To really get a feel for the era and his builds before Pete & Jakes, you need to pick up some of the Rod & Custom quarterly's of the late 60's early 70's or regular issues of Rod & Custom when he was on the magazine staff. Great reading, the resto of the Neicamp roadster, plus the cross country trip to the Nats (1st nats in the panel and the 2nd in the Niecamp), made you feel like you were part of the trip. Many technical articles, the chop of the 34 coupe, plus the initial acquistion of that coupe along with at least 4 others at the same time. Great stuff and great cars.
JimA, I have a ton of respect for this era of streetrodding, and I'm a fairly young guy. In fact, I've even bugged you before about your on-again off-again Early Times book. Consider this another bug... because I hope you write it. Jake has always been one of the guys whose builds catch your eye.
I'm pretty sure Ken Kennedy owns the gold/yellow truck, he owns a shop next to the Polk-a-dot drive in in braidwood IL
Yupper .. I heart 3 window LARRY... he is fucking dreamy .. I remember the article on that truck and it was my favorite but ive always loved a nice 28/29 pickup as well as a 30/31 done right.. Guess maybe im a pickup man Dave
A good friend of mine built a clone of Jakes coupe down here in Australia. He went to great lengths to get the details right. 264, 4 speed,quickchange. The chassis is near identical. I remember seeing it in early stages covered in dust in the workshop not far from home in 1991 and thinking how cool it was. It'll be always one of my favourite Aussie hot rods. He has been good friends with Jake for 20 years and thought about building a clone after that famous 73 cover of R&C. Jake recently built him a Deuce chassis that is a work of art. Here is the coupe that has survived 15 years of road abuse.
Ive always loved this truck!! I even have a NOS set of those driving lites on my shelf just in case I build another "resto rod" A...when prices get good enough I can sell my 39
Missed this thread the first time around. Been collecting parts to clone this truck with my son as he grows up.
It's an ancient thread but that truck has always been a favorite of mine too. It shows how you don't have to do a lot to one to make it just right.
Jim Jacobs has always been one of my favorite fabricators and hot rod builders. That Model A truck is timeless. If I saw that truck for the first time at a show today, I would be just as blown away as I was when I first saw it decades ago. Jim is a great guy, too. Approachable, and not a bit of ego like some other famous builders. Thanks for digging up this thread. The comments in the first few posts about the term "Traditional" sums it up perfectly. To me, too many people think the term only relates to the cars of the '40s and '50s, but I think that cars of the '60s, '70s, and even the '80s can be traditional in their own way, too. Think about it, Jim's truck was built over 35 years ago, and it's still just as cool today. Tra·di·tion noun \trə-ˈdi-shən\ The handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction.
Wow! How did I miss this thread?! That truck has always been one of my favorites, and Jake one the people I look highest up to in this gig. First the truck... I remember in October of '78 making a decision one day whether use the last 2.00 I had from the weeks paper route collections to go to Mr. Jumbo's pizza and have a #1 combo for lunch, or to buy the October '78 Street Rodder at the Circle K across the parking lot... I'm still glad I bought the mag, and I have worn out all four copies of I have had since! I mean really, Jake's truck and Ewing's coupe coming at me on the cover, then inside Lennie Smith's highboy (also in TRJ #1), J.D. Tone's GMC '40 chevy coupe, Jake's truck, AND Brian Bauer's '30 coupe?!?! Forget it! I know I didn't go back to school after lunch that day (not too uncommon!), and I'm pretty sure I didn't go another mile out to the empty pool we were all skating in at the time, either. I just sat in the sun and read the goodness! Most of my favorite cars all in one package and in my humble opinion the greatest single magazine issue ever. Now onto Jake hisself. We all know about Pete and Jake's, The Niekamp resto, traditional hot rods, etc. But have you ever read any of the stuff he wrote with Rod&Custom? To put it simply, Jake once wrote a paragraph that to me, as a small kid, Made sure I was still gonna be a hot rodder - even after my dad who had infected