When talking flames, certain names invariably pop up: Jeffries, Dutch, and Watson, to name a few. While those guys were setting the standards with crab claws and seaweed flame designs, a teenager and nascent car nut keenly watched their actions. Little did they know-or did he know for that matter-that this car-hungry California kid would ultimately become one of the foremost flame-painting practitioners and northern California customizers. That kid was Rod Powell.
Rod grew up in a time and place where it would've been hard not to get hooked on cars: 1950s northern California. Central and northern California guys like Cushenbery, Wilhelm, and Winfield redefined the way we looked at cars. Others like Vukovich, Sweikert, and McGrath tore up tracks nationwide-not to mention some famous ones around Rod's hometown.
Rod's aesthetic influences came from many venues. His dad, a Salinas plastering contractor, specialized in custom sculpting. "Actually, I didn't give my dad enough credit; he was really a big car guy," Rod says. "When I was a kid he had a '41 Lincoln with a Cad motor. He had the first Lincoln Premiere (1956) and four-door (1961) Lincoln in Salinas. We used to go to the hardtop races one to two times a week. We went to the dragstrip (Salinas) from the day it opened. I remember going to Pebble Beach when they raced on the streets with hay bales. When I was in high school the whole family went to Kingdon or Cotati to watch Don Garlits make his first West Coast run. I'll never forget that; Garlits smoked everybody in some old grease-soaked piece of crap. My dad took me to my first Oakland Roadster Show in 1958. I saw the Ala Kart for the first time ... that changed my life.
"When I turned 16 I got my first car: a '39 Chevy sedan. I flamed it purple with yellow primer and painted the wheels red," Rod continues. Soon after he got his license, Rod crossed paths with an influence: Don Varner. "His pickup was on the cover of Rod & Custom that month and I saw it in front of a shop in Monterey. The next day I saw it in Salinas at a body shop. I'd never worked up the nerve to talk to these guys-it was sort of intimidating-but I walked in to meet Don ... and he was really open. He'd do things like ask your opinion if he should do something a certain way. He was just a really nice guy." Don took Rod under his wing and Rod emulated Don's style. Little did either realize they would forge a decades-long friendship.
Rod recalls "one night while dragging Main Street, I got caught up in looking at (the '39 Chevy) reflection in the storefront windows and smashed it into the back of my friend's mom's new '58 Ford. Oh man!" The impact ended Rod's relationship with the sedan, but he picked back up again with a '39 coupe. "It had a hopped-up six, dual carbs, headers, and I painted it shiny purple-it was really low," he says. While he operated locally, his success reverberated nationally: In 1959, Rod & Custom gave Rod his first taste of fame by featuring Jim Russell's raspberry and pearl '33 coupe. "They never gave any attribution to me, but I shot the scallops in his driveway-a dirt driveway," Rod says.