Horton Hot Rod History #2

“Who the heck are the Hortons?” you might well ask?  The Horton family has been in the street rodding hobby/industry for over 30 years, first with a company in Canada called Horton Street Rod Parts, which he started in 1978.  Since Paul Horton sold the retail end of that business in 2005 (to his very first customer!), he has been working full time with his wife Dorothy and son DW at his new business, Welder Series Inc.  If you’re interested in high quality hot rod chassis parts, check out www.welderseries.com.

Captioned by Dorothy Horton:

All our honeymoon pictures are like this!

If there was only a quality street rod shop in Canada… shouldn’t have to grind these welds. (That’s Dorothy with the grinder)

Finally! Our track ’23 T built in Montreal – 1975

Driven to Louisville KY & many runs in S. Ontario from Montreal, 1975/76

Montreal to Louisville… camping, no top, Dorothy pregnant, Paul got pneumonia.

Check back for more updates to the Horton’s Hot Rod History.

“Internet Barn Finds” #2: ’33 Willys Gasser Tribute

“The Gasser Tribute Car was built as a tribute to all the drivers, owners and fans that loved these kinds of cars. It is probably one of the last A Gas Supercharged Olds powered Willys coupes left in the country.” Del Wiesner

The Dean Seevers, Del Wiesner and Harold Owens ’33 Willy’s Olds-powered A-Gas Supercharged Gasser original reigned from Loveland, Colorado and ran at dragstrips across the country from 1962-1966. These 3 Loveland High School grads and car nuts started the first car club in town, the “Loveland Zephyrs” and soon after began racing the Willys.

One highlight for the 3 friends was holding the American Hot Rod Association National Record in 1964 with a 10.00 seconds at 146.86 mph run. The crew raced some of the top names of the day and were very competitive. Del says after working 40 years with his businesses, he never forgot the impact that car had on him. “Once you get that in your blood, it’s hard to let it go. It was the most exciting time of my life, so I decided to rebuild a part of history.”

Do yourself a favor and check out this Gasser Car Tribute website. I struggled to figure out what pictures to share here. You just need to spend 10 minutes on the site and soak in the history Del shares, along with some 40+ year old pictures of the original Willy’s in action.

You can see from this example that the Nostaligia Gassers had a huge impact on both drag racing and the people who built and raced them. A car like this ’33 Willy’s Gasser is the definition of MyRideisMe.

I love these last two pictures of the crew and a couple close friends who acted as pitcrew. Oh, the good old days! I had to post them up. Car nuts enjoying a friendship that originated from a love of the automobile and racing.

Come and share your “Internet Barn Finds” in the forum. Post up those cool Nostalgia Gassers for all to see. Until next time, happy internet hunting…

Hechtspeed

Singlefinger Speed Shop to Invade 2009 Detroit Autorama

After a lot of hard work, plus multiple trips to Lowes, Home Depot, the old backyard shed, the shop rafters, & even some garbage picking, the Autorama display is finally done! It looks so freakin’ awesome! Many thanks to everybody that helped make this come together.

I thought everybody might like to get a sneak-peek of our new display, because once we added the proper details, the lettering, & got the lights working, it really came to life. (www.SinglefingerSpeedShop.com) It’s so realistic that Wayne wanted to know where we found the old panels, even as he was touching them! (killer work Todd & Tom!) The attached photo was taken just before we broke it back down & put in a trailer until showtime next week.

I don’t know how our pal Martyn avoided getting captured on “film”, but I’ve posted a few pics of everybody helping out along the way: 2009 Autorama Display

We’re excited about introducing folks to our new website at this year’s show. My cousin Louie has planned an Autorama Show Special for our new black Monster T-shirts & Singlefinger ball caps.

The Singlefinger Car Club will have 4 cars on display this year, each car highlights a different facet of the traditional hot rod scene.

Singlefinger Speed Shop’s 2009 Detroit Autorama Event Schedule:

3pm Fri, Sat, Sun – H.A.M.B. “Meet & Greet”.
6-10pm Sat – John Harrow (pinstriper/ artist) and model Jessica Danley will host a body art exhibit.
John will be adding his licks to any purchase of Singlefinger merchandise.
4pm Sun – Meet Kara G, Sunday’s lovely spokes model.

We will be working with Pike to keep all of you guys & gals informed on what goes on at this year’s show. We’ll send back pics of the cars, the people, & most importantly, the Ridler winner!

Can’t wait to see ya at the show!

www.SinglefingerSpeedShop.com

Datsun/Nissan Z Show and Cars & Coffee…Gettin’ Car Sick in Cali!

On the weekend of April 25-27 my family and I headed out to Orange, CA for the 2008 Motorsport Datsun/Nissan Z Show. We met up with a few members of the Desert Z association and made a caravan to Cali. Ryan and I led the way in his 1981 silver and black 280 turbo ZX, followed closely by my dad and mom in his rally orange 1976 280 Z (great year by the way!) . After checking in at the hotel we headed to the “meet and greet” in front of the Motorsport shop. While we were there Christa aka “Z Chick”, told us about a local car show held on the grounds of Ford Headquarters in LA, called “Cars and Coffee” and encouraged us to check it out. She boasted that there would be cars in attendance that we may never have even seen or heard of before and may never again in our lifetimes. She rattled off a list of celebrities and auto industry idols who had made past appearances with their vehicles, and insisted that in spite of the early hour (it starts at 6am!) it would be well worth it. I grumbled as I set the alarm and hoped, for everyone’s sake, that it would in fact deliver all she had promised.

