Norm Grabowski T Bucket

It has been a sad weekend in the hot rod world as several have recently discovered that hot rod pioneer and legend Norm Grabowski has passed away. The news that he had died was received by Norm’s  web site Normsnews on yesterday morning October 12, 2012, he was seventy nine years old.

I had initial heard of Norm several years ago, once I was just a kid. He had appeared on an episode of Jesse James’ Monster Garage, were he and a cluster of hot rod legends (including the late Dick Dean) built a sectioned and lowered yellow fifty four Chevy. Little did I apprehend at the time that Norm Grabowski was a hot rod legend who is legendary for building the terribly initial T-Bucket!

Norm Grabowski is referred to as the Father of the T-Bucket, he  invented the T-Bucket hot rod after he left Military service in 1952.His invention came regarding when moved to Southern California and started attending native automotive shows. Whereas attending this car shows he became fascinated with the hot rods that he saw at these shows, he determined that he was going to make one amongst his own.

He soon purchased a Model A truck for $one hundred but the truck wasn’t in good condition, so he then purchased a 192a pair of Model T touring and placed it on the Model A frame. The next he did was he connected the bed from the Model A to the Model T’s body. The solely thing he required was an engine, he set to borrow a 1952 Cadillac engine from his oldsters recent automotive and he put a GMC three-71 blower on high of it!

The automotive was soon fired up for the primary time, with the turn of the key it roared to life and also the T-Bucket was born! The automobile was able to run be Norm revealed that he had to make some adjustments on the automotive.  There was a problem with the steering, steering that was from an old milk truck was backwords! The automobile would go the opposite direction of that manner the wheel was turned!

The fifty two supercharged Cadillac engine was eventually replaced with a 1956 Dodge engine that was equipped with a Horne intake manifold that held four Stromberg double-barrel carbs. The automotive was then giving it’s famous blue paintjob with the flames on the facet and therefore the pinstriping on the grill! The last detail of the automobile was the shifter, Norm loved to carve and produce things out of wood. He wanted to make one thing that was unique and would stand out therefore he carved a skull to be used as a shift knob on the automobile!

The automotive become such a success within the native Thus-Cal scene that it ended obtaining it’s own half in the hit 1950?s TV show  77 Sunset Strip! The T-Bucket was driven by a character named Kookie, which is why his T-Bucket is nicknamed the Kookie Kar.

The car wasn't only known for it’s smart looks however Norm use to pull raced the automobile yet! This cause the automotive being featured on the cover of Hot Rod in 195five as well as being featured in an exceedingly story in Life magazine in 1957!

The automotive was therefore influential that Norm came home in the future to search out then hot rodder/actor and later NHRA Drag racer TV Tommy Ivo in his garage getting the measurements of his T-Bucket. Tommy asked Norm many times if he could live his automotive however Norm refused. Therefore Tommy snuck in Norm’s, got the measurements himself and went on to build a T-Bucket of his own..The 2 of them would drag race their Hot Rods frequently, this was covered in life magazine.

Within the late 1950?s one of the actors crashed Norms hot rod whereas film on set, this led to Norm eager to drive his own car for appearances TV and films, so he became a stunt driver. Norm additionally later became an actor where he made appearances in movies like High School Confidential, Darby’s Rangers, Hooper, The Cannonball Run, and several others.

Norm would continue to build custom Hot Rods, remaining a well-known hot rod builder for the rest of his life. He would also continue his second passion of wood carving in addition, carving many skull shift knobs, cars and alternative pieces of art all out of wood.

Norm Grabowski can be missed in the recent rod world however it's time for him to create Hot Rods for the great lord currently.

Phony Pony Mustang Funny Car

The Phony Pony Funny Ford Mustang was each a true funny car and a true “phony” automotive! The car was engineered by drag racer Junior Brogdon back within the late 1960?s.  It was a Ford and was primarily based off of the Mustang, hence the “pony” in its name. Bordgon engineered the car to induce into funny automotive racing when he had great success racing Super Stock within the AHRA. However when he built Phony Pony the automobile ended up being funny in an exceedingly different way. A completely different approach than simply being a haul car with an altered wheel primarily based and a flip high. It had been funny because it absolutely was additional like a dragster with a automobile body on prime of it!

