Marty McCorquadale was a devoted husband, US Army Veteran, like a second father to me, Long Island native, and a lifelong Ford fanatic. He worked as a body man at dealerships/ collision centers, couple restoration/rod shops with his last years spent at Early Custom Rods in Raleigh, NC. He and his wife Terri loved going to car shows, swap meets, and hunting for antiques all over NC a**** other things. Marty’s legacy, The hot rod, 1931 Ford Model A 5 window: In 1987, Marty traded a 32 ford truck roller for a rusted-out 1931 Ford Model A coupe shell. He pestered the owner for 2 years to trade for the truck, and the owner called him literally the same day Marty and Terri had their cars loaded to move to Raleigh NC! (What are the chances?) They swapped the vehicles, loaded up the coupe in addition to their belongings and began their journey to NC. I believe it was originally a track/street race car in the 60/70s in the Meadville/Erie PA area. Marty spent over 30 years painstakingly restoring it, all steel! Unfortunately, he p***ed away just before finishing the last few items like the interior and wiring, so he wasn’t able to take his wife of 40 years for cruises and car shows to enjoy the car he spent half his life building. His wife Terri honored his memory and had his friends at Early Rods finish the car enough to make it road worthy in NC. His idea was to paint it in Yellow rush. Very general details. Steel body with hundreds if not thousands of hours of labor Late 90’s @the flatlander frame (from Norfolk) with a small ford 9” rear 350 SBC / Turbo 350 Longer read but appreciate those that spent the time, Marty meant the world to me and I am beyond fortunate that Terri paid to have the car finished and after having it for a little over a year gifted it to me. Honestly, I didn’t plan on having a hot rod or ‘toy’ for at least another 20 years for the typical reasons (kids/responsibilities/house/etc). ‘The Coupe’ will forever be a member and apart of our family! Now I am doing what I can to get it road legal in PA and it is proving to be way more difficult than it should be. I will be posting updates when I can. Additional photos in follow up post, as I find others I will post them here.
I opened this back up and edited out a bunch of new stuff not allowed on the HAMB. You have some neat pictures of Old Coupe and shop accessories. The focus is of the HAMB is Traditional Hot Rods and Custom Cars/ Trucks prior to 1965. Thanks, Moderator
Greatly appreciated! Apologies for breaching the guidelines. I would ask if he was still alive, I could only ***ume that the SBC is more budget friendly and more readily available parts. He built this over many years on a limited budget. With the forum being pre 65 this info and the pictures were deleted by the moderator and I completely understand, so I can’t fully detail how much of a Ford Fan he was. But it was considerable.
Small block Chevys in old Fords are more common than Fords in old Fords. It's ok, don't let people rattle your cage. Sorry about your friend. Glad you got his car. I hear it's easier to license a car in Maryland than Pennsylvania, any way to pull that off?
I may check into that if PA refuses to register the car without major modifications. I hear Montana is also an option but I would have to set up an LLc and that’s a whole different rigmarole.
I’m sure there’s plenty of hot rods in PA, try to find out what others have had to do to get theirs legal. I’d bet you might even get some help from people here. Your friend built a very cool car, SBC included, I’m sure you’re very proud to be its new caretaker. He also had an impressive collection of “stuff”.
Looks like Ford published Marty’s story: https://performance.ford.com/enthusiasts/fan-spotlight/2024/2/1931-model-a-.html Not sure if anyone on here had any influence with Ford Performance or they decided to run it but regardless, it brought his wife to tears and is over the moon about it. Update on the car: No physical progress, but I have acquired a complete motor and ****** gasket set from summit racing to fix the leaks. Acquired all of the e-brake components minus the internal drum actuator levers the cables hook up to, need to do some more research. Also acquired most of the components to create a pcv system as the oil pressure at idle seems high.
Update on the car, it’s a rough overview but I wanted to provide slow progress: The 31’ is officially PA registered and inspected! What a long and crazy process, had the paperwork/car rejected a couple times. -Speedway tach mounted on column - would like to find older mooneyes tach to go with other original moon gauges. -Temporarily Changed out valve covers to integrate a PCV and breather . Will be welding bungs to the ends of the fully closed original covers to create a PCV and vacuum based set up with an oil catch can with breather on the p***enger side. -highly modified speedway wiper kit to become removable with high strength magnets to mount under roof visor for rain. -Cut hole in floor and added Lokar stainless trans mount ebrake system. -Added traffic light finder and rigged to windshield bracket instead of using the magnet. -New master cylinder CENTRIC 13061011. - calculated 5.5:1 brake pedal ratio. -New speedway needle/proportioning valve. -New nicop lines to new braided steel flex hose to rear axle. -New nicop lines to the new wheel cylinders. -New drum components, all of them. -removed driveshaft to install new speedway u joints, new they felt more rough even lubricated than the old Dana ****er ones that came in the car. Reinstalled the old Dana ****er, u joints and put driveshaft back in the car. Crazy on the quality difference and both new ujoints did not feel smooth. Will eventually go to sealed units as there is a mess under the car now. Bleeding the frame mounted master cylinder based brake system was an absolute PAIN, went through probably a gallon of dot 4 fluid. Used a pressure booster on the MC combined with a fluid extractor as a vacuum on each bleeder at the same time and seemed to do OK. Solid pedal but I think I might go to rear disc brakes soon as I feel the fronts lock up too fast. -removed almost every interior vinyl covered panel as all the glue is coming undone and the vinyl was falling off. Bought a well used BEA fine wire stable gun off eBay and stapled all of the interior panels, the kids helped a bit. -cut interior firewall kick panel in half and modified at steering column to expose wiring. No #995 alternator exciter circuit wire found, wired that in to #916 at midi fuse on p***enger side. -Cut a few fan guard grill sections to move the wire away from the water pump pulley that only had 1/8” of clearance. -replaced sketchy alternator eyelet lug and completed missing exciter circuit. -hard mounted fan relay, breaker switch, other wiring items that were floating around held by zip ties. -Found that some goomba ground off the neutral ridge of the Lokar shifter so the neutral safety switch would not engage in neutral, only in park. Made a byp*** toggle switch so the car can start in neutral again when I have to shut the car down, p***ing horse and buggies (Amish and country where I am) since I don’t have a welder to build the ridge back up. -Fixed and modified /created a new internal door latching mechanisms. Good bit of of work! -Did rear main seal and bearing. Need to remove and clean up where new seal rides. -straightening out and fixing used chrome oil pan as all the new ones I’ve been buying I have not been good. -installed child car seat anchors and child car seat so my kids can ride along, modified some ford fusion anchors and can still keep the lap belts. Keeping the next generation into hot rodding! I’m sure I’m missing stuff and will post more pictures / updates when I have time.
The Jalopy Journal
