@Tim sent me some info this morning that will take this project to a whole new level. Hoping to share more here soon.
So little update, PHOTOS FOUND! Working with a guy on the 60's history but nothing concrete yet. @Tim came by to look it over and made two great observations. The stainless trim around the mural is 46 ford window trim and the square holes in the tailpan are sized right for 40's chevrolet or ford tail lights and the pontiac tail lights where likely added later. I've got the story from 1970-1978 1969/70 cars bought by a Vic Lynn somewhere near Elkhorn WI It was driven wearing a red/white (I'm thinking yellow) paint job up until about 1974 when it gets painted chevrolet brown metallic. Somewhere between 1974 and 1978 the mural was painted by a Jack Cominski of Spring Grove. Unfortunately Vic is no longer with us and his son has been more than helpful contacting some old friends who might know more.
Such an awesome hot rod puzzle. Finding tell tell signs of different versions , different lives while moving into the newest one!
I was going through some old pictures saved on my computer off kustomrama’s old blog back in the day and thought. Damn that looks familiar. Sure as **** it’s the same car. Did a little more digging and found some newspaper clippings that revealed the original owner. August 18th 1956
If you don’t want to squint: - sorry for the typos I just copy and pasted it - Hot-Rods Draw Admiring Stares Over 50 sleek "souped-up" hot-rods, some of which can attain a speed well over 100 miles per hour, are part of a special display of cars in Davenport. The list of entries from hot-rod organizations in the Quad-City area includes foreign cars, new models, and specialty mod-els, as well as roadsters of the hot-rod variety. The display, which will continue until Sunday night, 1s promoted by the Illowa Timing As-sociation. Sponsor of the even is the Veterans of Foreign Wars. is being heal at the Village Shopping Center. A**** the feature autos drawing most attention in the exhibit are two special "drag racers." One of the weird-looking ve. hicles is a rear drive car pow. ered by a 300 horsepower en-gine. Owners Glen G. Kimbell and Vern E. Bauer said the car, which also has dual carbure. tors and a rear swing axle, can attain a speed of 70 miles per hour from a standing start on an eighth-of-a-mile track. They said the racer could probably do about 120 to 130 on a run of a quarter mile distance. The driver of the "drag rac-ers" must virtually sit on the engine. Gear shifting of the two-speed car is done by means of a small handle immediately in front of the driver's seat. Monte Delalsche, Moline, is the proud owner of a gleaming roadster entry in the show, His auto features a 1932 Ford body powered by a 1854 engine. All-essential weight is added to the vehicle by more than 32 pounds of lead poured into the doors and front sections of the car, De-Walsche said. Although quite normal in ap-pearance, a 1949 Ford owned by Keith Mason, also of Daven-port, has a unique concealed push-****on opening door. This shiny black "hot-rod" that had onlookers just witching to get behind the wheel," has a ****on release that trips a solenoid to open the doors. Noticably absent on the exterior of the car are door handles. Judging In the auto show will take place between the hours of 4 and 5 p.m. Sun-day. At that time trophies will be awarded to winners on the basis of safety, appearance and quality of workmanship. Ed Ridenour, chairman of the event, said drivers will be on hand to explain detalls of the cars during the hours of 10 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. today and again on Sunday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. He added that the models on dieplay represent investments of several thousands of dollars each and often required a year or more in building.
To add to this, a phone number was found for Monte the builder from the photos . I made a cold call got a answering machine and left a message. He called back awhile later and we spoke for almost an hour. Sharp guy he hadn't seen the car since 1958/9 when he sold it to pay the hospital bills for the birth of his first child. At 88 years old He was over the moon he wanted to come see the car today until I told him I was in Kansas city he is Illinois. The bullet points laid out for me by Monte today. He *Monte* purchased the car in 1954/5 from Jim Peel of Moline who owned and drag raced the car with a Buck Went who financed the car. Jim bought the car channeled in California and brought it back to the Quad Cities area, apparently it was the first channeled roadster in the area. At this time it was "full race" flathead ford engine,ford 3spd trans, Columbia 2 speed rear end and a hole cut in the tail pan for a push block A front axle and rails with a 32 grill shell . Monte thinks it was blue or in primer at this time. Buck sells the car as a roller to Monte for $50 in 1954/5 later Jim the Co-owner came to Monte complaining he owned half of the car but showing a bill of sale put this to rest. 1955 Monte is a senior in high-school and sets to work building the roadster with his father who owned a heavy truck shop. They visited a salvage yard to pull the engine and dash from a new 1955 olds which was recently rolled over. Engine was a stock olds rocket with a Cadillac air cleaner. Monte claims it was quite powerful for the time. While he was away with the national guard his father would drive the car Monte returned home after being away to his father installing a Lincoln Zephyr transmission after breaking multiple ford transmissions. He claims they didn't have trans issues after this upgrade. Montes father took him to "Warshawsky" in Chicago a buisness related to JC Whitney and purchased a "gyro stabilizer" sprung weight for the rear end of the car. This is still in the car today. The cars doors where shabby so they got leaded in aswell as the exhaust exits in the quarters under the guidance of Eddy Davis a ww2 POW who started customizing when he came back from the war. He built a number of customs while working a day job at the Cadillac dealership doing auto body. Eddy also fixed up the back of the car covering the hole the push block stuck out of. *I had figured this was probably a lisence plate opening* Monte told me he really wanted a black roadster with flames but Eddy convinced him black would show too many imperfections from leading the doors shut. They settled on a 2 tone red and cream paint job. The inset color on the sides where framed by 40's ford window trim. Monte mentions that he caught alot of flack for the exhaust exits in the quarters and the trim on the sides of the car. His fellow hotrodders saying it looked too much like something from Detroit. Monte's mother a home maker upholstered the interior in a red and white pleat to match the paint job the best she could. Monte said there was only one seat in the car previously. The car was driven for awhile fenderless but it got the car so dirty cycle fenders where made from two spare tire rings from continental kits. Monte never did like the fenders much saying after installing the fenders the car didn't handle aswell and bump steered worse. The car was regularly driven and occasionally shown up until it was sold in 1958 to some kid that lived with Monte to help pay for his first child. The car wasn't seen by Monte after about 1959. He mentions he often wondered what happened to the car but never made any serious attempts to find it. In the years after this Monte owned a a machine shop called "Montana Mont's" he had a shop truck with a sign painted on the side featuring the roadster. Montes built a few more cars over the years currently owning a 47' chevy pickup with a 305 and Camero front stub he build when he retired driving it regularly to this day.
Man it was so fun looking at all the clues you can see from inside the car. I’m mind blown that the mystery is solved, that it DID come from California and that it stayed in his general area for nearly 70 years after he solid it!
Monte sent me a photo of the car he thinks it would have been around 1955 since there are no cycle fenders.
This is hot rodding and the power of the H.A.M.B. I cannot believe all the history that is surfacing. The only thing left to do is find a picture of it in its earliest California days. Well, and for @chlsnk to drive it to Illinois to take the builder for a drive.
Very cool to find the previous owner, and he still remembers all that detail! I wonder if he meant Warshawsky, which was part of J.C. Whitney? (The founder of the company was named Warshawsky, and they operated both company names out of adjacent addresses in Chicago.)
That's it! He couldn't remember how it was spelled and I had never heard of it. I'll make an ammendment to my above post.
Not a fan of AI but I used it to restore the above photo with pretty good effect. Also Monte sent me a few photos of his current shop truck/hotrod with a picture of the roadster on the side.
And the side trim in the early pictures doesn't look half bad when it isn't framing a van kinda mural.
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