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Mike Bishop sent a few shots from Vern Tardel's shop. I hope by pasting them in here, I can cajole him into sending more stuff! Heh heh! Got some cool pics you'd like to share? mail me.
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Mike's first roadster. July 1954. Was a courtesy car for a local service station before Mike got his hands on it. |
I'm not sure of the name of the owner of this roadster. The fellow has been building it for a couple of years, doing rather well but decided he needed some help with the fine points of tieing everything together. 
Just a few things out of time but those will be corrected before the car leaves Vern's. Looks all right to me, Mike....Mart. (Just had a note from Rudy Perez, saying the roadster belongs to his friend Jay West. Thanks Rudy....Mart) 4 Banger A. 
This is Dan McKeachern's Model A highboy. (Dan is well known in Model A and Model T circles in this country because he restores Ford four-banger race motors and manufactures bronze timing gears for the little beauties.) The motor will be fitted with a Riley Four-Port head. Vern entrusted the frame work on this one to me, right after we finished my roadster. Like mine, I stepped the rear crossmember and fitted a complete '32 K-member. It has Lincoln brakes with custom hubs that mount Buffalo wire wheels. The car has a rear roll pan and side covers that hide the frame, much like a bellypan, although they're not in place here. It is scheduled for a full Bonneville-spec roll structure that will be removeable when not needed. Mock up. 
This is a new start. The frame is tied together, sitting on its suspension, and about to be fitted with controls. The cowl section is a mockup that's kept around just for this stage of the work. All White? 
Terry Griffith's all-white Model A-framed chassis is getting an all-white '27 T roadster pickup body and bed. Terry is the wireman, Vern's pal since childhood, and one of the nicest pals a fellow could hope for. Terry has taken a great deal of flak over his all-white highboy but hasn't been deterred. He also has a sweet '50 Ford coupe, flathead powered with a TREMEC five-speed tied into the middle. Vern's Deuce 
You've already seen this shot of Vern's own roadster in the rides section. Nicely proportioned with that "just right" stance, and as Mike wrote when he sent this shot, all the element positioned correctly. Once I've looked at the cars, I find myself scanning Vern's shelves for all that good stuff...Mart Mike's First Roadster. 
Mike sent this bigger version of the snap at the top of the page. Ford parts sticker was water-slide applied, Mike says he wouldn't fancy doing that again. Mike sent these 3 Vintage shots over, I've added his own notes as appropriate. 
Look what I found--an earlier shot of the roadster. It was starting to come together, although it still had the early waterpump-heads motor. Note the bargain axle--two bucks and just needed a little tweaking. Front fenders fitted but Kelseys still in place and windshield was unchopped at this point. Tank had been moved to the trunk and the cowl is filled. Value at this stage was about $50. Wouldn't we love to have fifty-dollar parts piles like this today?! 
The '40 was my first real car--1953. Hadn't gotten around to straightening the license plate mount but did have my NHRA decal in the corner of the windshield. Priorities. 
I ran across a few very small snaps of some of the cars at the first NHRA race at Inyokern in the Mojave Desert in October, 1954. I'm attaching one of a '37 Chevy powered with a fuel-burning 302-cid GMC L6--the "Jimmy." We won A/Fuel coupe and then were nosed out by about a half-car length against this monster in king-of-the-hill competition, when all the class winners are paired off until only one remains. On this weekend it was this Chevy on top. --ooOoo-- Thanks for the N.O.S (New Old Stuff), Mike. I always like it when Mike sends stuff over, he writes great captions, being a profeshniul and all that. |
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All contents property of Martin Holden, Solihull, England. |
