fluidfloyd
Active Member
I want to give you some information on this roadster and what I want to do in the future. First off I have to tell you that I did not build the car. I was 19 years old and in the Army stationed in Huntsville, Alabama in 1965. I had always like cars and especially hot rods. I spotted the car for sale in my home town of Jackson, Tennessee and bought it less engine and transmission. It was built by Sonny Loomis a man that worked on the Illinois Central Railroad. The car originally had a Chevy 348 with a hydromatic transmission. I replaced it with a 265 small block and 3 speed manual transmission. This was a very narrow cars as you can see so petal room was a real issue. I put a hand brake on the left side and the foot petal became the clutch petal. The frame was not tapered front to rear making the body sides straight. The body was light gage metal gas welded to a tubular skeleton. The rear suspension was a quarter elliptical spring and upper tube. The front end was a traditional I beam with Ford radius roads and no front shocks. There are stories about that feature to tell. This was a very light weight car and had plenty of power to weight performance.
My plan is to duplicate the car to some extent. I have thought about going to a 3 link rear suspension and possibly a R&P front steering but nothing is set in concrete at this time. While driving the car on and off post in Alabama I got to be well known by the MPs. I never had a problem till one day they stopped me and told me to report to the Provost Marshall immediately. Not tomorrow, not later but now. I figured I was done. As you might be able to see, the car had zero mufflers. Just ram head exhaust and a straight tube down. I clipped the ignition and rolled into the MP parking area. The Sargent Major came out and said the base commander's wife was curious about the car as she was a sports car fan. He looked things over and noticed there were no floors. I said it was a work in progress. Then he notice there was no windshield wiper. I said thats was because there was no glass. He looked again and grinned and said OK, you can go. Then he said spin the tires when you leave. There went my sneak out quitely plan. So I went ahead and lit 'um up. Never had a problem again. Not having front shocks became a thrill at times. Running the back highways of NW Alabama and SE Tennessee you didn't always get the smoothest of roads. Sometimes it would get to bouncing so bad I thought it was going to twist the front end completely off. I also began to learn and understand bump steer. This car had to have a lot but I was too young and stupid to really care at that time. The best thing about that car was it planted the seed for me to learn to build things. Although it was another 6-7 years before I turned my efforts to building cars I never lost the desire to think and design future projects. This is really just a short story of that car but I truly loved it. When I went to Vietnam in 1967 I sold it to a friend and gave my '56 Chevy to my brother. There in Vietnam I got ultimate hot rods and maybe I'll tell you about those sometime. The pictures I have posted are all that I have. While in Vietnam I began a life long policy of having a camera with me everyday and it is a practice that I still carry on. The one picture of the fellow with all the black hair was a friend of mine as I never looked that good. I do hope you enjoy looking at the car. If you have any questions then please ask I've been able to remember most all of the construction and have begun sketching it down.
My plan is to duplicate the car to some extent. I have thought about going to a 3 link rear suspension and possibly a R&P front steering but nothing is set in concrete at this time. While driving the car on and off post in Alabama I got to be well known by the MPs. I never had a problem till one day they stopped me and told me to report to the Provost Marshall immediately. Not tomorrow, not later but now. I figured I was done. As you might be able to see, the car had zero mufflers. Just ram head exhaust and a straight tube down. I clipped the ignition and rolled into the MP parking area. The Sargent Major came out and said the base commander's wife was curious about the car as she was a sports car fan. He looked things over and noticed there were no floors. I said it was a work in progress. Then he notice there was no windshield wiper. I said thats was because there was no glass. He looked again and grinned and said OK, you can go. Then he said spin the tires when you leave. There went my sneak out quitely plan. So I went ahead and lit 'um up. Never had a problem again. Not having front shocks became a thrill at times. Running the back highways of NW Alabama and SE Tennessee you didn't always get the smoothest of roads. Sometimes it would get to bouncing so bad I thought it was going to twist the front end completely off. I also began to learn and understand bump steer. This car had to have a lot but I was too young and stupid to really care at that time. The best thing about that car was it planted the seed for me to learn to build things. Although it was another 6-7 years before I turned my efforts to building cars I never lost the desire to think and design future projects. This is really just a short story of that car but I truly loved it. When I went to Vietnam in 1967 I sold it to a friend and gave my '56 Chevy to my brother. There in Vietnam I got ultimate hot rods and maybe I'll tell you about those sometime. The pictures I have posted are all that I have. While in Vietnam I began a life long policy of having a camera with me everyday and it is a practice that I still carry on. The one picture of the fellow with all the black hair was a friend of mine as I never looked that good. I do hope you enjoy looking at the car. If you have any questions then please ask I've been able to remember most all of the construction and have begun sketching it down.
