Bell

Dick Carter's 1941 Ford

Dick Schneider's 1950 Mercury

Bob Knessel's Sports Custom of Bell, California. Featuring a Fiberglass body, Bob and his dad spent three years constructing the car. According to an appearance in Fawcett Book 413 How to Build and Race Hot Rods, Ed Roth was involved in the build, and rumors has it that he gave it a Metallic pink paint job once the bodywork was done.

Speed Shops

In the late 1940s there were two speed shops in Bell, Bell Auto Parts and Hi-Speed Auto Parts. In 2018 Dale Sinner told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama that Bell Auto Parts was very popular; "Guys came from everywhere to buy hot rod parts. It was not a big store and the storefront was probably about 25 feet or so but it was deep. In the back, they built hot rod engines and also did some other work."^[1]

The Clock Drive-In Restaurant

There were four popular Clock Drive-In restaurants in the Bell area back in the 1940s and the 1950s. "They were very popular with all the kids," Dale Sinner told Kustomrama. "Many kids hung out there nightly and us hot rodders were there in force. Guys who wanted to drag race came there to choose someone to race against. We would meet at one, and stay for a while and go to one of the other Clock's. There were places where we could go to race which were normally near by each Clock and there was little traffic. The Clock restaurant in Maywood was the most popular of them all. Across the street from this Clock there was an ice cream shop called Panda. Here is where all the girls went and also all the custom cars guys. Ha! So they custom guys got all the girls and us racer just had our cars which we loved."^[1]