| | | | The Rodder's Journal #60 is complete and will be mailing to subscribers later this month and on newsstands by mid-August. The summer issue features two impressive 1934 Ford coupes, one on each cover. They are both nostalgic hot rods powered by vintage V8 engines, but they couldn't be more different. Jack Stirnemann of St. Louis, Missouri, owns the black, turbocharged flathead-powered '34 three-window coupe on the subscriber cover, and the newsstand cover features the Randy Bianchi-built orange, blown 331 Cadillac-powered '34 five-window coupe owned by Rob Montalbine of River Vale, New Jersey.
Also in this issue is our "Surf Rods Redux" feature on the "pre-Gidget" era of Southern California rods and customs, the story behind the infamous Burkholder Brothers' AA/Fuel Altered Fiat, Al Drake's retrospective of the 1952 Portland Speedorama, and car features including a California-based mild-custom '54 Cadillac Coupe de Ville and James Hetfield and Rick Dore's scratch-built Art Moderne creation, the "Black Pearl."
| |  | Jack Stirnemann combined traditional hot rod sensibilities with cutting edge performance in his chopped '34 Ford three-window. The full-fendered coupe has a subtle resto-rod feel, but the twin-turbocharged 59AB flathead nestled under the hood is anything but subtle. Jack and his brother Harry have developed a reputation for building clean, impeccably detailed hot rods in their St. Louis, Missouri, shop as evidenced by their period-perfect restoration of the Walker Morrison Deuce roadster, (TRJ #40). Last January Jack brought his latest coupe from St. Louis to Southern California to appear at the Grand National Roadster Show and then to San Francisco to be photographed for our feature.
| |  | We traveled to the East Coast to photograph Rob Montalbine's fire-breathing '34 Ford five-window against the picturesque New York City skyline and George Washington Bridge. The coupe has a hot rod pedigree going back to the '50s that includes an appearance in Rod & Custom in 1964. We explore that history and the story of Rob's collaboration with East Coast hot rod builder Randy Bianchi as they breathed new life into the old hot rod, rebuilding it from the ground up with a heavily chopped top, a 6x2-fed, blown 331-inch Cadillac, and a host of rare speed equipment and other details that drive home its early-'60s style.
| |  | The "Black Pearl" is the latest creation to roll out of the minds of custom designer Rick Dore and Metallica vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield. With a body completely handmade from sheet steel and aluminum by Marcel and Luc DeLey and a scratch-built chassis from No Limit Engineering, this high-horsepower coachbuilt custom is like nothing we've seen before. Our story explores the car's evolution and the customizing and coachbuilding influences that led to its design and construction. By now it is nearing completion and will soon be finished with its namesake black pearl paint. We were fortunate to photograph it in our studio while it was still in baremetal and we could examine the DeLeys' elegant, flowing metalwork and the myriad of finely executed details like the hand-sculpted brass trim and the Dan Fink Metalworks stainless grille.
| |  | We previously examined the early-'60s Southern California surf culture in "Surf Rods" (TRJ #9), and in many ways Pat Ganahl's "Surf Rods Redux" in TRJ #60 is the prequel to that story. In the latest installment, we recount hot rodding and customizing's place in the surfing lifestyle through three pioneers who lived it: Dale Velzy, Hap Jacobs, and Bev Morgan. They share their personal scrapbooks from the 1950s when they were hanging around Hermosa Beach, surfing, shaping boards, and cruising in low-slung post-WWII customs like Dale's ex-Al Andril '40 Merc, Hap's chopped '39 Merc convertible, and a '49 Chevy that Bev bought new and immediately lowered, shaved, and chopped. It was a time when surfing and hot rodding were experiencing their first big booms during the Post-War population growth in Southern California. Dale, Hap, and Bev's stories and photos provide an interesting perspective on the early days of two sports that helped define American pop culture.
| |  | Our feature on the Burkholder Brothers' AA/Fuel Altered Fiat Topolino combines historic imagery of Harry and Pete Burkholder's drag racing exploits with studio photography of the restored Altered, which Harry now owns with Robert Reel. The car was originally campaigned in the late-'60s and early-'70s, first under blown, injected Olds power with a Kellison fiberglass '23 T body and later with the flip-top 'glass Fiat body and a blown, injected 392-inch Hemi. It has been restored to its later version for cackling at events like the California Hot Rod Reunion.
| |  |
Temecula, California's Mike Collins stopped driving his small collection of mild-to-wild hot rods and customs long enough for us to photograph them against the mountainous scenery of Temecula Valley. The focus of the feature is his recently completed mild custom '54 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Mike's original intention to "buy it and drive it" quickly turned into a complete makeover, and the result accentuates all the curves and chrome the mid-'50s had to offer, wrapped in a tasteful mint green and pearl white custom package. Complementing the Cadillac are Mike's chopped and channeled Model A roadster pickup and his well-known '55 Buick, which is also heavily chopped and features one of the world's wildest flame jobs.
| | Not currently a subscriber? Give us a call toll-free within the U.S. at (800) 750-9550 and Canada (877) 479-2627 or visit www.roddersjournal.com to be sure your issue hits the mail next week. If your current subscription is due for renewal, click here to renew today.
Cheers,
Your friends at The Rodder's Journal
| | | | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment