Finding Dad’s Hot Rod
Son tracks down father’s 1934 Ford hot rod “Baby Blue Bomb” after 60 years, restoring the custom car his dad sold in 1958 for a house down payment.
In 1956, Jack Bertagnolli, a mechanical engineering student studying at Colorado A&M University in Fort Collins, remained holed up in his garage for months, customizing what would become the car of his dreams. It marked the beginning of a tale that would span both decades and generations.
“The Baby Blue Bomb was a hot souped-up, hopped-up, decked-out motor car complete with four chrome-plated sprinklers and racing cams,” reported The Rock Springs Miner, a Sunday newspaper serving Western Wyoming, in its July 17, 1955, edition. In his interview with the paper, Bertagnolli predicted he’d hit 130 mph from 250 hp when it came time to finally fire up the car. “It should be all right,” he said, “if it doesn’t blow up.”
The 1934 Ford five-window coupe was a hybrid hot rod with a ’51 De Soto Hemi 331 married to a Columbia two-speed rear end from a ’37 Lincoln-Zephyr. The creation was channeled with a 6-in. drop-front axle and a ’32 Ford grille.
Additional innovative features for the time, as reported by The Rock Springs Miner, included a racing cam that could lift the valves higher and hold them open for a longer period than on a conventional automobile engine; it was reportedly a custom design that created more power and more acceleration. Bertagnolli also installed door openers and a trunk raiser, with the doors opening with the push of a button, and the trunk lid electrically raising using a mechanism from an old convertible top. When Bertagnolli was asked about the cost of the Baby Blue Bomb, he replied, “The cost? Just fantastic, that’s all. Just fantastic.”
When Jack finally fired up the coupe, it performed even better than he had hoped. He drove it daily and used it to travel to college at Fort Collins.
In 1958, when Jack married, he made the ultimate sacrifice, selling his baby blue hot rod for $1,500. He used the money for the down payment on a home, where the young couple could start their family.
Decades later, one of the couple’s sons, Albert, would recount the many stories his dad would tell about the Baby Blue Bomb.
“My dad talked about the car all of the time when I was growing up,” Al said. “He was so proud of it.” During these trips down memory lane, Bertagnolli would admire a photo of the treasured hot rod in the family ranch bunkhouse. “I heard many stories – such as how he reversed the rear wheels to bring the tires closer to the fender, how he handbuilt the intake manifold to use four Stromberg 97 carburetors. Even a story about a poached elk that was hauled to the college cafeteria in the late fall to be sold to the cafeteria for 5 cents a pound. Albert had many pictures of the car, but the best record of the car was the original copy of the 1955 Rock Springs Miner newspaper.”
Albert would spend years trying to locate the old car, and even theorized that it might still be somewhere in Wyoming. On July 5, 2015, while searching a social media site that focused on Rock Springs, Wyo., history, a posting popped up of a young man standing next to a baby blue ’34 Ford. After several messages between the two and a phone call, Albert was confident that this was the car that he had spent so long looking for.
The legendary hot rod his father had custom designed was currently in Billings, Mont., and was owned by Gus Hernandez. Gus indicated that he purchased it from Jack Bertagnolli in 1958 and through the years, he had moved several times since buying the car. Gus had stored the car safely in a shed for many years, only making a few minor changes to it along the way. Gus was a classic hot rodder. In addition to the ’34 Ford, he had a ’66 Corvette and a big-block-powered T-bucket. Initial offers by Albert to purchase the ’34 were declined. Gus was convinced that he was going to get it back on the road “next summer.”
On Sept. 11, 2018, after three years of trying to convince Gus that the hot rod should be returned to a Bertagnolli, the Baby Blue Bomb, or “The ’34,” as Albert refers to it, arrived back in Wyoming — 60 years after its original sale. “The car was partially disassembled, but all of the components were there and were the same as when my dad sold the car,” Albert said.
Albert quickly got to work restoring and enhancing the car. The channeling job was rather crude, and a new floor was installed. Updates Albert made to the car include a rebuilt engine, transmission and rear end, in addition to modifications added to the master cylinder and slave cylinder for the brakes and clutch to improve safety. The Baby Blue Bomb retains the juice brakes that Jack installed decades earlier. During the disassembly process, Albert was treated to a surprise when he was removing the original roof car lining. There, he discovered several old fraternity decals from Colorado A&M that were stored there by his father six decades ago.
Today, Albert and his wife, Angie, travel to car shows across the West, showing off the legendary light-blue 1934 Ford five-window hot rod in honor of the sacrifice that Jack Bertagnolli made in the name of family more than 60 years ago.
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