“Doctor Wetzel”

Los Angeles hot-rodder Bill Hook began building this modified 1932 Ford Deluxe Roadster in 1950. The body work was performed by the well-known Valley Customs in Burbank. It included channeling the body six inches to achieve an extremely low profile. Hook sold the unfinished car in 1952 to Dr Leland Wetzel of Springfield, Missouri, who had Valley Customs complete the body work before shipping the car home. Dr Wetzel then installed a bored and stroked 1948 Ford flathead V-8, with a full-race cam, Evans heads and 3x2 intake, three Stromberg 97 carburetors and custom headers. When Wetzel sold the car more than 40 years later, the new owner replaced the Ford engine with a supercharged 1954 Cadillac V-8. Fast forward to 2020, when the roadster became part of the 3 Dog Garage collection. In remarkably original condition and requiring little in the way of restoration, the only major item needed to return the car to its 1952 specification was replacing the Cadillac engine. Well-known California hot rod builder and restoration specialist Roy Brizio sourced the original Ford engine, which was still powering another hot rod and still in Missouri. The engine once again resides between the frame rails of the Wetzel Roadster, reunited with the car nearly 70 years after it was first put there. Who says you can’t go home again?