History Rod & Custom, Bud Bryan Pete & Jake’s, Super Bell =the Dale Caufeild Story.

You’re welcome bud, Since that RPU was a part of “The Caulfield Automotive Hot Rod & Kustom legacy, I myself felt that it needs to be with the builder who had the talent to give it its stance, heart & soul. There has been so many positive thoughts regarding its return to the Caulfield Hot Rod Garage aka “Weedetr” Hot Rods originally from California’s SGV and good ol Red Bluff to its present location in Henderson,TN. I myself would’ve dug on having that lil parts hauler as I’ve got a soft spot for RPU’S of most any year .
FYI , It was a helluva ride getting that to Flagstaff,AZ. In order to meet Rebel & his son as they had left Williams,AZ.
We had to drive that little bit further till we met up across from the “Cracker Barrel” @ the predesignated time so we all could get home in a timely matter.....

 

Even Lucky likes my rpu. I knew she has good taste, LOL.

 

What a great thread.

 

1973 Caulfield Automotive South of the Border of Temple City-El Monte.
1975-78 Super Bell Coupe Build? In front of these very same pull up doors nearly 50 years ago Bud Bryan’s 29 AV8 ,The California Kid (before it was The Kid), Jake’s 34 Jim Ewing’s 29 A-Banger Roadster, Dick Weaver’s then Restored Dick Bergren/Doyle Gamel’s Bitchin Chopped 32 3W coupe we’re all painted here, this was the days before. Pete & Jake’s Hot Rod Repair ever existed.

(The Former) Caulfield Automotive (Today) 20/20. building erected in 1961 by SGFD Fireman & later Captain Jim Caulfield with his son Dale’s supervision & assistance. .
Pretty kool history here Dale!!!!!!

 

Well, after nearly a year and a half, my rpu is back on the road. It was not in the best condition when it got home. Had lots of repairs needed and a few changes/upgrades.

 

Bitchen!

 

These are better than what you sent me…...

 

I love this thread.
Thanks to all the contributors for keeping it going.

 

Dale did this one for me. I was two cars behind Bud's and kept going by to see how close I was getting. Now in Japan with new paint. Fire wall is original.

 

Thanks @Jacksmith. Wow Steve, your old roadster looks quite different than when I finished it.

 

Thanks @Cyclone Kevin , @Weedburner 40 and all the others who contributed to this thread.



I took this photo a few years ago at Goodguys Columbus. They drove up and posed (not for me, but for the GG photographer standing next to me).

 

Man, my parents sure screwed me.
I grew up in the La Mirada, Whittier, La Habra area of So California. but my parents moved us back east in 1965...at 13 years old.
I had to develop my hot rod youth lifestyle in the car culture vacuum of Upstate NY.
I often wonder how different my hot rodding life would have been, had I remained in the "thick of things" in So. Cal. The timing would have been perfect.

 

You’re most welcome, The reason that I started this tread/post was to include another unsung hero of our 60’s-70’s Hot Rodding era that was part of “The Team” that gave the above Hot Rods their identities at a time when lil punks like me were eyeballing what was going on in the neighborhood . Wishing all the best during this read. Personally I really enjoy getting all of the back stories on how-what I always referenced as local Rodding and being really surprised when I read about the global impact that it’s made. I’m super proud that this happened within miles of the house that I grew up in and family still resides and the one that I’ve lived in for working on 3 decades.

 

Yep, no doubt Kevin, my parents screwed me.

 

@pprather ,you are welcome and thanks @Cyclone Kevin for starting this thread. It has been a pleasure to be part of it, rummaging through old photos for some of the material has brought back many memories.

 

@hotrodjack33, I don't know if your parents really screwed you but, 65 was when I started helping my dad out doing body work on old cars. My first memory of that time was disassembling a 29 rpu with a injected sbc and 4 speed so he could work on it. I did my first paint job 2 years later, at the ripe old age of 14.

 

No, it was a car culture vacuum here in Upstate NY. I was the only hot rod in our high school parking lot (1969), and until the mid '70's, hardly ever saw, or heard of other hot rods in the area.
But there was an upside...despite stock car racing being big in the area and cutting up lots of coupes, there was an amazing amount of vintage tin still left in the area, even up through the '80s...because no one was building anything. We were about 10 years behind what was happening on the West Coast.

 

Dale, you are right- the car looks very different. Like the '32 grill shell! Chopped windshield looks good but not at 70mph on the freeway. Will try to find an original picture. I hope the current owner contacts me- I have a lot of pictures and receipts I will send him.

