I have great admiration too for that mans involvement in the Culture and he certainly was a force. He had a very high bar for originality and and craftsmanship and making things perform...That's the Ham Hotrod too boot...The men who acquired and moved it through the periods sure pushed it through the motions as well with it delivering the goods throughout. I've shared it many times because it is one special Hotrod...I'm not sure who did the work but the rear wells were heavily reworked to accommodate the rolling body to Cycle fendered wheels while slaloming it at the races along with several significant performance mods...Fred Vogel and Max come to mind as well and the front sprint style bumper wore different Monikers S for Summers and V for Vogel...Always great to see this Hotrod front and center... I actually wasn't aware it wasn't still around...I sure hope it is squirreled away as a capsule somewhere and hasn't met with cut the ugly off and make a real Hotrod crowd... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/huge-stash-of-early-doane-spencer-pics.405118/ ...I think you would find Cargo's experience a bit like finding a goldmine of sorts anyone know Cargo...I went through the Thread he shared a few and they are the real deal and a Doane Spencer connection...I've seen this pic many times but just connected it to the source and low and behold it was right here at the Hamb...this place is many times like a treasure chest... Credit to Hamber @Cargo
This isn't a car that was designed by a committee. It wasn't built by too many chefs. It proudly wears the imperfections of being man-made. And was used with a purpose in mind.
The guitar shaped grille is cool looking with the nerf bumper. Plus, the provenance can't be duplicated. Love it!
Sadly, 95% of the people (or more like 98%) here on the HAMB would modernize the car to fit the current HAMB era Hot Rod of today`s standard. And think nothing of it. We need more purists here on the HAMB. To preserve the era of Hot Rods and Customs from yesterday.
Great observation on "traditional" hot rods. There are many historic/early builds that by today's period correct car design "standards" would be considered strange today. It was a time of making all the non stock parts to build a hot rod, not ordering them from some professional supplier. My own traditional look rods are loaded with them. Sadly I don't have the talent to fab them. I really admire the talent of people like the late Jimmy Summers who had to make stuff rather than me who has to buy stuff.
I think Ryan's directly calling that out in his writing here, calling us all to task over what we THINK a hot rod should be. Trying to open up our minds a bit. I agree with him for me and my fellow car buddies it's about the cars. I feel what he's saying about the history and the guys who built cars back then and started it all, and maybe in time that will matter to me more, but at the moment I must admit it doesn't. I don't know all the builders and cars of the past often referenced here, nor am I overly curious about all that, though perhaps I will be as I age and go deeper down the rabbit hole of the hobby. There's a local old timer in my town that owns Alan Reason's Utopia custom. We were talking at the local joint one time after he saw me in Mt car, and he was baffled I wasn't interested in the history of it all, but we certainly found plenty of common ground just based on loving old machines. Well written post tho Ryan, I think I enjoyed this the most of your stuff I've read. Better look out or you'll become an author! Lol. Maybe a hot rod history as you see it would make a good coffee table book. Lots of pictures, you know us hot rod punks like lots of pictures....
Honestly I don't believe the ratio your quoting is fair to the membership...yes there are haters but I am always heartened to see what happens to many of these capsules that are unearthed and shared here...I have seen many builds where the dedication to bring them back does happen in a more than admirable fashion...
The proportions of the car are distorted by the long hood with smooth sides. To me it looks way better with it off. Are there other iconic more traditional 32 roadsters out there that I'd rather own? Sure. But the idiosyncrasies of this car are part of what makes it unique. If somehow it fell into my lap I wouldn't change a thing.....except run it without a hood .
I'm a bit metronome on this one, and the editorial content with the deepest appropriate respect. I like what it is more than how it looks. I like its diverse history too, again what it is. Not all of the best nailed it every time. It is odd. It is off here n there. I for one do not like the grille/shell and can see by experience there was a lot of work involved to get there. Ok, great, but sorry honey no hug from Jocko on style but props for talent. That so many are "cleaned up" is like testimony to what is right, what works. Boyd was kool as fuck...once. Mass produced kool is no longer kool, its luke warm, its piss. Perhaps we fear becoming piss when a veritable fleet of black Deuce hiboy roadsters show up with little difference beyond rollers and perhaps upholstery colors. Is that bad? No, it works, it becomes an inspiration to new blood, we get more. I can't just give different a bended knee because the creator moved ahead over time. Joe Bailon built some awful stuff. Barris fucked up his share. Garlits failed a time or 10. Roth was, well, Roth. Love his legend but I don't love "all Roth all day all the time" and nor do I have to. This car is kool (kool af in today's vernacular). But that's it. Ray Dietrich was an absolute Michelangelo in 30s classic design (Packard and more). Gordon Buehrig was Da Vinci (Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg). Their personal cars? Never mind.
