to go get it. But, I didn't want it to go to the crusher, either. A few weeks went by and work calmed down so I called the guy to see what had happened. He'd gotten sick of dealing with the estate - he'd scrapped the body and the frame... and the original license plates and pink slip which had turned up when he cleaned the house. I took a lesson: if it's at risk, grab it if you can.

I don't know if Steve would have scrapped this car... but I do know that they'd already lost the title, a bunch of parts, and that it sure looked like a car that was ready for the scrap heap. If it didn't go to the junkyard it was very likely to have gone to a customizer who might - or might not - have made sure the good parts went to someone who could use them. This way I knew I'd find it a good home - with a trip to Buellton thrown in for good measure.

To be continued...

Pickin' Up a Pickup, Part II

2011-09-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Liv jiggered her schedule around so she could go with me and we hastily planned a trip to Salt Lake City. She'd lived in SLC for about five years when she was little so she had quite a few memories of the city. I planned the trip so that we'd have a whole day there before picking up the truck: Thursday night to Reno; Friday to Salt Lake; Saturday sightsee in SLC; Sunday pick up the truck and start West; Monday home.

We left Thursday after work with high hopes of making Reno in time to eat a late dinner at Louie's Basque Corner. Liv got on a basque food kick after a trip to the legendary Noriega Hotel in Bakersfield... she was hot to try all the Basque food she could eat. I'd only ever eaten Basque food in Spain, so I was game. We hit bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway so we barely made it... turned out they were doing a booming business from all the Burning Man traffic so we didn't feel bad about showing up so close to closing time.

The meal was great and when we got to our hotel I posted a picture of Louie's on my Facebook page. Thirty seconds later my phone rings: "Tim, are you in Reno?" It was my pal Pete, a Reno native who owns the record label that has put out most of my bands' records. Pete spends most of the year in Europe and usually only comes back to the states around the time of Burning Man - he's been there 18 years in a row! Pete's traveled with my band all over Europe and I've met some of my closest friends through him. He's a good guy, and an absolute music fanatic. We've got that in common. I hadn't thought to call him since I figured he'd be at Burning Man - turned out he'd gotten back that day. We met up with Pete and his gal for breakfast the next morning - they were very skeptical that a car was going to fit on my trailer.

Liv and I blasted along through Nevada for the rest of the day. We stopped in Winnemucca just in time to catch the Poke and Peek thrift store ten minutes before closing time. The place was a gold mine of junk and Liv and I loaded up on vintage clothes, books and records, all to the tune of about $4. The store was on a decommissioned military base and they had a neat display of tanks and planes out front.

It took a bit longer to get to Utah than I'm used to - I kept the speed down because of the trailer - but we got into Salt Lake late and hit the hay. The next day we ran around looking at Liv's old houses and school, and eating at some of the places she remembered as a kid, like Hires Root Beer stand. Liv had the great idea of leaving the trailer at the hotel which made parking much easier. We hit a bunch of thrift stores and I discovered that Mormon kids really must have loved the Osmonds because their records were everywhere.

The next morning we drove down to Bluff City to pick up the Pickup. Steve and his wife had gone camping so he'd arranged to have his son meet us. We rolled into a nice new suburb surrounded by old farms, and there it was, parked on the driveway, waiting for us.

I was... surprised. First off, the windshield/frame was from another make of car and had simply been screwed to the Crosley vaguely where the original windshield would have been. Second, the 'not much rust' description didn't take into account the loaf-of-bread-sized hole in the passenger floor. Last, the doors were the roll-up window variety - not bad, but not strictly correct for a '48.

There was good stuff too: the seats had been recovered at some point and were still very presentable, and the truck bed was surprisingly solid for the amount of rust in the passenger floor. There was plenty of stuff missing, but there were some extra parts, including a spare engine, in the mix. Best of all was the underside: the gas tank was battered, but intact, and the truck had at some point been converted to 9" hydraulic brakes! These were the best of the Crosley brake systems by far.

We loaded the spare parts into the back of our truck and got the Crosley lined up behind the trailer. Three of the Crosley tires held air, so we didn't have much trouble getting it loaded - the fourth tire was flat before I had the tiedowns tight. Less than an hour after we'd pulled up we were waving goodbye and leaving Bluff City with our 'treasure,' headed for home.

See, Pete? It fits!

To be continued....

Pickin' Up a Pickup, Part I

2011-09-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

Last month I ran across a note on the Crosley Gang yahoo group that a Crosley pickup outside of Salt Lake City had been listed for sale on a local classified website. There was a link to the ad, which could have been used as the 'before' example in a "how not to sell your car" tutorial. There were photos, but they were small, fuzzy and taken from angles that made it impossible to tell what kind of condition the car was in, other than that it was rust/primer color and missing the headlights. The text said it was a 1948 Crosley truck - and not much else. Unsurprisingly, the car had been for sale for months.

I gave a call and talked to the owner, Steve. He said that the body wasn't bad and that there wasn't much rust. He told me that the truck had been in his wife's family for at least 50 years - maybe from new. It had been a little farm truck and then in the sixties his wife had driven it to high school. It was parked after that and hadn't been driven since. They had tinkered with the idea of restoring it about a decade ago and had gotten as far as taking a bunch of stuff apart - and then had proceeded to lose some of the parts. He started dropping the price before I'd even asked.

The price wasn't the biggest issue for me - I wanted to know if it was a 'real' pickup. Crosley pickup trucks are among the rarest of all production vehicles - less than 10% of Crosley production was pickups, and given their utilitarian nature, I suspect that their survival rate wasn't as high as the other rare birds: convertibles and roadsters. I've seen well over 50 roadsters (total production about 2500), but less than a dozen pickups. From the pictures it was impossible to tell if it was a genuine pickup truck or a customized station wagon.

Roundside Pickup

Later 'flatside' trucks (as opposed to the earlier 'roundsides', where the rear of the truck was formed from the same stampings as the front fenders) are very similar to station wagons - many trucks are simply station wagons cut down to be truck bodies. In trying to figure out how to tell if this was a 'real' truck, I found out something I didn't know - while the rest of the Crosley line changed body styles for the 1949 model year, pickups changed from 'roundside' production to 'flatside' production sometime mid-1948, using the early-style front end and the later pickup bed. I'm still not totally sure, but it seems like these late '48s may be the rarest body style of all the postwar Crosley pickups.

Early Flatside Pickup

The key seemed to be the rolled beads around the rear window... unfortunately, none of the pictures showed the rear of the truck! I called Steve again - it turned out the car was jammed in a shed and surrounded by stuff. The more details I got from Steve, the more I was convinced that it was a modified station wagon. He agreed to get in the shed and take some more photos for me. I also asked if he had been able to find any of the stray parts, including the gauges... unfortunately they were gone.

Lo and behold, when the pictures came in from Steve a couple of days later, there they were: three factory-formed beads around a pill-shaped rear window - it was a real pickup! I told Steve I'd take it, and that I'd be there in a few days to pick it up...

To be continued...

Ebay Watch: Hmod, a Hydroplane and a '48 Sedan Body

2011-09-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share some interesting and odd stuff I came across on Ebay while the auctions are still going...

First up is a neat unfinished Hmod in Vancouver, Washington that showed up on Bring a Trailer a few months back. Fiberglass appears unfinished and that frame looks heavy, but this could be a ton of fun for someone. Comes with multiple engines and what looks like a spare steel crank. Ends in a day with a $5500 buy-it-now and no bids yet.

In contrast, there is plenty of action in the bidding for this totally boss vintage hydroplane located in Ohio. If you've read 'Inboard Racing: A Wild Ride' you know exactly how cool these Crosley-powered boats can be.. and this one looks really neat. Everything looks original (ok, except the Pepsi bottle) - and pretty decent. Note that the builder used a Crosley 4-in-1 gauge in the dash. Two days left and it's at $1525 with 9 bids.

I'm actually stunned by the condition of the floorpans under this 1948 Crosley sedan body for sale in Oklahoma. By all rights this should be a Flintstones special, but somehow this car escaped the fate of most rainy state cars- especially those missing a bunch of windows. Ad suggests that it'd be a good candidate for 'Gasser-Bonneville-Salt Flats' - and a body this bare would fit the bill for a hot rodder. It's probably too much to hope that this lil guy gets restored, but at least it'll be saved from the crusher - $152.50 with 3 days left to go.

A Taste of Monterey

2011-09-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

I got to go to the Monterey Historics (or the Rolex Whosit-Whatsit or whatever they call it now) this year courtesy of a pit pass provided by Lee Osborn. The pass not only got me in for free, it allowed me access to the lineup for the starting grid! I'll make a longer post about the races soon, but I was thinking of guys like Davide De Giorgi, stuck in Europe away from all the fun, and thought I'd post this footage of Lee's group getting on the track. If you can identify more than half the cars in this lineup you're doing pretty good.

Tis the Season for Crosley Meets

2011-09-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Illinois region of the Crosley Auto Club had THEIR meet last week too. Steve from the Crosley Gang posted this link to photos from the News Tribune of LaSalle, Illinois.

Another West Coast Crosley Meet Done and Gone!

2011-09-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

Got back last night from the annual West Coast Crosley Club meet in Buellton, California. I'm sunburned, sleep-deprived and - as always - STOKED. I look forward to this meet all year. It's a chance to catch up with friends I haven't seen since the last meet, and of course I love looking at all the Crosley junk that shows up, from restored cars to rare ephemera to parts for sale. I forgot to book a room at Pea Soup Andersons (the official hotel) so when I arrived on Friday night I ended up at the slightly skanky Country Lane Motel right next door.

I hustled over to Andersons for the Friday night get together as soon as I got in. This year was a little different... for one thing, there were SO MANY new people! It was great to meet the dozen-plus folks that had never been to a meet before. Some of them came in response to the membership drive we'd had earlier in the year, and some just happened to come out for the first time this year. One way or the other, it was great to see all the new faces.

I got a bit of a surprise when I opened the door to the motel at 7AM- rain! It doesn't rain much in California this time of year, but we got some sprinkles Saturday morning. Gary Loomer's pickup was already in the park, soaked. I joked that it probably hadn't seen rain in a long time and Gary said, "not since I've had it, at least." It was overcast most of the day, but the rain was done by 10AM.

There was plenty of stuff in the swap meet including about a dozen engines for sale. Of course I loaded up on Crosley gunk- I found an extra set of doors for my Super Sport, some NOS tires (ten bucks each!), a vintage clock radio and a forged steel crank that looked (and micrometered) like new.

