red dot II update

The other day receive an email from the Red Dot II's new owner,
way overseas in the UK!

red dot II - UK era
1929 ford roadster with hallock windshield

Many hands and many changes after our time,
but it looks like definitely gone to greener pastures.



The roadster had changed hands and appearances manytimes after leaving us.

red dot II
1928 1929 ford roadster with hallock windshield

In it's brief heyday with us it took on this form.
A great driving hot rod that had the potential to blow out eardrums.

Red Dot II Roadster

When Jalopy Joe got his hands on it,
the transformation was quick and obvious.
Some things I liked,
he nickel plated some stuff,
and did his trademark burgundy upholstery...
and others not so much,
the wild use of bondo and blue + red paint,
and ditching all the hard to find gauges and moon tank...
As long as he was happy all I could do was bite my lip.

red dot II - jalopy joe era

Before he died the roadster was passed on to a guy in Arizona.
An acquaintance out there put some time refinishing some things,
and it turned into this.

red dot II - arizona style

What happened to the track nose and hood!
Fortunately he had kept it just in case.
Dig the louvered hood.
Also cool they kept some of the little things like pushbars and headlight stands.

red dot II - blue era

After Peter's email,
I searched around,
and found out that the Red Dot was for sale earlier in the year.

1929 Ford AV8 - THE H.A.M.B.



Cool video,
but hope he knew the roadster was way faster than that!

red dot II - doggy style

It does look good with a 32 grille shell.
The old tracknose pieces are getting shipped out too.

Anyway it was good to see and hear the old hot rod.
I'd love to do donuts in that lawn!

TP

plunkin' away

All Jake wanted for his birthday was wads of cash.
What's the fun in that though when you just turn 11.
Besides,
he'd probably get a couple bucks from friends and family anyway.

Perich Plunkin Target TM

No I didn't get him a beat up old can!

A quick trip down to the sporting good store,
and the perfect present was found.
A beretta 92fs airsoft gun!
We've already got a Daisy BB gun,
but these airsoft guns look a little more yard friendly.
And they are actually made to shoot at your friends!

Jakob shootin on the stoop

I screwed up and didn't take pictures of his friends poppin' shots at the can.
It was so hick and gangster.
Fortunately no injuries!
Now their parents know what to get them for christmas.

Jaxon, Macey & Jakob

It is rare when a present isn't destroyed or shelved from boredom after a couple days.
Over the weekend,
we found cheap bags of camouflage colored ammo at the swap meet.
Way better than having bright orange plastic littering the yard!
The kids (mainly Jake) plunked away.

holey chit

We had a clip by clip shooting competition.
Usually we would go 3-shots per round on the BB gun.
While hitting the can is easy,
hitting the target is tricky.
I feel confident we'd do OK in the zombie invasion.

The shoot'em up meandered to the cactus.
Kinda typical.
The airsoft is too weak to shoot at birds which is a good thing.
By the end of the weekend,
we figured out an even better plunking target,
dangling aluminum cans.
The sound is fun and a moving target is much more challenging.

firing range

Hey with armageddon coming on december 21st it's better to be ready!

TP

twisting the knife

RED DOT II
the last paso 2006
1929 ford roadster with hallock windshield

My buddy Danny dug out some old clips from his stash.

DynoDanny's Garage: The Red Dot II lost footage!

RED DOT II vs CHIEF
the last antique nats at LACR 2006

Chief and I smoked good ole Pigpen driving the Red Dot,
but I also broke out and he got to keep racing.

The pictures gave me a little lump in my throat,

but these videos really twisted the knife.

Man this was probably the sweetest driving and sounding flathead ever.
The headers were like cannons.
The neighbors must have loved me,
I'd rev this thing back and forth up main st. tuning it up.




Thanks Danny and Lucy!
You made me hit the bottle.

TP

the first 100 - unearthed hot rod video!

We are lucky to be able to study the roots of traditional hot rodding (and customs)
with the help of a couple key books -

Birth of Hot Rodding
Amazon.com: Birth of Hot Rodding (9780760313039): Robert Genat: Books

All the Don Montgomery books
Amazon.com: Don Montgomery: Books

Muroc - when the hot rods ran
Amazon.com: Hot Rods On Muroc Dry Lake 1938 (9780910390309): William Carroll: Books

I have spent countless hours pouring over the pics.
Looking at all the little innovations that make a real hot rod.

We are really lucky that someone actually was dragging a camera around back then.

harper dry lakes
ripped screenshot

However a hot rodder friend up in Santa Cruz, (Dave) recently found the mother lode.
His "uncle" Tommy Lorbeer brought up an actual 8mm video camera to shoot
at the Harper Dry Lakes in 1940!

brand new 1940 ford at speed
ripped screen shot

Thanks to Dave and his son Conner,
 they digitized it and posted it on youtube yesterday.

Prepare to be blown away!

Some amazing stuff going on in this video.
So rare to see these machines and people actually moving.

Rufi Streamliner
ripped screenshot

This section blows me away.
The video is shot moving alongsite the Bob Rufi Streamliner!
Incredible.

bob rufi streamliner
ripped screenshot

I love it!

wrecked 1940 ford coupe

I also really dig this car.
This was probably brand new or close to it,
and it's already wrecked, okay damaged.
I'll bet this ended up as one of the first chopped or customized 40 coupes.
(okay obviously there's a customized '39 in the video,
so let's say it's one of the first!)
To me this gives the reasoning behind some of the early customs,
especially the one's with later model grills and the like.
Just like wrecked vw bugs turned into Baja Bugs.

almost taildragger 1940 ford coupe
ripped screenshot

As you can see I've torn this video apart.
There are more "iconic" cars,
 but I'll usually gravitate towards the real hot rods.
So cool.

