NERVOUS SURGEONS

 

DESERT DELIGHT

 

At the conclusion of part 2 in the last issue of the Gasser, we were still inside the yard of Rods West, feasting our eyes on various items of Rod and Gasser hardware, and I ended the article with it about to get a whole lot better!

 

 

 

 

As we continued to discover the delights that the yard held, we were joined by Don’s wife Linda, who had been tipped off by neighbours that a mini bus of tourists had decamped into their premises. After exchanging handshakes and greetings, Linda almost burst our bubble, when she said “you guys be careful of the rattlers, there are quite a few in the yard”!

These words stopped us in our tracks, for almost a full 20 seconds, then we carried on with a voyage of discovery, with the addition of an informative guide, namely Linda.

She asked if we had been into the workshops, we had not, as this did seem taking the invite from Don a step too far. Linda however had different ideas and began to open up these units.

 

It was during this that Merv and I became very inquisitive as to what car lay underneath a tarpaulin, within a single garage, which had a heavy steel workbench barring the way.

We asked if we could move the bench and have a look, Linda said it was ok, so we did and to our surprise and delight as we partially removed the cover an all steel 38 Willys coupe appeared.

 

 

 

 Its enough to bring a smile to any Rodders face

 

 

The Willys was totally original and in our opinion crying out to be Rodded or Raced, Linda possibly recognised the look in our faces and was quick to point out it wasn’t for sale and that it was owned by the local judge. They were now storing the car for him, following its recovery from car thieves.

Apparently the Judge still used it and would park it on his driveway, but thieves stole it one night, but the local police had recovered it and he was now wary hence its new residence.

Ironically the judge had over seen their trial and they were both now serving life, without parole!!  (not)

 

I mentioned to Linda that we were so pleased to see a Willys as we had been told that Don no longer had any Willys items in his yard, she went onto confirm that in fact apart from this Willys it was virtually true. Don had been approached by a Californian business man (who was a multi millionaire) wanting to buy all of Don’s Willys items. Don agreed and it had taken 6 huge container trucks to collect all of the bodies, chassis, trim, panels and every other Willys part Don had.

The container trucks had then delivered their contents to the millionaires purpose built factory, where he had employed a team of car builders/Rodders/racers who were now going to build all of the parts into the largest collection of Willys known to man. Don later informed me that the millionaire had been very busy buying up any Willys parts he could find for a number of months and this had in fact helped drive the prices even higher. Surely there must be some coverage on this guy in an American mag soon?

 

Unfortunately to soon we had the cover back on the old Willys and the tour continued, this time Linda opening up a large garage complex which apart from containing some intriguing Gasser memorabilia also contained a customers car, a part built 34 Ford Coup, as Don not only deals in vintage wheels but also constructs Rods for a living.

 

 

Part way through its build the 34 featured spindle mount wheels, I-beam axle, supercharged engine and possibly to make some of the guys feel at home, Bristol Street Rod, signature headlights.

 

We soon crossed over to another 5 – 6 car workshop, which housed a 32 roadster and a Fordson again both of them being customer’s cars.

 

 

 

 

 

By now my head was spinning with so much to take in, even the walls were populated with all manner of interesting and desirable objects, the most prominent of these being an original sign rescued from the famous Lions Drag Strip on the day that its roar was forever silenced.

 

 

 Now that's a sign I want on my wall - its original too

 

 

 

I also recognised 2 images of a black Willys, these were attached to the wall just below a large Rods West sign, and they were unmistakably of Ian Dawes, Fat Rat, possibly taken during the photo shoot for its appearance in Custom Car, many years ago.

 

 

 Vinatge Racing Wheels - Vintage Sign

 

 Neat Row of Austin Bonnets/Hoods

 

I left the workshop to wonder around the yard again, and it was almost surreal as I kept bumping into the rest of the guys and they all seemed to be wearing the same expression, of bewilderment and overwhelming delight. Possibly concluding the 3 hour detour an awesome success.

I found I kept returning to one corner of the yard and this is where all of the Austin goodies were clustered, with panels, doors and the most fascinating items of all the 2 Dorset bodies.

 

 

Drag Refugee from the 60's

 

 

 Pop Part anyone?

 

 

Another Dorset with radiused arches.

 

 

However, all too soon the light was fading and we still had a long haul ahead of us to make it to Bakersfield, so one more quick tour of the yard, one more look at the almost unbelievable amount of Racing mags and a few more photos and we said our farewell to Linda and Rods West amazing yard.

 

 

 

 

 Pumps and Wheels loads of them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly enough we hadn’t even left the outskirts of the town, before we were all recounting, the moment of horror when the small matter of venomous snakes had arisen. So it was that the general discussion turned to who would have been prepared to suck the venom out of their fellow rodder if a snake had bitten them, there were several of us who were quick to say we would but we were also just as quick to clarify, that was as long as the bite wound was above the navel or below the buttocks!

 

With Merv or Paul at the wheel we kept a steady pace up and shortly before 9pm we rolled into Bakersfield and checked into the Hotel I had pre booked for us all, the Holiday Inn.

We all decided to dump our bags in our rooms, but not before some strategic manoeuvring was undertaken at the check in desk, when the others realised that I had booked rooms with 2 king size double beds in each, I had assumed that everyone would be prepared to share a bed as we had 3 to a room, wrong! With the hotels supply of fold out beds now unfolded in the rooms occupied by the manly Brits, we headed out into the Bakersfield night life, which as it was a week night had decided to turn in early. We did however witness a Model A pick, running a four banger, pull up at the lights, it soon disappeared into the night, but it had given us all a smidgen of a taste of what was to come over the following days. We soon called it a night, it was then that our attention was drawn to the rear of the Hotel, something that had not been important before, but as we tried to settle down the noise from the train yard was at times deafening, but this was soon to be eclipsed as it seemed the fog rolled into town and along our corridor the fog horns began, as the sleep induced nasal rattling wailed through the night.

 

With the early morning sunlight streaking across the Hotel car park, we piled into the Battle Wagon and were soon Famosa Raceway bound, and this is where part 3 ends, but this is not the end of our trip.

Check out the next Gasser for part 4 which will be a nitro fuelled , Rod ‘Bustin’, drag racing, nostalgic, swap meetin riot of fun and thrills.

 

Nervous Nick