Technical History of So Cal 1932 Ford Roadster, LA Roadster Club, Riverside, Cusey, McMullen

About 10 years ago, a good friend of mine gave me a 1963 Hot Rod publication called "Speed Tuning & Trouble Shooting". I immediately fell in love with the Deuce roadster pictured going down the dragstrip on the inside front and rear covers. The roadster is also the focus of a cool cover photo, but the dragstrip pics really appealed to my tastes and what I like about '50s styled hot rods. There's nothing in the magazine about the car, it was just used for photos.

It's been a favorite of mine ever since, but only earlier this year did I realize that the then owner's name was printed inside the cover. I tracked him down and, unbelievably, he still had it, and more unbelievably, after 49 years of ownership, he was willing to sell it! After quite a few phone conversations, e-mailing pictures, a flight out to look at it, making a deal on it, jumping through some hoops, selling a car to a friend who also had to jump through some hoops, and a quick California roadtrip with a trailer later, it's in my garage!

It's been off the road for 40+ years and narrowly escaped being transformed into an '80s street rod by Tom McMullen in a series he began in Street Rodder in 1982. The article was entitled "Old to New". I'm on a mission entitled, "New to Old". I want to put the car back to the way it was when I fell in love with it.

When I first saw the car in the magazine, thoughts of "where is it now" never really crossed my mind. I couldn't imagine there would be a chance of finding it, just kind of looked at it like a model of a look that I'd like to replicate in a car someday. I thought it would be cool to build a '33-'34 roadster in a similar style. That all changed with my decision to pursue the lead of the 1963 owner's name which resulted in the opportunity to buy it. I think I read a post on here once about "you gotta knock on the door" or "you gotta make the call". I've done it plenty before with no results, but this time I got lucky and it paid off.

Since my first contact with the owner for the previous 49 years, Ian Cusey, I have been obsessed with knowing as much about the car as I could learn with the intention of preserving what is known of it's history and restoring the car back to the condition displayed on the magazine cover.

Being able to spend alot of time speaking with Ian, I've got a pretty good handle on what's happened to it during his ownership. I did learn that he bought it, pretty much as pictured, from a fellow class of 1954 Bell Gardens High School graduate, Don Streiff. I was able to make contact with Don and learned that he only had the car for a couple of months before selling it to Ian somewhere about March of 1962. His wife didn't like driving it and she couldn't lock it up at work. At that time, it had a hopped up flathead in it. Don said he didn't do a thing to it. Ian almost immediately installed the first of several 283s, and it was the subject of a Rod Test in Rod & Custom magazine very shortly after.

So, I've got it traced back to about February of 1962, but by then it was already a finished hot rod, painted a '50s Plymouth green, with a hopped up flathead, bobbed rear fenders, '39 taillights, chrome BLC headlights, chopped windshield, juice brakes, 15" Mercury wheels, and baby moons. It also had a vintage dash panel with S-W gauges and had a dash-mounted hand pressure pump for the fuel system. Being a finished, painted car, driving around the streets of southern California, surely someone else out there knows more about it.

What I'm hoping to be able to find from my appeal here, is anything that anyone might know or recall about the car, especially regarding the history prior to 1962. Is it possible, there's someone still out there who might remember the hot rod origins of this roadster? I hope so. Don Streiff told me that all he could remember was that he had purchased it from "a fireman in uptown Riverside, CA".

Here are a few highlights in the roadster's history that I know of:

July 1962: Rod & Custom, Rod Test by Mike Lamb at Lion's Drag Strip in Long Beach with photos by Randy Holt.

1963: Speed Tuning & Trouble Shooting, by Hot Rod Magazine, photos by Bob D'Olivo.

1964: pictured with Tom McMullen's roadster on the covers of two LP Albums by the Astronauts, "Competition Coupe" and "Rarities", photos by Ken Whitmore.

1982: featured in a series by Tom McMullen entitled "Old to New", covering the transformation of it into a state of the art hiboy street rod, two installments were published, March & April, then nothing after. Fortunately, they never finished it.

Here are some of the pictures I have of it:

The first two are supposedly from the photoshoot for R & C at the Lion's Drag Strip in Long Beach:





Here are the photos from Speed Tuning & Trouble Shooting, that's Ian holding the meter:







These are scanned from the '62 R & C, Ian driving and Mike Lamb riding shotgun:







Finally, the two Astronauts album covers:





Just so you know, it's not this kind to the eye right now. The green paint is still on the windshield frame, grille shell, grille apron, front & rear fenders, and rear frame horn covers, (all of which were stored safely above a restroom in Ian's shop) but it's in pieces, the body was stripped and put in primer, and it needs a full restoration. Fortunately, Ian didn't get rid of much and I got all of those parts, the white top and a few upholstery pieces, and most of the hard to find parts to restore it back to the way it was, but it's definitely a project. It is nice California sheetmetal, though.

Anyone know anything? I'd really appreciate hearing any info, memories, etc., about the car, no matter how small.

I have to say that meeting Ian has been a blast. He's a very intense guy, 76 years young, still into cars, and stills hosts a "Liar's Club Meeting" at his shop in La Habra every Thursday night. He was friends with Tom McMullen, they were roommates for a time, and he has intimate knowledge of some of those legendary McMullen stories! He was member # 24 or 25 of the LA Roadster club.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Randy

 

Great find, I remember that car well and have the Speed & Tuning book and the July 1962 Rod & Custom. I'll be following your restoration with interest, all the best you have a real piece of history.
HemiDeuce.

 

Wow, thats very cool!
Please post pics of how it is now.......

 

Here it is today:





Pretty basic pic, I've got all the parts stashed away awaiting their turn.

 

Great find!

That shade is "jealousy green" if you ask me. Envy has set in, way to go.

