Rodding USA May/June 2020

Little did I know after we headed home from the GNRS in Pomona on January 27 what was about to transpire over the ensuing weeks. I wrapped up Issue 43 in early March and was ready for a busy start to the car show season with trips to Cleveland, Scottsdale, and Del Mar for various events over the next three weeks. CLEVELAND TRIP On March 7, Malena and I attended a University of Arizona basketball game along with 14,000 spectators. Before the game, we met with family and friends at a pizza parlor to celebrate my birthday. It was a typical weekend. I was scheduled to fly to Cleveland for the Piston Power Show on Wednesday the 11th. On Tuesday, I called the show office just to make sure everything…

What appears to be a stunning new build of a Deuce pickup, actually has tens-of-thousands of miles on it and has been on the road since 1999. This cool hauler was built in Memphis, TN twenty-plus years ago by George Poteet, Jerry Kyle, and Mike Lyon for friend Melanie Martin. The truck racked up some serious miles in a couple of years with several long journeys, and it performed flawlessly. A few years later, the truck changed hands and ended up in Iowa. The new owner added pinstriping and replaced the Halibrand wheels with painted wires and the black wall tires gave way to white walls. Dick Walker of Kansas City, MO, had recently finished his black Deuce roadster, so he and long time partner Carol Croley drove the new…

OWNER: Carol Croley & Dick Walker - Tucson, Arizona CHASSIS: Modified original 1932 Ford. FRONT SUSPENSION: Heidt’s Superride independent, 11-inch disc brakes, and Mustang II steering. REAR SUSPENSION: 8-inch Ford, coil-over shocks, 4-bar, and drum brakes. TIRES: Coker whitewalls, front – 165-R15, rear 225-R15. WHEELS: Painted wires with beauty rings and Ford caps. Front – 15x4, rear 15x8. ENGINE: 4.3L GM V6 Vortex, electronic ignition, and fuel injection, Sanderson headers, and FlowMaster mufflers. TRANSMISSION: GM 700R4 automatic. BODY: Top is chopped 1.5-inches, passenger car front sheet metal, solid tonneau cover, Rootlieb 3-piece louvered hood, LED taillights, and shaved handles. Bodywork and Hugger orange paint by Mike Lyon. INTERIOR: Black vinyl by Billy Tunnell, behind the dash a/c, Classic Instruments gauges, Carriage Works banjo steering wheel, and Pro Car bucket seats.…

For 2020, the hallowed grounds known lovingly as ‘Famoso’ was again the home for the annual March Meet, where home-built cars square off against several pro-built nostalgia cars, with a few piloted by current NHRA big show drivers and crew members. With upwards of five hundred entries competing, along with a quarter-mile long hot rod show in the Grove behind the stands, a swap meet from the finish line to the end of the shutdown area; a manufacturers row debuting the latest in speed products, wheels, T-shirts and more adds up to three fun-filled days of racing, socializing and meeting many of the legends in drag racing. The Grove, located directly behind the stands fills up with wild hot rods, customs, pickups, you name it, it’s probably there. You’ll easily…

Jeff, “The Woodman” Hobgood, has been creating automotive art for over 20 years and has gained worldwide notoriety for his incredible woodworking skills. He turns the various species of wood into automotive masterpieces, from signs and wall plaques to scale model cars, furniture, and woody wagon restoration. All of this takes place in his home-based shop in Newburgh, Indiana. Jeff graduated from the University of Southern Indiana in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Art and a minor in sculpture. Before that, in 1989, he met Steve and Rich Bonenberger, members of the E’ville Iron Street Rods, who produce the Frog Follies car show. He submitted a t-shirt design (he is also an automotive illustrator) for the Frog Follies show, and it was chosen as the artwork for the…

Some say the roots of hot rodding as we have come to know it today, was derived from the California dry lakes and Bonneville Salt Flats racers after they had returned from WW2 service. Their stripped-down jalopies were readied for high speed runs on the flattest, most wide-open land they could find. However, Baby Boomers like me, better remember the groundbreaking hot rods from the likes of TV Tommy Ivo and Norm Grabowski. Norm’s Kookie “T,” in its second iteration, became a trendsetting car as a star on the TV show 77 Sunset Strip and again when it graced the cover of the 1957 LIFE magazine and Car Craft. Then there were the various teen movies with both Norm’s and TV Tommy Ivo’s “T’s Raisin’ Hell on the streets. True…