I was asked about this car in another thread, but did not want to hijack someone else's thread so are writing this one to tell the story about this car. My father found this car on ebay a few years ago. It is a customized 1932 ford. It was clearly in rough shape but we were looking at the possibility of making it into a highboy roadster. We won the auction and my cousin and I went out to Ohio to pick it up. Looking at the car, we saw it was a traditional hot rod in every sense of the word. The frame had crossmembers that were made out of angle iron. I was about a senior in high school at the time, and just started learning to work on these old cars. I got the thing running, and got it ready to go on the road. I remember getting the fuel pump ready, working on some wiring for lights, checking the brakes, and all that good stuff. It did not take too long to get it ready. We wanted to take it to the Radir Wheels party that year. The night of that party was a terrible forecast, and it eventually started to rain that night. Somebody came up to my father and told him, "I know that car, it was in my book." He recognized the grill. The man was Arnie Shuman and the book was Cool Cars, Square Roll bars. He also drove a roadster to the show that year through the rain. He had pictures of cars from the 50's in New England in his book. Arnie did not have any copies of the book left, and my father had to search for a copy of it. Eventually, he found a copy on ebay and bought it. Looking through the book, the car was in there, and the owner was listed as Tutti Fortin. Tutti was a nickname, and not being his real name made it much more difficult to track him down. My father found Tutti's niece through a geneology website and it told him what town Tutti was possibly in. Searching the phone books, he found Tutti's brother's phone number. After calling Tutti's brother, we found out that Tutti did not have a listed phone number. After talking to Tutti, his son brought him down to take a look at the car. Tutti had built the car himself in the 50's. The angle iron used as crossmembers were bedframes that they would find on the curb on garbage night. To put the leather wrap around the edge of the body behind the seat, they needed a single piece of leather from a single cow. No leather shop had a piece that large. To get a piece of leather, they had to buy a cow, and have it slaughtered to get the leather needed. The car originally had a 6 cylinder GMC motor when Tutti built it, but he eventually switched this motor for a Hemi. His wife saved the nickels and dimes from shopping in a jar for a year to get the dual quads carbs to sit on top of the engine. The grill used to have an 'F' in the middle of the circle to represent their last name, Fortin. After seeing the car and talking to them, it was found out that Tutti's wife drove the car far more than he did when it was finished. Tutti and his son Ron came down to see the car. Tutti, being in his 80's, has a Plymouth Prowler that he has taken on the Hot Rod Power Tour. The car was one of the early hot rods on the East Coast that was painted up nicely and chromed to be taken to car shows. He also drag raced the car when it had the 6 cylinder GMC. They went back home after seeing the car, and kept in touch with us. After thinking about it for a little while, they decided that they would like to have the car back, and to bring it back to the way it was when they built it the first time. My dad sold the car back to them for exactly what it cost him. So my father, mother, and Arnie Shuman went up to deliver the car to them. Arnie do***ented it, and the reunion between the original builder and his car is in the second edition of Cool Cars and Square Roll Bars. Tutti's wife climbed into the car immediately.
What a cool story and congrats to your pops for being a stand up guy and selling the car back to the original builder.
That's a pretty damned cool story! I bet the old guy's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when he found out his old rod was still around. Your dad did the right thing.
Bedrails are really not good things to build car ch***is parts out of as they are a type of spring steel.
They used what they could find scrounging around because that was all they could afford in the 50's when they were building this car. It wasn't used for major components, seat frames and what not.
That's what hot rodding and caring about your fellow rodders is all about. My Dad is in his 80's now too. And even though he isn't a rodder, I know how much more things mean to him now at this time of life. You sure did right and it's good to know people like you are out there.
That is probably my favorite part of the story, showing how they figured out a way to get around a problem.
Very cool story! I like how Tutti's wife saved for the induction set up, then pretty well hi-jacked the car when it was finnished.
Dont know how i came across this posting, but i was the person who originally found the car stored away in a barn across from an old speedway in ohio. The owner really didnt know the history of the car, and i couldnt find anything about it, so i put it up on ebay to see it would sell for. Its kinda cool to find out that if found its way back home after all of these years. Nice story.
I wonder where in the eff the eff went. Love happy endings. Kudos for eating the gas bill to go get it.
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