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Historic Customs USA Road Trip P3

 

HISTORIC CUSTOMS USA Road Trip PartĀ 3

 

By Ronnie Lindblom & Micke Hedberg.

With most of the problems on the cars now sorted Ronnie and Micke are ready to get the grand tour at Gene Winfields Shop, and prepare for the rest of their amazing trip.



In early July 2016 Ronnie Lindblom and Micke Hedberg left Sweden for their dream road trip in the USA. Both guys had bought an historic custom in the month prior to this trip, and along the way the idea had grown to fix up their cars and make a road trip of a life-time.Ā After 11 long days and nights working on their cars, they finally had them ready to hit the road. You can read about the first 11 days of their journey in Part OneĀ and the first time on the road for the cars in Part Two of this series. The guys Ā worked till late into the night to get Ronnie’s Mercury fixed. They left Ronnie’s ’39 Mercury at Gene’sĀ shop and took Micke’sĀ ’36 Ford to drive up to the nearest Motel to get a few hours of sleep. Early the next morning they head back toĀ spend some moreĀ quality time with Gene Winshield at his Mojave Desert shop.

CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-01After sleeping a few hours at the nearest motel the guys droveĀ back to the Winfield shop with Ronnie’ s ’36 FordĀ early in the morning.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-02New day, new challenges. The Merc was fixedĀ late last night and now Ronnie is almost ready for aĀ test drive.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-03Ronnie only has toĀ refill the water and check oil…
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-04The test drive went fine, and itĀ“s time to re torque the heads. ThereĀ was nothing they could do about the crack in the head. So, they did all other thingsĀ they could do and hopeĀ the engine will lastĀ the rest of the trip.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-05The both cars are now ready for the rest of the journey. Micke, Ronnie and Mr. Winfield give the thumb up for the rest of the trip!
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-06Gene is 89 years old and still works on custom cars everyday. ItĀ“s really impressive to see a legend work and still enjoy it all like it was his firs day at the job. ThatĀ“s amazing! WhenĀ the Swedes wereĀ at Winfield’s, Gene was worked on a channeled Ā­’40 Ford convertible.Ā 
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-09Then it was time to take a tour around the shop and inside Gene own little museum. Here GeneĀ shows theĀ unique bed he made fromĀ a model-A Ford pickup.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-10Gene sharingĀ memories and stories from dry lake races in the early daysĀ while showing the guys old pictures on the walls.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-collageClose up of the early dry lake collage.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-11One of Gene’s old wood shop signs with his famous logo.Ā Gene hold on to itĀ all these years, and now it’s hanging proudlyĀ in his nice little private museum.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-12The “Thing”, aĀ ’27 model T racer Gene builtĀ in the late 1940’s.Ā  Well the original is long gone, and this one is anĀ updated copy of the real ā€Thingā€. Gene told Micke and Ronnie lots of great stories from back in the dayĀ“s, It was a blast!
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-07Micke had parked hisĀ Ā“36 Ford in the shadow inside the shopĀ to cool down.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-08Micke started his 36 Ford, and everything was still working fine, so they are all ready to go.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-13But before its time to go, they took Gene for a ride in the Ā“36 Ford.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-14here we go…
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-15Can you imagine how many memories this brought back for Gene… and createdĀ for Micke.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-16And of course Gene now also had toĀ get a ride in Ronnie’s Merc as well!
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-17Cruising like it was the early 1940’s…
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-18And moreĀ memories brought back, and created.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-19Then it was almost time to say goodbye to Gene, a few last photos with the cars and the shop in the background….
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-24Before the guys left Gene drewĀ a map showing how to best getĀ to El Mirage dry lake and to a couple of friends which Gene thought visiting would be very well worth it.Ā 
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-20And on the way toĀ Palmdale, the first stop
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Not long after they had leftĀ Winfield’sĀ Ronnie’s Mercury started to get problems again. The engine started to run really crappy and they had to stop. After they had stopped and let the engine cool a bitĀ the engine refused to start again. The guys checked all possible reasons for the engine failure.Ā Condenser, pionts, distributor cap and several more things,Ā but nothing helped to get the engine to start. Finally Ronnie found out that the distributor was flash-over to ground and he was able toĀ fix the problem. Pfff, it was a hot day out in the middle of the desert!… but they were on their way again.


CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-21Finally theĀ guysĀ arrived at the first stop Gene suggested. Dave McCain, one of the worlds fastest Flathead FordĀ drag-racers.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-22Dave showed the guys around in his shop and they talked about Flathead tune up all night long.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-25This was the first night without working on the cars since they had arrived in the US. It felt like vacation, just havingĀ a good time and making plans for the trip to El Mirage tomorrow.
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CCC-historic-customs-usa-road-trip-p3-23The cars early the next morning… all ready and excited for the drive up to the Dry lake.
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Go back to Part 1, Part 2.Ā Or go toĀ Part 4
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(this article is sponsored by)

CCC-Sponsor-KingKustomsTShirt-602Contact Rob Radcliffe at King Kustoms for more info on these T-Shirts Email Rob

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Rik Hoving

Rik is the CCC editor in chief. As a custom car historian he is researching custom car history for many years. In 2004 he started the Custom Car Photo Archive that has become a place of joy for many custom car enthousiasts. Here at CCC Rik will bring you inspiring articles on the history of custom cars and builders. Like a true photo detective he will show us what's going on in all those amazing photos. He will write stories about everything you want to know in the realm of customizing. In daily life Rik is a Graphic Designer. He is married to the CCC webmaster and the father of a 10 year old son (they are both very happy with his excellent cooking skills)

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