This could be an early Sixties scene from any town in America, but this little vignette was my backyard. I grew up about 3 miles from the Olympic Drive-In, where I saw cars like these on Friday and Saturday nights when my family and I would go to catch a movie.
This little drag-inspired '32 Ford pickup is a page torn from my hometown's hot rod history. It's a mythical car that never actually existed, but could've and, best of all, could today. The early Sixties were the heyday of speed shops. Almost every town had one. In Santa Monica it was Quincy Automotive. They closed the doors in 1966, but not before running their gas-powered dragster down San Vincente Boulevard late one summer night. For this reason I had to put their name in gold leaf across the door.
The little Deuce pickup has an array of Sixties mods. The cab was dropped over the framerails, the top wedge chopped, and the radiator shell sectioned. All this accentuates the bugcatcher topped, 6-71 blown 392 Hemi sitting between the boxed framerails. The bobbed fenders, drag 'chute, tucked tailgate, and wheelie bars reinforce the pickup's purpose-built look.
Santa Monica cam grinders, Engle Cams, helped with the lopey exhaust note bellowing through custom-made twin megaphone-style headers that scent the air with the smell of burnt 110-octane fuel.
Other custom work includes '59 Caddy taillights mounted in the bedrails, shaved flush-mounted doors, and a padded aluminum bedcover. The Deuce's Candy Sapphire Blue paint is accented by piecrust, wide-white, cheater slicks cinched around polished 16x10 Torq-Thrusts in the back with matching 15x6 five-spokes up front.
If you were lucky enough to experience this period, on the West Coast or the East, there were hometown hot rods that left an impression on you. This is the culmination of them all for me. Now it can be yours. Build 'em if you got 'em.