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Features 1940's period correct hot rods

Discussion in 'Traditional Hot Rods' started by erlomd, Nov 28, 2009.

  1. I can't tell from the pic, but how much is it chopped (or not?), and your guess as to how much? Looks perfect to me! Is that DP 90 flat black for paint?
     
  2. bonesy
    Joined: Aug 14, 2005
    Posts: 2,999

    bonesy
    Member

    It was chopped almost 2". DP90 with a gloss frame. Thanks.
     
  3. DWBlietz
    Joined: Jun 27, 2010
    Posts: 428

    DWBlietz
    Member
    from California

    1940's hot rods still running as built 34 dodge roadster flathead 6 3 spd overdrive z'd front and rear full belly pan built in one car garage in corronodo ca driven daily til early70'iss bounced around but no body messed with it i recieved it in 2005 scrounged parts ihave benn using it since 2010 hope you guys keep them running Denn
     
  4. Pat Pryor
    Joined: May 28, 2007
    Posts: 1,911

    Pat Pryor
    Member

    We need some pictures of that!
     
  5. Bigcheese327
    Joined: Sep 16, 2001
    Posts: 6,694

    Bigcheese327
    Member

    x2!!!
     
  6. rodl
    Joined: Jan 14, 2011
    Posts: 255

    rodl
    Member

     
  7. onekoolkat1950
    Joined: Mar 23, 2008
    Posts: 1,865

    onekoolkat1950
    Member

    mine is close to done.mostly pre 49 ford parts.
     

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    Woodsie likes this.
  8. StLouisSled
    Joined: Feb 9, 2008
    Posts: 117

    StLouisSled
    Member

    I apologize if this one has already been covered but, I looked through this thread and couldn't find anywhere where this car was shown...the first photo isn't from the 40s it's actually the very early 50s but it is definitely a 40s era rod as the build was started in the late 40s by Valley Custom. The last shot is as it is today with it's '54 Cadillac mill.
     

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    HelmuthBrothers likes this.
  9. WOW, that's TITS!!!!!!-MIKE:eek::cool:
     
  10. Flat-Foot
    Joined: Jul 1, 2010
    Posts: 1,710

    Flat-Foot
    Member
    from Locust NC

    Great roadster onekoolkat!




    Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
     
  11. I'm surprised no one's mentioned John Athans' '29-on-'32-rails roadster. Started in 1937...
    [​IMG]

    And appeared in the Elvis movie "Loving You".
    [​IMG]

    There are a couple of threads here on the HAMB that cover it.
    [​IMG]
     
  12. StLouisSled
    Joined: Feb 9, 2008
    Posts: 117

    StLouisSled
    Member

    That's the stuff right there!
     
  13. ThirtyFordor
    Joined: Jun 18, 2013
    Posts: 11

    ThirtyFordor
    Member
    from Wisconsin

    This is the point blank best thread I've ever been on.
     
  14. bondolero
    Joined: Dec 10, 2008
    Posts: 562

    bondolero
    Member

    Not just that, every time I want to just smile a little, you can sit down with your favorite beverage and go thru the photos again. My favorite as well.
     
  15. Pat Pryor
    Joined: May 28, 2007
    Posts: 1,911

    Pat Pryor
    Member

    I go through every page of this thread at least twice a month. The best thread on the hamb.
     
  16. Bugsy
    Joined: Dec 27, 2008
    Posts: 1,299

    Bugsy
    Member
    from Kansas

    Here's a shot of my '27 roadster that I've been building on for a couple of years. Not real fancy but fun! It's finally getting the Whippet radiator and grille shell mounted soon along with an original, Winfield head and some other goodies. I'm trying to keep it all pre-1940
    I agree...this is the best thread on the HAMB!!!

    [​IMG]
     
    Dannerr likes this.
  17. FOURTYDLX
    Joined: Feb 22, 2006
    Posts: 718

    FOURTYDLX
    Member

    The policeman in the picture is Bud Coons,worked for Pomona police Dept.
     