I was a little bummed that the number of cars was down - I think there were 11 total. It didn't help that four cars that are always at the meet were no shows this year: Dave Brodsky blew the engine in his convertible the day before the meet, Lee Osborn hadn't quite recovered from reassembling his '55 special after blowing the clutch (and nearly losing the tranny) at Monterey, The axle failed on Mike Bainter's tow vehicle just before the meet (he had to rent a car just to get there himself), and last, Ardell Johnson just wasn't up to the drive all the way from Oregon- this is the FIRST meet he's missed in 26 years.

If there weren't as many cars this year as usual, the ones that were there were nice. Continuing the trend I've noticed over the past few years, the quality of the restorations is going way up. The cars at this year's meet were undoubtedly some of the nicest Crosleys in the country, and Hemmings mag star Ron Bauman continues to lead the way. This time he brought a very nice roundside pickup, making for three pickups at the meet!

On the other end of the pickup spectrum was my contribution to the meet. I brought a very rough, partially complete, total hillbilly-mobile. All it needed was a Joad in the driver's seat to complete the picture. Liv and I had picked this up outside of Salt Lake City just last weekend, meaning that it had covered about 1000 miles in the past 7 days. I'll detail the story of that trip in another post, but the short version is that I got it home, went through my parts stash and made it as complete as I could before it went to Buellton. I found most of the rest of the missing parts in Buellton and added them to the load in the back of the truck. It was for sale, but nobody bit.

Another thing that was 'new' this year was the tour to Solvang. We usually have a funkana - a silly driving-skills test - in the parking lot, but this time we went back to an old idea: a trip. After lunch a whole herd of Crosleys roared off to Solvang, about 10 miles away for an hour or so. I ended up missing the trip, but everyone had a great time, and the cars ran well. Kudos to the Dunners who led the way in their nice Hotshot. Next year I plan to be driving MY car in the pack!

When the troops got back we held the much-improved Crosley raffle. People donated some amazing stuff, including a complete set of new Crosley hubcaps- worth about $300! I won a vintage model kit, still in the shrink wrap, and a FarmoRoad manual.

After the raffle we milled around checking out the cars. There were quite a few that I'd never seen before. This CC 'vert used to belong to Dave 'Slo-Cal Special' Wheeler, but the new owner had rodded it to the extreme. He drove it in but I don't think he drove it on the tour to Solvang. That would have rattled some windows!

Another 'car' that didn't go on the tour was this beautiful rolling chassis. Owner Bob King JUST got into Crosleys last year... he jumped in with both feet, buying three in one day! This should be installed under a car soon and will be a nice complement to the CD wagon Bob DID take to Solvang. Sounds like he's done more Crosleying in the past year than I've done in the past five.

That was the story of a lot of the new folks: work work work. The couple who inherited the 'garage find' Crosley I wrote about last year have it nearly finished. The Browns have done an incredible frame-off mild custom, and it's probably only a couple of months away from being done. The pictures they brought showed the progress and it was amazing to see the transformation - I can't wait to see it at the next meet. They had a fun time at the meet and heartily agreed that Crosley folks are super.

Another example of new Crosley work was Gary Cochrane's Super Sport. He'd recently completed a resto-mod on his car, converting it to a Datsun-powered automatic so his wife Jan could also drive it. The conversion was very cleanly done, and that dark paint showed off the outstanding bodywork. Unfortunately Gary got a bug and took off early, so I never got a ride.

I also missed a ride in Mike and Robin Stoner's FOR which had a freshly rebuilt engine. They drive this thing everywhere, so I'm not surprised that they wore a motor out. This time they had the motor built by Bonneville daredevils the Liebherrs, so I suspect it'll go a long time.

After we closed up the meet we got together for the banquet/business meeting at the Firestone taproom. We ate til we couldn't move and Mike Bainter announced the results of the People's Choice Awards. It was no surprise that a freshly-finished Skorpion from San Jose took the Best of. Incredibly, the owner had started this project FIFTY-FOUR YEARS AGO, and completed it this year!

He was genuinely stunned when he won, but there was no question he deserved it. The car - and the story - were absolutely incredible. There was a bit of discussion about the Bob Carson Award; Dave and Aileen Brodsky were nominated for blowing the motor in their car the day before the meet, and I nominated the couple who had come all the way from Seattle (not in a Crosley, mind you) to see the meet. I was also nominated for hauling the tetanus pickup out from Salt Lake City, but as I said at the meet, 'No problems!' In the end, the Brodskys took home the gold.

The next morning we all met up for breakfast and then we were homeward bound. As always, I started thinking about the next year's meet before I'm out of the hotel parking lot on the way home... Can't wait!

Tin Block Times is OUT- and so am I!

2011-09-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

The new issue of the TBT went out last week. As always, contributors sent in some stellar stuff - Chuck Latty wrote the cover story about growing up with a Crosley sedan in the family and Marty Stein provided another detailed history of an etceterini- this time it was his 1952 Siata. Part II will run next issue. We also had a report on the Wauseon National Meet, reviews of Crosley-related books and classifieds.

And, wow, what classifieds! We had a half dozen cars for sale, ranging from a mint prewar convertible to several parts cars to an Hmod race car. I'm getting ready to head out for the West Coast Club Meet in Buellton this weekend, but if you don't get the TBT, here's a taste of what you missed!

West Coast Crosley Club Meet in Buellton, CA: SEPT 10 - 11, 2011

2011-08-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

The West Coast Region of the Crosley Auto Club will hold their annual meet on September 10 and 11, 2011 in Buellton, California! I'll be there (natch) and I hope you will be too! Here's the details:
Friday (9/9)
– Informal registration at the Pea Soup Andersons/Best Western Hotel Gazebo – it’s BYO,
and bring some snacks to share. Time to catch up on what the West Coast Crosley Family has been up to over the past year.

Saturday (9/10)
– 9:00: Meet starts at Riverview Park with Car Display, Swap Meet, and Crosley Store.
-- Noon: Lunch will be served for those who pre-ordered.
-- 1:30: The new Crosley Caper Cruz – a drive into Solvang - will leave the
Park.
-- 3:00’ish: When the Cruz’ers return, the new and improved Giant Raffle will be held.
We have some nice additions this year, contributed by Service Motors and Yankee Crosley Parts.
-- 6:00: The Annual Banquet Business Meeting at the Firestone—Walker Top Room.

Sunday (9/11)
– 9:00: Brunch and good-byes at Ellen’s Pancake House.

If you have questions call Club Pres RICK ALEXANDER at 619-787-1908, or e-mail tracplanning@cox.net .

2011 Crosley Club Meet in Wauseon: Part III

2011-08-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

I was out of the tent by 6:30AM on Saturday but there were plenty of folks already moving around- this was the big day!

Paul Gorrell was busy moving Hot Shot #1 to the show field. When he got all set up he looked at his rust-covered hands and said, "if I shake somebody's hand they'll get 5% of the car." That's Barry Seel 'supervising' on the right.

VCS were the spotlight class this year and there were a TON of roadsters on hand. I never did get a count, but I'm guessing there were 30 or so at least.

One of my faves was this driver Hot Shot that was entered in the 'Original' class. Rough but ready, just like I like 'em.

Even the brass was getting in on the act- here's Club President Dave Anspach getting his Super Sport ready for the big day.

It's been so long since I took my '51 Super Sport apart that I am definitely going to need some help when it comes time to put it back together. I took lots of shots like this that will - I hope - make reassembly a little bit easier. This SS appears to be largely correct, although I don't think the radio grill should be chromed... but with Crosley, who knows?

If I need help remembering how the SS should go, I'll need even more help imagining what the interior of my Hmod should look like. Chuck's Fibersport is the best cue I've got for my car, so I kept coming back to take more pictures. The Fibersport's office is tidy - as any good race car should be.

Every time I turned around it seemed like there was another insane rarity showing up. This Prewar Parkway Delivery is the only one I've ever seen.. I've almost never even seen pictures of these! This one looked to be barn fresh, but it was amazingly original. Upholstery, paint, and even the tires were factory. Totally nuts.

Speaking of original, how about this Farm-O-Road? Original paint and even the original decal on the side!

That's Wauseon in a nutshell- everywhere else in the world Farm-O-Roads are crazy scarce (less than 500 built, I think) but here they were almost common!

The owner of this one had a sense of humor.

When I wasn't wandering around ogling the eyecandy I hung out with the West Coast guys at their sale booth. Left to right, that's Mike Bainter (one of the original West Coast Club members), club treasurer Ronnie Bauman and Pres Rick Alexander. Between the three of them you could stock a Crosley dealership!

But, I guess I don't have much room to talk. Once Mike mentioned that he'd be able to haul some stuff back to California for me in his truck I stocked up on enough parts to fill MY own personal dealership. Probably half the stuff going back west in Mike's truck had my nametag on it.

No story of my trip to Wauseon would be complete without a picture of Shehorns. I ate 2-3 meals a day there the whole trip. Did I mention that it was the only food available on the fairgrounds?

At about 3:30 the assembled masses abandoned the show field and headed inside for the annual Crosley Club business meeting. I'd never been to one of these before and it was pretty interesting. The club officers gave a rundown of the club's affairs over the past year and then finished it off with the awards. I don't remember who won the best of show, etc, but I do know that Jak Phillips won the Hard Luck Award for getting his van impaled in an accident on the way out from New York.

After the awards we cleaned the hall and had a giant family-style dinner, where I and pretty much everyone at our table ate way too much. The dinner is the last 'official' event of the meet and I was pretty worn out. Just as I was thinking about passing out face down in my tent, Club member Chuck Latty tells us that there's a dirt track about five miles down the road - and that the races start in twenty minutes. Rick and Mike passed, but I couldn't miss an opportunity like that.

Turns out that Chuck (right) is a big race fan - he travels with a track guide that lists every racing event at every track in the country - wherever he goes he figures out who's racing what, and if he can, he goes. They had an exhibition of old race cars and Chuck knew an awful lot about all of them.

I'd never seen dirt track racing before.. it was pretty amazing. There were several classes of cars, starting with fairly stock-appearing 4 cylinders, then a 'modified' class (that looked about as much like regular cars as Nascar racers do), and finally the fastest class, made up of vehicles that looked like giant slot cars. They moved. The track was a 5/8 mile oval and Chuck and I clocked the fastest cars at 15 seconds per lap - about 90 miles an hour. That might not seem that impressive, but keep in mind that the entire race consists of sliding around the track - these cars never actually straighten out!

