Circus wagon pics ? - Page 3 - The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 12:27 AM

Backing up and connecting the story a little more anyone who lived/lives in the South Bay (Redondo/Hermosa/Torrance) area got their inspiration and addiction to lowered & FAST '67-'72 Chevy Shortbeds from Sammy Head. He was messing with these trucks from the day they were new and has built HUNDREDS of them and helped SOOOO many people with their own trucks.
My dad actually went to grade school with Sammy and they were both into Chevies from a very early age. I saw Sammy's cool trucks all my life and knew older guys that Sammy helped with their trucks when I was in High School- I wanted on too!!!!! I finally got one right after High School and while I was fixing it up I found the Black '68 CST and sold my project '68.
Years later (1999) after the Aerospace industry left me without a job or career I started working as manager of a Rhino Linings location. They wanted me to find a "special" truck and give it a custom bed lining for exposure. I immediately thought of Sammy and his latest truck in a long line of killer Slant Nose short fleetsides. This new one was a '67 Short Fleet with a built big block and CST bucket seat (both MUST HAVES for Sammy!). The color was a Fawn Beige metallic so we custom mixed a color for the bed liner a shade darker. It came out super cool and I took it to my first truck show a vendor. While I was there a lady approached me who really dug the truck and she later introduced herself as the Publisher of Custom Classic Truck and Rod & Custom Magazines. She liked me and helped me get a job at Sport Truck- a few months later the Circus Wagon would be born!

Sammy's upholstery shop was an institution in Hermosa Beach.

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

so what do you do now

I DON'T work for any magazines!

After owning my own SO-CAL SPeed Shop Franchise (2006-2010) I'm staring to work directly for the main branch of SO-CAL Speed Shop this year.

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 12:44 AM

Don't think these were ever published. This is inside the place it ALLLLL happened in the South Bay- Sammy's Hobby shop where ALLLLL the local trucks were built!

First one shows a set of wide Turquoise Tru-Spoke rollers from an earlier Sammy project and the first big-block Sammy let me borrow to get my truck on the road while we built my engine. We also used a cut-down exhaust system from a parted longbed big-block truck.

Second pic- The FIRST set of DOT-Approved 18 & 20-inch American Racing Torq Thrust IIs. I was SOOOO afraid they would want them back after they saw the "piece of junk" I put them on! LOL!

OH YEAH! I just remembered I didn't have a bed right away so I drove the truck like the second pic daily to work for a couple months until I found out that was totally illegal. Still I would get Thumbs Up all the time.

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 01:09 AM

I finally put a bed together from no less than 5 different colored beds and I think this is when the "Circus Wagon" name came to be. This was where I parked out front of the Petersen Publishing offices near Beverly Hills with all the other "fancy" editor rides

The guys from Hot Rod and Road & Track always found it "interesting".

Note: this was how I liked to park it. Never was a fan of the "laid out" look. I like the hot rod rake.

67chevy1series · 01-17-2011, 01:10 AM

wow it was a clean truck though

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 01:12 AM

This was my final adventure with the Circus Wagon when my 8 year old son & I ventured into 118-degree AZ heat for the Hot Rod Power Tour with no A/C and no insulation. It had to be over 130 in the cab- we had to come home!

custom72c20 · 01-17-2011, 01:16 AM

That was a bad truck man!!! Great story too!

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

wow it was a clean truck though

The idea was that there was SOOO many good parts in California I used rust-free straight pieces other people were THROWING AWAY! All my parts were cast-offs and the Custom cab & front clip (originally a Gold & White 50th Anniversary) were saved from the scrapper. I cleaned every piece before it went on the truck. The nice bed side was ALL that was left of a totalled '72 a guy destroyed street racing. He let me cut it off before the truck was junked.

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 01:26 AM

Final chapter on the Sport Truck days was when Sammy's son Calin came and worked with us on the staff. Like the rest of us he had no previous magazine experience- just tons of real world knowledge (always makes a better writer). Calin like his dad KNOWS trucks and worked for Sport Truck until it's demise a couple years ago and was the only guy they kept and transferred to Super Chevy.
This is us clowning around in my office for a lead shot on a story on collecting truck junk. At the time I had a pretty major '67-'72 literature collection that's partially shown om my desk. That's my restored '71 StingRay in the background. I got CRAZY into the bikes for a while and had a collection of 60 StingRays on display in my SO-CAL Shop.

19seventeeCustom · 01-17-2011, 11:15 AM

awesome story jim,,,,,thanks a ton!!

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 01:29 PM

Cool! I'm glad finding the pictures, scanning all of them and writing up the story was interesting to one person. Thanks! Jim

nibs · 01-17-2011, 01:44 PM

The rake in the second picture in that post of yours from behind the truck makes me a little weak in the pants! Im trying to get the front of my truck down a little more so I can accomplish that look. That, and putting a little taller tire in the rear should get-r-dun! lol

1956cameo · 01-17-2011, 01:48 PM

Very interesting read! I don't think I have the magazines anymore, but I definately remember reading about the "Circus Wagon". Sorry to hear that the last decade has been so brutal for you.