The Phony Pony was a slingshot dragster with a Mustang body on top of it (currently you recognize why it’s phony) with it Brogdon would run a few totally different set ups, the most common founded was 2 Ford 289 HIPO motors. The 289s would sometimes be carbureted alternative times each would Injected. Other set ups he would run would just be one injected 289, a single blown 289 or just one 289.

When the Phony Pony debuted the NHRA would not consider it a real funny automobile thus Brodgon continuously had to run it at Match races only. Even at Match Races most of the fans and spectators didn’t want to determine it, they weren’t huge fans of the faux funny cars and didn’t need to work out a dragster with a car body. (Weird because I think its cool as hell!)

The best time Phony Pony ever ran was eight.thirty six seconds @ one hundred sixty five.

Mike Ness' 54 Chevy

This fifty four Chevy is that I need to take for a cruise up the coast and then on to Highway 101! It is owned by the original Sick Boy himself Mike Ness! For my readers that will not understand Mike Ness is the lead singer and guitarist of the Punk/Rock N Roll band Social Distortion!  A band that has long had an outlaw, rock n roll sound.  You'll describe their sound as Johnny Cash meets the Clash with a hint of the Rolling Stones and a little bit of Dillinger (yes the 1930s Bank Robber) and Mike Ness and Social Distortion’s outlaw image has perpetually gone hand in hand with Hot Rods and customs!
Mike Ness’ fifty four Chevy was designed by Cole Foster and the Salinas Boys. Mike Ness  would conjointly stop by and facilitate work on the automotive himself while it had been in the Salinas Boys look.
“Ness slept at my search, for weeks at a time, we tortured him Bob Seger , created him do the worst BS, he got dirty, cut, and was one in all the blokes, bought lunch, and he has a smart eye and a way of humor. He has been a good friend for a very long time.”- Cole Foster
The fifty four Chevy top is chopped four inches, the rear glass and window is from a 1950 Plymouth coupe, and also the hubcaps are from a 1951 Desoto. The interior has custom leopard print upholstery and Ness’ fifty four Chevy is powered by a Small Block Chevy that is connected to TH350 transmission.
Mike Ness had the 54 Chevy engineered for nights when he gets those cold feelings and he simply needs to cruise or when he has the Machine Gun blues and desires to cross the state line to flee the police. (If he gets caught, its too the outskirts of town by the railroad tracks, where the country moon shines).

Bruce Larson's Mr. Clean Chevy

Have you ever checked out a hot rod and thought “now that is what a hot rod is suppose to seem like!”? I grasp I have and the foremost recent time I even have is after I saw for Funny Automotive champion Bruce Larson’s Mr. Clean 32 Chevy Olds powered coupe!
Bruce Larson’s Mr. Clean thirty two Chevy may be a recreation of Bruce’s initial true drag automobile! Actually the initial Mr. Clean Chevy that Bruce raced back within the 60s his first automobile that he built for drag strip use solely. He use to tow the automotive to the track with his daily driver and he would compete within the Gasser (yes this Chevy is a gasser) A/Gas category at the strips in New Jersey and New York.
Mr. Clean may be a 32 Chevy coupe with a Ford grill, it's powered by a 1957 Olds J-2 Rocket motor (Olds 371) connected to a Hydro-Matic transmission. The automotive was built by EJ Kowalski from Reading Pennsylvania.
Bruce has raced the automobile for the past few years at many events such as the Funny Automobile Reunion @ Englishtown New Jersey, and at the Nostalgia Nationals.

For those that don’t know Bruce Larson has been a life long drag racer and one the NHRA Funny Automobile National Championship in 1989.

the 57 Chevy an American Icon

The fifty seven Chevy, an American Icon. I am certain that  several of you guys have heard that many times, through the years. Why is the 57 Chevy an American Icon you will ask? Think about this for a moment, the fifty seven Chevy is featured in songs by Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon and maybe Don Mclean (well atleast it had been a 57 Chevy truck). You see 57 Chevy's in movies like the Hollywood Knights, American Graffiti (not Fafla's automotive however one within the background), you see them in logos, on T-shirts, in paintings on the walls of diners, you see and listen to about fifty seven Chevy's just concerning anywhere that relates to cars or Americana itself however what made this automotive an Icon in the primary place?

