Ken Thurm is a dyed-in-the wool tinkerer, machinist, businessman, and, above all, hot rodder. A car nut from birth, one of Ken's earliest hot rod memories was Wild's Palace of Poison, a car hop in his native St. Louis, Missouri, where all the local hot rodders gathered for a Murder Burger and a shake. As a youngster, Ken would lie in the cemetery across the street and record the hot rods on a tape recorder as they left the burger joint, exhausts thumping and tires screeching all the way down the road.
Today, Ken's enthusiasm hasn't wavered one bit and is evident in his latest pair of projects. Now, while most hot rodders would admit that one project is work enough, Ken insists the parallel timing of the pair o' Deuces is completely coincidental. A mechanical engineer by trade, Ken had just finished a Donovan-powered roadster when he saw the new Dearborn Deuce bodies. While he and his wife, Tina, had enjoyed the freedom of the roadster, they both agreed A/C, windows, and a top were some things they both desired. With the roadster finished, Ken decided his next project would be a Dearborn Deuce.
About the time the roadster left and the convertible appeared, Ken got a look at Jimmy Shine's now-famous '34 pickup and fell in love with the stance and demeanor of Shine's ride. Inspired, Ken casually began perusing eBay, and, as luck would have it, found a Deuce pickup in Bakersfield, California, not too far from his Anaheim home. Soon, Ken had purchased another pickup cab, some doors, a pair of 'rails from Hot Rods & Custom Stuff, and a gennie Halibrand rearend. It seemed that the idea to build a pickup on a whim had soon morphed into a full-on project.
Ken's latest venture is Kendon Industries Inc., a company he started that manufactures fold-up and collapsible trailers. Being the owner of a well-run business leaves Ken extra time throughout the day to tinker on his own projects, putting that mechanical engineering background to work. While he admits that taking on two projects at once is a little overwhelming at times, Ken notes that it doesn't go without extra help. Scott Longnecker handles the machining of even the most advanced napkin blueprints Ken can come up with; and, coupled with ace metalman Jeff Sherman and fabricators Joe Delano and Bob Bessette, Ken said he has one of the best shops around, even if it is in his garage and his crew is made up of friendly volunteers. We stopped by his garage one afternoon as he was tinkering on his cars to check out what he was working on and found two very cool homebuilt hot rod projects that were well on their way to becoming feature-quality hot rods.