Depending on where you lived (and drove) in Southern California in the fifties, fender laws were strictly enforced. Too, it could be that the rules for participating in sports car races called for fenders. Just saying.
I think 95% is a little dramatic… in fact, I think most would know what they have… ‘Also, as soon as we start to act like restorers… panties in a bunch… I’m out.
Over restored,I hear from time to time,an it dose happen to some. There are times that may or may not be,what the builders look /plan was going to be>I think in most case's it was,even if he didn't get too the full finish intended ,or did an old photo was after, time had worked off some finer finish points. Fit n finish=skill level at the time,an a short time later gains in skills are very likely. Being my perspective is based from when I started to play hot rods n customs in the 1950s,an knew many others in my 3 car clubs. The plan from every one, was to be the best* fit n finish possible. We knew neat clean work,also made all of it faster an more reliable. Some now days,seem to not know,that right after WW2,the hole idea of tech n how things worked was more known then before. This I think was very much part of our thinking for the next 20 years +.= More learning an planning before building for most.= Better builds than some now seem the think was going on !
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/can-anyone-id-this-roadster.1080973/#post-12252482 ...Another incredible glimpse of Jimmy's 32 shared by Hamber @TWKundrat of a photo in his Grandfather Powell Dickerson's collection...showing the extensive mods some custom eye candy and some race purposed mods, especially the wheel-wells which were clearance for the rear cycle style fenders... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/road-racing.1145439/#post-13025128 ...This image highlights the why of the heavy well rework in this image shared by @HEMI32 in a Thread on Road Racing at the Link above...Truly a Hydrid of Custom/Hotrod/Race all in one... I'm curious if Jimmy did mods for the Roadster while in Fred's possession with Max at the wheel who himself later became the Owner of this mover and shaker... Credit to Bill Hewitt
I think the ratio is bad, and present this poor car as evidence: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the…-devil…-deuce.1249885/ I cringe at the end result, and even worse is the count of HAMBers that said it's just fine to destroy the heritage of the car. Even if it wasn't famous.
The cool cars I remember were anything but polished. One example is pictured here of Joe Boudwin's (Boggie) roadster that was nicknamed the " jagged edge". It even had a cigarette lighted mounted under the car for when it was being repaired. Cadillac powered and six carbs. Keeping it dry in the rain across the street from Tony's drive in on Shippan Ave.
I supported that and I'm sure it can be bounced back to near street rod status after he's had his fun...perhaps he'll ditch the OT suspension that was there as well...it's actually funny that up until 65 it was just an evolution and now its sacrilegious to do what was normal then...Kookie's I say...
I suppose it also depends on the History really and he did try to find that out and actually he is pretty good at that...Many don't have any problem with Hotrodding a Stocker... I have followed said Hamber's journey's in the Culture and feel he is pretty knowledgeable and respecting of History having had a number of varied time capsules.
Great post, Ryan. We all have different tastes and opinions. So we could all argue all day long about what’s good and bad about different cars. That’s the beauty of hotrodding—all hotrods are different, because we all have different tastes, skills, and budgets. I think all the responses about the design elements of the car miss the thrust of the your last paragraph. where you hinted at the existential question that’s been asked by philosophers forever: how do you separate the doer from the doing and from the deed? In this case, it’s how do you separate the hotroddder from hotrodding and the hotrod? The question has been asked innumerable times. In popular culture, in the song “Saturday Night”, from their Desperado album, The Eagles took from William Butler Yeats and asked: “Someone show me how to tell The dancer from the dance”. Ken Wilber said it eloquently in No Boundary: “Is perception really that complicated? Does it really involve three separate entities?—a seer, seeing, and the seen?… The fact is, the seer, seeing, and the seen are all aspects of one process.” I think that identifies context.
