By Louie Mayall
THE READIO ‘34 FORD SEDAN T he National Street Rod Association has been
telling everyone “Street is Neat” since the earliest ‘70s and although almost everything has changed compared to the first Street Rod Nationals in Peoria, one thing hasn’t changed. Getting out and driving your street rod is the best way to cruise your local town or all over the USA. Often, I have people come up to me at an event and ask why they didn’t see this or that rod/rodder featured in StreetScene. Sometimes the rod mentioned was a car I knew because the person has been rodding since the beginning and surprisingly, I had shot a number of these recommendations over the years (rods like Tom Vollbrecht’s black ’34 Pontiac sedan and David
Laney’s ’39 Chevy coupe). What surprised me was how many of the cars people brought up that I had only thought about photographing, but had not actually shot yet. So I acted, and this month we’d like to share the history of three such street rods: Skip Readio’s ’34 Ford sedan, Mike Chrispyn’s ’32 Ford coupe and Joe Mayall’s ’33 Ford sedan. These three cars have tons in common, and just about nothing in common depending on how you look at it. Two of the cars look almost like they did in the ‘70s and one has had more distinct looks and facelifts than a super model. Skip’s car is a tribute to its early ‘70s look and hasn’t changed in feel since Smiley’s paint job in 1972. The Mayall sedan has the same paint scheme it’s had since Joe bought the rod in 1973, but just about everything else has changed over the years. Mike’s ’32 started out as a chopped and channeled lowboy in white. All three rods have been through multiple front and rear suspensions, multiple powertrains and multiple interiors over the years, but with close to 150 years of ownership and over 400,000 miles driven combined, these cars represent three great families with a lot of street rodding history. The whole idea behind featuring some of the rods that have been around longer than many of us for me started with Skip Readio. I loved the eye-grabbing paint on Skip’s ’34 from the moment my child eyes saw the wild artwork. I
never did forget the rod and have seen it year after year over the last 50 years at the Street Rod Nationals and events all over the East Coast. Skip’s journey with the ’34 began when he was a scrub looking out the passenger window of his buddy’s ride when he saw the ’34 sedan highboy sitting off to the side with a Hemi mocked into place. It took Skip a week and $125 to get the ’34 out of the previous owner’s hands and onto a ’52 International flatbed that delivered it to his childhood home. The original Hemi had problems and was not part of the sale, but it included a ’39 Ford drivetrain, ’47 Mercury front end, ’34 steering, steelies and lots of other parts. Skip pilfered the Hemi from a ’52 Chrysler Saratoga, bought a used radiator and grille from an antiques dealer, slipped on a little lighting, threw on some primer and hit the road.
34 JUNE 2025
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