Seabright Hot Rods

Todd Anderson’s roadster was in the shop today for some post delivery dial-in. We torqued the heads, changed the oil – and raised the tail end up another inch. While seemingly insignificant, this inch was what Todd’s car needed to sit ust right. To do it, Gary had to mill out a new pair of spring plates. You can see that inch in the second photo; the original plate is on top, the new one just below it.

Todd has a friend named Tony Vida who hadn’t seen Todd’s finished car, so Todd asked if he could bring him by the shop. They’d be coming over in Tony’s Deuce roadster; “a car,” Todd hinted, “that we might like to check out.” Mr. Understatement.

Todd and Tony arrived, we BS’d in the shop for a bit, then went out to the curb to see Tony’s car. Here’s what we found:

Tony’s Deuce is genuine Henry Ford. Originally built in the 1950’s, it was restored in the 70’s and somehow escaped the “modernization” many hot rods of that era were made to suffer. That it was actually restored at all is probably a testament to how well the car was originally put together. That builder would be pleased to know his roadster remains in sympathetic hands.

The chrome on this roadster’s underpinnings is incredibly well preserved. Obviously the shiny stuff was much more affordable in the days of bell bottoms and waterbeds. Have you priced it lately?  There’s enough here to put a kid through college.

Civilized touches include a side-shift trans and a full compliment of S-W gauges, including water temp for both heads and a clock.

The 3 5/16 x 4 inch flathead is as tidy and well-appointed as the rest of the car.

What else could we do on a sunny summer day in Santa Cruz? We fired up the hot rods and headed off to lunch.

This year’s keynote GNRS display was titled “Woodies, Wagons and the Spirit of Aloha.” I was invited to display my ’38 but passed. Our shop has displayed cars at the show the last couple of years and it’s a lot of work. It’s also time-consuming, requiring nearly a week’s commitment. This year I wanted to simply check out the cars and visit with friends. For reasons unanticipated, it turned out to be a good call.

A number of my buddies were displaying their wagons and on Wednesday I headed south to hang out and help them set up. It’s a seven-hour drive to Pomona so I hit the road before sun-up. That afternoon, as we unloaded the grass mats, surfboards and tikis, my wife called. My mother-in-law had just passed away. I turned around and scrambled for home.

Alberta Dumont Chiavaras was born in 1924 in the little hamlet of Camp Crook in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Her family had pioneered the area, but the ravages of the Great Depression drove her dad west in search of work. He landed in Santa Cruz, took a job in construction, and sent for his family.  Alberta, her twin sister Roberta, their older sister and their mom all headed to the coast with their belongings strapped to the top and running boards of a Model A Ford.

In Santa Cruz Alberta’s dad built houses while her mom worked down the road from our shop at the Seabright Cannery. In 1942 “Al and Ro” graduated from Santa Cruz High and quickly found themselves caught up in the war effort. The twins went to work for Pan Am as riveters, their petite size allowing them to climb into the cramped spaces of the flying boats Pan Am was converting for war-time action. Both Al and Ro are noted today on a memorial at the “Rosie the Riveter” National Historic Park in Richmond on San Francisco Bay.

Alberta was part of what Tom Brokaw called the “Greatest Generation” and, while she had been ill for sometime and her passing was merciful, it was not without sadness. Thanks for your contributions to your country Al, and thanks especially for your wonderful daughter, my wife of 35 years. You will be missed.

1942. A couple of Rosie the Riveters: Alberta and Roberta Dumont.

While my trip was abbreviated, I did shoot a few photos. Here we’re lined up for load-in at the showgrounds. The ’40 woodie belongs to Bob Lopez of South Lake Tahoe. I drove the shoebox woodie and towed the Baja Bug for my friend Jim Cocores. Jim drove the Sampan he owns with Mick Carolan.
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Our friend Tim Edwards has built a lot of hot rods, but he’s long had a hankering for a dragster. When the opportunity popped up to score a ’40 Willys, Tim was, excuse the pun, off to the races.

