HOT ROD
When I was about fourteen I came across a comic book with a variety of different stories, among them
was a continuing series about teen-agers who built and drove cars that were modified like hot rods..... They were my favorite
stories.
I was very fortunate when I was in high school to have my own car, it was a 1936 Chevy coupe. I heard
a rumor that Chevy was not as good as a Ford.
Then one day, everybody went to the class room window to see a car that was parked in front of our
school. It was so different, no fenders, no top, no hood, a Ford flathead v-8 engine, dual carburetors, early Ford roadster
body, gray primer. I knew a car like that was out of reach for me at the time...........but I wanted it.
After graduating, (1951) I chose a job as a machinist apprentice because I wanted to learn about working
with metal and machines, and it would be useful for my dream. I didn’t know then how I would do it, but I wanted to
try. Very soon I found a 1936 Ford four door convertible in the back row of a used car lot in Albany. Well now I had a convertible
at last, and it was a Ford! I loved the way it sounded and looked and I couldn’t find a roadster for sale anywhere.
I always checked the classified ads in the Oakland Tribune every night, and finally there it was, a 1930 model A roadster
for sale, just a roadster body on a rolling chassis.$150. When I got there my heart sank. I had competition, another guy looking
at the car. The owner and the two of us discussed how much work there was to be done on this project car. The body was a little
rough and many things were missing. The seller said yes it runs, but it has a dead battery. The other guy said it was too
much work and he left. I wanted to hear the engine run, so we rolled the car out of the driveway and into the street, push
started it and I hopped into the passenger seat, and oh man that engine sounded great ! Short exhaust pipes ( 20“) out
of each port, and strictly illegal, but what music they made ! He revved it up a couple of times and popped the clutch, the
tires spun and howled, my head bumped against the back of the cockpit ! He shifted into second gear, the tires chirped as
it leaped again. I was hooked !! So with complete abandonment and my usual naive optimism, I said..............I’ll
take it.
I realized quickly that the brakes were very poor, almost worthless,(model A mechanical brakes)
so I had to be very careful. In fact I learned to downshift to second gear and it was a big help! As it turned out I only
drove it once or twice on a Saturday morning. My dad was looking at the car and shaking his head ( with a smile on his face
) when he noticed the car didn’t have any taillights. Then his face grew puzzled and he asked me where are your taillights?
Oh I haven't got them yet I said. He thought about it and said, “put that car in your garage and get those lights and
everything else it needs to make it legal.” My dad always allowed me to be a free spirit, sometimes stepping in to give
me good direction when needed, as it was in this case. I backed the car down the driveway into my garage not realizing that
it would be a long time before I would drive it again. You see, once I started I couldn’t stop until a number of things
were done, a lot more than taillights.
For the next few months I spent many hours in that garage, Moose antlers nailed above the side window,
radio playing the new songs that are golden oldies now...... Hands cold sometimes bleeding, working in the light of one 60
watt bare bulb on a drop cord, a wonderful labor of love. In a single car garage in the Lakeshore neighborhood of Oakland,
a hot rod was being born. I began to take it apart so that I wouldn’t be tempted to drive it until it was right. The
most important thing that it needed were hydraulic brakes, but now I saw that the frame was butchered and had to go. Looking
in my hot rod magazines, I saw that some rods used a 32 frame with the earlier bodies on it. The 32 frame looked better and
was stronger and so I began looking for one. This was a tough decision at the time, I could overlook all the faults of the
existing frame and get this buggy on the road, or go for the 32 frame and start from scratch almost. I knew that I would always
wish that I had the 32. I unbolted the body and dad helped me carry it into the back yard to rest on the lawn for a while.
The next problem, pulling the engine out of the frame. I had no hoist and even if I did there wasn’t a strong beam in
the old garage to use. I started taking off the wheels and suspension while trying to come up with a solution. Off came the
rear axle and drive shaft, let it rest against the wall in the corner. Next, unbolt the front spring and radius rods, let
it rest in the other corner. That’s when I saw the solution.