I'd been warned not to sit too close to the track since the cars can sling a lot of mud as they make their way around the track. At first it wasn't bad at all - I thought we were just lucky that they were keeping the dirt fairly dry, but as the night got later, and the cars got faster (and the drivers got even more aggressive) I found out that it didn't really matter. We got buried. The races ended at 10PM sharp and Chuck dropped me off back at the fairgrounds. I crawled into my tent covered in dirt, stinking like racing fuel, and sunburnt to a crisp from three days in the sun, kinda the perfect way to end, now that I think of it...

2011 Crosley Club Meet in Wauseon: Part II

2011-07-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

By the halfway point on the first day of the meet my brain was pretty well Crosley-cooked. There were Crosleys everywhere, from hopped up drag cars to spot on restorations, from crazy old customs to barn cars up for sale. I admit it, I was overwhelmed.

My mental state explains how I managed to get exactly one picture of all the Crosley parts vendors at the meet. Service Motors, Edwards Crosley Parts and Yankee Crosley all had booths full of gold that I need for all my various projects. Planning the trip I hadn't even thought abut all the NOS and repro parts that would be available here. How to get a load of stuff back to CA was a dilemma until Mike Bainter kindly offered some space in the truck he was taking back west. Nice guy!

There was plenty of neat stuff on display, including this framed 8X10 of a Crosley dealership circa 1950 (from NY if I remember right).

Probably the single strangest thing I saw all weekend was Paul Gorrell's driveable Crosley sign. This was originally a sign that hung on a Crosley dealer's building - Gorrell got to thinking about how best to display it and ended up turning it into a motorcycle he called 'Skinny.' He drove it all over the meet.

Gorrell is nothing short of a legend in Crosley collector circles. He's got pretty much one of everything, and was even featured on the American Pickers TV show. If he wasn't cruising around on Skinny he was walking around with his pet chicken, Elvis, on his head.

One thing Gorrell doesn't have is a Crosley limo. This custom six-wheeler was cruising around all weekend. My picture is overexposed (the car is baby blue for one thing), which is a shame because the bodywork on this baby is impressive. Crosley wagons tend to be wavy even when they're the regular length so the straight sides on this were kinda mind-boggling. The owner ended up winning the long distance award - I think he hauled this car something like 1200 miles to the show.

If the bodywork on the limo was amazing for quality, the bodywork on this two seater is amazing for sheer insanity. Nicknamed 'Sharky,' this vintage custom was a club auction prize a few years ago. The interior is from a Kaiser, the guts are Crosley and I believe the body is fiberglass/bondo (probably equal parts). I don't believe that there is a straight line anywhere on Sharky - including the sides. But, the owners love it and drove it all over the place, so they're stoked!

Another custom two seater was this modified Hot Shot that was up for sale. There were plenty of mods going on here, some of which worked better than others. The grill set up looked pretty well thought out, but the boat-style windshield just wasn't doing it for me. I think the restoration may have been very recently completed- it had some issues during the test drives, most notably the tranny or rear locking up several times. Nonetheless, it found a new owner by the end of the meet, and I saw him backing it over to his trailer since it woudn't go forward!

The opposite of all the customs was this extremely original low mile sedan that was for sale at the meet. It had been sitting inside for quite a few years when discovered at an estate sale. There were various dings on the body (quite probably from being banged up in storage) but the interior was unbelievable.

Crosley headliners were made out of a cardboard material that started deteriorating about the time it left the factory. Consequently, you almost never find the headliner at all, let alone finding one in shiny, like-new condition. The car didn't sell, possibly because the owner never bothered to take it out of his enclosed trailer! A lot of people I talked to never saw it and others didn't even realize it was for sale.

Another rare bird was this incredible Sport Utility. It seems absurd that Crosley started the Sport Utility craze back in 1947, but here's proof. The Crosley version was like a station wagon with canvas top, sides and doors... sort of like a military truck. Offered with hunters and fisherman in mind, this was proposed as the ideal car for driving around the boonies with a couple of pals and all your gear. When I first got into Crosleys I thought about getting a Sport Ute until I found out that they are the rarest of all postwar Crosleys. To this day this is the only one I've ever seen.

A little more common, but still pretty rare was this prewar convertible. I'm kinda spoiled since there were several prewars in the West Coast Club (one of which was owned by a friend here in Sac for a long time) so I don't get all that excited when I see them. I should - they are rare birds, and this one was one of the nicest I've ever seen.

There were actually a lot of nice cars out on Friday. This CD wagon was nicely done, and the one piece rear door was cool.

This blue and white CC wagon was also pretty cool. Note the stock single taillight.

This is the wagon I paid the most attention to on Friday. It was a clean CC that was parked for sale right next to Mike and Rick's swap meet spot. It ran well, had a decent interior, looked pretty good and had minimal or no rust as far as I could tell - it was a good deal at $3100. People test drove it all day and it finally sold around dinner time. It would have sold long before that - to me - if I'd had a way to get it back to California!

To be continued....

I'm there! 2011 Crosley Club Meet in Wauseon: Part 1

2011-07-14T23:36:00.000-07:00

After drooling on the Fibersport in the dark for a while I decided I'd better get my camp set up. I figured out where the bathrooms were and then set my tent up close enough that they would only be a short walk but far enough that I wouldn't be hearing flushing all night long. It was almost midnite by the time I'd gotten myself situated but I set my alarm for 6:30 anyway. I didn't need to bother - I was awake well before the alarm went off.

There are a lot of things you don't ever think you'll wake up to, and this was one of them. I zipped open my tent flap and this stars and stripes special was parked directly across from me. Even half asleep I recognized it immediately - it was the kooky Ebay Crosley I'd written about back in March. Believe it or not, it looked even wackier in person than in photos - and the new flag decal 'wrap' didn't make it any easier on the eyes.

If the car was bizarre, the tow vehicle was almost as far out. Jak Phillips is a well known character in the Crosley world- he's got a pile of cars and specializes in oddball customs. At other meets he's shown up with a radically shortened Crosley called 'lil Phoot' and an offroading 4 wheel drive Crosley pickup with tires taller than a standard Crosley's roof. He used to write a lot for the club newsletter, replacing all 'f's with 'ph.' If I'm a Crosley Kook, I don't even know what Jak is.

Parked across from Jak's van was this rusty pile of rubble. About half the car has rotted away, and the half that's left is busy trying to return to the earth. There are yellow notes painted all over the car, and a peek at the serial number tag on the firewall is a shocker.

This is HotShot #1. This was the prototype, and even with the damage you can still see where the engineers used it to figure out details like where to drill the holes for the turn signals. Crosley collector Paul Gorrell found it outside Cincinnatti, half submerged in a stream and partially buried under a collapsed brick wall. His view is that there is so much gone that if it was restored it would no longer be Hotshot #1, so there it sits. Believe it or not there's an engine in the bay - and it runs!

I made my way over to the swap meet area and immediately ran into Mike Bainter and Rick Alexander, friends from the West Coast Club. They are both hardcore Crosley fanatics, so no surprise that they'd roll into the meet before 7AM. Rick promptly scored a Nardi dual carb air cleaner cover for a Crosley motor- something so rare I've not only never seen one, I've never even heard of one.

I picked up pair of new-in-the-box foglights for a Crosley and a good used Crosley front badge for my 1951 Super Sport- I never got the one that was supposed to come with the car. I also loaded up on 30 copies of the Crosley Quarterly club magazine that I didn't have. I ogled, but didn't buy, an aluminum pan for a Crosley race engine- I've only seen this particular design in pictures of Italian race motors like Bandinis. It was beautiful, but just out of my price range.

Mike, Rick and I did a quick zip around the swap and then I helped them get their stuff out for sale. Mike had a bunch of extra parts that he wanted to move along and Rick had brought a box of original Crosley literature and old magazines. Mike's biggest piece was a running CoBra tin block engine assembly, complete on a display stand. It looked really nice but it did leak a bit. He sold it quickly and then we had to move it all the way across the fairgrounds, sideways on a handtruck. I'll go on record here as saying that this was not the best idea ever, but we did manage to get it across the fairgrounds and on the buyer's trailer without dropping it.

Right across from Mike and Rick's spot was a guy selling a VC frame and running gear featuring an Italmeccanica supercharger and matching cam cover. The cam cover is important since the supercharger blocks the space where the fuel pump would usually bolt up on the passenger side of the block - the cam cover has a space where the fuel pump can be relocated.

The seller turned out to be Alton Doby, a longtime club member who is probably best known as the former owner of the Dutch Darrin Crosley. I didn't buy the supercharged chassis, but I did pick up the early square-style Braje cam cover he was also selling.

Speaking of superchargers, the Italmeccanica wasn't the only one on hand. During a later pass of the swap meet I saw a nice Pepco, which, according to Barry Seel, is better on a Crosley than the Italmeccanica.

I saw over a dozen motors for sale, ranging from hopped up boat motors, like this mystery motor Chuck Koehler brought, to stock tin blocks, to rusty parts CIBAs.

As soon as I could steal Chuck away from his swap meet stuff he came over and gave me a tour of his new car - the Fibersport he'd bought a few months ago. He'd posted news of his find on the Crosley Gang site and I immediately recognized the car as the ex-Terry Matheny racer that I've been trying to track down for the last year.

In researching my own mystery Hmod I'd discovered that a similar car had been restored and raced by a northern California hmod racer named Terry Matheny in the 1980s. He'd sold the car over 30 years ago but his widow had been kind enough to make copies of several photos she had of the car. I had been trying to find the car ever since but had hit a brick wall after one mention that it had raced at Lime Rock in 1991. Turns out the motor had blown at that race and it had been sitting ever since.

When Chuck found the car it was incredibly complete- down to the handmade Fibersport hood badge. I'd sent him the pictures and info that I'd gotten from Ms. Matheny and he sent me a bunch of photos he took of the car as it sat. This is the closest match to my car that may exist, so I was DYING to know more - Chuck said he'd try to bring the Fibersport to Wauseon, but he wasn't sure he'd have time. I didn't know if he'd brought it until Barry Seel pointed it out in the dark.

Chuck opened the car up and showed me every detail he could think of. Following builder John Mays' style, the car is liberally drilled with holes - not only are the drums and backing plates heavily perforated, even the aluminum wheel spacers are swiss-cheesed! I must have spent a LOT of time with this car - probably a 25% of the pictures I took at the meet are of Chuck's Fibersport.

