I might be showing my age one way or another here (either by knowing some obscure fact or by showing my dementia) ....But didn't Tom Meents of Maximum destruction fame, start out by running a mudder with a Model A sedan body?
Tom Meents?, I think so too, but Paul Schafer was mud patrol, and monster patrol.
I know what you mean about the Cal. Kid. The interesting thing is most of those older monster trucks have retired, and the bodies have moved on to someone else.