It is widely agreed that Jim Jacobs was the first to take on the job of resoring a hot rod... the Niekamp roadster. I ***ume this was do***ented and photographed - are those photos available anywhere? With acceptance to Pebble Beach and all of the restorations which have taken place in the past few years it seems like someone with the time and money should put a book together focusing on the restoration of important hot rods and Customs. I've seen shots of the Eliminator undergoing restoration. I've seen the occational shot of a Kurt McCormick owned Custom in the middle of a restoration. So-cal Coupe? Pierson Bros. Coupe? Beatty Tank? Chrisman Coupe? Navarro roadster? The other Niekamp roadster? Maybe a chapter on a Roth car or two? Seems like there is a LOT of material out there waiting for the right person to collect and publish it. Wouldn't it be cool to see shots of any of those stripped to bare bones and bare metal with close up shots of the workmanship?
that would make the one of the neatest books of modern times...Good luck. I hope you can come up with the pictures.
The Niekamp Roadster resto was do***ented in the Rod & Custom Quarterly in the early 1970's. I have to look it up. Jake and Tom Senter then drove it to the Nats, I think in Memphis. They road tripped with Bud Bryan's A-V8 roadster and Ron Weeks in the retsored Highland Plating special T track roadster. Earlier then that, Spence Murray was building a 40's style custom 36 roadster, which was finished in the early 70's also chronicled in Rod and Custom.
It's already happening - that's just what is. The point wasn't to argue the rights and wrongs of hot rod restoration. We've done that before. No, I don't agree with some of it, but there is a lot going on in that realm that is very good for hot rod and Custom history.
I didn't mean any hostility. Just think it's a funny term s'all I wrap myself in hot rods and our history all the time. I think people who restore old rods and customs back to their spotlight form is cool. I just think that this whole thing should be about the here and now while taking a lot of fond glances at our roots. We make this stuff too important when one of the coolest aspects of this lifestyle/hobby (whatever) is the casual atmosphere. It's only natural, I guess. Way too many people wrapped up in Pebble Beach and Barrett Jackson these days. I don't have a problem with either of them, I just don't think the hot rod and custom car mentality exists there, at least not for the right reason. That's why I'm drawn to this place, cool traditional(ish) hot rods and people. I'm sorry, think I'll go get another cup of coffee now.
Here are somepics of "The Smokin' White Owl". The car was originally built in 1953 by Ollie Morris. It was featured as the cover car in the November 1954 issue of Hot Rod. The car was campaigned until 1956 with sponsership from Offenhauser and ran at the first U.S. Nationals at Great Bend in 1955. The car did not get eliminated at the race, but Fred Offenhauser did not want to pay to have the car run at the finals which were held in Arizona I believe because they got rained out in Great Bend. The car also ran at Bonneville using a Chuck Potvin built 331 hemi. It turn 200+ on the first run. But Chuck's streamliner, driven by Otto Ryssman, flipped and Chuck pulled all entries because he didn't want another accident so the car never did a second run. This car was also the first drag car to use a Chevy V8 engine. Fred Offenhauser had gotten some early production V8's from Chevrolet in early 1954. Chevrolet wanted to have some performance parts available when the engine went into production. Fred and Ollie decided to put the V8 into the White Owl when they received the engines. The car is currently being resurrected by Ollie Morris himself. The White Owl is considered to be the first purpose built rear engined dragster. Although rear engine car had been around before 1953, this car was not a belly tanker, it was designed and built solely for drag racing with a hand formed aluminum body. The lower section was one single piece from stem to stern. Anyway here are some pics.
I understand what you're saying now. And I fully agree. Most of what is going on with these cars today has little to do with what's going on in my own garage right now. It's what happened to get them to that point that inspires me. But... I still think it's great that the people who built and raced those cars did something so great... so important that litteral millionares are collecting and restoring and preserving the history.
Hey, I hear ya. I guess there is no way to keep all this fun we have with old cars on the down-low. There is just too much history behind it all now. I think our little slice of culture is doomed for greatness! haha
The bad thing about that is that some Cars will be priced out of the range of people that would really enjoy them. The good thing is that they will be too expensive to **** up, ( 2 quick examples, the Chrisman Coupe and the Lincoln Futura ) These Cars were precious before they became expensive... At the end of the day, whoever wants the car the most is only truely measureble in one way... Currency.
The Niekamp Roadster Restoration is shown in the Rod & Custom Street Rod Quarterly, Winter 1971. Most likely it was covered in various parts in the regular monthly issues of Rod & Custom also. The original restoration of the Rod & Custom Dream truck is shown in Hot Rod Magazine Rod & Custom No. 9 (circa 1979).