me with this stuff left the scene. From the article "Old roadsters never die", in SRQ Winter '71, about finishing up the Niekamp car... " Driving the NieKamp is an experience I relish quite frequently and mostly late at night. In the hours around midnight, the city's poeple have turned in; rolling this low slung machine from the garage, I find myself hurling down the empty Long Beach freeway before the flat head's water has had time to warm. One mile down you exit to the right, then make a hard left as the roadster streaks up and across a high-banked two-lane overpass some sixty feet above the freeway. Controlling with both steering and throttle the car whirls you through the tight curve like it's on rails. Then it starts to drift; the body remains flat giving you no warning, but the tiresmake a ripping sound as they slide across the asphalt. You correct, only for a moment though,getting a fresh bit on the road. ...Then back into the turn. You're in the front seat of a roller coaster doing 75 mph off the ramp as you swing right and down onto the Artisia freeway taking three of it's four lanes to pull out." " By this time the water is up to temp and my head is taching 5000 RPM. Every part of the car has become a nerve; I feel the road's very surface. The churning quick change rings in my ears sending harmonic vibration through my entire soul. I am united with the machine as the dark sleeping world passes by." Tell me, how the hell I was supposed to think baseball was cool?!? Of all the people I have met in this gig over the years, and I know allot of the "players" in this game, Jim is the only one I have ever been "Star struck" to meet. I have wanted to say thanks for writing that passage since I was a young kid, but when given the chance I clam up and just shake his hand. Thanks Jim, your part of the reason I'm here...
Boy, that was a good read, I saw the NieKamp in "Cars of the Stars" back in 1975, that story gives a far better memory of it.
The Niekamp roadster lives at the Petersen now. Not sure if it belongs to the museum itself or to Bruce Meyer. It's not on display at the moment, though; it's in the vault.
Whoever said the 'J-Kamp roadster was NOT in 'Cars of the Stars' is mistaken. Jake displayed it there for some time when he was out of room at home, according to the Curator then... It shared space with Roth's "two-faced" VW bug, (two fronts put together to confuse Southern Ca. motorists; confused me, I had to look underneath to find the real front!) Also on the floor were assorted BMW motorcycles and the Isetta, built by Von Dutch...
You know, while it's a tad frustrating that, by in large, the younger "authorities" do not recognize this era ('70's), I can live with that. The irony is, that many "youngsters" think they're so punk rock as far as their automotive passions go, when in actuality they are rather cliché in their preferences. Different strokes... One thing to keep in mind about guys like Jim Jacobs and many other unheard of's from this time, is the simple fact that these are the first guys in history to seek out OLD Fords as their preferred means of American car hobby affliction. Think about it... Most young guys were into muscle cars if they had the funds. If they didn't have the bank, they sought out "old" cars like, oh, '55 Chevies or '60's cars like Camaros that were only a few years old. '30's Fords (and occasional other domestics) were fewer and farther between. Early Times wasn't based on a bunch of weird-ohs who had "ended up" with this "really old" tin, they went after it. So, my point in saying this is, these are the guys who get the extra credit points in my book as there were many more choices in the late 60's through to the mid 70's (and beyond, actually). It kind of proves they truly dug OLD tin for their automotive perversions.
One of the coolest trucks ever - seems like there is a thread on here that has some pics of its early stages. Sounds like me... once a month on Thursday night my brother and I would go to town with Mom for shopping, I always went to the hobby shop to look at model cars, then across the street to Dean's Cigar and News to buy a car magazine with my chore money! And I still have most of the magazines! Very well stated Jeem, I love the cars from this era, because those were the first actual real live (not just pictures in my older brothers' magazines) hot rods I saw driving by the farm; pictures from the first 4 or 5 NSRA Nats keep drawing me back.
