History Hot Rod History and Photos Dallas Texas 1949 on -Caddo Mills Drag Races

Huddleston & Fake coupe today. Now owned by Charlie Duran. Rebuilt by Uncle Daniel's in 1978.

 

to the top for Karl

 

Here are some miscellaneous photos I have saved.
John Mulkey

 

Ted Parker - Bynum Offy - Dallas 1950

 

Carl Stone "B" roadster - was owned by Bobby Wolcott (wbrw32) prior to Carl Stone ownership

 

Carl Stone "B" roadster

 

Carl Stone - "B" Roadster

 

Don Steelman - Buckeye - Denton

 

Awkward Auto - Garland - anybody know anything about this car?

Dave Harris - Dodge Hemi ran at Caddo and Green Valley - thanks to Dan Evans

 

Don Steelman - Buckeye (Bill Collins Collection)

 

Karl.,,The "Buckeye"roadster of Don Steelman was built by Wayne Calvert of Denton(as seen on the hood) Dons Buckeye Liquor Store was out on Harry Hines Blvd close to Royal Ln.hence the name
"Buckeye"...it was a very fast car for the day.
The John Mulkey roadster,after I bought it from John,was sold to Sonny Armstrong in Lancaster and then to Arthur Jones of Ft Worth,,,I would be interested to know of Mark Morton..John Mulkey jr is a neighbor of mine here and I'm sure he would also like to know Jr Mulkey still has those headers and a few more pieces from it.

 

edited 5/20/15

 

Karl, I received your PM. Looking forward to receiving those pictures. Here are a couple more photos of my 27 roadster as it appeared in my shop just after it was initially purchased and brought home. Note the all aluminum 3 piece hood and the custom hand made grille. As promised I will try to give some history on the roadster from what I have found so far. As we know the car competed in drag races at Kerrville airport in July and August 1953. The roadster was purchased by the Guyer brothers (identical twins) shortly after the August Alamo Timing Association meet and driven back to their home in Peru Indiana. The Guyer brothers are very much alive and I contacted them for more information on my 1927 roadster. They were in basic training for the Korean War at an army base ( I assume near Kerrville or San Antonio Texas) and they purchased the roadster from another soldier that I am assuming is the fellow driving the roadster( from one of my previous posts. ) I learned that the roadster was initially built in California, raced on the California dry lakes and was rebuilt in 1949-50. There is newspaper in the roadster doors probably for sound deadening, and apon pulling some of the newspaper out of the doors, the newspaper was found to be the Los Angeles Evening Journal and Post Dec. 1949. It would appear that this roadster has a prior history to it's days at Kerrville in Texas. The 27 roadster was stripped of it's white paint by the Guyer brothers and repainted in the red primer you see in the two previous posted pictures. The roadster was raced at the Indianapolis drag strip by them in 1954 and 1955. They also had the deck lid lettered with the sponsors they had (see Jimmy B's posted pictures) and that deck lid remains the same today. The roadster was then stored upstairs in their barn in 1956 and remained there under an oil skin tarp until 7 years ago when I purchased the car. If the roadster hadn't been stored for all that time I am sure the roadster wouldn't exist today. Their nephew started putting parts on ebay for them and the Halibrand rear end and the Lincoln brakes were sold before I found out about the roadster. I have a couple of ideas on which dry lakes car this roadster once was and I will try to enlighten everyone on my next post. Karl, I know you have a very keen eye, and with your help and maybe Jimmy B's as well, maybe we can figure all this out.

 

QuickchangeV8,
That is very interesting information. I know that some California cars were brought to Texas by servicemen. I am not surprised that your car came from California based on the quality of the build. The headlight stands and the extended deck lid among other things point to California. Is the chassis built with Exxex frame rails? It looks like it has a '32 center cross member.

 

Here is another pic of the Mulkey '32 roadster.

 

QuickchangeV8, that is great that you have been able to trace back the history so far. If I can be of assistance I will be happy to help.

 

Karl (@KKrod) Knecht & Bobby (@wbrw32) Wolcott -

There are rumors that Mark Morton's roadster may not be the John Mulkey Roadster.

