The Dick Fowler Ford

Long story, and you wouldn’t believe me anyway… But as the result of some craziness I’ve been dealing with the past couple of days, I don’t have a damned thing to write about today. So in lieu of a feature, how about a conversation of sorts? More specifically, let’s talk about the Dick Fowler ’38 Ford.

It’s on my top-50 list… and now that I’m thinking about it, it’s probably the only “ugly” car on my list. I mean, ’38 Fords are ugly – right?

Anyhow, the car was built in 1947 (I think) by Sam Barris. He chopped, channeled, and shaved the car so radically that the end result leaves you thinking about comfortable suppositories. The grille is off a 1942 Packard and the bumpers are typical ’37 Desoto units. And in all the early photos I can find, it was “finished” in write primer.

That’s really about all I know about the car. A few years back, Alex Idzardi showed up with it at the GNRS. As a ’38 Ford owner and appreciator, I swooned all over the car and was really impressed with the craftsmanship found throughout. For an old custom, it was done pretty damned well. And it seems like it had a SBC installed which makes me think the car hadn’t been “lost” all that long.

Regardless, the car popped up again on eBay a year or so with a price of something like $75,0000. In my opinion, that’s probably twice what the car is actually worth, but really… who knows? History sells.

Anyone know where this thing is now?