The Barbosa Hot Rods

Story and Photos by Retson Ross

Gnarly Magazine June 23, 2023

I first met Kristine at a small car show the day after I bought my Model A. I didnt know anything about hot rods, let alone what I wanted to do with my car. She mentioned that I should speak to her husband, Eddie. A few days later, and after an hour long phone call, I knew we would make good friends.

I remember shortly after I visited them, I realized these people were more than friends, they were family. Ever couple of weeks I’ll drive up and we’ll go for drives in the hot rods. Sometimes for cruises or car shows, then other times just to go drive! I still remember the feeling I had when we took Eddie’s extremely low ’29 Roadster pickup on the highway.

For being extremely low, the car handles perfectly. On one of our trips, Eddie, Kristine, and I were going up to Prunedale, CA for the “Deadend Magazine Carshow”. Somewhere outside of Paso Robles, we hit a humongous lip in the concrete, and I remember my arm coming down on one of the tabs for the roadster top, it was black and blue for a few weeks.

The car is powered by a hopped up 235ci straight six, pulled from a ’54 Chevy Bel Air, with Offenhauser speed parts mated to a T5 transmission, sending the power out back to a really cool homemade quickchange rearend. The car features a custom made windshield, ’48 Allis-Chalmers tractor gas tank, and a wickedly chopped ’35 grill.

One of the coolest things to this date, is the paintjob on Kristine’s coupe, because she hand painted it! The car is the epitome of what a hot rod is. Sporting a 4″ drop axle, 4.5 inch chop, and a hopped up engine! While being close to stock, the engine sports a custom made exhaust, a nice sounding cam, and a trio of carburetors.