  18. Great post...real insightful. Only problem is that no one knows what picture you're referring to!
     
  19. 296ardun
    Joined: Feb 11, 2009
    Posts: 4,673

    296ardun
    Member

    I remember this one, from Missouri, Dr Richard Wendzel, if I remember correctly, had Valley do the custom work and then drove it to Missouri....really nice car
     
  20. Brujo29
    Joined: Oct 17, 2009
    Posts: 141

    Brujo29
    Member

    Anyone have any info/photos of this one?This is the only photo I can find of it,but it was featured on an episode of Californias Gold about the 1st Muroc Reunion in the early 90's.Guy said it was a road race car that ran at the Los Angeles Airport(?)

    [​IMG]
     
  21. billsill45
    Joined: Jul 15, 2009
    Posts: 784

    billsill45
    Member
    from SoCal

    I can't help you with the George M. Sutton #46 car, but I can offer a little information on the track. In 1928, construction began in Los Angeles on a commercial airport named Mines Field (named after the real estate broker who made the deal). It was built on the site of the present airport, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and opened in 1930. In 1934, a promotor named William Hickman Pickens organized stock car races in L.A. on land at Mines Field (referred to as L.A. Municipal Airport). Racing continued until the beginning of World War II. In 1941, Mines Field was renamed Los Angeles Airport and in 1949 renamed again - Los Angeles International Airport.

    I've included a few pages from one of the Gilmore Cup programs which includes a number of names familiar to students of racing history. Unfortunately, George M. Sutton was not competing at that particular race.

    Interesting to note that the cars were "stock", less fenders, etc. but no doubt, creative rule interpretation was in full effect. Ford was the dominant brand in both the number of entries and victories.
     

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    Last edited: Jul 8, 2013
    kidcampbell71 likes this.
  22. See more photos and info on the Race Cars that raced in '34 in one of my albums..........
    "MINES FIELD ROAD RACE 1934"
     
  23. billsill45
    Joined: Jul 15, 2009
    Posts: 784

    billsill45
    Member
    from SoCal

    Craig, I didn't intend to steal your thunder ... when I saw Brujo29's post and inquiry, I remembered that I had some Mines Field photos in my computer. I had forgotten where they came from ... all credit goes to CW's40TPU !!

    It's an excellent thread on a really cool era in SoCal racing ... check it out.
     
  24. I agree...this is the best thread on the HAMB!!!

    [​IMG][/QUOTE]

    WOW!!
    And here I was, planning to sell mine! Not so much now. Thanks! (I think)
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2013
  25. Brujo29
    Joined: Oct 17, 2009
    Posts: 141

    Brujo29
    Member

    Wow!! Thank you for that history lesson...Using some of that info,I was able to find this article from 2006 that appeared i the LA Times...

    _______________________________________________
    For Auto Racers and Fans, It Was the Roaring '30s
    L.A. THEN AND NOW
    Dirt-track drivers had true grit, and some of it landed on spectators at Mines Field near LAX.
    February 26, 2006|Cecilia Rasmussen | Times Staff Writer


    Daredevils once flew around LAX -- and they never even left the ground. Before Los Angeles International Airport became a bustling modern airport, it included L.A. Municipal Airport Speedway, where cars raced from 1934 to 1936.

    Speed-mad Angelenos flocked to the two-mile dirt track to see such daredevils as Rex Mays of Riverside, Louie Meyer of Los Angeles, Lou Moore of San Gabriel and Kelly Petillo of Huntington Park, who wore dashing scarves, white-cloth headgear and goggles during their adventures.

    In the early part of the 20th century, L.A. was the centerpiece of motor racing. In Beverly Hills and Culver City, tracks were made of lumber. Long Beach and Santa Monica used city streets. Lincoln Heights and Saugus favored dirt.

    In fact, according to author Harold L. Osmer, Southern California was the biggest racing market in the world. He counts 174 tracks from 1900 to the present. Osmer's 1996 book, "Where They Raced: Auto Racing Venues in Los Angeles, 1900-1990," started as his master's thesis for a geography degree at Cal State Northridge. It grew into a career: He's a racetrack historian and author of four racing books.