Well we tend to know that the fifty seven Chevy is one in all the nicest looking , or even the nicest car ever created. We have a tendency to know that since it has came out in 1957 the 57 Chevy has made a name for its self in NASCAR, Drag Racing, and as a terribly standard hot rod and show automotive. It commonly takes best in show, and it's one among the foremost widespread classic cars scene besides the sixty seven-69 Camaro and also the Mustang. But this still brings us to the question of why it's the most effective? I already said its the nicest trying production automotive ever created however could that basically be the sole reason?

I believe the explanation the fifty seven Chevy is well loved and thought of an Icon is for a much deeper reason than simply being a pleasant automobile. A reason most of us in all probability know deep down but just haven't realized it. The reason is the 57 Chevy represents what America is and what America is suppose to be. It represents a price tag or a path to freedom, it will take you anywhere, take you coast to coast, to the beach to surf, to work, to play, to race.

Recognize a number of you who have come to the belief yet are probably thinking "wait. doesn't each hot rod try this?" Well you are right however there is a lot of, the fifty seven Chevy additionally represents onerous work and dreams. It represents the dream of a great designer who wanted to work out his laborious work come to live and he did everything to make that dream potential simply like many Americans such as Lou Gehrig, Howard Hughes, the Wright Brothers, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Cash and many additional have done moreover.

The different reason is that the 57 Chevy represents the American Tradition, the tradition of playing catch within the backyard while hearing Vin Scully decision the Dodgers game on the radio, the tradition of bark yard grills, spending Saturday operating on a Hot Rod so you can race it on Sunday. A tradition of obtaining up at 6Am to Surf the large waves before college or work. A tradition of taking a road trip in American automobile with family across the beautiful landscape.

This is what subconsciously attracts most people to the fifty seven Chevy, just most never notice it. But maybe now deep down within of you, you've got perpetually known this.

Now some of you are in all probability thinking however the fifty seven Chevy is dead just like all the things I mentioned higher than are, they all are gone. That is a few what true however suppose about this there is a man out there that lives down the road who plays catch, listens to the Dodgers games, listens to Johnny Cash, works arduous and takes road trips who found that one smart condition junkyard 57 Chevy or maybe he went with the reproduction (even if he did therefore what).

With that Junkyard or reproduction 57  he is going to spend his Saturday Mornings operating on the car instead of sleeping in. Folks can tell him he's crazy and that he's wasting his time working on the car. But sooner or later he goes to fireplace up that Supercharged Big Block 496 Stroke in the fifty seven and it is visiting roar to life! It can be heard for miles, it will shake the bottom around it and it will be the sickest wanting, loudest, fastest street legal hot rod known to man! All engineered by a mans hard work and dreams.

Street Legal Dragsters

Regarding per week ago I was wondering what would create a extremely cool and terribly distinctive Hot Rod. What did my wondering return up with? A Street Legal Dragsters! I realized this was a cool idea but I  additionally thought someone had to have designed one before right?There needs to be one that has been engineered, is driven and makes weekend passes at the drag strip. Thus I embarked on looking for a street legal dragster and here is the story and what I even have found.

One factor I did find out is that street legal dragsters are rare and VERY VERY HARD TO REALIZE! I figured they were visiting be rare but their extremely may only be five or vi rear dragsters in  existence and one street legal funny automobile and one street legal sprint car which’s it!

So here are a number of the street legal dragsters (they'll be the sole street legal dragsters) that I have found.

The Stragster
The Stragster is owned by Vince Spretnjak of Calumet Collision Hot Rod Shop. The idea behind the Stragster was meant to be a Hot Rod that was part Pro Street and part Slingshot Dragster (if you raise me, I say they got both components down extremely well). The Stragster is powered by a Blown Mopar 354 Hemi, with old school vogue Hillborn Fuel Injection, aluminum heads, and Vertex Magneto for ignition. All of this is often hooked up to a Tremec five speed transmission.

The engine and five speed are hooked up to a 9? Ford rear with a coil over suspension. 4 disc brakes are used to prevent this monster in a hurry (you know for once you racing driving in the street). The great issue regarding the stragster though is it is truly driven on the road!

