deuce_roadster
Well-known member
My 32 roadster avatar has quite a past that may interest some of you. The car in the late 40s was a hot rod owned by a fellow named Bennie Smith who owned a wrecking yard. In 1949 right before Thanksgiving he loaned the car to a friend who ended up in a tragic accident. The star quarterback of the H.S. football team was killed in the wreck, 3 others were hurt. This upset Bennie so much he parked the car in front of his wrecking yard and would not sell it to anyone. Over the years many tried to purchase it. It sat out in the rain from 1949 to about 1980 at which point a friend of mine purchased the roadster from the estate after Bennie's passing. After a while my friend decided it was beyond his skills to fix. It was one of those "if you ever want to sell it give me a call " deals and I picked it up in 1984. I didn't start working on it for several years but after starting on it got it done in about 6 years. I had to hammer weld about 10" all around the car,replace subrails and floor. I did it old school, butt welds, metal finished inside and out, used a tiny bit of lead here and there. I can say there is NO bondo anywhere on this car but there is some lead.
I uploaded pictures in a public album of the car during the process and the 1949 front page newspaper article from the Aberdeen Daily World of the accident. Click on my avatar and to to my albums for pictures. None of the captions are on the pictures I added and they aren't in the order I uploaded them but the 4 newspaper pages are in reverse order. The rest of the pictures are self evident. The exhaust is all stainless, the headers and intake are Cermachromed. I did all the body/paint/construction work myself. A friend pinstriped it and I paid a guy to do the black and white tuck&roll leather and make the top for the car.
I never drive this car without thinking of both Jerry McClellan and Bennie Smith. There is a member of my Ford club who grew up with Bennie and verified all of this info.
I uploaded pictures in a public album of the car during the process and the 1949 front page newspaper article from the Aberdeen Daily World of the accident. Click on my avatar and to to my albums for pictures. None of the captions are on the pictures I added and they aren't in the order I uploaded them but the 4 newspaper pages are in reverse order. The rest of the pictures are self evident. The exhaust is all stainless, the headers and intake are Cermachromed. I did all the body/paint/construction work myself. A friend pinstriped it and I paid a guy to do the black and white tuck&roll leather and make the top for the car.
I never drive this car without thinking of both Jerry McClellan and Bennie Smith. There is a member of my Ford club who grew up with Bennie and verified all of this info.
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