“When I was five years old growing up in the working class neighborhood of Richmond, Calif., I fell in love with hot rods and was influenced by car guys all over the neighborhood,” Kaua‘i resident Ron Ceridono said. One guy
“When I was five years old growing up in the working class neighborhood of Richmond, Calif., I fell in love with hot rods and was influenced by car guys all over the neighborhood,” Kaua‘i resident Ron Ceridono said.
One guy that lived across the street from him had a 1941 Chevy with a split manifold, glass packs and dual pipes that could be heard a mile away.
“I was so excited about those pipes that my dad took my pedal car down to the Sante Fe Railroad yard where he worked and put dual brass exhaust pipes on it for me,” Ceridono said.
From this early impression of building hot rods, Ceridono gravitated toward the world of the mechanical and later became an automotive teacher, an author of books and eventually the senior editor of a national magazine.
“My first car was a 1950 Chrysler that my dad gave to me when I was 16 years old. It looked like a big round jelly bean. I think Dad gave it to me because he knew it was worn out and wouldn’t go very fast,” Ceridono said.
While growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, Ceridono had a succession of hundred-dollar cars that he would fix up, drive around and then sell. After finalizing the mechanical part of a car, Ceridono drove them over to Spray Craft in Oakland for a $19.95 paint job.
“Spray Craft was a paint shop where you could get the worst enamel paint job you ever saw in your life. I’ll never forget this one time my buddy and I took in a 1954 Ford over there to get it sprayed and they literally knocked the bugs off during the prep work,” Ceridono said.
A hearty laugh erupted at this memory as Ceridono continued, “The drying booth had around 40,000 light bulbs in it and when they closed the door that little room got so hot the enamel was completely dry when they rolled it out the other side.”
When the car emerged from the room the windows usually had overspray on them but for a little more money you could get the deluxe paint job and they would mask off the windows, he said.
“The paint stayed shiny for about six months until it would just gradually sort of chip away,” he said.
Ceridono said he picked up his 1931 Ford Model A pickup around 1965 from a high school buddy who lost interest in it and needed an engine for his 1956 Chevy. He swapped a spare small block engine that he had for it and has kept the Ford classic in his collection ever since.
The ‘31 Model A is kind of an unusual car because it was made in the last months of production and the roof was solid metal, not a soft-covered cloth top. The pickup bed is also longer and wider than a standard Model A.
Ceridono’s truck has been through a lot of changes over the years running on all kinds of engines. On this last go-around he built a new chassis then dropped a 1948 Mercury flathead in it with a quick change rear end and a “bunch” of hot rod stuff in it.
“I’ve got a ‘50 Mercury crank shaft stroked an eighth of an inch, bored oversize ported and relieved which helps it to breathe better. It’s got Sharp aluminum heads and an off Nazar manifold with two Stromberg 97 carburetors,” he said.
Ceridono chose the Mercury flathead because there are lots of aftermarket parts due to a revival in flathead Mercurys.
“When I bought the new chassis I figured I’d put it back together the way I wanted it and then I’d paint it later and make it pretty. But once I put it back together and had such a good time running it, I just couldn’t bring myself to take it all apart again to paint it, ‘cause every time I take a hot rod apart it stays apart for about four or five years,” Ceridono said.
Asked why the Model A sports a basic black paint job, Ceridon said, “It’s not the end of my life if a rock chips it, or if somebody opens a door on it, or my dog jumps all over it with muddy paws, and besides, I didn’t want to become a slave to it.”
He said when he was growing up they called this kind of hot rod a “beater” but today it might be called a “rat rod.”
“I drive this truck everywhere. It’s mechanically sound, never gets overheated, it’s got air conditioning and gets reasonably good gas mileage. It does everything I need it to do and it’s fun to drive,” Ceridono said.
He also owns a 1950 Plymouth, a 1963 split window Corvette, a 1934 Ford Roadster and 1941 Ford sedan; all are projects in the works.
One day Ceridono met a guy named Tex Smith who wrote automotive books and encouraged him to become a writer. As time went by Ceridono co-authored a number of automotive books and later wrote for a number of motor magazines. Eventually he became the senior editor of Street Rodder magazine which is what he does today.
“I have lived on Kaua‘i for the past three years and it saddens me that due to the poor economy, the magazine has decided I need to be more centrally located on the Mainland to travel to other states for major car events,” he said.
Asked about what will happen to his Ford Model A after he is too old to drive it or when he passes on to hot rod heaven, Ceridono said, “The running joke with my kids and my five grandkids about inheriting my classic cars and trucks is, ‘The day I die, I hope I’m totally broke and everything I own is worn out, and then you can deal with it.’”
‘Donut Derelicts’
One of the things Ron Ceridono wanted to do while living on Kaua‘i was to put together a couple of cruise nights where a group of motor heads could meet at a special location once a week.
“Every kind of automotive interest you can imagine is here on Kaua‘i, like off-road guys, the big-truck guys, the street-rod guys, the tri-five Chevy guys, motorcycle guys and more,” he said.
Other than Harvey Maeda’s Kaua‘i Classic Car Club and the Garden Island Racing Association’s drag strip at Mana, Ceridono said, “There’s really no organization that pulls all the different automotive groups together in one place.”
He shared an idea on the potential of gathering Kaua‘i car enthusiasts for one particular kind of event.
“There is an organization in Huntington Beach, Calif., called Donut Derelicts, where a bunch of classic car guys meet at 5 a.m. in the morning at a local donut shop to admire their custom cars, talk story and swap auto parts,” Ceridono said.
He recommended checking out donutderelicts.com for more information.
“I think the same kind of thing could happen here and benefit the local car and motoring community,” he said.
Watch video
footage online
of Ron Ceridono’s 1931 Ford Model A pickup as part of The Garden Island’s recurring series on Kaua‘i’s Classic Car Club.
