Written by Mike Morris
The summer after graduation, I decided to make a cool car cruiser out of the old ’48 Chevy. I went to my friend, Bruce McKague’s house to use his welding torch to heat the front springs on the ’48 to lower the front end as low as i could. This was supposed to make it look as cool as possible, but it just made it look more like a tumble bug! Next, I took all the seats out and leveled the floor with plywood, and found some old carpet and padding for guys to sit on. Then, using an old webbed lawn chair as a drivers seat, a bunch of my friends and I would cruise around playing poker and drinking beer (Norman Booth could pass for 21).
We would take turns driving so all could enjoy the activities. One afternoon, as we were enjoying our tumble bug cruiser, I stopped for a red light across from the Borden ice cream place. As the light changed, I let out on the clutch and had just begun to move forward, when, all of a sudden, I was on my back in the back seat area on top of everybody. The throttle spring had broken and the car had lurched forward through the intersection and was picking up speed. That lurch had toppled my chair and me into the back! The now driverless car was moving through traffic! Everybody was yelling and pushing me back toward the front, but somebody had the sense to crawl to the front ahead of me and turn the key off. Luck was with us as the car had kept straight and there were no other cars in the way! Except for all the spilled beer and poker chips strewn about, everything went back to normal…AFTER repairing the carb spring.
The things we did!!! And lived to tell about. But it made for a fun summer, even it was a ten year old car.
Keep the cards and letters rolling. Bob Ittner 62
Now that’s a keeper. Wish you could do this in a color cartoon. You could be Tom and Tom could could be Jerry!!!😄 post a picture of this car!!!
John… there’s a picture of the ‘Beer Bomb Cruiser ‘ posted at the end of my grad night party story…BM…before mods.