It was so simple! Walking around the frame with the engine in it, thinking that the engine should come
up and out, there was another way. So I removed the motor mounts, blocked up the engine under the oil pan, and lifted the
side of the frame up and over the engine. Eureka! A friend stopped over one day to see the car I had been talking about. Where’s
the car? he asked as we stood in the garage. Well yeah, Looks like I didn’t have a car, it was just a bunch of parts
in the garage. He looked at me sympathetically, and said good luck! The search was on for the 32 frame, in the meantime, I
was busy every night cleaning those parts, getting them ready. With a large file I smoothed down the weld on the radius rods.
I wanted them to be chromed. The generator came apart and the case went to work with me. I chucked it in a lathe and polished
it using strips of emery cloth, ready for chrome. As an apprentice I didn’t make much money, but I put all I had into
my dream. I loved to search for parts at the auto wreckers on Saturday mornings. Some times I couldn’t even wait to
eat breakfast, and usually got home starving and with a headache. But I found a 32 frame with four wheels and my dad towed
it home from the wreckers with me sitting on a board across the frame to steer. (thanks again dad). I remember treating that
frame somewhat like a sacred cow, washing it, sanding it, painting it with a reverence. It will be the foundation of my own
rod. It was a part of me...........I was a part of it.
My “garage full of parts” began to change, there was a feeling of great accomplishment.
there was a little more light at the end of the tunnel. Over the phone I ordered a full set of “juice” brakes
from one of the salvage yards, they removed them from a 40 Ford and delivered them to my house for $45.00 ! I took the brake
backing plates to the chrome shop along with the generator and the radius rods. That’s enough chrome for now, its all
I can afford. A local speed shop had brand new high compression finned aluminum heads on sale, $65.oo (a weeks pay) To me
they were the gleaming crowns on the engine.
While I was waiting for the chrome goodies, I kept busy by installing the 40 ford spindles in the 32
axle and pulling the cast iron heads off my 41 Mercury flathead V-8. Looking back now I am so grateful that I worked with
people that knew about cars and what could be done with them. One of those guys was Danny Lucero, he was my hero. Danny had
a roadster the same year as mine. He took his car to the drags and he was good at it! Later he let me borrow his chopped and
chrome windshield, the one you see in the picture. Hot Rod magazine was a good source. Nice to study and drool over the beautiful
cars in there. But I didn’t see my car as being all shiny red or black. Maybe I was influenced by that hot rod I saw
out of the classroom window.
I wanted primer...... dark.... “The honorable cloak of dark gray primer.” It had a meaning
on the street. The radio played on in the little garage. The brake master cylinder was ready and the brake lines all hooked
up. I blocked up the frame and rolled in the rear axle, and with that bolted up, stood back to admire how beautiful it was.
( It was progress ), I knew there was a long way to go. The roadster body was brought in and new holes had to be drilled in
the frame. Nothing was going to stop me. I rented a torch to take out something and caused a fire in the garage, that was
scary. I heard fire! fire! and when I lifted the welding goggles, Chuck, my sisters wanna-be boy friend got sprayed with a
fire extinguisher and it caught him in the eyes. When we found he was all right we laughed and laughed. (in great relief)...The
fire was minor and was put out quickly........... (The things your parents never knew)
At my job as a machinist apprentice, I made a fuel block (manifold), out of solid brass that was finned,
it was unique, something you couldn’t buy at any speed shop, and it could serve three carburetors. The parts came back
from the chrome shop finally, and oh, they were so beautiful, almost holy. Front axle in, up on four wheels now, I could almost
hear it running. So close now. So close I got careless. In hooking up the steering drag link, I couldn’t find the nut
to secure it. I searched for a while, then went on to something else, thinking it will show up later, not smart. Fuel lines
were hooked up. New brake fluid poured in the master cylinder. I bled the brakes. The radiator was in and I added coolant
to it. But I still had work to do on the body. I had cut out the original firewall because it looked ugly, so many holes in
it, a battery box welded to it. I moved the battery to the trunk. I haven’t got the sheet metal for the new firewall
yet. I took my little 6-volt battery down to Mr. Clary’s Mobile gas station to be charged.
