History The Doane Spencer Roadster from '52-'69...More details?

Bummer, that was one of the issues I lost in the flood 3 years ago. I had every issue of that mag up until then

 

I'm surprised noone has mentioned the removable hardtop,to me that is one of the prime elements of the car. A major item which makes the car unique. IMHO.

 

Does this mean you can use the F-1 inner bearing in the 40-48 Ford hubs and essentially you can use the 40-48 front brakes on the F-1 spindles?

Sorry, I've just taken away from the meaning of this thread but found this very insightful.

 

I really did not want to comment since need louvers was telling me I was wrong. I thought I would check to make sure I was not wrong. I went and took the bearings out of a F-1 hub and compaired them to some from a 48 pass car. The F-1 inner bearing cup is about 1/4" bigger in dia and the cone is also bigger than the 48 pass parts. The F-1 inner bearing cone is way too big to go in a 48 pass cup. I see no way to put 48 hubs on a F-1 spindle. Spencer must have used F-1 or F-100 hubs or machined the spindle to fit somethng else.

 

I talked to Neal East about writing a book about the Doane Spencer car but he said "the time has passed for such a thing, Doane is gone so there's no way to get all the facts about the car." It's too bad, if anyone could get it published and sold, it's him!

 

Yeah, too bad. The book on the most well known '32 roadster, too hard to make? Maybe you don't need Neal East, Bruce Meyer has the knowledge and the capital to do it. That, and all the still living former owners may be enough.

 

Bruce & Neal are the only 2 living owners!! And Neal East is a writer!!

 

Oh... Well if Bruce was on board, I don't see how Neal could say no.

 

While the spindles could have been turned to accept the Passenger inner bearing ID [thus using the pass hub] I think the F1 spindle/hubs were used for strength/durability as it was going to be beat on pretty good in the road race; an in betwene to using the rear 3/4 ton truck hubs [heavy and wide five] on the front like they were doing for circle track cars..I have swapped between Pass [nos] and F1 spindles on same mor-drop axle and saw no camber difference, just my experience....

 

The Doane Spencer car has influenced a large group of hotrodders and will continue to do so, the boss (Dave Crouse) has the original dash and gages out of the Spencer car and in turn built a roadster pretty much around that dash.

I have done a little repair to the dash and it is really great to be able to work on a part of our hot roding heritage.

A book on the Spencer car would be great a lot of the pioneers that built up our hobby have and are passing it would be of a great value to everyone to preserve what knowledge there is left.

 

Looks like this Doane Spencer guy copied the Rolling Bones cars...

Sam

 

God Rex that thing is looking great!

 

haha! I've been waiting for that one.

 

Ah crap!

That was the best place to scavenge out a magazine or revel in the greatness that Car Books and Neal East was.

 

The pic that cruzr posted in post #7 was built by Cam Grant in the Vancouver, BC area. It is not a true clone as it runs a hemi. It was built with the Spencer car in mind though as it certainly has the look, even to the exhaust exit thru the frame. Cam sold this car ages ago when he sold the Duval Windshield repo business. As Doane was a real performance oriented hot rodder, you have to wonder if the car would have stayed the same if he had kept it. I still remember an article on Jake Jacobs AMBR Niekamp roadster, when Niekamp couldn't believe Jake was going to put a flathead back in the car. He thought it needed a newer motor to update it.

 

Hey Andy!
I owe you a major very puplic apology - you are right! I went out and measured the same thing when I saw your response earlier this evening. In my defense, I was in on putting pass car brakes on F-1 spindles with a friend of mine about fifteen yours ago. I gave him the spindles, he wanted early style brakes. I remember a trip to Bearing, Belt and Chain here in Phoenix, but I must be wrong. Now the question would be how it was done - '40 style "inny" type drums on the F-1 hubs maybe?
He is not with us anymore to ask, otherwise I would give him a call... On king pin inclination angles though, I have to say that right now I have two sets of F-1 spindles drums and hubs. I put one on one side of a good '36 pass axle and I have about 1 degree of positive camber. These I know to be from a '52 F-1 panel. The other put on the same king pin boss runs straight to the world. Those came from a swap so I don't know they're lineage. The other set shows no signs of being bent. I have seen this before.
Once again, I shouldn't be so quick to correct, sorry about that.

Enough F-1 minutia, back to your regularly scheduled thread....

 

Thanks for all of the dialog on the spindle issue. Sounds like all F-1 spindles aren't created equal... I'm running F-1 brakes on early car spindles which is typical, but always wondered about Spencer's setup.

 

It had a different look in 1949...

 

Here are some pictures I took of it last year

 

Thanks Nostalgia 59 (Lynn) for the early pixs. I think that is the best look for the car. The car is study in hot rod evolution.

 

I love that thing...Gotta see it in the flesh one day.

 

Cheers from down under. About F1 stubs and Doanes set up. From memory, camber was set differently, side to side, on the front of these early axels to compensate for road camber. For you over there who drive on the other side of the road, I think one would want less camber on the passenger/low side of the road. I think from memory, if it's not failing me, that in the 30's this was done by tweeking the axels with special equipment. Any way maybe this is what Doane was looking for?....a more balanced and stronger front spindle set up for racing down the middle of the road south and to take those Lincoln drums as well. Do the Lincoln drums have bigger inner bearings? I've always wondered why we are so consevative (not me !) because Zing the front and running a straight axel has to be better then a dropped axel. The bigger the drop, the more twisting is going to happen up front when one clamps those big old brakes down hard. The Spencer roadster has to be "the" car because of his advanced approach at such an early time in the hot rodding era. It is for me any way. cheers

 

Your roadster is sublime mikee!

 

J Neal is an old friend. We must realize that he was trying to keep food on the table for the family on a magazine writers salary. Not much surplus monies. I was in his garage in Alhambra looking at an Aussie roadster body (I think a '34) and the roadster was in there. It had a flathead set in it. In a box over in the corner were the aluminum mounts to put the "modern" motor in it. We were fondling them and remarking how great they looked. I wish Neal had put the Y block in it.

 

Thanks for starting this thread up Brian. The Doane Spencer Roadster has always been a car that is engraved in my brain of what a Hot Rod is, but I have never been able to find much information on it or even many photos. A big thanks to all of those who have contributed on this thread. Some great stories and information. Keep it coming.

Von Wegener and Aussie Steve, have either of you been able to track down those photos? It is always great to see and study the photos that we do have of this legend.

 

Used to see this car almost daily when I worked at Rod Action in 1979..Never knew it's history until years later...I was the guy back in the warehouse mailing out the back issues , later moved up in the ranks... Used to be parked a few feet from my desk. Sometimes it had steelies and others it had the Halibrands...I just knew it was one damned cool car!

 

I had gone to the LA Roadster show about 9 or 10 years ago. On Sunday I decided to go to the Peterson Museum. I got there early, before they opened. I was standing in the covered garage waiting for the place to open. I heard something rumbling, here come Bruce Meyer driving the Spencer car from upstairs of the parking garage. He sees me, pulls up, and tells me he's going to a concourse on Rodeo drive, says why don't you come by? He waves at me and pulls out, chirping the tires. I watched him turn left onto Wilshire, hit second gear, and disappear down the street. I didn't make it to the concourse, I spent to much time at the Peterson. I'll never forget that day. Dean

 

I'll add this I found while going thru some old HRMX.

 

Super great thread, thanks Bass, thanks you all.

 

Another early pic....