For lovers of early Fords and old cars

Only had the phone with me, but this lovely old car was right there on the street and I had to take some photos.

I like the mod on the steering arm with no less than 3 universals...

Hi,

Nope. Pretty far from original. Original was a flathead 4 cylinder.

They might have used a flathead V8 instead, but that would require a higher level of mechanical prowess. So that's a much rarer form of hotrodding. Babbet bearings, mechanical tappets, dealing with de-siamesing the center ports, etc.

My dad was top of the flathead heap. Won a lot of championships using the V8-60. I grew up learning all about those as a kid.

Stan

You might be suprised, many of these rat rod/look cars are actually coated with a clearcoat 😋
No TLC needed 😁

Hi,

Here is a shot of my dad's ARDC midget from the late 1940s thru the 1950s.

The American Racing Driver's Club and the United States Automobile Club ran these purpose-built racing car types. That's as opposed to the Stock Car racing that began to overshadow the midgets in the very late 1950s. Mainly due to the much higher costs associated with building purpose-built race cars.

This shot is from 1948 and was taken by their official series photographer, Frank Smith. Using a 4x5 of unknown make, but likely a Speed Graphic. They were common back then.

You can clearly see the left side of the Ford 60 V8 engine sticking out here. So, visually very different from the modern V8 in that hot rod truck.

The other engine used a lot was the Offenhauser which was an overhead camshaft 4-cylinder. They were a lot more costly than the Ford 60, but didn't require the amount of mechanical and machining capability that making a Ford 60 go did. My dad was a toolmaker, so it was fairly easy for him to do his own work and not have to pay for it. Handy.

This is a shot of his brother Bob, who opted to use the Offy power most of the time, but this car also had V8-60 power.

Same story regarding the photo. Good old Frank Smith. :)

Oh, and the song called Hot Rod Lincoln is about a guy with a Model A Ford which he has stuffed in the larger flathead V8 from a Lincoln. That was a 150 HP, 337 CID version. The 60 HP which was stock for the Model B (1932 - the Duce Coupe) was 136 CID. There were other sizes of the flathead, but the 60 was the most common.

And, what I'd have put into this truck in place of the 4-cylinder.

Stan

Hi,

The oldest car I had was a 1933 coupe. What is called a 5-window. Stock except for some engine work to the original V8-60. So some hotrod go minus the hotrod show. ;)

And, no. I don't particularly want to mess with one again.

That Miata began as a clone of a Lotus Elan. Which I have had several of. A couple road ones and a few more racing ones. I wouldn't mind another Elan. :)

Stan