Deco
Rides
PO box 102
14 Schooley's Mt. Rd.
Long Valley, NJ 07853
908 876-9727
fax 908 876-1692
Elements of Style, Page 4
SCRAPE Makes History
Peek into the trunk, which raises and lowers electrically thanks to the use of a linear actuator, and you'll see the twin-pump setup tucked neatly in what I call the "hydraulics bay". The rear deck is so long there's a trunk, then a hydraulics bay with a removable bulkhead separating the two. Then there's another bulkhead and an electronics compartment, which we jokingly called the "avionics bay", containing the 3 batteries and the wiring, and a spare tire. Then, moving forward, another bulkhead with a removable velcro panel so you can get at the electrics and spare from inside the car, then a space behind the bench seat. We cut two windows in the trunk bulkhead identical to the shape of the rear windows of the car, and backed them with plexiglass so you could look into the trunk, and see the pumps through the window. We couldn't resist, we put another chunk of neon inside the hydraulics bay so at night the entire pump assembly was illuminated purple. You can't see the neon, but you sure can see the glow. A pair of Fenner Stone chromed pumps and blocks from Porky's Hydraulics in Rockford, IL sandwich a clear plastic "whammy tank", the reservoir for the hydraulic oil. A mirror on the bulkhead behind the pumps doubles the visual look of the compartment. A cheap trick, but it works great. Of course the hydraulic oil in the clear reservoir was purple in color. When you hit the switches, you could see the fluids gush and squirt in the large diameter clear plastic tube ("whammy tank"). We didn't miss a trick. Rick Velasquez of Cresco, PA (570) 688 4095 is my favorite hydraulics person. He built a beautiful set of hard lines for the pump setup.
During the two day photo session in Steve Coonan's RODDER'S JOURNAL studio in CT, Ram wipes down SCRAPE. Terry was not allowed to touch the car.
As a precaution against car owner ignorance, at my request Ram came up with a system to automatically deactivate the front "down" switch on the hydraulics if the wheels were not pointed straight ahead. This was to keep me from crumpling the front fender sheetmetal with cocked tires. A micro switch on the tie rod senses wheel position and cancels the switch when the wheels are in the wrong position. Clever old Ram. Another set of micro switches activated red lights on the dash, one for the front and one for the rear hydraulics. In this way the driver can see if the car is at a safe ride height when raising it without getting out of the car to look. These lights also let you know when you are "in the zone" when lowering the car, allowing you to "tickle" the switches for the last few inches of drop. With a lot of overhang and a low nose, Ram built little tripods with metal skis or "skid pads" on each one (nose, tail and rockers) to hit the ground before the bodywork, yet be hidden from view. I loved parking at outdoor car events on grass because when we left there was always a big impression of the frame rails and X-member left pressed into the ground. SCRAPE was here. Ram also installed two different hidden external + and - poles so we could attach a battery jumper to the car externally if the bateries went flat, which they did regularly since we cranked the stereo all day while parked. Once before we did this while shooting the car in Steve Coonan's photo studio, the batteries went dead with windows up. If he wanted to, Ram could be a good car thief as he managed to get the door open. Ram also installed an external hidden on/off switch to kill all the electrics.
The interior uses the stock '39 Dash, a cut down banjo style wheel and beautiful deco-flavored Lincoln Zephyr horn button (reducing the wheel diameter from bus to car size). The big art deco '39 speedometer is a thing of beauty, especially with the dash lights on. Anybody know where I can buy a real '39 Lincoln Zephyr speedometer? All instruments were rebuilt and converted to 12-volt. Ram extended the top of the dash forward to meet the pushed-out windshield, and incorporated defroster slots. He built a mini-console to hang under the speedo to contain a small TV screen. We hung a miniature camera in the rear window looking out. This was not intended for backing up, but because rear 3/4 vision was understandably restricted, to see if any 18-wheeler was thundering down on us, about to pass us in the next lane when we were out cruisin' the interstate. We didn't want the car to become a ramp for the ultimate Joey Chitwood Thrill Show. Visibility of the car is far better than I ever expected, as it's like being in a goldfish bowl for the front and side vision. Curved convex rear view mirrors on each side help a lot, and windshield mounted rear view gives an amazing view of what's directly behind.