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1956cameo

Sorry to hear that the last decade has been so brutal for you.

After some close calls heath wise and all the other B.S. so many others have had to go through too with this economy I'm glad just to still be here and get a chance to start over from absolutely nothing. For my kids I wish that wasn't the case, but life isn't ours to decide what the path brings.

Hey Alvin- PLEASE post some more of those stories if you have scanned them. Thanks Jim

Alvin · 01-17-2011, 01:55 PM

Wow Jim, thanks for going through the trouble to scan the pics and post the story. It's really cool to get an inside look after all these years!

**leddzepp** · 01-17-2011, 01:58 PM

LOVE the rake....that's the look I went for on my project!

68 IRON · 01-17-2011, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CircusWagonJim

That's my restored '71 StingRay in the background. I got CRAZY into the bikes for a while and had a collection of 60 StingRays on display in my SO-CAL Shop.

I can't believe I'm going to do this on a truck forum......That Stingray didn't happen to be red with a silver metal flake seat, did it? One of the greatest gifts I have ever recieved! Great bike!

**70shortfleet** · 01-17-2011, 02:03 PM

I think we all love reading stories like yours, keep them coming and thanks for sharing them. I have had my 1970 cst swb fleetside sense 1984, sold it in 1987 and got it back in 1989. Right now it is in 1000 pieces

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 68 IRON

I can't believe I'm going to do this on a truck forum......That Stingray didn't happen to be red with a silver metal flake seat, did it? One of the greatest gifts I have ever recieved! Great bike!

No, green with a silver seat. I always wished it was red- but my dad told me years later they wated too long and the green one was the last one the store had for sale right before Christmas.

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 04:59 PM

More to the BORING story! I wanted a '67-'72 Short Bed truck BAD after riding in a couple Big-Block equipped examples when I was a kid. When I joined the Air Force I immediately started looking! I couldn't find anything when I was in training school and we weren't even allowed to have a vehicle on the base. When I got to my first base in Minot North Dakota I didn't find anything until this '59 Big Window Short Fleetside showed up. It ran, but had the noisiest rearend I have ever heard. I sold the '59 when another guy in the dorm wanted to sell the '72 Nova he inherited from his grandparents bought NEW when they retired in Arizona. Needless to say it with only 20K miles and spending it's life in dry AZ it was nearly flawless. During the first tune-up we found it still even have the original belts, hoses and spark plugs!

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 05:04 PM

I got restationed to California in 1987 and drove the Nova home and finally picked up a project '68. My now ex-wife thought driving old cars was an embarassment and HATED the Nova! She wasn't much happier for the Black '68 I bought with money from selling the Nova. Sadly the lady that had to have my Nova rolled it and totalled it immediately after she bought it.

Looking at these old pictures I noticed the rear bumper from the green truck ended up on the Circus Wagon 12 years later!

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 05:09 PM

Here's some pics of the interior and engine of the '68. I did eventually clean and detail the engine. Loved the truck even more after the springs were heated! Didn't less how it rode!

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 05:15 PM

Deeply remorsing the sale of my black '68 to my dad I picked up this '72 Short Step a couple years later. Being a stripped 6cyl. stick it just wasn't the same. I tossed the camper, totally detailed the engine, fixed the header that shot fire out of the block and made a TON of noise, added 5-lug Ralleys and sport mirrors. It was a cool cruiser- but I already had a late-model daily and work was getting slow so I sold it.

67chevy1series · 01-17-2011, 05:20 PM

we need more info on your life what comes next??

CircusWagonJim · 01-17-2011, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

we need more info on your life what comes next??

Not sure if you are kidding, but short story-

While at Sport Tuck someone else offered to by my Circus Wagon.
I QUIT Sport Truck after they fired my good friend Kevin Lee who was lined up to be the new Editor of Rod & Custom Magazine, but then someone higher up decided he wanted it for himself and had Kevin taken out for no reason.
I did some freelance work for The Rodder's Journal and then was hired to be the Editor of the Goodguys Gazette. I traveled all over the country to their events for 3 years taking pictures and making their magazine- met MANY truck people!
Then I was asked to join Rod & Custom Magazine after the other people that forced their way in decided they didn't really like early hot rods just as I predicted. As fate would have it Kevin Lee joined me there and we worked together again a few years until the powers that be in the magazine business let us both go due to budget issues (and the magazine hasn't been the same since).
At the same time I found myself again without a job I was working with the SO-CAL Speed Shop trying to get my recently retired dad to start a franchise. He declined so myself and the friend that bought the Circus Wagon founded SO-CAL Speed Shop Los Angeles. Bad for us the economy would crash six months later and businesses everywhere would begin shutting down- especially non-essential based businesses like hot rod parts.
In early 2010 I closed my business and got divorced after 21 years in the same month. Spent the entire year unemployed as the magazine and hot rod world continues to shrink.
2011 I am about to go out on the road for SO-CAL Speed Shop representing them at all the major hot rod events this season and starting my first new truck project in far too long.
That get you up to speed?

