Subscribe Today!
The Rodder's Journal Issue #40
This issue begins with the restored Walker Morrison roadster, which is featured on our "A" Cover. This '32 was featured in Hop Up in 1952. The car has since had a Hemi, and a Chevy small block, but current owner Jack Stirnemann restored it to the way Walker had it in 1952, with a '46 Ford Flathead.
Issue #40 has Part 2 of Pat Ganahl's Ayala Story. The Ayala Brothers were lesser known than the Barris Brothers, Frank Kurtis, or the Carson Top Shop, but they were just as important to setting the trend for custom cars. Pat Ganahl examines Gil and Al's L.A. area shop in a great historical feature.
Fifty Years ago, in 1958, George Barris entered the wildly customized '29 Pickup, known as the Ala Kart, into the Oakland Roadster show, and it won the prestigious title of America's Most Beautiful Roadster. Twice. Fifty years later, Brizio Street Rods has completed the restoration of the world's most famous hot rod, and entered for the AMBR title once again at the 2008 Grand National Roadster Show. It didn't win, but it was definitely the fan favorite. We have the complete story in this issue, and it can be found on our "B" Cover.
A follow up pictorial from the L.A. Roadsters Club scrapbook can be found in issue #40. We reprinted 20 photos from the club's archives.
The Barnstormer returns to the TRJ studio, this time fully painted and completed. We have included more photos, past and present of "TV Tommy" Ivo's dragster. This is the follow up to the bare metal feature of this iconic car that was featured in issue #38.
Dale Lambrose was tearing up Southern California drag strips in the '50's in his six-cylinder powered '29 Ford Roadster. Neil O'Kane is the new owner, and has done a great job restoring it to it's former glory. It was found in the '80's primered and with a flathead, but in pretty good condition. Now it's again Omaha Orange and black, although minus the original Von Dutch striping. Neil tows the car with his matching '50's styled Omaha Orange 1953 GMC pick-up.
We were lucky enough to have Spence Murray contribute two articles to our latest issue. Spence opens up his personal photo collection and tells the story of Bill Metz' custom cars, including the hand crafted 1950 Buick XM105. This radically customized Buick was used in the 1956 film, The Time Machine. We also show Bill's milder custom '55 Buick, which has 4 tail fins.
The second article by Spence, is about his 1936 Ford Roadster. This '36 was the build –up following his Rod & Custom Dream Truck. The Dream Truck was destroyed in 1958, and it took R&C about a decade before they started another project car. Unfortunately, the completed roadster never was shown in R&C, because Petersen Publishing had shelved the magazine before it was done.
Other articles feature some new nostalgia parts from Edelbrock, a scrapbook from Tucson rodder David Palmer, and some shameless self-promotion from TRJ.
We would like to thank all of our dealers for their continued support. We hope you and your customers enjoy this issue, we think it is another great one. If there is anything that can be done for you, don’t hesitate to ask.
The TRJ Staff
