1968 Instant T
Andy Brizio

Northern California produced some of the state’s most ardent hot rodders. Some became legends, including the builder of this car, Andy Brizio, who was born in San Francisco in 1932. As a young man, Andy became immersed in the hot-rodding culture of the day, eventually opening his own rod-building shop in South San Francisco. Noting the growing popularity of T-bucket hot rods in the mid- 1960s, Andy saw an opportunity to capitalize on the T-bucket craze. He began selling T-bucket hot rods with fiberglass bodies that could be purchased as finished, turn-key cars or as kits that could be built relatively quickly by the buyer. For this reason, he marketed and sold the car as the “Instant T.” To demonstrate the quick-build claim, Andy built an entire Instant T in front of crowds over several days at the Oakland Roadster Show in 1968. This car was sold to auto-leasing Californian Lance Miller who, along with Andy and four other fearless hot-rodders, most in T-buckets, drove their cars in 1970 to the first Street Rod Nationals in Peoria, Illinois, and then on to New Orleans. Stories about Andy and his rodding exploits are too numerous to relate here, but suffice it to say that this car is smiling inside and would wink at you if it could.