Custom-Rod Coupe

It’s a well-known fact that rods and customs slide into two different camps despite their smattering of similarities. More often than not, it doesn’t require much to tell the two apart. But the deeper into the history books you dive, the more cars come up that blur the line and remind us that the world of rods and customs isn’t simply painted in black and white. Somewhere in this gray area, the subgenre of custom-rods was born. The first version of Bill Block’s Wisconsin-based ’36 Ford would fit into that category.

Fords of 1936 origin have served as excellent platforms for hot rodding and customizing since they first rolled off the assembly line. Some were made to go fast like Ed Pink’s coupe, while others such as Jack Calori’s ’36 also took well to the custom treatment. Was Block’s three-window as brutal, graceful or radical as the aforementioned pair? Not quite. However, it is one of those few examples that leans more toward the custom end of the spectrum while maintaining its factory charm.

Mr. Block treated his Ford to a wealth of modifications that reflected mild customizing trends of the day. The car was smoothed (but interestingly not fully shaved), lowered, fitted with frenched Hudson taillights and a covered spare tire. He accessorized with ribbed ’49 Plymouth bumpers front and rear, while spotlights were mounted one either side of the chrome windshield frame. The wheelcovers were handmade for the 15-inch wheels on all four corners.

Under the hood, the car ran a hot flathead complete with Offy heads and a trio of Strombergs. As impressive as the engine was, the real attention grabber in the cove of glitz and polish was the chrome firewall panel. This attention to detail was carried over into the interior—a plush compartment finished in white and gold tuck-and-roll and white shag carpeting for an unmistakable late-’50s look. Much like the rest of the car, everything that could be chromed was, and Bill made sure to include more contemporary Ford pieces such as the shoebox steering wheel.

The coupe looked clean with its gold paint and white accents, but like many cars from the era, it was soon changed to garner more points on the show circuit. It was eventually transformed by Dave Puhl into the “Golden Chariot�?—and later “Brandy’s Chariot�?—complete with a cabinet pull grille, quad headlights and 30 coats of mother of pearl paint imported from somewhere in the Nordic regions. Its story gets a little sketchy from there, but it involved a raffle, a devastating fire and the distinctive front fenders surfacing at a KKOA swap meet. You can read more about its later history here.

Although I’m always in favor of removing an accessory or two, there’s no denying this early version of Block’s coupe has a whole lot of custom-rod charm. I’ll let Tom Anger’s photos from Hot Rod Magazine, December 1958 say the rest.

 —Joey Ukrop