Funny you should say that. A few minutes ago, I started thinking, "man, I gotta throw those guys a bone, there must be SOME fifties era hot rod I can find that doesn't have a filled shell...Ah, I know! Lee Titus' roadster was pretty "resto" for the era, maybe it had an unfilled shell" Nope. And to make matters worse, a "belly button" 1/2" stroked 283 with a Rochester on top...Anyone who would build this now should be burned at the stake...Oh wait, its being restored... But I aint done, theres another car I'm thinking of. I'll find one yet!
I went through all my pics, over 100 I'm sure, and all I could find are the two I have posted above in post #53, and these two with rad caps intact, although these two look earlier than 50's (the one directly above is dated 1941) and even that one has the emblem shaved off. So it appears that it was definitely the exception and not the rule. Although the blue roadster pic I put in my last post (reposted below) has the emblem and cap intact and was a cover car, so it's not like there were none.
Took some doing, but I finally found one. Went through Andy Southards "Hot Rods of the Fifties" back to front, I was all the way to pg 25 before I found one, ONLY one in the whole book. But it doesn't have any door handles... Goddamn hot rodders, buncha butchers... And whats up with those tiny little 7" Arrows?? And look how HIGH they are!! Didn't this guy get the memo??!!
Actually, I just found another, the Jackman cabriolet had the rad cap and emblem in place. But they were far and few between in the fifties. I almost think Gauscos '29 had the shell filled a couple years after that photo above, when it was painted its signature purple. Edit:I was wrong on the Gausco car, it kept the stock rad cap and emblem all its life, I just checked a bunch of old photos.
I'm still looking through this stuff, one thing I have just noticed that is interesting, to me at least, I have found a couple cars as early as '61 that could only be defined as "resto-rods", unfilled grill shells, original cowl lights, undropped headlight bars the whole shiterree. I never would have guessed that, if I hadn't been looking for it. The earliest one I see was the black deuce roadster that was on the August '61 cover of R&C, with Neal Easts bronze roadster. Just thought that was interesting...
The Jalopy Journal
