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  In January 2008 members of the Golden Oldies Street Rod Association once again demonstrated why Street Rodding is one of the greatest hobbies on earth.

  Long known within their community for their  activities and support for those needing a little help, The Golden Oldies Street Rod Association is once again pulling together. This time, for one of their own. Approximately 5 years ago, Nan Glover, wife of Golden Oldies member Steve Glover was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, Nan had the surgery, and since has been monitoring and following up as prescribed. This past November Nan was again diagnosed with Cancer, this time in her liver.

This is Nan and Steve's 'First Born' 'IRIS', our 1934 Chevrolet Sedan.

 

 In addition to their well known 1934 Chevrolet Sedan 'Iris', Nan and Steve have owned a 1941 Ford 1/2 ton pickup truck, "Rose", for several years. Steve has been in the process (Click Here to read about getting to a rolling chassis) of building this truck themed toward Breast Cancer awareness. The plan called for the truck to be white with pink wheels, rear end, engine etc. The Golden Oldies decided after word of this most recent bout with cancer that Nan is fighting through, that they would pull together and help Steve finish the project for Nan.

 

The truck was already dismantled, and the rolling chassis pretty much complete, using aftermarket products from several iconic companies in the street rod business, (or here for Chassis Engineering, or here for Posie's, or here for Pete and Jake's). Several members descended on Steve's garage and hauled off the sheet metal i.e. fenders, running boards, cab and bed to get everything sanded down, prepped and into primer.

  Once the sheet metal is ready, the plan is to bring it all to, Golden Oldies newest member, Tom Pauley's new restoration shop in Madison for paint. Then everything back to Steve's for the final assembly.

 


David Townsend, Ted Thomas and Dennis Scott (background) spending a Saturday at Ted's Home Garage working on the '41 truck bed and paint stripping the hood.

   David Townsend, club Vice President and State NSRA Safety Inspector, has and is working on the front and rear fenders and running boards. Ron Fortner, Golden Oldies President and State NSRA Representative, has the cab and doors in his Ravenswood shop. Ted Thomas has the bed and hood in his shop in Falling Rock. Ron Jones has been up and worked with Fortner, and Dennis Scott has been over at Ted's working on the truck's hood.

Marietta Moles has been instrumental in this whole process as always, but more than anything, by keeping in touch with Nan and supporting her fight. Other club members, Roger Sharps, Charlie Schoolcraft, Cliff Messer, Ken Walker and Ray (Radar) Kinder have offered more help than we can use, but there is a lot to do yet, and I'm sure we'll be asking soon.
  Nan has been responding well to her recent treatments, and thanks one and all for the positive thoughts and prayers! To try and name everyone involved in this build and the support for Nan would be impossible, just know that the wives of the membership have been wonderful, including Sandy Fortner, Sandy Townsend, Sherrie Sharps, Chris Scott, Karin Canterbury and Marrietta, those occasional phone chats with Nan are very therapeutic ! We are planning to have the '41 finished this spring, and Nan smiling behind the wheel at local events.

Joe Parenti in his Morgantown, WV Shop December 2006

This truck has really started to become a story unto itself. Before Nan's diagnoses in November 2007, a long time engine builder in Morgantown, West Virginia  was contracted to rebuild the truck's tired old 221 flathead.

Joe Parenti was being treated for Pancreatic Cancer and invited this engine project once he heard of the truck's intended theme.

Joe reworked the engine machining it to a 239 and completing the entire long block assembly including converting to a '49-'53 style cam driven electronic distributor setup. Joe lost his battle with cancer in January of 2008 at age 77, he and his talents will be sorely missed by our hobby.

 
As for the build, the pieces are coming together. The engine is back from Morgantown, and Steve is working on detailing it and finishing the external build. The new front panel for the bed is here and ready for prep and most of the finishing pieces/parts are here.

The new Ron Francis 'Express' wiring kit is ready to be installed. (Click Here to visit Ron Francis website). The Lime Works steering Column, '40's steering wheel (Click Here to visit Lime Works Speed Shop website) and Borgeson/Mullins steering parts are here and ready to be installed. Golden Oldies member Ron Jones will be working on the wooden bed floor and all the finishing touches will be applied.

