A 64 daily driver getting JAYBUILT

[jaybuilt]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/461232...n/photostream/ day i got it home a few months back

[jaybuilt]

Hi all !
my name is Jay/JAYBUILT ......nice to meet ya.

hear is the story.

way back in high school 1978 I worked at a carwash all summer and bought a 1973 dodge Polara an x CHP car for 400 bucks.440 magnum, 727,posi, shotgun rack and all.
I didn't have my license yet but I drove it to school anyway.man what a tank that car was.we would pile in that car at lunch and run around town doin burnouts as long as a city block it hauled some serious ***. I was hooked on muscle cars the first time I heard that thermoquad wide open and my spedo reading 120mph as I tried to keep just in front of the billowing cloud of smoke as I crept around the corner of our little town.I knew my future was going to be in cars.I sold that and bought a 68 charger with a 383 aqua blue white vinyl top,and white interior not a dent on it. This kills me 800 bucks !!

Meanwhile I bought and sold a bunch of other cars and got a job as a engine machinist for Main auto parts. Life was good, my last year in school an older guy I grew up around told me he wanted to sell his 55 Chevy post 327 4 spd. I always loved that car and had to have it.so i sold the charger to my best friend Tony and bought the 55.

About a year after graduation Tony another good friend Steve and I were up in the hills raisin hell and I lost control of the car and hit a utility pole head on at around 80 mph. Almost killed the three of us but didn't.
for the last 35 years I built allot of fast cars trucks and bikes only they were for someone else. I just lost something in that crash a part of me went to the scrap yard with the 55 that day .
I Got married divorced kids grew up and moved on now it is just me again.

I guess I finally got over that car crash and decided to build myself a quick little car before they are all gone. I found a 64 on Craigslist and I bought the little thing.

it had been sitting in a guys garage for 27 years ! I had to unbolt the garage Door to get it out. Took it home and had it running that day and the next day got tags for it and we started our new life together. 289 ,C4 shift kit,411 posi …..all installed 27 years ago.

I had not had it running for three days when I got a call from my mom in taxes she was sick and I had to go . Mom got Cancer and needed some family with her .
I live In California. Two days later me and the little falcon were on our way across the country and I had the time of my life.(mom is ok) I'll get some pictures up and show ya ware we are with this project.if I can figure out how.

Thanks for your time Jay

[Luva65wagon]

It was odd reading this story. It was like bits and pieces of a collage of my life. I never owned a Polara, but a room mate of mine did. I never owned a 55, but knew someone in my life that did. I loved the long hard-corner burn-outs as a youth, but they were in my first Falcon, as 62. I was in high-school in '78. Drove a while (as a youth) without my license. Got in trouble for it. Hit a phone pole one foggy California evening too. Built a lot of cars for other people faster than anything I owned (they had the money, I didn't). Anyway, funny comparisons.

Welcome. Show us some pictures of you new little [thing] Falcon.

[jaybuilt]

It was odd reading this story. It was like bits and pieces of a collage of my life. I never owned a Polara, but a room mate of mine did. I never owned a 55, but knew someone in my life that did. I loved the long hard-corner burn-outs as a youth, but they were in my first Falcon, as 62. I was in high-school in '78. Drove a while (as a youth) without my license. Got in trouble for it. Hit a phone pole one foggy California evening too. Built a lot of cars for other people faster than anything I owned (they had the money, I didn't). Anyway, funny comparisons.

Welcome. Show us some pictures of you new little [thing] Falcon.

wow thats cool........ them were the days none gave a **** back then. after 47 moving violations they finaly got me in court and the judge suspended my DL for 6 years but I drove anyway and things piled up.

after a total of 23000 in fines from 99 moving violations 9 days in jail they gave me a class A with all indorsments and a motorcycle ind as well in 2013
and now at 53 I am a truck driver. makes me laugh how stupid I have been in the past.thanks for the reply sir .

