Art & Inspiration The Dean Jeffries GT/109

I'm confused, perhaps a spellcheck error? I see "Dean" and "Gene" used for the same person? Is Gene a second person?

 

The wife and I had gone to his shop to have a frame, tank, and fender painted. I told him what I wanted that was similar to a Ford shoebox and an Impala that he had painted. He was very cordial and took us into the office where he had the snapshots of all of his paintwork and showed us the two cars that I had mentioned.
He asked if we wanted to see the shop and, of course, we were very happy to see it. I had never seen a GT convertible before. He acted as if it was a normal, everyday custom of his. We spent about a half hour and got to see his '34 and all of his projects. Great guy. Thanks for your information, it brought back some memories.

 

@Ryan , you don’t need to blame spellcheck just blame it on the knucklehead who created it.

 

I kinda remember reading in a magazine (or maybe on the internet) that at one point Dean was in the process of installing a twin-cam (actually maybe four-cam) Ford Indy engine in it.

Yeah, just found some pics on the internet. The engine I am speaking of had the exhaust coming out the top of the engine and the carbs/injection where the exhaust usually is. Pics of the restored car heading to auction show standard intake/exhaust arrangement.

Edit: Seems the engine was a quad-cam 255ci Indy engine, one of several given to Jeffries when he got the GT40 from Jacques Passino.

 

Dean was a great guy!

I was also lucky enough to visit him a couple times. I very much enjoyed seeing the shop and tons of old photos in his office and hearing his stories.

I'll apologize now for the sideways video - I couldn't figure out how to rotate it on YouTube, but it's cool to hear him talk about the GT Roadster. This was from our visit on January 27th, 2011, during the GNRS.

 

One of the most beautiful cars ever. Being a custom guy, I would love to own a GT just the same....a custom GT would be perfect!

 

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Awesome

 

The motor in the car in Malcolm's video is the 4 Cam 255 Ford. My dad had one of those engines for 30 years, planning to put it in something but never did.

 

Wow, Dean Jeffries one of the best customizers in my opinion and owning such a rare race car, thankfully he was smart enough to acquire the car before it drifted of into obscurity or worse, cut up and used for parts . HRP

 

The engine in the pic you posted looks to be the Indy engine.

 

Very cool

 

Correct, its the a 4 cam Indy engine in that photo. Easily identifiable from the F-O-R-D script covers in shot, along with the headers coming out the top of the V. While most 4 cam Indy engines had mechanical injection (four stacks on each side) this one has the vertical downdraft IDA Weber manifolds that cranked through 45 deg into the ports.

 

It was on the cover of Street Rodder as well.

 

Dean's custom version is better. Thanks for sharing the story!

 

They would run those 4 Cam Fords in front engine dirt cars by switching the heads side to side so the exhaust exited on the side.

 

I have been spending time in LA since 1963 and his shop has always been there, looking down on the 101. He had been my idol since 1956.

In 2011, I too was nervously hesitant to approach Dean until I came up with the plan to interview him about t-shirt airbrushing in the '50's. Wound up hanging out for an hour or so. He confirmed that his friend Kenny Howard was the first to paint shirts and Dean had gotten the idea from him. Neither of them had ever heard of Ed Roth at that time!

First photo is from his book, which is highly recommended.

 

Bad ass!

 

Ryan, are you renting space in my head?

Everything you wrote about Dean Jeffries I completely agree about. He's my favorite car customizer mainly because of what he did to a Porsche Carrera. He could take a great car and make it better.

To have met the man, Ryan, you have my eternal props. Outstanding.

 

One more thing: if I had the money, I'd buy that GT and restore it to the way Dean had it. Can't improve on perfection...

 

I gotta admit, just the two racing stripes or NONE at all, to emphasize his "smoothing" of the body! Great write up, and I've always loved that flamed '34 as well.....lifelong Monkeemobile fan too!

 

The Manta ray showed he had vision. Dean was a cool guy with the coolest cars.

 

Hey, this is your place and all, but how in every possible fuck is a GT40 O/T here? An American powered American funded and most notably American successfully campaigned double throw down bad ass "FUCK YOU!!" of a racecar? The baddest of the bad having the George "The Animal" Steele of all engines, a Ford 427? If that's O/T then we have succumbed to nothing but doowop old artifacts and cliche hot rods. Sorry man, yeah you're the fearless leader but unless the spirit has been lost on me all these years I don't see how you can say that. What next, no FEDs with OHV power? Woody's not allowed?

Ok, ok, ok, I'm being a dick. But that's because of all the cars I've had the opportunity to be near, to see, to even smell as they drive by, nothing has ever moved me like a legit GT40. Aside from (in my opinion) it's timeless looks the whole story is Mom's apple pie with sauce made from pure Kentucky bourbon and just as intoxicating. And Dean's roadster? What dreams are made of. I hate you (not in a bad way) that you got to experience that. I love you (also not in a bad way) for sharing it with us. Point of fact, although it's been a few years I try to stay in touch with one of the 3 OG engineers sent to create the GT40. The last time we got our eyes burned at a nitro cacklefest. Wait, those aren't O/T are they?