When our men (and women) in uniform came back from fighting the good fight in 1945, they were a restless, wild bunch who were aching to use the technical know-how they acquired from Uncle Sam. Many brought back European sports cars and motorcycles, and some began modifying cars. Typically they'd drop a "Flathead" Ford V-8 with a Mercury crank into any car they could get their hands on.

One of those innovative guys in the annals of the evolution of Hot Roding was Dick King. Dick bought a 1929 Ford Model A Roadster in 1948 and immediately began playing with it: He channeled the body eight inches, then added a partial belly pan and fashioned an aluminum nose with a louvered hood. A nod to the automotive zeitgeist of the time was the Jaguar XK120 grille.

As a member of the North Bay Rodsters car club of Vallejo, CA, Dick entered his roadster in the first annual Auto Show at Capitol Chevrolet Company in Sacramento. The roadster didn't place among the 21 in the comp