It’s uncommon, more a rarity than anything
else, for a particular vehicle to revolve around just one, seemingly
insignificant item. If a Deuce grille shell or ’39 Ford taillights or even a
small-block Chevy engine come to mind, think again. Those items, as common as
they are Model A roadsters, are by no means the type of focal point as a
certain V-shaped windshield – the venerable, steeped in history Hallock.
1932
Ford A Roaster
It was 1994, a year into my journalistic
career, that a copy of Tim Gavern’s relaunched Hop Up (pre Mark Morton
era) landed on my desk. In it, Gavern documented Dick Courtney’s A-V8
roadsters, each purportedly outfitted with first-batch Duke Hallock cast windshield
frames. (By “first batch”, meaning samples originally cast for Hallock by Ed
Adams. As it turns out, Hallock cast his own firsts; Courtney himself with a
copy a decade later.) At that same time, I’d seen a few Model A roadsters
roaming the OC with the very same windshields, namely Jack Underwood’s and
Keith Weesner’s. Infatuated would be an understatement – I became Hallock
obsessed.
Research came to prove that it was highly
unlikely that many – if any of the frames I’d seen in person were first or even
second batch survivors.
But as is the case in the world of
antiquities when it comes to “Repops”, few were talking as to where these
clones came from. Fortunately, my coworker/mentor at the time just happened to
be Keith Weesner’s dad, Jerry, and through them I was able to track down the
source of the ‘90s cast copies: Rob Miller. Using the frame from the John
Bean-Jack Tobin roadster, Miller re-cast a limited number, from which came not
only the focal point of Weesner’s ’29, but the frame that would shape my
forthcoming A-V8, inspired by my pending infatuation. What I didn’t discover at
the time, however, was that a friend of Miller’s, Larry Gheno, also cooked up a
batch of Hallocks, though cast in bronze rather than aluminum. (Of the three
bronze frames Gheno cast, one went to Jack Chard, another to Doug Lindown, and
the third remained in his possession.)
Fast forward nearly two decades. It’s the
L.A. Roadsters show, and out in the Back 40 of the swap area sits this
gorgeous, dark green, Hallock-screened beauty, of course I’m like a fly on, uh,
honey. First thing I look at is the entrant sticker to see who the owner is.
Larry Gheno, Midway City, California. Well, having just proofed Chris Shelton’s
piece he did on Hallocks for the first edition of our short-lived Little
Pages annual, the car meant more to me than just another cast copy equipped
’29. (And as it turns out, Kirk F. White had just purchased the car from Gheno.
Kirk previously owned the late Dick Courtney’s second ’29 clone, which he bought
from Joe Scanlin prior to passing it on to Ross Meyers.)
Over
the road, the car is wickedly quick, steers beautifully, and the brakes are
extremely effective
With or without its focal point windscreen,
the Gheno-White roadster is well worthy of featuring and it probably wouldn’t
hurt to discuss the rest of the car before running out of space. Believe it or
not, in the beginning, Gheno’s roadster was ‘glass-bodied when the project
first began to take shape 20-some years ago. It’s only speculation, but had Rob
Miller not made his Hallock copies, Gheno’s ’29 might still have its non-metal
body and stock windshield, but according to Gheno, “…that’s what started the
changes with my car. I sold the ‘glass body and got a Brookville, changed the
front axle to an early Bell tube, grafted in a ’34 Lincoln dash, and added a
custom hood and blackwall tires.”
Admittedly, a good portion of Gheno’s
roadster is good ol’ reproduction goods from the aforementioned body to the
Total Cost Involved ’32 chassis and, of course, its distinctive windshield
frame. Some would argue whether or not this particular ’29 A-V8 is worthy of
comparison to the likes of Courtney’s or any of the others with historical
pedigree but then who’s to say there’s no provenance in reproducing? Not me.
Without such examples as the Gheno-White roadster, people like myself wouldn’t
have anything but printed history with which to be infatuated by.
