Rodders Journal

As many of you already know, fellow Hot Rodder Craig Smith died tragically this past July, in Phoenix, AZ. Craig was a helicopter pilot for the Phoenix TV Station ABC15. He was involved in an accident that took four lives, when 2 news helicopters collided covering the same police chase. Craig was an avid hot rodder, a Goodguys member, and a H.A.M.B. member. On the weekends, you could catch him proudly displaying his roadster at Phoenix area car shows.

I have been contacted by his brother, Bryan Smith, and he is looking to sell Craig’s Roadsters for his parents. The first one is a purple ‘32 with a flathead. Bryan doesn’t have a spec sheet for this car, but it did grace the cover of Rod & Custom in February of 2007. Goodguys Gazette Editor Jim Aust decribed it as “flawless and timeless.” If you would like to know the specifics, bust out your copy of R&C, I know you still have it. I also included pictures below.

The next roadster is Brookville bodied, and has a 327 Chevy Small Block. From what I can tell by the pictures and the information from Bryan, the car is 90% complete. It needs carpet, and door panels. It is painted ‘58 Olds Sea Foam Green, with an original ‘32 firewall and a ‘32 chassis. I have a little more information on this one. If you are interested in owning a new roadster, and would like to help out the family of a lost Hot Rodder, email or call me for more information. I can get you in contact with Bryan Smith

-Jerry - (800)750-9550 - jerry@roddersjournal.com

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Winter comes but once a year, and now it’s almost here! TRJ has the perfect gifts for the holiday season! Especially for those of you living where the winters get cold, check out some of our new jackets we have available. Similar to our Classic “black on black” TRJ Letterman jacket we’re still selling, we now have a TRJ “maroon on maroon” Letterman jacket with a wool body and leather sleeves. Also new, the TRJ Dickies Eisenhower jacket. This one comes in all black with our TRJ Shield logo in red, much like our black hats. Another great gift idea is our TRJ Car Coat that comes in a all navy color with our logo chain-stitched on the back. This is one of my personal favorites because I really like the “peacoat” kinda feel that it has. The great thing about all these jackets is they’re very versatile and will look good on both genders!

Our most popular t-shirt, the men’s “weesner” is now available in six different colors! We still carry the black and white, now you can also wear it in army green, blue, cardinal red and maroon. Perfect colors that are in style year round and would make a great stocking stuffer!

We’ve got alot of new and rockin’ stuff coming your way! The Rodder’s Journal is working on numerous projects that’ll be available for you all within the next month or two. First off, TRJ’s Publisher, Steve Coonan, is “leaving on a jet plane” this weekend to make sure our new 28 page catalog turns out perfect for our customers. We are getting so much new product in stock the staff here can hardly wait! The inside of the catalog contains never before seen t-shirts, car club jackets, and kid’s clothes. Of course I’m very anxious to have more of a variety of women’s wear too! We really hope that you are just as excited as we are!

Our next issue #38, is printed and will be available to TRJ readers in a short amount of weeks. TRJ never disappoints to provide extremely entertaining, well-informed stories and without a doubt cool cars! Inside the new issue are full spreads of the famous Orange Crate and Sam Barris Merc, as well as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the L.A. Roadsters Club. I actually had the privilege to look through many old albums of people, cars and history that was of key importance to the L.A. Roadsters Club and Show. I was able to read really old letters and notes from club meetings and see the faces of the people that started such a wonderful tradition. It was truly amazing to imagine the decades I was unable to be a part of. Look for some of these pictures featured in the upcoming issue!

I have received many questions about when we will be obtaining more copies of the 50 Years of Rod & Custom Book and I’m happy to announce that we are in the process re-printing! We’re now taking orders and recommend the sooner you order, the better! Sign up and be the first to receive your book within 30 days after it comes into our warehouse. You can contact us for your order via phone, Email and/or website. After selling out completely in the first round of copies, we’re definitely hoping that history does in fact repeat itself!

–Ashley

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and The Rodder’s Journal has some great new merchandise for yourself or your favorite Rodder. We have created a couple of new Fall lines of T-shirts, jackets, car club plaques, and hats, as well as new womens shirts and stuff for the kids. We also will have new colors for our most popular shirt, the Weesner design T. Look for these great new products on the website in the upcoming weeks, or check out our new catalog that will be available this fall.

Speaking of our catalog, Art Director Suzi Hutsell and the TRJ crew have been hard at work putting it together for the past few weeks. Our photo shoot for the catalog was yesterday at Fred Stokes’ Ranch in Santa Rosa, CA, and we would like to thank everyone who participated. Many friends of TRJ showed up with their cars and families, and a good time was had by all (Besides the 3 AM departure time, that is). It was a great location, and ranch owner Fred Stokes has some serious stuff. On his 7 acre property he has a barn, barber shop, antique gas station, and a chapel. He also has American nostalgia filling each building, such as old signs, milk/oil cans, tractors, gas pumps, license plates and more. Some of Fred’s cars include a Deuce Roadster, 2 El Caminos, a ‘54 Olds Coupe, a 30’s fire truck and gas truck, and no less than 20 Deuce pickups in various stages of completion. The best part of the whole shoot was that Editorial Associate, Geoff Miles, and myself were privileged enough to drive Publisher Steve Coonan’s Deuce Roadster to the photo shoot. Driving the Roadster across the Golden Gate Bridge was a fantastic experience. You will be able to see all of this in our new catalog and the great new products we have this Fall.

-Jerry

P.S. Come find our Booth and say hello at the NSRA show in Sacramento on October 5,6,7 and the Hot Rod reunion in Bakersfield on October12 and 13!!!

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My Catalog Photo Shoot pics:

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Welcome to The Rodder’s Journal Web Log. This will be used to give our valued customers an inside look as to what actually goes on here at TRJ Headquarters. We will update you on what our staff is doing, what stunning custom is currently in our studio (Sam Barris Merc), and what to look forward to in the future. Let us know what you think.

-Jerry

For more information about The Rodders Journal, please visit the About the Magazine page on the main Rodder’s Journal web site. That page is located here: http://www.roddersjournal.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=6&chapter=0