This is the day we got it, fresh off the truck. That's my dad, who always wanted one of these when he was young. Might not look like it, but it was fully functional. The engine was smoky and it didn't have refinements like horns, but she fired right up and ran smooth and strong. The car came from Minnesota, near Lake Minnetonka, but we don't know the history. The heads, intake, and carbs were fresh, but bolted to a tired stock 8BA. The rest was all vintage except for the '32 frame, which had been replaced with a new repop. The body has a lot of patch panels in it, so the car might well have lived in snow country for a long time. Those are real '50 Pontiac tail lights: chrome pits, crazing, and all.

It looks rough, but it was assembled with all the right parts: '40 axles, wheels, steering, and brakes, split front wishbone with 4" dropped axle, '39 Lincoln Zephyr trans with o/d. Neat stuff, and a great place to start for a novice Ford rodder. I had a '30 chassis, cowl, and 8BA block, but this was a lot faster and I could drive it now! For those of you who know what you're looking at this was great. For the average person, this looked like dog crap. To a certain faction this was a 'rat rod', which I didn't want, so a quick coat of grey primer civilized it some while I evaluated my plans.

This shows the engine in as arrived condition. The wires were sloppy, but the headers were beautiful (Red's I believe) which led to a set of Smithys. These went out to the back in twin pipes, obviously new. The engine turned out to be a worn but sound original, apparently never rebuilt!

The interior shot reveals all sorts of things. The '40 steering wheel is a gennie original (with cracks) with column shift (A's needed the floor space and these were popular in the early 40's). The windsheld has a nice 2" chop. The fuel tank was opened who knows how long ago, and the SW speedo was an old original. The other gauges were recent SW basic replacements, but the spacing looks nice, and the metal face panel was welded and filled where the stock speedo lived. I like this basic arrangement but I'm not exactly sure how I intend to finish it off. It will get classic SW's though.

Here is the Model T tank and relocated battery, a popular layout in the '40's. This configuration virtually destroys the utility, so the T tank came out and the battery moved to under the seat. A Land Rover gas tank now does the job.

A new grille shell and some additional paint detail gets it further away from the rat rod look. The windshield stanchions have been chromed as well. An outside rearview mirror is added as is a nice new Indian blanket interior (Navajo). Really perks up the look.