The fenders off the Doane Spencer roadster have surfaced again. I bought them at the auction for Jack Kendall's collection. The story about how the fenders survived over the years is in The Rodders Journal #64. An abbreviated version... Doane and the friend he bought the car from made several trips across the country. Often working at Ford dealerships along the way. On one of his trips they needed money to get home and sold the fenders to the Ford dealership in Mount Lebanon PA. In 1948 Ray Brown sold his roadster. The new owner took it back to Mount Lebanon PA. He then went to the same dealership Doane sold the fenders and bought them. He put them on the Ray Brown roadster, where they stayed till the early 90s when Kirk White bought it. Kirk pulled the fenders during the restoration and sold them to Bruce Larson. Bruce gave the fenders to Jerry Duncan after he helped make a deal on Bruce's original 32. Duncan then included them in a deal on a 32 coupe. The owner of the coupe had Jack Kendall build it. The Doane rear fenders were used but for some reason a pair of fiberglass fenders were used on the front. Jack kept the Doane front fenders. He took good care of them for almost 30 years. Jack's collection of parts was sold at auction last week. Nobody knew the history of the fenders except Jay Fitzhugh. He showed them to me and thought I should buy them. I immediately remembered the story and had to buy them....and did. Now ...what to do with them??!! First I'll see if they should be reunited with the car. No they shouldn't go back on. But they sorta deserve to be with the car. If not...how cool would a clone of the fendered version be....with the fenders?
And they can positively be identified by notches in the frame area and even some tape residue is the same as in Rodders Journal pics
That's holy grail stuff for sure despite being takeoffs...I hope that you find a silver lining in this that makes sense...perhaps a pre Highboy inspiration is in order...
That’s cool Clark. Nice score. Here is a crummy cell phone shot of the photo we ran in Scrapbook of the Brown roadster with Doane’s fenders. This came from a collection of photos Mike Goyda had that we tracked to a hot rodder in the Altoona, PA area.
Cool! Now I need a good pic of the back of Doane's car if I do a clone. I wonder if the tank cover came before or after the fender removal.
I noticed something in your pic that intrigued me. The quintessential 37 trunk handle on a hot rod. I just thought that was a modern thing to do. I had to search and yes it was on the car when Ray Brown had it.....but it got removed in the restoration.
Great score! Congrats! Here is Doane in the snow with his Deuce, this appears to be not long after selling the fenders.
That must have been before Doane got the car. In the stories Ive read. He put the Duval windshield on before he bought it from his friend. Still a cool pic. Headlights and bumper look like they could be the same
The Jalopy Journal
