Rodding USA January/February 2021

2020 is in the rearview mirror, and we’re sure glad it is. 2021 has no choice but to be better for everyone, and hopefully, our coveted car shows come back stronger than ever and that all of you get to enjoy plenty of seat time behind the steering wheel of your hot rod or street rod. We’re busy making plans for the upcoming show season, but much is still up in the air due to restrictions imposed in many states. The January Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale and the Grand National Roadster Show have been postponed to March and May, so we will see what prevails over the next few months. As we head into spring and summer, we hope our lives will return to pre-pandemic normal, and all of our favorite…

I have built 100’s of hot rods in my life, and I’ve done it at up to 1/25 the cost of most cars. Some have had chopped tops, and some had a big block or Hemi power. There were a few with tuck n roll interiors, and I have had 20 or 30 of them at one time! I’m talking about Tabletop Rodding. Model cars, that is. This is where rodding began for many of us when we were just kids. We learned car parts’ names from following the directions in the box and removing the correct part from the parts tree. We learned some necessary skills: sanding, fitting parts, and painting. We also found the car and truck types and body styles we liked best. Many of us started showing our craftsmanship…

I had previously bought a deuce roadster in the early seventies, which had been raced on the grass tracks around Auckland back in the early sixties. I turned that car into a resto rod, which is now owned by Steve Sharpe. But the photos of the day when I pulled it out of the garage tomb where it’d been since 1964 drew me towards a new project. Perhaps I could replicate that car with modern chassis, suspension, and drivetrain? The more I thought about it, the more I liked it, but I’d make one concession, and that was to build it as a three-window coupe, not a roadster. From my roadster experience, I found they were a ton of fun, but, at 60mph, they were noisy, drafty, cold, and wet in…

OWNER: Paul & Liz Grace – Waipu, New Zealand. CHASSIS: American Stamping rails step-boxed using Ionia Hot Rod Shop swaged boxing plates and a ’33-’34-style center X-member by Vendetta Auto Fab. Chassis rails, Model A front cross member, a custom rear cross member made, supplied, and expertly assembled to rolling chassis stage by Rods by Reid. FRONT SUSPENSION: SoCal 4” drop forged axle, split wishbones, SoCal dropped steering arms, and spring. Ford F1 steering box, 1940 Ford brakes. REAR SUSPENSION: Split ’36 Ford wishbones, SoCal shocks, and rear spring. The differential is a 1940 Ford banjo rear narrowed to 57-1/2” wide and fitted with 3.78 gears and 9-inch axles. All machining, rebuilding, and assembly of the diff by Hot Rod Works, Idaho. Ford F1 brakes. WHEELS: 16X4 bent spoke Kelsey Hayes wheels. TIRES: 700R-16 Excelsior. ENGINE:…

Jerry Mlady has been into custom cars and motorcycles since he was a kid. In the third grade, he wrote a letter to Ford Motor Company asking what it would take to be a car designer for them and got a friendly letter back from a Ford Vice President telling him to be good in math and algebra in school. He aquired his first car when he was 15 in 1967. Jerry says “I bought my brother’s old ‘51 Ford sedan with a flathead V-8 for $200, and I put a two-deuce Fenton manifold on with dual exhaust with glass packs. “ In 1972, Jerry was drafted, so he enlisted in the Army for two years while the Vietnam war was raging. Instead of being shipped to the war zone, he ended…

This F100 Was “Made for Driving” Lee Sesler was born in North Denver, Colorado, in 1943 and has been into custom cars and racing all his life, thanks to his dad’s involvement in the hobby. At the young age of 15, he purchased his first ride, a 1948 Ford sedan for the hefty sum of $65.00, and this was the beginning of many more to come. At age 18, he joined the Sabars of Denver car club. From 1961-62 he worked at the Continental Divide Raceway along with other club members, and this added racing to his car hobby likes. The club had their own race car, a 1931 Ford Model A named “Doorstop,” which competed in the A/C class, and Lee was the driver. He then built his own drag car…