Russell Daly 1929 Ford Roadster
This is a great story of a long-term relationship. 8-year-old Russell Daly first saw a white roadster in 1953 with his father in a parking lot in California. Young Russ loved the car with its green and white tuck ‘n roll interior. The car was owned by a member of the Slicks car club in Crescent City CA.
In 1959 Russ moved to Eureka, CA and while riding his bicycle to school one day he saw a roadster that reminded him of the one he saw years earlier. Shortly after finishing high school, he discovered the roadster he saw around town was for sale. With a firm asking price of $800 Russ only had $400 but had a good friend willing lend him the other half, the deal was done, and the car was his!
The roadster body sat on a Z’d frame, Model A rear crossmember and front end, ’49 Olds engine, Cadillac transmission, chopped windshield, Carson top, and a dashboard out of a ’32 Ford 3-window coupe. One day, while prepping the car for paint work Russ discovered the roadster had once been painted white. It was in fact the very same roadster he had fallen in love with 9 years earlier!
The car became his daily transportation in 1963, driven to work every day in Sacramento, to a Joan Baez concert, and to college in 1964. That year the roadster was also driven to Bonneville where Russ raced on the tight-turn track at the edge of the salt flat.
Russ decided to disassemble the car to work on the rusty sheet metal, do a deep cleaning and some mechanical work. The project was put on hold when he was drafted into the Army. In the 1970s he moved to Illinois, towing the roadster behind. In 1979, the roadster was back together again after moving to the east coast. After the rebuild, it featured a 255 cu in ’48 Merc flathead with 3 deuces, Fenton headers, finned high compression heads, and a Mallory ignition system. Gears are selected from a ’37 Caddy LaSalle trans, coupled to a ’40 Ford rear end with Halibrand quick change. Hydraulic brakes from a ’40, headlight buckets form a ’36 Olds, and the taillights form a ’40 Dodge, Bell “Champ” racing steering wheel, and aftermarket gauges completed the build.
Russ continued to modify and tinker with the roadster through his whole life. Many locals here know and remember the car as Russ drove it regularly in Newport, where he had a workshop. He was well known as a sculptor and consummate craftsman. The car remains in the family and is still driven and loved!
Loaned by the Cano-Daly Family in Memory of Russell Daly