After I had thoroughly inspected the Fibersport I took a few more runs around the meet. Even though Saturday would be the big event, there were a lot of cars already there by Friday. The show field was starting to fill up, especially with Hot Shots and Super Sports, the VCs being the 'featured' model of this year's show.

One of the coolest roadsters, a patina-ed Super Sport, belonged to sheet metal guru Tim Freshley. I'd met Tim briefly when he showed up at the West Coast meet in 2006, so he felt like a long-lost friend in this Midwest world of strangers!

Though the car appears to be all original, the motor is anything but. In the early sixties, Tim had visited a friend in San Diego who worked for Crofton. As he was leaving, his friend gave him a unique gift - a brand new, high compression Crofton block! Tim had held onto the block for 40 years, finally building it into a complete motor only a few years ago. These days it provides neck-snapping performance in the SS. "Has anybody given you a ride in a Crosley yet?" he said.

To be continued...

On the Road to the Crosley Meet

2011-07-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Got myself all packed and ready to go for the early flight to Detroit. I'd opted to fly into the Motor City since it's about as close to Wauseon (about 90 miles) as any major airport, and I have a couple of good friends who live there now. I decided to fly in a day early to visit them and to check out Detroit.

Richard and Mary were my roommates exactly ten years ago. We lived in a big warehouse where I kept all my cars and projects inside and they made big, messy, hilarious art projects. I'd met Richard through the music scene- he was in a killer band called Rik and the Young Rogues - five kids from the burbs who played a particularly snotty brand of garage punk, featuring one guy who cracked a whip on stage. Richard was also in art school and we ended up hitting it off, especially when I eventually transferred to the same school. They graduated and moved to New York, but headed back west after a few exhausting months in NYC. I just happened to have a space in the warehouse at the time, so they landed there for year or so.

These days they live in Detroit - or more properly, outside Detroit - in Birmingham, Michigan. They both got teaching jobs in the area, so that's where they went. In true Richard and Mary fashion they met me at the airport with a tambourine and a homemade 'Welcome to Michigan' flag accessorized with pinecones. I'd been hearing stories of Detroit's decline but I was unprepared for the tour they took me on when we left the airport. Two words sum it up: abandoned skyscrapers.

The next day Richard drove me around for a few hours, explaining what I was looking at. One of the most surreal areas was a once-ritzy neighborhood, now reduced to block after block of bare lots and collapsing mansions. Most of the homes have either burned down or fallen over, with the remaining structures seeming to be headed that way. Downtown proper is even more depressing, with abandoned, windowless skyscrapers dominating the skyline.

Even odder are the patches of the city that are holding it together. We stopped by Lafayette Park- a neighborhood completely designed by legendary architect Mies van der Rohe. Less than a mile from bombed-out sections of the city, Mies' leafy modernist subdivision is incredible, and perfectly kept. The architect designed a group of connected townhomes, two apartment towers, a school and even a strip mall! Everything is immaculate.

I was taking pictures and noticed a sports car parked behind a truck in one of the driveways. Further investigation revealed that it was a TVR. I was taking a picture when the owner came out- LeRoy had owned the car since new and was just starting to think about selling it. We chatted about cars for a bit and then we had to get moving.

Richard and Mary drove me out to pick up my rental car at the airport, and after a quick dinner I headed south on I-75 around 7:30. By the time I pulled into Wauseon it was just getting dark. I found the fairgrounds and pulled in, trying to get my bearings. Even in the dark I could see plenty of Crosleys on trailers or parked next to campers. I saw a guy near a big RV and asked him where I could set up a tent. The guy turned out to be the best East Coast engine builder, Barry Seel.

I've talked to Barry many times - he offered a ton of advice when I was in the planning stages of building a hopped-up Fageol motor, even suggesting the perfect cam grind. Barry just may know more about the Crosley engine than anyone else on the planet. We talked for a few minutes and he told me a horrifying story about buying a Bandini Torpedo, only to have the seller refuse to turn over the car, and then scrap it out of spite! That Barry didn't strangle the guy is a testament to his self-control.

Before the conversation got very far I asked if Chuck Koehler had arrived yet, and if he'd brought his new car. Barry said Chuck was there and pointed to the only car sitting on the show field in the dark.
The Fibersport was there, waiting.

To be continued...

Doin' It!

2011-06-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

I'm doing it: I dropped my registration form in the mail today, my airline ticket is bought, and this year, for the first time ever, I'm going to the National Crosley Auto Club Meet in Wauseon, Ohio.

The National Meet (called 'the Nats') have been held since 1971 if I remember right, and I think it's been in the tiny town of Wauseon almost from the beginning. It's a three-day affair in early July, with a hundred or so Crosleys roaming the town and various Crosley-nerd-out activities filling the time. Each year I wait expectantly for Crosley Club webmaster Jim Bollman to post pictures from the Nats, and each year I lose about three hours just going through the page after page of pics the day he posts them.

I'm a little shocked that it's taken me 14 years to finally do it. I've been planning to go since I first started thinking about Crosleys back in 1997. For the longest time I put it off because I always thought, 'next year I'll drive the Crosley to Ohio.' It was always 'next year.' This year I finally decided to stop waiting for next year.

I'm not sure what kicked me in the pants this time around, but part of it is having some old friends pass on and wishing I'd spent more time with them. It's not like I really know the Crosley folks that I've been phoning, yahoo-grouping and emailing over the past 14 years, but then again, I sorta do. Even though I've never been within a hundred miles of Dave Edwards, Butch and Fonda of Service Motors, Chuck Koehler, Barry Seel, Peter Berard, Jim Friday (and the list could keep going)... I talk or email with some of them more often than I do many members of my own family. They're kindred spirits, even if they are a timezone or two away.

The other part is that I really love the folks in the Crosley Club. I'm not a 'joiner' - the Crosley Club is one of the only 'official' groups I've ever belonged to in my life, and, at some point, I can't expect everyone else in the club to make the trip to Wauseon, put on a great meet and then post hundreds of pictures that I can look at and appreciate. Even if I can't bring a car (this time) I can bring me, and that's something.

I'm a little bummed that Liv can't go with me, but on the other hand, I don't know that I want to put her through that kind of Crosley-overload until I've been though it once myself. The other good part is that I can save a little cash by just bringing a sleeping bag and camping out - wives always want to get all fancy, like with hotel rooms and such.

So that's it- I'm going. From now til July 7, I'm just killing time.

All photos from the Crosley Auto Club Website

Harry Eyerly: Movie Star

2011-05-31T23:54:00.000-07:00

One other thing I did while Liv was out of town: watched a car flick that's been on my 'to see' list for a long time: the original 1955 Fast and the Furious. Liv is a movie nut, and she'll watch almost anything, but I couldn't ask her to sit through a movie this bad. If it weren't for the racing scenes (OK, and Dorothy Malone) I probably couldn't have made it through.

Screenwriter Roger Corman lifted the basics of the plot from Hitchcock's 1942 classic, Saboteur: innocent man (John Ireland), accused of murder, escapes and kidnaps a young woman and steals her car. As they travel together she begins to believe his story. In this version, the car is a race-ready Jaguar XK120, and the goal is to drive the Jag in a road race that enters Mexico, and then just keep going south.

Whatever. The plot is pretty thin and the only thing holding the flick together are the scenes with race cars. I held out for an hour, almost, but not quite falling asleep, when WHAM - I was wide awake! When our hero pulls his Jag into the starting lineup, what should be directly behind him, but Harry Eyerly's legendary #54 Crosley special, the Porsche Duster, with - I'm fairly certain - Harry Eyerly at the wheel! After the Jag is out of the way, Harry idles up to his space in line and then rolls offscreen. It's brief (15 seconds, maybe) but it was awesome to see Eyerly's car totally in context.

I hoped that the car would show up again in the racing footage that followed, but it only flashed by once as the cars took off. I can't be 100% sure it was Eyerly driving, but it sure looks like his helmet, and, why would they have someone else drive it?

I watched the movie on Netflix instant play, but it's also on HULU and even on You Tube, although the picture quality is lower on You Tube. If you don't want to sit through the whole thing, Eyerly comes in at almost exactly the one hour mark; in my book, he's the star of this flick.

Watkins Glen in the Gold Country: Marty Stein's '52 Siata 300BC

2011-05-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of Liv being out of town this weekend to do something that's been on my list for years: I drove up to the Gold Country to visit Marty Stein and check out his Crosley-powered 1952 Siata 300BC.

Marty has been in the West Coast Crosley Club almost since the beginning, and he and his Siata were at the the very first meet I ever went to, back in '97. The Siata was in good company back then: Ernie Mendicki brought his Siata, Des Telmont brought his Jabro and Don Baldocchi had his '53 Nardi. I remember thinking at the time that I'd have no problem finding a Crosley-powered sports car since they seemed to be everywhere!

It seems like it's been forever since Marty's had the Siata out to the meet so I've been itching to take a close gander at the car since I've started to learn a bit more about Hmods. Marty's car is a far cry from the homebuilt specials like the car in my garage (for one thing, the Siata has a slick aluminum body), but it was cars like the Siata that inspired the special builders. And the Siatas were probably very inspiring: they weren't called 'baby Ferraris' for nothing.

Though Siata was a prominent player among the etceterini, they were not like factory-built cars. Like most postwar Italian small special makers Siata tended to borrow some components from Fiat Topolinos, but there was plenty that was scratch built. One thing I hadn't realized is that these particular Siatas were delivered sans engine. Marty explained that the buyer simply installed the powerplant of choice... which explains how some Siatas ended up with Crosley engines.

Marty got his car over 30 years ago - in boxes. His pal Ernie Mendicki had encouraged him to buy the Siata even though it was a 'roller,' meaning a project car that was partially disassembled. Mendicki offered to help with the restoration, but an ugly divorce sidelined Ernie, so after six months of looking at the hulk Marty decided to start tinkering. He'd never restored a car before, but amazingly, he not only got the car together, but got it on the racetrack.

Marty's early racing career left a lot to be desired, and he credits the late Bob Graham with helping him get the car in competition trim. Graham built a hot motor and advised on other tweaks, and before long Marty was running strong in the 'Over the Hill Gang' of Hmods.

