Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2019 i Rodding USA

The inaugural NSRA Route 66 Nationals was held at the Expo New Mexico State Fairgrounds in Albuquerque on August 23 - 25, 2019, attracting 785 top quality entries from all over the country. Beautiful weather and a comfortable venue combined to make this a great event. Many exciting activities included the Women’s World, Ladies’ Tea, hot rock & roll bands, an inspirational Church service, a kick-off party, tours of local car shops, a swap meet and an arts & crafts show, just to name a few. Great food was served by several vendors, underscoring why New Mexico is officially recognized as the “Chili Capital of the World!” As is the case with any NSRA event, tons of awards were presented to the lucky show winners. The Fast Revolution Pick went…

The 46th edition of the Minnesota Street Rod Associations Back to the 50s show entertained nearly 12,000 street rods, hot rods, trucks, muscle cars and more. The event takes place at the beautiful Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Saint Paul. The 2019 show was held June 21 – 23 and the weather cooperated nicely with mostly sunny skies. The nearly 2,000 volunteer club members made sure the event ran smoothly and that the entrants and spectators had a great time. Over 400 vendors attend the show along with a massive swap meet, food stands and the popular Ladies Showcase. MSRA has to be proud of their Back to the 50s weekend being voted the Best Car Show in the USA Today 2019 Readers’ Choice awards. It is a well-deserved honor. The…

Southwest Street Rods club is located in the greater Phoenix area and is open to 1972 and earlier custom cars. The club’s annual event featured over 200 custom cars and Vintage Aircraft and was held at The Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum, which is located at Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ. The show was held on October 26th under clear skies and air temperatures in the low 80s. The “no trophies” show was open to 1972 and earlier cars, which included everything from antiques to street rods, muscle cars, trucks, Corvettes, and more. The show included vendors and plenty of door prizes and a unique “grand prize” drawing for car owners, which included cash and a 45-minute history flight experience in a World War ll bomber. The entrants received an…

Larry Smiley grew up in the small Kansas town of Newton and spent lots of time at his brother’s filling station. When you spend time around cars, it’s not unusual for the car bug to bite, and it did at age 14 for Larry. He purchased his first car, which happened to be a 1953 Studebaker Champion with a six-cylinder Flathead under the hood. He fixed it up, got it running to perfection, and then spotted a ’40 Ford sedan, which he had to have. He sold the Stude, purchased the ’40, and was forever hooked into the world of custom cars and hot rods. This would all lead to a lifetime of owning, customizing, cruising, and then selling over 100 vehicles. Larry grew up and learned the welding and…

1935-40 FORD BODY MOUNTS NEED to replace those worn-out body mounts on your 1935-40 Ford Passenger Cars? Use Pete & Jake’s quality precision fabricated replacement body mounts, part #5028. These mounts make replacing those worn out mounts an easy weld-on install for a good fit. (800) 334-7240 www.peteandjakes.com 1935-40 FORD FRONT DROP AXLE CROSS MEMBER LOOKING to replace your front axle on your 1935-40 Ford? Need to make room for that new small block Chevy you just rebuilt? Got a fuel pump clearance issue when you went to a drop axle? Use Pete & Jake’s quality precision fabricated front drop axle cross member. Weld-in installation is quick and easy with our high-quality cross member, part #5024. Pete & Jake’s has been the premier hot rod manufacturer of full chassis, suspension…

(Editors Note: Steve Frisbie, owner of Steve’s Auto Restoration called one day to tell me about a 1901 Frisbie Red Devil. The car was built by a family relative in Cromwell, Connecticut, and Steve had recently purchased it. Even though it’s not a hot rod, it is undoubtedly an ancestor to them, and I thought our readers might enjoy this look into the past.) The mystery involved with locating the Frisbie “Red Devil” 2-cylinder roadster started for me in November of 1984 when my mother, Lorraine Frisbie (now deceased), and I sent a letter inquiring about the car to Ms. Eleanor Hawley, bulletin publisher for the Frisbie Family Association. My mother and father, Charles Frisbie, had joined the Frisbie-Frisbee Family Association of America in 1965 so they were subsequently getting…