@Ryan ... Well, psychoanalysis at long distance is always iffy, but you did bring it up... 'But if I dig deeper and think about what I REALLY cherish, it always comes back to this context thing. And that got me thinking – maybe what I really love isn’t the cars? Maybe what I really love is the history of this thing of ours and the people that created it?' This is the most honest statement of your core belief you've made IMO. I've felt for a while that you're a man out of time, attempting to recreate an era as best you can. The clues have been there from the beginning; the preponderance of pre-55 'guide' photos, your sometimes-fascination with 'hot rod hoodlums'. But as you point out, it was also an era with few if any 'rules'. And the number of people who actually lived the time is rapidly approaching zero, and even there only represents the guys that stayed in the hobby. How many young guys dabbled then moved on? We rarely see their impressions. Does that make them less a part of the story? If you were totally true to your belief, your cut-off really should be 1954. By '55 commercialization of the hobby was in full swing, as the innovators like Vic Edelbrock, Phil Weiand and Fred Offenhauser were building empires and the NHRA was actively trying to stamp out the 'hooligans' as well as all the cobbled-together cars, that let's face it, many of which were poorly built deathtraps. Most of those returned to their wrecking-yard origins and eventual recycling. Even then it was a long road to 'respectability', and like most things, early era hot rodding gained it with age as much as anything. This hobby has always been a bit of a sprawling mess, and applying 'rules' to it is difficult at best. Sometimes I get the feeling here that the horse is considered dead and the solution is to stuff and mount it. I don't feel that way, I think there is still life left in it, but limiting imagination isn't the way.
It’s not the people, it’s not the cars. It’s the weird intertwined mix of them both. that’s where you find the romance. If Fred didn’t have a bitchen hotrod you wouldn’t be friends. If you didn’t know that Jason beats the dog shit out of that hot rod with the weird air cleaner on it the car wouldn’t be near as cool as it is. It’s not either, it’s not both, it’s the weird in between.
Uhhhh.... we're already there. Like, way, wayyyyyyy there. Maybe worse. Because now we even have sub-genres of traditional hot rods and customs for extra, extra traditional hot rods and customs. That wasn't a thing in 2002 when it was just cool to drive your home-built Model A to school or your shitbox 57 Chevy to work and you didn't have some loser on the internet telling you that something about your car isn't traditional. And for me personally, I couldn't disagree more than with the notion that the most important thing is the cars. Perhaps for you it is, but for me the best part of it all is the people I meet and the friends I've made. Of course there is love for the cars, love for the push to build better, to increase my personal knowledge and skill, love for the history... all of that. The love for the cars is visceral; you can't explain it, it just happens. It's why I was drawn to this genre and style and not mid-80s Mustangs or Euro tuners. The cars are the common thread that brings the people together, but the people for me are, without question, the best part of the hobby.
Do I dislike it.....no, but I (sure would) fix what I don't like about it. People have said the same thing about Doane Spencers' roadster and for that matter, that can probably be said for just about any car by more than a few people. Does that make us bad people?
My research indicates that Jimmy Summers built his Deuce Roadster in 1941 ... Jimmy channeled the roadster over its frame 3 inches. The grille shell was bulged out at the bottom to hide the frame rails. The majority of the running gear consisted of 1940 Ford parts. The original dash was removed to add more leg room. The large dial in the center was an instrumental group from a Lincoln aluminum panel, combined with Stewart Warner gauges. The windshield was custom built by Jimmy. Jimmy Summers later sold the car to Fred Vogel. In 1952, Max Balchowsky raced, prepared, and maintained the roadster for Fred. By that time the car was powered a LaSalle Flathead V8. The engine was built by Yam Oka, who ported and relieved the block, installed hotter camshaft and ignition, and welded tubular steel exhaust headers. According to Dean Batchelor's book "Dry Lakes and Drag Strips: The American Hot Rod," Fred and Max were just learning about racing when they started in 1952. The transverse leaf springs were originally retained, but Max later replaced them with similar units from a Ford V8-60, which were lighter. Max also added Dodge steering, and replaced the Ford Hydraulics brakes with Bendix self-servo brakes from a Lincoln Zephyr, and finally 1949 - 1951 Lincoln brakes. In 1953, Max Balchowsky bought the roadster from Fred Vogel ... and by 1954, he had swapped out the LaSalle flathead in favor of a Buick nailhead.
I think what is attractive about the car is that it is real. Real 32 Ford Roadster to start with. Real built by a guy with his hands. Real driven on the street or track. Real used parts to build it. Real history that has survived over time. Now I do think it is kinda ugly, but there were plenty of other not so graceful hot rods around. So as an example of the era it is a good example. I appreciate that it isn't trying to be something it is not.
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