Rodding USA March/April 2021

Rodding USA has had the great fortune of joining forces with the Havasu Deuce Days Show in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The event’s promoter Joe Mitchell and his wife Teresa worked endless hours not only in planning this year’s event but also working with city and state officials to develop a plan on how to hold the event safely. This was the 6th edition of the annual event, and it was the biggest and best to date. Their countless meetings and telephone calls paid off, and the event took place without a hitch. Some adjustments had to be made, and if the officials requested a change, that is what was done. The Thursday street show on McCulloch Boulevard had all but been scrapped, but at the last minute, the city…

After moving to California as a kid, I became a Beach Boys music fan. Being a SoCal teenager, surfing and owning a wood-bodied station wagon was high on my to-do list. I have been lucky enough to have surfed a lot and owned three woody wagons. We old guys got to drive some pretty darn cool cars back then. Like many of us, I was born at the end of the real wooden body car production era. With that said, the woody wagons will always be a symbol of a more glamorous time when craftsmanship and style were critical factors in owning or driving a specific type of automobile. The woodies, as we call them, fell out of favor due to the amount of upkeep needed to preserve the wood.…

While attending the Grand National Roadster Show held in January 2019, Bill Whetstone of Michigan discovered a 1940 Ford Standard Coupe on display. The single-stage polo green point color instantly caught his attention, considering he had just sold a 1940 Ford Sedan of the same color. He was taking time to pause and read the Coupe’s information, and he noticed it was built by the well-known hot rod builder Bob Bauder for Vern Luce, piquing Bill’s interest even more. Bob Bauder worked with Boyd Coddington, where the shop birthed the definition of a smooth hotrod with the 1933 engine red ‘Vern Luce Coupe’ in the eighties. This style is what put them on the map and just one of many built for Vern Luce. Bill decided to have lunch while…

OWNER: Bill Whetstone - Warren MI CHASSIS: Stock FRONT SUSPENSION: Dropped axle, split wishbones, mono leaf spring, disc brakes, Saginaw power steering box. REAR SUSPENSION: 4-bar with adjustable Heim joints, transverse rear spring, Ford 9-inch with 3:08 gears. TIRES: Coker Classic, Front - 185/75R14, Rear - 225/75R15. WHEELS: Wheel Smith, Front - 14x6, Rear - 15x8. ENGINE: 355CI Chevrolet with GM Vortec Center bolt heads, Edelbrock Vortec Performer intake, Edelbrock 750cfm carb, 1.6:1 roller rockers, custom pushrods, and GM Performance roller cam. TRANSMISSION: TH350 with stock shifter converted for automatic trans. BODY: Stock PAINT: Single Stage Polo Green by Bob Bauder INTERIOR: ’40 Ford Deluxe dash, dark green Naugahyde upholstery by Louice Upholstery in Victorville, California.…

Hello, I’m B.O.B. (affectionately nicknamed Bucket of Bolts by my owner), I am a 1939 Chevrolet sedan, and Jake Perry of Westerville, Ohio, owns me. He purchased me and three of my siblings in a package deal for $500.00 from my original owner, Basil Denalle of Imperial, Nebraska, about 15 miles from Colorado in 1989. Jake got me on the road in about six months, and I was sporting a primer white paint job when I took my first road trip to the NSRA Nats South in Knoxville, TN. I performed flawlessly on the 700-mile round trip. About a year later, my owner changed my color to green, and I stayed that way for the next 20 years. Since my first trip, I’ve been driven over 220,000 miles and have…

Flaming River, located in Berea, Ohio, was founded in 1987 with a vision to offer quality Steering Systems for street rods, muscle cars, classics, and trucks. Each of their products is designed to incorporate new parts, and absolutely nothing is rebuilt. This ensures that they can maintain stringent quality standards, improve the design and offer long-range product availability and lifetime serviceability. Over the past 30+ years, Flaming River has designed many award-winning products, including the Tilt Steering Column program and the Rack and Pinion Cradle Kits. Best of all, these products are Made in the USA. Recent additions to their product lineup have won a variety of awards. The first being the VDog® Variable Angle Gear which won SEMA Best New Street Rod and SEMA Best Engineered new product 2019.…