Get the book "Hot Rod Milestones" by Ken Gross & Robert Genat.It has color features on 25 historic cars in full color. 191 pages...It's the best old hot rod book available. The best place to buy it is amazon.com . It retails for $39.95 and Amazon sells it for $25.17. It also qualifies for free shipping. Just be sure to check "free shipping" when you checkout and pay for it. You guys will find that Amazon has the best prices on all books..It's the best $25.17 you can spend...You'll enjoy it..I'll list about 11 of the cars 1) Bill Niekamp's roadster 2) **** Flint's 29 roadster 3) Ray Brown's bad *** 32 roadster 4) Eddie Dye's 29 roadster 5) Doane Spencer's beautiful 32 6) Ed Iskenderian's roadster 7) So-Cal coupe 8) Chrisman Bros. coupe 9) Pierson Bros. coupe 10) The Woodward/East/Moeller 32 roadster 11) Joe Nitti's roadster.....plus 14 others You can thank me after you've read it......Mike
Regardless of what ones view on the topic, it's definately happening. Three that I can think of, the Joe Nitti Roadster, the Berardini Brothers 404 Roadster, and the 303 Bell Crankshaft '27 mid-engine car have come through the complete restoration process at Custom Auto in Colorado. I have been lucky to visit there regularly enough to see them in various stages of restoration. Also, a few more historically signifigant cars are there waiting to cycle into the same treatment. Pretty cool to be saving all that history. It is however, from what I have gathered, an incredibly expensive game to play. Certainly not a game this small town plumber could ever consider. Johnnie.
ANY preservation is GOOD preservation. I learned to LOVE nostalgic hot rods from those early restoration pieces in Rod & Custom. I was not old enough to have experienced hot rodding the first go round and for some reason I wasn't interested in the current trends of the day in the early seventies. I saw those pictures of Bud Bryan's '29, Jake's Niekamp, Ron Weeks' track-T and knew those were "right". I just did a piece on how much I my taste's (and I think many others as well) were formed by the pieces Spence Murray wrote for the R&C quarterlies on the restoration of his Dream Truck. I think you struck a good nerve K.L.- I know I would like to see more on how some of these great cars were restored. I got into it a while back over asking a couple times if a car was the genuine original or a nice clone. It was taken COMPLETELY wrong as an insult when all I was interested in was the story on how either of them came to be. If it's the original it would have a great story to tell. And if it's an accurate clone it's a credit to the builder that did the reserch to make it so accurate. Spent an afternoon and evening with Jake after the Roundup. Being able to ask him questions about the past is always like a baseball fan having the opprotunity to spend time with Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron and hear first hand of their personal experience. Jake has a photographic memory and can tell the most amazing and detailed car tales. He should be writing books chronicalling his adventures as it would definitely be a best seller. The book Tony Thacker wrote on Pete & Jake's is great, but there as so many more great stories to be told.
You mentioned Kurt McCormick's restorations of Barris cars. You should see his photo albums of the cars going through resto....AMAZING! You could spend hours looking and talking to him about the trials and tribulations of redoing an old custom, the hand made parts, the shoddy workmanship, along with amazing bodywork, I could go on, and on..... There's a great book about the restoration of the Dream Truck. The big model guy wrote it, Mark Gustovson.
That's what I'm talking about. I'd love to look through one of those albums. I get the feeling that McCormick has a real love for the cars he owns - it sounds rediculous since I've never met him and all I have ever seen are pictures of his cars and their restorations. But that's it for me I guess. There is no mystery. Seems I read that the Pierson Bros. car was in really bad shape. It was being raced right up until the point it was bought for the restoration, yes? Lot's of updates, spliced in tubing welded right to the body that had to be removed and the A pillars were so far gone (rust?) that they had to be replaced. I'd love to see pictures in the middle of that process. Jim - I remember that post about the Don Waite Edelbrock Special. More than a little rediculous. It could have easily been answered in a calm, rational way. Educational to the unwashed like myself who don't yet fully understand what it takes to put a historic race car back together. But the reply was so defensive it makes you wonder. I'd go so far to say that on some level that reply could have tainted the car's reputation as authentic. Touchy business I guess. Likely componded by the egos and amount of money involved.
I would also add the Kougaz roadster, restored a few years ago by Dave Simard in M***achusetts. Also, don't forget the many 60's FE fuelers that have been restored in the last few years, like Greer-Black-Prudhomme. Pat Foster has done a number of these in his shop in Wichita.
Definitely. There are so many - easily enough material for several books. The Kougaz car is one of my favorite Deuce roadsters ever.
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