*MrModelT's roadster on loan to the Cal Auto Museum!*

[FONT=&quot]Hello fellow H.A.M.B.ers!<o></o>[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Have not had much to update on in a while since the dash is done and the winter has been slow, but this weekend was HUGE!<o></o>[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Rob (Dr.Z here on the HAMB) from So.Cal Sacramento e-mailed me about 2 weeks ago to ask me if I was interested in giving my T on loan to the California Auto Museum for a 3 1/2 month exhibit called "Drive Fast, Take Chances: Birth of the Hot Rod" to represent the pre-war 1920's and 30's era Hot Rods and "Gowjobs" and be on display next to Bobby Green's "Old Crow" belly tank, the Bishop/Tardell blue A-V8, and Vern Tardell's personal roadster.......of course I said YES!!![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Through phone conversations the next day, Rob asked if I could bring the T down a week or so early because Mike Chase (photographer for Rod & Custom, Street Rodder, etc) would like to shoot the car for a feature proposed for either Rod & Custom, Street Rodder..or both, have to wait and see on that one!<o></o>[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I am, of course, now completely blown away and with a week to prepare and get down to Sac....I had to get busy! We borrowed a 16 ft enclosed trailer, hitched it up to my Dad's Dodge P/U and left Friday morn early... getting into Sacramento late after a 12 1/2 hour drive. Saturday morning we loaded up the T and hitched it up to the So.Cal Speed Shop transport and trucked it over to Santa Rosa to meet up with photographer Mike Chase and have the car shot. The shoot was a blast and Mike was an awesome guy....and a great sense of humor!<o></o>[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]After the 4 hour photo shoot, we made a stop by Vern Tardell’s Hot Rod shop to have a look around. Vern is a super nice guy and let us wonder around the shop while they were working on a '34 3-window that had been a rod in the 50's and converted to a 70's style car and was now being put back to it's original appearence by the same family that has owned it for the last 50 years. He really liked my roadster and wants a ride when I return to pick up the T in July and have a bit more time.<o></o>[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]After leaving Tardell's, we headed back to Sacramento and the Cal Auto Museum to drop the T off and get it checked in. It was a sad last drive into the museum, but the experiance is a "once in a lifetime" deal that I had to act on. <o></o>[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Sunday morning we hit the road for home in Portland...and another 12 hour drive, but believe me....It was worth EVERY SECOND!!![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]If you get a chance check out the exhibit and the museum, Rob and the rest of the So.Cal guys as well as the Cal Auto Museum put allot of work in to it and will be a great display!
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[FONT=&quot]Here are a few shots from the trip:[/FONT]
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1) Me and Rob from So. Cal Speed Shop.
2) Me and photographer Mike Chase
3) Moving the T into position in the studio
4) The “crew” (from left: my best friend Dan, my brother, me, Willy and Rob from So.Cal)
5) Mike at work
7) Rear ¾ shot
8) Unloading at the Cal Auto Museum.
9) The last ride.
10) The “Old Crow”
11) Me and my car.
12) Vern Tardell’s shop.
13) Vern hard at work
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Congrats!

 

congrats...

 

That is super cool! Good for you man and much deserved.

-mikethegreek-

 

Thats AWESOME !!

Do you know if they would like some more pics for their display? I have a couple of 8x10s of my Dads and his friends Model "T" hot rods from around 1939-40

That was in Salem by the way...;-)

 

way cool -congrats!

 

Clayton that's GREAT!

Hope you have fun at Portland (and find LOTS of cheap Samson stuff )

 

Thanks all! I am super stoked and really honored that they wanted my car for all this!.....will suck having an empty whole in my garage and no Hot Rod to drive for 3 1/2 months, but it's worth it!

I can certainly ask, not quite sure what all the final display is gonna look like though since it doesn't open until April 10th and they will be putting it together this week I think.

I can't wait and you know I'll be looking hard for 'em!

 

Very cool! Chris told me about this at Voodoo yesterday. Now the real question is: How are you going to live without the T for the next few months? Kinda like the Roy Rogers without Trigger. I guess there is a new project in the works? Congrats!