All that would be impressive if the car had been nothing more than a rare Italian sportscar... but Marty's car sports an eye-popping pedigree: it was raced at Watkins Glen and Sebring. Racer and Crosley dealer Otto Linton ran a 1951 Siata prototype at the Glen in 1951- he made enough of a splash that he took three orders for Siatas that day. Months later, one of those three, a racer named Tom Scatchard, picked up his brand new Siata 300BC with a Linton 'Speed Craft' prepared Crosley motor already installed. (Unbelieveably, Marty got the original receipt with the car!) Scatchard ran the Siata as #52 at Watkins Glen in 1952, the same year a tragic accident permanently ended street racing in New York State. He came in 25th.

Marty knew that his car was supposed to have been run at Watkins Glen, but it took years of research to track down the details. Marty eventually got hold of Henry Wessels, one of the other racers who had also ordered a Siata after the 1951 showing at the Glen. Marty knew that Wessels and Scatchard had driven together at Sebring in 1953, but he was shocked when Wessels told him that they had split the driving chores in Scatchard's Siata!

Like many old racecars, Marty's Siata has suffered some indignities, not the least of which was a fifties or sixties conversion to street car that involved hacking out a big chunk of the tub to fit the convertible top! The car has now been in Marty's hands for more than half its existence, and Marty has put a few wrinkles in the history too. A seized engine destroyed the rear end and sent the Siata into a barrier not long after Marty started racing, and a few years later a catastrophic brake failure caused the car to roll, flipping the car multiple times. After each incident he's simply put it back together.

Given the car's extensive race history it's amazing how much is still original. The grill is still the same one it left left Italy with, as are the headlight lenses! Marty still has the unique Speed Craft branded original cam cover (not on the car) that was identified by Nick Brajevich as the second Crosley cam cover he ever made, and the original Siata logo pedals are amazing. The original Italian welds on the firewall are stunning for their unlovely "get 'er done" quality - they may have made cars pretty on the outside, but there was some funny stuff out of sight.

All in all, a fun day of visiting the keeper of a real treasure. Marty laughed when telling me that he paid more for the last engine rebuild than he did for the whole car in 1979 - such is the state of vintage racing these days. Marty still races the car not infrequently (next weekend at Sears Point, for example) and if you get a chance to see him run - do it. It looks even better in motion.
(Thanks to Cliff Reuter's Etceterini for the Watkins Glen pics!)

Enrico Nardi, A Fast Life

2011-05-28T00:26:00.000-07:00

I've been drooling over this book (via the internet) pretty much since the day it was published - at $80 plus shipping that's all I could afford to do. It came out just as I was editing a Tin Block Times article about the Crosley-powered Nardis, so I was already getting a little bit obsessed with them. I figured I'd find a used copy or a sale, but after two years of looking, nada. So, tonight I finally bit the bullet and ordered a copy after I had the grim realization that once it goes out of print it'll cost me three times as much.

Two hundred pages and over 300 photos means I'm pretty sure I'll be getting my money's worth, and the few reviews I've seen have been raves. Speaking of, has anybody else noticed this new video 'book review' trend? it's odd, and the 'reviewer' for the Nardi book seems way more cranky than he should be - he probably got his for FREE!

Two Crosleys: Six Hundred Bucks! New York State BARGAIN

2011-05-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

Yikes! Here's TWO cc Crosley sedans for $600. Or offer! Neither has run in years, but the bodies look pretty straight, and peep that little spotlight on the green one! Why are they always on the other side of the country?... Located in Athol New York: call 518-744-8740 to scoop 'em.

Crosley Super Sport at Bridgehampton 1951

2011-05-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

Don't know how I missed this killer footage of the 1951 Bridgehampton Sports Car races that was posted on the Chicane racing blog, but I did. It's a very brief (minute and a half) movie, but we do get a nice shot of a Super Sport doing a spinout into the hay at about the one minute mark.

Looking for info on the race I also found a different batch of footage of the same day, but the Crosley appears only briefly - in the initial take off of the 100 mile main event. If there's not much screen time for the SS, both flicks do feature plenty of footage of Tommy Cole in his winning Chrysler-Allard. No surprise there - Allards were the car to beat in that era. In a coincidence, Fritz Koster, co-driver of the Crosley Hotshot that won Sebring in 1950 was also in this race, this time driving an HRG. He came in 10th.

Minutia IDs the driver of the Super Sport as Steve Lansing and says he came in 14th place, so he must have finished the event. That's pretty impressive for a Crosley in a hundred mile race, even if he hadn't danced with a hay bail. In poking around for a complete entry list I saw that the indefatigable Cliff Reuter had the program cover posted on his Eteterini site.

Thanks to the folks at Minutia for the tip - I'd have missed this one if they hadn't featured it!

Another Crosley Road Trip - 1948!

2011-05-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

When I mentioned my Crosley Road Trip post on the Crosley Gang message board, member Sunivroc pointed me toward a similar set of Crosley road trip photos posted on Minutia, the microcar club blog, last year.

Sadly, this set of pics came with no story, so all we've got to go on are the notes on the backs of the photos. Sadder still, the editor's note says that the Microcar Club has called it quits after 18 years. Bummer, but it looks like they still update the blog every once in a while.

The pictures are one to a page- you have to click 'next post' at the bottom of the pages to see all five images...

Crosley Road Trip: 1950

2011-04-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

If I spent half as much time in my garage as I do surfing the net for Crosley tidbits, I'd probably have at least one running Crosley right now. But, then I probably wouldn't find stuff like this:

These days Denny Moore is more of a Ford fan than a Crosley guy, but he's probably logged more miles in a Crosley than even most diehard Crosley fanatics. In 1950 his dad loaded the whole family into their robin's egg blue Crosley sedan and set out for Berea, Ohio - 500 miles away. Denny, then five years old, still remembers the trip:

"The back seat in the Crosley was hardly more than vinyl covered plywood. After a few hours back there, you hurt all over and couldn't get comfortable. My mother held my crying baby brother on her lap all the way there and back. My sister wouldn't stay on her side but there wasn't much side to stay on. My father was frustrated and tried to ignore everyone."

"Another family tradition was to stop at state lines and photograph everyone with the car. That way, you didn't need dates or locations on the photos. When my father pulled over and my mother said 'PICTURES,' we had to climb out and line up unless we were sleeping. Sometimes we just pretended to be asleep. My mother never told me if she did that just to keep us quiet in the back seat on long trips."

I stumbled across these pics on the Hokey Ass Message Board, a site for vintage hotrod devotees that I've mentioned a few times before. Denny had posted the photos on an incredible thread called 'Vintage Pictures of Days Gone by.' It's one of the best threads on the HAMB- it has 1258 pages of vintage photos. I emailed Denny to ask about the trip and he got right back to me.

"The Crosley adventure was sixty years ago and most of my recollections were that of a 5-year-old who felt like being shut in a running clothes dryer for days. The Crosley ran great and we had no trouble on the two-lane highways of U.S. 20. It might take ten minutes to climb a hill in the Crosley, but this was before interstates."

He says they made it back to home base, Oneonta, New York in one piece, too.

The Crosley was the Moore family's 'second' car; they also owned a 1938 Plymouth. Denny's dad spent WWII in the Navy, much of that in the Pacific, where he once survived having a ship torpedoed out from under him. He made it through the war and was doing pretty well in the late forties - well enough to afford a 'second' car. The picture above was taken right after they bought it - when it was still green; Denny's dad is on his uncle's Indian!

"It was used and bought for my mother. I think the original color was a faded green. My mother found a can of robin's egg blue enamel in her father's barn and with brushes, she let me help paint it."

Denny graciously allowed me to share his memories and pictures. Thanks much to him, and of course, to his dad, who risked everything, but thankfully came back to his family in one piece. These kinds of stories are one of the things I love most about being a car nut - cars are cars; it's the people make them special.

The LAST Post on Golf Carts!

2011-04-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

OK, I swear this is the last post on golf carts - I don't want one of these things - I don't even like golf! That said, I feel compelled to finish what I accidentally started...

So here's what got everyone all excited about Crosley golf carts: President Eisenhower's Crosley golf cart. It started out as a '51 or '52, but there's not much Crosley left from the dash back. I can't even tell if it started out as a wagon or sedan or even a pickup. It has a lot in common with the Fiat Jollys that were once common in the Philippines, but not so much in common with this:

This started out as a mid-40s Crosley but ran afoul of a customiser at some point. It's got a similar seat arrangement as Ike's cart, but that's about the extent of the similarity. That didn't stop the owners from labeling it as Ike's ride.

There are rumors about what happened to Ike's Crosley, but I haven't heard a definitive answer yet - still, I'm willing to bet this ain't it. The back end is funkier than the front. (photos by Pokeanose)

Contrary to the theme established with all the ragged carts I've posted about this week, there are Crosley golf carts that were well cared for. This 1949 model owned by Mike Adams showed up on the Crosley Automobile Club's page as the 'Crosley of the Month' a few years back.

Adams got the cart from super Crosley enthusiast Jean Allan who got it from a fellow in Indiana. Looks like Mike takes good care of the cart, and he mentions that he'd like to hear from anyone who knows any history of the car. Check out those tires - this one is ready for some off-roading!

So, that's the end of my parade of golf carts.... not a path I ever intended to go down. But, though not my thing, I do have to appreciate that they illustrate the endless elasticity of the Crosley design. How many other small automakers can claim to be the source of so many variations: sedans, station wagons, jeeps, farm vehicles, golf carts, fire trucks, sports cars, and yes, even the dreaded clown car. No Crosley hearses to report - yet!

'Nother Golf Cart?!??

2011-04-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

Just saw that the 'Crosley Surrey' I linked to the other day had sold, so I did a quick search for 'Crosley Golf Cart,' because... well, that's the sort of thing I do. Anyway, I was surprised to find this baby in Akron, Ohio.

The Surrey made some sense, but this baby is funky. Dual headlights? On a golf cart?

The ad lists it as an 'Eisenhower Edition,' but I'm fairly certain Ike would have rather have gone back to being an aide to Douglas MacArthur than ride in this. $1500 and it's all yours...

Crosley Surrey (AKA Golf Cart) for $250!!!

2011-03-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Man, I no sooner get rid of the Crosley wagon body than I find something else my wife would strangle me for if I brought it home. Good thing it's two time zones away.

This custom Crosley 'Surrey' is for sale in Fort Worth, Texas for what seems like a bargain price of $250. I say 'bargain' because the running gear is there and the Aerojet engine turns, so this baby might just might fire up with some coaxing. Even if not, Aerojets are great rebuild candidates.