 The Super Mustang

Drag Racer Tom McEwen is more known for being Don “The Snake” Prudhomme’s drag racing rival in there famous Snake vs Moongoose races in the early 70s racing in there Mopar Funny Cars. Before this but Tom McEwen was a Ford guy and with Fords help, he designed a street legal dragster in 1967 named the Super Mustang.

The Super Mustang could not seem like the opposite Mustangs however I guess you can say its what the Mustang would look like if the Mustang was a slingshot. The automotive is said to possess been a publicity stunt between Ford and McEwen to attract additional attention to Fords drag racing and Fords cars.

The Super Mustang is powered by the famous Ford 427 SOHC “Cammer” engine, the body is a Fiberglass/Plexiglass body designed to look like a Slingshot Dragster (technically it's a Slingshot Dragster).

The Super Mustang has solely ever made a few Appearances, the foremost famous one at the 1967 NHRA Winternationals where Tom McEwen got it to run 8.sixty @ 180 MPH that was an incredible time and speed for the era. The automotive was conjointly featured on the cover of a 1967 Issue of Automotive Craft. The Super Mustang disappeared (expect as a Hot Wheels car) largely as a result of it remained in Mickey Thompsons Private Collection till his death in 1988. It wouldn’t be seen once more until the late 2000s when it absolutely was spotted at a few automotive shows and later sold for $154,00zero at Gooding & Company Monterey Auction in 2009.

Here are some of the opposite Street Legal Dragsters I have found. Sadly these don’t have as giant of a Back Ground story like the Stragster and also the Super Mustang but they're cool.

I Found this one on the HAMB, its done during a late 50s, early 60s vogue T-Bucket Slingshot

I believe this is the road Legal Slingshot that was featured in the 1968 Issue of Automotive Craft

The Moody Blues

The Moody Blues isn’t a Street Legal Dragster but a Street Legal Funny Automotive. The Moody Blues could be a 1970 Opel Street Legal Funny Automobile.

I am not positive the present standing of the Moody Blues however back in 2010 the car kept introduction for sale on ebay, as a Street Legal Funny Automotive. The Moody Blues is powered by a blown 392 Hemi connected to a 2 speed transmission. The Moody Blues was also featured many years ago in Hot Rod Magazine.

Even though they were a Hard Realize, there are Street Legal Dragsters out there. Street Legal Dragster has to be one among the best hot rods a man might own, they're unique, look cool and build nice head turners for when you're driving on the road.

Jesse James Outlaw Garage

A few months ago I did my review on the American Chopper Biker Build Off which featured Jesse James. Last week Jesse James' new show Jesse James Outlaw Garage premiered, I forgot it had been on till it came out but I did get a probability to determine it over the weekend and while Jesse James has engineered cool bikes in the past, none of his shows besides Motorcycle Mania and History of the Chopper have very been that sensible (Monster Garage was ok, had a few smart episodes and the rest of the things wasn't that great).

Once seeing the American Chopper biker build off when I heard regarding Jesse James' new show, I was expecting a show with Jesse James trash talking and bitching about one thing left and right. I wasn't expecting a high quality show. However what we tend to got from Jesse James and Austin Speed Shop could be a Motorcycle Mania like show except for Ancient Hot Rodders!

The Show is regarding Jesse and therefore the Austin Speed Look doing different Hot Rod builds done in an exceedingly Traditional (1964 and older) vogue. The premier episode Jesse James had to create a Hot Rod for  The Bonnie & Clyde Reliability Run. They chose do build a 32 Ford but do it in a Prewar Hot Rod style meets Gangster car.

During the episode, most of the show focused on the build from the planning, to finding and salvaging parts, making parts and putting the rod together. (For all you traditional guys the engine on the Ford may be a Flathead)! The show also spent a heap of your time focusing not on just Jesse but the builders at the Austin Speed Search such as the Co Owner of the speed search Bob, the mechanic Luke, the welder Patrick and the full crew of Austin Speed Search.

