Bluejays C-Truck History

[unclekevie]

I have a question for limphose. Were these 2 yellow cross rails installed in the old manhasset chassis or were they installed in the new chassis that Tom Baldwin built for the Terrace? This is a graet little story of parts of an old truck still living on to create further fame and glory.
I liked your little story danger. I could picture someone taking the hood off of a Willys and cutting off the front of it, turning it around and making the hood scoop on your b truck. Great trivia!
A question for the geek, Did Akam also modify the Yellow Hornets and/or Merrick Buckeyes Ford Rancheros? For those who would not know, of the 3 Rancheros, the hornets(69) had theirs first, then came the Flukes(70) and the last was the Buckeyes(71). Along with this came the Elcaminos. The first being Patchogue which was a 68 or 69. Next came Islip which was a 71 or 72. The third and last Elcamino was Sayville which was a 1973.
Finally a question for Nozz. Did Ed Akam build the original F100 Ford C Truck for Roslyn or did he just do the modification to turn it into the version with the Maverick nose?
Here is a request for all you computer guys out in Digger land. Who can search out all the trucks mentioned on this thread from the C Truck memories pages and compile them all in cronoligical order on this thread. It's going to be bad weather tonight , so stay home and off the road and someone please tackle this project. I will admit to being stupider than a 3 year old when it comes to these computers. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT !!!!!

[Circusmonkey]

Dec 18, 2008 19:26:10 GMT -5 unclekevie said:

If you look through all the pages here on Digger, all of these trucks are immortalized for the memories of those of us who remember and for the imaginations of those who never saw them, but can still hear them rumble and roar in the pictures on this glorious site.

Kevin, I swear, you should be writing postscripts for a publishing house. ;D
Also if you give me the chronological order I can probably get the pics up by tonight, if Nozz doesn't beat me to it.

[unclekevie]

Thanks Joe, I appreciate your complimenting my writing. With that in mind I did the finger (leg) work for you as requested.
Port Washington Rangers to Oyster Bay Teddie's Boys Pages 20,26,37
Port Washington Rowdies to Hicksville Pages19,28,38
Port Washington Runts to Port Washington Road Runners to Elmont Pages 3,19,30
For anyone that did not know Ed Akam's shop, A and P Automotive was located in Port Washington. Hence he built all these Port Washington trucks.
Roslyn F100 modified to thr "Maverick" Pages 2,20,31
Hempstead Flukes Page 20
East Meadow to Sayville to Firemans Home Museum Pages 2,19,26
Manhasset to Islip Terrace Pages 4,32
Saint James Pages 4,20,31,32,33
Syosset to Bought to New Breman Pages 20,32,36
Central Islip to North Greese Pages 2,3
Port Washington Road Runners to Louisville Pages 16,20,23,33
Wyandanch Pages 15,20
OK Joe, the rest is up to you. I am looking forward to seeing all these pictures grouped together.
Uncle Kevie

[911pix]

Hey Circusmonkey, we're going Full-Circle here, but can you e-mail me the two high-res scans of the "Meadowlarks to Blue Jays" pics? I'll bet the State Firefighter's Museum could put copies of them up next to the Sayville rig as part of the display, and make it that much better - my e-mail link should be at left -

Thanks,

Mike

[limphose]

I have a question for limphose. Were these 2 yellow cross rails installed in the old manhasset chassis or were they installed in the new chassis that Tom Baldwin built for the Terrace? This is a graet little story of parts of an old truck still living on to create further fame and glory.

We had already moved the driver to the center and all the running gear at the metal shop I worked for the second winter we had it. The third winter it went to Baldwins after another "stellar" season. Truth be told, Tommy was only going to lenghten the wheelbase and try to stabilize the suspension. A contingent went back a week later and it was a brand new chassis on a jig. The tubes were painted yellow right before the rear end and had another "top" cover for the drive shaft. He had been away from the rules for awhile and it didn't affect his design and didn't know if it was a safety requirement. So he modified the assembly and welded it back in. Still there. He put the new skin on it, he and I were the only ones that liked that part of it. The next year "boots" put his skins on the nose, since then quite a few people have tweaked the power, suspension, paint and brakes. So it really is an Akbalricsheepbbrabaldi!

[limphose]

Hey Mike:
The other thing you may want to look into is the cut metal team names on the front of the Islip town teams trucks. They all had them, I know the terrace still has theirs in the locker room on the wall, think the Hoboes still have it on the truck. I don't know who had made them, must have been one person, might be a little story there..

