Just A Car Guy: 1/11/09

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Ron Pratte car collection

Seriously, You don't want this post, you want the JAN 2012 update: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/ron-pratte-collection-update-his.html

Tere posted a whole gallery of photos of Ron's collection: http://justacargal.blogspot.com/search/label/Ron%20Pratte

for the Jan 2012 update with a the video from inside Ron's collection, and screen shots: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/ron-pratte-collection-update-his.html

for the Jan 2010 update: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/01/update-to-ron-pratte-post-darryl-gwynn.html

Ron Pratte of Chandler, Arizona, multi-millionaire who sold Pratte Development, one of the nation’s largest wood framing and concrete foundation companies to Pulte Homes at the peak of the Arizona housing boom and cashed out just in time to avoid the slump. Known in the car world for the $5 million winning bid for Carroll Shelby’s 1966 Super Snake AC Cobra 800hp 427 dual quad, dual supercharged. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/01/carroll-shelbys-personal-cobra-sells.html

Ron is the brains behinds the Pratte Development Company, Inc., which builds one of the nations largest wood framing and concrete foundation companies. To top it off, he has his business located in one of the fastest growing areas of the country.

Most of the other car aficionados know Ron Pratte from his last years purchase of Futurliner bus (he brought it for over 4 million dollars), and he bought the first Shelby GT500 last year for nearly $650,000.
http://www.techbanyan.com/3221/ron-pratte-car-collection/
http://theronprattecarcollection.blogspot.com/

When Pulte Homes Inc. last month announced it has entered a 50/50 joint venture with its largest trade contractor in Arizona and Nevada, eyebrows went up across the American housing industry. A high percentage of them belonged to GIANT production builders who compete head to head with the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based colossus.

Pulte and Phoenix-based carpentry trades mogul Ron Pratte are equal partners in the new company, Pratte Building Systems, formed to replace Pratte Development Co., one of the nation's largest wood framing and concrete foundation companies. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
http://www.housingzone.com/topics/giants/giants/pbg04ba003.asp

Philanthropic: Ron Pratt appears to have spent nearly as much on charity as on cars. In a single auction on the Tony Stewart race car, Ron Pratt increased his own bid to $300K, inspired others to throw in additional funding of $80K, had previously donated $100K independent of the BJ auction and helped to achieve another $20K from an auction for a couple of $20 posters.
And then? Donated the car back to the Gwynn Foundation that sold it to raise money a second time by selling it again at Barrett Jackson auction Jan 18th 2009. And it sold for 165 thousand to go directly to buy electric wheelchairs for kids.

Do the math. That’s $500K, yes 1/2 million, raised for the foundation that supports those afflicted for Muscular Dystrophy.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/01/22/who-is-ron-pratte/
Buying the 2006 Jeff Gordon Monte Carlo for $500,000. The proceeds go to the National Marrow Donor Program.

In February 2009, the Arizona Classisc Thunderbird Club may be touring the collection..... So look to their website after that to see if any of their members post photos or talk about the collection: http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/actc/events.html

http://ratevin.com/story.php?title=Ron_Pratte_Car_Collection

The Futurliner bus from Barrett Jackson http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2006/10/vintage-modern-concept-buses.html
Carroll's personal 427 AC Cobra dual supercharged, 800hp
1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Motorama concept car.
Oldsmobile F-88 show car
the One-Millionth Thunderbird
1924 Ford 4-AT-E Airplane, that was shot in Pearl Harbor's attack in 1941
1945 P-51 Mustang "Ped Dog"
The Cosmonaut retrieval boat
Tony Stewart’s 2007 Home Depot Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Jeff Gordon's 2006 No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
The Beverly Hillbillies Woody
the first 2008 Shelby GT500 KR Glass Roof
Carroll’s personal 1969 GT500 convertible
The last Sting Ray
The first T-bird off the assembly line
he started his private car collection at B-J 2003 by buying 52 cars (http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/184760/page/0/fpart/3/vc/1 )
http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/nevt/PrattGallery.html
http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/survivors/pages/44-74469.shtml

Firestone Air Chief auto radios

Thanks Randy! These two are the centerfold in the 1938 Firestone catalog

Click on all photos to make them full size

Cool stuff in the 1938 Firestone Auto Supply catalog

Thanks to Randy for letting me scan this cool catalog!

The 1938 Plymouth advertisement

Thanks Randy!

Western Auto ad from 1937

Thanks Randy!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

TOOLS!!! A very accurate description of common garage tools!

If you've used these tools you know exactly what it is describing.
DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted part which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ''What the...??''

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.

SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood blisters.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

WELDING GLOVES: Heavy duty leather gloves used to prolong the conduction of intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub you want the bearing race out of.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG YELLOW PINE 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes thereby ending any possible future use.

BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A very large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids and for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit. Alternatively used to locate the user's thumb in enclosed work areas. Also see "Dammit Tool" below

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing body parts and work clothes, but only while wearing them.

DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ''DAMMIT'' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need
http://www.vettemod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2786

Have any to add to the list? I'd love to share them.

My favorite is the NUMBER ONE TOOL: Cash

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The 1925 Rolls-Royce rebodied in 1934 by Jonckheere,

Originally the car was a 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I with a body built in 1934 by Jonckheere of Belgium. Like all other prewar Rolls-Royce motorcars, this Phantom I was delivered new in chassis-only form to a coachbuilder. Hooper & Co. was the chosen body maker and in 1925, the completed vehicle was delivered with cabriolet coachwork to its first owner, a Mrs. Hugh Dillman of Detroit. Mrs. Dillman reportedly did not like the car and it appears never to have left England.

The Rolls-Royce was purchased by the Raja of Nanpara before being passed on to an unknown number of other owners and by 1932 was seen in Belgium. Two years later its then owner sent the car to Jonckheere of Belgium to be stripped of its cabriolet body and fitted with fashionably aerodynamic coachwork complete with twin sunroofs, a large fin, a sloping radiator shell, and round doors.

Although the design was controversial and not highly regarded by most Rolls-Royce aficionados, the car was well received by Concours d’Elegance judges of the day and was reported to have taken a Prix d’Honneur at the August, 1936 Cannes Concours d’Elegance.

The prize winning car then passed through the hands of several other owners, and was observed in Bar Harbor, Maine before World War II being driven by a chauffeur who was supposedly so obese, that he could not get out of the car to assist his employer to disembark. The Round Door Rolls was next discovered in the 1950’s, in New Jersey, in a junk yard.

It is not known who rescued the car from being scrapped, but East Coast entrepreneur Max Obie eventually acquired the unusual Rolls-Royce and had it refurbished. Obie would take it to shopping malls, making claims that the car had been owned by royalty and charged admission for people to look at it.

In the Spring of 2001, the Peterson Automotive Museum took possession, and Mr. and Mrs. Petersen decided to bring the car back to its concours winning glory. Every component was removed, checked for wear and authenticity, then reconditioned or replaced as needed. The car was painted black which highlights its subtle contours and striking profile.
http://classiccars.about.com/b/2008/04/24/1925-round-door-rolls-royce-at-the-petersen-museum.htm