Bill Niekamp Roadster at the Petersen

First in the series of posting of cars I find interesting at on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum.  The museum is located in on 'Museum Row' in Los Angeles. Which happen to be only blocks away from my workplace also on Wilshire Boulevard.  So I thought it would be a good idea to I'd spend a few lunch hours there studying car details... for research.

The car is located outside the Petersen speed-shop display.

One of my most favorite hot rods of the 50's is the Bill Niekamp built, 1929 Model A roadster.  The car is a mix of street, dirt-track, and dry-lakes racer.  Obviously the car would appeal to me, my Model T build-up is a similar mix; built for the street, but looks like a race car. 

 

I am finalizing the suspension of my '27 roadster called "Terminator", for lack of a better name.  So most of my curiosity is directed at suspensions for the moment.  In particular steering & shocks.

The steering arm is one or a kind, and the shock tower double as the attachment for the front Nerf bumper --nice touch.

There are a lot of custom made parts like the hairpins & batwings.  This was 1949 after all. And so no 300 page, speed catalogs like there are today.





I really love all that chrome & polish.  It's going to take a lot to do this to my roadster, but what a impact it makes!

Looks to me like the steering box may be the same at Daytons, a late 30's Ford box turned sideways. I have to get under that hood to be sure. So I'll have to ask a museum docent at a later date to let me take a look at the engine compartment.









Another thing my T will have is a canvas snap-on top.  All real race cars of the time had snaps holding on a cover or keeping the interior in.

A simple thing, like a snap-on cover, can make a big statement about a car.