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Real hot-rodding is alive and well...

Ace-Garageguy
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Ace-Garageguy

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46 minutes ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

Keeping it real... -RRR

Speakin' o' keeping it real...

I was building an LS-powered '47 Caddy convert and a 354 Chrysler Firepower-powered '33 Plymouth at Josh Mills' shop while HE was building this for James Hetfield. Doesn't get much more "real".

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Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Ace-Garageguy MCM Ohana

Ace-Garageguy

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1 hour ago, CaddyDaddy said:

Flathead, Nailhead, or Cadillac in that thing?

Flathead. The very rare Osiecki heads were cast in Atlanta sometime in the late '40s IIRC. Mills chose 'em because the car was built here in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta. Also, IIRC, no significant part of the car (except the repop tires) was made after 1949, including most of the hardware. And it has a 2-speed Columbia rear end...from a '40 Ford, again IIRC. Naturally the car is all vintage steel, and you really have to know real period rod stuff to fully appreciate all the subtle details Mills worked into the build.

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The gizmo at the rear of the head is the vacuum controller for the Columbia 2-speed rear end.

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Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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CaddyDaddy MCM Friend

CaddyDaddy

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THAT is just too sweet! I love the wire loom and the use of brass/copper.

Never saw those heads before. Reminds me of a couple of years back (well, more than a couple) when at a swap meet, I stumbled onto a pair of really clean complete Ardun’s for $6,000. Of course, I knew better and just walked away. Today, I could sell those same heads and put my kid through college!

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Ace-Garageguy MCM Ohana

Ace-Garageguy

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49 minutes ago, CaddyDaddy said:

THAT is just too sweet! I love the wire loom and the use of brass/copper.

Josh Mills was (he's still very much alive but got out of the car biz) a real wizard when it came to building period-perfect "real" hot rods and customs. I fell in love with the chopped '35 coupe he was building for himself when I first met him, when he was just finishing the chop and it was still in bare steel.

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Never a finer piece of metalwork anywhere, and that's when I decided I really wanted to work with him. I did mostly parts design and fabrication, electrical/electronics, and plumbing on later-style builds, while he and a two-man crew built the strictly traditional cars.

Working with Josh was one of the highlights of my life, and man, did I learn a lot.  

His '35 finished...also flathead powered, and his daily driver for several years.

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Note the early Edelbrock heads, Harmon-Collins mag, and Packard 440 plug wires with Rajah ends...'bout as "real" as it gets.  ;)

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Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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