NSRA East Pennsylvania State Representative’s Rides
Street Rod Nationals and the South many times. As happens to all of us, before they knew it the kids started going to college, graduating college, playing triple A ball, basically turning into adults, and that brings us to this millennium. Writing car features for the last 35 years, I can tell you that most people re-ignite their automotive pas- sions as that last kid goes off to college (or technical school). Pauline and Joe just kept their automotive flame ignited while raising and including their family. Joe has had this nice ’32 Ford Sport Coupe for a while and I knew that car and Joe, but really didn’t get to know Joe until I ran across his ’40 Chevy con- vertible. While putting this story together it came to light that the Sport Coupe is basically the coupe ver- sion of a B400. It uses the same front This rod is now in the Lions Drag Strip Museum, but under Joe’s ownership he met much of the NSRA leadership, and in their own words; “they spent much of the ‘60s chasing the darn thing.” After finding the Stone Woods & Cook Willys Gasser as a barn find, he built it into a street rod that was a regular at the Street Rod Nationals and Street Rod Nationals East for years. When Joe returned from duty in Vietnam, he decided he wanted a street rod to go cruising with his friends. He built this too cool ’29 Ford lowboy roadster. The rod sat heavily channeled on a narrowed frame with a big Pontiac engine, I- beam with juice drum brakes, a tiny Deuce shell, a polished firewall, and fenderettes to keep the cops at bay. He didn’t have a top for the car and on his first drive he hit 800 miles of rain on the way home. It was miserable, but the Pontiac never missed a beat. He kept driving roadsters without tops for about a decade.
Joe’s father got him his first street rod, this beautiful ’30 Tudor sedan in Fire Mist Pink Pearl paint. The car was built by a gentleman who worked at GM with Chevy 301 power, three-speed transmission, chrome reverse wheels wearing wide whites, and classic early ‘60s style. The rod helped teach Joe about getting used parts at the local track where he worked when it was busy and he frequently found parts like a four- speed to replace the crummy three-speed.
Of course now-a-days every event has “Pros’ Picks’ picked by manufacturers and the John Q Rodder program has expanded to sometimes include “Jane Q Rodder” and “Kid Q Rodder.” History has a way of repeating itself and the ‘80s turned into the ‘90s and as Joe’s kids became young men and were working at GM just like his dad, the father and two sons built Jason’s ’57 Chevy and Joey’s ’29 Ford roadster pickup. Joe has built over 40 rods throughout the years and when he went to the Nationals in 1972 and decided to up his game, he took it all the way to the top. He built the mint green ’40 Chevy that Ron Francis took with him every- where and was in many of his ads. Joe lucked out as Ron had to drive the truck and trailer to many of the shows, so Joe got to drive the ’40 Chevy to the
38 MAY 2026
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