 

I think your car will look great on display. Congrats, Gary

 

very damn cool. heard about it at the voodoo meet yesterday. awesome.

congrats man!

 

Congratulations! Well deserved, it's a far out car!

 

Congrats! While simple, your car has character to just walk around and around taking it in.

 

DAMN!!!!!! FINALLY! not to sound gay or nothing, but the first time i saw your car, i knew it was a super-star! Told you it was a photo-shoot worthy car. for those that haven't seen the car in person, it's a 100% perfect period correct looking car that could've been in a time capsule since 1940. not a nut or bolt out of place! "SHY WILLIE" told me you were headed south, we heard there was some trouble over the pass. glad you made it OK. since you won't have it for awhile, i assume you'll be bustin' ass on the new project. CONGRATULATIONS! i expect to see some more awesome cars coming out of your place.

 

That is exactly what it feels like, but I will survive...this was worth it! Of course there is another project in the works, when would there NOT be?
I plan to spend the next few months getting some progress made on my '65 Falcon H/M "Rally Pack" sedan.

I hope it does too! I hope to make a trip down and see the exhibit before it closes July 5th.

Lol! Had the feeling it would probably come up. Was hoping to be there Sunday, but didn't get in 'till late.

I guess it does! Both Mike Chase and Vern Tardell really seemed to love it...and of course the So.Cal boys did as well! I wish I could pin point what about that car makes it that way....

 

Ha Ha! There are somethings on that car that are not quite so 1930's, but they were done that way intentionally to give it the look of being built in the 1930's.... but surviving over the last 70+ years being used, loved, driven, repaired and improved by other "owners" through the 1940's, 50's, 60's, etc as many cars like that show today.

The weather was a little "iffy" over the pass, but we did make it fine!

 

just super-happy your're getting some recognition for an amazing job! the amount of research and and effort is truly awesome. i was just going thru my "albert drake 1951 pictorial" book. lots of "PACERS" club members represented

 

Thank you kindly!

I love that book! My grandfather was a pacer for a number of years. I sadly do not have his original "Pacers" jacket so I contacted Albie Powers of American Rebel Jackets to make up a replica. I was very fortunate to see, photograph and measure a surviving original jacket owned by one of his best friends in that period Norm Coffelt, who was quite kind enough to meet up with me last year during the swap meet. We spent 4 hours just trading stories and getting everything I could about grandpa, there trip to LA in 1951 to the GM "Motorama" and grandpa's photo collection of the local drags.

 

MrModelT you built one HELL of a car

 

I hope my A has the same feel when it is done.

 

Here are a few more photos from my friend Dan's camera:

...and a new youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir3lAslgOyM

 

I spoke with one of my friends who works at the museum and he said the back drop for the cars was the road out to the salt by the "Bend in the Road" and was right on!

 

So the exhibit will have a sort of "dry lakes-Bonneville theme"? I couldn't stay down there long enough to see the whole display before it opened, but am hoping to get back down before it closes.

 

Was going to add the dates and such in my last post, but neglected to do so.

"Drive Fast, Take Chances: Birth of the Hot Rod"
California Automotive Museum
April 10th - July 5th 2010

 

Fabulous! Love your T and will have to make a trip to the museum.
Mike

 

Absolutely deserved man. That car has inspired a bunch of people I am sure and is so fucking rad it's not funny. Awesome!!!

 

Hot Rod Cinematic????

 

Mr Model T, Your roadster is a perfect example of the early times of Hot Rods. You are truly being honored. Wish I could go up to Sacto to see the display.

 

&#8220;Shocking...True-To-Fact&#8221;
So cool. 100% loved yer car from earlier post.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=5451
Congrats. Slim

 

That is exactly the period that I was trying to pay tribute to, the very beginings..the "alpha" of Hot Rodding.

Much of the traditional rods seem to stay around the '46-'51 era with a few diving into the '38-'42 period, but even that is not the begining of Hot Rodding.

It started with young guys stripping the fenders, running boards and tops off of their Model Ts and other early cars and seeing who was faster out on the dry lake beds as early as the mid 1920's.....a period and style that is almost never seen in vintage rod builds today. These are the four-fathers of the hobby who created the many tricks and techniques of speed that are common knowledge today.