Dad's '34 - close to a barn find...

Last time it was on the street was the fall of '84. My brother-in-law and I are doing several updates and we should have it back on the road by this weekend, getting it ready for dad to pick up Memorial Day weekend, at the Mid-Am NSRA event.


Mom and little sis, at Memphis '71


Front end yanked out, replaced now with a dropped axle, hairpins and reversed eye spring.


What was stuffed under the front, back when the car was built.


Dad, firing it up for the first time in 25 years

We took the rear spring out today. Putting a new Posies spring under the back to get it a bit lower and give it a better ride.

I have to finish wiring the fuel gauge, we need to ****on up the front, finish the back spring, and I hope to swap my '40's spot in the garage for the next week or so, to get some miles on dad's '34, before he comes down in a couple o' weeks.

(I'm stealin' dad's old Rader's to put on my '54 F100.)

 

Cool - and Dad looks like one happy camper!

 

That's cool... what is even better is that you are getting to have fun with a hotrod and your Dad.... enjoy it.....

 

Here is my 33...kind of got the same thing going on but not as updated.
I've been threatning to upgrade my drive line but as long as the flattie is running good not going to mess with anything.

good luck with your project tudors are sooocool and got room.

 

That grin on your dads face makes it all worth it.

 

That's awesome.
Your father has got to be excited as hell to have it back on the road after all these years.

 

Good show!! And the smile says it all!!

 

great hot rod

 

Nice car. I'll take the old front end....

 

Nice work Brett, I'll see you guys there.

 

That smile is priceless !! Good Job!

 

Beautiful! I love stories like this.

 

dad's stoked.

 

good job....but I think the original wheels should go back on the car. That's the way it was in 71. Great story.

 

Man enjoy all the time you can with your pops....
Nice car! He has got to be so happy!

 

Stealin' your dad's Raider's.... Shame on you!

 

Is that a '57 T-bird mill? That's cool.

Are you really running those orange wheels and blackwall tires? Can't talk you and Dad into keeping the Raders on it? Those looked great.

 

Thanks, guys! It's been a lot of fun working on the car. It's good to have a brother-in-law with a decent shop (showmerodandcustom.com).

Since the NSRA Mid-Am event has been here in Springfield, the roles have been reversed, where I am the one going to the event, with Dad taggin' along. It's going to be cool to have him and his car there, as a REAL participant, this time.

It's funny, dad drove the socks off the car for several years, and then lost interest in the late 70's. I dug the car out of the garage, my Sr year of high school and drove it to the prom. Last time Dad had it out was a road trip from the StL area, to Springfield, to visit me in college in '84, and parked it after that. It's been buried in his garage since. TONS of mud dauber nests all over it!

Mom p***ed away 4 years ago, and dad got remarried. He's trying to empty "his" house, since he moved out to her place. My step-mom has been really after him to get the car going again. After his last trip down here (pictured above) he's been REALLY excited about the car. That makes it all the more worth while.

The steelies were dad's idea. He originally talked about a dark green, but then decided on orange. I still like the Raders, but since we put discs on the front, we went with a 4 1/2 pattern on the front.

 

No, not a t-bird mill. It's a 327 with 'vette valve covers.

 

Orange or dark green would look great WITH THE RADERS, RADIRS, RAIDERS (however it's spelled) and the narrow whites! It'd look great with them on how it is. In other words, WE WANT TO SEE IT WITH THE RADERS ON AGAIN, DON'T WE?RADERS! RADERS! RADERS!

 

the picture from 1971 would have "Rader" wheels, and looks great with them (sorry its so wide)
great story, great car, Your dad looks very happy
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INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD L. RADER
February 2005
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Richard&#8217;s company Rader Wheels is credited for supplying Barris&#8217; Batmobile with its rims. Richard is a 1/4 German and his original name was Von Rader. Räder in German means WHEEL. Rader gave all wheels for Barris&#8217; cars free for many years. This included Sonny & Cher's twin Mustang&#8217;s, the Munster Koach, ZZR from &#8220;Out of Sight&#8221; and many others. Richard say's this was great advertising for him!
___________________________________________________________________
​

