Boone's thread about the smooth Hals showed a pic of this car that I've been trying to find out more about for YEARS. I first saw it, or, a portion of it in RnC shortly after they came back in '88. It was in the letters section and they were joking about the car, making it out to be a rare factory prototype. At least I THINK they were kidding! The letter said it was a 28 or 9 but the cowl is more like a 30-1. Another thing of note, is that it has a cool cowl vent on the side. This car is so cool, only thing better, is if it sat on a deuce frame. Anybody with any info SPEAK UP!
If it's the same one I saw back in '98 it has Mercury badges all over it.... never talked to the driver.
The whole thing looks 30-31 to me. It's in that Peter Vincent coffee table book - small picture taken from far away there too though - and there is a sort of tongue-in-cheek reference to it really being a Lincoln or the owner insisting it's really a Lincoln or something. Just looks like a nicely built A sedan with a set of wheels I would love to see on my car.
Jeem, I have been looking at that pic over the past few days and thought the front looked different, could not put my finger on it. Now I know.. I found a pic of it in a book called Hot Rod by Peter Vincent (with yellow car on front) said it is owned by a Jim Kitchen.. it looks like a 30/31 cowl..
I looked through all my pics and couldn't find any more pic of it. I just looked through my Peter Vincent books and scanned the pics.
Can't see the character lines at top of cowl well enough to be sure, but I think is likely a '28-9 tudor back and a cowl (and hood) from '28-9 fordor. Easiest way to ID this cowl is said character lines, which are different from '30-31. Find some pics of an early fordor and compare...also, the fourdoors had side vent doors for a very short time in early production.
Man Jeem, I swear that it was featured in either Rodders Digest, Hot Rod Mechanix or American Rodder but I went through ALL of my magazines this weekend looking for it and came up with nothing. I've seen the car in person and it's really cool. I took some pictures of it too but I can't seem to find them either. Jeez I 'm a lot of help, huh?
Found the issue with the letter from Mr. Kitchen. The Halibrands, the sunken license, etc., etc.. It's all hot rod. The cowl vent is neat. Whatever the case, it's super cool.
Here is a photo of a 28-29 Fordor cowl I bought for the 28-29 tank, never noticed the belt moulding would lign up with a 30-31 like the Aqua Tudor.
This may show my ignorance,but I was unaware thatthe 28-29 four door cowl area was different than the two door.Is this a fact?
According to Jim's write-up it appears that not only did this model "'29 Mercury'" debut the banjo wheel, but also a late model GM tilt steering column... revolutionary indeed... Yes, the cowl and hood of a '29 Fordor is different that the same year tudor & roadster. The '29 Fordor appears more like a '30-'31. The sedan almost appears a 2-door conversion of a '29 Fordor. But that's a helluva lot of work, for little return.
Oh, I don't know about the "little return" part. That car is damn cool and it has all of us chatting about it wondering what it is. I'd say the builder/owner has had a pretty good return on it. Jeem, I've seen that Rod & Custom bit but I swear that I saw a full blown feature in some other magazine, I just can't find it. Maybe I dreamt it.
Awesome car, showed up in a Bonneville thread this week. I needed to get another fix! Anymore pics of this car?
I useta know a junkyard that had that very early cowl with the side vents. That would be a big help on an A in summertime! If I were adding same, I'd use a raised door like you see on poatal trucks and stuff...ones like that were sold as aftermarket for Model A's.
You have accomplished something when you put together a Model A body that no one can quite place...this is a real phantom, not the sort of roadsterized '54 pickup that gets labeled that!
Looks to be a 4 door cowl on a 2 door. Just your everyday mix and match phantom hot rod. Built to mess with car guys heads. I always thought the 29-29 Model A's with the rib in the hood were Briggs made bodies.
Either way, this car has been talked about here several times and it looks as fressh now as the first time I saw it in ink years ago! Jeem, like I said it was also in an 09 Salt thread but I remember it from a GNRS or some other California event thread earlier this year.
Yep, it was at the GNRS last year(?)...finally got to see it up close. Very cool, this Kitchens fellow also had a neat '53(?) Plymouth that was getting a later hemi (also seen in a teaser type thing in RnC years back....I like the way this guy thinks.
The Jalopy Journal
