Since I have been absent from the garage scene for many decades there’s a lot that is new to me. A whole new generation of hot rodder/car builders/restorers are running the show now and I find some of the directions that they are taking quite interesting.

One of the things is new to me is a group that call themselves the Goodguys. I attended a car show a couple of weeks ago in Joliet, IL and was absolutely amazed at how much the interest has grown in car craft since I quit getting my hands dirty thirty some years ago. I guess it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise, since all the clues have been in front of me for the last year. In that time I’ve accumulated a stack of venders catalogs about as tall as ten year old and I’m finding new ones almost every day. And they wouldn’t be in business if the market wasn’t there.
So after the meet a friend gave me the August issue of a magazine that I had never seen before entitled “Classic Trucks.” It was the Advance Design Special edition which featured the segment of our Stovebolt that interests me the most.

There is a movement out there that, when I first heard the term mentioned really didn’t interest me, that being Rat Rod. Of course in this AD special issue there is a good example of the craft. Pictured on page 54 is a ’48, 3104 5-window all decked out in faded paint and rust, bodywork and paint buy none other than Mother Nature.
On the door is the weathered lettering of the “TOMBSTONE MORTUARY” Tombstone, Ariz. Hidden under the hood is a big 572ci GMPP driving a Ford 9” posi through a GM 4L65.
The door art on this truck is the feature that grabbed me the most. When I was much younger than I am now all of the trucks had to have a name and weight painted on the door here in Illinois, which yielded some interesting artwork. That practice has faded into the past now that almost everyone drives a truck now days and the only place that you see lettering is on the big rigs. I kind of like the idea of lettering the door, I mean real lettering with real “One Shot” not the vinyl stuff. Most of the artists to day that make signs are computer geeks and probably wouldn’t know which end of a brush to hold.
So have any of you seen any interesting door art or taken pictures?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny G
Sandwich, IL