Found this Crusing CL THE BLACK WIDOW 1925 Ford Model T Roadster!! Builders: Wally Olson (1952), Bill Scott (1954) & Richard Riddell (2005) The garage find of the century! How long have you been hot rodding cars--since the 1950s? Many of us got started in the 50s and 60s. (For you real old birds out there that remember hot rodding T roadsters with Roto-Faze ignitions, Ruxtell 2-speed rear axles, Riley 2-port heads and Laurel lowering kits, well what can we say youre a generation before us and we take our hats off to you original hot rodders.) BUT for all of us The Black Widow is a serious piece of 1950s hot rodding annals and a benchmark for the industry! In an article in Hot Rod Deluxe, July 2008 entitled, Tangled Web the full-story of Richard Riddells quest to restore the original Black Widow had its public debut. Hot Rod Deluxe reported the cars winning the 2008 Grand National Roadster Show which was a dream come true, taking Best Early Altered T Roadster. (See also Rod & Custom, June 2008.) It was also a contender for the Bruce Meyer award at the Grand Nats. Why do guys like Richard Riddell (and the rest of us) spend years (3400 hours in Richards case) restoring a car we found in a barn? Answer: For the love of the sport! All of us remember some other cars with similar names, for instance the Black Widow Monogram model car (1/24 scale model/Ford T Pickup Rod/removable top by Mattel quality hobby kits). Also, we remember General Motors/Chevrolet coming out in 1957 with their first racing version Chevy called The Black Widow. But predating both of these historic cars is the The Black Widow built by Wally Olson to help keep his kids out of trouble in 1952 and first débuted in Hot Rod magazine, September 1954 in an article entitled, Lil Beau T, which read, Wally Olson, Fresno, California, automotive machinist, is the lucky owner and builder. Duane Taylor was called in for the body work. It added as to why he built the car, What with so much current upheaval in the teen-age ranks, Wally figured that a sure-fire way to eliminate those free-time, nothing-to-do troubles would be to interest them (his 9 & 12 year old sons) in a rod. So far the idea has worked like a charm. In time the family moved on to other projects and Bill Scott purchased the car and redid it with fenders, headlights and all the stuff to make it street legalas we used to call it! The first documentation of the car being called Black Widow is found in the magazine Rodding and Re-styling, August 1957 issue. That article reported Bill Scotts changes to Wally Olsons car, The front end was revised to incorporate a tubular axle and tube shocks. The new owners also equipped the car with a new power plant. The original mill is a 41 Merc bored out .100 inch over stock, ported and relieved includes 8.5-to-1 Offenhauser heads, a Weber full-race cam, and an Evans 3-caberator manifold. [Note: The several engines that were housed in this car later varied; see final Merc build details below.] Dont you love the sound of that ported and relieved and full-race camwhens the last time you used those terms? By the time the 1959 Hot Rod Annual was published the car-title stuck for all time The Black Widow. Riddells 2-Year Renovation! According to long time race car builder Richard Riddells log he states, Sometime in 1955 Wally sold his roadster to Bill Scott. Bill again called on Duane Taylor to turn the car into a bonified street rod. With the additional of windshield, head lights, tail lings, and fenders it was finally able to jump into his little Hot Rod and go crusin. The pin stripping was done by none other than Dean Jefferies with the familiar cobweb and spider on the turtle deck. He reports that the cars first win was a five foot trophy at the Sacramento AutoRama in 1957 for Best Roadster. Yes, Bills car was having the time of its life being one of the best looking early California street roadsters of all time. Richard states, Bill Scott died around 1987...for several years the car languished getting worse and worse as is so often the case for old Hot Rods. The garage find in 2005 notes, At a glance the roadster didnt look that bad. But the Naugahyde and carpet were shot, fenders, original wheels and hub caps to name a few problems for the yet to begin restoration. Riddell notes, Under a somewhat decent body and paint job lurked a mess that went beyond your worst nightmare. He adds, I began wondering how I could salvage this little beauty in the rough. Not that many people have restored an old Hot Rod but, those who have know what Im talking about. Its much harder than building a rod from scratch. But the roadster was begging to be restored and Im glad that I was chosen to do it.