[dhbfaster]

Nice story JayBuild! I thought I was hard core getting all those (uh...two a year, not 47) tickets back in the day in Texas and going to all the comedy club defensive driving classes to get rid of them (really...the first classes were sleepers a the community college, then in Texas some comedians got their course approved (comedy college driving) ...then I moved on to making payments to my ticket lawyer...and I thought 1 or 2 a year was BAD!! Those were the days. I would say more about all the racing around town and the crazy stuff back then...but my wife and kids might read it here.

Look forward to seeing how your project goes!

[jaybuilt]

yep we could get away with hardcore fun back then.I wrote a book about my time growing up this is one of the stories from it. let me know what ya think.have a nice day and thanks for your time.

Betty Lou part 1
Betty Lou was the name i gave to my 55 Chevy .
I remember the day i met her as if it was today. I must have been10 years old at the time.
It was raining all morning and I was having breakfast at Kenny's
house. Kenny to me he was the coolest guy ever he must have been 17 years old then.
When my mom,dad,sister and I moved up to the Santa CruzMT we rented a house from Kenny's father [Phil]. Kenny took me in as kind of a little brother and let me tag along with him. Well that morning we had just finished eating and were all sitting by the fire talking.
As he digs in his pocket for Key's Kenny said I'm going to the store you going jay hell yeah I'm thinking while I jumped up and ran to the top flat and climbed in the car a couple minutes later Kenny jumps in making the car rock.I remember thinking how i couldn't Waite till i was big enough to make a car rock when I got in it. As he fires up the 396 and Try's to find reverse he barks at me....... you got your belt on yet jay?
Pointing to the shifter I said yep and its over their Kenny.
I know ware reverse is smart *** you got your belt on yet jay?

Distracted by the seat belt I forgot to duck and pow right in the forehead damn it he got me and smiles as he looks over his shoulder .See Kenny would put an arm up on the back of the seat when he was backing up the car and smack me in the head as he did so .all in good fun of course. I duck to avoid being hit in the back of the head when he returned his arm to the shifter. as he pops the clutch and we slide sideways into the first turn i still didn't have the belt on so I slid accost the seat and crashed into him giggling.
Can’t drive with some scrawny kid in my lap he tells as he slides into the next turn and I slide back to my side of the car.
loved going any ware when it was raining cause he would slide the car through every turn, man Kenny could drive .
We have to stop at David’s for a minute he said as we turn up the dirt road to the ranch. Kenny comes to a stop at a little barn and we hop out into the rain and hurry for the open door. we step inside and their was David who i never met David was a curly haired soft talking guy working on a bright orange engine later on as i learned things about engines apparently he was installing pistons in the engine. I thought wow how cool is this first engine i ever saw apart and it was fascinating .the two of them talked for a minute
and walked over to a car covered by a tarp they each grab a corner and pull the cover off Their sat Betty Lou a primer Grey fifty five Chevy post with nothing inside but to bucket seats and a shifter it looked so mean I instantly fell in love with it.

Rally wheels fat tires no bumpers, no chrome just striped to the bone badness. several years pass and I am a freshman in high school my Buddy Jeff and I were hitchhiking to school one morning and David pulls over to give us a ride in Betty Lou. the sound of that car was like nothing Else I ever herd Jeff climbs in back and I got shotgun David drops the hammer smoking the tires and speed shifted to second side stepped the clutch petal and the front of the car came up so you couldn't see the road any more shoving my *** against the seat then Dave hits 3rd with a big tire chirp i look over at Jeff and he is pointing to the speedometer it reads 90 MPH and pulling hard smoke the smell of rubber was engulfing the cars behind us. I had to have this car I thought to myself .it wasn't the most powerful
car I had been in but it moved along good. Kenny's 56 nomad was a hard puller it only had a 327 with a 3 spd on the Flore but that car could loft the
left front tire at 40 mph when he hit scorned gear but the thing was a rattle trap and we must have put 4 rear ends and 2 tranys in the car in a year. one day Kenny brought me with him to school for a single class he had that day.
then we went to work on some guys car in town. That’s the reason I went along because I could slide under a car without a jack .anyway I pulled the drive shaft out on the side of the road for him and we were on
our way home going by the high school at lunch time every body was on the lawn eating lunch.
Kenny was the world’s biggest show off so he couldn't resist a wheelie in front of every one. I could tell he was about to do it because he waited at the cross walk for a long time to let the cars in front of him get out of the way. so we start a nice slow role through 1st and he grabs 2nd full throttle and lets the clutch go it was the biggest one he ever did it was bad ***. Must have been 2000 kids on the lawn clapping.
Instantly getting me hooked on showing off.
we get down the road a ways and something didn't sound right i look in the rear of the wagon and notice the right rear side window was out of place no sooner do I open my mouth to tell Kenny dose it pop out and shatter on the road Kenny didn't Evan stop.
that wheelie twisted the car so bad the window fell out.
the best car he had was a 67 Malibu with a 396 four speed and a posi .that car was wild I spent so much time watching how Kenny drove the car sideways I must have learned something. When it was my turn to drive years later I drove just like he did may be Evan better. Summer before my Junior year I ran into David
.one thing led to another and he said he would sell Betty Lou
to me for 1500 bucks so I sold the charger to cat and borrowed the rest. a friend of mine[Daryl] that wound up buying my old cop car gave me a ride up the hill and i bought my dream car.
What a day that was. When I drove down his driveway I was so happy I got a lump in my throat and tears were running down my face. The only other time that ever happened was when my little Jamie was borne.