Body is a '49 or '50- looks like it's got hydraulic brakes given the filler hole in the driver's footwell. And the body (what's left of it) doesn't look too rusty. I'm guessing Fort Worth is in the dry part of Texas.

The seller (on the HAMB hotrod site) calls it a Surrey, but it looks pretty much like the custom Crosley golf carts I've seen before. One way or t'other it's pretty cool for $250. If it was half as far away it'd be keeping me up tonight.

O/T: 1959 Vs. 2009

2011-03-22T01:18:00.000-07:00

I don't talk politics, religion, etc. on this blog because it's just not the place. I have plenty of strong opinions (somewhere my wife laughs in the background) and I know that lots of my friends have very different, equally strong opinions. But, this is America, after all, and one of the best things about this country is the idea that people with all sorts of differences agree to get along in some sort of mutual respect. I very much believe that we're all better off for this.

That said, there is a big difference between opinion and ignorance, and it drives me crazy when I interact with people who absolutely INSIST that something is fact, even when it is clearly, demonstrably untrue. An easy example is astrology- the notion that astrology has ANY scientific basis has been debunked so completely that I can't even pretend to make polite conversation with anyone serious about it... it's like trying to have a polite conversation with someone who is telling you that the earth is flat. I just make a mental note never to bring it up again and walk away depressed at the state of mankind.

I give up because I know that the other person has chosen not to listen, not to think, not to be logical. We ALL have our cherished myths - all of us.... the key is knowing when to confront your own myths and accept them as such. You don't even have to do anything different, you just have to internally acknowledge that you are doing something illogical and know it.

I speak from personal experience. I've been driving old heaps of shit since I learned to drive. Until Liv and I got married in 2006 (and I became a co-owner of her Toyota) I'd never owned a car made after I was born- and I was born in 1966. The newest car I ever owned was my first car, a '63 VW bus that was 23 years old when I bought it in 1986. I've never bought anything newer than a '64 model since.

My own cherished myth was that old cars, having more steel, and being more solid, were just as safe - or safer - than the crappy new cars on the road. I pointed to my '62 Valiant wagon which survived a direct hit from a '73 Chevy doing 40 mph and drove away from the accident as proof. It was kinda ugly, but mechanically, it was unscathed. (Please note that I didn't believe that Crosleys were in any way, shape or form, safe; I knew that I was a goner if I was hit in a Crosley by anything larger than a BMX bike.)

Last year, I was disabused of my beliefs about the relative safety of old cars. I stumbled across this video from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, made to celebrate their 50th anniversary. It didn't change my habits - I still drive old cars, and probably always will - but it made me realize that I was wrong. I drive old cars because that's what I do, but at least now I'm not kidding myself, and if anything happens, c'est la vie - I may be dead, but at least I won't be dead and dumb.

A Toda Maquina

2011-03-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

As a rule, Crosleys don't fare well in movies. There's the derelict pickup truck that Bluto smashes bottles on in Animal House, and then there's Porky's 3, the less said about which, the better - the fact that the filmmakers were even aware that there is such a thing as a Crosley diminishes the brand.

A more typical indignity is enshrined in A Toda Maquina, a 1951 Mexican flick about two rival motorcycle cops who are sorta like the Mexican Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. The movie has a long sequence involving an old lady driver and her HotShot.

It's really neat seeing the car in context- on streets jam-packed with normal sized forties and fifties cars it really underscores how damn small they were at the time. Also of note is the car itself- it's clearly a HotShot, but it doesn't have the rubber grommet around the cockpit- it's upholstered. That seems odd given that the car would have been no more than 2 years old when the movie was made.

It's a fun sequence- the whole movie is on YouTube (the Crosley only shows up once) and here's the right section. Crosleying starts at the 2:45 mark.

A Crosley Middleman

2011-03-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

The last thing I need is another Crosley. Well, actually, let me amend that: the last thing I need is another incomplete, non-running Crosley.

So, you can imagine my inner conflict last week when I saw a post titled 'Crosley Rescue Alert: Napa California!' on one of the Crosley boards I frequent. The post listed a CD Crosley station wagon body that had to be moved within the week or it was going to the scrapyard!

I called the number and got the details; not much was there. The body wasn't even on a frame, so no rolling it around for ease. The ID tag was still intact, there were a few pieces of glass left and not much rust. The best news was that it had the cool one-piece rear door.

The owner had bought the body a few years back with the intention of using it to build a hotrod. There's a long history of Crosley-bodied rods and even a few Bonneville record-holders with Powell's pride straddling a Caddy or Chrysler motor. This one was slated to be a streetable gasser-style build for the guy's daughter, but she balked when presented with the plan, so it just sat in his storage space. He'd just bought a Dodge Power Wagon project and the Crosley had to get gone. Now.

I said I'd come get it, figuring I'd just store it until I could find a home for it. As luck would have it, the Power Wagon was just outside Sacramento, so he even offered to drop off the Crosley on his way to pick up the truck!

A couple of days later he pulled up with the Crosley in the back of his pickup. In ten minutes we had it on my trailer (so I can move it around til I get rid of it). It's not a bad car- it has less rust than MY wagon! Still, I have more than enough projects, so I knew it had to go. I had planned to put it on Ebay for what I paid for it, but then it occurred to me that I should talk to the Liebherrs in Nevada- they have a lotta space and they REALLY like Crosleys. Sure enough, Dale said he'd take it.

So, I'm sorta babysitting this Crosley until Dale can come get it. I'm glad I was able to be the middleman here and am really glad there's one less Crosley in the scrapyard. Winning!

Better Late than Never: 14,000 Mile 1947 Pick Up

2011-03-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

Barn finds - as I learned all too recently - often fail to live up to their potential. Bats live in barns. So do chickens, rats, racoons, mice, and bugs, none of which are particularly good for longterm car storage. But sometimes, the car in the barn is all you could hope for.

Such is the case with this incredible 1947 Crosley Pickup that popped up on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. The truck is a southern California car that was put away about a half century ago with 14,000 miles on the clock. Pulled out of storage recently, they replaced the tires and radiator cap, boiled the gas tank, added a fuel filter and replaced a missing emblem. Paint, interior and gauges are 100% original!

The engine is also listed as original, but as we all know, this fella would have come stock with a CoBra engine that probably started to leak before they'd used 50 tanks of gas. I'm no Barry Seel, but the block currently in the car looks to me like a late model- not one of the '49 blocks that was offered up by dealers as a swap to cure the CoBra's ills. The Crosley script on the block looks 'late' to me and I don't think that particular oil filter assembly was available on the early motors - but I could be wrong. One way or the other, the seller claims that the car runs/drives nicely.

I'm fascinated by the interior. The door panels are in amazing shape, as are the matching seats. I'm so used to seeing the red interiors that the tan is really intriguing. Looks great with the door inserts. The floor mats are also a wonder- I don't recall ever seeing originals in this kinda condition- just amazing.

The body is pretty straight, and the bed is REALLY straight- and note that classic cheapo Crosley touch: the fuel filler goes right into the cargo area because it probably would have cost an extra $1.50 to reroute it!

Meant to get up a link to this auction while it was live last week, but time got away from me and next thing I knew it was over- but no worries.... Reserve wasn't met at $5200, and the $12,900 Buy-it-Now is, uh, 'optimistic.' As of today, the truck is still available at San Diego Classic and Musclecars in Escondido, CA. Call (760) 781-1473 and ask for Joseph M Petralia.

Can You Take Me to Funkytown (in this Crosley)?

2011-03-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

Speaking of crazy Crosleys, here's one of the kookiest I've seen in a while - a Hotshot that puts the 'modified' in HMod.

This bizarro bolide looks like one of the Hungarian specials featured in the Economist a few months back, but no, it's just a '49 HS with all sorts of something going on. The seller claims that it was built by the inventor of the barcode, which only makes it better.

From the front it sorta looks like a Berkeley, but the back could only have come from the mind of an American kustom enthusiast. Note that the pipes (plural???) exit from the fins, and that it has more lights on the rear than a stock '46, '47 or '48 Crosley had on the entire car.

The whole thing is just weird, but from the gauges and aircraft style instrument panel it looks like it was actually set up for racing- although one of the gauges lists speed in 'knots' so maybe it was built to race Amphicars. The seller even includes the original towbar!

Price is still pretty reasonable for a running/driving special, i'll be curious to see where it ends up. This is a total kooknik Crosley of the highest caliber, proving that Crosley folks were always a little different.

Crazy Crosleys

2011-03-03T23:22:00.001-08:00

As usual, I've been poking around the internets to keep an eye on Crosley stuff for sale. Seems like there's always plenty of cars - a far cry from the good old days (i.e. 1996) when I was looking for my first Crosley - it took me months just to find a car to go look at! Shees. With all these cars available, there are bound to be some oddballs, and here's a few crazy Crosleys I've stumbled over recently.

First up is this '51 'Hotshot' (which actually looks to be a Super Sports) located in Atlanta for $5500. Crosley roadsters sorta beg for headlight modifications, but this 'Jane Russell' treatment is the most extreme solution I've ever encountered. Makes you not even notice that giant grill that came off who knows what.

The stock driveline has been swapped out for a Datsun 4 cylinder, and the seller says it runs and drives. I'd imagine it goes like stink, but unless they did some pretty impressive suspension work I can't imagine the Crosley frame (or brake system) is going to be happy for long.

This '1946 Sedan Delivery' has been on offer for quite a while- it's in Modesto (a couple hours from me) and has been on all the West Coast Craigslists a bunch. I'm not sure what to make of it - Crosley didn't offer a sedan delivery (or even a station wagon) in '46, so I'm assuming this just got retitled wrong at some point. Looks like it's a '47 or '48, but, with this I can't imagine a correct vin would really matter.

Engine is a Ford V6 (which I don't even know how they stuffed in the engine bay) bolted to a C4 tranny and a narrowed Ford rear. I'll spare you those photos, along with those of the '80s minivan interior. I'm really befuddled by that rear door, but honestly, I'm pretty befuddled by the whole thing. That said, I don't have anywhere near the skills to put something like this together, so maybe I'm just lacking imagination. $4500 and it's yours.

Last up is a car that is totally not my bag, but which appears to be exceptionally well thought out for what it is. Listed as a '1951 Crosley Hi Boy,' this car is taking some cues from the many Crosleys that ended up as drag racer bodies back in the fifties. The car was built by the Hot Rod Garage in Bakersfield (nicer, bigger pics of the car on their site here), a full-service hot rod/custom shop, and from the detail pics it sure looks like they knew what they were doing.

