Les Hilgers' 1932 Ford Roadster

There’s been a lot of noise lately about tradition being trendy (aren’t those opposites?), but Les Hilgers doesn’t know or care about trendy. He does know a bit about tradition though, having grown up around rods ’n’ customs in the ’50s and ’60s. His love affair with American Iron began in San Diego at the tender age of 14, with a ’39 Chevy as the object of his affection.

As he aged, cars and trucks came and went; a ’57 Chevy hardtop, a T roadster, a ’32 pickup, a ’36 three-window, and lots of others. His garage currently holds a ’55 Chevy truck that he’s owned for 32 years, and two cars that you may have seen in our “Hot Rod Survivors” story in the July ’01 issue of R&C: an orange ’33 drag coupe and this green Deuce roadster. Both are survivors and, more importantly, both are drivers.

Some guys scour the country in search of gems like this and never hit paydirt, while other guys—guys like Les—get lucky and hear about them through friends. Seems a friend of a friend found this one on the Internet. It had been stored for 40 years after a coupler broke inside the torque tube and, instead of fixing it, the car’s young owner put it in storage. He finally decided to sell it and listed it on a Web site. Turns out the owner listed it wrong, so not too many people saw the ad. Les heard about it from his friend Randy Clark, who had purchased the car when Randy’s friend, who actually found it on the Net, couldn’t afford to buy it. Randy was planning on turning it over at the local auto swap, but when Les stopped by to take a peek he immediately snapped it up.

The car proved to be in excellent condition—it was left untouched for the 40 years it was stored. After freshening the car up a bit, Les hit the road and has had nothing but fun driving it ever since.