1928 or 1929 ford roadster
ripped screenshot

Okay the next car I build definitely a roadster...

3 guys in a ford roadster
ripped screenshot

This shot brings back memories of a fun time for me.
Me, Luke "pigpen" Brown and Holly drove up to San Jose for a show in 2 cars,
but only one car made it back.
(thanks Neal for storing the 40!)

The three of us piled in
and drove the 29 "red dot II" roadster - 100's of miles back home!
Good times.

########################################################

We're lucky Dave's hot rodding roots reach so deep.
Please check out his website,
quality stuff coming out of the Seabright shop.

Seabright Hot Rods

he and his associates deserve all the credit for the video!

TP

40 coupe - moonshine rig, 40's race car or workhorse?

My friend Matt and his family are movin up to the hills of Clairemont,
so I let him use the "maintenance department" van,
thinking it wouldn't be needed over the weekend.
Whoops!

1940 ford opera coupe - loaded

A boat job that I will talk about later is leaving to Panama on Monday,
so had to use the 40 as a work vehicle.
This is a pic loaded with a bunch of heavy stuff.

Here's it in action.

40 at work

Actually this is it in action

who needs a work truck

I can't imagine having a perfect paint and upholstered car or hot rod,
and not being able to use it in times of need, like this.

chief workin'
1929 roadster pickup

No ride of mine gets a free pass.

Even the Lincoln has had its share of work truck times.

1990 Lincoln Town Car in action

Definitely not the intended use when they designed this thing!

The other day we pulled my Dad's '53 chevy 150 out of the driveway

and up the street with the Lincoln.

(Its been sitting for a while - pics later)

With the 5.0/aod its basically a work truck with a tuxedo on.

fun on the freeway

Even real work trucks don't work sometimes!

Good times, Luke!

Back to the 40.

I'm sure you noticed the rearend is a tad high.

Here's a pic of it unloaded.

1940 ford opera coupe - unloaded

This is after the few hundred pounds of welding equipment etc.
were unloaded.

(no the first pick is loaded, it just didn't move much!)
A true workhorse.

I guess its the jacked up suspension.

yep.

The rear spring is a '40 sedan spring,

which has 11 leaves.

Along with the 750LT16 (light truck)  tires,

this is the stink bug stance.

It seems like the stinkbug stance evolved from the old moonshine rigs,

as there are many tales of 30's and 40's fords used for hauling.

My idea at the time was to have an authentic war-time race car.

Bill Yates 40
thanks Don Montgomery!

If you don't know the Don Montgomery red books, find them!

Something about this 40 is just plain bad ass.

Simple and effective.

Bill Yates 40 at speed

According to legend this was one of the quickest 40's of the time.

This picture was at El Mirage back in "the day"

like old times
before the rattlecan!

When we lived in Ventura,

El mirage was only an hour plus away.

Definitely miss that part now.

after the rattlecan!

This was a good day.

push car

It was so good that I made this video!

Since I'm reminiscing,

here's another 40 at work shot...

ouch
4 years ago already

I don't know how this post steamrolled into the evolution of our 40,
but that's what happens when I start typing.
My original intent was just to throw some quick pictures up!

winterized

Since it's getting warmer out here,
it was time for the hood to go.
For a while I didn't like the hood,
so I made a mini hoodlet a while back.

summertime

Now if I can just get rid of those whitewalls.

workhorse 40 

Whew!
Thanks for tuning in.

TP

Red Ram - dodge truck rocket launcher

I was reading internet news about Libya,
and had to rip off this picture.

Libyan Rebels

This picture is so surreal looking.
Six Libyan rebels, a dodge truck modified with a rocket launcher,
open expanse of desert, flying rocket.

In a way the photo looks photoshopped.
The rocket launcher is alot more subdued looking than the rest of the shot.
It probably is real though,
as there is a real looking dust cloud from the rocket.

Ok,
so wide open expanse of desert,
you can kinda see the horizon out there.
What the hell are these guys shooting at?
Isn't there supposed to be some kind of equation/training for aiming these things?
I can't tell who is in charge of the aim,
maybe the guy praying with the freakishly long fingers?

Also,
if you've read my "panga promised land" posts,
I'm also a big believer in camouflage.

Somehow these guys scored this truck/rocket launcher package,
and don't see that it is, well,
RED.

They are alone,
in a huge sea of tan sand and brown bushes,
in a RED dodge truck with a frigging rocket launcher.

target practice

If there's a tank over there that they are shooting at,
or even another bright red dodge rocket launcher truck,
good luck.

Thanks Altaf Qadri for taking this picture.

Crazy times.

TP

ancient history II - red dot II

If you ever want to see a grown man cry,
or at least get a little sad,
than buy me a beer, actually a couple beers and a bottle of good tequila,
and bring up good old "red dot II"

1928 roadster with custom hallock windshield

a 6 year collection, a 5 month build, 4 months of fun, 3 years of wtf was i thinking!

this video was from the last real paso show.
We - cough cough...towed...cough cough - the thing up there,
(hey it was a thrash to get it that far!)
and on the last night of the last day actually got it running, right before putting it on the trailer!

It was a fun weekend.
My brother Trevor hogged Chief (the RPU) the whole way up and back...
Luke lobbed a strangers human poo onto his than girlfriend, Holly...
We actually had a room at the posh hotel across the street with a pool...
Good times.

Red Dot II - 1928 ford roadster with hallock windshield

Anyway, if you have some time to kill here's the down low on the ho ho.
coupe pictures by perichbrothers - Photobucket
(But you might spoil the surprise of future AH posts...)

TP