....traditional hotrodding would get so big. The year was 1986, I just bought my first house and had to sell my "Street Rod" 37 Chevy. A nice car slammed painted cream with matching interoir and a current set of weld wheels. IT was nice and a great driver. Well I wanted another car and was absolutly flat broke. So I had this idea to build a car out of a bunch of old parts that were cheap. Then my friend Pat said he had a Buick Nailhed out of an old T-Bucked show car. I said "Whats a Nailhead" Imagine that He also offered a old set of 15x6 Ansons with 5.5 bolt pattern, Nobody was using them and far all we knew know one was gonna either anytime soon. At the same time my Friend Ron was streetrodding his 41 Merc and I got all the suspention and the 39 toploader he had installed so he could be cool and have a floor shifter. Next stop was a swap meet and I found a used up 32 frame out on old Drag car. Of course nobody wanted it either when you could buy the nice new repos for your streetrod . So $150.00 later it was mine. I knew a 32 roadster body was out of the question, They have ALWAYS been expensive. So I figured a 31 would be close enough, to me they looked about the same anyway. i found one for $1500.00 I put a 32 tank in the back and I was happy. So with a big pile of junk in my little garage I started to Mock everything up. It was cool. Other people didn't get it. It was Cheep and all I could afford at the time so I was happy. With out getting into too much detail I put it all togeather made it work and had a car for about 5 grand total. I found this pic and it made me think how different I was at the time. Also included a construction shot from "Back in the day" . Yeah, I had "P***ion" all right The rest is history.
Pretty cool!!!......So you are the guy that started the whole flat black trend....WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Any idea if it's still around?
Nope, it was just a phase. Actually the truth is the body was a pile,and I was in too big a hurry to have something to drive again. Someone had put some patches in it and just welded over the ragged eges of the rusty metal. I brushed on some new at the time Rust converter did a quick bondo job and put it in primer Black DP 90 Actually and then spray bombed it for the correct effect. An old guy came into the shop and told me how they used to "Rattel Can" them old jobs so I got about 10 cans of flat black and went to town. It was kinda fun.
I sold it some time around '93 or so in the fall and that next summer the Shifters were on the cover of every Magizine and the RATROD craze was on it's way to making history. I could have been some one The car is in the Boston area, I still talk to the guy about once a year. It has had some small pics in mags hear and there. IT's in good hands.
Too cool, a rod put together with parts everyone thought were junk and it's still driving around almost 20 years later.
so what are you saying? that YOU brought all this stuff back and made the flat black thing "cool"??? you better talk to Robert Williams cause he says HE is the one that started this whole craze back around the same time you built your car.
Whos to say where it begins or ends Mine will be to say I have such krazy friends Youre the man Rudy DBF FDB Ron
Vey cool, Rudy! Kinda keeps things in perspective...it doesn't have to be expensive to have fun! Let's see some more pics, if you have any. DBF! Dan
Wow, that is really a cool thing to share Rudy (AKA Chip) its pretty neat that you have stayed in touch with the guy and still know where that car is!!! I have to wonder if you had the chance would you want it back? Or do you want to come and help motivate Rob to work on ours!!!! he hasn't touched it since he brought it home from where they worked on the frame and now he has talked about selling it I hate that!!!! I just can't belive that you went from that first picture to this!!!!! WOW what a complete turn around!! You are so talented!!!! P.S. next time your at the house will you sign my glove box
I didn't say that at all or make any referance to that. I was just kinda remanicing. Paul Beck brought his newly finished Flat black roadster to K-Zoo that same year. So you got a mouth full of disrespect for him as well! Show me ANYTHING you have done
Ok, I've been quiet all these years but I guess the truth must finally be told. Here are some pics of my first REAL hot rod. I bought this '39 all stock/drivebale Chevy for $860. Honestly, I don't remember how much I spent on the rebuilt 283, turbo 350 and nova rear but I'm sure it was less than a grand total. Although the body was super solid (Georgia car) the paint was getting pretty thin. I sure didn't have the cash for a paint job, so the wife and I rattle canned the fenders flat black to match the faded black body. I made custom door panels and bought black cloth seat covers and we entered our very first car show. I'm not sure if you can read the license plate...it says '76! In those days, no one dared bring an unfinished car to a show unless it was for sale, at least around here. Oh, and the 'Vette I'm parked next to was my boss's and that's his wife too. The sign in the side window said "Preview of coming attraction". I sold and the '39 and the T bucket to buy a '40 Ford coupe.
