2009 Cruis'news Spirit of Rodding Award

It all started when John was about 7 yrs old. Mom let him have the broken lawnmower to play with and John took it all apart. He would sit in the basement and spin the crankshaft in the block by hand for hours in utter amazement. Later came the hand made electric motors made from striped wire. It wasn’t long before he made his first steam engine (not a kit) using all homemade parts driving a homemade generator powering lights, all by the age of 10!  Around age 12 he built an awesome handmade wooden replica of a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine with a complete working rotating assembly. What John remembered most though, was the day Mom showed up with a brand new 1959 Ford Galaxie 500, it was then the seed was planted. John went on to build his first of many mini bikes and go-carts. He was the boy that everyone knew could get ANYTHING that had a spark plug in it to run like a scalded dog! In fact, John still does that to this day. One of his latest toys include a very cool trike that features an air-cooled 440 cc. Ultra light airplane engine, Fabricated roll bars and a cool homemade dash. It’s fully detailed and goes 80 ft. in 3 seconds on grass! He built a mini bike that is powered by a BUILT Mac.101 also fully detailed; it goes 80 ft. in 2.66 seconds! All while leaning over the handlebars, dragging his feet to keep it balanced while it smokes the tire! He took that same mini bike to a car-show burnout contest, chained it down to the concrete pad, smoked the crowd out, and won a 5 ft. trophy! It has so much compression he runs 118-octane fuel in it, No pull rope on that bad boy, it takes a car starter to start it! John has a Mini Indy Car that has an all aluminum hammer formed body and is so tricked out we could spend another 2 pages describing it.

 

Going back to Moms 59, she used to drive John and all of us kids everywhere, you name it. He somehow always broke down on the old conking-out road. (Mortonveiw rd.) Dad had a 59 4dr. and we also had a 59 wagon. It’s still in the family blood. When one-day Dad’s 59 blew a head gasket, John helped dad do the rebuild and when it was time to torque the head back down, John was all over it! He still has dads’ ole torque wrench. So now along comes 1987 when John finds a very solid 59-2dr.club sedan. This car was originally from California then went to Alabama before making it up here. At that time we remember a lot of people were bringing cars north and making a fortune. He gave 3500 for her, drove her for maybe 6 months, pulled her in the garage one day and said: “ Time to freshen her up” The next thing you know every nut and bolt on the car is OFF!  John says, “Only broke one bolt on the hole car, wow pretty clean”. Now with 20 yrs. devoted to restoring and customizing his Galaxie, he now gets to see his this amazing accomplishment enjoyed by others who have also been touched by that same car bug.