Over the years there have been pictures posted of this car on various threads including "sitting and rotting" Well, over the last week things have changed, I'm proud to say it's no longer sitting and rotting and moving to a build thread! Here in Albuquerque we don't have a lot of history when in comes drag racing (thank's to a family named Unser we have some in circle racing) but in the 1956 a guy named Bobby Davalos took a 1924 Dodge body and Model A frame, put them together with a built flathead and started racing. Over the next few years it progressed to become one of the areas most successfull drag racers till like all race cars, it became obsolete and put out to pasture. All this was a little before my time, my intrest in it started 20 some odd years ago when I rented an old gas station/ garage to operate my hot rod shop out of. I found out shortly after moving in it was owned by the Davalos family in the 50's/ 60/s and was at the time a hub of hot rod and racing activities and the home of the roadster. Someone back then told me they thought the roadster was in a junk yard in Socorro, NM (90 mile south of here). I drove down to look and there was an old drag roadster there, it was a Dodge but not the car, roll bar, turtle deck, cut wheel wells, ect were all wrong. The guy was willing to sell but wanted way too much for it so I left it. Fast foward 20 years and we have the HAMB and thanks to the above mentioned pics and history posted I was able to determine that the car in Socorro was indeed the Davalos roadster, just a bit modifed. Back down I go, intrest renewed and I found out the yard owner was in the process of selling off everything and retiring. Even though I was able to buy a 40 Ford PU and an ot 71 Dodge from him then, he still wanted way too much for the roadster. After 1 1/2 years of negociations I finally got him down to a realistic price, last week I brought it home! 1960 2012 Last week. You can tell by the pics how many cars are now gone from the yard in a year and a half!
Some early pics 1956. This is the earlist pic I have, flathead powered. Note the "stock" driving position and no floorboards! By 1957 it was converted to center steer. I wonder if he could of found a bigger steering wheel? Racing the "Pipe Dream", a Hot Rod magazine feature car NHRA Nationals, 1958. Now powered by a 56 Chevy 265 and hood/ grill added. Funny tidbit, they owned a Mobil station, seems the sign painter didn't know Mobil gas didn't have an "e" on the end! 1959. These pics were taken for an feature in Hot Rod Magazine, it came out in 1960 but I'm not sure what month, I'm still looking for it. Now with an Olds for power, new paint and much more detail.
Sometime shortly after the Hot Rod feature the Olds motor was pulled to be installed in a new Chassis Research K88 chassis and the roadster was sold to the Caldwell brothers. Their family owned a Chevrolet agency and naturally it got another Chevy put in. They change it to a more elaborate roll bar and added the turtle deck. Under the deck is a battery box, they must of not ran a mag or had it self starting. Probably added the turtle deck to have a place to put a battery. They raced it a couple years and then history gets fuzzy. At some point the rear axle got mounted solid, wheel wells cut for wider slicks (a move into altered class maybe?) and the car was painted gold. I have yet to find out who and when this was done. Maybe someone in HAMB land will know As it is today. I love the steering box, looks to be early Chevy with the pitman arm extended for center steer with water pipe! The steering wheel is right on top of your lap, guess so you could get down under the cover better. The seat is still there with the remains of the original belts. The original gas tank is still here, I'm told it's a surplus helecopter oil tank. Can still see some of the "Caldwell Motor Co." signage on the door. Heck of a way to mount a turtle deck, just weld it to the cage! Thats all there is, the turtle does not bolt to the body anywhere. This build thread might last awhile, don't think it will be done real fast. Yesterday Bobby Davolos came over and was reunited with his old race car. We worked out some details and it now belongs back with him and his family! We have a 50th reunion show for our drag racing ass. next week and we'll have it there. After that it gets blown apart, I'll start rebuilding the frame and body and we will start gathering parts. We plan on putting it into the form it was when it was featured in Hot Rod. I'll probably be calling on HAMBers to see if anyone has some of the harder parts to find, especially speed parts for the Olds engine. I admit I'll need some advice when it comes to Olds motors, kinda forin' to a Ford guy!
Yeah, it's really still pretty solid for sitting out in the weather for 25+ years. The Dodge tin seems to be thicker the Fords so it held up amazingly well. Even so, about the only thing on the body we'll be able to save is the cowl, I'll probably build new doors and quarters instead of patching the missing parts where they cut in the wheel wells.
Great to see you taking on the challenge. I look forward to seeing it return to its former HRM glory. The May 1960 Hot Rod article.
the cowl is the hardest part,so if thats good then the rest of the body ill be nice an easy, soak it in mollasses for a week and see what comes out, might not be as bad as ya think.
Here's the man. This young man posing with the car is the same one posing with it for Hot Rod 55 years ago. And, yes, he says if we can find a track to let us he'd like to make another pass in it when it's done. Now that we're thru with our reunion show yesterday I hope to get it taken all apart this week, sandblast what we can salvage and start the rebuild. We're getting a lot of good support from the local rodders/ racers, some are starting to donate needed parts. A couple leads on the Oldsmobile engine and parts, still that looks like it will be the toughest to come up with. I know a lot of guys bitch about "horders" and how they hang on to cool old stuff but at least the guy I got the car from horded it for 30 years, so many cars like this would of been sold off for scrap years ago. I admit I'm amazed this POS survived!
