In one of the early 70’s Rod & Customs, Jake wrote a neat story of driving it on the LA freeways late one night it prior to restoration when it had the wide wheels and nailhead in it. He’s a great storyteller.
I've spent some solitary quiet time with this car before. A few hours worth actually... long story... But, what impressed me the most was the build quality. I know it's restored, but Jake swears it wasn't over-restored and simply taken back to how it was... and the thing is, if you didn't know it, you would swear the car was built in the modern day. The fabrication work, given the time in which it was built, is absolutely mind blowing.
I have also looked at it long and hard and forgotten or never realized it had an Essex frame. Thanks for enlightening me. The roadster is absolutely gorgeous......
It won big so many years ago...it was that craftmanship then that was evident that brought the accolades and while I like every element of Hotrod creation from the crude to the polished all Builders were not created equal...was it money? I would say not necessarily...it was more those that had the learned skills through their life journeys with everyone's walk being diversely different... Truly a balance of so many things... I never tire of past greatness...thanks for sharing the goodtimes...
I'll never have the opportunity to see the car up close , nor will most of us , instead of heaping ( more) verbal praise , how about showing us some examples of this " mind blowing" fabrication ? Its a very eye pleasing car .
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-niekamp-roadster.308793/ Search is your best friend...as Joey said this Hotrod has been celebrated here many times... The written and spoken word it generates are part of the spirit and greatness that help put imagery into perspective...I enjoy reading the things those that witness these far away icons of Hotrod have to say...and like you this and so much the history shall remain a written and a visual experience for me as well...keep on keeping on...
Yes, That’s for sure!..And I’d have to say the Doane Spencer Roadster also comes to mind here. So innovative and built with such attention to detail, and to think these cars were built all those years ago…Unbelievable
Fantastic Hot Rod! The Bill NieKamp “A “roadster and the Frank Mack “T”roadster both set the bar pretty high. I guess you could say, “Jake” does too!
Another thing I might mention, is the door is molded in on the left side and still functional on the right. I don't know the reason for this, but it makes it one of a kind.....
I was just 11 years old when I first laid eyes on the Niekamp roadster ... Jake showed it at the : ... it was by far my favorite car of the entire show ... right then & there, I decided that my first Hot Rod would have to be a '28-'29 Model A Roadster. In 1977, my father purchased a '29 Roadster body ... and gave it to me to start my dream Hot Rod project ... a Lowboy Roadster. A year later, I had the opportunity to purchase a Deuce frame (for $200) ... so my Lowboy project made a detour and became a Highboy project ... something along the lines of our good friend, Billy Burnham's butterscotch yellow '29 Hiboy: I continued to gather parts for my Hiboy project ... but in 1980, the project stalled when I purchased an (off topic) project from my aunt ... her 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider: I never did finish my '29 Hiboy project ... ended up selling it in February of 1992 (i.e. almost 30 years ago to the day).
I’m not sure where I read it, but a story/mention of Jake taking it out late night onto the freeway just hammering down on it on the on ramp has created a little “video clip” in my mind that I don’t think will ever get scrubbed away. I mean can you imagine?
I was lucky enough to spend many miles with Jake in this car . I even got to drive it a few times . . . An all time favorite !
Seems odd to me that in 8 pages of my thread from a few years ago, "What are 5 of your favorite hotrods of all time?" only the late great tfeverfred mentioned the Niekamp roadster. Gorgeous hotrod. Bingo! Well said.
My favorite hot rod, bar none. A couple interesting facts that have always stuck with me about the car. Bill was in his early 40s when he built the car, at a time when most hot rodders were much younger. He was a body/paint guy by trade and it's been mentioned that he avoided welding as much as possible and cut everything with a hacksaw. Simple and effective, but it always impressed me knowing how much more difficult it must have made things. He said he worked on the car an average of 6 hours a day, for 365 days. That's some serious dedication! It took four different bodies, including a coupe (passenger door), to build the car. You would think that in 1949, one could find a decent 20 year old roadster body, but I guess that wasn't the case. Instead Bill was in a similar situation that many of us find ourselves in today, over 80 years later!
The article was written by Jake and appeared in the Winter 1971 Rod & Custom "Street Rod Quarterly" titled "NieKamp Report: Old Roadsters Never Die". Great overview of the restoration process, and at the end of the article Jake relates his experience driving the car. It's a well-done article and I too have had that "verbally constructed video" in my mind for years. (In fact, it's playing on-screen right now.... ) I'd love to get some closeup, alone-time with that car as well. I had the chance to do that last year with the Isky roadster; it was a little like kneeling at the altar.
https://www.customcarchronicle.com/cc-builders/larry-watson-c-painter/ambr-painted-larry-watson/ A little bonus reading material on the subject
My friend said that I should have seen the Niekamp roadster up close and personal but I didn't see a thing. So let me explain. Back when we were both kids my friend and I took the Greyhound bus from Toronto to Memphis to attend the 1971 Street Rod Nationals sponsored in part by Rod & Custom magazine. The bus ride was long. We rode in that bus all night long, and some of the next morning with frequent stops all along the way, before we finally arrived at Memphis. No sleep at all during the night. The Street Rod Nationals started the next day and we wanted to see the SoCal cars, the Bud Bryan roadster, the Niekamp roadster and all the rest. They were all staying at the Holiday Inn right next to the fairgrounds. We got to the Holiday Inn late afternoon and started to look at the cars we had came to see. I was absolutely dead tired and couldn't walk another step. I remember laying down on the lawn next to a flower bed with my head on the curb of the parking lot, that was now a makeshift pillow. The next thing I remember was my friend waking me up. He was all excited and a little frantic. " did you not see that" he said. I said "see what" as apparently I can sleep through almost anything. What had happened during my nap, was that Jake Jacobs and another SoCal car had arranged an impromtu drag race in the Holiday Inn parking lot. The spot that I had chosen for a quick nap was now the dragstrip. According to my friend the Niekamp roadster just missed my head with about three feet to spare when the Neikamp roadster and the other car roared by. I was sound asleep and never saw a thing. Jake came over after the race to make sure everything was OK and said no one saw me there until the race was over. This was my experience with the Kiekamp roadster and I missed it all.
Does it still have the dent were an irate highway worker threw a pole at Jake and Tom Senter, on the way to Nationals?
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