01-17-2011, 12:27 AM	#51
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Backing up and connecting the story a little more anyone who lived/lives in the South Bay (Redondo/Hermosa/Torrance) area got their inspiration and addiction to lowered & FAST '67-'72 Chevy Shortbeds from Sammy Head. He was messing with these trucks from the day they were new and has built HUNDREDS of them and helped SOOOO many people with their own trucks. My dad actually went to grade school with Sammy and they were both into Chevies from a very early age. I saw Sammy's cool trucks all my life and knew older guys that Sammy helped with their trucks when I was in High School- I wanted on too!!!!! I finally got one right after High School and while I was fixing it up I found the Black '68 CST and sold my project '68. Years later (1999) after the Aerospace industry left me without a job or career I started working as manager of a Rhino Linings location. They wanted me to find a "special" truck and give it a custom bed lining for exposure. I immediately thought of Sammy and his latest truck in a long line of killer Slant Nose short fleetsides. This new one was a '67 Short Fleet with a built big block and CST bucket seat (both MUST HAVES for Sammy!). The color was a Fawn Beige metallic so we custom mixed a color for the bed liner a shade darker. It came out super cool and I took it to my first truck show a vendor. While I was there a lady approached me who really dug the truck and she later introduced herself as the Publisher of Custom Classic Truck and Rod & Custom Magazines. She liked me and helped me get a job at Sport Truck- a few months later the Circus Wagon would be born! Sammy's upholstery shop was an institution in Hermosa Beach. Attached Images Last edited by CircusWagonJim; 01-17-2011 at 12:50 AM.

01-17-2011, 12:44 AM	#53
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Don't think these were ever published. This is inside the place it ALLLLL happened in the South Bay- Sammy's Hobby shop where ALLLLL the local trucks were built! First one shows a set of wide Turquoise Tru-Spoke rollers from an earlier Sammy project and the first big-block Sammy let me borrow to get my truck on the road while we built my engine. We also used a cut-down exhaust system from a parted longbed big-block truck. Second pic- The FIRST set of DOT-Approved 18 & 20-inch American Racing Torq Thrust IIs. I was SOOOO afraid they would want them back after they saw the "piece of junk" I put them on! LOL! OH YEAH! I just remembered I didn't have a bed right away so I drove the truck like the second pic daily to work for a couple months until I found out that was totally illegal. Still I would get Thumbs Up all the time. Attached Images Last edited by CircusWagonJim; 01-17-2011 at 01:29 AM.

01-17-2011, 01:09 AM	#54
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? I finally put a bed together from no less than 5 different colored beds and I think this is when the "Circus Wagon" name came to be. This was where I parked out front of the Petersen Publishing offices near Beverly Hills with all the other "fancy" editor rides The guys from Hot Rod and Road & Track always found it "interesting". Note: this was how I liked to park it. Never was a fan of the "laid out" look. I like the hot rod rake. Attached Images Last edited by CircusWagonJim; 01-17-2011 at 01:20 AM.

01-17-2011, 01:10 AM	#55
67chevy1series Registered User Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: a t w a t e r cali 95301 Posts: 10,713	Re: Circus wagon pics ? wow it was a clean truck though

01-17-2011, 01:12 AM	#56
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? This was my final adventure with the Circus Wagon when my 8 year old son & I ventured into 118-degree AZ heat for the Hot Rod Power Tour with no A/C and no insulation. It had to be over 130 in the cab- we had to come home! Attached Images

01-17-2011, 01:16 AM	#57
custom72c20 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Temecula,CA Posts: 309	Re: Circus wagon pics ? That was a bad truck man!!! Great story too! __________________ Nick Old pic of my 72: http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0435co5.jpg 04 Silverado Daily Driver 68 GMC short step http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=379665 "I'll beat you to the gas station!!"

01-17-2011, 01:26 AM	#59
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Final chapter on the Sport Truck days was when Sammy's son Calin came and worked with us on the staff. Like the rest of us he had no previous magazine experience- just tons of real world knowledge (always makes a better writer). Calin like his dad KNOWS trucks and worked for Sport Truck until it's demise a couple years ago and was the only guy they kept and transferred to Super Chevy. This is us clowning around in my office for a lead shot on a story on collecting truck junk. At the time I had a pretty major '67-'72 literature collection that's partially shown om my desk. That's my restored '71 StingRay in the background. I got CRAZY into the bikes for a while and had a collection of 60 StingRays on display in my SO-CAL Shop. Attached Images

01-17-2011, 11:15 AM	#60
19seventeeCustom Registered User Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Downtown Posts: 573	Re: Circus wagon pics ? awesome story jim,,,,,thanks a ton!!