From what I've read on the Interwebs (here & on other sites), the story goes that Richard (@gasmonkey) Rawlings bought a circa '80s "Resto-Rod" Deuce Roadster (with Zenith wire wheels) out of Big Spring, TX ... a car that was supposedly the "Mulkey-Duke Roadster" ... which won the B/SR class at The 1958 NHRA Nationals in Oklahoma City:

images from the "BIG GO of 58" article in the November 1958 issue of HOT ROD Magazine​

... and appeared in the 1959 movie entitled "The Giant Gila Monster":

a still image from my The Giant Gila Monster (1959) thread


a colorized movie still​

Richard ended up selling this roadster to his buddy Dennis Collins ... who (in the Summer of 2010) sold the car to a gentleman in Southlake, TX (who was/is a good friend of Don Smith of Mansfield, TX).

It is quite possible that this "Southlake gentleman" sent the car to Dave Simard (i.e., East Coast Custom in Leominster, MA) for restoration ... but instead ended up selling the roadster body to Mark Morton ... However, Morty's (finished) Deuce roadster was in his booth at the GNRS in January of 2010:

​

To further complicate the story, these pics showed up on a social media website claiming to be the Mulkey-Duke Roadster:

​

Unfortunately, I don't remember any of the specifics about the "Social Media Roadster" ... I believe Brian @Bass commented on those pics ... perhaps he can fill in some of the details?

 

After viewing the photos above here by Hemi32,,I am investigating further..something about those photos doesnt look right..I will post my finding after I pay a visit to John Mulkey Jr to view more of his old photos of his dads old car
Bob W

 

Here's a circa 1960s photo of the Mulkey-Duke Roadster:

​

 

Hemi32...There is a lot of mystery about this car. One of the reasons is that so many people owned the car after it was sold in (about 1969?) by John Mulkey as a roller without any motor. The pictures posted on social media, the last four pictures in your post are not of the Mulkey roadster. They are recent photos of a car raced at the 1958 nats by Mercury Morris of Waco, Tx. It has been in storage many years. I think the confusion comes because of the decal on the dash from the '58 nats where it also raced.

I was told that the Mulkey roadster was in Big Springs. Here are the two pictures that I got of the two roadsters that were from Big Spring. I never saw the cars only these two pictures. One was a street rod. The other was a body and fenders on a chassis.






This is the 2nd car. This is the body that went to Dave Simard.


Here are the pictures of it with Dave Simard.

 

Bobby, will look forward to what you find out.

 

Here are several more photos of the Mulkey roadster.

 

@KKrod -

Thanks for the additional info / pics!

I was blissfully unaware that Morty had a Deuce roadster besides the full-fendered roadster that he had in the HOP UP booth at the 2010 GNRS..

I had made the assumption that the body on his full-fendered roadster was purchased from Simard ... and you know what they say about assuming ... This all makes much more sense timeframe wise.

Sorry for hi-jacking your (very cool) "Dallas Hot Rodding History" thread with the off-topic pics & misleading info

 

Hemi32 - No worry, your comments are appreciated. I trust whatever Morty says. I really like the colorized movie still!! Here is a photo of when the movie debuted.

 

Hemi 32....don't mind....kinda need all hands to figure out things.....

 

After reading Karls post,I dont see a reason to trouble John jr poste haste...Seems as Karl has solved the
idenity of the pictures posted by Hemi32,,I did talk to John by phone yesterday and he tells me that all his old photos are packed away but he will locate and phone me..Post #292 above by Hemi32 is John sr and Billy Duke...

 

Karl, I know you have a very keen eye when it comes to early traditional hot rods. Yes my 27 roadster does indeed have a 1932 centre cross member. It has model A rails and a custom made front cross member. Jimmy B, thanks for your generous offer. I would really like your input on my next posting (in a few days) and yes indeed we are going to put you to work. I am going to take some pictures of my roadster in it's present day configuration and post them along with a couple of ideas of what car this used to be back in it's California days. It should prove to be quite interesting for everyone watching this thread.