January/February 2021

Rodding USA

By Hot Rodders for Hot Rodders

Rodding USA1 min read
Rodding USA
Publisher/Executive Editor: Paul Martinez paulm@roddingusa.com President: Paul Grace paulg@roddingusa.com Feature Editors: Dale Moreau, Ken Sanders Contributors: Tommy Lee Byrd, Dennis W. Parks, Sherm Porter, Charlie Hughes, Alan Zusman, Lil’ John
Rodding USA2 min read
Happy New Year 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 wh
Rodding USA3 min read
Tabletop Rodding
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 t
Rodding USA4 min readAutomotive
Grasstrack Deuce
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 whe
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
Plain & Simple
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 $6
Rodding USA1 min readAutomotive
1956 Ford F100
OWNER: Lee Sesler – Tucson, Arizona CHASSIS: Stock. FRONT SUSPENSION: Volare independent, disc brakes, power steering, Monroe shocks. REAR SUSPENSION: Mustang 8-inch, 3.00 gears, leaf springs, drum brakes, Monroe shocks. TIRES & WHEELS: Front – P
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
Grasstrack Deuce
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 rea
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
Twelve Pack
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 te
Rodding USA3 min readAutomotive
Rev It Up RPM Nationals
During these strange and uncertain pandemic-driven times, car enthusiasts based on the West Coast have come to the realization that the 2020 show season stopped somewhere around March 15. Yet rodders resolved to find alternate ways to get their “car
Rodding USA1 min readAutomotive
Rodding News
Henry Dana grew up in Staten Island, NY, and began drag racing in 1961. He went on to gain drag racing fame on the East Coast running a ’56 Chevy wagon in the Junior Stock class. Henry left N.Y. for sunny Florida in 1969 and eventually opened Dana’s
Rodding USA3 min readAutomotive
Carson Tops The Final Chapter
If you’ve been involved in the custom or hot rod scene for any amount of time, you have most likely heard the term “Carson Top.” Little did I know at the time that the final Carson Top by a family member of the originators would be restored right her
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
Driven Hard
Stepping back to October 1981, I was in my first couple of months of employment at Street Rodder magazine, and I received an assignment to photograph the Oak Creek Rod Run in Sedona, Arizona. I jumped into my ‘34 Ford coupe and drove the 450 plus mil
Rodding USA1 min readAutomotive
1928 Ford Sedan
OWNER: Garry White – Richmond B.C. CHASSIS: Custom by Jim Weimer. FRONT SUSPENSION: Super Bell 4-inch dropped axle, Mullins Vega steering box, Super Bell springs, Viking shocks, Wilwood disc brakes. REAR SUSPENSION: John’s Industries 31 Spline 9-i
Rodding USA5 min readAutomotive
A Forty-Year Dream is Now Reality
In the early to mid-’60s, Garry White of Richmond BC, was one of the numerous junior high guys who didn’t have a full-time job after school, which meant no money to buy a car. So helping his high school buddy keep his ‘46 Ford on the road was as clos
Rodding USA1 min readAutomotive
1934 Ford Coupe
OWNER: Larry Way – Phoenix, Arizona CHASSIS: Original, 1934, boxed. Chassis work by Joe Brusaschetti, San Jose, CA. FRONT SUSPENSION: Dropped Super Bell tube axle, mono leaf spring, 4-bar, Vega steering, RideTech shocks. REAR SUSPENSION: 8-inch Fo
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
Solid Gold Henry Would Be Proud
As a teenager in the late ‘60s, I loved hot rods. I grew up in several small towns in Oregon, so hot rods were few and far between. But I saw many when I went on a trip to Los Angeles with my parents in 1964. Through the ‘60s, I cut pictures from hot
Rodding USA2 min read
Goodguys Scottsdale, Az
As 2020 comes to an end, custom car enthusiasts across the U.S. have become accustomed to hearing that their favorite event has been postponed or, as in most cases, canceled. As we headed into November, COVID cases continued to climb, and we were ant
Rodding USA1 min readAutomotive
1932 Ford 3-window Coupe
OWNER: Richard Carroll - Lake Oswego, Oregon. CHASSIS: SoCal step boxed with late ‘40s ford components and Borgeson Vega steering. FRONT SUSPENSION: ’48 Ford dropped axel with Ford bendix drum brakes, chrome backing plates, and split wishbones. RE
Rodding USA1 min read
The People That Made It All Possible:
PAINT AND METALWORK: Vintage Metal Works, Rod Benko, Camas, WA. INTERIOR: CSC Upholstery, Christian Staenke, Oregon City, OR. SKETCHES AND RENDERINGS: Eric Black, Portland, OR. PLATING: NW Chrome, New Plymouth, Idaho PINSTRIPING: Paul Comeau, Van
Rodding USA3 min readAutomotive
Dual Purpose Banger
Since a young (14 years old) teenager in 1950, Max McLain has been building hot rods while growing up in California’s oil-rich southern San Joaquin Valley. With his meager tools in the shed, Max channeled the Model A Roadster, laying the groundwork f
Rodding USA1 min readAutomotive
1929 Ford Roadster
OWNER: Max McLain CHASSIS: Model A. FRONT SUSPENSION: 4-inch dropped and drilled Dago axle, 1940 Ford brakes, 1940 Ford steering box. REAR SUSPENSION: Early ‘29 Ford rear end with Halibrand quick-change, ‘40 Ford brakes. TIRES/WHEELS: Firestone 4
Rodding USA1 min read
Dealer Network
www.roddingusa.com 638 S. 27th Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85009 602 442-5199 948 W. 1st Avenue Mesa, AZ 85210 480 833 9080 2811 N. Stone Avenue Tucson, AZ 85705 520-884-8892 5150 S. 48th Street Phoenix, AZ 85040 602-454-1500 Industrial Metal Supply 3757 E
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
Home Built Engine And A Custom Air Cleaner Too!
(Editor’s Note: Keith Daleen is an avid hot rodder and hill climb racer in his spare time. His full-time job is the General Manager of Burr King in Warsaw, MO.) This is for home builders or enthusiast that like to make parts at home. It isn’t about
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
The Early Years
January always features two of the best back-to-back shows in the country, in the Scottsdale Barrett-Jackson Auction and the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona. R-USA covered them both with extended features in this issue. While at the GNRS, we p
Rodding USA2 min readAutomotive
Rodding Products
LOKAR adds to their LS Classic line with the introduction of their new retro-styled LS plug wires. These high-quality plug wires feature 7 mm Kevlar spiral core suppression wire, high-temp EPDM jacketing, and silicone boots. The wires are 9 feet long

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