Ok guys, please bear with me since this is going to be a longer story. A dream of mine came true and I think it´s worth to tell the whole story.My English is not too good and I´m still on a learning curve about early Fords so any kind of input is very helpful to me.... Ok, let´s start back in early 2006. I was finishing my 34 Plymouth project, a tudor sedan aswell, when my best friend René ( rip) called me and asked if I wanted to join him and his wife Gudrun go to the Viva Las Vegas show and spend some days in the US with them. Sure enough I was in since Gudrun works for an Airline and gets good flight discounts and I could help them with René´s wheel chair. It was my first trip to the western USA and I was pretty overwhelmed driving through the desert from LA to Las Vegas. We checked in at the Gold Coast Hotel on Friday and the first cars were already being parked at the top park deck over which we had a great view from our room. So sure enough we went to check out the cars that were already there...
I was stopped in my tracks by the Immortals cars... hell, that was it!...the Bean Bandit Landspeed Racer, Tom Branch´s 32 roadster and most of all his little flat yellow 34 sedan caught my eye and made me come back to the Vintage Hammer Garage´s stall a couple of times over this easter weekend, look around and ask somebody some silly questions about the frame, the stance. Even Gene Winfield who had a stall right next caught me crawling under the 34 and asked if I was stealing somebody´s ideas. hahahaha I was out of words and getting red and he was just laughing at me, I was blushing being caught like a little boy thumbing through a titty mag...what a cool guy to meet. How the hell could I get my fullfendered Plymouth have the rake and the stance like this unguilty and at the same time mean looking 34 Ford? Back home I decided to leave the Plymouth alone and the way it was because I realized that the 34 Plymouth frame with the stock IFS would never look as good as the 32 Ford frame under the 34. So it was better to leave the fenders on.... the more bulky Plymouth body wouldn´t help either. Fast forward to 2013... I was refurbishing my house and building a garage, so I had to sell some cars and projects. I got a good offer for my 34 Plymouth and so it went to a new home.... after a year and a half I regreted I sold it and asked the buyer if he ´d sell it back to me.... He said "no way", and that it was his most reliable car... ohhhh well , good and bad for me--- I had to find another 34 Plymouth project... so I started to search the HAMB classifieds.. To be continued---
Ok, here it goes... about nine years after this very Viva Las Vegas Show I was drooling over this little flat yellow chopped 34 sedan I found this exact car for sale in the HAMB classifieds. It was owned by a fellow HAMBer from Dallas at that time and after few emails and phone calls back and forth we struck a deal in early November ´14 and the seller even helped me finding a dependable shipper who wouldn´t screw up the car putting it in a container with a fork lift! I couldn´t believe I had bought the car I tried to clone almost 10 years ago !!!! Sight unseen of course.... After 6 endless months of waiting for my new 34 I got a call from the shipper last Wednesday that the car had cleared the European customs and that I could pick up the car! The car was unloaded from the container by a guy in northern Germany which made this a 1000 mile roadtrip to pick it up ... So I managed to take a day off on Thursday, borrowed a trailer from my buddy Tom and off we went.... even my shotgun rider Martin was nervous and almost as excited as me, hahahha he tried to calm his nerves with a couple of beers, but this didn´t help much... Andy helped to load the car which started and idled as a charm after being parked for half a year....gotta love a Y-Block ford I really couldn´t keep my eyes off the rear view mirror towing this bare bones badass Hot Rod!!!!
FREAKIN' AWESOME! Love that car and the fact that the Cosmos came together and put it into you hands!! Congrats
Shotgun rider Martin got a couple fresh beers and I was happy as a camper could ever be!The pic proofs it! On our way back south we had lots of rain and traffic jams... that got me some time to call some buddies for a "two day hot rod welcome party "! Best friends ever! And everyone got a test ride in the rain too ,hahaha I´m still recovering from the party but happy as I can be!!