I agree 100%, Jimmy. Well said. I was a young teen back when guys like Jim Jacobs, Barry Lobeck, Dave Simard, Pete Eastwood, John Buttera, and countless others were leading the revival of old tin. I was fascinated with those guys and even as a young guy in a world of Camaros, GTOs, and Mustangs, I wanted a '32-'34 Ford coupe. Maybe it's just me, and I'm looking back on the past with rose-colored glasses, but there was a time in the late '70s and early '80s (pre billet days) that were amazing for the hot rod world. The cars had style, the magazines were relevant and interesting, and I was like a young sponge trying to absorb as much information as my brain could handle. I miss those days...... I see Jim Jacobs around town from time to time, and I always enjoy BS'ing with him. I've been over to his place and have gotten the Grand Tour of his stuff, and it's beyond words. To me, he epitomizes what a Hot Rodder is and should be. He doesn't have a cel phone, or a TV, he write letters instead of sending emails, he still listens to all of his music on vinyl, eats breakfast at the same place a few times a week, and spends almost every hour of daylight out in the shop. What a cool dude.
Chip, can you scan pictures of JDs coupe? This is one issue I do not have and would like to see his coupe since he has been helping us with advice on the lakester. And eloquently stated Jeem! There were a lot of high marks in the 70s but so many folks dismiss them for the weirdness in cars of the times. Ironically the guy that thinks this truck is lame/tame is probably gaga over jacked up psuedo-gassers that are more akin to 70's "street freaks"
Jeem, I feel a need to quibble a bit with your post. In the '50s, there were MANY guys around who worked with 20-to-30 year old Fords as the basis for their rides. A T roadster in 1955 was still a completely credible hot rod, as were the more common A's, deuces, '34s and the like. At the same time, mid-'50s, customs were largely based on 5-year-cars, with a lesser number using earlier '40s models. Rich kids often drove new or very late model Chevies, Fords, Olds and so on. Many of those got hopped up and otherwise modified as speed parts became available. What happened in the early '60s was that Detroit caught up with what the kids were doing, and offered much more stylish and powerful vehicles right out of the box. The muscle cars and pony cars certainly deflated the hot rod & custom scenes, as is well documented. The LA Roadsters guys and the Early Times guys were reacting to the disappearance of prewar-based hot rods, which looked like they might become extinct. They weren't the first hot rodders to prefer old cars, but they were the conservationists trying to prevent their disappearance. In that larger context, I think that Jake was the first guy to buy a hot rod that had initially been built 20+ years earlier, and to restore it to its original bits and pieces rather than the "evolved" condition in which he bought it. Not my intention to discredit the ET's or Jake in any way. I'm just saying that they were not "the first guys in history to seek out OLD Fords as their preferred means of...affliction", but they were the guys who rekindled the flame that still burns today.
From what I've observed during my time and from what I understand from prior to that, yeah, I believe you're mostly correct, Tony. I think our disagreement is more a matter of a few degrees rather than anything more major. You're making them (ET and LAR, etc..) out as much more noble than maybe they were, rescuing and preserving the old tin, which of course IS/WAS part of it. But, I think they did seek out old Fords for the funk and romanticism and because they were creative sorts, full on, by the history books restos were out of the question for most, hence, old tin hot rods. Respectfully Tony, as you were there and I wasn't.
DAMN DUDE, you may not have much of a sense of direction and questionable common sense, but you can sometimes just flat write pretty!!! I happen to agree 100% and wish I could have stated it as well... Alex, I have thought about this same thought several times in life trying to figure out if the magazines were just that good at that time, or if my young brain was just soooo damn empty that it felt like the best of times. I gotta admit that the Pat Ganahl era Street Rodders are still the ones I pick up most frequently when I want to see how it was done in the days before kit A, B, and C. Half the crap I spew on here everyday was learned from between those pages and then put to practical use on my own. I remember reading a Frank Oddo article on Akerman principal about this era and asking my Auto Shop teacher to explain it better, and he had no idea what the hell I was talking about. I guess on some levels I did get a rather advanced education from these guys back before everything was "engineered" for you. Hey Tman, Let me get the entire day's worth of gasoline off of me (the second bad pump with my customer that lives 40 miles away...) and some food in my belly and I will give my scanner a kick in the ass and post that right here for ya... I'll warn you right up front that the car in question is way too Freakin' cool!!! If nobody objects, I'm going to post one other car from that issue here that has been a favorite for the last 33 years, too.
The Jalopy Journal
