I think every active hot rodder comes across at least one special find in his lifetime (I won’t call it a “barn find”, as that term has been heavily used as of late). It can be a car with real history, personal significance, or just a great score. It started innocently enough. Just surfing the [...]
The Tale of “Tater”
Posted on January 19th, 2010 by Jive-Bomber
Filed under: Hot Rods
Filed under: Hot Rods
Bob Aguilera’s ’53 Merc
If you weren’t around this weekend, you probably aren’t aware of all the problems we had on the site. For the first time in over half a decade, we were down for over four hours. As a result, I spent most of my night at the computer and not on my tempurpedic. Nightmare. Anyhow, I’m [...]
The Other Moonglow
When Duane Steck built his Moonglow Chevrolet, he did so meagerly in his own driveway. It was a simple custom with a graciously chopped top and smart styling. More than anything though, the Moonglow was damned low… and folks (according to the magazines anyway) freaked on the stance. A couple of years later, a man [...]
The Devil on Wheels! 1947…
Ryan’s post on Hot Rod Girl got me thinking about my favorite Hot Rod “B” movie… Its actually one that came out almost 10 years earlier and is considered to be the first Hollywood film to feature hot rods in it: The Devil on Wheels, released in 1947. Even the great race footage from “Verigo [...]
The Story Of Tommy Lee
The month of January, 2010 is a great place to start with a fellow that most of you have heard about – Thomas Lee, better known as Tommy Lee. At the age of 28 in 1934, Tommy inherited seven Cadillac dealerships (and a ton of other property) from his father – Don Lee. Don was [...]
The Wedgewood Special
A few years ago, I bought my wife a nice ’63 Lambretta from my friend Brian. He’s one of those guys that collects or builds only the best old scooters, classic motorcycles, and interestingly enough, brass-era and 20s cars. He loves T speedsters among other things, and he drug out this little home-built gem, the [...]
Hot Rod Girl!
Movies don’t get much worse than the low budget hot rod movies of the 1950′s. Still, there’s something novel about watching them. If you can get past the terrible plot lines and the complete absence of acting, you can usually find all sorts of shit worth studying. One of my favorite b-movies of the time [...]
The Destruction Of Perfection
It would be easy to blame this mess on George Barris. He just couldn’t stop himself. He couldn’t leave functionality well enough alone. In the name of promotion, money, and ego, he created on top of a creation that needed to be left alone. In a few lights of the torch and slaps of a [...]
Dad’s Trophies part 2: National Custom Auto Show – St. Louis 1966
Another trophy gem from my Dad’s collection was this 1966 award for his clean little bucket dubbed “The SaniTary T”. Pops remembers that he bought the car already built, but added a Tommy Ivo-inspired top later on. The car featured a 6 carb Olds motor, steel T bed, red pearl paint and interior, and chrome [...]
Through the years we’ve had some pretty amazing articles pop up here on The Jalopy Journal. The following is just a few of them:
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Tom Cobbs
The story of Tom Cobbs, his legacy, and his hot rod roadster. Read: Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3.
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The Bob Roddick Story
The story of a set of lost photos that literally take us all back into time. Read: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4.
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The Ferrari Shoot
Comparing and contrasting three very different cars with three very different purposes in life. Read It >>
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Inspiration
This post is actually a continuation of two other posts that were written in 2006 (Part 1 & 2). The stuff you guys came up with is breathtaking.
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Gary Howard
Gary is one of my heroes and after interviewing him, I got to check off an item from my dream list. Read It >>