Mid-afternoon today the "Bell Tel Boomer" sold at BJ for $200K. '40 Std coupe, blown flathead, great understated look. Featured in small-page Car Craft in '54 or '55; looks like nobody has ****ed it up since then. Still stupid money, but I was pleased that it bought such a neat car.
I saw that and LMAO when the stupid announcer said "Great car with lots of providence. Good price." I bet if you'd asked him before hand what the "old restro mod" would bring he wouldn't have guessed anywhere near that. The thing that made this such a bright spot was that just a couple cars later a '37 billet car that was a Riddler Great Eight went for "just" 150,000 - probably a fifth of what it cost to build. $200,000 Over the years this car made several magazines including the cover of Car Craft in August 1955, Hop Up, Old Cars Weekly. Don Kilcup of Portland, Oregon, purchased this 1940 Ford coupe (the "Bell Tell Boomer") in 1951 from Bell Telephone Company for $350.00. He paid $467.50 for the Scot blower that he added and $125.00 for a Vertex magneto. He stroked and bored the flathead, added a hot cam, Zephyr valve springs, Belond Equaflow headers, domed the heads, added an 8BA oil pump and a high output Stewart-Warner fuel pump. He added five gauges under the dash to monitor manifold pressure, vacuum etc. He installed brown Co-Hyde (a period leatherette) on the seats, painted the dash light green and carpeted the floor in dark brown. He did the body work himself and painted the car 62 coats of Lynton Green lacquer. It was finished in 1955, and that is how is still is today!!! Dan Kilcup kept the car until his death 12 years ago. $150,000 1937 Ford Roadster with ZR-1 (Name Z-Force) 500 H.P., 6 speed ZF transmission, independent 9" Ford rear end, over 200 body modifications. Car was built to go to Detroit with no expense spared. Total drivetrain is chromed or polished. 1200 watt stereo, 14" brake rotor with 6 piston calipers, one-off 18" & 22" wheels. Record: Ridler Great "8" at Detroit; won "Millwinder" at Houston; "Boyds Pic" at Indy; Best Rod Atlanta & Georgia's Finest; Top "25" Shades of the Past. Gotta love it!
that car was so nice,,even though it was showing its age under the closeups,i was realy impressed how well built it was for 1955 standards!. ,,,hey RATRODDERZ,,ya see,,.... not EVERYTHING was a big pile o **** 'back in tha day!'
Some of those cars are really nice, but no way worth what they brought in. I cant see where any of the original cars will ever be worth more than what they paid for them. Some with history, one of a kind maybe, or celeb owned.
Danny did some machine work on a flathead for me 45 years ago. While I was at his shop, he took me in the back room and showed me the Ford. He pulled out the magazines too, that had the feature articles. I've never seen a '40 Ford since that compared to it. I knew that he built the car, but hadn't realized he also did the body and paint until I saw the Barrett-Jackson article. Check out the engine compartment and note that the motor was running when the picture was taken. What is the purpose of the unit located behind the generator? It appears to be a compressor of some type. How about the tank just to the right of it? The paint job on the heads on that engine was better than anything this teenager had ever seen on a car, up to that time!
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