─Richard died shortly after finishing the project but happily he was able to see The Black Widow win the Grand Nats and have a feature center-spread article in Hot Rod Deluxe. Here are a few of the Riddell-engineered refinements to this original car. Recessed pockets had to be built in the frame rails to accept the front motor mounts which double as water pumps. New front radius rods were built out of heavy wall chrome-moly tubing. The original ones were so poorly made that they were unsafe. The correct master cylinder banjo fitting was not available so, he fabricated a new one from scratch. The tooling mandral had to be CNC machined to facilitate metal spinning new brass tail pipe end bells. Hey would you agree? Hot rodding is an art form and some Hot Rod Artists have mastered the craft and Richard Riddell is one of them!!! Reconstruction points of interest: Original steel body and doors welded shut 42 Merc 274 c.i flathead (current engine) 39 Lincoln-Zephyr tranny 34 Ford rear with Halibrand quick-change center & enclosed drive shaft 39 Ford hydraulic brakes all around & wide 5 16-iunch wheels & caps 37 Ford tube axle Engine by RPM Machine Chrome by Ace Plating Frame done by Capps Powder Coat Body/paint by Showtime Customs Upholstery by Brents Why is the car being sold? To quote his wife Pat, Unfortunately, Richard passed away on March 18, 2008 and will not get to enjoy seeing the new owner drive away with a piece of automotive history. Richards loyal wife Pat grew up around racing since she was 9 years old. Her maiden name was Rodriguez. If you grew up at Lions Dragstrip, as she did, you may remember her fathers and brothers rail? They and his sons ran an old top alky rail under the name Rodriguez & Son's. Pat said, As I was growing up I often wondered how I would ever meet someone to marry, since all that our family ever did was go to the drags. Then one day Richard came along and met me at the Winternationals. Well the rest is history. For Pat after Richards death there are just too many memories attached to all the memorabilia, race cars and hot rods in their storageshe would like to sell The Black Widow to some deserving hot rodder. Factoid photo: The first photo of the car in the photo gallery shows the original nerf-bumper, the original trunk lid with Dean Jefferies pin stripping and the 2008 trophy from the Grand National Roadster Show in 2008. These items will go with the sale of the car, plus the rear bumper which is noted in a rear shot of the car in the gallery. Terms of sale: Please contact Don Burdge at www.DreamRodLocator.com or call him at 619.804.8033 or call John at 760-402-0128. You should call us before Leno does! We have additional photos and several 50s and current magazine articles and 3 historic magazine articles from the 50's available to seriously interested buyers. 1925 Ford Roadster - $143000
Very Nice piece of Hot Rod History, My cousin "Ruben" of Visalia re-pinstriped the car in the same style as the original.
It's worth every penny....oh wait it's not $14,300? I still think it worth the 1/7th of a Million dollars. It's one of my favorites! Now what was it that the thread earlier was saying about "T's" be inferior?
that's a big bunch of money. when it was first built it wasn't worth squat.. that's why most disappeared. quite a turnaround.
Here are a couple I shot at the Roadster Show... It's a sweetheart and I can't even afford one of the fenders!
Rich was a good friend and he has been missed since passing away last year. Here are more pics of what he started with. Enjoy. His wife Pat sent me an email a couple days ago with the complete story and pics of the the build. http://www.hotrodhotline.com/blackwidow/index.html
By the pics the car looked in good shape but it was a real mess. At some point alot of weld repairs were done and they had also welded the body and floor to the frame. The frame was so jacked up that he had to cut the frame from the body. After a long debate in trying to save the frame He decide to make a new frame due to the sme amount of time that was going to be put in for repairs.
I saw The Widow when I went to Rich's to pick up the FED. It was about 90% done at the time. Absolutely beautiful car, and the restoration is second to none. If I had the coin, it would already be at my house. Martin, do you know if Pat sold the underslung? Doc.
so you think your model A is worth 68 thousand??? just curious,your model A is nice,but pretty mild for a 60's show car.
Are there TWO Black Widows? This car is a roadster, and the Black Widow that became the Monagram kit and had a clone recently built was a Roadster Pickup.
Not many know this but Ray Anderegg owned this for about 6 mos to a year around late '55. Here is a picture of it at the Merced (California) County Fair in 1955 next to his AMBR winning roadster and the big trophy. Louie
Is this the same Rich Riddell that built the SpeedSport Roadster 2? Rear engined 27 T with a late Hemi?
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