It’s the crack of dawn Saturday morning and I’m already impressed. As we pull into the parking lot, I spot a bright white Countach with all of it’s “wings” spread open and looking like its about to take off. A few spaces down I see a bright orange Daytona, followed by a Pinzgauer, a vintage Mini, and a crazy sandrail-type monster. In the next row I spot a wicked cool Swiss postal truck, a Packard Phantom, a sweet lifted Glamis Caddy, an old Woodie, and a vintage Ferrari. There are no reserved spots and cars are coming and going constantly, which keeps the pace interesting and exciting. Everyone at the event seems very friendly and willing to strike up a conversation. As we park our own cars, we are informed that the Ford buildings cafeteria is open and serves breakfast, so we head over and I get a coffee and a killer breakfast burrito (made fresh) for under $5. Sweet.

As we sip our coffee and begin to walk around the parking lot, I spy Barry Maguire from Speed TVs “Car Crazy” pulling in with his custom black pickup. Also in attendance at the show are a few models from Audi, Hyundai, Ford, Dodge and BMW that haven’t even been released to the public yet. In fact, I asked the rep to lift the hood on the Hyundai and he says he isn’t allowed because it’s not finished yet. Then, in almost synchronized motion, the entire crowd stops and stares at a pair of Vectors pulling into the lot. As the cars settle in and the crowd pushes forward, Gerald Wiegert the original designer and creator of the Vector, steps out of the drivers seat. At about 9am it seems most of the car owners are packing up, so I park myself on the curb by the exit and watch as the cars leave the parking lot. All I can say is wow and definitely worth it, so if you’re ever in the LA area between 6 and 9am on a Saturday morning, you’ve gotta check it out!

My California Car show weekend finished up on Sunday with the Z show in Orange. One side of the grounds was dedicated to the older 240/260/280 models while the other side sported the 300/350 series Zs. Nissan showcased a 2008/2009 Z, Maxima, and GT model for preview. There were a variety of vendors selling their wares, music in the background, and decent food available as people put out blankets and camping chairs and enjoyed the sunshine and scenery. Though I wouldn’t consider myself a HUGE fan of these cars, I was impressed by the turn out and could definitely appreciate some of the work and creativity that went into these Zs. Have a look!

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1953 Kustom Kaiser Manhattan- Builder Update

Somehow, I found another Kustom Kaiser!

When I found Keith’s Kaiser (Click here to see his Garage) I instantly thought, this is one of a kind! Well, it turns out it’s not. Keith and Ron (Click here to see Ron’s Hot Rod’s Garage) have taken different approaches to customizing their Kaisers, but both will be equally cool because of the clean and near-custom finishes on the stock Kaiser.

Ron’s writing a blog for Blogger.com (Click here) that I stumbled on recently. He’s let me run this blog to see what he’s up to for the interior. I’m checking it out just in case I get to work on my Rambler Amercian wagon project again some day! Check it out:
The priming of the miscellaneous parts for the Kaiser went well as the weather was nice and I was able to paint outside. I used PPG self etching epoxy primer DPLF
and prepared the bare metal with “metal Prep” a 50/50 mixture with water then wiped the area down with a 50/50 mixture of PPG Dx330 wax and grease remover and lacquer thinner cleaning a 2′ x2′ area at a time as recommended, so as not to let the metal prep dry. I had 2 quarts of paint that make 1 gal. using the epoxy part 2 additive, and ran out of paint before I could get to the inside of the body, that turned out to be a good thing because I had to complete the center console, weld in studs to fasten the A/C system, electrical panels, emergency brake and hood latch.

The 66 T-Bird console is 9″ too short for the Kaiser interior so an extension piece was hand formed and welded to the back of the console to extend it to the back seat. Filler plates were cut, fit and welded into place in the top front of the console where the T-Bird seat, window, A/C controls & door locks used to be so I would have a clean new surface to mount the new shifter and controls. The bottom front of the console had to be reformed and new pieces welded in to make it wider to fit the transmission tunnel as it was moved forward from stock T-Bird position to fit in under the Kaiser dash. The first attempt to make the riser from the console to the dash failed as I did not like the dash panel that I built to take the place of the radio, but I did like the lower panel with hand formed caps at the bottom where the T-Bird chrome trim pieces ended. So I cut the top panel off and reformed the riser to bolt onto the bottom of the radio cover plate. The lower trim pieces that ran the length of the console where the carpet meets the bottom of the console had to be reformed and made longer to match the new location.
We had originally planned a GPS/CD Player/Am-Fm radio unit to go into the riser panel but after researching the size and cost and giving consideration on how much we would use it we decided to go with a good stereo AM-FM radio system. Custom Auto sound built the radio and a 2 channel front speaker that fits the original Kaiser location and radio cover purchased thru their dealer Soundmove.com (800) 901-0222
The loqwer panel will now have the A/C vent outlets, A/C controls panel, Air Ride Control panel and window switchs in it with the new B & M Hammer shifter going in the flat part of the console.

Vintage Air provided a mockup A/C unit, at $50.00 that is refundable with the purchase of the permanent unit. I tried to fit the GEN II Super under the dash but there is not enough room so we will have to use the mini unit.
Studs were welded to the inside of the firewall for an electric panel mounting plate and new brackets were fabricated and installed for the relocated E-brake handle and hood latch. While I am waiting for the smaller A/C mock up unit and shifter to arriver I will install the new stainless steel brake and fuel plumbing lines on the from that was purchased from Summit Racing.

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