Now in fact there have been a few things I did not like concerning the show, that I hope gets neglected of future episodes. One of the items was some Drama in an exceedingly subplot (for lack of a better word) where the welder Patrick didn't show up to work because he had a tattoo appointment. Now whether or not this very did happen and it was reality tv moment will we tend to as fans not have it within the show it interrupts the flow of the show and it does not add something simply wastes two mins. The alternative criticism I had was in the start of the show Jesse claims to not have faith in in his builders and is not positive if they might be ready to induce the build done in a very month. That extremely doesn't do anything for the show either, it just wasted five minutes that might of been shown on welding, or the build. Therefore lets simply leave this drama out of future episodes.

Besides the minor drama movements most of the shows time is spent centered on the builds and the hot rods themselves like how a show should be done. The solely things I think the show is missing is Social Distortion playing (Machine Gun Blues ought to of been played) and perhaps some the way to's like in Motorcycle Mania where we tend to learned how to form a gas tank.

Overall though I gotta say if you're an admirer of Jesse James, cars, and especially if you're an exponent of Ancient Hot Rods you will love this show.

Drag Boats

All of us here love hot rods (if you don’t then why are you reading this magazine?) we see them cruising down the streets of Modesto, racing on the back roads, tearing up the drag strips, hitting the oval tracks, and crowding the parking lots of Bob’s and Mel’s. Now a place were you usually don’t see hot rods (or at least a place you wouldn’t think you would see a hot rod) is on the water! That is right there are a bunch guys who run hot rods on the water known as drag boats!

Drag Boats started way back in the 1500s when Christoper Columbus raced the Mayflower against the Argo and set a record for lowest ET.
Seriously now drag boat racing started not too long after land drag racing did. It all started when one guy claimed his boat was faster than the other guys next thing you know they were drag racing! By the 60s Drag Boat racing grew and drag boats became their own type of boat. Running the same motors as their pavement cousins, creating their own designs for drag boat racing and coming up with their own launching and staging formats!
How drag boats run is very similar to drag racing of land lovers, two boats are paired to race, they line up, when the light turns green on the tree they go! (Yeah they have floating trees for drag boat racing). Their are some differences how drag boat racing is done, due to the fact they have to race on water.

Drag Boats use a moving start when they race. This starting system was implemented as a safety precaution because it is difficult for a boat driver to determine if the boat will launch straight from a standing start.
As two boats are “paired up” on the holding rope, a countdown clock begins before the boats get the green light. During competition, if either boat crosses the starting line before the green light is illuminated, it is disqualified.

When the boats launch (especially when the Top Fuel and Top Alcohol classes launch) walls of water get shot up over 30ft in the air and the boats themselves literally get airborne for a few seconds! Then Jump forward into the air before landing to finish the race!
Another thing about drag boats is like drag cars they come in all shapes and sizes. You have everything from speed boats with small block motors to flatbottom boats with Hemis, to hydroplane boats running Top Fuel Keith Black motors!

Classes in Drag Boat racing range from personal watercraft (jet skis, small boats) to outboard motor boats, to 11.00 Second flat bottom boats, to Pro Mods on water (just about anything goes) to Top Alcohol Flat Bottom and Top Fuel Hydro boats which run almost as fast as there land cousins. Top Fuel Drag Boats can finish the liquid quarter mile in 4.5 seconds!
The Lucas Oil Drag Boat series is the largest Sanctioning Body for drag boating, other sanctioning bodies include the IHBA (International Hot Boat Association) and the SDBA (Southern Drag Boat Association).

What makes drag boat racing exciting? Well there are many different reason it could be exciting, the loud sound of the motors, the hard launches that send walls of water 30 feet into the air, the quickness of the boats and more.

So what are you waiting for land lovers? You know what drag boat racing is get out there to the nearest lake and race!

