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Old 09-21-2012, 12:44 AM   #1
OldDad
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Pasadena, CA
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Default 60 Year Old Flathead Hot Rodding Letter

Was going through a box of old papers this morning, and ran across this letter from my father (OldDad) to my uncle Dick that was written in 1952. In it, he refers to the new "hard-tops" that had just started running, and building an engine to compete with at the track. Dick lived up in Eureka, CA in those days; not a particular hot bed of hot rodding at that time!

The old man was a machinist, first at Blair's Speed Shop, and later at Tim's Precision Engines in Pasadena. These were a couple of leading-edge shops here on the west coast back in the late '40's and early '50's. At Tim's, they built the original 265 (bored to 283) Chevy engine for Duffy Livingstone's Eliminator, among other things.

Anyway, if anyone is familiar with the circle track racing of those days, and can shed some light on just what these "hard-tops" were, I'd certainly like to know more about it, as I wasn't born until eight years later! Also, he refers to fixing a blown-off bell housing for $35.00, and if that were possible, I have one hell of a block from those days I'd love to fix! I'd even pay $40.00! I'll post that in a separate thread. Hope you find this stuff as interesting as I did:



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