I can't say for sure what that motor is, but according to my rule (any old car the color of an easter egg is 99% likely to have a Chevy 350), I'd say that a bowtie is a safe bet. That header/collector going into the lake pipes is a thing of beauty.

Though all three of these Crosleys are unique creations, the Hi Boy is way ahead of the curve - it's the only one of the three that actually looks like someone planned it out ahead of time. Of course you gotta pay for that, and at $17,500, it is more than triple the cost of the other cars. Street rods aren't really my thing, but I will say that, unlike the two cars above, this one will probably handle better than any stock Crosley.

New Tin Block Times Out the Door - Finally!

2011-02-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Finally got the new issue of the Tin Block Times in the mail this weekend. Took a little longer than I'd have liked to get this issue done, but we had a few wrinkles to iron out, not the least of which was deciding to print some extras and mail a copy to every Crosley Auto Club member on the West Coast who isn't a member of West Coast club too- we gotta let these folks know what they're missing by not joining the West Coast Region!

Another slowdown was the changeover in designers. My pal Richard Hansen has been doing the graphic work on the TBT since I took over as editor a few years back. Richard always turned in a stellar job, and many club members went out of their way to let me know that they loved the way the magazine looked... so it was a big bummer when Richard had to head to Scotland for an emergency trip with no return in sight. Enter Dean Seavers.

Dean has been a car guy from day one- he rebuilt his first engine (a Buick big block if I remember right) at 13 and has owned everything from an Isetta to a front engined slingshot dragster, with a big focus on British sports cars. Dean has been heavily involved in the vintage Go Kart scene over the past ten years and designed the Kart club's newsletter- which was very similar to the TBT. He'd long ago mentioned that if I ever needed help on the TBT he'd love to do it. Richard left big shoes to fill, but Dean did a great job.

It helped that there was a lot of great stuff to work with- Mike Bainter turned in his as-always excellent blow by blow of the Sept meet, we concluded Marty Stein's epic history of the 1953 Nardi-Crosleys, new member Chuck Latty detailed his search for just the right sedan, and I reported on October's Joe Puckett Cup Hmod Race. We wrapped the whole thing in a cover inspired by the Sportscar Specials Trend book from 1958:

All in all another great issue. If you're a member, you'll be seeing it soon!

Midwest Crosley Dragster

2011-01-30T18:41:00.000-08:00

I don't know a whole lot about Arnie. I've been following his posts on various sites about his Crosley-powered rail dragster for a couple of years and I also found out that he's into Amphicars as well as Crosleys. The dragster almost got sold last year, but then he found a Pepco blower for it and I guess he decided to keep it.

He posted this video of the car on the track (with and without blower), and I hope he won't mind that I've linked to it here. It's good footage, and there's a great Crosley moment at the 38 second mark where the car he's racing zips by like the Crosley is standing still. I've always felt that the motor is the best part of a Crosley, and thank god for guys like Arnie, the Liebherrs, and the Hmodders, all of whom are doing Lloyd Taylor proud.

Pig's Blood, Chicken Feathers and Shellac

2011-01-19T23:52:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of being known as the 'weird car guy' is that people send me cool stuff. Magazine clippings about Crosleys appear under my windshield wipers and on my porch, and quite a bit of stuff comes in over the interwebs.

Josh Chaffin, a Sacramentan now displaced on the east coast, recently sent a clipping from the Economist detailing the history of Magyar (defined as 'of the Hungarian people') microcars. The Economist is one of the world's best magazines, so I knew this was gonna be good.

One look, and wow... just wow. Hungarian cars make the Isetta look normal. They make a Crosley seem opulent. The car above, the Fesztival, has a body made of pig's blood, chicken feathers and shellac. No, I'm not kidding. I dug around a little bit and found the article online here. It's well worth a read and there are plenty of great pictures.

Thanks to Josh for the tip!

Liebherr Crosley at Bonneville: VIDEO!

2011-01-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

Fellow Crosley kook John McKnight found this cool in-car video of Dale and Rob Liebherr's 1947 Crosley coupe burning up the salt at Bonneville:

The Liebherr's Never Paid 4 racing team has been trying to capture the J Production class record for about two years. That record, 103 and some change, is currently in the hands of the Evil Tweety team. They hopped in their Honda 600 and took the record back from Crosley of Kentucky's Gerald Davenport about ten years ago, and have been inching it upwards ever since.

Liv and I spent a day on the salt with the Leibherrs a couple of summers ago during their first trip to Speed Week. We had a blast, and if you have any interest in this stuff, GO. It's an amazing event.

The Never Paid 4 team haven't quite cracked the century mark yet, but every trip is moving the needle. They just built a brand new motor and switched over to disc brakes, and last I heard, all was looking good for 2011. Can't wait!

Ugly Duckling is Back

2011-01-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

Looks like the 'ugly duckling' HMod I saw on Craigslist last month is up for sale on Ebay. The seller has cleaned the car up and taken much better photos. I'm betting he'll make a decent profit for his efforts. The side shot is nice- probably the best angle for this car.

Seller also suggests that it might be an early Devin, a guess I'm pretty skeptical of. The vintage Devin photo he's posted is a Hot Shot that Bill Devin modified before he started making fiberglass bodies - and it doesn't look much like the car for sale anyway. I'll be curious to see what it goes for...

Is David Carradine's Crosley For Sale?

2011-01-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

Just stumbled across this nicely-restored 1950 Hot Shot for sale on Ebay. It's clean, but the $19.5K asking price is, uh, 'optimistic', even if an unnamed Hollywood star is claimed as the former owner. Maybe you could hope to get that kinda scrilla if this was James Dean's Hot Shot, but for any lesser star you're probably looking at about half that.... maybe. Interestingly, the ad is silent on the star's identity, although it does mention that he is dead. Hmmm...

Some years ago I read that actor David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill) was a Crosley fan. I have no idea where I came across this bit of info, but I do recall finding out that he had bought a Hot Shot for the then astronomical price of $13,000. OK, that'd still be an incredible price for a Hot Shot today, but it was even MORE incredible back then. I'd always found it an interesting factoid, and wondered if he would someday drive into the West Coast Meet in his roadster, ready to take all comers in the Funkana. It never happened.

When Carradine met his end a few years back, I (and pretty much everyone else) was a bit surprised - his particular hobby was not one I usually associate with Crosley owners - it turned out that Crosleying was the least of Mr. Carradine's quirks. If you're not sure what I mean, I'll refer you to google. In any case, he seemed to suddenly drop off the list of people fellow Crosley owners bragged about.
I'm guessing that this is probably Carradine's car, and the circumspect nature of the info in the ad is due to the lurid nature of the star's death - why else would a seller not list a famous former owner? Apparently the buyer will get documentation of the star's identity... if this car ever sells. Sadly, I just can't see a Carradine connection bringing this car to the price they are asking. There's no speed equipment - or even a radio. With nicely-restored VCs regularly selling for $7000-$8000, I can't imagine who would spend $19,000 for this car.

Now James Dean's Crosley... that might be worth $19,000. Dean never 'officially' owned a Crosley, but, according to the late Dick Scanlan, he used to drive one. The story, as Dick told it to me, was that there was a Hot Shot used to get around the Warner Bros. studio lot. Dean, being a sports car nut, immediately commandeered it while working on one of his films. According to Dick, Dean used the Hot Shot as his personal car the whole time he was making the movie, and then turned it back in when the filming was done. The car went back into regular use on the lot, and then was sold a few years later.

No documentation exists, and no photo of Dean driving a Hot Shot has ever turned up, so the story could well be pure bunk, but Dick Scanlan swore by it, and until the day he died he claimed he had the original interior from James Dean's Crosley in the rafters in his garage. For all I know, it still might be there. Find THAT Hot Shot (and prove it) and you'll have your $19,500 car.

Resolution #1: MORE POSTS!

2011-01-05T00:18:00.000-08:00

As 2010 was coming to a close I noticed that I'd averaged under 25 blog posts a year for 2009 and 2010.... that's quite a few less than I'd planned when I started this blog back in late 2008. It's not that I haven't had ideas - there have been plenty of missed opportunities - I just haven't been making the time. This year, one of my resolutions* is to make TWICE as many posts as last year!

And with material like this, lord knows it should be easy! Check out this flame-jobbed clown car from Florida on Ebay right now... looks like a pretty straight, early (1946!) sedan. No running lights, even! What could make this even better?....

That's right, the matching 1950 Hot Shot, for sale from the same seller! Pick this pair up and you can immediately become a contender for the Most Hated Neighbor Award! I'm simultaneously charmed and horrified by the paint jobs... they are true corn, but have a genuine postwar hotrod feel, before Rob Powell's sleek flamejob style had been co-opted by every paint slinger in the world.

These are supposed to run and drive, and are reputed to be actual circus cars. Neither has hit reserve yet, but we'll keep you posted.

*My resolutions this year:

Spend more time in the garage

Spend more time on my surfboard

Play more music with my friends

Get at least one of my Crosleys on the road

Make at least 50 posts on the blog!

The Bogus Lotus

2010-12-21T03:34:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie post on a fascinating car I've been watching on ebay all week- the Bogus Lotus!

This was initially listed as a Miller Special, but from the mumblings from the west coast Hmod community, and my own eyes, I'm gonna guess that Don Miller didn't build this baby.

For one thing, Hmod guru Joe Puckett didn't cite the car as a Miller when he included it in his Big Men Little Cars book, which the seller helpfully photographed. That's not definitive - Puckett made some goofs in the book - but I think Puckett and pals would have known if this car had Miller lineage.

But really, who cares? It's pretty amazing, whoever built it, and the restoration is stunning. I'm curious why they chose to paint the tops of the fenders gold, but that's a small detail. Really the car is very tastefully done, and the copious amounts of detail shots the seller added late truly show off the finish and the little things, like the sealed bottom and the hundreds of holes drilled for lightness.

The car is currently at just over $13,000 with two and a half days to go. Reserve is already met, so this one's gonna end up in somebody's stocking this year!

Crosley-Powered HMod in Alabama - $800!

2010-12-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

Just came across this Crosley-based Hmod for sale in Birmingham Alabama for $800. It's rough, but complete, and at that price you pretty much can't lose.

