Hot Rods Channeled 1932 Ford roadsters - 40's - Early Southern California history

Hudson chassis were used on some stock cars because they were so strong and had parallel leaf springs in the front. The "radius" rods were actually position rods for the front suspension.

 

Sid Kayman drove stock cars. He is 94 years old now. He of course lived in St. Louis. He raced all over Missouri and Illinois and raced at Walsh Stadium in St. Louis. He told me that he would run the roadster around the various tracks in Missouri and Illinois during intermission. He said the he drove that roadster all over the place. Had a ton of fun in it. I don't know if it could have competed in some roadster races before he bought it but I don't think so. The body is in too nice of shape. I don't think it would have been used in roadster race. May never know though.

Sid's business partner sold the roadster sometime after Sid deployed with the Navy in 1951 and had left it in his care. When Sid came back from deployment his business partner handed him 250 dollars and said he sold it. Sid was very unhappy with the price and knows that the business partner was lying to him about the sales price. Sid recalls that he paid 1200 dollars for it when he bought it in the forties. He answered an ad for it in the newspaper.

Somehow it showed up in a backyard in Fort Worth, Texas as a stripped roller in 1957. A young Don Newhouse of Fort Worth saw it and knocked on the door and the woman who answered said it was her son's. He made a deal and paid her the money and never saw her son.

Don reworked it and painted it red and he and his wife drove it until 1959 and sold it. His wife told me that they would take their baby with them to the grocery store in the roadster. Don Newhouse and I became good friends. He passed away several years ago and was an active rodder up until his death.

 

Sid Kayman

 

Yam Oka. 1947.

This was surely one of the most beautiful of the roadsters at the time. Yam was known for his exceptional work and detail and paint. Sure would be nice to see a color picture of it. Or discover it locked away in someone's garage in an older part of LA.


photo credit unknown

 

Leroy Holmes.
Photo. Don Montgomery. "Hot Rods as they Were"

 

Don Zabel - 1946 He later raised the body back on the rails according to Don Montgomery's book, "Hot Rods as They Were", 1989.

 

Karl, I'm a native Californian and got interested in Hot Rods in the late '50s. My friends and I would ride our bikes to all the local rod shops and look at the great hot rods of that period. All the '32s on the streets, that I remember in the late '50s, were not channeled. But the lakes and salt cars were 50/50 highboys and channeled. Your photos are great and bring back a time lost. I' still run your old Roto-Faze in my '32 Roadster. Keep the great photos coming. Thanks, Ron

 

Hello @KKrod
I’m Don Newhouse’s son. Dad would be very pleased with the detailed history you’ve compiled on your roadster. I know he was pleased that you located him when you acquired the car and he was tickled that he could share the details from days when he owned it.
Thank you,
Jeff

here is a pic of the car from around the ’59 timeframe…

 

Great to hear from you Jeff. It's a small world sometimes. The word gets around. Thanks for posting. One time I called your dad and asked him about where he lived when he had the roadster. It ended up that I picked him up and we drove over to his old house in Fort Worth. He showed me the custom sized garage that he built behind the house just for storing the roadster out of the weather.

 

So glad you are getting some use out of that old Roto-Faze distributor Ron. They are the best made!! I needed a tach drive and vacuum advance distributor or else I would have used it. haha I bet it keeps that roadster of your free from trouble. Beautiful paint and stance.

 

Small garage Don Newhouse built behind he and his wife's house on the south side of Fort Worth back in the late 50's.

 

Buddy Hinman first encounter with a California hot rod was when he was 11 years old in 1947 and visiting LA with his father. He saw the rod and had to get a good look at it and get his picture taken by it. It happened to be channeled. It was for sale and his dad asked the woman of the house it was in front of the price. The price was 500 dollars. Read about it on this Kustomrama page by Sondre Kvipt. A remarkable story. Buddy went on to build a nice roadster himself which has survived to the present.



https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Buddy_Hinman

 

Kayman (1951) and Knecht (2003). To me aside from the obvious frame height difference, They favor each other.

The original parts include, the same body, doors, windshield mounts, windshield, dashboard, shock mounts, headlight mounts.

 

What is the 36 ford behind it it looks Kool



k

 

Jimmy Summers custom coupe. Do a search - lots of photos of it on here - and check out this thread: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/any-old-california-guys-know-this-car.361196/

 

Jeff Pandora,
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Fadeaway_1936_Ford_by_Jimmy_Summers

 

After reading the Kustomrama article on Jimmy Summers, and seeing the photo from 1946 with the Bob Fairbanks '36 Ford and the channeled '32 roadster, I am going to throw out the possibility that Jimmy Summers was one of the first, if not the first, to do the method of channeling of a '32 roadster that is the subject of this thread. And possibly on his own he built in 1941.

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Jimmy_Summers

 

I was just perusing Don Montgomery's book, Authentic Hot Rods, his fifth book. He showed several pictures of channeled model A roadsterx from SCTA 1941 meets.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/first-channeled-1932-ford-roadster.824210/#post-14413890

Channeling a California Racer was an article in Ray Kuns book in 1947. An illustration was shown. See the posting.

 

@The37Kid do you have any more scans from the Ray Kuns article that you could post. Titled building "a California Racer." From 1947.

 

This photo file name says it is Oct. 1945. It actually looks more like pre war to me.

 

This is another channeled roadster from 1946. Fantastic clean lines in my opinion. The owner is not mentioned. Old Hot Rod Scrapbook by Don Montgomery. I would not be showing photos from Don's book had they not been out of business and print long ago.

If you are new to the HAMB or to 40's and 50's lakes racing and hot rod styling, Don Montgomery wrote 5 books total on this period of time. Each one is worth it's weight in gold. They are listed in the Antiquated Classified section from time to time.

With the shortened '32 grille moved forward, a custom longer hood top was made.

Hood tops were mandatory in dry lakes racing. An engine fire at speed would obviously be very devastating for the driver but almost certain painful injuries or death without a hood in place covering the engine.

 

Notice the car number is 74 and has no letter designation. This identifies the era as being 1946 or earlier.

"Hot rod history enthusiasts will note that old photos of SCTA meets with no letters after the car number are ususally from 1946, or earlier, meets. A letter after the car number would indicate that the photo is from a 1947 or later meet."
Don Montgomery, Old Hot Rod Scrapbook, p.136.

 

Fantastic thread, thanks KK.
Whever I think pre/immediate post war cars I always conjure up "rougher" looking roadsters that were 100% purpose built (which, of course, there were many) but threads like this remind me there were a large number of very "sanitary" (to use the period vernacular) rods that were built for speed but to also look goddamned fantastic doing it.

 

I can tell you how it's done. You have to remove the engine first, then lift the back of the body above the frame,
push the body forward to where the frame tappers down enough to clear, then lift straight up. I have removed my body twice using this method. Never try to spread the body out, I saw a guy do that and break the sheet metal.

 

I thought that the channeling of hots rods was an East Coast thing and CA was mostly highboys.

 

There was no "Method" kids in the 40's and 50's just cut the floor loose, dropped the body down and welded some angle brackets to the body and bolted it back down. A lot of times they made new wooden plywood floors. The important thing was getting done in a hurry for "Friday Nite". No big science involved.