Needless to say, he was big man on campus. Thus, my brother was able to drive 16 miles to Wasco High his freshman year in his own car. In those days, if you lived in the country, you could get your learners permit at 13 1/2 and your license at 14. We now owned two cars, one in pieces and one a runner. The price was $75, which was ridiculously low, even for the times. It was stock, except for a 4" Dago dropped front axle, Mallory dual point ignition and red disc wheels which had come off a dirt track racer driven by Rosy Rosell, a local legend. He met a man named Sweet, who had an oilfield service company and had a 1928 Model A, painted baby blue. His search led him to one of his favorite hangouts, Trout's Bar in Oildale, part of what was to become known as the "Bakersfield Sound". Six months later pieces were laying everywhere and dad could see we were never going to finish the project. We then would throw the thing back together and be going in a few days. We would pull the body off the frame, put it against a tree, hook a tractor to the opposite side, and straighten the frame. The next day we drove it the half mile to the ranch shop with a plan. The price on the Model A was reduced to $35 and we were now proud owners of our own first car, bent frame and all! I don't know what happened to the guy on the Harley, but it bent the frame on the Model A. Our dad asked the owner what happened and he said a guy on a Harley Davidson had plowed into it while it was parked. The back end wasn't lined up with the front end. Pretty soon we heard the sound of a little four-banger coming up the road. We were naturally very excited and on the day of delivery were standing out by the road watching. Our dad soon found a "jalopy" in Buttonwillow, a 1931 Model A Ford, painted black with a green top, and a box in the back where the rumble seat used to be. To grandma, laws were inconveniences to be worked around. Never mind that we were little kids with no drivers license. It was too far to walk for a short visit, so her solution was to tell our father, known as Skip, to buy us a "jalopy" so we could drive to her house. For my family, living the farthest away, this was a problem. She always had a huge garden and liked to have her many grandchildren help her when they could. She was an early pioneer from the late 1800's and the matriarch of the ranch. Our grandmother, Fanni Tracy, lived about three miles away. We had already learned the rudiments of gas welding. After strictly admonishing us to not look at the arc, he taught us how to weld. I can still remember the day dad brought home the latest innovation in welding, a Lincoln arc welder. With our father's influence we gravitated toward all things mechanical. Our father was in charge of equipment maintenance and the shop, which was actually an old dairy barn where we had helped milk the cows. We were growing up on the family ranch in the small town of Buttonwillow, California. In 1955 I was in the 7th grade and my brother, JB was in the 8th. The car was completed and show-ready concurrent with the 1958 hit tune, SH-BOOM (Life Could Be A Dream) by the Crewcuts. Chrome "nerf bars" were a 50's fad as seen here, handmade by JB & Wes. Side cutouts when uncapped provided a fire-breathing show at night, as blue cones of flame glowed out both sides. their second home!Ī radically hopped-up "4-banger" (later replaced by a Chevy V-8) featured numerous all-out enhancements such as an Iskenderian full-race cam, duel Stromberg 97 carburetion and custom, handmade exhaust headers, to name a few. Its dropped-center "Dago" front axle and 3 1/2" chopped top add to the rakish look created by JB & Wes Selvidge in their formative, high-school years, thanks to the ranch shop. No exception is this Model A Ford Coupe hybrid featuring a '30-'31 body, '28-'29 fenders and '32 shell and grill assembly. It is the 1950's, an era of style and unharnessed performance. Not only that, but it is told FIRST HAND, by one of the original builders, Wes Selvidge, who was just a kid at the time he and his brother constructed it! * * This is a follow up to last week's article, "History Lost And Found" and in this story, we are lucky enough to hear how Sean Clason's Model A Coupe, a 1950's-built hot rod, came to be.
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