I purchased this coupe on ebay a couple of years ago and it has just been sitting around while I decided what I wanted to do with it. It was chopped in the 1970's by John Bowman in Fontana California and spent most of it's life since in storage. Although it ran okay, it needed a rebuild and some added horsepower, so I brought it over to Rick Schnell's shop to have him work his magic on it. We replaced the later model heads with an earlier set, bored it out, installed a Merc crank and added a few other modifications. As you can see in the "before picture", the engine had a Mallory electronic distributor, which worked okay, but it left no room for a stock fan, which is something I really wanted. I have had a number of cars over the years that were equipped with Pertronix kits and they have never failed me, so why mess with success? They make a kit for the earlier Ford flathead that allows you to run a crab cap distributor and it provides ample clearance for the stock fan, as seen in the "after" picture. The Pertronix unit requires a slight modification to the mounting plate, as seen in the photo of another Pertronix-equipped flathead that I have, so I shopped around for a complete kit offered by some shops that requires no mods, but I had no success finding one. I recalled that "hotroddon" was connected to Pertronix, so I gave him a call and he said to send my distributor in and they would use it for a little R&D and make me one. How cool is that? Thanks to the talents of Rick and the customer service of hotroddon and Pertronix, my coupe started right up and hasn't missed a beat since. Best of all, the complete kit will be available this fall for all of you flathead lovers out there. P.S. Before you comment on the regulator/filter setup, the safety return spring and the green battery... they were just for startup.
WOW, That looks great! I like the color. I've been happy with Pertronix in the three distributors I've installed them. I'll forgive the fuel line but that battery is obnoxious! Why do they even make **** like that. Must be a tuner thing!
Correction! No good deed goes unpunished. The guy helps me out and I go and get his HAMB name wrong. It was hotroddon who set me up with Pertronix, not hotroddan. Thanks hotroddon!
327-365hp I grabbed the battery out of my tractor because I knew it had plenty of cranking power in case we ran into problems trying to fire up the flathead for the first time. However, just like you , Pertronix didn't let me down... not to mention the skills of Rick Schnell when it comes to old Fords. Speedon Rick will be bringing "Sliders", his 7-second flathead dragster, to MSRA's Super Secret Fun Run at Brainerd International this weekend. If you belong to MSRA, it's free and it's always a great time.
More details on the Pertronix set-up for early flatheads please! I've got a 46 flatty in my A Tudor and I'm tired of inferior quality points!
I invested into Pertronix dizzy/coil recently and was extremely impressed. I will continue to use their product from here on out.
The Jalopy Journal
