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Post by oldchopperguy on Aug 14, 2018 0:33:50 GMT -5
Any of you boyz n' gurlz old enough to remember the late fifties' detective show "77 Sunset Strip"?
Pretty lame by today's TV standards, but when Ed "Kookie" Burns got hold of Norm Grabowski's "Lightnin' Bug" it became the main draw of the show... "The Kookie Car" as it became known as was the car that started the whole T-Bucket craze. YES! A guy could actually build a super-cool street-rod from something OTHER than a Deuce or Model A... 
This rod was ICONIC! The best use of a 331" Caddy mill since the gold-trimmed Eldorados! Even had only SIX exhaust ports, just like a flathead Ford! This car truly was as close to a chopper as one could get on four wheels...
This thing was SO irresistible that "TV Tommy Ivo" actually snuck into Norm's garage to study and take measurements to build his own T-bucket after Norm refused to let him copy it! They did become friends later in their acting careers on TV and in the movies.
Anyway... THOSE were the DAYS...  The car eventually ended up in the collection of Jim Street, in a truly hideous Vegas reincarnation with dual rear wheels, and dual blowers, weird headlights and pipes... Norm would turn over in his grave!
Hopefully someone will eventually return it to it's former Kookie-days simple elegance...Machines like this, on four wheels or two are the things my boyhood dreams were made of. Would I go back to the days of no cell-phones, no computers, real employees and vacations while leaving the house unlocked?
In a heartbeat!  Cant' go back to the fifties, but the thought is mighty sweet!
Ride safe little feather-merchants...Leo in Texas
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Post by wheelbender6 on Aug 14, 2018 11:38:25 GMT -5
I only lived a couple of months back in the 50s. I sure would like to go back for a night and cruise in a 1957 Bellair.
I remember hearing the song, 77 Sunset Strip on the television but I was too young to really watch it.
Ironically, I binge-watched a bunch of 77 Sunset Strip episodes one weekend back in the spring. I think it was aired on Decades network.
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Post by oldchopperguy on Aug 14, 2018 23:50:25 GMT -5
I only lived a couple of months back in the 50s. I sure would like to go back for a night and cruise in a 1957 Bellair. I remember hearing the song, 77 Sunset Strip on the television but I was too young to really watch it. Ironically, I binge-watched a bunch of 77 Sunset Strip episodes one weekend back in the spring. I think it was aired on Decades network.
You missed the greatest days since the roaring twenties... ANY guy or gal could get ANY job and live "OK" and a little extra education could make you downright wealthy... The lost American dream.Some of my favorite memories center on a pal in eighth grade (1959). He and I were 12 and his big brother had a 1953 Corvette... Yeah, the great first-generation with the "Blue Flame Six" and floorshift Hydra-matic tranny. When he'd bring a gal home and "get lucky" wink, wink... He'd get rid of us pesky kids by tossing us the keys to the 'Vette, and a buck for gas. He KNEW that would give him at least 3 kid-free hours alone... Oh, YYYEEEESSSSS!
We'd cruise McDonald's and "big boy hangouts" top-down in style, much to the drooling envy of our grade-school buddies... and more than a few teens and adults... HeHeHe... Ya' can't get much happier than a "tweenie" kid and his pal cruisin' in a 'Vette!The local cops all knew us and that we were WAY too young to have licenses, but always gave us a pass since we didn't drive crazy. Some would wave and yell "Ya' better get Skip's 'Vette back in one piece..." We always did... Yup! We knew better than to "kill the goose that laid the golden eggs..."Yeah, those were good days, never to be again.An interesting side-note to the "Kookie car" is that Norm Grabowski initially made a major boo-boo in the steering setup. Either he mounted the steering box upside down, or the pitman arm, or some such goof... So... When the steering wheel was turned left, the car turned right, and vice/versa... He actually got used to driving it that way, but had to correct the little design flaw when other actors began driving it and having numerous "incidents" in TV and movie filming! I once drove a rental Chevy in England... Wrong side of the road, steering wheel on the wrong side, etc. Must have been a little like that! Only WORSE!Yeah, THOSE were the DAYS! |
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Post by wheelbender6 on Aug 16, 2018 18:04:50 GMT -5
"You missed the greatest days since the roaring twenties..."
I wouldn't mind spending a day in the 1920s either. I have been watching Miss Fisher's Mysteries on PBS.
It is set in the 1920s. I'd love to taker her Hispano Suiza for a spin.
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Post by oldchopperguy on Aug 17, 2018 23:13:14 GMT -5
"You missed the greatest days since the roaring twenties..."I wouldn't mind spending a day in the 1920s either. I have been watching Miss Fisher's Mysteries on PBS. It is set in the 1920s. I'd love to taker her Hispano Suiza for a spin.
Yeah, the twenties WERE cool... Again, party-on, great music, neat cars, plenty of work, good pay, all was good until 1929... AND... You could buy General Thompson's marvelous "Trench-Broom" at your local hardware store. The venerable "Thompson Anti-Bandit Sub-machinegun" had to be THE adult toy of the century. 50 and 100 round drums of .45ACP ammo at 800 rounds per minute! Unfortunately, it worked just as well for the bad guys as it did for ranchers, businesses, police and military.  Oh well... Such is life!  |
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Post by w650 on Aug 21, 2018 19:59:16 GMT -5
Sorry, not that great. Two stories. My son's Father in law has a 68 Camaro. I asked him how it was running. "It broke down last week." A capacitor quit and the ignition disappeared. A Capacitor!! A crappy fifty cent part that gave out by the boatloads in the points/capacitor ignition days.
Second. My first Father in Law had a 1957 Chevy Belair. Now everyone goes ga ga over the polished, chromed, restored beauties of that era. Ever drive an average of the day version. A center of gravity about three feet off the ground. Drum brakes on a very heavy car. And handling that's nonexistent on those fifties technology shocks. Plus the bonus of-what-10 to 15 mpg...on the economy straight six.
Nope. I have a 2005 Dodge Caravan. Cruise, ABS real brakes and 22 mpg. No points, real reliability at 172,000 miles which no stock 50s car ever reached without a rebuild Or three.
I won't even bring up my 45 mpg Scion iA. It's a fraction of the cost of a 1957 Chevy in 2018 dollars and rides and accelerates faster than a stock 57 Belair. Nope. I'm happy right here where I don't have to go to the drug store with a bag full of tubes from my black and white TV to get it going again for another week.
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Post by wheelbender6 on Aug 21, 2018 20:12:21 GMT -5
Remember when you had to "grease the chassis" every oil change? That was fun.
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Post by wheelbender6 on Aug 22, 2018 15:50:09 GMT -5
I have read that if the commies drop an electro magnetic pulse bomb on us, electronic ignition engines will not run, but older engines with points and condensers will still run.
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