The Joe Nitti Roadster

A hot rodder friend once observed that there probably are more '32 Ford highboy roadsters on the road today than there were 50 years ago. He attributed the phenomenon to two things in particular: the advanced strides in fiberglass technology and the purchase power of plastic.

"Perhaps," I replied, "but when you get down to the nitty-gritty, either of those factors don't really matter, because when all is said and done there's nothing cooler than a fenderless Deuce roadster, anyway."

Points well taken by both of us, and so we shuffled off to enjoy a couple of ice cold ones while we reminisced about some of the more memorable Deuce highboys that have rolled forth during the past half century. The list was long and wonderful, too, with the Doane Spencer and McGee/Scritchfield roadsters launching us on our barstool journey down memory lane. Eventually we neared the bottom of our 12-ounce mugs at about the time we came to the end of our '32 highboy list. Then my buddy threw out the name of a hot rod that was somewhat of an enigma to me: the Joe Nitti roadster. I raised my eyebrow and he saw the look in my eyes. "Time for another?" he inquired, knowing full well that our evening's docket remained unresolved at this point. He was about to tell me some things concerning the Joe Nitti roadster that I had yet to learn.

My initial encounter with the Joe Nitti roadster occurred when I was researching my first book, Ford Hot Rods. While digging through a small pocketsize trend book published in 1951--I saw pictures of the Joe Nitti roadster on page 53. The one-page story was actually a repeat of a similar photo spread that Tom Medley had shot for the June 1950 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. Both stories showed a '32 highboy with the right stuff and the right stance.

The following year--1998--Pat Ganahl wrote an interesting story about the Joe Nitti roadster for The Rodder's Journal. His 10-page essay included additional original black-and-white photos of the Nitti car, and the story piqued the interest of at least one other hot rod enthusiast: Dave Zivot, who was familiar with the Deuce, because as a boy he had met Joe Nitti. That, of course, happened years after Nitti had relinquished rights to the car. Today, Zivot is 36 years old, making him but a twinkle in his father's eye when the Nitti roadster roamed the boulevards and back streets of East Los Angeles in 1950. Nitti eventually traded the roadster for a custom '50 Merc in 1951, and by the mid-'60s the hot rod world lost contact with the car. Not until the late '80s did Zivot locate it following an exhaustive search that originated in Las Vegas where he and the late Joe Nitti lived. The road to the roadster ended in Sacramento where Eric Bodell held the car in storage, its purple paint faded and oxidized, many of its once-shiny parts dulled and corroded.

But in 1950, the Nitti roadster was perhaps one of the most dazzling hot rods to be found in California. Indeed, Zivot has a trophy that Nitti's car earned in 1950, proclaiming it winner of the California's Most Beautiful Roadster award, presented at the 1950 Los Angeles Hot Rod Show. Zivot isn't sure, but he thinks Nitti's car shared the honor with Don Ferrara's roadster. It's worth noting, too, that the Nitti roadster sported some interesting styling tricks: a filled and peaked radiator shell, chromed dropped axle, Hank Negley-built V'ed spreader bar, '39 Ford taillights, custom lakes pipes, and a passel of gauges on the dashboard--all top-shelf goodies in 1950.

Indeed, 1950 clearly was the high-water mark for the Nitti car. It first rolled on the highway in 1948, dressed in black--as most hot rods were at that time. But young Joe Nitti couldn't settle for a typical street rod, so for the next two years he turned his attention to transforming his roadster into one of the best on the road. Among the ways he chose to make the car stand out was to establish a reputation at the dry lakes. So, like many other young rodders during those early post-war years, Nitti, as a member of the Vultures Car Club, stripped his car on weekends and headed to the local dry lakes to compete for top gun honors.

Again, we turn to Zivot's collection of Nitti trophies that have survived with the car, where we see that the flathead-powered roadster, listed as entry 188-A, set top time in the A-Roadster class at El Mirage on June 30, 1949. Top speed: 125.18mph. And to further enhance the roadster's reputation as a hot hot rod, Nitti posed the car for one photo in its racing livery during the Medley photo shoot.

As with most hot rodders 50 years ago, the path to top speed for Nitti could be found under the custom-louvered hood where a souped-up '46 Merc 59A flathead motor sat nestled between the Deuce framerails. According to the article from 1951, Nitti's original flathead had a 3/8-inch overbore with stock crankshaft working with a set of JE pistons and a Weber camshaft. Most of the bolt-on speedware was from Evans, including the finned heads, two-pot intake manifold (a tri-power system was used for racing), and ignition. The unique headers that dumped their exhaust gases and noise out the sides beneath the framerails were built by Sonny's Muffler Shop. The entire engine--the entire car for that matter--was meticulously finished, sporting lots of chrome and polished parts.

It was this attention to detail, as much as the car's overall style, that made this roadster stand out from most others 50 years ago. Even today it remains apparent that Nitti went to great lengths to formulate a car that stood apart from the rest of the crowd. Perhaps its most inspiring claim to fame was the bodywork and paint job. Again, in an effort to split from the rest of the pack, young Joe Nitti sought a color combination that was unique as well as eye-catching. The quest led him to, of all places, the color scheme found on Union Oil cans that advertised the company's Royal Triton brand of oil. The deep purple color, contrasting with the can's cream-colored background, obviously caught Nitti's attention, and so he chose that for his roadster.

