Folks Of Interest Jim "JAKE" Jacobs, The Original Traditional Hot Rodder ! "TRODA"

I for one would like to see TRODA brought back especially here in So Cal. I remember being totally enflamed by those cars. Definately inspired me to later build traditional styled cars....

 

He is very high on my list. Met him one time, what a great guy.

 

Great story Harms, thanks...Here's a little history on the NieKamp Roadster.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/niekamp-roadster-hot-rod.htm

 

this thing looks nasty without the head lights.one of my all time favorite hot rods.

 

Great guy that built some really great hot rods..Never met the man, but sure would like to shake his hand and thank him for everything he has done for hot rodding the way it should be.

 

I have never met Pete or Jake but I have been inspired by both since I was a kid.
Jim has a very keen eye for design and seems to be a very well thought of down to earth guy.
cheers!
Mickm

 

Can someone explain why Rodder's Journal has never done a feature on either Pete, Jake or better yet both? It seems to me it's about time. Coonan, are you listening?

 

Don't read it much do ya? Issue # 46 was almost all Pete & Jakes!

 

I stalked them in the seventies and got some great pics and even two super 8 movies. I just located my movies after I thought they were lost. At the end of one of the reels, I got a great clip of the California Kid burning rubber out of the parking lot. I wished it had sound.

 

I remember telling myself, ya know, if I don't take these pictures, right now while my brother is talking, I might as well go fuck myself. Im so glad I took the pics. I was a 15 year old carrying a 35mm and a super 8 camera.

Cory Vaughn (customcory) talking about hot rod life in these pics.

 

"Jake" has been a very big inspiration for me.. partly why I'm here.

 

Jake is someone i have huge respect for. JW

 

Some more pics I took of Jakes coupe.

 

One more.

 

I think this old Polaroid is the last one I have.

 

Did you live in Compton when you knew Jake?

 

These shots must be from late 1981-early 1982? Pete didn't get the Kid back till about early 81. Wish that you had pix of that. Jake's 34 was always in front of Goody's Resaturant. Watched over time get it's Real Wheels and the ET III's that he kept on it for many years.

 

Kevin,

That looks like the axle you have under your staff car. Am I right????

 

I was nine years old at the 73 Nats and have a picture of my and my brother peering into Jakes coupe. It set the hook for me....

 

Does anyone know what issues of Rod Action and American Rodder Jake's tub was featured in?

 

I think it was the first year they brought back Rod & Custom from the dead.

 

i have a 26ford coupe that jim set the suspension up on.it is featured in the july 1985 issue of rodaction magazine p.26.stan vanamburg the owner @that time sent me the construction photos with jim working on it.p-wood built the frame. i called jim & told him the car still handles well. he is everything this thread says he is. we had a good talk&was glad to know where the coupe was at. i have hadit 16 years and drive it often...................

 

Man my big brother built the 70s resto rods when I was 13 there was a photo of a guy with a buck saw and some old coupe bodys his cars sit right and screamed hot rod thats what hooked me !Chopped tops louvers and a hell of a rake ! Thanks for the insperation

 

Jake is the real deal, he and Pete drove their Coupes accross the country and road tested their 4-Bar suspensions in the late 1970's. I have run into him at the Pomona Swap Meet, and other places in California. He is always very cool to talk to, he gave me an old business card that he had when he worked for Ed Roth.
He has built some very cool hot rods that have a traditional look to them, he never got into those Ferrari style street rods with gray interior like every one was building in the 80's. His yellow coupe is iconic and had several miles on it, a little road rash (Never seen on a trailer). I remenber seeing an old Rod Action Magazine, where he built a clothes line off his coupe door to do his laundry while on the road. "He is the real deal"!

 

I don't believe it was ever in Rod Action magazine, but it was in the first of the new Rod&Custom magazines in late '88, and American Rodder in the second or third issue not too long after that.

 

This is the issue your looking for,... There are a couple build shots in other issues. But this covers the car.

 

HOLY SMOKES !!!!,.... Sorry about the size of that Image !,... But K.C. Is looking pretty darn good there !

 

I was at the 1971 NSRA in Memphis when all these ''kids'' were there. Great post Harm's way, thanks.

 

Everything Jake has done has been an inspiration to me EXCEPT the Jakoupage on the tub........I even liked the “brushed” paint.

 

Jake was one of my hot rod heroes dating back to the Spencer Murray, Tom Medley, Bud Bryan regime at Rod and Custom Magazine. Somewhere in there Jake was an associate editor. It was probably because of Jake and how he built a lot of his rides that I became a huge fan of Kelsey Hayes 40 spoke/bent spoke wires. Over the years I never seemed to be fortunate enough to find a set and it seemed like when I did the price was either way out there or they were junk.

Sometime in the early 2000's while browsing through The Fordbarn on a Friday afternoon I spotted an ad for a large lot of 16" Kelsey Hayes wire wheels. The seller was named Sheldon from Southern Cal but I couldn't reach him on the phone until Saturday afternoon eastern time. He told me that he started with eleven sets of four Kelseys and he had just helped load the last two sets for somebody and they just left his driveway. Sheldon must have sensed my disappointment because he said that he did have two 4" left and that he could probably let a couple of 4 1/2" go from his personal stash to make a final set of four. We agreed on the price and he emailed photos. My only apprehension before paying to have them shipped across the country was that they ran true. Sheldon told me that a good friend of his named Jim Jacobs was fairly familiar with KH wires and he had built a jig that they used to check wheels for run out. If they failed they were relegated to the "spare tire" pile. That was more than good enough for me. Especially knowing that one of the hot rod builders that I admired most had probably checked my wires.

Not to hijack the thread very much longer but since I noticed the names of other well known west coast hot rod builders from the era I want to mention another of my favorites who seems to have somehow fallen under the radar. In fact some of the younger guys may have barely even heard of him even though he builds some of the coolest hot rods and specifically chassis ever. And he's a HAMB member. As somebody who devoured just about every issue of R&C from about '68 to '75 I always got the impression that Pete and Jakes could very well have been named "Pete and Pete and Jakes". I'm referring to Pete Eastwood.

Thanks to all of the guys from that era for inspiring many of us.