chester meredith

cant keep away, just love hot rods. started reading dad's old late 50's early 60's hot rod, rod & custom, car craft magazines as a kid. got my granpa's 28 fordor sedan for my 15th birthday. saw Jim Jacob's tub in american rodder in '87(?) and thought, that's it! traded fordor body for tub body and started to learn everything the hard way. got tub on road late in '94 and haven't stopped dreaming, wanting, finding parts, building, hurting and then wanting more! Hmmm. but recently realized that i can't have all the hot rods i want in my lifetime. So.... now i'm helping other like minded hot rodders to build cars I like for them. the plan sounds simple enough, THey want a hot rod, I encourage them, they save their money, I show them which parts to buy, they build it and as long as I'm polite, they let me ride in it occasionally. easy huh?

Oh, my little avatar picture is from part of a Tom Medley cartoon from Hot Rod magazine in the early days. Image used with all respect to Tom. I'm also fond of Pete Millar's work, Carl Kohler's and Willie Ito's stuff. They all drew for Petersen mags and their work turns up in other mags too. The Rodder's Journal recently wrote an article on Millar who passed away not too long ago. Pete did lttle illustrations for reader's technical question letters in Hot Rod Magazine in the late fifties 'til early sixties. (approx) They're some of the funniest little pictures you will ever see. Drawn by someone with an obviously huge mechanical knowledge and great sense of humour. Of course, CarToons was another place to see more Millar stuff. CarToons introduced a lot of kids into Hot Rods and Dragsters . . . . I'm always looking for a chance to promote the work of these guys. Check them out for yourselves.