At the Mecum Kissimmee auction in January, a historic hot rod will cross the stage: the famed ’32 Ford roadster built by racer and publisher Tom McMullen.

One of the great stories in hot rodding begins in 1958 with a young car enthusiast named Tom McMullen, recently migrated from Toledo to Southern California, the hot rod capital of the world. For $650, McMullen purchased a clean, nicely turned-out ’32 Ford roadster, already stripped of its fenders for the classic highboy look and powered by a Ford flathead V8. Over the next decade, the Deuce roadster would be constantly modified and transformed, featured in countless magazine articles, and would eventually become one of the most familiar hot rods on the planet.

Early on, the flathead V8 was swapped for a small-block Chevy and at some point, a set of sturdy, chrome-plated wishbone mounts—one of the car’s trademark features—was bolted to the frame. McMullen was now freelancing for the Southern California hot rod magazines, and the Deuce became a frequent prop for his how-to features.

The small-block V8 soon sprouted a GMC blower, and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth laid out a wild set of pin stripes and flames. McMullen raced the ’32 at Pomona, the Indy Nationals, and on the California dry lakes, and eventually the Chevy was replaced with a supercharged 427 Ford V8 that produced 850 hp on the dyno, while the ’39 Ford top-shifter gearbox gave way to an Art Carr C6 automatic.

In its various forms, the ’32 was featured on the cover of Hot Rod and Popular Hot Rodding, and elsewhere, including a number of album covers. McMullen sold his prized  Deuce in 1970 and went on to operate several successful businesses, including his own publishing company that produced Street Rodder, Truckin,’ and other well-known titles.

McMullen must have regretted selling the Deuce. Although he never bought back the original, he built several updated duplicates before he and his wife Deanna were killed in the air crash of their Rockwell Turbo Commander in 1995. The original McMullen roadster, then in the hands of a private collector, was treated to a complete restoration by famed San Francisco Bay Area builder Roy Brizio, who returned the car to its April 1963 Hot Rod configuration with supercharged small-block and early Ford driveline. In 2007, the McMullen Deuce was one of the honored invitees at the first hot rod exhibit ever held at the Pebble Beach Concours.

The next big public appearance for the famed roadster will be at the Mecum Auctions Kissimmee sale just outside Orlando, Florida in January, 2019. No pre-auction price estimate has been set by the Mecum experts, but we note that when the car changed hands in November of 2012 at the Mecum Anaheim sale, it hammered down at $700,000. Naturally, we’ll be following the McMullen roadster story in its next chapter.

–Photos courtesy of Mecum Auctions.