[911pix]

Hey Mike:
The other thing you may want to look into is the cut metal team names on the front of the Islip town teams trucks. They all had them, I know the terrace still has theirs in the locker room on the wall, think the Hoboes still have it on the truck. I don't know who had made them, must have been one person, might be a little story there..

I'll look into it - thanks -

[unclekevie]

The afore mentioned team names cut out of metal and attached to the front of c trucks were not all made from one man. Some were made by Grumman employees when they were supposedly hard at work earning their keep. The first team to have one was C.I. in the early eighties followed by the Terrace. Someone from C.I. made those. Possibly they were made at the bug house. Danger can you elaborate? Henry Anderson, who was the hydrant man for the Terrace in the late 70's and early 80's was an employee of the bug house, got one for the Schlagers. West Islip got one made in the early 90's by a guy on the team that worked at Grumman. They were all metal that was polished to a mirror finish. Looking thru the pictures on digger you can spot some of them. The extra weight of one of them on the front would make good ballast for keeping those front ends down.

[HydroJr]

One unique feature of the Road Runner truck - The radiator was mounted in the rear, across the back step. Eddie used the upper rails to run the coolant to the engine. I am not sure if this one done on any of his other creations, but judging by the front noses, it may be the only one.

Kevie - Are you referring to the elcamino's that were built by Aikam only of any team that ran with one? North Bellmore had an elcamino, not sure of the year.

The hose bed from The Fluke's truck resided in my back yard for many years.

Geek - I also have an old hood scoop, looks like its homemade out of aluminum with a Grumman Cat decal on it. Its not from Baldwin, I'm guessing since for many years we did all the work on the Fluke's rigs, it may be from one of theirs.

[LUNCHBOX]

Unclekevie, Akam did not build Roslyn's Ford. He was given the Ford after the 74 Season and he created the Maverick with the same chassis.

Geek, Did Bob Marra drive the Flukes Ranchero?

[JUSMIK]

North bellmore never had a elcamino . We did have a chassis with a camaro nose on it .

[HydroJr]

Ok...Did you guys purchase the Hempstead Ranchero? I can recall Billy June picking the truck up, and it was just a shell. The truck with the Camaro nose was initiated by Bob Driscol, I beleive he was from or in Westbury and it was finished by my father.

[GuardrailGeek]

Dec 19, 2008 15:35:22 GMT -5 unclekevie said:

A question for the geek, Did Akam also modify the Yellow Hornets and/or Merrick Buckeyes Ford Rancheros? For those who would not know, of the 3 Rancheros, the hornets(69) had theirs first, then came the Flukes(70) and the last was the Buckeyes(71).

Kevin: The Flukes had the only Ranchero ever done by Ed Akam. I don't know who did the Yellow Hornets, or Merrick's coachwork, but photos of both of them were brought to Ed for fabrication.

After the 73' season, he rebuilt the motor. He added a tunnel-ram manifold, 2-4 bbl carbs, and a magneto.

In the winter of 74-75, Ed did further modification of the Flukes' Ranchero. He tried to lighten it with fabricated subframes. The front end was done with a straight axel and parallel leaf springs. The rear springs were replaced with a straight rails and the rear axel was bolted right up to them.

It got faster, but at this point the handling went away....real far. We learned a lesson about parallel-leaf straight axel front ends quickly. (We should have watched the other trucks that has this configuration)

We tried to have Ed build for us again, but he was busy that next winter. Rich Roper bailed us out with a new plan. That rear subframe and drivetrain was graphed onto a lower set of rails with a better thought out front end. That was the one with the Austin front nose.....a truck that was a little more competitive.

[nightraider]

HydroJr -- Syosset's c-rig had a plain scoop with a Tomcat decal, it could be that one you have.

[GuardrailGeek]

Dec 20, 2008 20:49:48 GMT -5 LUNCHBOX said:

Geek, Did Bob Marra drive the Flukes Ranchero?

Nozz, I think Bob drove for the Flukes from 68' - 73'. That would have him driving the Ranchero for 3 seasons. The picture on page 2 of this thread has Jack Cloudman at the wheel.

Geek - I also have an old hood scoop, looks like its homemade out of aluminum with a Grumman Cat decal on it. Its not from Baldwin, I'm guessing since for many years we did all the work on the Fluke's rigs, it may be from one of theirs.

Rob- based on the previous post, I think you know where that hood scoop came from..... One of the Flukes biggest shortcomings was that we did not have a Grumman connection......all of the good teams did.