Tabla de contenidos para September/October 2022 en Rodding USA

rodding editorial Malena and I had planned a quick getaway to the beach town of San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, in mid-May before the show season kicked into high gear. Unfortunately, our 17-year-old granddaughter Daniela tested positive for Covid on Sunday (she works part-time at McDonald’s) before we were to leave on Friday. Then, Malena tested positive on Tuesday, and we had to postpone our trip. Of course, I too would test positive, but not until Saturday. Luckily, we were better just in time to go to the Prowlers Picnic in San Diego and the L.A. Roadster Show in Pomona in June. We were finally able to reschedule our trip for mid-July. San Carlos is 327 miles south of Tucson. Once we reached the international border, we drove to our destination…

1949 Mercury In the 1950s, Gary Niemie was an original member of the Renegades Car Club in Long Beach, CA. He was close friends with customizers like Hines, Dean, Coddington, and more, who helped him build his cars. Niemie built many cars and is most known for his 1956 Buick custom that was scalloped by Larry Watson and appeared in the February 1958 issue of Motor Trend. When Niemie decided to build this Merc, he purchased an original Mercury convertible from customizer Dick Dean and asked his friend Bill Hines to chop, channel, and build him a show car. Various people became involved in the building of Niemie’s last Merc. Dick Dean was involved in creating the removable top, Dave Whittle pinstriped it, and Larry Watson painted the flying eyeballs…

Modern tools have allowed companies to quickly reach out to a vast pool of customers worldwide while making business more manageable. Internet, credit cards, and social media undoubtedly help today’s commerce. Unfortunately, Alan Mest never adopted any of these modern features; he still runs his shop the way he did during the ’70s. So if you need a part, you’ll need to travel to Gardena, California, cash in hand. Though he’ll gladly pick up the phone to answer your queries, don’t ask him to ship your order, even if you live around the corner. Instead, better get in your car and visit him. You won’t regret it. Mest enjoyed an exciting career as a firefighter with the L.A. Fire Department until he retired about 25 years ago. Incidentally, one of…

1932 Ford Roadster Mike Cardenas was hooked on hot rodding before graduating high school in the early 70s and envisioned what his dream hot rod would look like. He began collecting small parts for years, but the large items (frame, suspension, etc.) wouldn’t happen until the 1990s. Mike was in construction but was always working on cars in his spare time. As fate would have it, he met Pete Chapouris when he had his PC3G business in Crestline, CA. He would go to work for PC3G doing assembly, wiring, a/c, etc., and stayed with the company when they moved to Pomona and became SoCal Speed Shop. The shop had ordered three Wescott ‘32 bodies, and while two went to customer projects, the other sat in a corner, so Mike decided…

Editor’s note: This was Dale’s 16th trip to the L.A. Roadster Show in a topless roadster. He’s logged over 125,000 miles in three different roadsters, and this was his first major breakdown, but he still managed to drive home. On Sunday, June 19th, while on my way to my hotel in Mesquite, Nevada, from Pomona, the roadster vapor locked in a construction zone, and of course, it was only one lane. I pulled to the side and waited for it to cool down, but it would not start. Finally, after about 45 minutes, a young man from Texas in an off-road Jeep-type vehicle stopped and offered to pull me to the next exit, where there was a gas station. He had a giant bungee cord that I wrapped around the…

1932 FORD FORDOR SEDAN Some guys build their hot rods while others buy them, but John Walling has a different story. As the owner of a food service company, John bought a 1971 Ford pickup in 1992. After a while, he traded that Ford for a different one and then traded it for something else. In the 30 years since then, he has owned 17 different street rods. This most recent acquisition, a 1932 Ford Fordor Sedan, was acquired in 2019 from an estate sale in Georgia. John’s Deuce arrived just in time to become one of the Top 10 Picks at the 5th Annual Deuces of the Bluegrass, as selected by Shelby’s Way President Mark Cain. The uniqueness of the four-door body style, the appeal of red paint, and…

rodding event Right after the awards ceremony at the end of the 2019 Northwest Deuce Days, Al Clark told everyone gathered that the time had come to bow out, and he would no longer be organizing another show. Right away, a chant of 2022, 2022 arose, which we now know did not fall on deaf ears. Initially, people were hopeful of another Deuce Days, but that hope dwindled away as the months passed with no rumors of another one and no announcements being made. Finally, around late 2020 the rumor mill came alive that 2022 Northwest Deuce Days may be happening. This was soon confirmed, and the news was that Destination Greater Victoria, along with a very talented local metal fabricator named Jay Donovan (all under the watchful eye of…

