RIP Harvey Crane....

T

Texashighways

Comp Diesel Sponsor
Got to spend a week with Harvey training on cams in 2011. He let me roam around all of the DOHC small block Moser setups in both of his hangars as well as look at some of his old memorabilia. He also rambled on for probably two or three hours about cam designs on one of my recordings. He talked about Ed Winfield, Clay Smith, Ed Isky, Gale Banks and even all of the springs manufacturers. Had some choice words to say about a few of them. I promised myself I would not post up until after his passing. But this stuff is too good not to be left to posterity. GOt some shots of the first cam he ground on a lathe and all of his rusty masterpieces and Hotrod memorabilia.


I had caught him on a day he was feeling his oats and telling it like it is. I hope you all get a kick out of this.

Stay tuned..........

Zach
 
Well........

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[ame="http://s240.photobucket.com/user/zacheryhamilton/media/gfhfgh_zpsce45e1b7.jpg.html"]gfhfgh_zpsce45e1b7.jpg Photo by zacheryhamilton | Photobucket[/ame]

[ame="http://s240.photobucket.com/user/zacheryhamilton/media/harvey-camgrinder-1953_edited_zpsc1f395d8.jpg.html"]harvey-camgrinder-1953_edited_zpsc1f395d8.jpg Photo by zacheryhamilton | Photobucket[/ame]


Been a crazy week, sorry it took so long to get it posted. I have hours of conversation, so I am trying to cut down what to post up.

This one is a chance meeting with Harvey Crane with Ed Iskenderian at a closing banquet at Bonneville. The other is an early shot of Harvey working with a cam at his first shop.
 
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Very cool. When these guys are gone, the stories are gone forever.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
 
I hope that some of the stories will stay around a while. I found myself asking him about the early years of hotrod. The early years of the cam business sound exactly like what we are going through today in the diesel industry.

He was tired and still pissed about being fired from Crane Cams. Since the recorder is next to me, I can be heard much louder and he keeps reclining in his chair which is a loud screeching. I apologize for talking so much..... I was trying to get him to open up a bit.

Ill post up my favorite story about Isky ordering each one of his cam through mail order via "Cut-throat bait shop" I'll try to get it up tonight.
 
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3C70y1NcEk"]Harvey 2 - YouTube[/ame]

This one has the story about how the picture with Ed Iskenderian came about. It was really cool to see how business was done so much differently than it is now. Speed shops and mail order instead of internet. One of the things you will see is that he was a really kind hearted person that got knocked around a good bit in business. He never got over being fired from Crane Cams in 1989..... And after the company bearing his name went out of business, he worked almost around the clock trying to find all of his former employees jobs to the point he had bleeding stomach ulcers.
 
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Isky is one tiny dude. I finally remembered you said you were going to post the recordings. I was going to ask, did you check out the texture thread I told you about Zach?
 
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