A Toy for Both Big and Little Boys

By Tony Thacker

I wonder how many kids were turned on to drag racing by building plastic model kits. I know I was, and I remember the day I was in the toyshop and there on the shelf was Monogram’s ’32 Ford Deuce Roadster Drag Strip Hot Rod. Originally issued in 1958, I bought mine in 1963 and was quickly on my way home with a tube of glue and a smile on my face. Like so many kids, I was hooked and it wasn’t because of the glue.

Dante Duce and Mickey Thompson brought drag racing to the UK in 1963. At the time, I didn’t know the model kit was based on a real car. The only magazines featuring Fred Allen’s Devil Deuce—it was actually called Satan—were the November 1957 issue of Rod Builder & Customizer and the February 1960 issue of Rod & Custom, neither were available in the UK.

Throughout the years, my model got lost, but I did commission a set painter called Alix to paint a big 4×8 mural. I’m not sure where that is now, so all I have is a re-pop kit; however, my good friend, Texas hoodlum Jim Jard, had the notorious Kennedy Boys, Jay and Joe of Pomona, California, recreate the car.

Although it was only featured in two magazines, the car had a huge impact on Jim, who said, “It evoked the feeling of simpler times and cars, and yet it was obvious that Fred had put his heart and soul into it. It had full instrumentation, full upholstery and a chrome push bar. And, being a five-window, it looked to me like a regular guy’s car. He was proud of it. I liked that.

“I called every Fred Allen in the phone book around Philadelphia, but nobody had heard of the car. I even called Dave Simard and he said it hadn’t been seen or heard of in 30 years. So the Kennedy Boys, who also had a picture of it on their wall, and I decided to commemorate it. I didn’t just want to build a clone, but a tribute, using as many authentic parts as we could find.”

The plastic kit featured a roadster body and a flathead mill with three twos and eight exhausts. The real car was a Deuce five-window powered by a 1951 331-ci Chrysler Hemi fitted with a Howard cam and four 2-bbl Strombergs on a Weiand intake, although the February 1960 issue of Rod & Custom said it had an Edelbrock manifold, Isky cam and a Scintilla mag. Running in B/Altered, 29-year-old Fred’s coupe was fitted with an 18-pound aluminum Weber flywheel, a Ford truck 10-inch clutch and a ’39 Ford trans.

Jim’s engine is a 1956 354 Hemi built by Jon Marchman. The crank and rods are stock but 10:1 J&E pistons top the rods. The cam is a 284-duration COMP Cams item, while the slightly ported heads are fitted with big stainless steel valves. The headers are stock plated, while that interesting generator came from Phil at M&L.

One of the most difficult parts to locate was the intake. Eventually, one was found but it had been badly butchered to take a Quadrajet. John Keith at SO-CAL Speed Shop and Bobby Walden of Walden Speed Shop worked together to restore the manifold by milling out the four-barrel mess and recreating the bosses for the four 97s, which were rebuilt by Joe Scanlin. The resulting work of art barely resembles the intake that, in its as-found state, was destined for recycling.

Behind the motor is a Wilcap adapter, a GM bell housing and a mid-’60s Ford tranny with a similar vintage Jeep shifter that looks a lot like a 1939 Ford stick. It’s a cool combination that seems to work.

The original stance was achieved with a 2 ½-inch dropped I-beam, located on chrome split wishbones, and 15×7:10 wheels shod with white wall slicks and Moon discs all round. The rear deck featured 1939 teardrops taillights.

Jim’s version features a similar front axle setup but with 1940 Ford juice brakes and Ford truck wheels shod with 15×5.90 BFGoodrich Silvertowns from Coker. The wishbones are split and utilize the original Ford spring-loaded ends. In the rear it’s a 1936 Ford axle, again with 1940 Ford juice brakes and Ford truck wheels shod with original Englebert slicks.

The frame is comprised of original Deuce rails fitted with SO-CAL Speed Shop’s weld-in tubular K-member with additional tubes to form a substantial cross member. The front cross member is stock, but in the rear there’s a Model A cross member fitted with a chromed Model A spring. The steering box is a 1948 F1 item, as are the shock mounts, which were turned sideways and welded to the frame to mount Pete & Jake’s chrome shocks.

The original interior was yellow and white Naugahyde with the Moon-style tank mounted on the floor next to the driver. A chrome dash featured Stewart-Warner instruments. Here, Jay and Joe could only follow closely using Ansen swing pedals, a Cragar gas pedal, a ’40s- style column with a 1936 Ford “big truck” column drop and a 1946 Ford steering wheel finished in white. The dash is chrome plated per the original car and is fitted with a Stewart-Warner instrument panel. Below the dash is a fuel-pressure pump just like the original.

The paint job was originally applied in metallic blue by “Little Al” Cravero of Phipadelphia, who also flamed and striped the car, interestingly, with the grille top flames licking forward. That would have irritated Von Dutch, who felt that everything should flow towards the rear like things do in nature. Under the shell is a Matson’s radiator. And, after whacking 3 inches out of an original five-window body, Jay Kennedy shot the metallic blue paint before Tom Clark applied the flames and painted the grille insert (the first one upside down) just like Von Dutch did on the Yeakle Bros. Roadster, because when the grille is off the car it feels like it should be the other way up. The flames were real tricky to replicate, and after three or four attempts, they finally felt happy, only to have a shop visitor say, skeptically, “They look like they were done 50 years ago!”

“That’s how they’re supposed to look,” said Jay, knowing then they’d nailed it.

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