The Willys came with a Cad motor, but Tim also had a Hemi he’d been wrenching on for his son Landon’s ’33 tudor. He’d already done a lot of work on Landon’s Hemi, but oh man, it would be perfect for his new Willys. Landon, a very generous kid, agreed to a swap.

If the Willys was getting a Hemi, it would have to be blown Hemi — but like every project, there were issues. The motor was a ’54 331 and the heads were a one-year-only design. They’re clean and free of any water-crossover plumbing, but they’re also saddled with extra-tall heat risers. No blower manifolds were ever manufactured for them. 2×4 manifolds were available, but they’re rare. Since a 2×4 set-up would fit under the hood of  Landon’s project, Tim had tracked one down. He’d also totally rebuilt the heads. They were ready to bolt on.

So, committed to the heads, but determined to run a blower, Tim dropped by the shop. Could we weld a flat plate to the 2×4 to accommodate a blower plate? There was a ¾ inch slope from one end of the manifold to the other, but if a thick enough plate were welded on, could it be milled level? Tim chased down the materials and turned them over to Gary. We thought you’d like to see how he made it come together.
Gary perimeter welded an inch thick plate to Tim’s manifold. It took a lot of stick and a lot of juice, but when completed it provided a surface Gary could mill flat. He also added a pop-up valve. You can see in the photo above the fixture Gary built to do all the machine work. Continue reading →

How lucky were we to be directly under the flight path of the space shuttle Endeavour? It dropped down from the mountains above Santa Cruz, then banked a slow, lazy turn over the Beach Boardwalk and headed south across Monterey Bay.

If you follow the news, you’d think America was a land of vitriol and intransigence. The Endeavour is a great example of what we’re really about. Give an American the challenge of getting from here to there and he’ll build you a solution that’s fast, powerful, and cool. Think P-51. Think nuclear sub. Think Bonneville streamliner. The Endeavour Team built what has to be the ultimate hot rod; the fly-over was a genuine proud-to-be-an-American moment.

Props to my daughter Suzanne for the photo. I just stood there like a dummy with a huge grin on my face.

A road trip from Santa Cruz to Encinitas is always daunting. Especially in a 75 year old car. At some point you must pass through the belly of the beast that is Los Angeles. These days the LA suburbs begin somewhere north of Santa Barbara and continue south to the Mexican border. There’s no “good time” anymore to pass through it.

The Wavecrest Woodie Meet is worth the trip. Held each year in mid-September, it’s a good time to be on the road in California. The kids are back in school, the tourists have turned in their rented motor homes, and the weather is as good as it gets. I changed the oil on my ’38, repacked the wheel bearings, and hit the road.

On Thursdays, Encinitas hosts a downtown cruise-in. There were lots of woodies already in town, along with local cars like these:

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Last weekend brought the 26^th annual GoodGuys West Coast Nationals to the Pleasanton Fairgrounds. I usually go both Friday and Saturday. Friday, while most of the cars are there, the crowds are small. It’s a good day to shoot photos, check out new products, and chat with vendors.  Saturday is packed – especially with the recent addition of late model cars — so on Saturday we go to the swap meet early, then spend the day visiting with friends.

This year my mom’s birthday fell on Friday, so we skipped the show and took her to dinner. She’s 89 and doin’ fine, had three Gin & Tonics, and was cracking wise with the waiter. It was a blast, but it meant doing the entire Pleasanton gig in one day. My brother arrived at my house before dawn the next morning and we were off to P-Town in the woodie. Good thing our mother didn’t want to party all night.

Here’s a little of what we saw at the show:

Gary Clark’s roadster is a real-deal ’32 that was hot-rodded back in the day – but it’s also a good example of headlight placement woes (see our previous post). The cast aluminum headlight stalks may be period-correct, but they turn an otherwise prince of a car into beady-eyed frog.

This roadster pick-up was an AMBR car from the early 60’s. It had been treated to a complete restoration. Remember when those individual side pipes were happening?

Usually I walk right past the low riders, but this tail-dragging Chevy was clean and, unlike many of its compadres, super subtle.

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