Totally cool that this old warrior just might live to fight another day. Keep us posted as the rebuild continues. Frank
Fab 32, it will live again, just not sure how much "fighting" this old warrior is going to do, least not on the dragstrip! What a fun day, taking it apart! Overall not too bad a job, a little PB Blaster and most bolts came off without a lot off trouble. Kinda hate 1/4" pan head slotted stovebolts now, they used plenty of them, ended up cutting most off. Once the roll bar and turtle was off it looked a lot more like the original Brogan Got a savable T turtle deck that needs a good home, scrappers will probably get the bars. I was amazed, the right door was still attached to the hinges, just brazed shut in a few places. Cut the brass and the door swung open, I would of bet the hinges were rusted solid. Starting to be just a pile of parts. Still got to strip a few more things off the frame and it and the cowl will be headed off to the sandblaster. The frame is going to be a bit of a chore, now that the body is off you can really see some twists. Got quite a few of the locals starting to locate parts and some even are donating them which is cool. Yesterday a cool old Moon fuel hand pump walked in, donated to the cause! Updates to follow...
Sorry about the lack of updates. Work has been slow on my end, been real busy with "paying" jobs. After sandblasting and trying to salvage the original frame we decided it was not restorable, besides being VERY rough and twisted it had been shortened from the original. As much as we hated too, I finally took a good Model A frame out of my stash and started cutting it up to use for the main side rails and rear spring crossmember. I am using as much of the original as I can. I figured out the original was actually built from 2 frames anyway, no idea why. Hopefully I'll have the frame put together here in a couple weeks and get started on the body, my favorite part. Bob did find a good Olds engine and it's about ready to go, I had to give him a bit of a hard time, I know we want it to run but he's building it like it's going to race again! Had to source out "good" heads, a cam, all the good stuff and build it perfect! Guess he hasn't change much. I'll have to post pictures of it, right now we are waiting on getting the oil pan and other engine accessories back from the chrome shop. He did pick up a good transmission and rebuilt it as well as a rear axle we took from my stash so the drive train is about ready to go. Other then that we had Joe out in Oklahoma drop an A axle for us and we have been gathering parts, a lot of the locals have been a help as well as the Hamb, You guys have been especially helpful on the Olds parts. Promise, I'll start posting pics again.
What cam are you guys running? I think I have a NOS Potvin for an early Olds - seems it was for a 324 or something like that??? I don't know anything about early Olds stuff . . . except they had 3 exhaust pipes! LOL
Wow, guess I'm pass due for an update! After I got the perimeter frame assembled Bobby and crew started sourcing, assembling the chassis. Had to fabricate new radius rods, drop the axle and what not to make a roller. Found and rebuilt a 39 toploader transmission, bolted it to the fresh Olds engine and been fitting the brakes, steering gear and all that. In the meantime I finally got the body rebuilt. Ended up fabricating everything from the cowl back. Today we mated the body back on the frame. Real close to blowing it all apart for bodywork and paint. We pretty much have all the parts now, the only trouble we are having is finding a SW 10 lb fuel pressure gauge. We also would like to find a SW "football" tach, we have a similar era SW tach but it's not a football version. We are also looking for a 32 Ford truck grill to cut down like it had, not in many pics but Bobby did run a grill and hood while racing. This has been a fun project. Lots of volunteer help and parts donations, We are all anxious to see, hear it fire up 60 years later! wouldn't you know the shop roof decided one night during a rain to start leaking right above the sandblasted cowl!
I don't believe that SW ever made what you're referring to as a "football" tachometer - this refers to a SUN tachometer with a bright red "football" on it:
Your right, had a brain fart, it was a Sun tach. My mistake, the rest of the gauges were SW. The one you have pictured is exactly what we need.
Ok, been lazy posting updates. Bobby and crew finished all the fab work so finally blew it all apart for paint and final assembly. They hauled the body up here so I could do the final bodywork and paint. Trying to keep it era correct we opted for doing it in lacquer paint. Bobby recalled he had painted it a 39 Pontiac burgundy metallic to match his Dads car. A call to TCP Global provided the paint but damn...lacquer ain't cheap no more! Been a lot of years since I've done a lacquer job, forgot how easy it is to work with. I love how it looks, after buffing it has a hard, glass like look instead of the shiny plastic look of modern basecoat/ clearcoat paint, at least to my eyes. I finished the inside with grey splatter trunk paint, just like Bobby had in 58. While I was doing the body they were busy painting the frame, suspension and a zillion small parts. I took the body back to Albuquerque over the Thanksgiving weekend and they been busting ass over the last month putting it all back together. Still needing the correct tires/ WW slicks but just about done. Here shortly they will be ready to see if it will make some noise. Guess I'll have to drive back down for that, definitely want to be there when it fires for the first time in 60 years.
I remember Bobby, the Iron Brogan, his chopped Ford F1 and the service station on Central Ave. Bobby had a louver press and all the guys from Santa Fe had to have him punch louvers in their hoods. A buck a louver as I recall. We used to go down to the Eubank strip and watch him run. Recently I needed some carburetor work done and went to an old time auto electric shop in Albuquerque. There I heard that Bobby was still around and had found and was restoring his old car. His brother works at the shop and I got to meet and talk with him. Love to see and hear that car run again.