MAGAZINE

Motorcycle

To be a gearhead in those days, you had to have sand. We have it sooooo easy. But maybe that's why Hop Up Guys prove their grit by doing tasks themselves, facing inclement weather on solo roadster rides, and cleaving to the base precepts while some others do it for other reasons. We here offer-up a motorcylce teaser to whet your appetite for a roadster ride (4 wheel or 2 wheel) wherein you are just going to comune with your machine and take in the nature that it avails you. Imagine you, too, are along with these pioneers of yesterday and try to sense the vistas, aromas, and butt-puckering incidents that must've all been part of these cool trips. Roadster people in particular get a sampling of the olfactory stimuli we're talking about - usually pretty good.....but it will flare your nostrils on a motorcycle. Hurtling through space. Oh Daddy.

We sure hope someone will discover we're using these stories and find these Neo-historic Hop Up Cats. Wouldn't it be cool to interview their kids? The protagonists themselves would probably be about 100 years old by now, but who knows, maybe they're still doing something ballsey for a centenarian!

"AL HAWKINS" '32 CABRIOLET

ABOUT 1960 THE CAB IS STILL A CAMERA CAR

"Mark:

Here are some photos of Al Hawkins '32 Cabriolet. Raised in Pasadena, Al owned a speed shop before the war. At some point he opened a photography studio and was the photographer for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl for thirty years. He bought the car new in 1933 and drove it as his camera car for over 40 years.

He also modified the camera car over the years: 41 bumpers, bullet headlights, dropped headlight bar, filled grille shell, 38 Ford banjo steering wheel, spotlight, custom chrome dash with Stewart Warner gauges and a 32 Ford 3 window coupe glove box door, chrome window sills, AM radio, cigarette lighter, 48 Ford interior door and window handles, seat belts, and he turned the rumble seat into a standard trunk to haul his cameras. Dark blue body and fenders, maroon vinyl interior, white top. For years he ran red K/H wire wheels, but in the sixties Al installed 54 Imperial wires with triple whitewalls.

On the mechanical side; reversed front spring eyes, 39 Ford trans with Zephyr gears, 40 Ford rear end, tube shocks, dual glasspaks, battery under the hood on the firewall. In '67 after the 13th flathead, Al and Harry Vanderwick installed a 289 Ford engine and 12 volt system. The curious part to all this is that the car still has stock mechanical brakes. Al believed that a properly adjusted set of mechanical brakes were equal to hydraulics. (We'll see.)

GUS SEEMS TO BE THE RIGHT ONE TO BE PRESERVING A ROD

The camera car is mentioned on Don Montgomery's "Hot Rods in the Forties" on page 33. Pete Eastwood and Don Berg know the car. Also Al's other car, a 27 Chevy Phaeton is shown on page 18 of "Hot Rods as They Were" and page 28 of "Hot Rod Memories".

I bought the car in December of 1997 from Al's sons Michael and Edward. Michael drove the car to Sacramento from Pasadena in 1987 and to San Geronimo in 1997. It's been a runner for 66 years. After a general sprucing up (47 ford wheels, tires, brakes, exhaust, seat cover, top, clean and polish), it's back on the road with no plans for a full restoration in the near future. I hope to drive it to Bonneville this August (I don't think he did, Ed) and to it's old home of Pasadena in December for the Reliability Run (He's invited, Ed.), just for old times sake.

Thanks,

Gus"