Hot Rods The Dick Scritchfield Roadster

Most everyone knows the car's history, and what it was restored to. It has always been the perfect '32 roadster in my mind. But my favorite versions of this car will always be while it was powered by a small block Chevy. This thread is dedicated to the car in that form - it was small blocked and painted yellow before Dick got it, then he had his fun with the car for decades to come. I have stolen every picture I could find of it from the internet and will be adding a few photos I have of it next. If you have an pictures not posted here, I would love to see them!

 

I dig that push button radio!

 

What is that plunger looking thing by the corner of the gas tank under the body? A release for the extended decklid?

 

I also think it is a "10"* as a hotrod.

 

Yep!

 

Hidden hinges!? That's a Street Rod not a Hot Rod. I'm kidding of course. Just proves that isn't a Boyd thing.
I dig the version with the Astro slots. I must admit that I'm not a fan of the bobbed front frame horns. Everything else is sweet.

 

When it was redone in the McGee version, did they repair the holes in the hood sides or make new ones? How far do you keep original parts?

 

Ah dangit.. I just built the McGee version, now you got me wanting to build the Scritchfeild version!

 

Scritch’s was said to be the first car painted with metal flake according to HRM. Tex Smith shot this photo at Jeffries shop but Dean had not painted the car.

 

I wish I could examine that trunk latch setup more closely. My 39 is decked with no latch at all, I need to rectify that.

 

Here’s the car on an LA Roadsters run behind the Duane Kofoed and Sam Conrad roadsters.

 

I have never seen this car with whitewalls before! Kinda breaks my heart haha

 

Great thread, @Anderson !

Thanks to all the contributors.

 

This is Bruce Meyer saying "Some day, she will be mine..... oh yes, she will be mine"

 

That extended trunk lid gave me many a sleepless night!

 

Great car, great thread!

 

I have always wondered about this picture. How long did the flames last? Were they a wrap put on for the ad?

 

Well...I have an older scanner and the software doesn't want to work without a more up to date version of Adobe Flash Player, but Adobe stopped supporting Flash Player at the end of 2021, so I'm kinda SOL! Anyone know of a good, free or cheap scanning software that will work with an old HP printer/scanner?

I did get these scanned, but am not able to bump up the quality or size unfortunately.

I have since forgotten where this was taken, but I know someone will recognize the decor. Not often seen with just the hood top. The back of this picture is dated 1964.


I guess we can infer that somewhere between early '64 and September of '64 is when the chrome Astro slots showed up on the car.



And another one with it in the background, but with a top! This is a really bad photo but I don't think I've seen any other pictures of the car with a top on it (in Scritchfield form).

 

I generally look at the HAMB on my iPhone so I took screen shots of those images and cropped them to make them larger, showing a bit more detail.

 

I use the Microsoft Paint utility with my HP printer/ scanner.

 

It's interesting that the eyes on the rear spring are not reversed considering how much customization had been done to the car at that point @Anderson.

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The frame is Z’d so I’m guessing a reverse eye spring wasn’t necessary.

 

Looks like a moderate Z of about 4 inches.

 

A 32 roadster without fenders has got to be the epitome of an old hot rod. I lived in southern Calif. from 1965 to 1978 and I wonder why I didn't see any of these cars on the road. I can't imagine how excited I would have been to see that many roadsters at one time. I guess I was always at the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

That has to be one of the cleanest original hot rods I've seen. Not a wire or hose is out of place. It still exceeds the standards of most of the cars being built today.

 

I remember an article in HotRod in the early sixties that showed a quickchange install in a 32 roadster. It was Scritch's 32 and you can see some construction details