Hot Rods Omaha "Goldenrod" hot rod found.

So, I was walking around the local cruise at a "Don and Millies" burger joint this evening when I spotted this black primered, channeled 34 ford 5 window. I wandered over to talk to the owner and got a great story. A young high school senior was cleaning it up and polishing the chrome and the car is owned by his dad. It seems grampa put the coupe together back when the 49 Olds motor was pretty new. Grampa is gone now but his son, the high schooler's dad is the current caretaker of this icon of the Omaha area. I was shown a color photo of when the car was featured in a magazine and it looked great in gold metallic paint with wide whites and full moons....sporting 6 Stromberg 97s
The car runs the old original 49 Olds 303 with #8 heads. The owner [sorry, I didn't get his name] said the heads were ported and modified for chevy valves. He said it now has a solid lifter, reground cam and had old Fenton cast iron headers on it. He had the Olds clutch relined and has a 39 LaSalle 3 speed trans with a floor shift and an early Olds rear axle with coil springs. It has a stretched 34 axle and the body is channeled the width of the frame...no top-chop for this one. I was checking out the early ford chrome wheels on the front but was salivating over the 15X8 deep chrome reverse rear wheels with the original Olds/Pontiac centers with the 3 hubcap clip slots! I could build a 57 Pontiac around those wheels.
The kid opened the door to show me the original gold metallic paint. I asked his dad if they were considering painting it gold again but they said not unless some money falls out of the sky soon. Paint is 'spensive. The car has 41 chevy tailights and some king-Bee headlights. This thing was a blast from the past and pretty well put together. The cowl is cut back quite a ways and it's got a flat, plywood firewall, covered in polished aluminum sheet. That was about the only unfinished part of the car and yeah, it needs help. But what a great time capsule. The hot rod black paint and the plating was all new, as was the rebuilt engine and it's red paint. The 303 runs on 4 of the 6 chromed carbs and sounds outrageous! Wish I'd been able to ride in it.
Through the years I've seen many cars in the magazines named Goldenrod including coming across a gold 33 chevy coupe body in about 1961 in Northern Oregon. I have no idea how many there are/were but here's one from the midwest.
Oh, BTW. Ol dad got the car running so Junior could realize his dream: To drive his grampa's car to his high school graduation next week. Looks like's gonna make it.

 

Sorry about the amature photo work. Here's the interior and a shot of the gold painted door jamb..great car.
The "kid" is the one with a rag in his hand, spiffing up his grampa's old hot rod.

 

Thanks! Great car and story. Bob

 

Do I see an electric fan and a steel blade fan in front of that Olds?

 

sure there may be a few new bits ie plastic fan , but wow what a cool thing you grandads hot rod hope the young guy enjoys it and has ownership of it for a long time

 

Very cool on all points! Thanks for sharing.

 

Bitchen car and dig the 32 grill

 

Love it!

 

Killer car, and a neat story. A great example of "how they were".

 

It took me a minute to figure out the 'armature'. Amateur

 

That's pretty cool!


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Definatly a cool blast from the past! Thanks for showing it.

 

Wow! I tend to forget how many awesome hot rods call Omaha home!

Thanks for the photos!

 

Nice story man!!

 

Great story, thanks!

 

Very cool.

 

Wow, fantastic survivor car and story. Love it!
I realize their intentions are good, however, I really cringe at the "updates" such as the radiator hoses, steering wheel and modern tach on a survivor car. I hope they stop now, before that cool suspension and rolling stock gets swapped out for something silly like www's on Radir wheels. Hopefully you turned them onto the HAMB and they'll get 100% dialed in.
Looks like Mustang (?) buckets got installed along the way.
I keep wondering how that Gold paint was looking before it was covered in black primer and if it would have been better to leave the worn, checked Gold for all to see?

Anyone have photos of the old magazine coverage?

 

Just bought a box of beat up magazines recently from an estate sale and had spotted this while thumbing through them. Looks like the same car with some changes, from Hot Rod January 1957.

 

Koborg....that's the name alright. I'm so bad at remembering names. The magazine feature says it has a 54 Olds motor which is 324 cu.in. The dad thought it was a 303 motor out of a 49 Olds. I wonder who is right?
The Dad is a lurker here on the HAMB so maybe he'll see this thread and possibly gain understanding of the importance we assign to the originality of these old hot rods and change some of the details back to the way it was. It's entirely possible the car morphed into it's current state with the 32 radiator shell and radiator, I dunno but all of the changes it has now could be un-done in short order if they wanted to. I got a feeling the Kid will end up with the car and if he hangs around here long enough? Well, we'll just have to wait and see.
BTW, the Dad did tell me he still has the original front sheet metal at home.

 

Been 60+ years, might have had a few motors in it by now.

 

Great car, neat story. The firewall mods make the '32 grille work on that car better than a stock firewall would, kinda surprised to see it had a '34 grille and hood on it originally.

Nice that it stayed in the family all those years and that the teenager wants to drive it to graduation, that's very cool too, part of it's history now. While I would agree that the tach and some of the other modern stuff on there would be better off back-dated to the original build, it's not really hurting anything for now.

The magazine version is amazing. Did it even have a radiator when those magazine pics were taken?

 

This is what dreams are made of. that grand son will have stories for his grandkids.
Thanks for sharing.
I spent my youth there in Omaha. (Boys Town)

 

Don't

Looks like it was a race car with the shell sheeted over and inside tank with hand pump.

 

Cool Midwest car and great to see it's family owned. They had a tow car as well right? Do you know if they still have it?


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

That thing is awesome but needs the original grill and hood again!

 

Hello Wayne, The golden rod surfaced several years ago back when flash backs lounge was still having their Wednesday eve shows out front along 84 th street 10 years or so ago, I too was delighted to see that it was still around......no pun intended but as they say old news is still good news. Ron

 

And for those who don't know Ron ^....he's the guy who has my old 32 racer, built and raced by a local racing icon, Bud Burdic [sp] back in the day. Ron's restoring this car to it's 1950s racer condition, flathead and all.

 

cool stuff.....thanks for looking a little deeper....I do and always get the looks....whats that guy looking fer ?

 

I dug into this a little further tonight as I'm from the area as well (grew up in North O). Found a movie on Amazon Prime called "Drag Racing Films" by Sprocket Flicks (2018). The car is seen multiple times in the film. Was shown at the 1956 National Championships in Kansas City, MO and also the 1957 All Gas Championships at Oklahoma City, OK where they received "Best Appearing Rod." Below are some screenshots I took from the film. Figured that I would add more info to this thread, really hope the family decides to put it back the way it was. Great piece of history for the area!














Best Appearing Rod - 1957 All Gas Championships


Movie on Amazon