The Digger

I have been getting a lot of emails lately of people asking me what is a Digger. As we all know if you read chopper magazines, look at chopper websites and go to shows you hear the term digger being used to describe some choppers.
The Digger first started to appear in the early 70s in the chopper world and it is often credited to be first built by Arlen Ness (back then Ness built cool bikes). The style that makes a chopper a digger is typically a long and low look. Other common this you will see are diamond and hexagon shaped gas tanks (which are usually long and long gas tanks as well), drag pipe exhaust, and large old school style drag wheels.
To get the long and low look for the digger, they were usually built with low gooseneck frames and would have a big rake to the front fork. The frames usually have backbones that have been chopped so they can be lengthend for the long look.
Some people say the style was influenced by the drag bikes of era and they were meant to resemble drag bikes.  The main story of it is Arlen Ness attended a drag bike event in the early 70?s where he saw a bunch of Harley sportsters. This give Arlen Ness an Idea, take a sportster, chop the backbone to lengthen the frame, put a longer rake on, add a diamond shape tank and add a 70s style drag tire.
The origin of why its named the digger has its own story as well. My guess of why it’s called the digger is because it’s based of a drag bike and back then dragsters were known as diggers so it is a digger style bike. The other story I have heard is because of how low they are (though not as low as a lowrider) they looked like they were digging into the ground so they name digger was given.

Thanks to Arlen Ness diggers grow in popularity through out the 70s and become some of the best choppers ever built.  Diggers still seem to have a strong influence on modern choppers today! They may have been on of the two influences for pro street choppers (the other was pro street hot rods).

Hot Rod Surf's 1928 Ford Silver Bullet Roadster

I have always been a fan of Hot Rod Surf and MWMs work, I love the traditional style rods they build. One of my favorite Rods by Hot Rod Surf is their 1928 Ford Special Silver Bullet roadster. Why do I like this Hot Rod you may ask? Why don’t I like this Hot Rod is the better question! The Silver Bullet roadster is a perfect example of a traditional style hot rod that is built to be driven and to have fun. Its low, simple silver paint job with detailed pinstriping, small block motor with zoomies, and its a roadster! Its everything a good simple hot rod should be!
The Silver Bullet features an original 1928 steel Ford body, and a Kustom hot rod surf z’ed A bone frame. Also has a kustom chopped grill.
Engine/Drivetrain: 1968 327 Small Block Chevy topped with a 650 cfm Edelbrock Carb which is hooked up to a GM TH400 transmission is hooked up to a Ford 9′ rear end. The engine is a high compression motor with double camel hump heads, so the motor needs 91 or better octain gas.
Tires/Suspension: 15 soild steel rims with new bias ply BFG tires, Ford disc break conversion was done, and a 1940 Ford front axle with reverse eye spring and split wishbones.
Interior: The interior has Kustom seats, mustang side steering wheel which has a quick release hub so it can be taken off for security reasons.
When I see a car like Hot Rod Surf’s 28 Ford Special Silver Bullet, it just makes me want to jump in it, do a burnout, drive recklessly through the streets of So-Cal while blasting Fu Manchu, then drag race other hot rods all night to get up at 6 am in the morning to go surfing! If it doesn’t make you want to do atleast half of those things, then you are either deaf, dumb and blind or not a true hot rodder!

She's Real Fine that 409!

You’ve heard the famous song by the Beach Boys, which you probably have heard a thousand times on classic rock radio stations. To some hearing this song is just a nostalgic listen of a classic rock tune, and to others it brings back a whole lot of hot rod memoires! For those who fall in the latter of bring back memoires, you know what I am talking about. The old days of spending a week putting a 409 Chevy Big Block into your hot rod or gasser then going out cruising during the  weeknights, while picking up girls and street racing, then blowing up your 409 at the drag strip on the weekend. Even though the memories are mostly good memories with the 409, you may also have some bad memories and some times of frustration with the mill. Enough of a trip down memory lane lets get right to the point!

Some of you hot rodders may have noticed in the last 3 to 5 years the 409 has made a bit of a comeback. It’s becoming a commonly used mill for people that are in nostalgia drag racing, people building era correct hot rods and gassers and it’s even used as an engine for street rods again!

We learned that these engines have made a recent comeback but why did they fade in the first place?  One reason for this is Gm stopped producing the 409 in 1965 and started producing the 396 (a different song entirely, we aren’t their yet so you can still talk about your HEMIs and GTOs). The other big reason was the number of maintenance problems with the 409, which a lot of you older guys will remember such as engines constantly blowing up at the dragstrips or on the strip.

