Photograph courtesy Barrett-Jackson
Feature: Hot Rods Are Going, Going, Gone
October 1, 2004
After a pitched bidding battle at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., last January, a California developer paid $432,000 for a customized, chopped, and lowered 1938 Lincoln Zephyr coupe. Its closest competition for
the auction’s top prices were a pair of Mercedes-Benz Gullwings selling in the $200,000 range. At the same sale, several ’32 Ford roadsters broke the
six-figure barrier, and a radically redone 1936 Cord–a car that started life as a sedan
and was rebuilt into a cool three-window coupe–came close to that figure. The previous year at B-J, a modified ’33 Ford roadster with a rare Ardun-Mercury overhead valve conversion and a great history from the ’50s brought a then-astonishing $156,000.
A 1938 Lincoln Zephyr coupe sold for a staggering $432,000 in
fierce bidding at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction last January. Photographs courtesy Barrett-Jackson. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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At the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in March, a class of authentic, candy-lacquered, chopped, and radically lowered ’49 to ’51 Mercury customs, better known as lead sleds, were heartily welcomed alongside vintage
Duesenbergs, Bugattis, and Bentleys. George Barris, the acknowledged “King of the
Kustomizers” was there to hand out awards. Several of these “Dean Mercs” had not been
shown together for nearly 50 years. They were joined by the mildly customized ’49 Mercury coupe driven by the late James Dean in the movie Rebel Without a
Cause, loaned by the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nev. The tony concours
crowd loved these old Mercs, and you could hear people reminiscing around the
display all day.
Although they would have been anathema just a few years back, more and more
major shows are welcoming rods and customs. The Concours on Rodeo, held every
Father’s Day weekend in Beverly Hills, invites a hot rod class each year. And since
1997, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has presented four invitation-only
classes for historic hot rods. In 2005, that prestigious event will welcome a special class of late 1940s—era, early custom cars built by restyling pioneers such
as Harry Westergard, Jimmy Summers, Sam and George Barris, and East L.A.’s famed Ayala Brothers.
A 1938 Lincoln Zephyr coupe sold for a staggering $432,000 in fierce bidding
at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction last January.
There has been a resurgence of interest in rods and customs. The current
demand for modified, personalized, high-roller street rods shows no sign of tapering off. Talk to any of the major hot rod builders and they will all tell you the same thing: They are busy. Many have expanded their shops, or need to. More
and more people can afford the cars they want but they do not have the time or
the skill to do the work themselves. These “checkbook rodders” are spending
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Kirk White’s ’32 Ford roadster was built by So-Cal Speed Shop. Photograph courtesy So-Cal Speed Shop. (Click image to enlarge)
The late Bill Burnham, the closest thing hot rodding ever had to a
cracker-barrel philosopher, loved to say, “Nostalgia never goes out of style.” Dave Simard’s small shop, East Coast Custom, in Leominster, Mass., restored an authentic California Dry Lakes racing roadster for Indiana dentist Mark Van Buskirk
last year. Van Buskirk’s completed fenderless hot rod was shown at Amelia Island;
the Oakland and Los Angeles Roadster Shows; Pebble Beach; the Hershey, Pa.,
Antique Automobile Club of America National Meet; and the Concours on Rodeo, winning
many awards. The cost of authentically restoring this car, with its handmade full-length belly pan, full-race Ford flathead engine, restored Auburn
instrument panel, full leather interior, and fitted canvas tonneau cover, reached the
low six figures. But collector demand for authentic, historic hot rods is such
that the car could be sold tomorrow for every cent that it cost to restore.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Dr. Mark Van Buskirk has shown his roadster at shows across the United States. Photograph by Scott Williamson/ www.photodesignstudios.com. Courtesy Dr. Mark Van Buskirk. (Click image to enlarge)
One of the nostalgia projects Simard is completing is a 1939 Ford convertible that I recall from my youth, growing up north of Boston. A mean-looking
chopped custom, it sported a padded Carson lift-off top, one of the premier custom
tricks of the 1940s, built by Glen Houser’s Carson Top Shop in Los Angeles. An
unknown serviceman brought the car to New England from California, and a neighbor of
mine owned it for a while. After the 1960s, it disappeared for many years. Jim
King located the ’39 in very poor shape and brought it to Simard’s for a complete redo. Simard believes you have to restore a car before you can build a hot
rod. By that he means that the car’s proportions and fit have to be made correct,
and often this means undoing years of poor workmanship and road damage. This car originally had a modified Mercury flathead engine with a ratty set of steel-packed mufflers you could hear from blocks away. Thankfully, it will
still have loud pipes.
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