<O>Eric: What size rim did the Batmobile wear 15x10's?<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O> </O>
Richard: Bat Wheels were 15X7 rims that were reversed.<O> </O>
E: How do you reverse a rim? It seemed the rims were "deep" on the Batmobile<O> </O>
R: Yes, we made the deep look for the Bat car. This is accomplished by reversing the Rim.<O> </O>Rims are designed with a shallow side (used for Autos) and a deep side. You want a deep wheel you polish the deep side. You then machine down the spoke center and press it in the rim, Walla-a wheel.<O> </O>
E: Were they tri-rib or single rib?<O> </O>
R: Wheel spoke was the original first wheel I designed. It had a single rib in the center of each of the 5-spokes.<O> </O>
E: Did they have a trim ring around the rim or was the entire rim one-piece?<O> </O>
R: Rims were polished/chrome plated with NO trim rings.<O> </O>
Rader only made two one piece cast aluminum wheels. One was a cast Magnesium dragster wheel 16X13 (Superlite Rader) and a one piece cast aluminum car wheel 14X6.
You can't make a steel wheel rim easy; it takes about $300,000 DLS for the equipment. We purchased all our rims from Norris Themidor in Los Angeles, <ST1:STATE w:st="on">CA.<O> </O>
E: Were the Bat-spinners on the rims cast aluminum or cut out of a flat aluminum sheet?<O> </O>
R: The original Bat Knock-off was designed and made by Rader. It was cool, cast out of aluminum, it was concave. After our split he (Barris) made them out of flat aluminum.<O> </O>
E: Do you have images of the original design for the batknock-off? How were they affixed? Bolted on...epoxy?<O> </O>
R: I don't have any drawings of any products.<O> </O>
The Bat knockoff fastens on the same as any of Rader knock-offs. The Knock-off has a 1/4x20 stud cast into the back and it screws on the wheel hub.<O> </O>
E: Do you know why all the original Rader's were removed from the 4 Batmobiles in the early 70's? To this day none of the originals wear Rader's except for the #4 car (it wears Radir&#8217;s). <O></O>
R: Barris introduced me to the head design engineers for Ford/GM/American. He was real good to us to do this.<O> </O>
One day Barris said to me, design a Rader wheel for bicycles. I did. I hand made sample cast aluminum bike wheels. We together applied for a design patent. At the time my company Radak Inc. was under contract to Huffy Bicycles. I was designing bikes and accessories, (using the same Artist).<O> </O>
Barris was working with Murray Bicycles and I was working with Huffy to sell them the bike wheel. Barris behind my back, made a deal with Murray. He didn't manufacture the wheels but he got paid for the idea. Did he share the $$, NO. We split the sheets over that. Barris removed Rader wheels from the Bat copies, got $$ from other wheel makers to put their wheels on the Bats.<O> </O>
E: Why are some of Rader wheels stamped Mick Thompson M/T?<O> </O>
R: My father, Richard I. Rader (marketing) and I Richard L. Rader (design & manufacturing). <O></O>
In the early 1960's my father negotiated a contract with Mickey Thompson to distribute 10,000 Rader wheels. (Overall Mickey sold over 200,000 Rader wheels.) We then moved our wheel plant from Napa<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /><ST1:STATE w:st="on"> California</ST1:STATE> to Long Beach<ST1:STATE w:st="on"> California. We later sold 30% of Wheel Corp of America to Mickey, and then added T/R (Thompson/Rader) to the corporate name.<O> </O>
<O>E: Are you ***ociated with the new Radir's?<O> </O>
R: I don't know anyone ***ociated with the new Radir's. I see that Cragar tried to make a Rader 5-spoke and did. The spoke is not the exact shape and looks like ****. They discontinued it.

Thanks Richard!<O> </O>​

<O></O>

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great story! That old rod looks as good as new. Your Dad will have a lot of fun with it!

 

Still have to put the rest of the mounting bolts into the grille/radiator, but went ahead and took dad's car out for a test drive today. We have replaced the front and rear springs, with Posies springs, new shocks & shock mounts, got it sitting quite a bit lower than it ever has in the past, and put radials on it. Wow...drives like a totally different car, from what I remember driving 25 years ago.

Here's a few new pic's, for those who may be interested...











(sorry about the picture quality, I left my normal camera at home, and took these with my cell phone)

 

Put about 50 miles on dad's '34 tonight. Ran it up to about 80 at one point, on the 25 mile drive back to my house from Doug's shop, and man, it felt good! So, I call dad, and tell him that I have his '34 at the house, and let him know some of the last minute things that we have left to finish up before next weekend, and he asked how it was driving. Then, he says to me, "It always seemed to run really good, once you get it up to about 80." I confessed that I found that out tonight!

I am really looking forward to handing him back his keys.

 

Brett, Thanks for finally putting on the caps and rings. Looking good,thanks to you and Doug. See it next week,****ie Been a long time since I rode in that car.

 

Hot Rods and Taco Bell. My 2 favorite things!! Haha... thanks for sharing.

 

Awesome. I got a thing for Orange wheels.

 

Brett it looks good man cant wait to see it next weekend

 

Way cool!

 

Man that is cool, the story, the car, and when you hand him them keys

you done good

Rusty