February/March Build Update !

Ron Fortner and David Townsend are pictured here with Ron's friend Bob Williams delivering the painted cab to Steve's garage. Ron performed the body work on the cab and painted it. This is the first time we've seen the selected white with some of the pink pieces together.
After seeing the newly painted cab, Nan is very pleased and excited to see the truck coming together so quickly.
We got the engine painted and bolted to the tranny, and set temporarily between the frame rails. Now we can start on some of the final assembly, positioning the new wiring harness, deciding on some of the paths for brake and fuel lines etc.

Ted Thomas and Dennis Scott have really been re-working the '41's old bed. The bed was the roughest part of the old truck. After stripping it all down and removing all the unusable sections, they've welded in a whole new front panel and rear cross member, as well as fabricated a couple of patch panels.

The next challenge came adding a rear roll pan which the truck never had before. Once again, Ted and Dennis were up to the challenge, and that is going to look so sweeeet !

We've really made good progress on the truck this month, Saturday March 29 Ron Fortner, Dennis Scott and Squeak Sharps spent the day in Steve's shop finishing ALL the Fuel and Brake lines on the '41. Now we're down to wiring the truck and mostly final assembly items. We've held a series of 'Play Dates' at Steve's garage during the later part of March and early April. Participants have included Ron Fortner, Cliff Messer, David Townsend, Dennis Scott and 'Squeak' Sharps.

As of April 5, the chassis is complete, beyond the fuel and brake lines being run, the new fuel tank and all the prep and painting on the rear end is done.
We're working on the new power window units, some new window glass and the transmission shifter set up. We're addressing vacuum supply issues from the Flathead to the power brake booster and the vacuum advance on the new MSD electronic ignition setup.

This truck build made front page news on April 11 in the Daily Mail in Charleston, West Virginia.

David Townsend and Ron Fortner spending some 'quality time' together on the power window install

Here it is 'Tax Day' and we're having another work party at the Glover Garage. Today was all about installing the new Door glass and the new power window motors and switches in the '41. We got a few other things done too,

  David finished installing the front sway bar, we got the headers bolted on (finally !) We also got the new Gennie Shifter installed on the rebuilt C-4 automatic transmission.

Throughout April, several days of work have brought the truck closer to completion. We discovered on April 23 that we have to redo one of the brake lines, but thats no big deal. We have the emergency brake cables installed and ready for final routing once the bed is put in place. Decisions have been made on some of the wire routing from the panel placed under the front seat. Dennis and 'Squeak' did an EXCELLENT job of engineering and installing the power cowl vent. Next we'll tackle the Newport engineering 'Clean Wipe' electric wiper setup, changing the wipers from vacuum to electric, and adding a wiper blade to the passenger side.

 

  Now we're finalizing the conversion for the '41 motor to the later '49 to '53 setup. This apparently 'small adaptation has turned into quite a challenge, but we think we're finally on track with the right answers.

 

 

Ron Fortner led off the process of 'signing' Nan's truck. Nan is very touched when she sees each additional signature added. Thank you guys SO much !

 

Club member Ron Jones did an outstanding job preparing and finishing the new Bed Wood. He dropped it off the other evening, and it looks Beautiful !!! We're very close to reinstalling the now completed bed and putting in the new floor.


Club member Tom Pauley reports that the repair and painting of the bed is complete, so we just need to get it to Steve and Nan's and we can proceed with hanging the sheet metal.

 

Here are the beginnings of rewiring the truck with Ron Francis components. We're moving the battery and the main panel under the seat for more room and better access.

The kill switch is wired, the brake light switch etc is next as well as the remote battery posts.


And here's the new home for the old Painless kit.


 

Here we are a little further along installing the Ron Francis wiring kit. Today we got the Cooling Components Electric radiator fan installed and wired, the electric vacuum pump for the power brakes from SSBC, the Newport Engineering Clean wipe electric wipers, and reset the electric cowl vent.


We re-installed the radiator after it was disassembled, rodded out , reassembled and painted. Reinstalled all the upper and lower radiator hoses, there are 4 total on a Flathead motor, two upper and two lower.