Mike Henry, an Indiana native, grew up in the shadows of the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Raceway Park, home of the U.S., Nationals Drags, road courses, and many sprint car tracks. In other words, it is easy to get hooked on fast cars when you’ve been a part of them your entire life. It’s also very cool to know that your grandfather was an Indycar owner in the early 1930s. Mike’s grandfather, George A. Henry Sr. was good friends with the Duesenberg family, which led to the cars being powered by Dusenberg. Mr. Henry’s cars ran from 1930-32. Mike grew up in the car culture of the 1960s/70s, and being a car guy at that time was fun. Mike says “Friday and Saturday nights were like the American Graffiti and…

While we were working on the right side of the motor, the spin-on oil filter looked out of place— just a bit too modern. The first step was to use an oil filter relocation kit from Perma-Cool. We located the spin-on filter inside of the frame beside the transmission and out of sight. This was a vast improvement, but the adaptor on the motor still looked wrong. This idea is a classic example of more time than sense, but we set out to disguise the adaptor to better fit the look and style of the car. Our spin-on adaptor was not modified, but the hose barb fittings were replaced with 1/2-inch pipe nipples. An aluminum block was machined to fit over the adaptor. Three more aluminum pieces were fabricated to…

Many rodders across the country are familiar with a very cool purple Deuce roadster and its owner Dave Ruhs from Des Moines, Iowa. His involvement with customs cars began in 1978 when he purchased and restored/modified a 1968 Camaro. He grew up in Cedar Rapid, Iowa, and the next-door neighbor was a drag racer/hot rodder and owned a couple of ’32 Fords, which lit a new Deuce flame for young David. After high school, he continued driving the Camaro and one day, the neighbor mentioned that he was going to sell a Deuce 5-window body. Dave came up with the cash and began scrounging parts to get it on the road. After high school he was employed by Sears Roebuck and met a young woman named Sandy, who also worked…

Rich Stapf was attending the L.A. Roadster Show in 2007, and as so many rodders used to do on Friday afternoons, he drove his roadster to the SoCal Speed Shop open house in nearby Pomona. Hundreds of hot rods would gather there for a fantastic car show before the LARS on Saturday. It just so happened that SoCal had just finished a stunning gold 1932 Ford 5-window coupe for customer JJ Barnhardt. It turns out that Rich’s favorite ’32 is the 5-window coupe when it’s chopped, so needless to say, this car stopped him in his tracks. He says, “I can remember a crowd around the car swarming like bees!” The original Ford body was purchased by SoCal from one of their employees who had found it in Southern California.…

Steve Lykken, a longtime resident of Solvang, CA has been hot-rodding for many years. At one point he owned eight 1940 Fords, and then he decided to sell them all, and he then jumped into the world of 32s. Recently he decided it would be fun to put on an event for only 1932 Fords along with helping several local charities. Through his longtime connections in the Santa Ynez Valley he was able to secure the Zaca Creek Golf Course in nearby Buellton as an incredible venue for the event. Buellton is located three miles from Solvang which is a quaint Dutch community and attracts tourists from all around. The headquarter hotel was the Hampton Inn and was filled with Deuces both Friday and Saturday night. The event took place…

Fasteners are clearly a key ingredient in any build, given that they literally and figuratively hold everything together. To better understand the world of fasteners, we turned to ARP, the highly respected manufacturer of high-performance bolts and studs. The company, founded in 1968 by Gary Holzapfel, has a half-century worth of hot rodding experience. One crucial point to consider, given that many rodders are tackling projects with cars that are more than 60-80 years old, is that fasteners degrade over time and lose their gripping strength through stress, fatigue, and rust. Relying on old hardware for important engine, driveline, chassis, and suspension applications are asking for trouble. So what should be used to replace them? When it comes to fasteners, you can literally “tell a book by its cover” as…

For 2019, Pebble Beach’s Historic Hot Rods “Class R” featured magazine cover cars spanning nearly 50 years. The vehicles included trendsetters, technical marvels, and Hollywood ‘B Movie” stars. Several hadn’t been seen in decades. They all exemplify American auto ingenuity. Judging hot rods is a challenge. No two are alike, and owners are asked to present them the way they were initially built. We don’t discourage original cars, but most of the hot rods on the lawn have been restored. I have judged the class since the beginning. Over the years, we’ve had notables like Ray Brock and Alex Xydias on the judging team. We lost author and former drag racer Don Montgomery earlier this year, so his place was taken by Jay Ward, founder of Billetproof and the Asphalt…