He also had a set of hidden door hinges installed. A common practice among roadster owners was to use Studebaker hinges, but Nitti dared to be different, using what turned out to be rear-door hinges from a '40 Dodge four-door sedan. The unique hinges have a compact ball-socket upper hinge that compensates for the geometry of the swinging door, so movement is both effortless and smooth.

It remains unclear who actually built the car as it appeared in Hot Rod magazine, but Zivot believes that along with Nitti, Jack Mickelson, a close friend of Nitti's, the Daleo brothers--Joe and Jim--and Hank Negley were instrumental in its genesis. As Zivot pointed out, "Hot rodders back then usually built their cars in the garages, with the help of friends and other rodders." There's also speculation that Gil and Al Ayala, who had their shop in East LA at the time, applied the deep purple paint, although that can't be confirmed because both of those gentlemen have since passed away.

So when the Nitti roadster resurfaced about 10 years ago, Zivot faced a tough task. The Deuce frame had since been modified for a Chevy small-block and the car was in need of a thorough restoration. Eventually, Zivot made contact with Dave and Rob Crouse, a father-and-son team that recently opened doors to Custom Auto in Loveland, Colorado. Dave's background includes restoring hot rods and classic cars, so he's familiar with knowing how to retain an old vehicle's original charm and character.

"I wanted to make it (the Nitti roadster) as true to the original car as we could," said Zivot. "I realized that Dave could do exactly that, so I sent the car to him and Rob." Work began, and while Dave and Rob undertook the arduous task of the actual restoration, Zivot assumed the duties of chasing down asll the right parts. In Dave's words concerning Zivot's parts shopping: "The guy was relentless." Zivot made sure everything was as near to being perfect as possible. For instance, to replicate the louvers in the hood panels, he used old photographs to measure and calculate their exact size and placement. The Crouses than made a set of dies to stamp the louvers, and what you see today is a near carbon copy of what appeared in photographs 50 years ago.

Ditto for most of the car, for that matter. In fact, Zivot painstakingly marched through junkyards in pursuit of 1940 Dodge door hinges to replace the old rusted hangers that had survived the years, and he went to great lengths to get the precise size tires. Any welding necessary to strengthen the body or frame was done using the old school methods of flame and bottled gas, and if you compare the engine compartment today with what appeared in the magazine articles half a century ago, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. The replacement motor is still a '46 Mercury flathead, but it was rebuilt by Red Hamilton of Red's Headers. The new 285-cubic-inch motor has an Isky 400 Jr. cam and a Kong-built ignition that looks much like the original Evans that Nitti used in 1950.

Rob was left with the task of matching the cream tuck-and-roll interior, and with the help of Todd Herman he appears to have struck pay dirt. The dual-insert dashboard, one of the car's signature styling treatments, was meticulously restored using a similar set of Stewart-Warner instruments. Zivot even joined the fun, helping restore the '40 Ford steering wheel, Stromberg 97 carbs, and detailing the generator. Indeed, Dave and Rob said that the restoration wouldn't have been completed in time for the car's debut at the 51st Grand National Roadster Show if it wasn't for the small army of friends who helped. For instance, Jan Jensen and Fred Ginther assisted in restoration of various parts, and Jennifer Howard spent too many nights polishing all the stainless steel fasteners. Crunch time wouldn't have been complete had Mike Jacobs and Patty Danzing not made the three-day turn-around trip to Fort Bragg, California, to retrieve the rebuilt flathead engine from Red's Headers. And with time running short, Earl Woolery strung the period-perfect cloth-wrapped electrics, right down to the disconnect system for the headlights, just as Joe Nitti built for his dry lakes racing forays 50 years ago.

Perhaps the crowning moment came when Zivot was able to locate someone who could replicate the roadster's deep purple paint. Fortunately, the roadster's spare wheel and tire had remained in the trunk through the years, so its purple paint was as close as anybody could find to the original color. Zivot took a chip from the spare wheel to Stan Betz, who knew right away what color it was: "Union Oil Royal Triton," he proclaimed, and proceeded to mix a batch for the project. Mike and Jeff Johnson of Past Times, Inc. (Estes Park, CO) applied the toners to the body.

Fortunately, the car had been pretty much intact when Zivot acquired it, and that included most of the running gear. The '41 Lincoln trans appeared to be the same box that Nitti used in 1950, and the '39 Ford rearend was in good condition, too. The dropped I-beam front axle and other bits and pieces received a generous dip in the chroming vat, and all restored parts were carefully put back in their respective places. By the evening of January 2, 2000--"8:36 pm to be exact," said Dave--the car was loaded in the trailer for the two-day drive to the Cow Palace in South San Francisco for the Grand National Roadster Show. Upon its arrival, the car attracted an abundance of attention as old-timers stopped by to pay their respect to what most agreed was one of the finest '32 highboy roadsters ever built. The judges--Pete Chapouris, Roy Brizio, and Steve Moal--for the Bruce Meyer Hot Rod Preservation Award felt so, too, and presented this year's trophy to the Nitti roadster.

I met with Dave and Rob Crouse in Paso Robles the day after the Roadster Show, where we spent the afternoon photographing the car for this month's Milestones feature. I finally had caught up with the Joe Nitti roadster. It no longer was an enigma, a mystery to be seen only in pictures of old hot rod magazines. The Nitti car was back on the road, and I wasn't disappointed in what I saw. After all, it's a '32 highboy roadster. A very special '32 highboy roadster that's truly deserving of a final salute from my mug.