Secondhand Rose

A Dream Car Gives Way to Secondhand Rose

In early 1972, just before Bill Hogue got out of the Navy, he owned what he thought was his dream car. It was a dumped ʼ40 Ford Deluxe coupe with a big Nailhead Buick, a four-speed, burgundy paint and a Tijuana tuck-and-roll interior. Then he discovered an old, chopped ʼ34 Ford three-window coupe, and he was hopelessly smitten.

The coupe was a seedy, lumpy refugee from the Southern California dry lakes and dusty old dragstrips. It had an ancient Cadillac engine and Plexiglas windows, the frame was butchered, the rollcage was a joke and the floorboards were gone—but he just had to have it. It took a lot of talking, but he finally convinced the owner to sell him the car. Hogue then sold his ʼ40 Ford to raise the cash, and his friends thought he was nuts to trade a finished hot rod for a dog of a project car.

Building a Legendary Street Rod

The coupe was such an eclectic collection of pieces and parts that they called it Secondhand Rose, or Rosie for short. The name stuck over the years. It would be another two years before Hogue saved the money (almost $4,000 in 1972 money) to do a complete rebuild of the car, but that didnʼt stop him from patching up the coupe and driving it. Actually, he had to do it that way because it was the only form of transportation he had. In late 1974, just one week before his wedding, the antique Cadillac engine blew a piston on the way home from the Las Vegas run. He disassembled the coupe to the bare frame the very next day in his one-car garage and went to work.

Hogue had only the most basic of hand tools, so every time he wanted to weld or cut something, he had to load it in his old pickup and haul it to a friendʼs house. Almost all of the parts came from junkyards, swap meets and friends. Hogue thinks that virtually every member of the Over The Hill Gang gave him something for the car just so they could get rid of him as he prowled their garages. “I also got help in the many technical areas I wasnʼt skilled in,” Hogue told us. “After I roughed out the bodywork, I took it to a Mexican truck repair shop (hey, they were the only guys I could afford) for the final bodywork and paint. I then drove the car to Tijuana, where a complete interior was installed in one day!”

150,000 Miles of Hot Rod Adventures

Only six months after the day he took the car apart, he drove it (with his wife, Patti) to the NSRA Nationals in Memphis. The car has been going almost nonstop ever since. Rosie has traveled more than 150,000 miles in the past 30 years, visiting 36 states, three countries and six traffic courts (the most memorable ticket was for 85 mph in a 55-mph zone, while towing a trailer). Most of the mileage was accumulated as a daily driver, but Rosie has also been drag-raced (high 13s in the quarter mile), slalom-raced and time-rallied, and it has made passes in the dry lakes. “Itʼs as aerodynamic and as fast as a two-bedroom condominium,” Hogue said. Itʼs possible that this ʼ34 Ford three-window coupe is one of the most-traveled street rods in the country.

A Family History on Four Wheels

Both of the Hoguesʼ sons took their first automobile rides in Rosie (coming home from the hospital). The family of four used to cram into the coupe for outings and vacations, so Hogue added a cargo trailer to tow behind it. The family has photos of Rosie at Mt. Rushmore, by the Golden Gate Bridge, in front of the St. Louis arch and in the deepest parts of Baja California. “The stories and memories we have of our trips and adventures could fill volumes,” Hogue said, “like driving 40 mph with four large adults in the car, or opening a suicide door at 65 mph, and there is no end in sight.”

More Than a Street Rod

Rosie may not be state-of-the-art or the most pristine street rod youʼve ever seen, but as proven here, thatʼs not what counts. This is a car that is loved by those who drive in it and those who understand how much it is loved. As Jackson Browne once crooned, “Rosie, youʼre all right.”