My interest in the visual arts was sparked at an early age when I attended the private Cummin's School of Art at age 4, as a child prodigy. I first garnered national attention winning an "Honorable Mention Gold Key Award" in the National Scholastic Art Competition in high school, ironically with an airbrush drawing of a futuristic car.
My entire life was spent drawing or photographing pictures of exotic cars. Even drawing in the margins of my school papers. Until I discovered girls. Then my interests quickly changed to cars AND girls.
Customizing and rebuilding cars became an obsession for me. I bought my first car as a teenager. I had to hide it from my parents in a rented garage up the street from their home/corner grocery store. My first car was a '29 model "T" with Cadillac engine.
A powerful big '39 flat head Cadillac/LaSalle engine had been installed in it when I got the car, along with a '32 model B radiator grill to make it look extra cool. The engine was so powerful and the clutch grabby, that every time I came to a stop at a street corner or R/R crossing, anyone riding with me would have to pile out and push the car until it got rolling just to to keep the powerful Cadillac engine from tearing out the universal joints, as it so often did. Once the car was rolling, my friends had to run, catch up and then jump in.
For years I had shared with my mother the family '46 Ford 4 door sedan, six cylinder flat head, stealing it while she was at work. I never could find the same parking spot when I brought the car back to her, luckily for me, after work she never could remember where she'd parked that car. LOL That car was very very UNCOOL. About as uncool as you could get. It was a 4 door sedan with a stock flat head six cylinder engine in it. Very uncool. Being a the visual person that I am, I made it look a little cooler by adding the '48 Oldsmobile grill, I had the emblems and some chrome removed and filled-in, added flipper hub caps, fender skirts along with frenched-in '50 Mercury tail lights on it. Pictured in primer here, but I finally had it painted Metallic Mandarin Red, a very great color of the time. But the car was still UNCOOL!
My entire life was spent drawing or photographing pictures of exotic cars. Even drawing in the margins of my school papers. Until I discovered girls. Then my interests quickly changed to cars AND girls.
My First Cars.........
Customizing and rebuilding cars became an obsession for me. I bought my first car as a teenager. I had to hide it from my parents in a rented garage up the street from their home/corner grocery store. My first car was a '29 model "T" with Cadillac engine.
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| My first car a Channeled '29 model "T" with Cadillac engine |
A powerful big '39 flat head Cadillac/LaSalle engine had been installed in it when I got the car, along with a '32 model B radiator grill to make it look extra cool. The engine was so powerful and the clutch grabby, that every time I came to a stop at a street corner or R/R crossing, anyone riding with me would have to pile out and push the car until it got rolling just to to keep the powerful Cadillac engine from tearing out the universal joints, as it so often did. Once the car was rolling, my friends had to run, catch up and then jump in.
BOY, I bet we looked strange..............
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| '46 Ford family car with '48 Old's grill. |
BOY was I glad to get rid of that car.........
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| Chartreuse '49 Ford convertible |
So to keep the ugly going, I then purchased a terrible looking Chartreuse colored '49 Ford convertible. Boy was that a horrible color (pee green). I changed that color fast. I had it painted Tropical Rose, the new color of that year and I had the seats re-upholstered in rose colored leatherette to match the outside. Looking back now, that was rather crazy looking, but those were different times and at that time it looked real cool. I also had the engine rebuilt to 3/4 race (street race), I personally ported, relieved and polished each and every cylinder of the V 8 engine with a grinding stone mounted in a hand-drill. I painted the engine parts in all alternating colors, Tropical Rose and white. Just in case anyone ever looked under the hood......and they often did. |
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| '49 Ford convertible Tropical Rose. |
I had the shape of the grill opening changed, added a custom grill, de-chromed it some, added blue dot tail lights, fender skirts, head light hoods and turned the spotlights down just to look cool. It had a reputation of being a surprisingly fast street drag-racer. So fast it would often get me in trouble just sitting there.
The police would stop me just to look the car over.
Onetime when I was caught supposedly illegally drag racing. The cop car stopped at my car, pulled over by the curb after hearing their siren. It left one policeman on foot with me, and proceeded to chase after the other car that I was supposedly illegally drag racing with. LOL After looking my car over for a while, the policeman remaining with me said "Let me see what you've got under the hood".
The policeman in the cop car never did catch that other guy....so when the cop car came back empty handed.........................The two cops had to let me go with just a warning since they hadn't caught the other guy, I supposedly was illegally drag racing with. LOL
The police would stop me just to look the car over.
Onetime when I was caught supposedly illegally drag racing. The cop car stopped at my car, pulled over by the curb after hearing their siren. It left one policeman on foot with me, and proceeded to chase after the other car that I was supposedly illegally drag racing with. LOL After looking my car over for a while, the policeman remaining with me said "Let me see what you've got under the hood".
The policeman in the cop car never did catch that other guy....so when the cop car came back empty handed.........................The two cops had to let me go with just a warning since they hadn't caught the other guy, I supposedly was illegally drag racing with. LOL
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