Didn’t see how things couldn't be any better for me.
my girlfriend was one of the hottest girl's at our school I was friends with the "jocks" because of meg and I grew up with the "bad boys”, I worked at main auto parts in in the machine shop rebuilding engines ,gas was cheep,
my mom was great and gave me a ton of slack and my two best friends are still my two best friends and top all that off with a bad *** car that i paid for in cash. yep I was liven a dream that's fer sure.
Some of them lasted for years. Meg and I went to every party we could to show off.

over that school year I did some work to Betty Lou that really mad her nice. I found a set of rims and tires from a trans am that looked great so on they went. installed a front and rear bumper, back seat, carpet kit, seat covers, driver seat blocks, Hurst dual pattern shifter,mo mo steering wheel, killer stereo,an automatic trans with a shift kit trans X member, new shocks, rear leaf springs, traction bars, exhaust that dumped right in front of the rear tires and a bunch of engine work .

my Junior year was the best year of my life so far.
the hole year was pact with parties, football games, drag races, Mouton road racing, back seat sex, school dances, long nights on the telephone with meg, cutting school, going to the beach, long day's under the hood with Cat, many many hours behind the wheel cruising town, Doing burnouts and hanging out with my friends Back then i always had Skinard, Zz top, Journey ,Outlaws ,The Babies, The Cars, Molly Hatchet, and Montrose belting out their songs in the background. At the time I wasn't aware that those songs were recording my life for me and forever linking the times with the songs.
hearing one of the songs today transports me back to that time so well I can remember the fragrance of the summer days before school the windows rolled down in the charger 70 degrees .I would pull up in front of Megs house and turn up the song on the radio and look down the driveway as my slender dark haired beauty runs up her driveway tosses her books on the back seat through the rear window and jumps in with a big smile on her face slides over next to me and says good morning Jay Louie .the sent of her hair mixing with the summer morning air was enough to make me dizzy.poping a bubble with he gum she would remove it and give me a nice long kiss and say something nice like car looks hot jay bay. I would slide my hand between her knees and grab the shifter pull it into drive and Jam off to school.
Damn I got in allot of trouble with that car!! all that year i just raised hell .I have always been keenly aware that we only get the chance to be young once and i wasn't about to spend my youth following rules, being careful, I wasn't going to collage after high school so I sure didn't need spend time getting A's so that left me with an attitude for trouble and the time to find it.

[jaybuilt]

new seat installed 002.jpg int pic

[dhbfaster]

Wow, what a story Jay. (Betty Lou) I like your writing style...felt like we were sitting around a fire drinking beers and you were just telling the story. I started reading it on my phone at breakfast this morning...had to leave for work. Then after I got to work and got through the hottest work emails...I had to take a .......uh break to go read the rest of the story!

[Luva65wagon]

...I had to take a restroom break to go read the rest of the story!