01-17-2011, 01:29 PM	#61
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Cool! I'm glad finding the pictures, scanning all of them and writing up the story was interesting to one person. Thanks! Jim

01-17-2011, 01:44 PM	#62
nibs JRods Garage Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: East Highland, CA Posts: 1,098	Re: Circus wagon pics ? The rake in the second picture in that post of yours from behind the truck makes me a little weak in the pants! Im trying to get the front of my truck down a little more so I can accomplish that look. That, and putting a little taller tire in the rear should get-r-dun! lol __________________ Orange Julius-My dropmember'd, LS'd, SWB street machine...

01-17-2011, 01:48 PM	#63
1956cameo Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Angleton, TX Posts: 2,219	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Very interesting read! I don't think I have the magazines anymore, but I definately remember reading about the "Circus Wagon". Sorry to hear that the last decade has been so brutal for you. __________________ I don't always drive trucks; but when I do I prefer Chevy's. Stay driving my friends. '72 blazer 2wd build 67-72 Factory Big Block Registry Last edited by 1956cameo; 01-17-2011 at 01:50 PM.

01-17-2011, 01:55 PM	#65
Alvin Never Done? Join Date: May 2000 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,435	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Wow Jim, thanks for going through the trouble to scan the pics and post the story. It's really cool to get an inside look after all these years! __________________ Ethel - The Legend Continues... Ethel has been sold.

01-17-2011, 01:58 PM	#66
leddzepp Moderator Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southern Cal Posts: 20,036	Re: Circus wagon pics ? LOVE the rake....that's the look I went for on my project! __________________ 1972 C/10 Cheyenne Super SWB. Restored, loaded, slammed. 1968 C/10 50th Anniversary LWB. Unrestored, stock, daily driver/work truck. RIP ElJay RIP 67ChevyRedneck RIP Grumpy Old Man RIP FleetsidePaul

01-17-2011, 02:03 PM	#68
70shortfleet Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: St.Peters, MO Posts: 2,240	Re: Circus wagon pics ? I think we all love reading stories like yours, keep them coming and thanks for sharing them. I have had my 1970 cst swb fleetside sense 1984, sold it in 1987 and got it back in 1989. Right now it is in 1000 pieces

01-17-2011, 04:59 PM	#70
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? More to the BORING story! I wanted a '67-'72 Short Bed truck BAD after riding in a couple Big-Block equipped examples when I was a kid. When I joined the Air Force I immediately started looking! I couldn't find anything when I was in training school and we weren't even allowed to have a vehicle on the base. When I got to my first base in Minot North Dakota I didn't find anything until this '59 Big Window Short Fleetside showed up. It ran, but had the noisiest rearend I have ever heard. I sold the '59 when another guy in the dorm wanted to sell the '72 Nova he inherited from his grandparents bought NEW when they retired in Arizona. Needless to say it with only 20K miles and spending it's life in dry AZ it was nearly flawless. During the first tune-up we found it still even have the original belts, hoses and spark plugs! Attached Images



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01-17-2011, 05:04 PM	#71
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? I got restationed to California in 1987 and drove the Nova home and finally picked up a project '68. My now ex-wife thought driving old cars was an embarassment and HATED the Nova! She wasn't much happier for the Black '68 I bought with money from selling the Nova. Sadly the lady that had to have my Nova rolled it and totalled it immediately after she bought it. Looking at these old pictures I noticed the rear bumper from the green truck ended up on the Circus Wagon 12 years later! Attached Images Last edited by CircusWagonJim; 01-17-2011 at 05:17 PM.

01-17-2011, 05:09 PM	#72
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Here's some pics of the interior and engine of the '68. I did eventually clean and detail the engine. Loved the truck even more after the springs were heated! Didn't less how it rode! Attached Images

01-17-2011, 05:15 PM	#73
CircusWagonJim Registered User Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Burbank, CA Posts: 707	Re: Circus wagon pics ? Deeply remorsing the sale of my black '68 to my dad I picked up this '72 Short Step a couple years later. Being a stripped 6cyl. stick it just wasn't the same. I tossed the camper, totally detailed the engine, fixed the header that shot fire out of the block and made a TON of noise, added 5-lug Ralleys and sport mirrors. It was a cool cruiser- but I already had a late-model daily and work was getting slow so I sold it. Attached Images

01-17-2011, 05:20 PM	#74
67chevy1series Registered User Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: a t w a t e r cali 95301 Posts: 10,713	Re: Circus wagon pics ? we need more info on your life what comes next??

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