What
the Hell is All This Wet Stuff???!
A Winter
Shop Tour. January, 2005
What
better way to start the new year! Gloomy,
drizzly rain. And then some more rain. But
wait, even more rain. Eleven inches more
than a normal season, and we are only halfway
through it as the storms slam the left coast.
"Ahh,
quit your complainin'!" you
may be saying, as many of you are reading
this in sub-zero weather but, here in Southern
California, we're not used to this "Wet
Stuff" coming down.
If
you are like me cabin fever is just starting
to kick in and it is time to brave a bit
of the elements and get out!!!! So I
did. As
our cars sit in their dry garages, I went
out to visit some of Southern California's
hottest hot rod shops. And you get to come
along for the ride.
I
visited Roy
Davenport at SAC Hot Rod Products,
Jerry and Jeff Kugel
(father and son) at Kugel Komponents,
Gary Dagel at Dagel's Street Rods,
Duane Mayer at Boyd Coddington's Hot
Rod Shop, Steve Dennish at Limeworks
Speed Shop, Jimmy Ruiz and Larry at
Sledsville, Van at Fat Fendered
Street Rods, and Alex Maldonado at So-Cal
Speedshop.
SAC
Hot Rod Products
Model
A frames! Most of these shops build frames,
and with my calculations, there are more
than 200 Model A frames coming out each
year in just these eight shops alone. Are
there that many backyard builders and deuce
buyers out there? SAC appears to make the
most frames a little more than a frame a
week.
It was a frigid cold morning at SAC Hot
Rod Products, Roy Davenport showed me
around while he expertly helped customers.
A Hispanic guy came in and was trying to
ask Roy about a product. Not speaking Spanish,
Roy helped him the best he could and gave
him leads with other manufacturers that
carry what he was looking for.
In
the back of the shop there is a wall with
templates for Foose, Coddington, Kugel and
Westbury frame rails. Not that they still
make frames for all these builders but 6
of the last 9 Most Beautiful Roadsters from
the Grand Nationals have SAC Frames.
Coddington uses a manufacturer in Australia
for their frames and bodies. And Kugel has
since been making their own frames. Speaking
of frames there was a 29-roadster truck
at Limeworks that is in for a new frame.
Apparently while leaving the MoonEyes Christmas
Show, the accelerator was stuck sending
the pickup across lanes of traffic and into
a building. No one was hurt but the rod
was pretty beat up. Steve reassured that
it would be better than new.
Back
at SAC, there were stacks of frames with
a variety of components being added on.
Roys' biggest challenge and it was echoed
in most of the shops is managing the shipments
and deliveries. It seems getting the
"right" part that you order is
a BIG concern with most shops here.
Go
to: Page Two Kugel Komponents
You
can contact all the shops we toured by visiting
their links on
Page Eight
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