I don't recognize the body, so it could be a one-off homebuilt, or a heavily modified version of one of the familiar fiberglass-body kits like Glasspar or Almquist. It's claimed to be 61 years old which would mean that it was built in 1959- from the styling that date seems about right.

It's not pretty at the moment, but with some imagination and a lotta elbow grease this could be a real showstopper. If it was closer I'd have already driven out to take a look. Seller's number is 2O5 54O 7556.

Stored 46 years: Garage Find!

2010-10-06T00:31:00.000-07:00

Given that I've been the region's most active Crosley enthusiast for a decade or so now, I was pretty surprised to see an unfamiliar 1948 Crosley wagon pop up for sale on the Sacramento Craigslist a couple of weeks ago. It was less than three miles from my house in a neighborhood called East Sac. When I read the ad my hair stood on end.

13 years ago, when I was first on a quest for a Crosley, my guide was Gordon Becher. I've written about Gordon before- he was an amazing mechanic and a complete Crosley nut. He still drove the Crosley sedan he'd owned since about 1954 and had a garage full of NOS Crosley gunk - he'd bought out the inventory of his local Crosley dealership when the guy closed the business.

After I'd been looking for a car for months with no luck, Gordon shared a secret- he had a tiny notebook in which he'd kept track of every Crosley he'd seen listed for sale going back a decade. He shared some of those listings with me, and we even went up Highway 50 to Cameron Park to see a very rough Hotshot that Gordon had looked at years before. It was mostly there, but a complete mess- I offered the guy $800 and in retrospect I'm probably lucky he said no.

One car that wasn't in Gordon's notebook was a Crosley station wagon that he'd looked at many years before in East Sacramento. He told me that it had been parked in a garage off Folsom Blvd (a main drag in Sac) for decades and that it was very straight. Gordon even drove to the area where he'd looked at the car and tried to remember for me which house had the Crosley. It had been so long he couldn't remember, but he did tell me where it was within a few block radius. I drove up and down Folsom and its side streets trying to find the house and garage that matched Gordon's description, but I never did find it. That was 13 years ago, and I've probably driven down Folsom Blvd 500 times since then - and I've thought about that Crosley pretty much every time.

Suddenly, here it was.

I called the number in the ad and of course it was the same car. The seller's father had bought it in 1964, driven around the block a few times and then put in the garage. In 1964. It hadn't seen daylight since. His father had died earlier this year and now it had to go. I arranged to go over the next day and take a look. After 13 years (Gordon has been gone for over 10) I would finally see the East Sac Crosley.

It was anti climatic. You picture a car that's been garaged for 46 years, and you imagine a time capsule- at least I did. Yes, the car had been put away in 1964... but the owner had started to 'restore' it, meaning that he'd partially taken the car apart. The engine was completely disassembled in the back, rusty and probably worthless. The transmission was out, as was the back glass. The seats were roached- the back seat had nothing left but the frame. The paint was mostly spots of different colored primer. They had no idea where the title was or if there even was one. The owners were very nice, and were tickled to hear that I'd been looking for the car since the nineties.

I walked them through the good (the body is about as rust free as I've seen), and the bad (all of the above.) I also marveled at the mileage. The odometer had over 60,000 miles on it- by far the most I've ever seen on a Crosley. Neat, but, that didn't bode well for the rear end and tranny- the steering box seemed like it was already shot. There was a brief moment when I thought of making an offer, and then I remembered my blank bank account and all of my projects at home. Instead I offered to help them sell it thru the West Coast Club if they didn't get much response to their ad. They liked that idea because they'd prefer to have the car restored rather than turned into a hot-rod.

So that was it. Thirteen years of mild obsession, over. After all those years of waiting, I can't believe I had more fun talking to the sellers about their dad than I did actually looking at the Crosley. I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes.

Hmod Reunion October 2 at Infineon Raceway

2010-10-04T01:01:00.000-07:00

I always enjoy a trip to the vintage races, but this weekend I had a mission: after 6 years of seeing Lee Osborn's Crosley Special being loaded and unloaded off the trailer at the West Coast Crosley Meet, I was finally going to see it on the track. Osborn's car, the 1955 Shannon Special has developed quite a reputation- it just may be the fastest Crosley powered object currently on the planet. Lee himself has picked up a rep too- his aggressive driving combined with incredible engineering skills has meant that he's usually dicing with cars with twice or three times the engine displacement - Osborn's special has probably dusted more Porsches than any Crosley since Harry Eyerly was driving.

I'd been following the preparations for this 'Hmod Reunion' on the Hmod bulletin board I read- with the limited number of Hmods still participating in vintage racing it's hard to get more than a few out at any given event. Their months of planning resulted in close to 10 Hmods on this entry list, so I knew I couldn't miss it. My pal Alex and I drove down to Infineon Raceway (which I still think of as Sears Point) on Saturday morning. We got there just in time to catch the practice run for the group most of the Hmods were in. Some of the cars were initially set in different groups, but after the practice the organizers got everybody put together in the same race, set for 4 o'clock.

After the practice we walked back to the pits. I was happy to find several Hmods I'd never seen before.

The Bunce Buck is a toothy Crosley based Hmod built by two guys, one named Bunce, the other named Ed Buck. From talking to the current owner, Henry Morrison, it sounds like there were several of these built- this one is from 1959 and he's not sure if it ever had a race history.

At some point the Crosley that lived under the hood hump was tossed in favor of a rear Renault motor that, coincidentally, is identical (right down to the upgrade cam cover) to the Renault motor that was retrofitted to my Hmod. The car is probably the most authentic of any Hmod I've seen, featuring a scratched plexiglass windscreen and a '10 footer' paint job. I like it.

Pitted next to the Bunce Buck was a sleek fiberglass Hmod that was the solo project of Ed Buck - known as Ed's Hulk. This thing is beautiful, so i'm guessing the name may have originated because of the beefiness of construction- the ladder frame has large tubing and there are several gussets made of 1/4 inch steel plate! The restoration was very well done and the motor was built by Barry Seel, the best-known of the East Coast Crosley engine builders.

Another car I was looking forward to seeing was this 1956 BMW Avia. The car appeared briefly on Ebay and caused quite a stir on Bring a Trailer and some of the other carnut sites. This hand formed aluminum bodied racer was built in Czechoslovakia by a company best known for airplane manufacturing and saw quite a bit of action in the fifties. The new owners were racing it for the first time since its restoration- the BMW motorcycle engine seemed to run well but they were chasing a few electrical gremlins.

Every part of the car was a thing of beauty, and I could see why the owners were willing to part with their Shirdlu racer (currently for sale) to get this car. They were stoked, and were super-nice to boot.

Two nice Panhard specials were also running in Hmod class. I've seen these guys run before- great cars. #114 is a particularly well-proportioned Hmod- there isn't that sense of the driver being too big for the car that plagues many designs.

Pitted with 114 was the Aardvark, a 1952 Panhard Special that is lighter and faster than almost any other special of the period- and you can tell... it's usually out in front of the pack even though it's one of the oldest Hmods still running.

Kip Fjeld was there with his 1956 Miller Special. Originally built with a Triumph motorcycle engine, Miller installed a Crosley after three or four races and never looked back. Kip has had this car a long time and campaigns it frequently.

Also on hand were Don Baldocchi and his incredible Nardi. Don is the preeminent Crosley engine builder on the West Coast and his own car is evidence of his skill- he's always near the front and he never DNFs.

We chatted a bit with Lee as he checked the oil on the special. Like nearly everything else on the car, the oil pan is a custom-built piece. The car sits so low, Lee couldn't go with the Braje pan nearly every other racer uses, so he had to fabricate one out of a military sump. Though the car is Crosley powered, there is little on the car that is stock Crosley.

There was plenty of other stuff to look at- the event was an annual charity benefit so there is always a good draw.

I believe that the San Francisco Sports Car Club might have been one of the sponsoring clubs- I saw a lot of their stickers.

One of the stranger cars I saw all day was this 1967 (i think) Marcos. I'd only recently heard of these cars and thought they looked pretty funky. Turns out that they are one of those cars that looks better in person than in pictures. Saab Sonnets and MGBGTs are the same way. Funky in pictures but really neat in person.

And this is the story of the track- scrambling to get something fixed before the next heat. There were a lot of really nice cars on jackstands.

Not the Crosley-powered version, but amazing none the less. These Siatas were called 'Baby Ferraris' and it's not hard to see why.

As it got close to the racetime for the group the Hmods were in we climbed the hill to my favorite vantage point..I think it's just called 'Turn 1.' You get a great view of two twists in the track and there's usually plenty of action. We watched a couple of other races up there and there was some excitement, especially for the driver a black Porsche:

Finally the Hmods took their places on the tarmac along with about 20 other cars- all of which sported substantially larger displacements. Unsurprisingly, Osborn was the first Hmod up the hill, running about 8th out of the whole race group.

The rest of the Hmods diced a bit behind Lee. Here's Don in the Nardi (101) followed up by the '54 Panhard (114):

The track is long, and you lose sight of the cars for long periods... at some point I realized that we hadn't seen Lee Osborn in a while. Just then we saw the corner worker pull a yellow flag- car off the track! The race was almost over at that point- we watched the cars parade around the track and then hustled to the pits. When we got there all the other Hmods were pitted- but no Shannon Special.

Don filled us in: Lee had lost a wheel and spun off the track! We stood around and waited, not looking forward to seeing the wreckage, and hoping that Lee wasn't injured. I couldn't believe it when the tow truck pulled the Shannon Special in, minus the left rear wheel but looking none the worse for wear! Not even a scratch in the paint! Lee had broken an axle in the middle of turn 11, just as he was passing an Alfa Romeo Zagato. He spun 360 degrees and went into the dirt, but missed both the Alfa and the wall.

You would never want to hit another car, but The Zagato was a particularly rare bird. Luckily the driver was very skilled and avoided Lee's car. Lee went over and apologized and thanked the driver for not plowing into him. He was pretty shaken up.

Although I'd have rather seen a race with less excitement I was still glad to have finally seen Lee run the car, and I was stoked that, all in all, he got away lucky. It was amazing to see the car outperform the much bigger iron, but as Lee pointed out, it's at the absolute edge of performance now, so there's just no margin for error. He's not sure when he'll be able to run again since the axles were custom made- the last set took a year to get. We stuck around long enough to help Lee get the three wheeler on his trailer and then headed back to Sacramento, visions of sportscars in both of our heads.