The 80's. Pastel colors. Heartbeat graphics. Grey tweed. Boyd wheels. Billet. Pro street. It was great, right? In the middle of that darkness was this blown flathead powered '34 roadster, featured in Street Rodder (the magazine you love to hate), July 1983. Skinny wide whites. Painted steelies. Purple paint. Six chrome straight pipes. It was an anachronism then, and it didn't last. Sold, swapped, body and frame separated, sold and swapped again, ending up in a basement in Connecticut, never to see the light of day, or the road, again. Or not. I sold our '48 Pontiac convert a year and half ago, and was going to build a "sort of" clone of the Frank Mack '27 highboy, when I came across an add in the classifieds here on the HAMB for a '34 roadster project, remembered seeing the car in Street Rodder, and a week later it was in my trailer on the home to Michigan. I'm not saying it's an important car, or an historic car, or if it's even really worth the effort to bring an unknown make, 40 year old fiberglass '34 body back to life, but... Nobody was doing it then, but I remembered seeing it in the magazine, and I loved it. More than anything, I wanted to build a 'glass bodied roadster. I even sold a Corvette and built a 'glass '27, but it wasn't what I really wanted. The blown flathead is long gone, I'm using a '65 283 with two fours instead. The quick-change, along with the rest of the original chassis, also MIA, replaced by a '55 Chevy rear, and a set of American Stamping rails. The color too will be different, the wheels will be 16" steelies, not 15's like it originally wore, or a set of Dayton wires that look like early Jag wheels. It still has the original seat, but the dash, steering column, and top are not the originals. Totally different, but somehow the same. Somebody recognized it today and commented on seeing it "back in the day", and liked it, which made me feel good. So, forgive me blowing my own horn, and remember back 35 or 40 years, when everybody was building mauve fat fendered cars with tweed interiors, when this car was thumping around the east coast, keeping the faith, and now getting a new lease on life. What goes around, comes around.
I was just getting into hot rods back then. Trying to decide what I liked and didn't. This article stood out as " I like that". Will be great to see its rise from the ashes at Relix this year. Well done on bring this one alive again. Cheers, Stewart.
Dad was a freshwater fishermen, I helped build 15 fiberglass 13 foot canoes in high school ['74]... $55 each, one for dad, one for me [still got one] With those skills I made molds for '30 roadster quarters, doors, panel above the decklid in 1983... while building that rod I would wear out the cars mags of the time... any pix of a roadster were bonuses... I even ran masking tape across the w/s of my '47 tudor at the hight of the roadster's windshield top... The song "hot rod linkin' " would bring tears to my eyes dreaming of me "DRIVING THAT MODEL A" Never became a glass car guy... but glass parts don't bother me... deck, door or dash.. run it. I can relate to Brian's love for a centerfold car of that era... I'ld take the Flathead Flyer or the Conforth '32 any time... ... go Brian go !
The way I see it these old cars were damn near perfect in design. Apart from a little cosmetic alteration, and suspension relocation there isn't much that you need to do to these old cars to make them just right. I think those 80s-90s street rods looked to much like conversion vans
I have that 1983 magazine somewhere in the stash. I rember it well, was there a few flathead powered cars in that article. The 34 sure stood out as a hot rod in a sea of bright reds and pastel graphics. The 34 probably got us inspired to build our own blown flathead a few years later. I must have missed your other thread on the full build. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/flynbrian-34-roadsterproject.1017542/
Thanks. He's commented on my build thread, but I was at work today and couldn't take time to search to find his post. Saving lives, you know...
It WAS inspiring, wasn't it? I was super disappointed that I'd gotten rid of that issue along with bunches of others, but there are some out there, I know. I just need to actively search. I'd hoped the purple paint would be intact under the flat black, but sadly, too many gouges and flaws for me to be happy with. And, to be honest, the purple is almost the exact color of the PT Cruiser my wife had, that I hated, so the purple paint is going buh-bye.
Steve's shop was in agawam.. he's the root cause of my hot rod addiction. He taught my uncle how to build the coolest cars.. my first ride in a hot rod was my uncles 32 roadster with a 371 olds when i was 3 or so... about the same time 1983. Steves cabriolet is the reason I own my 32 coupster. You wouldn't believe the quality of cars those guys could build in that little cinder block building. Talent is an understatement. If I remember correctly those 6 pipes out the back sounded like crap and were changed quickly. Sent from my SM-G920V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Btw... many cars out of steves shop were purple. His cabriolet is still out there and going. Think that was built in the late 70s? I'm not 100% sure maybe it was later and the driveline from the 34 went into the cabriolet? He is a hamber... don't remember his name though. Here is his now sold cabriolet Sent from my SM-G920V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just talked to my uncle about the 34. It was the same color as the cabriolet. Not the same driveline as the 34 had a 471 on it Sent from my SM-G920V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Steve told me that the '34 I have had actually been sold before the SR feature came out, without the blown flathead. He didn't say where the engine went, I assume into another build. My car ended up in Michigan, I believe stored, intact with a different flathead, in the Detroit area, for many years. I have photos of it just a few years ago, owned by the Piscatelli's, intact and up on wheels, with the current coat of flat black. I don't know the story of how it got separated from that chassis, and just the body and some trinket pieces, back in Connecticut, in Billy O's basement. Edit: They must have a LOT of that purple paint back then, my car has the original, acrylic enamel (?), a respray in the same color, which also seems to be enamel, and this awful flat black. Both the original, and respray, have "liberal" applications. ;-) Plenty to color sand and wheel several times.
Yeah... Steve and my uncle Tim Chapman both used a similar color on their cars. Glad Steve gave you some information. They always custom mixed their colors. My uncle made his and painted the frame and grill on his 32 before he swapped his 3 window body for a roadster.. his custom mixed color ended up on my race car for a couple seasons as the purple people eater lol. I love the colors... Steve did a bunch of touch up on his cabriolet in the 90s so I think he could get you more... hint hint Sent from my SM-G920V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I'm gonna be watching your build and I'm gonna tell ya why. In the 80's, all those pastel painted, mono-painted cars just about drove me from Hot Rodding. In short, it kinda pissed me off. And now here's a great example of a car built by someone who gave the middle finger to all that crap and stayed true. Do her right. She's earned it.
Color is early 70's porsche color code 025 called eggplant or by some aubergine, any paint store can mix it, or i can sell you some, hehe! just kidding....pt cruiser never had a color even close, there was no metalic in the color, I remember trying to make that body look good, it wasnt easy, the glass was really wavy, looks good maybe it will get finished this time Steve
Here is a photo of your roadster that I took September 1981 at the N.E.S.R.O. Event in Sturbridge, MA. It was a real beauty. I also have a photo of the car at an early 80's Connecticut Dragway Nostalgia event which I need to find. Scott
The six straight pipes were on the car the entire time I owned the car, and make a note here, the only time the car has seen the road, maybe tat will change now.... they sounded great after I put six small cycle muffllers on the car, it was just too loud without them, drove the car to Ohio with slicks and straight pipes once, was fun in the rain, the flatty had a 371 gm blower on it which was on the 32 when I sold it Steve
I love hearing the history of the car! Well, more accurately, the BODY of the car I'm building... ;-)
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