The Other Neal East Roadster

By Jerry Wessner

As with many of our historically significant Milestone cars, this full-fendered Deuce roadster has had a series of owners. So, in all fairness, it should probably be called the Bill Woodard/Neal East/Bill Moeller/Pete McManus/Paul Sievers/Richard Munz roadster (Madison, WI, resident Richard Munz is the car's current caretaker). Also, as a history story is just that, a factual account of a person, place, thing, or event, there's only one way to tell such a tale--from beginning to end. With this in mind, any story on the same subject matter would sound very much like another. Part of my research came from the first "Big Pages" issue of Rod & Custom magazine (Aug. '61), and its beach scene cover with our Milestone vehicle sharing the spotlight with yet another full-fendered Deuce roadster. Again, to be fair, my other information stems from the Nov. '95 issue of that same publication and its feature story on the car by Pat Ganahl. Here again, the roadster appeared on the cover with another full-fendered Deuce (the Roy Brizio/SVO roadster--a car once owned by Richard Munz as well), only this time the scene was an asphalt parking lot, not a beckoning SoCal beach. Our chance to photograph the restored car came when it was selected for display at the Petersen Automotive museum, where Eric Geisert was able to capture the vulnerable rodding veteran on film for the pages of SRM.

It seems that (except for not having broken records at the drags or lakes) this single example of hot rodding has just about done it all. It's gone from stocker to street rod, to fugitive stolen car, then back to restored stocker, and finally back to its 1961 cover car image--allow me to explain. As the story goes, Southern California resident Bill Woodard first saw the car in the San Fernando Valley in 1954. It was already a hot rod at the time, with dropped axle, hydraulic brakes, and chopped windshield with white canvas top, fire engine-red paint, and a full flathead with what Bill describes as "having all the goodies." The high school senior instantly fell in love with the car, purchasing it for the astronomical sum of $500 (it was necessary for the owner to carry some paper for a period of time). In 1957 Bill decided to redo the car, installing a 265-cid '56 Chevy V-8 with but a few hundred miles on it. He also had to do the swap overnight, as the roadster was his only means of transportation--a task he and his friends pulled off when he bought the beer. They had to tow the car to a muffler shop, though, as they didn't have any welding equipment. Afterwards, the door hinges were frenched, the grille shell filled, and the car painted Bahama blue. It was then taken to Lou Penn in Eagle Rock for upholstery. Note that this was the beginning of the end for such cars being common on the streets, thanks in no small part to that very same Chevy OHV V-8, which had taken the rodding world by storm. This was an era when older cars went racing, and "late-models" began to rule the boulevards. Anyway, the roadster turned out nice enough to be featured in the Feb. '58 issue of Hot Rod (which, because of magazine lead time, would have been shot in late '57). As shown, it sported the signature features it has retained to this day, like the dropped headlight bar and fender-mounted '39 Ford taillights.

In 1958 Bill decided to again redo the car so it could contend in local show competition. To this end, he began a complete disassembly, with the driveline and every last nut, bolt, and lock washer being sent to the chrome shop. While the plater was doing his work, the firewall was filled and painted black lacquer, as was the underside of the fenders and frame. The car was then taken to a local custom shop for painting where it sat for several weeks with no attention (does anything ever change?). At this point, Bill picked up the car, took it home, purchased a compressor and spray gun, and painted it himself in Chevrolet Sierra Gold. He did this in the backyard no less! The car was an instant hit and George Barris arranged for it to appear in a couple of movies. Bill remembers receiving $35 per day for the car's services, but doesn't recall any of its appearances being in Academy Award-winning flicks. Whether bringing home gold from car shows or driving his wife Joyce home from the hospital with their first child in 1959, the roadster served the Woodard family well. In fact, it was in the roadster that Bill and Joyce had their first date, driving home from a car show in San Diego in the rain without a top. Hey...it must have worked-right?

