History Help me find some old photos of this Cedar Rapids Iowa 1940 Ford Coupe

Looks great! There's a picture of your car in the latest Goodguy's gazette - Des Moines show coverage. Pretty insignificant compared to these photo's, but a photo none the less.

 

OK.......Now the motor. This must have been a helluva challenge back in this era. I give Jack a lot of credit as not too many people pulled off a hemi installation as clean as this one. From here you can see the recess for the battery, chrome regulator cover, chrome generator, the Joe Hunt Magneto decal, 4 stelling air cleaners. Need some confirmation on the intake.


Looks like Jack took this photo to illustrate the clearance. It was a snug fit.


All the wiring and fuel lines were nice and tidy.


The hinges are chromed (and still are)


This is one of my favorite shots. Remember one of my earlier posts I was thinking of painting the motor bronze. This Engine was, and Jon gave me some old gas pedal linkage painted bronze so I can match it.
I also like the fuel line routing. Anybody know if they still make solid red fuel line. (almost looks similar to red air hose.)


Here is a nice shot...I have a line on an intake, shoot me a PM if you have carbs or an intake for sale.


Here you can see the 62 tag on the plate.


This old Ford must have been a handful......

 

Oh man, you have SCORED! WHAT a JEWEL! I know you know what to do. Colour me green...

man, for a lot of us, to find a car with this history, and do***entation like this is a dream. You lucky *******...

 

Off topic from the 40... I'll have to ask Renee more about the Triumph. I think this was Jack's. I like this picture because it must have been taken in front of a Triumph dealership based on the banner in the window.

Looks ready for business.

 

I want my '39 to sit like this. The stance is very close to Moriaritys 40.

and another one I have saved for future reference...

98% of the '39's and '40s being built now sit too low in the ***-end for that "period" look. The rear fenderwell lip should clear the top edge of the tire.

 

....Back to Hot Rods. Again this is where we need some Cedar Rapids Guys to fill us in on the details of these cars. The first is this dragster. This picture is a slice of Americana. That kid sure has some cool sungl***es, and the coolest bike in town, The gal with her back turned looks pretty sweet, there's that pimered 40 coupe with no hood sneaking in the picture, and a Plymouth Savoy.


This picture is really cool. The NHRA banner, wooden garage walls as a back drop for a chopped and channeled metallic blue 32 3 window coupe with a six carbed small block.
Who owned this car and where is it at today?


Cool mini breathers on the valve covers, frog mouth scoops, hurst mount, cool shot!


This pic is a little over exposed, but cool non the less


This must have been an outside show. Check out the 32 that was a work in progress. Corvette fuel injection, wide five wheels. Check that all Chrome Nailhead in the background. I think that belonged to Don Shantos in Minneapolis who briefly owned my 32 for a short period of time. Where was this show and when? and how did the motor end up in Cedar Rapids!






Heres a full shot of the 32 five window. Chopped, channeled, molded rear fenders, cycle fronts, this was a nicely proportioned hot rod. It would be interesting to find out more about this car too. And theres another shot of the chrome Nailhead!



Check out the nice "mill"

 

Chucky,
I don't get the gazette, can you snap a pic and post it up?

 

Absolutely.....I really like Moriarty's and I was trying to find a picture of the red 40 with Merc caps you posted. It was burned into my mind but I couldn't find it. Thanks.

 

The "57" on the plate refers to the county (Linn). If you list all 99 Iowa counties alphabetically, Linn would be 57th. It's how Iowa used to do it.

Gary

 

That red channeled 5 window is a knockout. the channeled 3 window is killer too. Neat stuff. You already know what I think, but I'd way rather look at actual period cars.

 

Full side-on shot...


Honestly, a little lower in front than I really want, I am going to try to run a 6.00-15 on the front with a 4 dropped axle and a stock front spring. Some guys are figuring its too tall and will rub but according to the original article on the John Meehan car in R&C,it had 6.40s on the front...

 

I forgot about that, I escaped Iowa at a young age. [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

 

It seems the more we learn about Jack from the car's history, the more similar you are to him. I think the 40 has the perfect home.

 

im thinkin it's a Weiand still, the cragar and hornes were a lower profile. I'll round up some pics of the two for ya.

