In the late 1990's, Axle Idzardi and his brother Marky discovered a mysterious coupe peaking out of an open neighborhood garage. It was a 1938 Ford coupe that had been chopped, smoothed, and lowered in a style that reflected the late 1940's. The brot... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Grate story,... I love it when History is preserved,... and the story dosen't die off with the original owner / Builder,.... Good Stuff Boss !
It's amazing the talent that arose out of Compton, Southgate, Bell, Lynwood Etc..at that time. I remember seeing customs every once in a while, while visiting our Grandmother in Compton as a kid, the mystique and bad ass quality they displayed even back then. I never thought once that my parents would point them out to me while driving down Atlantic Blvd. " Oh look Son at that odd automobile". They kept to them selves as we pulled along side one at a stop light. I stared at the guys driving with their heads tucked under the chop....hoodlum, rebel, wolf.....yeah!
Beautiful car. Im a BIG fan of the 38 deluxe 39 standard front sheetmetal. But that backard grill with the original light/fender is killer. Im not too big on the sealed beam conversions though.....Proportions are killer. Looks like its at a good home, cant wait to see it finished.
The collective talent in that area was amazing...can't wait to see it completed. My buddy had a similiar occurance...while driving a truck for a materials yard he happened to spot a little deuce pickup on blocks in an old dilapidated barn that looked like the next strong wind would cause it to implode. For years he tried to get pry it from the then owners hands....finally after about 5 years (during this whole time he never told anybody about it) the owner agreed to sell it and a price was agreed upon. He took it home piece by piece and slowly put it back together...when he finally took it out for a maiden voyage he stopped by his friend's shop and his friend and another buddy both at the same time exclaimed they had seen that car before...mind you it definitely (and still does) show some serious patina and the wooden bed and bed sides are in need of repair but the thing is just killer looking. Anyways after about an hour or two his friend Lyle drags out an old hot rod book by Ganahl or one of the other hot rod journalists (I will find out for sure which book and try to get pictures) and there it is sitting in front of Roth's shop in the late 50's in it's original form all bright and shiny. Someday when life starts treating him a better he plans on taking it back to it's original state as seen in the book...in the meantime he drives the wheels off that sucker.
I have always loved this car ever since I first saw it in the Barris Technique book. And I'm really happy I will be able to check it out in person in less than a week!. Small Correction on the photo captions. The photo of the car in dark paint with the dark background is not the Custom Cars 101 book, but rather the Dan Post California Custom Car Photo Album book from 1947 And the photo below is from the Custom Cars Trend book 101.. and not the Dan Post book.
Great story. I hope they have enough room at the show for all the cars that keep coming out of the woodwork.
Man i am really lovin this one. They nailed the chop too, and thats a hard roof to chop and make look just right..
Great story, very well done car, and some mystery as well. When's the movie come out? Nice write-up Ryan!
Amazing, the bumpers on it now don't look like Desotos, have they been replaced with Briz jobs? I wish I could go to GNRS.
Dont think those are Briz Alluminum pieces. Those are blanck from the back. These have the same ribbed profile at the back... so they must be the real DeSoto units.
Just read the story a few days ago in the Lost Hot Rods book. That's soooo cool. Man some guys have all the luck!! At least it went to the right kind of guys. Imagine if it got swooped up, never researched and was now riding on billet 20's with an injected late model running gear! That woulda been a sin!
Wow cool car. I have a 39 std coupe that I want to start next. I was thinking of a clone of the boomer but a clone of this would be cool. I will have to enlist Koolkemps help!!