1934 CHEVY COUPE Ronnie James of Paducah, Kentucky, was into Corvettes and trucks for many years, but he switched to street rods after meeting Oscar Gamble. Ronnie went to Oscar’s shop to see what he was working on at the time and was instantly hooked in a good way. In fact, we featured a stunning Flathead-powered 1933 Ford 3-window coupe in Issue 34 (2018) that Ronnie purchased and finished. That brings us to this 1934 Chevy coupe that he purchased in 2014. The car had a 572 cubic inch big block under the hood, but the car was damaged in a garage fire. The damage was extensive, and Ronnie wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the car. So it sat in the corner of the shop for…

rodding event The NSRA Street Rod Nationals was back in Louisville, Kentucky, from August 4-7, 2022, and 9,000 entrants, tens of thousands of spectators, and hundreds of vendors made the event a huge success. The weather couldn’t have been better outside of the Friday morning rain. If you’ve never attended a Nats, it provides everything you could possibly want to get your fill of the street rodding hobby. Major vendors from across the country attend and show their wares while 40 custom car builders participate in the Builder’s Showcase. In addition, a large swap meet takes place outside, along with autocross participants chasing the big trophy, and of course, you have some of the finest custom cars on display throughout the Kentucky State Fairgrounds. We are providing fifteen pages of…

Headlights draw a lot of current, which can be rough on the headlight switch. By installing an electrical relay, you can prevent overloading the headlight switch and wiring. Additionally, an electrical relay can minimize the resistance in the circuit and provide more power to the headlamps enabling them to burn brighter. Being able to see in the dark or inclement weather and being seen by other drivers eliminates some of the stress factor when driving to or from a hot rodding event. This electrical improvement can be completed as part of a complete rewiring project or as a retrofit. As a retrofit installation, you can cut the wire between the dimmer switch and the low beam circuit and the wire between the dimmer switch and the high beam circuit and…

LOKAR Performance Products is proud to announce the acquisition of the assets of Made 4 You Products (M4YP), a manufacturer of injection molded line clamps, plug wire separators, and related wire and tube management products. M4YP has been a leader in the automotive aftermarket industry since 1985, with worldwide sales and distribution. M4YP’s inventory, tooling, and assets have been relocated to Lokar’s location in Knoxville, TN, and will be shipped from Lokar’s facility. 865-824-9767 Lokar.com…

1927 FORD TRACK ROADSTER Like old houses, some hot rods may need a “facelift” to give the car a new look and appeal. That was the case with Bob Oney when he ran across this 1927 Ford Track Roadster (known as the Mutt Special) that was built and owned by his friend Ed Gromer with the help of Chris Staneck in 2008. The car was sold in 2010 to Tom Gilchrist; he licensed it in 2011 and then it went into a Store & Lock storage facility for the next ten years. One day, Bob received a telephone call that the roadster was “for sale” but said that “the car was in such sad condition that I decided to pass on it.” However, he kept thinking about the car and…

rodding event Deuces of the Bluegrass is one of four annual automotive events promoted by Shelby’s Way. The other three are the Hot Rod Hullabaloo, the Offroad Adventure, and the Blankets and Blessings Revival Run. These events are the primary fundraising opportunities for Shelby’s Way, a Kentucky-based 501c3 non-profit organization that brings awareness to suicide prevention by ending the stigma of discussing mental health. This year’s Deuces of the Bluegrass event was held Sunday, June 26, at the campground of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Hot rodders from Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky made the trip to support the cause. In addition, the FBI (Fat Boys of Illinois) and Cincy Street Rods clubs were well represented. Even though the event officially starts on Sunday, early arrivals are welcomed to…

1932 Ford Roadster Located a few blocks from the Mississippi River in Rice, Minnesota, are seventeen 1932 Fords that call the Dale and Elvis Grau homestead home. Sixteen of the seventeen are running while a three-window coupe is in the building stage. On a trip to Cornhuskers Rod & Custom in Hebron, Nebraska, to pick up a chassis, Dale noticed a Brookville roadster pickup body (no bed) and many parts in and around the car. In talking to owner Gary Mussman, he heard the plans for the car and thought it was a good idea. Time went by, and in a conversation with Gary, he asked how the RPU. The project was coming along. It turns out it had stalled. The chassis was built, the hood was stretched 5-inches, the…

1931 FORD VICTORIA Dave Russell is a patient man. He had to be because it took him a long time to build this period-perfect hot rod in his home garage. For eleven years, he patiently brought this ’31 Model A Ford Vicky from a pile of parts to the hot rod you see on these pages. Like many of us, in his younger days, he progressed from model car-building to backyard project cars that he eventually sold when he realized they just were not what he wanted. Dave felt a project car ought to be something he desired, so he started searching for a ’32 Ford five-window coupe, and those that he found were way above what he could afford. After giving it more thought, he expanded his search. With…