History The last Hot Rod, A tribute to Dad

Here are some more pictures of the roadster. The engine in some of these early pictures ended up in another one of his builds. There were so many things going on when he was building this one, I'm not sure how he kept track of it all. By the way, these pictures are not in very good chronological order. I didn't take them all. Some were scanned from dad's pictures. But you can still see what went into this. He tried quite a few different things, as you will see, before he got it just the way he wanted it.

 

Bittersweet day. The Roadster went to it's new home today. It is in good hands. I hope Jared was dressed warm enough, it was only 45 degrees. Here's a short video.

 

Here are some more pictures of the early stages of the Roadster.

 

More pieces of the puzzle. Here is where the back of the car starts to show up.

 

Sooo RIGHT! Love that Merc sideshift O.D. tranny, tunneling thru the Deuce center member...
The '36 'bones 'laddered up' are excellent, right inside the 'K' legs...
I'm just nuts about column shifts in Highboys, recall a HRM feature one month. '32 roadster, '40 Ford column shift... title was, "Just a nice roadster..." Never forgot that.
This was some great 'Deja Vous'...
A great story.

 

Ok, all of the pictures of the Roadster so far were taken before the summer of 2010. Late spring, early summer is when he first got it on the road and he was a happy man! This is also the same year I introduced Jared to Dad and his group of car guys.
Dad said he wanted to drive it for a while before he committed to painting it. He did have the very front painted then and decided to put some paint on the rest of the body to protect it from the weather, plus it would be sort of a base for when he did paint it. There were a lot of things that he changed after this years debut.
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These are a few pictures from the little cruise-in where Jared was introduced to Dad and the local car guys. The RPU is one that he built for a buddy in 08-09. Only fitting that they sat side by side. In the third picture in this group of four you can see Dad standing there with the yellow cap, sunglasses up on his head and his arms crossed. That is classic Dad! I don't know how many pictures I've seen of him standing like this.
I have his yellow cap and sunglasses.

 

Here's a picture of the dash, painted, put together, waiting to be installed. Also all the way to the left of the dash is the cloth covered spark plug wires, still coiled up, that eventually went on the roadster. Not sure how I managed to miss this in the pictures of when he was building it.
That workbench still looks a lot like this picture, but without the dash. Like so many of the other things in the shop that never seemed to change. I wonder how many other dashes he built on that bench? Looking through all of his pictures, I could actually see things change. One thing that was constantly changing was the cars. He was constantly looking for the next challenge.

 

Great thread. Thanks for sharing so much with us!

 

In 2004, I made the decision to move back here to my hometown in Ohio. There were several factors leading me to this decision but one of the main ones was to be closer to my parents. Mom doesn't live in town here, she lives a few hours away. I figured it would be best for me to be close as they were getting older and I wanted to be in a position to be able to help if and when they needed it. I had been in the Albuquerque area for 17 years and missed being able to spend time with my parents. When I was younger, Dad and I used to take on projects together, have long talks about everything that was wrong in the world and pick each others brains when we were needing help on different projects. I'm really glad I got to spend the last dozen years here around Dad. I've had to work more since I moved back here than I would like but I spent as much time as I could with Dad and if nothing else, we had lunch together almost every Sunday for the last ten years. We had plenty of time to discuss things like the old days. I made the right decision. Now it's time for me to carry the torch.

 

Yes you did. Good on ya'.

 

Here are some shots of Dad with a few of his cars over the years.

 

I'm gonna put a few pictures of this one on here. Nothing hot rod about it. It is a 41 Ford though and it has a flathead four in it. Not sure it would qualify as a banger even. Dad bought this when he was living in Colorado. I believe it was in 1983. He finished it 2014 and finally sold it very early in 2016. He owned this vehicle longer than any other vehicle in his life. It was very rough but mostly complete when he bought it. However, a lot of stuff still needed to be replaced because it was in such bad shape.
This is a 41' Ford GP Prototype.
In 1939 the Army invited 135+ companies to to submit design proposals for a multi purpose military type vehicle to replace the aging motorcycles and model t trucks they were currently using. Only three companies replied. Ford, Willys-Overland and American Bantam. Initially Bantam won the contract but they were too small to supply the vehicles fast enough for the Army so the bulk of the contract went to Willys , with Ford playing a smaller role and Bantam only making trailers. The vehicles Ford produced had to conform to the Willys design so that all parts would be interchangeable. Ford made sure they put their mark on every part they produced though. The Ford prototype design was called the GP for government pygmy. The ones they built later for the Army were GPW for government pygmy Willys, because of the Willys design.
This is one of the original prototypes that Ford produced in an attempt to win the government contract.

 

That is the coolest Jeep I ever saw! Your Dads vision was outstanding.

 

Back at the picture of the dashboard on the bench,if you look on the shelf above it,you will see a Lincoln Mercury license plate frame. Behind that frame is a picture of the '32 sedan that was the start of the '32 Roadster that Jarrod now owns. It was involved in a fender-bender hit and run in 1958 and was parked and hidden in field for 50 years. One day in 2008 Bergen and I jumped in my old F-100 and went to see if was still there,it was, and a deal was struck to buy it. Many of the small parts on the Roadster came from that sedan.

 

I'll have to see if those pictures are still there. I remember that car sitting out back of the shop. He was out there trying to salvage as much as he could. It was a rough one though. There are still a few parts from it sitting around in the shop.

 

Hi Zombiecat.Actually,the GP stood for General Purpose.That is one good looking Jeep.Thanks for posting.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

The Military Aviation Museum in VA Beach has one of those Ford prototype Jeeps.

 

I am the second owner of the flat black roadster that Bergen is standing next to. The first owner took it back to have Bergen put the black lacquer paint job on it a few years later. Here it is shiny :

 

I love the way that one sounds. Must have a hot cam in it.
Cool picture! I have a picture of that school and that car, just not together like that.

 

I've just read all of this thread. Excellent story and pics. One of my favourite threads on hamb. Thank you for sharing.
Bob in Scotland