Dayuum what a Cool Hotrod...Such a great reference for period details...and yes it would make for a nice 1rst or second Ride wouldn't it...Thanks for sharing that @J.Ukrop
As I look thru thru magazines of the '50's and '60's I am just mystified as to where ALL these Hot Rods and Customs went.. there was just so doggone many................. They just HAVE TO BE SOMEWHERE.. stashed .. sitting, waiting, ? Recently, I was looking at a homemade roadster I liked, the article indicated a teenager in Salt Lake City, Utah had built it. So I looked up the phone number of that person and phoned him, told him how much I liked his car and wondered what had happen to it... after a few seconds, he said " It's sitting right here in my garage." I said , "Is it available?" He said, "build your own." and hung up.. >>> I looked at pictures again, and didn't like it so much....!!! It was in R&C 1959
Welllll, I (we) just finished the new bench seat for mine. One step closer to the way I want it. For some reason, I Really like this one. You got the juice, kid! Are you coming to the Right coast?
Hi Fran, thank you! No move for me as of now. With all the hot rod business going on out west, TRJ likes to have employees on both coasts. But don't worry, I'll make my way back east periodically throughout the year.
I would say the safe bet is alot of them are long gone. Many were parted out, wrecked, put out to rot in a field. Plus a good number were probably then restored back to factory fresh. I know that is a popular thing with muscle cars. A lot of those with either lots of show/race history have been put back to how they rolled off the line as that was where the money was. Kinda like the resto craze of the 70s with model A's.
Yep, blown up/parted out or wrecked was a typical fate. Owner/builder moves on to another project, car sells for a fraction of it's build price (just like today... LOL) more often than not to some knucklehead who's saved up for his 'dream car'. I recall three very nice cars that came though my high school in the mid 60s, none of the three lasted more than a week with their new teen owners.
Nice Hotrod...I'm sure it put a smile on John's face every time he hopped in it...I know I would relish that myself...thanks for showcasing this A-Bone @J.Ukrop...
in the day around here guys painted white what the so-cal boys chromed... check your 1962 copy of model a handbook... those pix are in there... guy's name was john petty...
Hello, Wow, what a cool looking Model A coupe. Nice story about a So Cal, local hot rod. That car was probably a regular at Oscars Drive-In Restaurant in Lakewood,CA or possibly cruising around next door, in the Bixby Knolls area. The Cherry Avenue Drags area is the border between Lakewood and Bixby Knolls. The cemetery on on the Westside of Cherry Avenue is in Bixby Knolls. The cemetery on the Eastern edge of Cherry Avenue is in the Lakewood side. The magazine title of “Poor man’s Deuce” is a misnomer. How can it be? The build was pretty nice as far as I could see and back then we probably had that same magazine to see the whole article. It was not a fancy show car, but a daily driver and sometimes racer. That is what most local hot rods were back then. They weren't all 1932 Fords... The show cars had to stay pristine, the daily drivers may have looked like show cars, but were daily driven to jobs or high school. A better Hot Rod Magazine title would be: "A Hot Rod For Every Day..." We have to all remember, those cars that got into the magazines were selected by the staff members. (And, only if it racked up points on their acceptance chart being a Deuce). Bright paint, full upholstery, custom wheels or wires, lots of chrome/shiny stuff, and possibly fit into the Hot Rod Magazine "image" of what So Cal hot rods looked like, from the pages of the magazine. There were the main attractions and several sections of “fillers” to seem like all bases were covered. This style of Model A is what we saw cruising the streets of our portion of So Cal. Not too fancy, no garish flames or scallops, just custom wheels, hubcaps, whitewalls, stance, and a powerful motor to make it go. What a sleeper. Period correct would be a great description of what this old coupe looked like in our 1957-65 cruising hot rod days in So Cal. It was something close to the modifications that we all could do, except for that nice chopped top. But, we were willing to try if the situation arose. Jnaki Our version of what the original Model A we bought as a starter hot rod, would have looked like this one, when finished. My brother had his eyes set on having it ready to go against his friend in a 1934 Ford 5 window with a big Olds motor. That was the goal. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-1-4-19.1135003/#post-12896269 Bixby Knolls Model A version…
Nice ride. Gives me inspiration to get going on my 31 5 window. Don't think I'll go with white running gear not my style but that's the beauty of hot rodding everybody gets to do what they want. As long as you put it together or at least work on it it becomes yours. Jnaki is right we do what we can do and get help when we need it and some times we just screw up and learn. Hopefully our buddies on the HAMB can help us minimize the "screw up and learn " part.
Thank you for the great memories, @jnaki. I love hearing your perspective on how it really was in the epicenter of hot rodding during the '50s and '60s.
The aforementioned coupe reminds me of one of my all-time favorites from when I was a kid: Don Dillard's Model A. The car competed in the Asphalt Ego-Rama in the early-2000s and subsequently appeared in Rod & Custom. I should probably do some research and see if he still has it...
This is perfect. Exactly what I have pictured for my future 30/31 build. Wow. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
I remember that car from McDonalds in Downey back around 1959. I pretty sure he ran Steve Carbone in his '57 Vette.
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