At a time when most hot rodders were young men in their teens, Bill Niekamp was in his mid-40's when he built his famous roadster. He did so without a torch or a welder and with only basic hand tools. It took him 13 months and $1,900 (a ton of money... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
an excelent car well worth a 2nd (or millionth) look i wish it would get "another" restoration back to how it looked when first built one of my favorite cars of the later 40's-early 50's Zach
Always has been and will always be one of my favorite roadsters. It seems like it is one of the first cars built to not only go fast but look nice as well. Neat article on HowStuffWorks about it: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/niekamp-roadster-hot-rod.htm Some pics from the Petersen vault
This car is absolutely stunning but I prefer to look at in Black & White pics as I do not care for that paint color at all. I really shouldn't even say anything because it's....well the Niekamp roadster and that is like saying something negative about the Doan Spencer roadster. You should keep you mouth shut, but I can't. That color always makes me not dwell on the car for very long. If this car was shot with the same paint as let say the Navarro roadster I may put it on my all time top three list. I had to get that out. The construction and purpose that makes up this car is untouchable. That is the reason I love this car and that is the reason I love Hot rods.
The Petersen vault, has better car there than up stairs.To bad to see a car like that and others just sit there and die..............................
OK Megan, I know you're a pretty crafty lady, but how did you take 2 photos of the Niekamp roadster with the same Hot Rod Mag #1 cover car clone '27 roadster on both sides of it?
A truly beautiful machine. Whitey did some amazing metal work, but it took Niekamp to have that spectacular vision. Really is one of the best.
lat time i was at the Pete (couple of months ago) the Niekamp roadster was upstairs on display with the outlaw, Buttera's '26 some other Jacobs cars too...
I've always liked that roadster - was actually just studying photos of it this past weekend. Ideas, ideas! Great car... Malcolm
Hands down, my absolute favorite early hot rod. I'd give damn near anything for that car. An incredible inspiration.... Seeing it at the Petersen museum was like standing next to the statue of liberty or the declaration of independence or something.
The sort of sad things about cars like this is that they are so perfect I would want to build one identical but then I would just be copying someone else vision. I don't think having a identical car would be very fun in that respect.
Here it is in all its 1970's glory: @ the 25th Grand National Roadster Show - Oakland Coliseum - 1973 ... it looked good ... but I'm sure glad Jake restored it to its 1950 configuration.
Rich ... Didn't you know? ... Roy Brizio's crew built a total of 15 clones ... I hear he got a good deal on Poli-Form fiberglass '27 bodies!
I recall when Jake restored this car in the early 70s. It was cool when it was built, cool then, and the only thing that is disappointing is that it is now so valuable that it hardly ever gets out of the museum any more.
Notice that you mention the "Spencer" roadster, Neal East owned this famous car for many years while Neal was in the LA Roadsters club, since then he has moved to Colorado, maintaining old car books, pix ,etc. When Neal would drive that roadster to our weekly club meetings, we used to tease him about the need to "Freshen" up his paint job. His reply was to leave the car in its present state for nostalgia!!! Neal eventually sold the roadster to the famous millionaire Bruce Meyer, who had Pete & Jake restore it to original form in recent years.--------Don
Well, one pic was before I took it out and terrorized the streets of LA and the other was after I brought it back and parked it. As much as I wish that were true, I cannot tell a lie, my pics were taken on 2 separate visits.
When my dad re-inlisted in the Air Force after WWII we moved to Georgia for his first assignment. Our next door neighbor was a hot rodder and let me borrow his collection of Hot Rod Magazines to read (He had every one from the first in mint condition). The first one I opened had the article on Bills roadster. I was 8 years old at the time and this car was and remains my idea of the perfect hot rod. That was in 1952, 56 years ago, a long time to keep a "favorite", and to this day I would give up every car I've ever owned to have it parked in my garage. Frank
I know I don't have Mr. Niekamp's vision. I have always admired the look of this car ever since I first saw it in car magazines 40 years ago. I have wanted to build a "clone" of it for years and have recently started collecting parts and information to build a similar one. Its a 29 and they are cramped for foot room. If you read the articles Jake wrote on the restoration, Mr. Niekamp took 2-1/2 inches out of the length of the car, in the doors. That will make it a pretty tight fit for most people. I'll let you know when I start the project.
Pretty god damn beautiful! Now how in the hell did he do that without a torch or welder and just a few basic hand tools? I might be missing something, but it's a little hard to get metal to stick together without a welder. I can't weld worth a crap and would love to be able to do something like that without the need of it. In addition to welding, there is a LOT I need to learn, but still, seems pretty damn difficult to do something like that with no welding involved. Gas torches are pretty cheap and I can't imagine he couldn't have afforded one of those if he could afford to do this at all. If that part is definitely true, makes me feel even more lame than I already am. Regardless, near perfect car in my opinion. Thanks for another great post Ryan. Sometimes stuff like this is like getting a rabies shot. You know it is doing you good, but still painful all the same.
Also, what's up with that 70's trophy. Man, the is one hell of a big trophy! Forget display case. You would need to put an addition on your house with a 12 ft. ceiling to display that. I don't mind the windscreen on the car either, maybe even prefer it.
There was welding involved on the car. The thing was that he didnt like the way that welding/heat affects metal so it was left to a bare minimum and someone else did it for him. Most parts are bolted together. Zach