This is my recently finished build. Why build a car of this style??? When I was a teenager, my cousin lived next door and had a 29 Ford that he had worked on since high school. It was in a constant state of improvement and mainly he drag raced it. We only lived about 5 miles from Quaker City Drag way. It was street legal and he would let me borrow the car and I just loved it. Imagine lending your car to a 16 year old. As years went on, he sold the car but offered it to me for $650 in 1989. At that time I was working on a car that I had hopes of getting in Hot Rod Mag.. I had NO room to store car so it was sold locally. By the way, the car I was working on made the Jan. 1990 Issue of Hot Rod. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o> </o> Fast forward to summer 2009. I met my cousin at a local cruse and we walked around looking at cars. He now has a beautiful 1952 Ford Pickup. I ask if he ever wishes he had kept his car. Answer was a definite yes. We talked some and I told him I was going to try to find the car. He had heard it was scrapped. I doubted it, so I posted flyers around town with photos and a reward. After several weeks I got a call. The car was in a little town only 5 miles from where I live. It was not the owner of the car who contacted me, and making contact with the owner was difficult. But long story short we got to see the car. This was the same person my cousin sold the car to back in 89. He had blown it up within 2 weeks of purchasing it and it has sat ever since in this location for almost 20 years on a dirt floor. You guessed it .a mass of rust. But even sadder was the only thing left of the car was the body, frame and front axle. Everything else was gone!!! We made several offers on the car more sentimental than actually worth it. The last offer was huge .answer was he was going to fix it up some day. We all know that song ..after sitting 20 years??? <o> </o> Here is the kind of guy my cousin is. He said if I wanted to build a car like it he would do my welding, help fabricate parts and I could do it in his shop. ( I now live in a villa, but have storage garage space) He has a weld shop that my uncle started in the early 50s. He has welded there for over 50 years and is STILL working in that shop every day. Hes in his early 70s. Im the punk at 63. <o> </o> In 2009 I started looking for parts to duplicate the car. Say what you want about E-bay, but without it I could not have built this car. Swap meets around here do not bring out 50s stuff. I did manage some parts at Carlisle. My cousin started out with a 29 Ford 4 door sedan, a 49 Olds engine, early Ford trans., enclosed drive shaft rear. So I went down the same road. Found a running car with a good solid body about 60 miles away, 3 Olds engines locally, and most of the rest from the internet. I used a 39 Ford trans. with late synro., a 40 Ford front and rear axle, enclosed drive shaft. All parts are either new or rebuilt. <o> </o> In the spring of 2010 we started on the car. Now his car was a little rougher than I would want to build a car today, so we basically built the same car with refinements i.e., smoother welds, LOTS of smoothing of parts and a lot of detail. To me, detail makes a car. <o> </o> So below are the results of approx. 16 months of work. Starting with a titled 29 Ford 4 door sedan just like he did. I must also give thanks to his brother in-law for doing the body work. (He is retired from GM Lordstown where he repaired damage to new car bodies a REALLY good body man.) Also I am blessed to have a great friend who painted the body for me. ( I got to wet sand and prime and sand and sand and sand) <o> </o> The first 3 photos are my cousins car back in the day. All the remaining photos are my build.
Nice story & build Bobbyb. You should drive it over to the owner of the original car & show him how it's done !! NICE!
I am so inspired by this saga. I'll be 63 soon, and still working, but some recently retired friends are offering to pitch in and help me finish my 37-year-old project truck. Your cousin and you have done a beautiful job recreating a memory and breathing fresh life into the hotrod spirit.
The Jalopy Journal
