Blood Sweat and tears found.

Details of finding the original builder.
Of

Blood Sweat and Tears.

Ed asked me to help him find the history on his Henry J gasser. I sent him all I knew at the time and added it to the page asking all of you if you could help. It didn't take long and the information he looked for was found. The Son of the Builder emailed him. His father Mark Peterson had been looking for the Henry J as well. Ed has now talked with Mr Peterson the original builder. I'm showing you the email that was sent to me of the meeting. And a little more....

Ed's Email

-------Original Message-------

Mike,

It couldn't have went better. I have about 20 e-mails from him taking the
car from the junkyard to his final restoration. The story has more twists
and turns than a mystery novel. Mr. Peterson tried to buy the car a number
of times but each time something strange prevented it (he was actually
chased away with a shotgun by one of the owners). He gave up on the car and
a few years later he had a friend who wanted to buy a ford hot rod from him.
The friend said he didn't have all the cash but asked if he would consider
cash and a trade. You're not going to believe this but when Peterson got to
the guys place there was "Blood Sweat and Tears". It was in pretty rough
shape. Peterson didn't know if he could save it. He told the guy he would
sleep on it. According to Peterson he didn't sleep at all that night. He
REALLY loved that car. He told me during the restoration he painted the car
in his garage without a mask. He said he had '69 Camaro Hugger Orange teeth
for a month.

I spoke with him a few times on the phone. He told me how much he missed the
car but was happy it went to a good home. I called him one Saturday and got
his answering machine. I said "There's an old friend who wants to say
something to you". I had opened the headers and fired the J up. Stabbed it a
few times and hung up. About 10 minutes later I got a call at home. It was
Peterson. He sounded like he was almost in tears. Said he had called his son
and daughter to come to the house and listen to the tape. He had already
listened to it ten times. There's just something about that old J. Had he
answered the phone he never would have gotten that recording to keep.

We've swapped pics. I have some great ones of the car in the junkyard with
weeds growing through it. And then in various stages of restoration.

Last December I had Bad Hank (License Plate) at a cruise at the NHRA Museum
in Pomona. There were two guys taking pictures of the J. I asked them if I
could buy them. They told me they worked for Car Craft Magazine. Said the
car might be in the April issue. Sure enough it is (and with a pretty cool
little story next to the pics) Actual story is on the cruise night (some
special deal for Wally Parks).

Thanks for asking. And once again thanks for getting me and Mark Peterson
together.

Ed Lopes