Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: The Story of the Dean Moon '34 Ford Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Just because a TJJ Blog and/or a H.A.M.B. thread can never have too many pics: Dean became the third owner of this ’34 Coupe in September 1946, upon returning from his Merchant Marines tour of duty in Japan. He and Shirley would take it on their Honeymoon. Pictured outside Pop Moon’s Cafe in primer, it was about to be painted black when the WWII veteran was suddenly reactivated for the Korean War. Dean put his ’34 Coupe on display in 1950 at the inaugural Whittier Hot Rod Show at the Urich Gibb Lincoln Mercury dealership, where he worked as a mechanic. He’s the dude in the gray suit describing the engine. At this stage, the Coupe still had the EVANS equipped flathead and one of Moon's own early fuel blocks on the firewall. Dean at work on his '34 Coupe Ruth Hampton posing with Dean's '34 Coupe
& some more, these were taken by Ralph Poole for a magazine article, I have the prints and negatives in my collection.
@Sancho - Thanks for posting that photo from Sondre (@SuperFleye) & Olaf (@Kvipt)'s Kustomrama website ... I have a scan of that same pic (I believe it's from the July 1953 issue of HOP UP) ... but it's so "grainy" that I chose to not post it ... so thanks for sharing it! Jamie (@Jimmy B) - Those photos by the late Ralph Poole are fantastic! ... Thanks for sharing!
This is funny, I was talking to Lanny Erickson earlier tonight and Dean Moon and his '34 coupe came up ironically. He saw it down from his house frequently when he lived in Whittier in 1953 and mentioned the Stude V8, louvered hood, and his wife daily driving it. He said Dean was still a mechanic at the Lincoln/Mercury dealership at the time. He also mentioned walking by a house one day that had a chopped '32 Tudor in the works out front with a missing grille shell, etc. An older man came outside and he explained to him he was just admiring the car. "Oh that car belongs to my son", turns out that was Dean Moon's father.
In Nov of2016,I flew from Texas to Cali to attend the races at ElMirage. One of our stops was Moon Equip. Co. The manager let us have our run of the place and we went behind closed doors into “the private stash” and I took a few pics. What a great room with many artifacts.
Most hot rods back then did without a fan. If you are going over 30MPH you don't need one. In traffic it's different. The Ford flathead is a very hot running engine so they put a big radiator on them. The Stude V8 should cool a lot easier in other words, even with no fan you shouldn't have much trouble as long as you don't get stuck in traffic.
Thanks, Jimmy - good to see pictures that weren't in the magazines. The fuel filter looking units in the fuel block appear to have adjusting screws & lock nuts - were they pressure regulators ?
Hello, Dean Moon was one of those guys that was nice to almost everyone. He talked to us like we were big names in the world of drag racing and hot rods. It did not matter that we had only been to his shop several times and introduced our selves as brothers, who owned a small speed shop/engine building shop. In 1963, a friend of ours bought a sleek black Buick Riviera. He was the older brother of a girl we all knew. He continued to see our Chevy sedans, my 40 Ford Sedan Delivery and other hot rods that came over to his house. He was impressed with what we all did to modify our teenage cars. His younger sister liked cruising around in them, too. I noticed an old balsa surfboard in the garage, buried under a bunch of boxes and stuff. when I pulled it out, it said Surf Boards by Velzy. We had been to Dale Velzy’s Shop in the South Bay and had seen many different balsawood boards. So, we knew the background. When “mag” wheels came on drag racing hot rods and sleek race cars, it was an obvious choice to adapt them to our street daily use cars. But, the initial cost of those new-fangled “mag” wheels was too much for the normal teenager or even those with minimum paying afterschool jobs. We all stuck to our inexpensive, spray-painted wheels and small hubcaps. Even chrome wheels were out of the picture as our pocketbooks just could not cut it at the time. So, for mag wheels, it was a very rare time when someone rolled into the drive-in parking lot with a new set of “mags” on their hot rod. But, the thought of our cars with American Racing 5 Spoke Mags was always on the back of our minds. Jnaki The missing “racy” look that was the goal of a teenager… What popped up in our minds, Versus what we ended up with for our daily drivers. The build, power, and quickness was still prevalent on the daily uses and long road trips, but... NOTE: I had known this girl for a couple of years and had been over to her house plenty of times in the 1958 Impala. I even traded her older brother, a new set of 5 spoke American Racing Equipment mags for a 9’6” Dale Velzy Balsa Surfboard. The board did not ride well, but it was a classic that could not be by passed. Dean Moon’s Shop had been one of the shops/dealers that accepted our small speed shop as a certified engine builder. When we talked over the phone, he gave us the wholesale price of the goods we wanted and that left room for plenty of profit on parts or wheels. I sent him a letter introducing my brother and me along with several business cards. He looked us up in the speed equipment dealers list and since we were on that list, he was nice to us. So, I used our Precision Racing Engines shop discount at Moon Equipment and bought the 4 American Racing Wheels on the 63 Buick Riviera. The Riviera was low in stance from the factory and with the new American Racing Equipment Mags, became the coolest cruiser anywhere. The 1963 Riviera’s had just come out and very few if any had custom touches done. Similar in color and wheels NOTE 2: By the time my wife and I were able to afford a nice set of American Racing Equipment Mags, it was on "her choice" of another El Camino. She said those "mags" made any hot rod, truck or station wagon look cool and racy. YRMV
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