Don... TMI?

[Luva65wagon]

Jay - Enjoyed the story as well... from the comfort of my office chair.

[jaybuilt]

Attachment 4561more pictures

[jaybuilt]

well shoot I am glad ya liked it hear is part 2 dig in an i will catch ya later


Their was hardly a stretch of road in Los Gatos that I didn't put down two long black burnouts. I collected speeding tickets as if it was a contest.
I think the 55 was credited with 70 some tickets in a little less than two years.
**** I remember one day i got a speeding ticket in san Jose in the morning then an exhibition of speed [a burnout] in los Gatos at noon A reckless driving [ passing on the right] in Santa Cruz early evening and one for open container at bonny doon beach later that night.
Meg and I spent many night's in that 55 parked at my favorite spot in the hills
called Kings point .meg would tell folks that she was spending the night at a friends so we had the night to our self's
it was Tony Steve Meg and I out drinking at the lake meg had to go home so i drooped her off and the 3 of us went and got some beer and headed for the hills we drank our beers and headed for home. I guess the beer had done its job because i was flying down the hill Tony was in the back so frightened that he laid down across the seat and Steve was holding on for his life. almost at the bottom I missed a turn and the result was 70mph head on into a phone pole and a bank. the car hit the pole to the right of the engine shaved the headers right off the engine and shoved the frame rail and rt front suspension back about 10 inches pushing the tire up into the passenger floor board shoving Steve's knees up into his chest. when Tony's body crashed into the back of the seats it bent them forward crushing Steve and I in our seats .the engine broke loose and the floor shifter ripped through the floor like it was tin foil hitting me in the leg I pushed the steering wheel into the dash and my right hand punched a hole in the wind shield .Steve covered his face with his hands and crashed into the dash leaving a good size dent breaking his nose and leaving him Unconscious.when tony flew forward he hit the speaker boxes that were on the floor and one cut his *** pretty bad. The rear end broke free of the rear shekels smashing the tires into the wheel wells and sending the drive line down the road a ways.
the car went air borne down the road backward for 70 ft when it landed it brought me back from unconsciousness and the car rolled to a stop 130 ft from the pole
still running. I turned the car off and began choking from dirt in my mouth after spiting most of it out i unbuckled my seat belt and climbed out followed by Tony we both went around to Steve ,he was unconscious and choking but came to a moment later .we had to cut the seat belt to get him free. we were all alive and walking. That was the last fast car I ever bought I almost never see Steve Evan though him and his family live a rocks throw away, Tony and I are still best Friends. Tony and his family live in Oregon Ware he is a top 5 finisher racing stock cars meg and I lasted till she went to collage and every now and then I talk to her on the phone, she is living in Texas married with 3 kids. I still live hear in these mountains and am divorced I have a 19 year old doughtier I live alone in a rented room Ware I rite stories and play with bikes.

[jaybuilt]

my 55 before and after

meg the charger and I

[Luva65wagon]

Another one bites the dust'uh - another one bites the dust.

That's all I could think of seeing that pic. My pole experience didn't totally kill my car back then, just the left-rear quarter took the hit. It (the 66 Fairlane) eventually became the organ donor for my $50 '62 Falcon. Those days are long gone; namely, $50 Falcons, but how I managed to throw cars together back then and have them on the road in 'days' rather than 'months' - still eludes me. Those days are gone now too.

[jaybuilt]

yep but it was only a car if one of my friends would have bit the dust.......well i dont need to say any more bout that I guess.

