Innehållsförteckning för Issue# 21 från Rodding USA

If you are looking for a way to cool your street rod, hot rod or other classic car your problems have been solved. Brassworks radiators began manufacturing in 1976 and FlowKooler water pumps in 1996 with both providing high end products to the custom car industry under the guidance of owner Lee Chamberlain. They manufacture all of their radiators and water pumps in the small town of Paso Robles which is located on the central coast of California. Lee and his crew of craftsmen take pride in the construction of vintage and classic car radiators along with providing the customer with a product that will keep their engine cool. Each radiator is built one at a time from copper tube, sheet brass and steel. They can also build your radiator…

Way back in 1980 he was talking to the man who owned property . It has had a few storage sheds on it but the man did not live there. During this conversation the man mentioned that he had a Model A in one of the sheds and thought it was a coupe with the roof cut off of it. Duane asked if it was “for sale” and it was. After about six months he finally got to see it. The man opened the door to the shed and under a dust filled tarp Duane was shocked to see a roadster. When Duane asked him what he wanted for it he got the following response: “I gave $300.00 for it and I want to get my money back.” Yes, he…

28-year-old John Ward has been immersed in hot rodding from “day-one” thanks to his dad Kirk’s lifelong involvement. In fact, the first time I met Kirk was in 1984 when I photographed his ’32 Ford roadster which he still owns to this day. John spent many hours growing up in dad’s garage and for his 12th birthday he got the gift of a lifetime…a 1940 Ford coupe. When John took ownership of the coupe it had recently been retired as a drag car. It was rather rough with the x-member having been cut out and the engine set back along with a rotting plywood firewall. His dad would teach him everything from wiring to fabrication along with bodywork and paint. John learned all of these skills and more on the…

For the past 27 years the National Street Rod Association has been giving one lucky participant at its Street Rod Nationals a turnkey street rod as a grand prize. This year’s 47th annual Nationals takes place in Louisville, KY on August 4-7, 2016 with the car drawing taking place on Saturday August 6. All you have to do to have an opportunity to win this stunning Hercules Motor Cars built 1932 Ford Woody is be registered, be present at the drawing, have your car at the event along with the title proving that you are the rightful owner. This year’s car was built by Cecil Taylors, Hercules Motor Cars in Tampa, Florida and has to be one of the finest giveaway cars in the history of NSRA. The four-door features…

“It’s one of those cars which people don’t forget and get a smile on their face when they see it in person.” After selling Pete and Jake’s and before he became the SEMA Vice President of Marketing, Pete Chapouris decided to build a rod that he could drive on the street as well as run at the track. The year was 1987, a time in hot rodding history when cars varied from the slick look to resto rods with pastel colors, graphics and tweed upholstery. That’s not what Pete was looking for, no, he wanted an honest to goodness hot rod…go fast and look tough. Once the car was done it got plenty of ink in the magazines and plenty of time on the street and at the track. It’s…

Shop pox is the condition of having black dots on your face from attempting to put a Sharpie marker back into its cap which you are holding in your teeth. The other option is to leave the marker uncapped and discard it the next day. A third hand would be helpful so we decided to build one. With a total investment of about five dollars and a little time the shop Sharpie holder was created. The holder has prevented a lot of dried up and discarded markers.…

1957 was a banner year. Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show seen only from the waist up, Ford outsold Chevrolet and Dick Clark’s American Bandstand joined ABC. In Bethesda Maryland, a fifteen year old boy named Jay Skow saw a ’52 Ford hardtop for sale. His father helped in the negotiations and the car was his for the hefty sum of $587.50. There went his lawn mowing and flinging newspapers money, but to Jay, it was well worth it. Over the next year he did his share of improving the hardtop with the usual dual carbs, loud pipes and a grille change to a ’57 Ford. In ’58 a buddy bought a Pontiac ragtop, and that was a lot of fun. It was decided that the ’52 could become…

“The wood dash is filled with AutoMeter and Stewart Warner gauges.” This roadster would be a very cool car if it had recently been completed but let me tell you the rest of the story to see how cool it really is. Don Laurent of Phoenix, Arizona started building his 1923 Ford T-bucket in 1971 and put some serious miles on it upon completion in 1974. The miles included four trips to California which included attending the Un-Nationals in 1975 and the L.A. Roadster Show in 1976 along with rod runs across Arizona. In 1978 he decided to part ways with the “T” and it went cross country to its new home in Florida. The car spent the next 30-plus years in the humid weather until the owner passed it…

