Thursday, February 10, 2011

Sandy Belond's 1931 roadster, one of the first to race over 100mph on the dry lakes, in 1938 he went 125, fastest prewar lakes record








Sandy joined the USMC, entered the war late and was back by '46.
When Sandy returned he went to work for Archie Porter where he reunited with Bob Hedman, later to be known as the founder of Hedman Hedders. It is believed that Sandy learned the muffler business from Archie Porter in the mid 30's at the Porter's Muffler Shop and Sandy returned to work there for a short stint after the war.

But Sandy was anxious to open his own shops again, so he along with Bob Hedman and Bud Gregory proceeded with the manufacture of a couple of ideas Sandy had for a new equal length V8 60 header for midget cars. Karl Orr lent him the money and offered him a space in the back of his speed shop. Sandy installed a drive on lift on the west side of the Orr's Speed shop, and he moved into a small apt behind the speed shop on the east side of the Orr's property with his wife Ruth and their daughter Donna. This was '47, Bud came over with Sandy as the shop foreman and Bob joined them shortly thereafter.

Sandy began building the midget headers with Bud and they were a great success. He saved some money up and ventured into his next project creating the Sandy Belond Equa-Flow Exhaust System which revolutionized the header industry by creating the first ever jigs for exhaust systems.

Information from a full post by the owner, on the HAMB http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=359942

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