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It's a rather non-descript building in the Northern California
Bay Area city of Oakland on East 12th Street. But once
inside the grillwork doorway, cognoscenti can quite easily
conjure up the great coachbuilding enterprises of Europe in
the last century.
Were it not for the evidence of modern tools and safety
considerations, Steve Moal's coachwork facility could easily
comprise a time-warped version of the shopworks, men and
projects associated some 70 years past with carrozzeria
Touring, Gurney-Nutting, Figoni et Falaschi, Pinin Farina,
Vanden Plas, Scaglietti or Castagna. But projects here transcend
a strictly defined European heritage. They reflect disparate
motoring disciplines with provenances from
European formula and sports racers, open-wheeled Indy racers,
and American hot rods. There are 1932 Ford roadster
bodies on Moal's thoughtfully-engineered Road Champ
chassis. An immaculately-restored and recently painted
Ferrari 275 GTB shell occupies one corner awaiting reinstallation
of everything from wheels to seats to engine and driveline. The elegant, hand-crafted deep blue and silver Art
Deco Aghassi Royale roadster is being finished for
California automobile dealer Hank Torian.
Some projects are but bare chassis, revealing race-bred
suspension systems. Others – without hoods or engine bay
panels – showcase an array of big-pony powerplants; Ferrari
V-12s, Joehnck Chevy V-8s, Ardun Fords, Nailhead Buicks.
Some vehicles are sheathed in sculpted aluminum panels 'in
white,' awaiting paint. Fabricators, constructors and assemblers
wield torches and tools, each addressing some phase of
production. As in photos from those great European houses,
there's an air of organized chaos here.
The Moal works occupy a garage which was his father's
body and fender business in the mid-1940s. The site also
reflects a century of Moal family dedication to the motoring
arts in Oakland, California. "My grandfather William was a
wheelwright in Brest, France, in the late 19th Century,"
notes the silver haired 60-year-old Moal. "As an apprentice,
he lived on a farm and paid his way, making wooden wheels
for room and board. It was love that brought him to
America. My grandmother, who was from Berkeley and
studying French in Paris, met him there, married and
brought him back to California."
That William Moal was attracted to automotive work in
the East Bay would be the natural outgrowth of industrial
expansion in the Oakland of the late 19th and early 20th
Centuries. Terminus of the transcontinental railway in the 1860s, Oakland grew around manufacturing,
shipping and world trade.
By World War One, the region had
become the "Detroit of the West,"
with Durant and Chevrolet plants in
Oakland, a major Ford assembly
operation in nearby Richmond,
Hall-Scott Motors in Berkeley –
all spawning a network of fabricators
and suppliers. Residential
development and a new highway
system spurred enthusiasm for
the automobile.
Moal's Auto Metal Works was one of dozens of small
garages serving the growing trade. William Moal did body
and fender work, along with wheel and radiator repair. The
Moal flair for unique coachwork might have begun with
William Moal's creation of a custom body – the Battistini –
on a 1922 Buick chassis. "It was hard work then," Moal
says. "He and my grandmother had nine kids. He even made
stills during Prohibition. My dad, George, continued in the
business and moved his body and fender operation into this
building in 1946. He was attracted to big American cars;
Duesenbergs, Auburn Speedsters, Murphy-bodied cars from
Pasadena, Indy race cars.
"He inherited and learned my grandfather's woodworking
skills and loved speedboats – maybe even more than
cars. He fabricated metal cowlings, seat backs and fin
tails on boats like Len Gradetti's 'California Kid'. In those
days they formed metal with peen hammers on shot-filled
sandbags; they didn't use the English wheel like we do
today. But again it was hard work and times were lean –
I remember my dad coming home for dinner, then going
back to work."
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