Monday, December 11, 2017

Jeff Dunham bought the Hard Hat Hauler and had Dave Shuten at Galpin Auto Sports restore it


Evidently this Barris creation came to life in 1971 from a 1/25th scale model, and features a triple blown "500hp" Chrysler Hemi engine, hand made headers, Cragar wheels, and 15" rear Goodyear slicks. The front has a working fork lift mounted ahead of the front axle.

it was up on Ebay in 2014 for about 10 thou http://oppositelock.kinja.com/found-on-ebay-george-barris-hard-hat-hauler-1503880108


somewhat changed and not kept up to it's original show car looks

This unique hot rod concept was brought to life size by Bob Larivee of Promotions Incorporated and  Barris Kustom Industries.

Designed by Harry Bradly, this originated as a 1⁄25th scale model kit and then duplicated in replica to a full size operable car. The concept of the American Hard Hat worker was incorporated into a combo T bucket - forklift.

Race Car Specialties of Tarzana, were commissioned to perform the machine work and construction of the chassis and torsion bar suspension. Carrera coiled 50/50 shocks were used on the rear frame center mount, and dual air shocks were installed on the front end.

A 23-T Roadster fiberglass lightweight body and turtle deck were channeled over the frame 4 inches in front and three inches in the rear. Vertical steering was installed with a Corvair box and Ansen red metal flake steering wheel.

Three 671 blowers with Cragar drives are stacked on the engine with an Enderly Fuel injection air scoop. All engine accessories and decorative chrome ornaments are provided by Cal Custom Accessories. Stewart Warner dials and gauges were used in the embossed aluminum firewall.

A lunch box case houses a Moon gas tank and battery. Extra wide reversed front and rear wheels were engineered by Cragar, then face plates have character artist renditions of Kennedy, Muskey, Agnew and Reagan mounted as hubcaps.


http://www.automobilemag.com/news/wildest-rides-from-galpins-hall-of-customs-in-l-a
https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/4962401/

5 comments:

  1. I’m calling bs on the blower being functional as there’s no drive from the crank, just a belt around the 3 blower pulleys - and that middle pulley would slip the belt like crazy under load. Also, the forks may move over a small range, but it’s hardly a working forklift. I loved all the themed hot rod model kits when I was a kid even though quite a few had questionable engineering that wouldn’t make them feasible as real cars

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    1. I never made a claim that anything was functional, I merely used old info to describe the thing. I don't see any hydraulic lines to the forks, but, that one hydraulic ram would lift the forks about 3 or 4 feet from what I see. No big deal, it's simply cool that it was found and restored properly, and back to making someone happy instead of abandoned, neglected, or left to spiderwebs in some warehouse

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    2. The blowers are not functional! They are just blower cases with the belt and pulleys. They do spin but nothing inside! The hemi engine has a stock one barrel manifold with one barrel carb on it! The scoop is locked in a semi open position. I have seen the car myself with the blowers off. Still a cool car though! The guy that had it got it super cheap at a universal auction. He also hat the toilet and tub car barris built.

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  2. I'm not an expert but don't the blowers have a certain max throughput? So Stacking them makes no sense to me> even if the belt drive worked.

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  3. they're not connected to the crank. prob don't eveb turn

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