TOP STORY OF THE DAY - Beach Boys posed with local hot rod

Friday, June 2, 2023
SUBMITTED Photo - The Beach Boys pose outside Capitol Records in Los Angeles with a 1929 Model A “high boy” owned by gearhead Sam Conrad. Conrad sold the car to local mechanic Bob Gorby, who owned it in turn for many years.

Bob Gorby knew 56 years ago that he was getting a rad hot rod when he bought a 1929 Model A “high boy” from a fellow gearhead.

Whether or not he knew about it at the time, the car was cool simply because The Beach Boys got a glam shot with it.

The car was previously owned by Sam Conrad, who was an original member of the L.A. Roadsters Car Club. The club was founded in 1957 and is still going strong in southern California’s hot rod scene.

“The guys were great, and hot rodding gave me camaraderie and friendships that I really enjoyed,” Conrad told Motor Trend in 2015. He noted that he joined the club “right out of high school” and then found the car as project that had sat for years.

With some help from some of his fellow club members, Conrad eventually rebuilt the car from the ground up, with the overarching upgrade being a 1958 483-cubic-inch Oldsmobile V8. It was the subject of a series of how-to letters submitted to Hot Rod Magazine by one of Conrad’s club friends, which showed different steps of the process.

“If there’s a common thread running through these stories, it’s their low-buck, everyman nature,” automotive journalist Drew Hardin wrote about the series in the 2015 profile. “Sam’s car was not a mega-dollar show car, but a good-looking, well-built hot rod HRM readers could aspire to build.”

One day in December 1963, Conrad and his buddies were cruising around Los Angeles when they pulled into a parking lot at Capitol Records. The Beach Boys - i.e., Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love and Carl and Dennis Wilson - then came out, perhaps from recording or meeting with executives.

Hardin notes in his article that it was common for publicity agents to get with the magazine if they wanted one for a photoshoot. One of the club, LeRoi “Tex” Smith, was then the go-between to make it happen.

Regardless if the encounter would’ve been set up and not by sheer chance, the guys took a liking to the car. The photo above appeared in Rod and Custom afterward.

Apart from The Beach Boys’ brush with the car, it also appeared in the 1967 cult film “Hot Rods to Hell” starring Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain.

Gorby bought the car from Conrad in 1967. He left it the same way for years, and was once an associate member of the club because of his connection with it and Conrad. He eventually made alterations for it to be more tenable for Indiana roads and weather.

Gorby recalled that he sold the car to a friend in Indianapolis about eight years ago, but does not know where it is now. However, he still has its license plate that was a custom design for L.A. Roadsters members.

Now 83, Gorby works on automobiles in his shop on Chicago Avenue in Brazil, and has a 1954 Ford Wagon that he will take to area car shows.

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