Username Protected wrote:
I ran into Jay along the edge of Burbank Airport back in the late 80s.
I worked on the restoration of 2 P-38s at Chino. There was a place called Grasso and Grasso along the perimeter of Burbank Airport. Punky Grasso was the guy I dealt with. Nice guy. His Dad and Uncle created some of the 1st portable generators for films. They even built a device on a car chassis that had a small generator and a stuffed hose that rocked along with a place for the camera. They would drive it along a dirt road while the actor sat on the horse. By varying the generator speed you would change the speed f the rock of the horse.
At the end of WWII they bought a piece of property from Lockheed that was the gun aiming revetment, an octagon with thick concrete walls. Lockheed gave them money to tear it down but they used it to construct a roof and a hangar door. They also bought tons of surplus items. Had PV-2 wings in crates they set up a couple vertically and then a couple more laying flat on top to cover more items. I was told at one time they had stacked crates of P-38 exhaust in a row to create a fence.
The vast majority of stuff was gone when I found the place scrounging for P-38 parts in the late 1980s. But he let me wander the place and I found quite a number of items we needed. Sometimes it was just a trade for a case of beer.
On one of the visits Jay and some others wandered in. He had bought a building up the road and they came by to say hi.
Punky also raced vintage racers. Had one painted up as the Gilmore Lion car with an Offy. They no longer met safety standards but would run around tracks as an exhibition between main races. He was lost in a wreck doing this. A car stalled and he and 2 others came around the turn 3 abreast. The cars on either side of him missed but he didn't have anywhere to go. It flipped him upside down. He died in the hospital after surgery due to blood loss issues.