Mustang II suspension
Few things are more fun than spending a day doing a good old-fashioned garage crawl. No, that doesn’t mean getting down on your hands and knees looking for the washer that just rolled across the floor; we’re talking about doing the tour—runnin’ from one garage to the next just to see what folks are building, what kind of cool tools and memorabilia might be around, and of course, spending a little time swapping lies. Yeah, a garage crawl day is pure fun.
Some of it involves learning, but, for the most part, we’re pretty sure it’s something you’re born with, and you either have it or you don’t, and you can’t “fake it ’til ya make it.” We’re talking about vision—not the 20/20 version, but the ability to squint your eyes and see past the ugly duckling and uncover a swan. Tom Flurry has that even more special blend of vision and the ability to perform the work. Before your eyes is colorful proof that below the somewhat homely skin of a stock ’36 Plymouth there is indeed a swan, and Flurry uncovered most of it in his home shop in Mattituck, New York
Some decades ago, Louis Jackson was a lucky 15-year-old boy. He had his first car, and it was a ’55 Chevy, a car that was already a classic at the time. He was not lucky enough to have the funds or the skills to finish the car the way he really wanted—he was after a Pro Street-style car, but building a car like that is a tall order for someone still in high school. Though he couldn’t create his dream car that early in his life, he vowed that someday he’d have that Pro Street ’55.
Simi Valley, California, holds the record as having more cars per capita than any other city in the country. As a hard-core car enthusiast, I am constantly on the lookout for cool cars in the neighborhood, and since I moved to Simi myself, I have seen quite a few great-looking rods and classic cars, and I have met some really nice enthusiasts who have introduced me to other owners of top-quality cars.
It’s no guarantee that both halves of a married couple will love the automotive hobby. More than one marriage has ended following the ultimatum, “It’s the car or me,” though the same statement has also put an end to a large number of perfectly good hot rod projects. So it’s always nice when a car can bring a couple even closer, as is the case with Dennis and Dixie Gray and their ’63 Fairlane.