 


We brought the bed, rear fenders, tailgate and front visor back to Steve's garage from club member Tom Pauley's shop today. The bed was the single roughest piece of the entire original truck.

Ted Thomas and the guys replaced the front panel and made a few patch panels after they tore two steel bed floors out. Then Ted welded the new rear roll pan and license bracket on before the bed made it's way over to Tom's for body work and paint.

Now everything is ready for the new wooden bed, and to be set on the frame for good.

 

Tom and his crew did their usual great job on the bed, painting the rear fenders, tailgate etc.

Think that fender is riding a little low ?


Picked up the drive shaft from Drive Line Service Inc. and got it installed

Here we have the bed and tailgate, and rear fenders back from Pauley's.

We have to get the bed onto the frame this week, we can bearly get around the garage until we do.

We installed the bed and the beautiful wood floor that Ron Jones crafted for this truck. It went in very smoothly, now we just have to remove the gas tank to reach a couple bolts and it is finished. Here it is with the stainless steel strips and carriage bolts.

The bed needed a lot of work, we got the new front panel and bed floor kit, as well as the wooden crossmembers and wood floor adaptor kit from Northern Classic Trucks.

Dennis Scott has been a tremendous help all through this build. He just quietly (usually) assumes a project and works til it's right !

Dennis started the day working on the lighting for the rear of the truck.

We fabricated the rear roll pan.

Those '39 Ford taillights, and the bed roll LED lights...
Once we install the license plate bracket with the third brake light in it....you'll SEE this truck !

 

We had to end the day on a high note. We got the passenger side fender dummied into position. Here's a nice pic of the new Lime Works Speed Shop '40's Steering Wheel all painted and ready.(Click Here to visit Lime Works Speed Shop website)

 

 

Another big day, ALL the sheetmetal is rehung now except the Hood. We finished the front grille, still need to adjust the windshield wiper motor and reinstall the windshield. A few minor wiring items, like the head lights and horn, and we'll be ready to set the hood and roll her out of the garage !


 

 

Today was a lot of work you cant really see, i.e. chasing ground wires, bundling things up etc., THEN all of a sudden, things started HAPPENING ! We fired her up, let her idle a while, checked fluid levels etc, then one thing led to another, and she was OFF THE LIFT, and Nan drove her out of the garage !


 

 

Ron and Squeak helped instruct Nan on a few of the finer points in Rose's personality, before Nan eassssssed Rose out of the garage, and YES, Nan actually SPUN THE TIRES on her right off the bat ! In the photo on the right you can't really see it, but Nan hasn't stopped grinning since she drove it out of the garage....a true Lady Rodder !


 

 

We finally got the hood back on the truck. Got the seat installed, now we just need to do the seat belts, get the new exhaust installed and put some miles on her. Dennis and Ron are still figiting with the Accelerator pump rod, but we'll get that licked too!


 

The Charleston Newspaper came and did a follow up article on the truck build on Monday August 25.
The local TV Stations were out in force and seemed to like Rose's story.

We finally completed the 'build', we've still got a lot to do on the interior, but that is for another time right now.

The truck was at the Golden Oldies Labor Day Show 2008 at the State Capitol grounds. We hope to see you all there.
Here is a shot of the caps Nan had made for the members of the Build team ! Thanks SO MUCH to all for their assistance, thoughts and prayers.

We've unfortunately run into a few....shall we can them 'issues' with the Flathead in the '41. It is making some of those unpleasant I dont wanna hear 'em clanking noises. Bobby Lewis has agreed to take a look at it for us, and we couldn't be happier about that ! Nan asked Bobby if he could fix it, and Bobby replied,"There's only three things I can't fix.....a broken heart, a hole in the sky, and the crack of dawn." THAT was good enough for Nan ! :)
We now have Rose all back together and running VERY nicely....... EXCEPT for an outstanding issue with the powdercoater of the grill. This is the final issue we have to address, but Thanks to Bobby Lewis of Valley Auto in St Albans, he got the Flathead running like a clock. Thank you to one and all

On November 20, 2008 Nan ultimately lost this final battle with the demon Cancer, but only after an intense year of showing ME what strength and determination and grace and compassion and caring among MANY MANY other things are all about...Thank You Darling for your patience with me
I will Always Love you sweetheart !