Bill's rodding buddy, Neal East, had an equally nice Deuce five-window coupe, and the two cars were often seen together, both in shows and cruising the boulevard. The roadster stayed in Bill's possession for another year, but building a new home (should we say money pit?) required funds, and friend Neal was more than happy to exchange the necessary green for the roadster's pink slip. Neal then proceeded to put the now show rod back on the street (where sightings of such cars were becoming rarer by the day, even in sunny, Southern California), chromed undercarriage and all. It was in this guise that it appeared on the aforementioned 1961 R&C cover. Did I mention that Neal was on R&C's staff at the time, officiating as the publication's Associate Editor?This all came to pass at the exact moment Neal had the opportunity to purchase the Doane Spencer Deuce roadster, and he wasn't about to let that one slip through his fingers. With time being a factor, an ad was placed in that same issue of R&C, offering the gold car for $2,075, which doesn't sound like much, but don't forget that this was more than 40 years ago when money went a lot further. It was an era when I gathered the parts for a Deuce five-window for under a hundred bucks and the best '40 Ford street rod would go for around a grand--but then, who had money? Not me, that's for sure! At any rate, a young college student in Washington D.C. by the name of Bill Moeller, saw the ad and decided that this was the car for him--yes, that Bill Moeller (Bill would eventually go on to a career in the auto show industry). Bill had one little problem though (we should all be so lucky), he had to get rid of his '58 'Vette first, and there were no takers on the Right Coast. With a friend needing a ride to California, the path to roadster ownership was clear, and so it was that the pair set out on a road trip to the land of palm trees and sunny beaches.

Upon Bill's arrival, the '58 was sold to a Chevy dealer for $2,000, a bit short of the roadster's asking price. Goodhearted Neal cut Bill a deal, letting the car go for $1,975, leaving Moeller just $25 and the change he had in his pocket for the solo return cross-country adventure in his fully-chromed and lacquered show condition Deuce (which must have been some kind of rodding first). Needless to say, he made the drive just fine in that pre-auto bra era, with towels taped over the front end for road rash protection.

As mentioned, Bill became involved with automotive showbiz in a big way, landing a job with Bob Larivee, Sr. The roadster subsequently became a trailered showpiece. After displaying the car for a few years, it was finally regulated to a rented storage space in Detroit, as Bill's job required lots of travel and nearly all of his time. The only problem with this arrangement being that, unbeknownst to Bill, the, er..."gentleman" who had the storage facility had yet another occupation--car thief! This hot car gang (sounds like a B-movie, don't you think?) would ship their ill-gotten booty out of state for sale, and were hard to catch, even though the authorities were on to them. Can you guess whose roadster got lost in the shuffle? Bill ran a "wanted" ad in Hot Rod magazine, and most replies pointed to Louisville, Kentucky. With Bill's information, the FBI located the car in less than pristine condition dockside on the Ohio River--time to sell (Bill possibly should have changed professions and become an FBI agent, as he certainly had the knack).

In 1968, Pete McManus offered Bill $2,032.32, and took the car home to Indianapolis, where he repaired the damage, returned the roadster to the street, and even took in the first Nats in Peoria. It was here where brothers Bernie, Paul, and Joe Sievers approached Pete about buying the car if he ever got the urge to sell. Pete didn't wish to at the time, wanting instead to restore it to a bone-stock original '32. By 1974, he'd traded the chromed and modified parts to yet another Deuce owner and rodder, Jerry Moon. Jerry then sold his Deuce Tudor project and all of the roadster's hot rod parts to Don Ennis--this gets rather complicated, doesn't it? Finally, needing funds for a couple of other cars, Pete gave the Sievers brothers a call and the car was finally theirs, albeit an unfinished restoration. By 1978 Paul Sievers had completed the restoration, but in 1992 he decided that putting the car back into its 1961 cover car condition would be the thing to do, and gave Don Ennis a call, asking if he still had the roadster's hot rod parts? Yes, he still had the chromed parts, and knew another guy who had the top, upholstery, and chopped windshield. Paul had squirreled away some of the other parts as well, such as the doors with their frenched hinges, and so the task of returning the Deuce to it's Woodard/East/Moeller version could be a reality and began in earnest.

Fortunately, the car lives again, with sparkling Sierra Gold paint and fresh chrome plating (even the '39 box is chrome, just as in 1961), and is powered by a dead ringer of the hopped-up 265 Chevy that once lived beneath its stock hood. As stated, the roadster was on display at the Petersen museum, but is now back home in Richard's garage with several other famous cars, including the Tommy Foster Deuce roadster--now, how cool is that?