 

the black channeled 32 with the vette fuel injection is a 3 window, awesome pics

 

here's a cragar and Weiand, see the last pic of the Weiand , notice bump on bottom front of intake, in the pics of the 40 you can see it too

I should be getting. my Weiand soon so I can set them next to each other

 

That was a cleanly built car for back then!

 

***us, thanks. I (we or any of us) just missed a Weiand on Minneapolis craigslist. Mark shot me a text, I called, and unless the number one guy flakes out its sold. Damn!

 

Are the carbs isolated from each other on the Weiand, and is the Cragar a common plenum?

 

I raced motorcycles in the early 60's and don't remember many guys in this area carrying an AMA Jr. license, which the yellow number plate with black numbers denotes, but I will ask a couple of old friends that also raced back then to see if they can remember the Bonneville and the number and let you know what I come up with.

 

Another thing that may help your search, it has a front brake, so its set up for TT or road-race, not flat track. Judging by the bars and tires, probably TT.

 

I tried on the cheater slicks to check wheel fitment and backspace before ordering some tires.

These wheels are 15 x 7 and tires are about 29.5" tall.

 

It's how Iowa still does it. If you look at an registration sticker on Iowa plates, the county number will be the prefix. Dubuque is 31.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming

 

Some of the guys in this area did bring their bikes out to race in some good old fashioned pasture scrambles too, so that could be why the front brake is on it. It wouldn't have been used for road racing in that form and wasn't any tracks around here that I was aware of anyway, so almost certainly was prepared for TT with a simple wheel change to switch over for flat track.

 

I concur, TT.

 

I thought about scrambles, but the rear tire isn't a knobby and it doesn't have high pipes, so I went with TT as the most likely.

 

Since I see only one black stripe on the pavement is it safe to say you didn't light 'em up?

 

Theres two, one was a little lighter. It quite possibly, might have been from the Roadster today....but I'm not sure.

 

A lot has happened since Sunday. Last night I talked to John who is from the Cedar Rapids area and is a long time Hot Rodder and was a good friend of Jack S Brazier. We talked for over two hours and I have six pages of notes. It will probably take a trip down there to continue the good discussion and he's into vintage dirt track racing to boot. I am going to print out some picture and he agreed to write down the details.

So now I have a good sense on what the car was like when Jack got it, I have some details on the Hemi Jack S put in the car, confirmation on the transmission, and where the motor went. Also have some history on the other cars posted that I will in some of the details on. Even a little history on the Triumph.

Late in the discussion John left one comment that resonated with me, when he said Jack S did not relieve the fenderwells for the Hemi, as they were already relieved for a previously installed Ardun when the car was in Minneapolis.

So, last night I fired an email off to Jon K. the Rhythm Rods Historian that helped pull some a lot of history together on the 32 and with a little searching he came up with a phone for Girard Christopher from Minneapolis. Quite frankly I thought the chances of getting ahold of another prior owner were not even in the cards. But, I just got off the phone with Girard and he confirmed that the car was indeed powered by an Ardun and also had a Columbia two-speed rear-end.

Girard said the car was built in the early fifties in Minneapolis buy the son of a wealthy Minneapolis businessman that ran several lumber yards in the Twin Cities. Thought the name was Weinhauser(sp?). The kid had the car built around 50-54, all by MPLS guys, but had problems with the Ardun, decided to pull it and replaced it with a 48 Merc flathead and sold the car to Girard sometime in 1954. Girard had the car two years and couldn't keep it and his 54 Chev, and decided to sell it in 1956. He originally had the car sold to a guy in Rockford IL, but when he left to deliver it the Columbia rear end gave out in Rochester Mn and he had to head back home. Sounds like that buyer moved on to another Car, and after Girard repaired the rear he sold it to Jack S Brazier.

So the great thing is Girard is going to dig up some pictures, and he wants to come down and check out the car that he hasn't seen in 59 years.

Getting late......I'll post up more details on my conversation with John P on some great details, and hopefully follow up in the future with some pictures of the car when it was in MPLS at least from 54-56!

 

Wow that's a great story! Amazing history, can't wait to see the next set of photos.
I thought a simple old hemi powered 40 coupe was cool, this car is now on a whole other level!