TRJ Issue #21

An Art Project in Progress
“Artist at large” Dennis McFail tells of driving his ’52 Chevy through New York City in the pre-dawn hours of September 11th 2001and the image of the still intact Manhatten skyline framed by the windshield of his mild custom sedan is something that is permanently etched in his brain. That is just a part of the story of Dennis, his artwork and his Chevy custom, which we photographed on its seventh trip to El Paso from McFail’s home in Kansas.

Blue Heaven
Southern California resident and life-long car enthusiast found himself in the position of having an open space in his garage and a deep desire for a steel Deuce roadster with a modified flathead powerplant. He had a fairly specific vision for the ’32 Ford he had been dreaming of since he was pumping gas at the Union Oil station in the heart of Los Angeles back in the ‘50s. He found the car, fulfilled his dream with classic Deuce highboy that he sourced from Pacific Northwest builder Donn Lowe.

The Lone Star Rod & Custom Roundup
Back in 2002 we ventured to Austin, Texas, for the very first Lone Star Round Up. It was held at House Park, an Austin institution that was the venue for high school football in the Texas state capital. The vintage stadium had very much the feeling and vibe of early outdoor hot rod and custom shows from the 1950s. Now nearly a quarter-century later, The Lone Star Round Up has become a Texas institution in its own right.

The Cop Sop Coupe!
The sub-title referred to the article on this iconic ’34 Ford as “The long, strange tale of one of the best-known hot rods ever built” and we think we got it just about right. The coupe began as a Dave Bell illustration that topped a Street Rodder Magazine column for years before Tom Prufer, Pete Eastwood and friends, with much hot rod comradery and creative tension, turned it into a most memorable piece of hot rod reality.

Heartache on the Lake
In the late 1940s Rulon McGregor was a young man living in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park who raced hot rod roadsters at the dry lakes and drove a ‘Carson-topped ’39 Merc custom as daily transportation. By all accounts he was living the hot-rodder’s life until Sunday May 22nd, 1949, when he lost his life racing at El Mirage. His parents were too heartbroken to part with his Merc custom, so it sat a Monterey Park garage for more than three decades.

Rare Delivery
Al Engel is a Northern California hot rodder with an affinity for Chrysler products and somewhat eclectic tastes. How else would you explain the 1933 Dodge sedan delivery, powered by a ’52 Chrysler Spitfire Six and the ’32 Chrysler grilled and 392 Hemi motivated Deuce highboy that share space within his impressive 50-plus car collection?

The Unknown Garage
We take a look at five of the hot Rods that have come out of the Hot Rod Garage in Denton, Maryland. They range from the 514 big block Ford-powered ’55 Ford two-door wagon of Meade Baldwin to the ZZ4 350 Chevy motivated ’37 Ford slantback of Sherman Moon. The Hot Rod Garage is still located in the same 1940s Ford dealership building that has been its home for a quarter-century.

Jim Marshall: The Hot Rod Years
Jim Marshall was one of the best known and prolific rock and roll photographers of the 1960s and ‘70s. You may not know his name, but we’ll bet you remember the image of Johnny Cash flipping off the warden at San Quentin State Prison or perhaps his shot of Bob Dylan rolling a tire down a New York City street. What we didn’t know was that before his fame in the rock and roll world he was an accomplished drag racing photographer at Northern California strips like Fremont and Half Moon Bay. We published more than a dozen pages of his black and white images.

Studio Mix
We scavenged our files to come up with some of our favorite Studio images from our pre-Rodder’s Journal days. Included are shots of Billy Gibbon’s “Cadzzilla”, Gene Winfield’s ’56 Mercury, the “Jade Idol”, the 554 Mooneyham and Sharp Chrysler-powered Fuel Coupe and a host of others.
TRJ 22 highlights