Roy "Multi" Aldrich roadster found?

Beyond awesome. Steve, congratulations to you and your dad.

Cris

 

talk to de soto, we just seen this car in bakersfield at the t swap it has stickers on both sides of the cowl, I don't remember what rearend he said it was but it had an a front end. it was in the dark with a flash light

 

Yup, Me & SHOPRAG drooled over this piece at the swap in Bakersfild over the weekend.

Very cool rig, Still has the narrowed "T" axle in front with an "A" wishbone flipped upside down & the 2~Speed Ruxtel Rear end.

Very cool old dash panel & aluminum insert dash & firewall all cut for the overhead conversion.

I about Died when i found out what he paid for it & it sold before it even made it in the show.

VERY COOL !!!

 

I wish we coulda got some pics. I did save all the ones that were posted. I told desoto that I thought I had a couple of pics and after double checking I do have a couple that were posted here already. I wish I woulda researched the car when I saved the pics but put it off. It woulda been nice to have pics standing next to it.

Where does your dad live???

If your gonna paint it save those stickers!!!

 

Can anyone tell what that instrument cluster is out of? It's neat looking.

Also, is that wood under the turtle deck?

-Dave

 

There used to be a wrecking yard out in the hills of Mira Loma Ca.,[Riverside] called Aldrich,s Wrecking. Was in the late 50,s early 60,s,, and the guy that ran the place had a lotta knowledge about old fords and racing stuff. The yard was hidden back near the 'Stringfellow acid pits' place was a teasure trove of old car stuff. I was building my first hot rod, a 31 model A sedan, and he used to give me 'oldtimers tips' on how to build it. Always wondered if he may have been 'Multi'?

 

Don't know enough about T's to tell about mounting 16" Wires.

I'm not 100% confident either of this beeing the same car. I assume the AHRF guys are pretty sure before they post something though. Perhaps they can enlighten this if showed this post.

Paul

 

Didn't the wire wheel T's of '27 have the 5x5 1/2 pattern?
BobW

 

Cool Beans Steve! Look forward to see it when your dad gets it this way. He's kept me up to date on what he's found for it, and it couldn't be more appropriate for you guys to get a lake car.

Talk to you later, Josh

 

I found this pic of Multi's car in the July 89 St Rodder magazine. It's wearing later V8 wires I noticed. I assume that's Multi in the car. Keep us posted on the developments as I love this car

cheers

Bob

 

Thanks for the picture Bob, We have bought the original engine and buffalo wire wheels for this car. Their realy isnt much we dont have for it now. We are still trying to get all of the information possible on this car. We really want to restore this car to it original condition, and have all possible infomation on the car and the man that built it. Ill get some more photos for you guys once we get the car to the east coast. Thank you for your help, Steve

 

I first saw this car on page 30 in "The American Hot Rod" by Dean Batchelor. It really struck me with it's no nonsense looks. All I new about it was from the blurb on the next page. Thanks to you all for the information here. And Steve thanks to you and your Dad for saving this T, keep us posted. I'm always amazed when another piece of history surfaces, also how much information is on the H.A.M.B.!

 

Steve, Welcome to the HAMB! I saw your Dad at Rhinebeck today and he told me about getting the Roy "Multi" Aldrich car, that was the highlight of the meet for me. Good luck with the restoration, guess we should all buy a few parts from Lang's Old Car Parts to help fund the project.

 

Few more pics to throw in the mix...Vera and Multi

 

I can't tell for sure if the later photo with "V8-Wires" really shows Ford wheels. I know you can take stock 26-27 Ford T wire wheel hubs and bolt 1930-32 Pontiac wires to them, they look a lot like a V8 wheel but have the 26-27 lug pattern.

 

Hey Steve, I think I have the radiator mascot. Your Dad showed me some great pics of the car back in the day and wanted to know if I had one- oddly enough I had a couple on display on my shelves of "personal stock". I'll probably bring them to Mansfield for him to consider.

Catch ya later, Josh

 

Interesting point. Somewhere I have a book showing a 1932-built '27 wearing '32 Plymouth wire wheels too, they look like an 18" V8 wire. I had forgotten until you mentioned the Pontiac wheels, however.

One other point of interest, the "V8 wires" picture is actually the earlier picture. The big one off page 30 of the Batchelor book shows the car wearing a 1952 plate at Bonneville. The AHRF picture says it's from 1947 (which is before hot rodders had access to Bonneville). Is it possible Multy didn't get Buffalo wires until sometime after WWII? I think the car looks better with the spindly wheels personally, although as someone mentioned, the later balloon-style tires probably ride much better.

-Dave

 

A frend of mine ran those Chrysler wheels on his T. He'd swap between a set of Buffs and these. Actually they might have been Plymouth wheels I don't remember for sure and I don't know if the two are the same, but his were 19" with the same as Ford 5 on 5 1/2 pattern, so he made little adapters for them. I liked them on his car and picked up a set at the Turlock swapmeet 'bout 10 years ago for 4 bucks a piece.

