(Click on any photo to enlarge it)
As
a young man in Oceanside, CA, Jack Carpenter's interest in cars led him
to join the Oilers, a local car club in Carlsbad, CA. He could be seen
cruising Oceanside and looking for races in his 1949 Oldsmobile fastback with
Cadillac fins and skirts. The engine sported a Weiand intake with four staggered
2 barrel carburetors operated by progressive linkage, an Isky cam and a Mallory
Mag Spark dual point ignition. When he moved to 29 Palms, California in early
1951, he was disappointed that there were no car clubs there so he started one,
The Flames, and he was the self-elected president.Fifteen miles east of 29 Palms were the remains of the
Old Dale Mining District. At one time the town near this gold mining area had a population of
10,000 in a one square mile area. When the mines closed, and there was no other
work in the area, the town soon became a ghost
town. During their exits, families often left their old cars, that no longer ran,
behind because they had no money to repair them. 
One
day while exploring this area in late 1951, Jack found a rusting Willys Touring Car that was built somewhere around 1923. He liked the looks of
the car and had seen hot rods with similar bodies. He brought it home and
started to think about how he could fix it up. Soon, he had purchased a Ford
Model A Tudor with a Model C engine equipped with a Riley 4 port head. He
removed the Model A body and mounted the Willys touring car body. He used the
Model A front seat backrest as a seat cushion in the Willys and the seat back
was the hard metal back of the tub. He had found a radiator and removed it from
a stationary power plant near one of the gold mines. He also found a 1932 Ford
grille shell and he sectioned it 6 inches and narrowed it 3 inches so it would fit
the radiator better. For the next year he drove the car that way between 29 Palms and
Yucca Valley.
The
4 banger was not fast enough for Jack and his street racing activities, so in
early 1953 he pulled the Riley equipped engine out and installed the engine from
his 49 Olds and added a 1937 Cadillac transmission. At that time he also installed a
40 Ford rear end with a 3.78:1 ratio and had the Cad transmission machined to fit the
torque tube drive shaft that was mated to the rear end. He replaced the Model A
brakes with 40 Ford hydraulic units. While redoing the car, he was looking at
other parts he had collected from "his" gold mining activities. One of
those items
was a Model A pickup bed that had been buried in sand. He thought roadster
pickups looked neat so he removed the rear (back seat section) of the touring
car and set the pickup bed behind it. Because the tailgate end was badly rusted,
he turned the bed around backwards, shortened it 12 inches and fit it to the
tub, then installed a pair of 51 Pontiac taillights in the now rear facing front
panel of the bed. Jack also installed a found gas tank from a Model T in the bed. Now
the touring car body looked too high so Jack sectioned it 6 inches to make it
look better. He cut holes in the front fenders and added motorcycle tires on
Kelsey Hayes rims as side mounts. Other motorcycle parts include the rear shocks
and the headlights. Behind an
abandoned 5 acre tract house he found fourteen
Model T windshields. He took the best one and mounted it on the Willys. An
Auburn boat donated the dash insert and Jack mounted original Stewart Warner
"wing" gauges in it. He didn't have a place to secure the battery so
he bolted a Marine Corps ice chest to the running board on the passenger side
and now had a place to carry the battery and a few tools too. A remote 3-quart
oil filter on the side of the cowl cleans the engine oil. As the car was going
back together, Jack painted it with spray cans. The color was (and still is) Rustoleum Yellow
and the wheels were painted Rustoleum Red. The headers were modified from a set
of Belond headers and a pair of 12-inch steel pack mufflers are behind the lake
plugs. A 4 inch chromed dropped axle was installed to give the car a slight
rake.
Jack drove his roadster to Carlsbad in 1959 to attend the Oilers reunion and continued to drive it until the engine gave up. At that time he replaced it with a 1951 Oldsmobile 303 cu. in. engine and added 1956 heads that had .125" milled from them. Jack, and his wife Ethel, moved to Lake Havasu City, AZ in 1991 and joined Relics & Rods. They have been active members and anyone who has attended the club's annual Run to the Sun car show in October will have surely met Jack and/or Ethel.
A big purchase was made for the roadster in 1999 as new Vintique wire wheels replaced the old wheels, which were so worn that the spokes had been welded to the rim and hub to keep them aligned. And yes, the new wheels were also painted Rustoleum Red. The car still runs the Mallory ignition that was installed in 1951 and mostly remains unchanged from the way it was originally assembled.
Jack and Ethel have as much fun in their old car as people with their hi-tech, hi dollar cars and especially enjoy it during the warm summer evenings here in Lake Havasu City. I have often heard "I wish I still had my first hot rod." Jack is a rare person who has and has known every nut and bolt in his car for over 50 years. How many of us can say that about our cars?
(c) Bill Junge - 2006