That´s what I feel that happened...thanks for the good words, guys! Here´s a pic of my Dad and me, checking out the 34--- Dad´s not a car guy at all, but he was stocked and he honestly asked me if he could borrow it to take out his date, ... Mom...hahahahaha Last pic is the 34 at his new home, saying hi to his new friends , havin´ a beer and chatting ....shooting to bull I guess, ´bout the old times... All I know about this Hot Rod is that it was built to it´s today´s condition by Fabian Valdez of Vintage Hammer Garage in So Cal and that it was sold to me by a fellow Hamber from Fort Worth/ Dallas, Tx. All the newer welds are perfect and there also are a few old gas welds... the chop seems to be older that the rest of the body welds, these welds seem to be hammer and gas welded. I would like to keep this car as period correct as possible and I love the stance of it. But to make it street legal here in Germany I will have to make some alterations, like turn signals,a horn, a parking brake, hazard flashers, minimal interior to cover sharp edges, hi/lo beam lights, front side glass and kind of a "sealed " floor. Maybe some of you know something about this car, who owned it before, what it looked like in former versions, I really appriciate all of your input. I´m collecting ideas how I can get it modified to road legel conoditions without screwing out the overall appearence... I am thinging about black vinyl tuck and roll bucket seat covers, blck rubber mat or carpet as floor covers, black tuck and roll door panels and inner 1/4 panel covers. Maybe removable side glass for the doors... The chassis is well thought out, there´s no bump steer or vibration at any speed and it handles like a gokart, really amazing!
Congrats! I'm glad somebody finally bought it. I'm sure you'll show that car the respect it deserves.
Cool story, cool Hot Rod! Fabian Valdez is hard core HOT ROD.....met him at Bonneville....and a real cool guy. You can be proud that you own a Hot Rod that he had a hand in building! Keep the changes minimal.
Thank you!!! That´s exactly what I´m trying to achieve... it won´t get an SBC,and billet stuff, promised, hahaha
Thank you! Yes, I am so glad I could get this car, it was not too easy, but where´s a will there´s a way. Fabien really put a lot of effort in the chassis, it handles great, even when the rear gets loose... drives like a hot rod should!
Congrats! I don't know anything about the car, but I know Fabian; if Fabian built the car, it's good! I'm certain that he'd answer any questions that you may have. Do you still have your '56? vic
My friends were making fun of me last weekend because I ´ve owned mostly GM powered cars until now so I got me a Y-Block book to get a clue.... I got a 301 ounched 283 in my living room for a future project...here we go , the jokes are on me hahaha You are also free to guess what Günter ( aka djfordmanjack) thinks a about a small chevy... hahaha, we really had fun at the welcome party. Good to have friends!
Good one mate. I am glad to see that great hot rod went to a good home. The modifications you mention won't need to be done in a way that will alter the great look of this hot rod. Your hot rod. Bringing a car from another country can really test one's patience out. But as you have found it is definitely worth it. Even taking into account the extra costs involved over and above the actual cost of the car. I have done it twice now and both times, the challenges involved were the furthest from my mind when the car was on the trailer following me home. Geoff aka whodaky
Yes,that´s what I heard... I also talked to Fabian in ´06 at the VLV show but never realizied who he was. He knows his stuff, that´s for sure... I still got the 56 , you can see it in the left corner in the Garage pic! I know what you mean. Thank you for your kind words. I really dream of visiting Bonneville one day. It would be great for me to see this 34 back in Bonneville on day, of course with me on the wheel, hahahahaha I know this car is an icon... and I kinda felt bad for me removing it from it´s home turf. But I promise I´ll take good care of it and drive it a lot .
I think you've got a great car and am sure you'll treat it well. I have NO issues with a car leaving the US. I think it expands the "hot rod horizons" for all of us. Best to you. Enjoy Jim
Thanks a lot for the kind words folks... I´m still more than overwhelmed. I´ll keep you posted about the progress I make getting this car on the road but first I´ll take some time to learn about it and get the feeling for the details before I start .
I almost pulled the trigger on that car glad I let it slip threw my grasp It's with the right person it's meant too be
I´m glad aswell, thank you guys! As you can see it was raining cats and dogs last weekend which wasn´t enough to keep me from test driving the 34 a couple of times.... Of course there are some things on my list that need attention ( waterproofing for european weather is one of them, hahahaha)but I´m having so much fun! I also love the dash with the old Stuart Warner gauges... only thing that doesn´t work is the odometer...
Yep, id say the start aligned for ya, cool story, neat how it all ended up. I know alot of people dont like cars going over seas, but i dont have any problem with it at all, you guys love the cars as much as we do if not more, so what really is the difference? Good luck and have fun. PS, my buddy knows Fabian, he was hanging around when the car was originally built.
This is just soooo wrong, on so many levels..............................but, it is funny as hell (evidently on the same amount of levels) ! Thanks for soaking my keyboard in beer this afternoon!
The Jalopy Journal