thanks for your attention and reply's luvawagon

hear is another story for ya

The polara

The first job I had in town was at a carwash around the corner. I didn’t care much for the kids I worked with just a bunch of city punks all of them worthless so I kept to my self. bought my first car with the money I made that summer .This is the beginning of some of the greatest times of my life so far.
The car was A white 1973 dodge polara with a 440 magnum 4 BRL 780 cfm thermo quad crab, a super duty cooling system, 160 amp alt, super duty air cond, dual inlet air cleaner,7 qt oil pan, a super duty 727 torque flight transmission and a sure grip rear dif with highway pursuit gearing.
It had huge brakes and dual 2 3/4 inch tube exhaust. Inside was a bench seats, 17 inch steering wheel, shotgun rack and radio mount.
I found the car in the back yard of a neighbors house gave him 400$ through in a battery, 5 gallons of gas and drove it home.
I wouldn't have my license for 6 months or so but I had been driving on my own up in the hills since the age of 10 or 11.
I Burned off one set of rear tires before school started and another set just before I got my license.
That car would smoke the tires up to second gear at about 65 mph if I didn't touch the brakes. If i held it to 40 mph and let it go into second gear the speedometer would read 90 mph and go as long as their was road.
On the highway I never found the balls to go faster than 130 mph the speedometer went to 160 but I didn't.
one morning on the way to school Jeff and I had to bring my older sister with us that day and we were late so I jumped on the freeway .
One thing I learned quick was if you didn't hook up the lap belt the slightest corner and you would slide right across the seat .Slippery as hell . It was an automatic thing for Jeff and I to belt up but my sue had no idea .
The highway was wet from an over night rain and I had the old dodge twisted up around 95MPH just to mess with Sue.

The off ramp came up quick and cause it was wet I didn't get her slowed down enough to make a normal exit off the highway .This exit is what we call a clover leaf it is a big circle to an overpass to another circle to the on ramp going the other direction on the Highway you know.
Well we went under the overpass sideways and entered the circle at about 60.
All was peaches till half way through the circle.
So get this in your head .The car is sideways so much so that I am looking out the driver door window to steer the car which means the front of the car is really pointing toward the center of the circle.
On the opposite side of the circle is the Highway running left to right, well the center of this circle is down about 20 ft off the road and full of grease wood bushes 6 ft high .


Sue comes sliding across the seat and slams into me. At that same moment the car goes full throttle launching us off the road into the air at about 40 mph landing hard in the bushes at the center of the circle and heading straight for the Highway.
wide open 3rd gear in 6 ft of bushes .
Cant see nothing but bushes flying over the hood and windshield as we mow them down.
I knew the Highway was out their some ware so I crank the wheel hard to my left and the *** end slides out on the beginning of the off ramp in a tight you turn.
Now we are headed back wear we came from.
****in bushes flying over the hood like we are doing a hundred MPH through a corn field .
Sue is squeezing my leg so hard I have to actually stop every thing I am doing to save our life’s and get her hand off my leg.
In doing that I see her foot planted flat to the floor with the gas peddle under it.
FOR **** SAKE I grab her leg and pull it off the floor and just as fast as it started it was over the car comes to a quick halt and dies.
Their is steam coming from every wear .I cant see nothing but bushes and I am angry to say the least.
I turn the key so we can get the **** out of their before cops get on seen and it started ......thank god .

I pull it down into reverse and it engaged .
I could see behind me now because we just plowed a new road through that part of the f***in jungle so back I went .
When we get clear enough to see their is water shooting up in the air from about 6 sprinklers we ripped from the ground and just a general haze of destruction.

Their were cars stopped all along the ramp except the last 40 ft. They weren't moving for nothing so I floored it and drove past them up the bank airborne landing sideways onto the ramp.
We smoked um across the bridge and out of site. When I look over at sue an Jeff , Sue is crying so hard she cant breath, the contents of her purse is rolling around under my feet, her books and papers are all over the F...in place and her mascara is running down her face like a porn star . Jeff is laughing so hard he cant speak and I'm so mad I cant speak.


We proceed to scrape drag squeal and smoke are way to school ware I just parked it got out and didn't look back.
I come out for lunch to check out the damage and come around the corner with a bunch of my friends and their is a huge crowd around my car .
We cant even see it so we push our way through the kids and stood their speechless .
My car looked like it was dragged from the bottom of the ocean. Under the car it was solid bushes, their was brush in the wheel wells up through the engine through the grill, the windshield wipers were gone and this swamp like mud was dripping off everything.

I simply could not believe my eyes I look at Jeff and he is laughing his *** off again.

Sue was never the same after that and I don’t think she has ever been in a car with me since. The dodge went on to deliver more great times.