59th Grand National Roadster Show - Grand Opening - Expanded For Web

Brent Rothweiler's '54 Buick was entered in the radical Early Custom Convertible class, placing first in class, which shouldn't come as a surprise given the attention to detail.

New company Old Speed Hot Rods out of Long Beach, CA, had a couple of chalk-and-cheese A roadster pickups on display. The green lowboy was running the framehorns under the axle, while the silver truck was recently seen in R&C when Jeb Scolman's Metal and Speed fabbed the doorskins.

Brian Bass brought his bare-metal, sliced '49 Chevy fastback out from Texas, featuring same-year Merc front sheetmetal, frenched lights, scoops in the rear quarters, and reworked bumpers. That front end sure is a double-take, huh?

Harold Nicks' Model A sedan caught our eye on Saturday during the cruise-in and went home with one of two R&C awards of the day. With a small-block Ford under the hood, and an interior to match the roof, the yella' sedan was lookin' good.

The latest from Hollywood Hot Rods is this Bentley-esque '32. Spot all the mods? The raised wheelwells, Bugatti headlamps, extended grille shell, and vented hood and front apron are all obvious, but did you notice the chassis 'rails extended to run along the edge of the body, and at a matching vertical curvature?

This sweet little A sedan was out of the Eightball Rods & Choppers shop and had a '60s thing going on with the chrome steelies and white bands. Those flames had 'flake sprinkled in 'em, too.

Rick Ralstin rolled in to the cruise-in in his '31 Model A roadster. If you saw it from the passenger side, you'd figure it had a nice blown Pontiac V-8, but check out the driver side and you'd spot something was up! That's a 240ci four-cylinder from a Tempest-basically a V-8 with the left bank missing, and the same motor Mickey Thompson ran at Bonneville as a twin, with two cylinders blanked off!

Don Orosco didn't only have the Lloyd Bakan coupe on display; he also entered this frankly gorgeous Riley-equipped '32 roadster in AMBR competition. With the exception of the Tom Sewell upholstery and chassis work by Pete Eastwood, the majority of the build was handled in Don's base of Monterey, CA.

First seen in print in the Jan. '52 issue of Hop Up magazine, Jack Stirnemann has restored the Walker Morrison roadster to its original appearance, complete with a 3-3/8x4-inch Merc Flathead. Doane Spencer originally fabbed the exhausts and modified the wishbones.

We dug Manuel Cisneros' '51 Chevy, parked between two of the buildings. A member of the Strays, Manuel chose a rich bronze color, one-piece bumpers, and a white interior with stitched pinstriping for his chopped Styleline.

John Aiello added a '61 Ford Starliner roof, '67 Camaro rear window, '60 Merc grille, '60 Buick headlights, and handmade skirts to Richard Zocchi's Super 88 '61 Olds, while Art Himsl and Bob Devine tackled the paint and interior.

Gerry Gamet cruised his '53 Ford convertible up from Temecula, CA, with the 4.6L Ford motor making light work of the freeways. A Mustang II IFS and POSIES-sprung 9-inch hide under the front and rear, respectively, making sure this deceptively mild-appearing ragtop handles way better than when new.

Certainly one of the youngest owner/builders to enter the AMBR competition in many years, 23-year-old Robbie Azevedo, owner of Pacific Coast Customs, brought out this woodie tub, which was originally started as a high school shop project. He took home Best Engine in the class for his effort.