Ice Job
Great story and photos on the resurrection of Dan Wood's Ice Truck. I thought your readers would like to see how close Dave Shuten and painter Fritz Schenck came to the original incarnation by Dan. Here's a photo from the 1971 Oakland Roadster Show.
When Dave got the photo he told me that all he had to go by on the color was some blue overspray in an unseen area of the body, since neither he nor Dan had any color shots of the original version. I think Dave and Fritz hit the nail right on the head!
Jim Handy
Grand National Roadster Show Historian
Never Before Seen
Tim Bernsau's "The Guys Who Invented Hot Rods" article is GREAT! I've read a million retrospective articles about early lakes racing during the last 50-plus years, but this one is made up entirely of pictures I've never seen before-a lot of them! Outstanding job! I also really enjoyed Pat Ganahl's article about the three Chevys. I remember the two project cars he did when he was editor, and followed both projects avidly. I think his combination of mild restyling, upgraded mechanicals, and excellent attention to detail influenced the stuff I've done on my own projects. It was fun to see all three cars brought together and compared. For my money, you can't print too much Ganahl. His stuff is terrific.
Tony Miller
Via E-mail
Great Start
I wonder how many long-time car lovers who are first-time builders like me are out there plodding through their first project. I wanted to give an abundant thanks to R&C and y'alls commitment to the how-to articles. Please keep them coming.
I'm a carpenter/homebuilder and all my prior experience has helped me with is how to accurately measure, confidence around electric and pneumatic tools, and the ability to look things up. I rebuilt a 250ci straight-six in my '69 Chevy pickup back in the day, did a couple brake jobs, and replaced a couple carriage bearings, etc. but I'm no mechanic.
My 15-year-old son, Billy, is the project inspiration. I'd find him at age 11 watching the auctions on ESPN2 saying "Dad, this is so cool, look at that car!" So, we started going to some events and one day he says we gotta do this. I left several coffee table books lying around with cars from the '50s and '60s and was certain that he would choose a '60s muscle car. I was floored when he announced that he wanted to do an early '50s Chevy or Ford.
We found a barely-running '51 Styleline in Minnesota for $395 and shipped it to Charlotte, North Carolina, for $850. We've had to replace all the floor pans, rockers, lower rear quarter panels and lots of other rust. Our hindsight knowledge is infinitely better than our foresight. But that's what it's all about, right? The perfect father and son project, we're both learning as we go.
I'm trying to give you the feedback/snapshot of who we are, subscriber and rebuilder neophyte. We need R&C just the way it is. We appreciate your ongoing '49-52 Chevy project, and really enjoyed Pat Ganahl's article in the May issue.
Jimmy Hair
Via E-mail
If you've been enjoying it the last couple of years there's no reason that you shouldn't be enjoying what we have coming up. Kev is still working hard on the Chevy and we have lots more how-to articles geared towards the guys that don't know it all.
Not Cool with the Ice Truck
Come on, I just got my May 2009 issue. I'm disappointed! The Ice Truck! I think you guys are getting lazy, why don't you just reprint all your olds mags from the '60s, that way you wouldn't have to get out of your chairs.
Troy Hart
Via E-mail
That's not a half bad idea Troy. I've always heard that there are no new ideas and we could even cut some costs. The only problem would have been we wouldn't have been able to find the old issue that featured the completed Ice Truck because the completed truck was never featured. It was on the cover of the August 1970 issue as an illustration and inside as some build-up shots with the chassis. It was a long time coming but so far everyone else I've heard from was glad to finally see it finished.