 

In North Carolina we were also behind the times as to what was happening on the west coast, especially in socal hot rod scene. All my model cars were of hotrods while everyone else was building customs. I have owned, maintained, and drove a 26T built by Stan VanAmburg for the last 25 years. Pete Eastwood built the 32 frame and has a P&J suspension. Stan did a lot of work for P&J when they were in Temple City, Ca. Best car I have ever owned................

 

Post some pix of the T, really would like to see that.
CK.

 

Yes, I would like to see those pics too. I don't remember Stan having a T. He did have a 32 seda delivery that he traded to Dick Weaver for the Gammel Coupe after we finished it.

 

I genuinely love reading about this sort of Hot Rodding history. All of these guys are my hot rod heroes. I would love to have Dale lay hands on my '40 and bless it with his many talents. It would be an honor.....Don.

 

Send 'er down Don, I would love to lay my hands on your 40 too.

 

I have truly enjoyed this thread. Having had the pleasure of meeting Dale at the Midwest 40 Ford gathering in Springfield/Crane MO I can assure you that he drives the wheels off of that yellow 40 Delivery we associate with his Weedetr company. He is a down to earth hot rodder and a pleasure to visit with. I bet most of the other attendees of that event don’t know they are in the presence of a true hot rod icon. Sure glad he has relocated to our part of the world.

 

I've tried for years...but maybe YOU could convince Don @lothiandon1940 , that adding the other driving light is the only sensible thing to do

 

I too have enjoyed this thread. Always lived in Missouri for 65 years. But lived in California (starting in 1968)every month when the magazines arrived in the mail box. I got the pleasure to meet Dale last year. What a wealth of information. He's only 500 miles from me. I'm going to have to make a trip over and visit with him.

 

Bud Bryan still near Sacramento - serious health problem has slowed him down a bit - I tried taking a screen shot to copy beginning of this thread so I can print it and give to him. but lose part of of sentences. he does not have a computer.

 

Jalopy Joker,
When Dale painted the AV8 Roadster, He was a teeenager, He has a fantastic memory. Others don’t, but that’s why some of these posted images are very important in relaying this very important part of our Hot Rod History.
30 years ago I worked @ General Motors in Burbank. (I know that I’ve told this story before), One day I got a call from a guy named Bud, He was a service advisor at Buick-Mart. That was in Cerritos, CA. The only Bud that I tell him I know named Bud is the one and only Bud Bryan-Former editor of R&C.
I handled what he needed and on a personal day I went over and visited him in my 34 Coupe which is in some of those earlier thread pictures. I brought some early R&C’s and he was surprised as was the other service advisors….
They didn’t know that they were looking at one of the guys that shaped “The Street is Neat” way of Hot Rod life. He showed them the magazines, I told him to keep them. .
Ya see after the whole Petersen Publishings forced demise of R&C that left Bud out of a gig. Earlier in the year he & Gray Baskerville were returning from lunch in the 29-AV8 and got rear ended on Sunset Bl. The roadster was wrecked……
He never felt the same about the roadster or the job especially since it was coming to an end. So he had a very big change in his life. So this and other personal things affected his love for “Rodney’s”
I thought that he’d get a kick out of the fact that he affected/influenced many young up & coming Hot Rodders which I was/am one of.
He even called Jake and had a nice chat since Jake & I would grab dinner on occasion-He dug it!
Well years later he’s working @ Sac Vintage doing wiring looms and a magazine photographer asks if there’s any kool places to see in Sacramento I referred him to a few places and Sact Vintage. I told him to look up Bud. Tell him that Kevin from Cyclone-GMPP Burbank sent him.
He of course didn’t recall who I was - no big deal, but I didn’t take any pictures of our earlier meeting so I can’t show any proof, but this next story and event is what makes pix very important. Ya see one day Bud is telling the story of how the project- It being the AV8 and how it came together.
Well it seems that Bud totally omitted the fact that Jim Caulfield built the body on the AV8, The Windshield and a teenager by the name of Dale Painted that body beautiful black nitrocellulose lacquer. He even put in print that “Early Times Member” Bill Destatoff squirted it. Bill did a subsequent refresh a few years after the AV8 had been on the road.
So it’s nice that Dale had these pix of when the Caulfield’s were shooting and color sanding that very special body.
So that’s why I’m glad that we all make a little history with our Hot Rod’s.

 

^^^ Thanks, will pass this on to Bud. The current care taker of his roadster recently had it redone by Brizio's shop.

 

Stan VanAmburg built the sedan delivery after he sold the T. The drive train on both cars was the same. The T coupe was featured in ROD ACTION mag. July 1985 issue. Steve Anderson did the article and I met Steve at Charlotte auto fair when he worked for Honest Charley. Mike Goodman of Honest Charley invited me to park with them cause he was a P&J distributor. After I found out that Stan built the car Icalled him and he sent me construction pics of the car.