Memories of family hotrod remain
Calgarians had old Ford Roadster
If a hotrod is driven only to a local car show or the grocery store, it’s not really being put to use. At least, that’s how Mike Siewert of Calgary feels about special-built cars and he’s not afraid to put a custom vehicle through its paces.
Back in 1991, Siewert and his wife Susan and their children, then two and four years old, drove a 1928 Ford Roadster to Prince Edward Island and back. Yes, the family stayed together.
So this year, when he heard about the Jalopy Jam Up that was being held mid- August in Durham, Ont., he pencilled it in on his calendar.
“They had their first show last year, and it rained,” Siewert said. “But they still had a good number of cars turn up and it sounded like they’d had a blast, so it sounded like a fun run to do.”
According to the website, jalopyjamup.com, the show was created to showcase pre- 1964, traditionally styled hotrods, including customs, lead sleds and fenderless rods. Basically, the Jalopy Jam Up is for the traditionalists in the hot- rod world.
There are a number of criteria that must be met for a vehicle to be suitable for display at the Frontier Ghost Town show site. Disc brakes and electronic ignitions are acceptable upgrades, but pastel, neon or monochromatic paint jobs are not welcome and neither are modern or billet-style wheels. Essentially, the car needs to look like it just rolled out the garage door of a builder working in the 1940s, ’ 50s or ’ 60s.
Siewert had just the car to drive to the Jalopy Jam Up: a 1930 Ford “high boy” roadster. His late father, Don Siewert, had built the roadster in the early 1990s.
The senior Siewert was a deft hand with all things mechanical. He had come of age in the 1950s and had been through numerous stages of the hobby, including drag racing, building customs, driving British sports cars and then restoring antique cars.
“He bought the 1930 Ford back in 1967,” son Mike said. “He’d rescued it from hot- rodders, and I think his intention had always been to restore the car. Then, with some of his help and expertise I built my hotrod, and after he drove that car he thought it was great fun. That’s when he got bitten by the bug, and he got into hot rods pretty hard.”
Siewert’s 1930 Ford features an all- steel body and a flathead V- 8 engine from a 1953 Ford truck. The power plant has been upgraded with a Mercury crankshaft and the cylinder block has been bored to accept larger pistons. A pair of twin Stromberg carburetors help keep the car era- correct. But there were a few concessions to modernity and safety; Don installed a highenergy ignition system, swapped the old generator for an alternator and put GM disc brakes up front. The rear brakes are stock Ford drums, and the hotrod rides on original- style bias- ply wide whitewall tires.
“This was the third engine dad had for the car, and it was the one he’d been waiting for,” Mike explained.
And, it performed faultlessly the entire trip, which saw Mike and Susan Siewert leave their home on August 11, drive southeast to Medicine Hat and on to Estevan, Sask. They crossed the border into North Dakota and eventually hooked up with the I- 94 that took them east to Milwaukee, Wis.
At 5: 30 a. m. on August 14 they boarded the Lake Express ferry to cross Lake Michigan and arrive in Muskegon, Ont. A few more hours behind the wheel saw them arrive in Durham in time for the Jalopy Jam Up. Mike said it was there that he saw more early-style and rare cars in one place than he’d ever seen.
And the Siewerts were expected. As soon as they left their Calgary home, Mike began stopping for photographs at roadside attractions, posting the images on social media sites, such as Instagram and Twitter, using the Jalopy Jam Up hash tag. People began following the couple’s progress, both there and back.
At the end of eight days, the Siewerts ( all three of them, actually — some of Don’s ashes are housed in an Offenhauser beehive oil canister bolted to the right side of the Ford’s firewall in the engine bay) travelled 6,500 kilometres.
“People say to me, ‘ I don’t know if I’d do a trip like that in my car’ and I always ask, why not?” Mike said.
“Most of these hotrods and customs have a fresh motor in them and if you’re only going to the grocery store I don’t think you’re really getting all of the enjoyment out of the car that you could.
“My dad’s thing was always about using the car.”