The main reasons behind the frequent blow ups was power quality connecting rods couldn’t hand the power a lot of hot rodders were trying to make so they would break most of the time. Another problem was the unusual layout of the combustion chambers, the combustion chambers where located at the top of the cylinder bores instead of in the cylinder heads, which lead the deck of the engine to be only 74 degrees and lead to wedge shaped combustion chambers.

Because of this wedge shaped combustion chambers, heaver pistons were needed. These heaver pistons caused another problem because they were heaver on one side so they rock around in the bore and when hot rodders tired to go faster the weak connecting rods (as mentioned earlier) couldn’t handle the power so they would blow.

Despite this problems and issues hot rodders still had a lot of fun with their 409s and of course the Beach Boys did too and today, guys can have fun with the 409 motors again using newer modern parts! Everything from 4-Bolt main conversion kits, to new pistons, new cam, aluminum heads and one new part that will make all you 409 fans really happy new connecting rods! Hot Rod magazine built a 421 stroker to have 466 horsepower!

Now if some of you guys are having trouble looking for a 409 motor to use, look in old Chevy Heavy Duty trucks from 1962 to 1966. Most of them came with a 409 that produced 252 Horsepower and 390lbs of Torque. Another place to look for the 409s is, instead of looking in the Coupes from the early 60s look in the passenger cars and the sedans. In junkyards these cars are more likely to be left alone and more likely to have an untouched 409!

Indian Larry's Famous Daddy O

Yesterday I did an article about Jesse Jame's Sturgis Special which was one of the 2 bikes that got me into choppers. The other bike I that got me into Choppers is the late great Indian Larry's Daddy O! Like many I first saw this Bike on Biker Build Off and I fell in love it at first sight.
Overall I think Indian Larry's Daddy O is the best chopper I have ever seen! Its a bike built to perfection. I like how it has the appearance of a hot rod, which The bike was built as a tribute to Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. All the small details on the bike are amazing, their is so much detail on Daddy O that I notice something different everytime I look at.
One of the reasons for this is Larry loved detail and liked to do most of the work himself and make his own parts. He made just about every part from the frame, to the fender, to the gas tank to even spoking his own wheels!  He actually said this while building this bike “Y'know I like a bike to look like a hunting watch, when you open up the back you look in there and its all mechanical and gizmos going on and movement going on, you see a lot of little parts in there. Its more of an art than a science building a spoked wheel. To me it says just elegance. ”
The Frame of Daddy O (and all of Larry's choppers) had to be made perfectly. By Perfectly I mean, when it comes to the geometry of the frame it had to be exactly right so Larry could stand up and balance while cruising.
One of the best features of Daddy O is, the rear Fender. The Fender is actually made out of a Boat Carrier fender! Larry and his crew took a boat carrier fender, cut in half, at a small piece of sheet metal, cut more of it and rear shaped it into the rear fender!
The other main detail you will notice is the mustang gas tank made by Paco. This gas tank's shape fits the 60s stripped down shape of the bike Indian Larry was going for.
Of course the other big Detail of Daddy O is its wild Paint job! Ed “Big Daddy” Roth was a crazy artist who pretty much invented air brushing and also invented a lot of crazy characters like Rat Fink who was created because Big Daddy hated Mickey Mouse.
The Paint Job is done by Robert Pradke of Custom Auto Design. Robert wanted to make it look as 60s as possible so the base coat of the paint is Gold Metal Flake. Metal Flake paint was very popular among hot rods in the 60s, so it fits the theme. The Paint also includes the Gasoline Alley Logo and Indian Larry's name done in gold and silver leaf on the rear fender and true to Ed Roth's style his Character Rat Fink was airbrushed onto the gas tank.
Even though I have said it several times before, I will say it again Indian Larry's Daddy O is the best Chopper ever made! I don't think any chopper come close to the hard work, craftsmanship, attention to detail and art that was put into this bike. It really is a one of a kind motorcycle and I don't think that we will ever see another like it.
Tech Sheet
Year Built: 2003
Builders: Indian Larry, Gasoline Alley Crew (now Indian Larry Motorcycles)
Engine: 88 ci Pandemonium Motor
Frame: Indian Larry Wishbone Rigid
Front End: Indian Larry Twisted Springer
Wheels: Hand Spoked Wheels
Paint: Gold Metal Flake by Robert Pradke of Custom Auto Design