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Joined
Feb 12, 2024
Messages
8
Location
Petaluma CA
Hey everyone, just wanted to introduce myself to my fellow motorheads. My name is Curt and I live in Petaluma, which is about 40 miles north of SF. I'm a long time car guy, having started at about 3 years old sitting on the ground next to my Dad and himself 57 Chevy and, in between asking a million questions, handing him tools so he didn't have to crawl out from under the car to get them. I've been into cars (and girls, because they have always been a package deal, right?) with everything from street cars, oval track dirt cars, drag racers and even a Volvo 740R sleeper "mom's car" that was originally built by a driving instructor at Sonoma Raceway although, being the old fart that I am, it will always be Sears Point in my book...
So, after years of being interested in building one for myself and unexpectedly needing to retire, I have bought one that is pretty much all done that I found by accident in Nevada and I am SO excited about it. It was built about 10 years ago by an evidently well loved rat rodder who owned his own shop (Bad Apple Concepts) before passing away unexpectedly in 2018 at the age of 52. He started out with a '27 Essex coupe cowl, doors and part of the roof before using something like 15 different cars to finish the body and mounting it onto a completely hand fabricated tube chassis with independent suspension, disc brakes and air bags all the way around which is nice but the icing on the cake was the DOHC V8 motor with 4 x Weber carbs out of a Maserati along with the rest of the running gear. How could I possibly pass that up, right? And before anyone accuses me of it not being a true "rat", take a look at the pictures I'll be posting and you'll definitely see it's about as ratty as anything else out there. I'm probably going to need to take a few yoga classes to be able to get in and out of itSo I will be adding some of my own "personal" touches to it so I'm sure that I will be in the market for a few things as well as asking some questions or looking for some advice. I was a machinist, a pneumatic controls specialist and manufacturing & design engineer for a valve automation company for over 35 years so I might be able to help some of you as well. Thanks for letting me join the party and I'm looking forward to being part of the gang!
 

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Welcome to the site.
We enjoy all vehicles and especially the weird ones.
You have found a new home here.
We are here to help or just hang out and view the pics.
The Maserati engine is some nice icing.
"And before anyone accuses me of it not being a true "rat". You can put away any thoughts like this because, no one around here does that kind of stuff.
 
Hey everyone, just wanted to introduce myself to my fellow motorheads. My name is Curt and I live in Petaluma, which is about 40 miles north of SF. I'm a long time car guy, having started at about 3 years old sitting on the ground next to my Dad and himself 57 Chevy and, in between asking a million questions, handing him tools so he didn't have to crawl out from under the car to get them. I've been into cars (and girls, because they have always been a package deal, right?) with everything from street cars, oval track dirt cars, drag racers and even a Volvo 740R sleeper "mom's car" that was originally built by a driving instructor at Sonoma Raceway although, being the old fart that I am, it will always be Sears Point in my book...
So, after years of being interested in building one for myself and unexpectedly needing to retire, I have bought one that is pretty much all done that I found by accident in Nevada and I am SO excited about it. It was built about 10 years ago by an evidently well loved rat rodder who owned his own shop (Bad Apple Concepts) before passing away unexpectedly in 2018 at the age of 52. He started out with a '27 Essex coupe cowl, doors and part of the roof before using something like 15 different cars to finish the body and mounting it onto a completely hand fabricated tube chassis with independent suspension, disc brakes and air bags all the way around which is nice but the icing on the cake was the DOHC V8 motor with 4 x Weber carbs out of a Maserati along with the rest of the running gear. How could I possibly pass that up, right? And before anyone accuses me of it not being a true "rat", take a look at the pictures I'll be posting and you'll definitely see it's about as ratty as anything else out there. I'm probably going to need to take a few yoga classes to be able to get in and out of itSo I will be adding some of my own "personal" touches to it so I'm sure that I will be in the market for a few things as well as asking some questions or looking for some advice. I was a machinist, a pneumatic controls specialist and manufacturing & design engineer for a valve automation company for over 35 years so I might be able to help some of you as well. Thanks for letting me join the party and I'm looking forward to being part of the gang!
These were basically the pictures I had from the the seller that I know aren't going to show everything I would want to show everyone but until I get it home in the next few weeks it's all I have for now. I found several videos of the car and even the build once I looked up Maserati powered hot rods and the first thing that popped up was a video of the car, which led me to finding out the builder's name (Farrell Hurt) and that he had his own shop. There's also a couple of videos from 2014 and 2015 from a show in Oregon called Ratrod-O-Rama that will show a walk around of the car as well as the awards (the "Frankenrod" award to be exact) it had won when it was there. Glad you all liked what you've seen so far and looking forward to bonding with more motorheads as my Dad always used to say "you can never have too many car buddies", which is very true, right?
 
Welcome to RRR. That Essex is cool as heck and the cylinder heads on that Italian mill... wow!
I know Petaluma as I spent 6 years in the Gualala Point Arena area. Petaluma is a beautiful area.
Except for my stint in the AF from 76 to 80 I've been here my whole life. It's not even close to the little town that I grew up in. Hardly any farms around here anymore. It's been "yuppyville" for at least the last 20+ years. Nothing but little bistro restaurants and wannabe pubs, etc. The powers that be, have even been trying to shut down the beloved Petaluma Speedway because of the "noise" and then build even more housing! Heck, that track has been there longer than I have. My Dad used to take me there almost every week of the season, training me to be a good little motorhead!! I've even raced there when I was in HS and then for a while after I got home from the AF, before wife and kids got in the way...
 
Thanks! I can't wait to start taking it out to get it sorted out in time for some shows later on this year. Hoping to make it's debut at the American Graffiti show here in Petaluma in May as well as the Midnight Mass show in Woodland in July. And if I think it will make it without any issues, I might try to get over to the Rockabilly Riot show in Reno/Carson City at the end of May since that was where the car was originally built but hasn't been there since 2017 or 2018, when the builder passed away. I've been lucky to hook up with some of the builder 's friends so I think it would be really cool if I can get it over there for everyone to see it again, right?
 
They sure did! In fact, the year after the filming was done, my Dad and I bought a chopped '33 Ford PU that the seller had said was found in a local junkyard after we were told it had spent several years as sprint car push truck at Calistoga Speedway in the '60's and while he owned it it was also used in some background scenes in American Graffiti, although I have seen that movie SO many times and have never been able to positively spot it. And being a local guy, I have my share of "personal experiences" doing a little of my own street racing out on Frates Rd. which of course was called Paradise Road in the big race at the end of the movie. Here's a picture of me and the truck back in high school when I still had plenty of hair...lol
 

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