Hot Rods McMullen Roadster. A close look. Completed

More interior

 

r2cl, thanks for posting the pictures. This was one of my favorite cars as a kid, right up there with Dean Lowe's RPU. I was disappointed when they added the big Ford engine later, this version was just right.

 

So how many people looked up the address? I know I did.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/2...0e4a19971b8d1b!8m2!3d33.923628!4d-117.9449226

 

Where is the car now and who owns it? HRP

 

Love the original...owned the Shut Down album and drooled over the details! But, I still love the 427 version....

 

HRP.. Last I knew Dana Mecum had it, but that was a few months ago.

 

You are welcome. Got a lot more. I didn't like the Ford engine along with the goofy wheels. Ron

 

brake & clutch pedal pads from a shoebox ford!

 

it always amazed me that california makes you put your name and address where everybody can see it. but, perry mason solved many cases that way!

 

Nice pictures Ron. Thanks for posting!
Tom

 

I would love to see some pictures of the car's wiring harness from about 1963. Tom McMullen did freelance articles in Rod & Custom that showed the backside of the dash but with the many changes this car had over the years it would be great to see an early version. The restored version would obviously be very different now.

 

I also saw the roadster at kissimmee.I have loved this car since I was a teenager. It looked to me it was a bit over restored. I didnt personally know Tom, but he did photograph my 39 chevy back in 1975 at an Ohio rod run.

 

That car fits right in when it was built. I remember the blown wedge ford in it. What a bitchin car. Lippy

 

There is a lot here that sets it apart from the rest,anyone have some good pictures of the exhaust headers with the Chevy set up.the collector (box)? interests me.Thanks

 

I do have quite a few of them. If don't you mind waiting a few days I'll post them when I get to the engine. I'm trying to post these in some kind order so I don't double post. Appreciate it. Ron

 

Shifter Knob

 

I like the car, I get it, but never understood why it "pitched tents" like it did. A little wreched excess here n there, a lot of basic hot rodding, a few things that say "mine" in no uncertain terms. Y'all can call me a hater if ya want but I'm not. I can think of a 1/2 dozen more 'important' cars or even more iconic ones, and again I don't dislike what's here. Line up this, Baskerville's, and maybe a couple more, I'm takin Baskerville's any day of the week and twice on sunday. I'd take Jake's 34 over this too, and I'm not that guy that want's someone else's car but those 2 I'd make exceptions for. Still, this is a kool topic and is sure to please a small army of dedicated fans. For the youth, look at the details and simplicity of some things. Not everything has to be NASA engineered or fit for a "Monster garage" type TV show. Form follows function. There's a lot of that here. Again a kool subject for a pictorial, and thanks...

 

Moon Tank

 

More tank

 

Just to be clear I see this car as not only a well know example of hot rodding but specifically as a time stamp ,It reflects a point of where the hot rod world had been and where it was when the modifications stopped .All of these cars evolved over time .It s kind of a menu for the later generations to pick from,there are a few things about it that I would not do on my car BUT there are several that I will do. It's really great to have examples like this to study and learn from.Thanks for posting the pictures.

 

If you knew Tom , whom I only met, he was a flamboyant, go all the way type of guy. Everything I have read about him or knew from talking with people who knew him he did nothing like anybody else including his personal life. An example he was building a 32 fordor sedan which he chopped so much it , in my opinion, flat ruined the car. So the roadster exemplifies his personality and his taste in hot rods. Ron

 

The Moon tank number sounds familiar, any ideas?

 

It is no longer Tom's car. Therefore it's not tom's car anymore. It seems to have changed ala too nice. But at least it still exists/ Lippy

 

Tom built this roadster because he had a particular vision that culminated in the choices he made. It exists, now, only in photographs. We are fortunate his talent for building hot rods found expression in the form it did, regardless of how it effects anyone's tastes. He also had a talent for writing about the process that goes into building a hot rod, and was able to parlay this into the creation of a magazine that touched generations of car builders. That speaks to who he was as a man, just like this car does. I remember how those early issues filled a gap, because all the other auto magazines had changed their focus and hardly ever featured old cars at all. Maybe for some the focus of that publication doesn't fit with what goes on here but, I do know after he was no longer around --- his magazine changed hands and never had the same energy or focus. So, to me, this car may not be the best example of what is important to many on this site, but it's certainly something to study as representative of the kind of cars that came out of the Sixties; cars that were not bound by the same rules and formulas that had been built before. The cats who built cars during that time were unafraid of excess. And, as the poet William Blake said, "The road to excess leads to Wisdom." Yes, times have changed. The cars that stood out back then seem quaint, now; because they were over the top. And, in my opinion, that's why their aesthetics clash with what we have come to see as the more quintessential elements for judging what to build and how to build it. And, I also think, we have been tamed in the process, domesticated and slightly less apt to 'go crazy man, crazy'. Dig?

 

@fortynut you're a bit more eloquent here than I was. Maybe mine was more subjective. Truly on point, yeah, 60s. While I was raised in this shit by an "original" my tendency ended up being the 60s more than anything. Being totally frank more like later 60s. My personal "end" is 2-fold. In 1971 Big Daddy won the Winternationals in a rear engine digger and forever changed the sport. DC got involved in the auto industry and sorta screwed us without a kiss. By 72 it was all over but the cryin, by 73 bumpers, by 75 catalytic converters. Prior to we had freedoms and liberties in the OEMs and in "our" world. So many cling to something so singular but it's a fluid change. Here we are 45+ years later building OLD hot rods (we really never stopped) and able to buy a 10 sec car with a fuckin warranty (!). We sincerely need these retrospectives. We need this history. Like I said a min ago we never really stopped referring to most of us here. We mostly hate billet and tend not to gush over the 1-800-HOT-RODS that were so prevalent leading up to where we are now. FORGETTING ALL OF THAT, what was said above, and even the gospel (dare I say) we have here a snapshot of progress from someone who lived it early on. With little trouble we could form a quorum of like individuals. I'd bet a viable measure are reading this shit right now. If nothing else, a car like this lies fuckin near in the bullseye of where I mostly am. My pursuits. It's an important perspective and subjectivity aside I'm thankful for it, and for a lot of you folks too. Diggin it...

 

I would venture to say that both of you guys are the epitome of eloquence.

 

Since my shop heater won't stay up with the cold, lets do the front axle

 

Front axle .

 

Some more.

 

Early days.