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Old 06-18-2024, 07:45 PM   #6
v8fordman
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: Lexington, NC
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Default Re: Okie Adams axles

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Hank, before Okie died in a house fire, I traveled to the LARS and had a great visit with him. He was quiet a character and at one time had many welding certifications. Yes, he did work at Blair's Speed Shop and he told me Don Blair would not let him sell his axles at the shop with Okie's name stamped on it. He did sell axles outside of the speed shop which had several different stampings on it. I have seen them with "OKIE", "ADAMS", and "Okie Adams". The Baskerville roadster has one of his axles in it and originally was stamped, but when it got re-chromed, the plater filled or ground his name off of it.
(Or the axle is in reversed and I couldn't see it on the back side) Many times he would also stamp the name of the city where he happened to be residing at the time. Okie's son, who also went by "Okie" confirmed this with me after his dad passed away. As a matter of fact, Okie Jr. told me he was the one who did the actual stamping. What is unique about the stamping is the font. I asked him about that and he actually went to his workshop and showed me what was left of his set. I have never seen another set of stamps (font) like those.
He told me that, not only did he drop early Ford axles, but he dropped Model A's and he even did some old Plymouth's as well. I saw the sawed off end of a Model A at Dick Wade's house one year when I visited him, but I've never seen a complete axle. Dick is/was an Okie expert and researcher.

I wrote an article on him some time back and submitted it to a writer of an unnamed magazine. I have lots of information on him and things that he sent me when I was trying to find out about his axles like you are. I even have a business card of his claiming to be a dowser who could find water and gold. If you do a Goggle search, you will find he was also well known as a banjo maker. He told me famed bluegrass musician Doc Watson had one of his banjos. I saw some of his tone rings in his shop and they were heavy. The article never got printed and I have no idea where that file is. That was several computers ago. Anyway, good luck with your Okie endeavor.

Last edited by v8fordman; 06-19-2024 at 04:19 AM.
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