    One of the local sites, Legion Ascot Speedway, was known as "Killer Track" for its deceiving straightaways interrupted by dangerous banked curves. The five-eighths-mile dirt oval in the hills east of Lincoln Heights killed 24 drivers from 1924 to 1936 -- more than any other track in the nation during that period, according to Osmer and Times stories of the era.

    It was a time when most drivers scoffed at safety measures, such as heavy helmets, and drove with abandon. When future three-time Indy 500 winner Wilbur Shaw wore a hard helmet for the first time at the Lincoln Heights racecourse in the 1930s, spectators booed and his fellow drivers called him "chicken."

    "Seat belts came in with crash helmets," veteran racer Lujie Lesovsky told a Times reporter in 1962. "Shaw wore the first brain bucket at Ascot. It saved his life the first time out."

    By the early 1930s -- amid the Depression -- Angelenos had plenty of time on their hands. The LAX track, better known as Mines Field Speedway, offered escapist entertainment for as many as 75,000 fans at a time, Osmer said in an interview. It gave drivers a way to earn a living too: Winners could earn as much as $4,000.

    Admission wasn't cheap. "Some paid as much as two bucks each," Osmer said, "while others sneaked in under the fence." This was a time when you could buy dinner for 40 cents.

    The track began as a dream of racing impresario and talented publicist William Hickman Pickens, who had helped start Legion Ascot a decade earlier. In 1933, Pickens helped persuade city fathers to lease land near Sepulveda Boulevard and what is now Imperial Highway to a racing syndicate.

    Pickens secured the backing of oil magnate Earl B. Gilmore and the blessing of Arthur C. Pillsbury, a structural engineer on the board of what was then auto racing's sanctioning body: the American Automobile Assn., now known locally as the Auto Club.

    "The AAA started as a way to bring auto owners together, promote road signage, road construction and auto awareness," Osmer said. "They organized a variety of automotive events, including races until the 1950s." Locally, the Auto Club is a sponsor of today's NASCAR race at the California Speedway and the host of hot rod races at Pomona.

    Pickens carved out a B-shaped design for his racetrack, which was lined with spectators in parked cars until bleachers were built.

    The first race was set for Feb. 18, 1934. During a practice run three days before, race driver Kenny Wellons, 27, of Glendale had been killed when his two-seater slammed through a fence on a curve. His passenger, mechanic J. Durant, escaped uninjured, The Times reported.

    Despite the tragedy, the heavily promoted race went on as scheduled. An estimated 75,000 people turned out to watch legendary stock car drivers risk their necks at speeds averaging 60 mph. Most of them drove stripped-down Ford V-8s on the potholed dirt track, which was made slick and fast by regular applications of crude oil.

    Twenty-seven cars started the 250-mile race but only 14 finished, mostly because of breakdowns. A few crashed, but no one was hurt. The first to complete the race was Pacific Coast champion Al Gordon, in four hours, 14 minutes. But three days later, judges found that the person who'd been counting the laps had erred. They declared "Stubby" Stubblefield the winner, The Times reported, with a headline that said: "This's No 'Lapping' Matter."

    The first race was a big success, and Pickens hoped to stage a national championship. But he wouldn't live to see it. Wandering over the track sometime after opening day, he stepped on a rusty nail. That led to "blood poisoning," The Times reported. One of his legs had to be amputated, and he died in July 1934.

    Five months later, on Dec. 23, the track was host to the 200-mile national championship for two-seater race cars. Race car owner Bill White, who had managed the February race, handled this one too.

    But the racers demanded that the deadly kink where Wellons had crashed be straightened first. It was -- after the drivers ponied up a few hundred bucks to pay for it.

    On race day, the fog was so thick and wet that organizers considered canceling the event.

    As 50,000 spectators gathered, a jackrabbit "sprinted down the straightaway, tried to get up [legendary racer] Barney Oldfield's pants leg, dashed back across the track and disappeared," The Times reported.

    Rocks, pebbles and dirt clods flew over the railing and onto the crowd as drivers fought for traction on the wet course.

