Well, I don't know how GREAT it was, but let's just say it was "great enough" to make the cover of a known hotrod magazine back in the early 70's.

I HAVE BEEN TRACKING DOWN MY HOTROD'S HISTORY

I am not going to get into too much details here, as I am not done yet. What seemed to be a project that would entail a few phone calls has turned out to be the search for the Holy Grail! It has been the most exciting and fun thing I have done this year, I feel like Sherlock Holmes on a serial murder case .

Each new phone call unveils a new owner, new stories, and additional hotrod modifications for my little guy (and color). Mr. Hiboy has had quite a life! And no, it was not built in the 80's like many of its later owners had thought. And no, it was not created from scratch and made of misc odd balls parts like many others had thought.

I have so far tracked the story back to the late seventies. Yesterday I hit the jackpot when talking to an owner (TERRY) who actually LOVED the car and knew quite a bit about its past.

MY ROADSTER STARTED ITS LIFE AS A 1932 CABRIOLET. It had the original steel HF body on it all the way until 1979. As far back as terry can remember, the car was a hiboy. Terry had noticed the car when it made the cover of a known hotrod magazine back in the late 60's or early seventies (by a miracle of God he saved the magazine all these years and will mail me a copy of it ). At the time the owner of the cabriolet Hiboy went through a divorce & parted the car out, and the body shell was sold to one person )for $10,000), while the rest of the car (complete with even the original steel firewall) was sold to Terry. Terry could not afford to spend the extra $10,000 for the original body, plus maybe he prefered to have a roadster body rather than a cabriolet. So he then bought a crated Wescott body (the one I now have) and get this:

MY WESCOTT BODY IS BODY NUMBER SEVEN!! Basically, an antique

I furthermore found that Terry finished the roadster (complete with paint and interior) and painted it green and raced the roadster and showed it. He said that no one could beat him as far as racing went. At the time the roadster still had the original HF hood on it. It had a corvette engine and would "give you a whiplash" (I quote).

I was happy to find my roadster had at some point been "Glorious", but at the same time I was sad. Sad because I wondered why so many of the subsequent owners did not care for it and respect it like they should have. Why they dismentelled it, ran it into the ground, and how it went from the glory of a hotrod magazine cover, to losing it hood, interior, seat, steering wheel, engine, and ended up sitting in a garage for 12 years, looking like not much more than a rolling chassis.



Ironically, Mr. Hiboy's body is out there, somewhere, it would be interesting to track it down...

Now I am of course curious as to when the cabriolet was initially hotrodded... 70's? 60's? Earlier? But that's yet, another story for another post for another day.

FAITH