Times Union Newspaper — Albany, New York

RETRO RODS — This pair of Ford street rods owned by Schenectady County resident Dave Moyer are prime examples of the types of cars rodders are building. In the foreground is a '32 Ford highboy roadster that Moyer recently sold. In the background a '29 roadster pickup that Moyer built and drives regularly.

By Mike McNessor
Automotive Weekly Editor

You see them stalking the streets of the Capital Region — chopped coupes, low-slung sedans, T-buckets, and highboy roadsters all skinned with in-your-face paint schemes, shod with beefy billet aluminum wheels and sporting grumpy-sounding high-horse motors.

It's no secret. Street rods are in — here and everywhere in America.

A recent story in Popular Mechanics summed up this automotive subculture accordingly: "...street rods are no longer looked upon as the trappings of outlaw 'hot rodders' who terrorized all-American families on the highway in such '60s movies as 'Hot Rods To Hell.' Today, building a street rod in your garage is a clean, wholesome hobby very much in the American tradition. In fact, after falling out of favor with the automotive in-crowds of the '70s and '80s, street rods today are as much a symbol of affluence and status — and could be as costly to build — as a Mercedes-Benz or Ferrari."

Clean and wholesome? Sure. All-American? Well, suffice it to say you won't see too many blown Willy's coupes cruising the Autobahn.

SOME RODS WEAR BOW TIES — Not all street machines are Fords from the early 1930s. Pictured top are two classic Chevrolets: a 1940 owned by Floyd "Mick" Millious of Ravena (left) and a 1939 owned by William "Bud" McNessor of Selkirk.

One caveat however, street rodding is not a young person's pastime.

"There are some young people involved but they're few and far between," said Dave Moyer, a founding member of Capital Area Rods, who has built and owns a number of street machines.

Moyer maintains that people in the 40-60 age bracket not only have the money to spend on street rods, but they also have fond memories of hot rodding's past.

"There are definitely more expendable dollars out there," he said. "People in our age group have paid off their mortgages, their kids are out of college, and they've got a few dollars to play with. At anytime in the past, if they had an interest in the hobby and hadn't been able to afford it, their time has come to get involved."

Make no mistake, to buy a street machine that is fashionable and functional by today's standards requires prodigious amounts of money. And to build a street rod that won't leave you kicking gravel on the side of the road, requires a little less money but considerably more talent.

"You need to have $20,000 right up front, in the bank," said George Alfonsin a Ravena-based street rod builder who also specializes in air brush, pinstriping and gold leaf work.

Alfonsin has built and reworked a number of street machines in the area and maintains that, unlike rebuilding or restoring a car, street rods require tremendous fabrication skills.

"You better know what you're doing, otherwise you're going to pay someone like me to do it over," he said. "And you better know how to weld."

According to Moyer the price of admission for a complete show-ready car can start at $30,000 and escalate from there.

 

SAVE YOUR PENNIES — Ravena-based street rod builder George Alfonsin says you better have $20,000 on hand if you're looking to build a street machine. And you better know how to weld. Here Alfonsin is flanked by some of his handiwork — a pair of 1932 Fords owned by former championship winning DIRT modified driver John Flach.

"You can go out and buy a completed car and pay $35,000 - $40,000," he said. "You can start from ground zero with an antique car and, depending on how much talent you have, you can probably build it for $20,000 - $25,000. Not everyone has the talent to do the car from ground zero to completion."

Alfonsin said he has acquired rods from people who simply lost interest or realized they didn't have the means, time or ability to finish the car.

"A lot of people get the car and whittle away at it and then lose interest and then we'll pick it up," he said.

With that said, would-be rodders who decide they absolutely must build their own custom street rods, (Isn't that what it's really all about anyway?) must choose between two very distinct routes — new or used.

Dozens of companies offer brand-new Fiberglas and even steel reproductions of popularly rodded cars. Ford's '32-'34 coupes, or '33-'34 roadsters; the '40 - '41 Willys coupes; '34-'35 Chevy coupes; and many others are available.

By purchasing a new body you can forget about having to repair rust, and forget about making popular body alterations (chopping the roof, filling body seams etc, etc.)

"You can buy reproduction bodies. As a matter of fact you can buy virtually anything and everything you want," Moyer said.

One thing you won't buy with that fiberglass body however is respect from hot rodding purists like Alfonsin.

"I only build steel cars," he said. "If you buy a body, then you end up with a Tupperware car."

Once that new body has been delivered you may also want to purchase something to bolt it to. A prefabricated chassis with a rack-and-pinion or straight-axle type front end, and one of the myriad rear suspension configurations would be in order — four-link, leaf springs, independent.

While you're at it, you may also want to order all of the electrical components — lights, wiring, don't forget that power window kit — as well as gauges, glass, wheels, tires, a couple hundred feet of brake line as well as a master cylinder and booster, a fuel tank, fuel line, some cool high-output electric fuel pumps, and so on and so on.

With the body and rolling chassis set, you're probably going to want to purchase some interior components so you'll have a comfy place to sit when you're cruising that new machine. And, oh yeah, before you go cruising, you may want to bolt in an engine and transmission.

Now, if you choose to begin with a used vintage car, you'll still need most of the above. However, add to that the price and hassle of straightening and repairing 60-plus-year-old body panels, as well as attaching late-model suspension and drivetrain components to a 60-plus-year-old set of frame rails. You can save yourself some grief by simply buying a rust-free shell in the first place — and forking over the requisite amount of money.