Never heard about that Pontiac having the same bolt pattern as a T wire, that's pretty cool info.

 

flyin-t.
Is this car your firends?
Anyway an increadibly cool car. I love these low T's with their fenders on for some reason.

Will be fun to follow the Multi car in the time to come.

"Resurfaced stories" are a fav.

Paul

 

Yes, it was a friends car, Gabby Garrison here in Long Beach. He passed away a few years ago and the car went to his son in law. He lost interest in it and sold it last year to a member of the local T club.
You may have seen Gabbys Chevy Touring in one of the hop up annuals a back a few issues, it ended up wearing these Plymouth wires and the T kept the buffs. There was also a great article done on him in American Rodder too.
With this T Gabby was re-creating his childhood car that he built in '33 in shop class at Poly High where they had a jig to bend up dropped axles for Ts. This was his 2nd T, the first was lost in the '33 Long Beach earthquake when the shop building at Poly collapsed on the it.
Here's another shot of Gabby with his T that shows the bend in the axle, not done the traditional way but sure gets the car low. He built an adjustable rear crossmember for the car too, pretty cool. Also the two lone shots of Gabbys 1st (2nd) T in '33. Note the early attempt at flames on the hood.
Sorry, don't mean to de-rail the subject of this thread, the Multi T, but they're all kinda connected, and are some of my favorites...

 

I remember Gabbys Chey with the Gilmore cover on the spare.
Wonderfull car.
I hope no one offends by this little sidetrip here. I for sure appreciated you sharing these pics.
Your friend is a lucky man to have such a car.

Why not do a "Gabby post". Sure was a man with taste in old Hop Up's.

Thanks

Paul

 

Paul, I kinda garbled my post, Gabby was my friend. The guy that recently bought it from the family is a guy in the club. He's a friend too, but Gabby was special and earned his nickname early in his life, he'd talk your ear off and I let him too, for hours and hours on end. I only knew him the last 10 years of his life but he was very cool and even though there was about a 40 year gap in our ages, he was a great guy to hang with. Did it all on his cars, body work, painted the parts under the shade tree in the back yard, did the interior and so on. Nothing went to waste either, every part got used until it was absolutly no good for it's intended use then he'd find another use for it. Reminded me very much of my grand pa, who bought a rajo in '24 for his new T, their tool box's were small and but had exactly what they needed, no more, no less.

 

Your lucky having had pioneers in the familiy and as friends.
One of the cool parts about our hobby is that you can make a nice car with limited/simple tools.
Love to see more pics of that T. Feel free to email me if you like. Has it been posted here before perhaps?

Do you know which issue of American Rodders the article was in?

Paul

 

Can anyone post up a pic of the cover of this book? Thanks

 

I found a couple books about Rileys, I wanted to make sure I was looking for the right book. Thanks.


Just picked one up on amazon

 

Dave, I bet this is the '27 you are thinking of it was in a Harrah auction back in 1973. I know there is another photo of it when it was a pace car at Ascot or another track in California. I looked at it before the auction, it was dark green on top with a off white body, had a RAJO head. The front fenders are stock 26-27 with a shirt added to give a 33-34 fender look to it. Nice to know that these pre 1940 built T's are still around. Wonder who owns this one now, and in 1973 did they think enough to keep it as an early Hop Up or "Ruin" it with a stocker restoration?

 

I have some pictures of Multy's car dated 1946, the dash as shown in the Bakkersfirld car is most certainly Multy's dash, so I assume the car is his. In these pictures it also had the V8 wheels. It also had the 2 rear view mirrors as seen at Bakersfield. I have another picture, undated but appears to be late 40s, car number is 522, no windshield, but has V8 wheels and Bardahl decal on right cowl. License plate is California, yellow background, 6U 85 41. Another picture late 40s with number 290, V8 wires and whitewalls, exhaust runs along side of body above the number. Another picture dated 8-10-47 with number 290B, V8 wires, whitewalls same exhaust with note "George Butler in Multy Royo". (Interesting spelling). Another with Roscoe Turner sitting in the car. Another with Willie Young in the car, with the "1R----" license plate, likely 1952.

 

I'm sure if you posted the photos on here it would make quite a few people happy - especially me

cheers

Bob

 

Me too. That car is a quiet, iconic snapshot of the kind of cars average Joe's could own and really enjoy. Not flashy, but big fun. I save copies of every image I find of it.

 

well we got the car back and brought it to the alter boys show here in mass. we got to start going through the car soon and get all of the salt off of it as we can. When we do this we are going to look at the body and see if we got to do anything. The wood in it might need alittle work but hopefully we can keep it the way it is. Just rebuild the engine, rear end and a few odds and ends to get it running. Ill try to get some photos up soon. Please if you have any other info on the car or on Roy Aldrich himself please share. We are looking for all we can get. Thank You Steve