Back in the 1950s, kids loved to get their hands on old Ford Model A convertible coupes and soup them up.
Well, you could say that Greg White of Spencer is just another kid from the 50s.
White, a Black Knights Car Club member and go-to man for the club's airport drags coming up Sept. 25 in Spencer, really had his heart on building his own street rod - so he did. The roadster was a real eye-stopper at the Black Knights Car Club Sweet Corn Days car show this past Saturday.
White started with a frame and chassis from a 1930 Ford Model A roadster.
"I spent about four years building it," White said.
Like the gear heads from the 50s, White scrounged high and low for parts - quite virtually cannibalizing everything down to the kitchen sink.
The gear shift, shaped like a squirrel, is actually a hose handle from a faucet on the side of a house at Okoboji. The accelerator pedal came from a drum set. And the gas cap came from a Century speed boat, adding a lot to the retro speedster look.
The center of the steering wheel came from a stove ceiling vent on a house and the steering wheel is from a John Deere tractor. The rear reflectors were indicator lights on a diesel locomotive.
The safety belts - which really didn't exist until circa 1965 - came from an airplane and the leather upholstery came from Winnebago Industries. Jeff and Sue's Upholstery of Inwood did the upholstery work.
He got the all-steel body from Brookville Roadster Bodies in Brookville, Ohio. The headlights are a replica of a Jordan Playboy car and the roadster has Buick brake drums. The quick-change rear axle assembly came from an old sprint car.
The maroon color is actually a 1948 Ford factory color. The powerplant is a 1955 Olds 324 C.I.D. churning out 275 horse. The transmission came from a 1939 Ford, the last year of a three-speed floor shift of that type. The four Stromberg carburetors came from a 1937 Ford.
The brass radiator was custom made in California and the horn is from a Harley-Davidson
White, who used to race at Sioux City Dragway, graduated from high school in 1958, putting him right in the middle of the street rod scene when he was in high school. He oval raced from 1965-70 and drag raced from 1974-79.
For this car, he actually started with "the sad remains of an old hot rod down in Oklahoma about six years ago. We picked up pieces from Oklahoma to Ohio for the thing."
While he's taken it up to 70, White figures the roadster could do 120.
So what does his wife, Pamela, think about all the time he's put into the roadster?
"She enjoys going for a ride in it as much as I do," White said. Thursday nights during the summer they take the roadster to the rock 'n roll show at the Lakes.