I wanted to hear the engine run, but it had sat for so long that it wouldn’t fire. And finally
the battery was flat again. Back to the station for another charge. In the meantime I was checking wires and cleaning plugs
and by the time the battery was ready, it was too late at night to work. Oh Saturday morning ! A warm sunny day. I knew this
would be the day at last. My little baby will come to life. I didn’t want to take it out on the street because it had
no firewall, there was nothing but air between the driver and the engine.
AND THEN…..
Oh happy day ! After breakfast I went straight down to the garage and
was trying again to start the engine when my cousin Denny dropped in. Now I really wanted to fire it up so I could show it
off to him. But it was not to be, just a few pops and then nothing. Feeling very frustrated about that time when another friend
came over. If only the car was up on the street we could roll it down the short hill and pop the clutch. But that means getting
it up the drive way. Not easy to push a car up-hill !
We didn’t have enough strength and so we took the spark plugs out and put the transmission
in low gear. With the three of us pushing, and using the starter motor at the same time we finally made it. By now we are
over-heated, sweating and exhausted. George took his car and brought back three cokes (ice cold in the old glass bottles).
That was the best coke I ever had,..... ever.
I never did find out why that engine would not start down in the garage. We ended up towing the car
with a long rope. Denny was “riding shotgun” with a fire extinguisher just in case, as it was towed, I let out
the clutch and for a long time nothing, then a few snarls and a backfire with flame out the open carbs. Denny ( with fire
extinguisher in hand ) reacted to the flame that almost took off his eyebrows as he leaned forward. (remember no firewall).
But with that last stubborn defiance it roared to life and finally ran steady. Parked at the curb in front of my house I let
it run for awhile as we untied the rope and said thanks to George as he was leaving. I should have put the car back in the
garage at that time, but I couldn’t resist driving it. Just once around the block I said to myself. But it was so much
fun ! Around the block again and again, faster and faster, drifting around corners almost sideways. A man at the end of the
block was watering his lawn as we roared around the corner, he dropped the hose and jumped a few steps back. Denny and I laughed
and kept on going. As we approached my house, my dad stepped out waving his news paper at us to stop. We lived in a very nice
neighborhood and I was becoming a nuisance. So we quietly drove away a few blocks and were at it again when the steering disconnected.
Yeah, yanking the wheel to make a hard left and ......NO STEERING ! ( remember the nut that I couldn’t find?) I slammed
on the brakes, all four wheels locked up and we hit a curb and a telephone pole with the right front wheel. The only damage
was shearing off the bolts of the radius rods to the frame, and now it was hanging there with a sad look. Now the little jalopy
went very meekly back to its garage.
I am glad it happened as it did, and not when the neighbor was in danger.
I don’t remember where I got the missing nut for the steering but I did, and that will not
come off again. Also found taillights from a 40 chevy that looked cool on the roadster body. I think the 32 radiator shell
was the most important looking item on the car. When my new firewall was in place I mounted the fuel block and the voltage
regulator. It was looking better all the time.
I remember the first time I drove it to work. Yes, it was a California overcast morning through downtown
Oakland to 7th st. and the SP shops. My nick-name at the railroad had been “baby face“, (which I hated), now switched
to “hot rod“, much better. A pleasure to drive to work now, and more so after work when the rest of the evening
belongs to me. Sometimes the police would follow me, waiting for me to do something wrong. They also pulled me over a couple
of times for no front fenders.
I would tell them that I was working on it, but I really think they just wanted to look at the car,
they never gave me a ticket for that. Well I did get a few tickets for speeding. If I was driving around and spotted a hot
rod or custom in primer sometimes I would stop to admire their car and make a new friend. In writing my story I see the connection
to the stories that I loved when I was fourteen, and to what I created when I was eighteen, not only the hot rod itself, but
the camaraderie of my friends in gray primer. Did I wish for it ?
Yes ! Did I visualize it ? Yes ! And so it is. I realize today there are no 18 yr olds
building rods in their own garage. Those days with the availability of parts are gone, they no longer exist. How fortunate
I was to live in a time when it was possible.
I lived a part of Americana............Became a part of Americana.........This story lets you
know the beginning of those times for me. More hot rod adventure stories are coming soon, stories of drag races, Mels drive
in, Headhunters hot rod club and on.
stay tuned, drive safe.
Hot Rod Adventures....................... by Ron Francis ............ (c) .. 2009
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