    Cavino "Kelly" Petillo of Huntington Park and his mechanic, Takio Hirashima, a Glendale High School student, crossed the finish line first, averaging above 100 mph. Petillo, driving the Gilmore Speedway Special -- the car was sponsored, like the ones in NASCAR today -- would win the Indy 500 the following year.

    When the race was over, the checkered flags, grandstands and fences were put away until the course reopened two years later.

    On Oct. 25, 1936, African American race driver Rajo Jack drove a Ford stock car to victory in a 200-mile national championship at the Mines Field Speedway. He won by a full two laps.

    Racial segregation was the norm at the time. Rajo Jack often passed himself off as Portuguese to be able to race and attract fans, Osmer said, yet "the respect he garnered among his peers allowed him access to racing circles in spite of his color."

    Rajo Jack's real name was Dewey Gatson, but he earned his nom de guerre by selling quantities of Rajo high-performance engine kits made for the car he drove, the Model T Ford.

    But fans' acceptance had limits. "His wife had to be with him every time he won," Osmer said, "because when the trophy girl came down to kiss the winner, his wife had to give him the trophy and kiss instead. He was a great guy; everyone liked him. But it was safer this way, with racial tension around."

    Rajo Jack was inducted posthumously into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2003.

    A month after the championship, just 7,000 spectators showed up to see Jimmy Miller cross the finish line first in an 18-car, 75-mile race. The speedway closed soon after.

    "Motorcycle racing and midget cars became more popular," Osmer said. "Crowds had become more mature and didn't want to spend the whole day watching long races. Auto racing [was] transformed from a rough-and-tumble sport to a more organized and sophisticated sport."

    Over the years, local racetracks have dwindled. Even the longest-running, Saugus Speedway, closed in 1995. Although the Long Beach Grand Prix is held once a year and Pomona has a drag-racing season, for full-time racing, there's only one place:

    "Now the roar of engines throughout Los Angeles on a full-time basis can only be heard at Irwindale," Osmer said. "And not one of Los Angeles' former raceway sites has a historical marker."
     
  26. Hi Bill.......NO PROBLEM, just thought I'd chime in............
     
  27. gilmore
    Joined: Apr 28, 2009
    Posts: 89

    gilmore
    Member
    from Missouri

    I do not see any album with this title, listed in your albums. Am I doing something wrong here?

    Do you mean the History Mines field 1934 road race = l.a. Airport thread?... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=683088&highlight=mines+field

    Found another pic of the #46 "George M. Sutton" car. The name Gene Stout is listed on the door as driver. Which is most likely the current car owners' name. I do not have a #46 listed in my data for any of the SoCal stock car races in 1934. If it actually IS one from the Mines Field races, possible/likely that it ran a different number. Also possible that 46 was from it's lake run days... or, could have nothing to do with its history and just made up. (???) Be nice to know more about the car and what lends them to believe it is originally from the Mines Field race.
     

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  28. Floorboardinit
    Joined: Dec 2, 2004
    Posts: 771

    Floorboardinit
    Member

    The George Sutton car is featured in the Dain Gingerelli book "Ford Hot Rods". I vaguely remember it saying something about the builder building a recreation of his grandfathers car but I could be wrong. The car started with no hole halibrands but looks much more correct with the knock offs. JohnnyA
     
  29. My information is that this car is a recreation of an early racer and doesn't have a Mines Field pedigree. You will notice it is powered by a B motor and the V-8's were the cars that ruled the day at Mine's Field. It is owned by a Scott (he prefers to remain anonymous) right here in Prescott, AZ. He has a great collection of everything Ford and much more. Factory Ford drag cars, rare Ford SOHC cammer motors, you name it, he has it. He was a former employee of Mickey Thompson and has collected a massive amount of cars, rare engines and parts, all tucked away in an unobtrusive building in the heart of Prescott.

     
  30. Brujo29
    Joined: Oct 17, 2009
    Posts: 141

    Brujo29
    Member

    Thanks for the info!Its great hearing all the history that led up to the re-creation of it..Anyone have more shots of it?
     

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