 

Wow,,,,amazing car and story! Im right here in Austin if you need any help!

 

Randy P -

Cool, Cool, Cool! (car, story, & that you are "restoring" it).

I can't help you with its prior history ... but you've come to the right place ... the H.A.M.B. never ceases to amaze me!

 

2xinfinity. Good luck on filling in the rest of the blank lines in the car's history. Gary

 

Awesome!

 

You are a lucky guy,Randy.That is one sweet ride with a great history.Congratulations on the cool find,and way to bird-dog it.Have fun! Rod.

 

WOW, what an incredible car! Congrats to you! All it took was a phone call. If I had you're luck I'd be calling that super-model I been thinking about.

 

I still own an orig LAR car. Was this 32' in LAR's? Not sure
if he was involved in early 60's but you might check with
Deuce Daddy Don here on the HAMB. I know some of the
orig members and might contact them, however all our
memories are becoming a bit faded. Great find, good luck.
Bob Gorby

 

very cool....................


is the deck lid filled..............??


.

 

Congrats on an amazing find

 

Thanks for all the kind words, I do feel pretty lucky to be the new caretaker!

Cool, I'd appreciate you asking around for me or any leads, it'd be great if you could find something. Yes, Ian was a member of LAR's, the R&C article states he was vice-president. Ian recalled being an officer, but didn't remember being VP. I know he was member # 24 or 25. I did correspond with DDDon, he remembered the car, but didn't know much about it.

The car still had a functioning rumble in the pics, but the handle hole was filled and it had a remote latch that can be seen in the interior shots in the Rod Test article. At some point it was converted to a trunk lid, probably in the '80s redo.

 

It's the same era and style of the copper colored full fender deuce owned by Neal East in the late 50's. I believe he was R&C editor at the time; someone else built it maybe. Bill Moehller owned it in the 60's and I believe it's been restored in the past twenty years.

 

I remember that car from the Old to New articles. I like they way it looked BEFORE they started!! Glad to see that it didn't get finished "Boyd Style". Didn't they put a new frame under it at that time too? Lucky for you that Ian kept all the parts, rather than tossing them out or selling them.
Did he say why the project stalled out?

 

That car is kick ass. Great find. Does not get much better than this pic IMHO.
No dropped headlight bar and still wearing bumpers, and every bit a hot rod.

 

Great find. Congratulations on fulfilling one of your dreams, can't wait to see it back on the road !

 

In this picture, you can see the newspapers stuffed down into the doors. They're very brittle so I've been hesitant to pull them out, but decided that they could give a clue to some history of the car.

The one I got out crumbled as I unfolded it, but found an ad for the Fox Theatre Pomona phone 2-1353, The California Theatre Ontario Any Seat Any Time 50 cents, movie ads such as Burt Lancaster in "Gunfight at the OK Corral", Jane Russell in "The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown", other titles like "Fire Down Below", "20 Million Miles to Earth", and "The 27th Day".

Finally got a top piece unfolded and could make out evening edition, The Progress-Bulletin, Pomona, July 5, 1957. Pomona's not far from Bell Gardens and the other towns already associated with the car. They probably stuffed the newspapers in the doors when they upholstered it, probably after it was painted as I didn't see any green overspray on the newspapers. Paint and upholstery done in '57 would seem to be a likely scenario. I haven't had the green paint evaluated yet, but it looks like it could be a mid to late '50s Plymouth or Dodge color.

I don't have many early Hot Rod Magazines or other publications of that time. It seems like there were a lot of '32 roadsters running around So Cal at that time, so maybe not, but I can't help but wonder if there's any earlier coverage or pictures of it from around that time. The early '60s HRM's that I have seem to have several two page writeups with pics of local cars.

It appears that the green is only one or two coats with original black underneath. Could have been hot-rodded when it was still black. It does have some distinguishing characteristics, the dash insert and gauges, the painted windshield frame, the '39 taillights spaced out wider than most, the almost-certainly-one-of-a-kind crudely (by today's standards) bobbed rear fenders, the undropped headlight bar with chrome headlights with the glass markers on top. Anyone seen or recognize anything?

 

That car has also always been one of my favorites. I still have the "Speed Tuning..." book and have often wondered what happened to the roadster on the cover. I am happy to hear that it has been saved and will be returned to the way it was.

 

this i a cools story.. much better than winning the lottery.. how cool is it he still had the car. amazing. congrats, and the body looks fantastic. look forward to bring her back to simpler times.. also, im s o happy it did not get street rodded.. she would of been scared for life besides you have to explain to the wife why it cant stay hot pink. laughs
chris.

 

I just fell in love too! What a great car!!

The article says 1957 Plymouth Metallic Coral Green. What a neat color, too!!

 

What a great find, car and story! I think it's with the right guy. Good luck.

 

Great story , they ARE still out there , it's all in the timing , that's one sweet ride.

 

great find...........very cool

 

Wow Great story and even greater that it fell into the right hands. Two thumbs up for plans that you have for it . . Best of luck to you.

 

Neat history; good to see it will be restored in its "original" style. Hopefully, the missing
pieces of its life will come to light.

At least, it's in good hands......

 

Randy -- it was very cool checking out this car in your shop recently.
Can't wait to see how she turns out my friend !
Art

 

Randy P -

I'm pretty sure Ian's membership in LAR's pre-dates Deuce Daddy Don by a few years (Don didn't become a member of LAR's until 1971) ... so it's understandable that Don doesn't remember much about Ian's (now your ) car.

That stated, Los Angeles Roadster Club founder, Dick Scritchfield has been known to lurk here every now & then ... you might try contacting him via a H.A.M.B. Private Message ... just click: scritch ... but be patient for his reply ... he's on Hawaii-time!