In 2011 Duane purchased the coupe from longtime friend Bob Learned who had purchased it in 1954. In 1962 Bob was out on a drive and the rear end locked up so he parked the car in a lean-to at his home in Orange, California where it sat for the next 49 years until 2011 when it was sold and moved to Colorado. As it turned out the u-joint came apart and jammed against the transmission which jammed the rear end. Duane cleaned it up, went through the mechanicals, pulled the gas tank to clean it out and fired it right up. Cal Kennedy, a friend had the super charger and Duane thought it would look cool on the Model A. After a 3 month rebuild he installed it and…

         100 degree temps in Pomona, CA may have kept some spectators away from the Fairplex for the 52nd Los Angeles Roadster Show but it sure didn’t keep the rodders and swappers away. Roadsters from all across America make the annual a stunning array , powerplants and styles. The swap meet was also full as was the specialty car parking area. For information on the 53rd annual event in 2017 you visit the club’s website: LARoadsters.com…

2-1/8” FULL-SWEEP INSTRUMENTS CLASSIC Instruments has just released their all new, 2-1/8” Full sweep instruments. With a full-sweep, each gauge provides greater accuracy and readability while their small 2-1/8” hole size allows for easy installation in limited-space applications. Setup is made easy with push-button calibration and all installation hardware and wiring harness included. Temperature and pressure gauges include the necessary temperature sending unit or pressure transducer. Each gauge comes with an integrated red warning light, which illuminates the entire gauge red when activated. Gauges are lit with LEDs that are programmable for warm white or cool white lighting. Instruments’ series. Instruments available: • Air Pressure• Boost, 30psi• Boost, 60psi• Boost/Vacuum• Fuel Level• Fuel Pressure, 15psi• Fuel Pressure, 100psi• Oil Pressure• Oil Temperature• Transmission Temperature• Volts• Water Temperature 800.575.0461 www.ClassicInstruments.com CURVED CHEVY PU FIREWALL THE new 1947-54 Chevy pickup firewall from Direct Sheetmetal…

Win This Chassis Shelby’s Way is offering you a chance to win a complete and rolling Pete & Jake’s Hot Rod Parts 1932 Ford chassis. The chassis was built at the P&J factory in Peculiar, MO and includes all of their front suspension components including hairpins, shocks, steering box, spindles, steering arms, tie rod, panhard bar, steering drag link, disc brakes, Posie’s spring and a Super Bell I-beam axle. The rear suspension includes P&J ladder bars, a complete John’s Industries rear end with drum brakes and Aldan coil-over shocks. The chassis will be given away on September 3, 2016 at Shelby Ways Hot Rod Hullabaloo rod & kustom show which takes place in Lexington, KY and you do not have to be present to win. Tickets are $20.00 each and…

West Coast Kustoms car club hosted another successful show this past May. Held in the northern California town of Santa Maria, where the weather can change as quick as you can change jackets, but luckily Mother Nature co-operated and let the sunshine out for most of the weekend. By midday Thursday the streets in Santa Maria were starting to fill with the sounds of hot rods and customs rumbling towards the Historic Santa Maria Inn, the host hotel for the show. The inn is the place to stay, which is if you can get yourself a room, it is usually booked a year in advance. It is a great venue with lots of Hollywood history, juicy stories, and ghosts are rumored to haunt the older section of the inn; sets…

The annual Pete & Jake’s Open House took place at their facility in Peculiar, Missouri. All proceeds from the show and auction are donated by the Slover family to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.…

Today we are looking at the small headed cap screws which mount the door hinges to the body. Reproduction screws and beveled washers are available but only in steel with straight slots. After years of searching we finally found a better looking replacement. The search took us to Totally Stainless, phone 800-767-4781, www.totallystainless.com. Their part number 2-2435 brings you to a 5/16-inch-24 times 1-inch stainless steel “Jackson Head”, Phillips head cap screw. The head diameter of the original screws is .405-inch. The head diameter of the Jackson Head cap screw is .450-inch. The term “Jackson Head” refers to a reduced diameter head. Jackson Head fasteners are available in machine screws of several types and sheet metal or trim screws. We used a 5/16-inch internal tooth “star” washer, part number 2-4349,…

In 1982 John Bradshaw, owner of Portland Transmission Warehouse in Portland, Oregon decided to keep his store open later on a Saturday afternoon. The premise was to give back to his customers and industry folks. On that afternoon in May he put out the word that it would be great if some of them would bring their cars and park in his lot. He and Jerry Campbell, Bob Knowles, Ted Haines, Reid Hall, John Baxter and Al Stewart gave out caps and dash plaques, popcorn and hot dogs and Marilyn Stewart baked 1200 cookies. The event has become the place to go starting off the car season. It now has spread way beyond the parking lot far enough to park way over 400 cars on the streets of Portland for…