Tulsa Boneyards, and Z Legends
Tulsa Area Chapter Z-heds doing their own repair or restoration projects know the value of a good salvage yard. In Tulsa, the common knowledge for many years was to seek out Henry at Ace Auto Salvage for used parts. My first visit there, however, was not pleasant. Just my luck Henry had retired and sold the salvage yard to someone who turned out to be less than interested in Z cars or customer service. I did not go back there for a long time. Then, I got a tip from OKZCC member Chuck Wilson who referred me to the personal salvage yard of Peewee in nearby Turley. After finally finding the place, I noticed something vaguely familiar while rummaging around the yard and talking with Peewee. Turns out that Peewee used to work for Henry at Ace and had bought all the Zs and ZXs and moved them to his own place. Peewee had my business for more than a year, until I got a tip at the monthly Tulsa OKZCC chapter meeting that Archer Auto Salvage was under new management the legendary Henry had bought it back. I believe persistence and loyalty, even if it is to someone you’ve never met, will eventually be rewarded. On my first visit back to Archer Auto Salvage, I was greeted by a scruffy version of Santa Claus who wanted to talk about Z cars and racing. Yes? at long last I was face-to-face with Henry. Each return trip to the Z-car salvage yard over the next two years felt like a family reunion. Henry would perch nearby to chat and watch me strip some part or another from a donor Z. Even though he claimed to be too old to run the yard and was supposedly retired, he always seemed to appear (seemingly out of nowhere) to talk Z cars and share tales of his racing at Hallett in the 1970s. I had mentioned to Henry that I was trying to save enough cash to invest in building a Z racecar, but the goal was still a ways off. I never gave much thought to that particular conversation until November 2006 when Henry met me as I got out my 280ZX at the salvage yard. Still want that race car? he asked. Sure, I said, and for the first time in my life, I actually had some money saved. Henry gave me the number of Tulsan Larry Childs who had raced at Hallett in GT2 and was thinking of selling his tube-frame 240Z. Childs had bought the car from Henry in about 1992 and converted to a sole-purpose competition machine. It was rough, but essentially ready to race. I looked it over and less than a month later it was mine. I did some bodywork on the steel fenders, cleaned up the hood, put on a fiberglass front bumper, and painted it with Duplicolor Fleet White (the cheap stuff). Fellow OKZCC member John Lucas machine buffed the entire car for me and vinyl decals gave it the finishing touch. This is the car that won the Sports Competition trophy at the Darryl Starbird car show in Tulsa last March, and that I drive in NEOkla Region SCCA autocross competition. I’ve also driven it at high speed at Hallett until I used up third gear on my last outing this past May. More visits to the boneyard are in my future, and I look forward to more visits with Henry.