Frozen In Time: 1930 Model A Pickup Hot Rod
At one time or another, pretty much every car guy or gal has opened up a car magazine and enjoyed the pictures, stories, and specifications of the cars within. Consequently, some cars featured in big publications have gone on to be well-known, fetching large sums at auction and lots of attention at car shows or Concours. This 1930 Model A Roadster Pickup was not a cover car, but it was featured in Hot Rod Magazine in March of 1961. Now, it’s located in Canton, Ohio and for sale here on eBay with a starting price of $20,000. Amazingly, the car looks virtually the same as it did in the magazine! A true time capsule of early 1960s hot rodding, hopefully this old ride will have a new owner to revive this weary rod.
Hot rodding as we know it today got started in the 1930s when young men and women began taking Ford Model Ts, Ford Model As, V8 Fords, and other makes, and started “souping them up” into “gow jobs,” what we would call hot rods today. Once they were done modifying the cars, the kids would take them street racing after school and on weekends in Southern California. Most popular were the Model A and the 1932 Ford V8 and that was due to their availability, adaptability, and low cost. These cars still have the same allure to hot rodders today that they did to the kids back then, only now they are more scarce and more expensive. By the 1950s, hot rodding was part of American youth culture. There were movies about the hobby, car shows dedicated to it, such as the National Roadster Show in Oakland, CA (Grand was added in 1962). This also meant magazines, which catered to the masses of young builders, selling engine parts, accessories, and showcasing the latest in technological innovation and style. One such featured car was our 1930 Model A Roadster Pickup here.
Based on the pictures, this car looks virtually unchanged from 1961. The vintage article and current seller both state the car has a Chevrolet 265 engine and built on a 1932 frame. In this case, Hot Rod Magazine actually gives more information about the car than the seller. According to the article and supposing the car hasn’t be altered, the engine is equipped with an Isky cam and Offenhauser intake, as well as triple carburetors and a Powerglide transmission. The rear axle is 1948 Ford as are the brakes. It has cycle fenders on the front and Stewart-Warner gauges fitted into the Model A gauge cluster. Only two differences are visible between 1961 and now. The steering wheel as been swapped out from the four-prong Bell wheel to a three-prong unit and the interior has been reupholstered from blue and white naugahyde to just blue. Judging by the wear on both, this was probably done in the late 60s or so, once trends had changed. Other than those changes, the car is remarkably similar to its appearance in 1961. My favorite part of the car the nerf bar on the front coupled with the cycle fenders, its a classic look.
It is absolutely remarkable this car survived and while not a famous car, this car is still an awesome time capsule of early 1960s hot rodding. It being featured in Hot Rod Magazine certainly adds to the car’s interest and story. It is too bad the seller doesn’t have any better pictures of the exterior of car as it sits now. Unfortunately, nothing can be done there. Anyway, this frozen in time ride will soon have a new owner, who I can only hope will keep the car as original as he can while making it drivable again. Do you like the look of this early 1960s ride?
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Comments
Cool car with a proven history. Someone that is into actual vintage hot rods will likely step up at some point and buy it, then, at a minimum swap out the B&M shifter make sure it’s mechanically sound and enjoy it.
Steve R
My first thought was that shifter has to go. But what a fun ride this wold be.
Nice and cool it survived mostly….that shifter is a later addition for sure.
It’s pure nostalgia for a generation that’s getting way up there, no one under 65 years young has any recollection of that era outside of what we’ve read or been told. It’s like something I’d find at a museum, not at a car show as the old school hot rods sure don’t look like this anymore.
Cool, very cool.
Your right I wasn’t paying much attention in 1960 as I was only 3.
However since I got into hot rods I have progressively gone back in time. I now have a RPU in paint, fenders off with wide fives and a 24 bolt flathead wearing Two 2s
KUDOS, to Gray Clemson,
Usually when something like this comes up on B/F’s, I get very up-set, and get on a rip about how wrong the info is, not this time, Gray got it right. Not only was this a 60’s Hot Rod, the first thing I thought, this car was built in Pacific Northwest, probably Portland,Oregon area. The cars then all had a look, depending on where they were built, ,black, white walls, baby moon hub caps and a nice stance, I loved this look from the north west. As an example, I had my car in a indoor show in Colo. (about 1964) and a couple of guys, from California) came up to me and said, are you the only guy in Colo., that knows what a Hot Rod should look like. My car, a 34 Coupe at that time (and now) was black,big rake, black wall tires and polished Americans. I was just a little ahead of my time, because that was a California look and the rest of the country had caught on yet, but they did pretty fast.
This Roadster P/U was nice at the time, not the best,but it did make HRM which was a big deal. If you look at the magazine and the car, the big difference ,then and now is just in the detailing, there are some minor changes buy nothing too serious, it could be brought back to that condition with out too much work and too many dollars, if you like the look of the car. I think 20K ,is a little too much, even with a 100% restoration , I think 30K, would be all the money, in today’s market.
Side bar and trivia the cover of HRM in the e-bay listing, the red T Touring was built by Norm Grabowski and became the star car, for a short lived TV sitcom , staring Jerry Van Dyke, it was called “My Mother the Car”
What’s with the brake fluid can?….nice car
In my opinion… headlight mounts and front shocks are hideous. Certainly not representative of my 1960 thinking. ‘Course, the interior is hideous also, with that shifter and the stupid (who knows what) pedal. And, how did someone mate the 48 Ford rear, to a auto trans? That would necessitate some scrutiny. And, if that is supposed to be a 55-56 265 engine, it has the wrong exhaust manifolds. (And, I prefer the look of the 55-56 manifolds.) Anyway, I could warm up to it, as a project, if the price was right.
Yeah on tranny-to-rear end hook-up: slip-joint yoke on tranny to a solid torque tube rear. Tough rough adaption.
Really nice find.
I remember these from when I was a kid checking out mags in late sixties thru the early seventies. My years from about 6-7 thru about 16 years old.
Would love to have this to restore it along the lines of its original hot rod lineage with minor updates as needed for safety.
Get it on the road basically as is!