Model-40 Custom

Model-40 Custom

Not long ago, I went out to dinner with a few good pals – all car guys. We weren’t celebrating anything in particular, but one of our meal mates had just located and procured a cherry ’34 roadster earlier that day. Of course, we spent most of the evening discussing direction and essentially doing a group “mental build” of the car. I envisioned a full-fendered and mild early hot rod. Another saw a highboy with a slammed stance and a mean Cad motor. And yet another… well, you get the picture.

We all had opinions. None so, however, as strong as one. See, one from our party was completely sold on the idea that a ’34 roadster would make a hell of an early custom. It was almost as if the entire restaurant burst into laughter at the admission. Henry’s hot rod as a custom? Huh?

I didn’t laugh… The last time I had heard of such an argument came from the late Steve Hendrickson. He was on the model-40 custom boat as well and had the photograph to back his claims. The image above was attached to an email that Steve sent me in September of 2000. The following text accompanied it:

“Ryan, here’s proof I’m not nuts.”

He wasn’t sure who owned the car or when it was shot. In fact, the only thing we know about the little custom is what you can see in the image – smoothy running boards, skirts, spinners, solid hood sides, Lincoln bumpers (I think), etc… And you know what? Although I never admitted it to Steve, I think it’s gorgeous.

Who’s laughing now?

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