Tabla de contenidos para November/December 2020 en Rodding USA

We are quickly closing in on what has to be the strangest year any of us have endured in our lifetime. The “double twenty” year began with Malena and I celebrating New Year’s Eve at a local casino as we have many times in the past. We then take one of our hot rods for a drive on New Year’s Day and stop for a nice lunch along the way. With a high of 70 on Day 1, we chose to drive the Roadster Pickup. January continued as expected with my usual trip to Scottsdale for the Barrett-Jackson auction. We ended the month in Pomona at Grand National Roadster Show, and little did we know what was on the horizon for the world. My next trip was in early March,…

GMP’s 1:6 scale version of the legendary Ardun V8 is flat out amazing. Their reputation for attention to detail comes to life in this high-quality diecast model engine which you can enjoy assembling yourself. Included in the cool looking box is a set of assembly instructions which walks you through the same assembly process you’d use when assembling a full-sized real Ardun, less a few blueprinting technicalities of course. Once the assembly is completed, there’s a clear engine box cover to keep the dust off your gorgeous 1:6 representation of a flathead Ford V-8 equipped with Ardun heads. GMP’s limited edition run of 750 units sold out and was initially priced at $199, but collectors are now paying above that.…

The Third Annual Affordable Street Rods Open House took place on September 19, 2020, at ASR’s facilities in Peabody, Kansas. In a year with many canceled plans and some terrible things happening globally, it was a bright spot for those who attended. In the days leading up to the event, the phone frequently rang with the person on the other end, asking, “are you still having the open house?” The answer was always, “Yes, we are!” At 8 am, cars rolled onto the lawn at ASR with a total count of 300 and an unknown number of spectators throughout the day. During the course of the morning, the grounds at ASR were filled with all types of classics, hot rods, customs, muscle cars, custom trucks, and various other vehicles. Spectator…

Many prewar sedans lean a lot when going around corners or curves, including our 1930 Model A two-door sedan. As time and cars progressed, anti-sway bars appeared and later became standard equipment front and rear. Several previously owned sedans suffered from oversteer and body lean. A rear sway (anti-sway) bar cured both problems. When we started looking for a rear sway bar for a Model A Ford, we had trouble. The only bar we found was a race car type bar inside a crossways tube with clamp-on arms. This arrangement has many parts, takes up a lot of space, and rattles when the bushings wear out. For help, we contacted an expert, Jason Slover, at Pete and Jakes Hot Rod Parts. He suggested we look at their part number 8098…

Part 4: Issues 10-12 ISSUE 10 (Aug-Sept, 2014) June 2014 featured an incredibly special event, the 50th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Roadster Show in Pomona, CA. This milestone event brought cars from across the U.S. and spectators from around the world. Rodding USA decided the event would be a “once-in-a-lifetime” spectacular and decided we would produce a special “one-off” publication solely dedicated to this event. This issue’s assortment of feature vehicles came from Colorado, Maryland, Canada, Arizona, and Minnesota. We also had a look at Steve’s Auto Restoration’s facility in Portland, Oregon, while Jerry and Peggy Slover (owners of Pete & Jake’s) invited us into their home to photograph their incredible collection of American memorabilia. Our event coverage included the NSRA Northwest Nats in Ridgefield, WA, the SoCal…

We all get involved in the car hobby for various reasons, not the least the ability to socialize with like-minded enthusiasts. They could be longtime friends or perfect strangers eager to strike a conversation while we wait at a traffic light. Sure, some gearheads feel content having their vehicle locked in the garage most of the time and only putting around the block on occasion; yet, most of us rely on car events for our “social fix,” so to speak. This year’s pandemic meant we had to adapt to a new reality – gone are the majority of the annual car shows. After a few months spent at home wrenching on our project cars, many of us felt antsy to get out and about to rev those engines with our…

When I first saw this ‘40 coupe for sale a few years ago, I knew I had seen pictures of it before, but couldn’t remember where. It turns out, it was featured in Pat Ganahl’s book, “Lost Hot Rods.” The “Candy & Chrome” ‘40 was built by Ed Leite of Hayward, California, in the early sixties. He started with a “cream puff” Deluxe coupe, which had no rust and no body damage. The car shows 59,000 miles on the original odometer eighty years later. Ed took the ‘40 apart in 1960, and it took him six years to complete the transformation. The perfect body was finished in Candy Apple Red lacquer, and it features a 303 cubic-inch Olds engine with 3 Stromberg’s, pearl white Naugahyde interior, and pretty much chrome…

Jack Linden of Prescott, Arizona, initially purchased a 1929 Ford pickup back in 1970 when working at the local Sunoco gas station in Bettendorf, IA. He drove the truck for many years and has since owned and built numerous street rods and muscle cars during the past 50+ years, including several Model A’s and ‘32 Fords, but always had a yearning for another 29 “phone booth” truck which was sold years ago. Following his retirement in 2015, he decided to do a total frame-up rebuild of his chopped 1932 Ford 3-window coupe, which appeared in issue 30 of R-USA. He completed the coupe rebuild in 2017 and proceeded to put over 10,000 miles on it. He took a year off after the 3/w project then began searching for another ‘29…

