Written by Eric Becker

From the personal collection of Barrett-Jackson CEO and Chairman Craig Jackson, this award-winning, all-steel 1933 Ford roadster known as “Hula Girl” will be crossing the block with No Reserve as Lot #1332 at the 2021 Scottsdale Auction.

In the 1950s the hot-rodding craze was in full swing; America’s love of speed and power combined with an up-and-coming youth culture’s desire for self-expression. The result was a golden age of car customization, an age where the very fundamentals of hot-rodding were reconsidered and expanded to reflect the era’s optimism. The cars were loud and brash, some would go so far and call them “impolite.” Unsurprisingly, each hot rod became an expression and extension of the driver’s personality, a way to channel that rebellious streak through metal, spark, flame and style.

On offer with No Reserve at the 2021 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction is what can only be described as the epitome of a period-correct hot rod, the achingly beautiful “Deuce” roadster known as the “Hula Girl” (Lot #1332). From the personal collection of Barrett-Jackson CEO and Chairman Craig Jackson, this award-winning, all-steel 1932 Ford roadster was built by Bill Montero Sr. and his son, Bill Jr., of San Jose, California, in the early 1950s.

Hula Girl made its debut at the 1952 Oakland Roadster Show and would go on to actively campaign at shows and dragstrips around Northern California. By 1955, Bill Montero Jr. was getting ready to head off to college, and the sale of the car would help pay for tuition costs.

Hula Girl was purchased by a fellow member of the San Jose Igniters car club on the condition that it be channeled, allowing the body of the car to sit lower without altering the suspension. The beautiful roadster would once again return to the Oakland Roadster Show in 1955 and be kept in show condition. A short time later, the new owner, Al Cebrien, would pull Hula Girl’s original flathead V8 and replace it with a monstrous nitro-burning race engine. The full-fendered hot rod would reach speeds of 106 mph down the quarter-mile before being parked for the next 34 years in a Turlock, California, garage.

As fate would have it, Hula Girl would be hunted down and acquired by longtime admirer Jerry Ash (who just so happened to have gone to high school with Bill Montero Jr.), who brought the roadster back to his home in Florida. “That’s when the car’s full rebirth started,” said Jackson. “The goal was to just restore it back to its previous glory.” The restoration followed the hot-rod ethos of reworking old parts into something newer and faster to the letter.

The race engine was pulled and replaced by a 239ci 1953 Ford 8BA Flathead V8. The Flathead was bored out to 278ci and fitted with Forged 7:1 pistons, a Schneider camshaft, Smith Brothers connecting rods, and Mellings oil pump. A rare set of ported and polished Ardun cylinder heads (#180-181) heighten performance and give the Flathead its signature look. The engine is fed by a BDS 4-71 supercharger topped with three Stromberg 97 carburetors. Both the supercharger mount and carburetor intake were hand-formed along, with the lakes-style 1.75-inch chrome headers. The superb engine creates a timeless and wonderful sound, directing power through a 1939 Ford Manual gearbox with Lincoln Zephyr 25-tooth gears and onto a ’48 Ford rear end.

“The headlights, front valence, running boards, trunk, doors, dashboard and instruments, as well as the whole front axle, are all as they were on the car back in the early ’50s,” Jackson said. “They’ve upgraded the car, but with all the period-correct components.”

Stunning in its design and execution, Hula Girl is finished in an orange base coat followed by three coats of pearl. The beautiful interior features a walnut dashboard carved from a single tree and embedded with the original gauges from 1952. The pearl-dyed calfskin seats are offset by Berber carpets. And, in true ’50s-style hot-rod charm, a skull shift knob was contributed by famed hot-rodder and actor Norm Grabowski.

The custom wire wheels are from a 1953 Buick Skylark and have been widened 0.5 inches up front and 2.5 inches in the rear, and are wrapped in 60 Series Goodyear tires.

Upon completion, Jerry Ash drove Hula Girl cross-country and celebrated the car’s completion by heading to the 1997 edition of the Oakland Roadster Show for the third time, bringing home Second Place in the Roadster Class. The roadster made an appearance at Barrett-Jackson in 2006 and found itself in the personal collection of Craig Jackson years later.

“Rarely do these period-correct hot rods come along, and this is a real special one,” Jackson said. Hula Girl was far ahead of its time; it would take another four decades for the “street-rod fraternity” to catch up to its chopped, channeled and contoured lines.

As if not already a headliner, the well-known Forza video game franchise immortalized Hula Girl as part of the Barrett-Jackson Car Pack.

It has traveled widely and famously since but has never lost its abundance of build quality and brilliance. Hula Girl is more than a fine example or icon; it approaches avatar status for the ways in which it is a penultimate representation of the American hot rod.

Hula Girl is both fast and elusive – don’t let it get away from you.

For up-to-date information on this vehicle, click HERE. For a look at all the vehicles headed to the 2021 Scottsdale Auction, click HERE.