Hot Rods with history is mostly a West Coast thing because those guys cared about what they were doing and kept documentation about their cars. So it seems that the rest of the country did not care so much about the past and only about the present. Back east there were thousands of Hot Rods sent ot the scrap yard or remodeled into street rods with more modern parts to replace the traditional parts. Almost no one cared about the history of an old Hot Rod, and no documentation was kept. I am one of the few guys back east that cares about and owns a Hot Rod with history. My coupe is a 1930 Model A that has been a Hot Rod since the 1940's. The man who first converted this A bone into a Hot Rod in the late 1940's was a builder of midget race cars. His name was Gilmore and built the car with full fenders but installed a full race V8 60 flathead out of a midget race car. In 1957 he sold the car to a Ford mechanic named Joe Pulli. Joe spent two years channeling the body over a Z'd frame with 48 Ford front and rear axles. The body recieved a 50 Merc dash and a 40 Ford steering column with shifter, wheel cover fenders on the front and a 32 radiator grille schell. The engine came from the parts dept. a 292 Y block, 3 carbs and an Isky cam. The trans was a three on the tree out of a 40 Ford. Joe Pulli finished the car in 1959 and sold the car to a policeman named Bruster. Joe need the money to get married. I bought the car from Bruster whom raced the car at Hatfield Drag races. After a couple of years I replaced the drive line with a Chevy 283 bored to 301, dual quads and 4 speed trans. I put ladder bars on it and roll bars. I raced it in D/altered in division one of NHRA. The last time that I raced it was at the 1971 Summernationals at Englishtown where I went to the semi final of D/A class. The next 15 years the car sat in the garage while I was running Top Fuel and Top alcohol dragsters. I gave it to my oldest son Paul and he took it with him to Las Vegas where it sat in the desert for 10 more years. Finally Paul came back east and we got the coupe back and into the care taking of my youngest son Kenny. Kenny put the car back into shape without changing it's original parts. Today we have fun with this old Hot Rod with all of it's history. Goldy Hot Rods with history is mostly a West Coast thing because those guys cared about what they were doing and kept documentation about their cars. So it seems that the rest of the country did not care so much about the past and only about the present. Back east there were thousands of Hot Rods sent ot the scrap yard or remodeled into street rods with more modern parts to replace the traditional parts. Almost no one cared about the history of an old Hot Rod, and no documentation was kept. I am one of the few guys back east that cares about and owns a Hot Rod with history. My coupe is a 1930 Model A that has been a Hot Rod since the 1940's. The man who first converted this A bone into a Hot Rod in the late 1940's was a builder of midget race cars. His name was Gilmore and built the car with full fenders but installed a full race V8 60 flathead out of a midget race car. In 1957 he sold the car to a Ford mechanic named Joe Pulli. Joe spent two years channeling the body over a Z'd frame with 48 Ford front and rear axles. The body recieved a 50 Merc dash and a 40 Ford steering column with shifter, wheel cover fenders on the front and a 32 radiator grille schell. The engine came from the parts dept. a 292 Y block, 3 carbs and an Isky cam. The trans was a three on the tree out of a 40 Ford. Joe Pulli finished the car in 1959 and sold the car to a policeman named Bruster. Joe need the money to get married. I bought the car from Bruster whom raced the car at Hatfield Drag races. After a couple of years I replaced the drive line with a Chevy 283 bored to 301, dual quads and 4 speed trans. I put ladder bars on it and roll bars. I raced it in D/altered in division one of NHRA. The last time that I raced it was at the 1971 Summernationals at Englishtown where I went to the semi final of D/A class. The next 15 years the car sat in the garage while I was running Top Fuel and Top alcohol dragsters. I gave it to my oldest son Paul and he took it with him to Las Vegas where it sat in the desert for 10 more years. Finally Paul came back east and we got the coupe back and into the care taking of my youngest son Kenny. Kenny put the car back into shape without changing it's original parts. Today we have fun with this old Hot Rod with all of it's history. Goldy
Here is something that I wrote about on July 18 2011, it describes my meeting the builder at a hot rod show. last Sunday I drove my old 30 Ford hot rod to the "Run with the Angels" gathering at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pa. This 75 year old gentleman comes over to the coupe and says "I know this car, I built it in 1957". I replied " You must be Joe Pulli " Joe had a tear in his eye as he went over every weld and item. Joe started with a stock bodied Model A, hand built the frame with A front rails and Z'd 46 rails in the rear. Channeled the body over the frame, 50 Merc dash, 40Ford steering, split the wish bones, 411 spiral bevel rear, 46-3 on the tree trans, 292 Y block with Isky cam and three dueces, and a 32 grille shell. Joe was a mechanic for Jenkintown Ford and had access to the parts dept. Joe sold the coupe to a cop for $500.00 in 1960. He needed the money to get married and never saw the car again until this day. In 1964 I swapped a 1959 Austin Healey 100 six sports car for the hot rod, I