Gary Lang has been mentioned in a couple of previous articles in Rodding USA, usually associated with parts he designed and made for the cars featured. While maybe not a household name to most hot rodders, he is highly regarded and respected on the west coast of Canada and well known in California. Building hot rods since his mid-teens, Gary is also the man behind the design and manufacture of numerous automotive aftermarket accessories, plus the famed and coveted Northwest Deuce Days awards. A patternmaker by trade, he apprenticed at his father’s business, Maple Leaf Pattern Works, where he honed his skills and learned the trade. A few years later, in the corner of his father’s workshop, he started Lang Engineering and ventured into designing, making, and supplying V.W. accessories…

TRI-FIVE CHEVY WAGONS – EFI FUEL TANKS TANKS Inc. makes converting your 1955-57 Chevy station wagon to EFI an easy and affordable option. This stock style powder coated gas tank has all the internal baffling needed for late model EFI engines. The tank also features a recess for the fuel pump and sending unit to ensure adequate space for fuel lines and wiring without modification to your floor. Separate pump and sender options make it easy to match the pump to your engine and the sender to your factory or aftermarket gauges. Contact Tanks Inc. for more information on this system as well as their complete line. (877) 596-3842 tanksinc.com LS CLASSIC SERIES LOKAR recently added to their LS Classic Series line by offering classic Ford appearing crate engines, intake…

Like most rodders, the attraction to modified rides typically begins at an early age, and George Jezek, who was born and still lives in Waco, Texas, caught the bug in 1955. He was only 14 years old and had the great fortune of inheriting a 1935 Chevrolet pickup truck. It wasn’t his dream ‘32 Ford, but at 14, you can’t be too picky. He enjoyed art and photography classes in school and eventually became very talented with a brush, a pinstripe brush. All of this happened while George was in high school and soon he was striping cars in front of his dad’s market. The striping talent then grew to flames and scallops and then to commercial lettering of signs and vehicles. After serving in the Army, George was hired…

Don Ferguson is the proprietor of Ardun Enterprises, manufacturers of reproduction Ardun cylinder heads and equipment. As outlined in Part 1 of this series Don Sr. and Don Jr.’s use of and interest in the Ardun head is woven into the fabric of the Ferguson family’s racing history. Don Ferguson Sr. and Jr. were among the lucky few who raced the dry lakes, and the Bonneville Salt Flats with Ardun equipped engines. Fatefully, this interest and desire to race led Don Ferguson Jr. to purchase the tools, drawings and dies from Don Orosco for creating new heat-treated Ardun aluminum heads from High-Grade Alcoa 356 aluminum. That’s the short story. Behind that is history and passion, which runs a mile deep and is fascinating reading. The beginning of a lifetime relationship…

Pinstripers say, “it’s not finished until it’s pinstriped,” because those fine lines are an integral part of a car’s looks. Sadly, many folks don’t understand, which naturally brings up the question when building a car - Just what does a car owner need to know for buying pinstriping? Like so many other aspects of building a kool ride, there are numerous elements to pinstriping. We’ll take you through those so you can make educated decisions for your ride. To help design your graphics, you should know what is out there, what’s available, and especially how they work. For this discussion, we’re talking only about hand brush arts. We’re leaving airbrushing and other sprayed graphics for other discussions. The same holds true for gold leaf and gilding, which we will explain…

College is an interesting phenomenon. You work on countless projects and write a whole host of papers while researching a wide variety of topics. Unfortunately, many of us never revisit these topics once our tassel switches sides. For a lucky few, however, the hours spent in the lab, library, and classroom will not be an exercise in futility. No, some grads continue their academic endeavors in the real world, and Ross Ortman is one of the chosen few. While working on a research project, Ross learned the ins and outs of vacuum fluorescent displays. Realizing the importance of a side hustle and the possibilities of this instrumentation technology, Ross reasoned he could create modern, accurate gauges for classic cars. He was correct but never imagined where a small mail-order ad…

The Prescott area north of Phoenix has become a hotbed of hot rodders and an equal number of great hot rods. I called my friend Jack Linden to arrange a photoshoot of his Model A pickup, which is featured in this issue. He mentioned that three of his friends had Model A roadster pickups, and I mentioned the four A’s might make a fantastic cover shot. One RPU is a 1930, and the other two are 1931’s, and the three rods have entirely different looks. You choose the car you want, build it to your taste, and enjoy your time on the road. Rob Johnson Butch Johnson, a long-time Pasadena/ Arcadia, CA hot rod enthusiast, built this 1930 Ford roadster pickup, which he completed in 1981. Butch performed all fabrication…

The Hollywood Bowl played host to the 1st Annual L.A. Roadster Exhibition, which featured 50 roadsters in 1960. The 50th L.A. Roadster Show took place on Father’s Day weekend, June 14 & 15, 2014, showcasing a record 1,100 roadsters, 1,000 swap spaces, and several thousand custom rods and tens of thousands of spectators. We decided that this once in a lifetime hot-rodding event needed to be documented in a 116-page collector’s edition publication. It featured the history of the show and the incredible roadsters, hot rods, and swap meet.…