Way cool way back machine roadstar. In 1986, I was 11. Donzie, I think I found another use for the Fenton wheels I got from Bryan for the Duster... Too cool stuff. Jay
...........I got blisters on my "trigger finger" doing the front end in 1984. This was before I had the door handles removed and the whole thing primered. Good news?? The paint was on sale at Western Auto for $.99 a can!
Damn Donzi I thought I was old You have been cool for ever I would have to scan it but I have a pic of a grey primer Toyota I had in High School in 75 the year I graduated. Hell people have been running in primer since the 40's.
Different as in a black beard and HAIR???? YOU are someone sweetheart. YOU had 10 cars in the Detroit Autorama this year, FOUR complete builds and 6 others that you did major work on. Don't shortchange yourself and your "vision". After all, CHIP did ask for YOUR autograph last weekend. All you need is a TV show, .....but then you'd be saying "HRLC who??"
Great story roadster! Paul Beck is my idol. His roadster is the coolest thing I have ever laid eyes on. He is definately one of the unsung hero's of hot rodding. Traditional cars will never go out of style. Think of all the high dollar "street rods" out there that are full of thousands of dollars in billet aluminum, and high dollar 1980's pastel paint jobs- they were in style for about a year and now they are a joke!
Roadstar and Donzie's photos and stories remind me of why I fell in love with hot rodding at a young and impressionable age! It was back in the late 70s when cars like theirs were being built and driven to family-oriented 'rod runs' and car shows, and people were content to just hang out with their families, enjoy the cars and the company of friends for an afternoon. It was a simpler time, and the 'hot trend' of the day was Resto Rods. People built rods with few body mods, simple paint jobs, single four barrel V8s, auto trannies, and radials. It was probably the infancy of what evolved into high-zoot "Glam Rods", but the focus was on building simple, clean and functional rides that could be driven longer distances to enjoy events and get-togethers across the state, and across the country. In that time period, guys like Rudy broke from the mold slightly to build cars in a more traditional fashion, yet they still screwed together rods that would carry them across many miles to whatever destinations lay ahead. They shaved the fenders off, skimped on paint, opted for swap meet wheels, scrounged parts and tuned their engines by ear. They traveled around with a trunk full of tools, a few spare parts, and a desire to have fun on a budget. There were no Rat Rod Heroes on TV every week, no magazines dedicated to stripped down jalopies, nobody strived for any fashionable rat rod "look"...these were just guys and gals eeking out a living in a decade of strange and interesting changes, and looking back towards a more basic method of car building to acheive their hot rod goals on the budgets they had available. These people are still around today, in men like Rudy and Don, as well as in several others who were There at the time. Then, as now, there was no chest pounding at***udes to determine who was first onto any "scene"...because the only "scene" they longed to be a part of was the Street Scene...where the End Game was to build and drive hot rods for the pure and simple pleasure of doing so. This all happened as guys like myself were in their pre-teens and watching with a smile as these un***uming rodders rumbled by at a car show, drive-in, or on a city street. They stood out from the crowd, but they didn't wrap themselves in a cloak of supremacy...they'd smile and wave back as they caught sight of young kids going by on their Stingrays and Spyders, young kids like me who longed to be just like them one day! Thanks for the memories and for all that you've shared, Guys...then and now.
I agree, who knew traditonal cars would make a comeback. My dad bought an A coupe in '63, hot rodded it with a flathead, chopped it, banjo rear, all the right stuff. In the late 60's and 70's he put a built sbf in it, mag wheels, olds rear, ect. Just what was cool at the time. I remember in the late 80's he started looking for a flathead to put back into it. He had a hard time finding a machine shop that knew what relieving was, but they got by and he put in the merc crank and all that good stuff. Everyone thought he was nuts to build a car like that, but all he was really doing was making it back to the way it was when he was young, except using his experience and extra money to do it better than ever, the way he wished it was when he was a kid.
Thanks Greg, You totally get it. Rodding was in full swing and I was broke but I wasn't gonna let that stop me from having a good time. I may have gone against the grain of traditional "Streetrodding " at the time, but I had seen some other "Old style" cars around and knew they could be built on the cheep. And yes I drove the wheels off that little car. Went through two 322's and blew the 39 box up 4 times . Never did break an axle keyway though. Here's a couple more pics for ya Barnett (DBF)
The Jalopy Journal