The split bench 6-way Caddy power seat and rest of the interior was upholstered by Bobby Sapp of Milford, DE. Much of the black is leather, with naugahyde in remote areas. Two fire extinguishers in the interior are in memory of two of my previous rides that got toasty. A bank of miniature rocker switches in the headliner actrivate all sorts of tricks like switching from normal to air horns, neon, etc.
Everyone likes to think their ride is something special. Several people have told me that SCRAPE is a true "landmark" car, one of the all time ever neatest rods and customs (it's both), one that will go down in history with the Hirohata Merc, etc. As I said elsewhere on this website, the thing that impressed my kids the most was that they could go down to the Wal-Mart and buy a purple Mattell HOT WHEELS copy of dad's car.
In the ABSORBER booth at Dan Cyr's Seattle show, SCRAPE sits on real grass as part of the Chuck Caswell-inspired display. I referred to is as "The Sod & Custom" display.
I've got a million funny stories about SCRAPE and a bagful of wonderful memories. Two of the best are when we debuted the car at York NSRA Nats East '98 and won some award or other (I hate trophies and the whole "gold fever" ego bullshit that goes with 'em). When we pulled out on the horse track at the York Fairgrounds, Ram was driving. When we got out of the car we looked up at the big, packed covered grandstands. Thousands of rodders were waiting for the drawing to see if they'd won the giveaway car. The people all stood up and gave SCRAPE a standing ovation! I'd NEVER seen that before for any car. Now fast forward to August 2000 Pebble Beach. I entered the car for sale at the The Monterey Sports & Classic Car Auction, owned by RM Auctions, held at the Portola Plaza Hotel in downtown Monterey. I was too nervous so my sidekick and best friend, the late "Reverend Mike" Witek, my traveling interior decorator and bail bondsman, drove the car into the auction. When we drove into the big room on Saturday night, 3,000 rich people, who had been sitting all night looking at Deusenbergs and exotic sports cars going across the auction block, all stood up and gave the car a standing ovation! So the first time and the last time I exhibited SCRAPE it got a "standing O". Incredible!
Meanwhile at Monterey we had been cranking the stereo all day, showing off, and the batteries were low. When Rev drove in, they immediately and astutely lowered the house lights when I told Rev to switch on the neon. And they lowered the house background music when I told Rev to click on Vivaldi's Four Seasons playing though our exterior speakers! Rev drove the car to the center platform and I told him to hit the hydraulics. He did, dropping the car to the floor, but when I told him to raise it back up he said "The batteries are dead!" So here we are with the frame rails sitting on the stage in front of 3,000 people. The auctioneer is still rattling off his pre-auction spiel and has not yet opened up for bidding. The adrenaline is screaming through my veins like gangbusters. I ran over and grabbed a portable power pack and jumped in the passenger side of the car, facing the audience. I leaned over the seat, ripped off the velcro panel to the avionics bay to shoot the car some juice. The first battery pack didn't get the job done so I popped out of the car, one of the on-the-ball RM car handlers who saw my plight ran over and gave me another power pack and I popped back in the car. As I was attaching the second power pack to the batteries, I suddenly became cognizant of the ambient noise in the hall. I had heard nothing before but suddenly I heard the auctioneer saying, "$225,000, $220,000, $225,000..." I turned to Rev who was behind the wheel and said, "Do you hear that?" Rev calmly turned to me and said, "Pay no attention to that, just fix the car!". Just like Dorothy and the tin man when they met the Grand and Powerful Wizard of Oz, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". I had a $150,000 reserve on the car and it ended up at $250,000. With the buyer's 10% commission, Robert E. Petersen paid $275,000 for the car and it is now in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, probably in the basement. I bought dinner for 17 people that night!
One of the biggest honors of owning SCRAPE was to be featured on the cover of RODDER's JOURNAL.
Altogether it had cost me about $109,000 to build the car, I made $85,000 back in car show appearances, T-shirt sales, HOT WHEELS royalties and other things, and I sold the car for a quarter mil. After paying the auction company their 10% ($25,000) and another $50,000 to my friend Uncle Sam, I cleared $175,000 from the sale. Needless to say SCRAPE has been very, very good to me. Jack Boxtrom of RM told me months after the auction that he was amazed how the car continued to get magazine and newspaper articles about it popping up everywhere. Never in his life had he seen a situation where a car seemed to take on a life of its own and continue generating press releases and getting ink. SCRAPE continues to live on today as HOT WHEELS is reportedly going for their fifth release of the car, and SPEEDSTER MOTORCARS is selling duplicate "turnkey" Z-series offspring of the original car.