drove around for a while with the 292 Ford engine. In 1968 I changed over to a chevrolet rear, 4 speed and 301 with tunnel ram and 600 Holleys. The rest of the coupe remained the same and I ran in D/Altered. The last race for it was the first Englishtown Summernationals in 1971. I always knew that Joe Pulli built the coupe. Although I never met Joe, I knew all of his friends and thought that I knew all the history of the car until now. I asked Joe where he got the car from and he told me that he bought it from a guy that lived near Johnsville naval air station. The guy raced midgets and it had a Ford 60 V8 flathead engine in the model A,when he bought it. When Joe pulled the 60 V8 out he sold the engine to Ken Hickey who was the biggest midget builder in the area at that time. So now I find out that the coupe was a hot rod in the 1940's as well, with the 60V8 in it. Joe Grandinetti, that runs the sprint cars that I build the engines for, used to run midgets as did his father before him. Joe knows the guys that had the midgets near Johnsville NAS. which is only one block from my house. Wow, all this history and I am just finding it out now after I have owned this hot rod for 47 years. I know that the folks on the west coast take pride in the history of their hot rods. Not too many hot rods here in the east have traceable history. I guess it is because no one cared to document. I feel very fortunate to have preserved this hot rod and am thrilled to find out that it's hot rod heritage goes back to the forties. Goldy <IFRAME style="WIDTH: 350px; HEIGHT: 80px; OVERFLOW: visible" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://classicfunnycarboard.com/CFB/index.php?topic=19348.msg258569#msg258569&layout=standard&show_faces=false$amp;send=true&width=350&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=:80" frameBorder=0 allowTransparency scrolling=no></IFRAME> <IFRAME style="WIDTH: 107px; HEIGHT: 20px" class="twitter-share-button twitter-count-horizontal" title="Twitter Tweet Button" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.1360366574.html#_=1360798528717&count=horizontal&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fclassicfunnycarboard.com%2FCFB%2Findex.php%2Ftopic%2C19348.msg258569.html%23msg258569&size=m&text=Hot%20Rods%20with%20history%20!%20%20%20%20%20&url=http%3A%2F%2Fclassicfunnycarboard.com%2FCFB%2Findex.php%2Ftopic%2C19348.msg258569.html%23msg258569&via=ClassicFunnyCar" frameBorder=0 allowTransparency scrolling=no data-twttr-rendered="true"></IFRAME>
Here are a couple of pics from back in the day. The first one is taken at the garage where I built my race cars. My nailhead Buick powered Crosley C/A is in the back ground. My father poses next to the coupe. The coupe is named "The Fugitive" the Crosley was named "Bassackwards" The racing picture was taken at Englishtown . here it is in 1965 with the 292 with 3 dueces, notice my Crosley altered in the background. That is my father kneeling. He was then as old as I am now. 1968 as D/Altered
Cool story...cooler car. Thanks for the history. I'm still hoping to learn more about my car before it was built as it sits today. I've been told it was a mid-west show/magazine car that was channeled over the frame ??? No proof yet.
Lets face it! FACT! Everything did start on the East Coast! I myself own and drive an old Ford that has tons of race history out of PA. Who really gives a shit! I also know a number of old guys that have what the West Coasters call historical cars. It's just that us East Coasters don't BRAG like the West Coasters do. All the famous Hot Rodder's are on the West Coast! Just ask them. There shoulders are sore from patting themselves on the Back. Jim on the East Coast
Marwyn, Russel and I used to cruise the streets back in the day. Russ had his 27 T roadster with the blown Olds. I beefed up the 671 blower for him back then and it is still running on that car today. When we cruised around, old hot rods were not cool. That was the muscle car era and most guys looked at us like we were driving out dated junk!! We didn't care because we liked carying on the tradition of Hot Rods. May Russel rest in peace !! Goldy
I wasn't trying to make any blanket statements that put people into catagories. I certainly am not trying to offend anyone. You are correct that on the west coast they make a big deal out of it and in the east it is more like "shut up and drive". I happen to like history and these old rides have plenty of it, sometimes finding out is not easy. I see a lot of beautiful rods that are fiberglass but they just don't have any ghosts in them. I happen to like the ghosts! Nobody rode in fiberglass in 1927 or 1930 or 1932 or 1934 ---. Thats what makes hot rods cool, they are all different, glass or steel, ghosts or no ghosts.
great story about your car but your unfounded generalizations and self-aggrandizements greatly detract from it
Thats a good lookin` "A" you have , great history too. My `32 is rumored to have come from down your way. I`d love to learn more of its past. First saw it in about 1968 , when it came to our town, was able to aquire it in 1972. I havn`t changed it to mutch over the years, other than steel floors and going from cutdown Terriplane front fenders to `36 tire cover ones. Still same tired orange paint on it . Just gotta preserve them old rods. If my car looks familiar to you or your buddies,let me know ; thanks for sharing yours.
Hey! I just bought a hot rod with History on the Jersey Shore... Check out my album...I think it has some Englishtown history.....history rocks!