"It's worth it to go to California and get it because you would only find something back here that's completely junk," said Alfonsin who lived on the West Coast until just recently. "You're $5,000 ahead of the game already because you don't have to sandblast, prime paint, and repair all the panels."

Moyer said you may even be able to land a solid shell locally, if you're very patient.

"I think it's a matter of having patience and not going out and buying the first car that comes your way," he said. "Take your time, shop around and look."

To put it mildly, both routes are wildly expensive. The all-new route probably more so, but with fewer headaches. Besides, it's only money.

"A lot of these guys have, quote unquote, stupid money, anyway," Alfonsin said. "Now your drivetrain is the most expensive proposition. You can spend $5,000 for a crate (new, high-performance) motor. I generally use new crate motors, and new trannies, so everything, every part in these cars is brand new."

If you want to save some cash on the drivetrain, Alfonsin recommends hitting the local salvage yard in search of a complete wreck.

"Find yourself a drivetrain. I'd go with something out of a later model car. Something out of a Corvette or a Camaro," he said. "With a late model you get electronic fuel injection and when its finished it will be a state-of-the-art car. If you want to build an old carbureted small block, that's fine and dandy too. But your best bet is buy a wreck, tear it apart and you'll have the whole drivetrain. It's all there, and you're not spending your time chasing down parts. I'll spend a year building a car but 30 days of that is returning parts and 40 days of that might be trying to make something fit."

While there are rare individuals who can complete a street rod without the help of another human being — most builders do have a weak area. More often than not, that weak area requires sewing together pieces of upholstery.

"There are certain things that I do and certain things I don't do, like upholstery," Moyer said. "I'm not an upholsterer. I can do my own fabrication and I can do my own paint and body work, that in itself will save you a lot of money. A good paint job today is $5,000, not including body work. Of course, you can spend any amount of money you want."

In the final analysis, every rod project boils down to money, no matter how nostalgic and misty eyed the car makes its owner and onlookers feel. It's a simple equation: how much a street rod costs subtracted from how much it's really worth equals what's left over for the owner's troubles.

"I would say, if you keep your wits about you, you can come out ahead of the game," Moyer said. "I attend tons and tons of swap meets — I enjoy it, but a lot of people don't. A lot of people don't have the patience. I have a friend who built a '32 Ford three-window coupe and he virtually bought everything out of a catalog. He didn't spend any time at swap meets, and he paid top bucks.

"I have another friend who is being cheap about it and he is going to come out ahead of the game."

According to Alfonsin: "It's worth exactly what you put into it, and you might get more if it's really clean. It's possible to put $30,000 into a car and get $60,000 when it's finished. But that's a top-shelf ride. For a '32 three-window Ford street rod in prime condition, it's not uncommon to see them for $60,000."

Sound too good to be true? Can the average person really make an easy $30,000 assembling street rods from the comfort of their home, in their spare time? Nope. Not on your life.

Instead, a $60,000 car can be built by one pro in about a year.

"You can build it in one year if you're on it. Forty-hour weeks, 52 weeks a year. And you've got to remember in that year, you've got the upholstery work, that will take a month. The electric shop will have it for a month. It really depends on what kind of schedule you've got."

So who is building, buying, owning and collecting these cars? Guys like 40-year-old local business man John Flach — a relative youngster among the hot rodding set.

Flach a former championship winning DIRT modified driver currently owns a pair of '32 Fords, one a coupe the other a sedan, as well as a '33 Chevy roadster.

"I just like the body lines of the '32-34 Ford," he said. "I do have a '33 Chevy roadster but I'm kind of a Ford guy."

Flach's coupe, built by Alfonsin, incorporates a number of unique touches that help remind the 1988-1989 Lebanon Valley Speedway track champion of the dozens of Saturday nights he spent sliding around a clay-covered oval. For instance the 351 Ford engine is based on an SVO block, which is used in small-block, stock car racing applications. The distributor in the engine is a magneto type — pure stock car trickery. The coupe stops with powerful, race-ready Wilwood discs at all four corners. And a stock-car-style, quick-change rear plants the power to the ground out back. On the outside, a cool paint scheme that incorporates checkered flags into a flame-like motif, completes the former racer's off-hours cruising package.

"It's something, I enjoy and something I've been into a long time," Flach says of his hot rodding hobby.

The postmaster of the Waterford branch of the U.S. Post Office is also an avid street rodder, and president of Capital Area Rods.

Morris "Butch" McCabe, 50, has been a hot rodder all his life and currently owns a cool 1946 Ford convertible.

"I had a '33 Plymouth coupe when I was in high school and sold it when I went in the service," he said. "Later, I bought a '32 Chevy sedan out of a farmer's barn it took me two and a half to three years to restore. Now I've got a 1946 Ford convertible."

McCabe said he is planning to perform some work on the Ford, but that he is able to motor around in the condition he purchased it. Moreover, McCabe's car is one of a growing number of cars built as a vintage hot rod using high-performance parts from the '40s-'60s.

"I bought it through an ad in the Hemmings Motor News," he said. "It was pretty much restored. It's a nice running car, its got a Columbia two-speed axle and a 100 horsepower two-speed flathead."

 

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