History Bill Grader's '36 Ford

Nice ride, it is a fine example of a early custom.

 

I remember THAT SEAT, stopped me cold..

 

A 36 on a 48 frame??? Blasphemy! What's next on the slippery sloop?
Actually a forward thinking idea, I wonder how close the mounts and such were to each other?
Interesting car, even with the couch

 

Built for comfort.

 

Beautiful 36! I'm sure the frame swap was not an easy bolt on, I have both models in my shop now and they are very different frames.
I'd like to see some details of how he did it.

 

I'm thinking the frame swap was a miscommunication with the original writer, and some 48 components, etc was used.

Sent from my SGH-T399 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Here's a vintage color photo of Bill Grader's (Cadillac Cypress Green) '36 Roadster:

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I think I like it better with the wide whites, rear skirts, and the DeSoto bumpers.

Not sure what these bumpers are from ... maybe ’49 Plymouth?

 

That would make a lot more sense. Parts like rear end(hyd brakes) transmission , steering gearbox(column/ shifter) etc. much like what was done to my 35 back in the fifties.

 

I'm not sure where I got it originally ... the JPEG (i.e., Bill Grader '36.jpg) has been in my "archives" since 2014.


UPDATE: I just performed a "Search Google for image" on the pic (via my Google Chrome browser) ... and got a hit for the pic on @Rikster's Custom Car Chronicle website ... and a hit for a similar photo that @Jive-Bomber included in his June 9th 2015 TJJ Blog (The Quintessential Custom 1936 Roadster):

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Makes ya wonder if the car is still around somewhere...

 

With so much of the grill blocked off and flatheads heating issues, I wonder if you could drive that car in traffic, or at all without it overheating.

 

I'm doubtful that its flathead ever overheated:

1) Seattle traffic in 1952 was nothing like the stop-n-go traffic that one would encounter in a US metropolitan area today.

2) In the cold winter months, '36 Ford owners would actually install "Pines Winter Front" accessory grilles that would block off the majority (or all) of the airflow to the radiator:

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Very cool

 

I doubt very much that a '48 chassis was installed under the car, there would be no point to it. In 1952, and later it would have been a very common up grade to install '42-48 running gear under a '36 Ford, I did that very thing in '52 when I purchased my '36 coupe. I wanted to loose the mechanical brakes so I parted out a '41. I installed the '41 brakes and column trans in my '36. In 1954 I installed a well built 59AB engine in the car, which prompted me to up grade the suspension to '46-48. I also installed a '40 Ford steering gear box and '40 column with a '47 steering wheel.
The front axle is a '41 that has been dropped two inches.. Used a '41 front axle because it is wider than the '36, therefore the tires fill the wheel wells better.
I have attached two pix, one of how my car looked from '52 to '60, the other of my car how it looked in '60 and later.. Note the '40 Chevy headlights in the '60 pix.

 

In the first picture looks like the axle or spindle is bent.

 

The wheel angle in the first pix is a distortion within the pix, probably a result of copying the pix.

 

There was a grill similar to the one on the Grader ride in the classifieds here, in the past couple of weeks, that was created from a Winterfront and other sheet metal I thought was very well done. When P-Wood and Thom Taylor built the '35 that became the'36 Delivery, he (P-Wood) lowered the head lights by cutting the bottoms down. You'll have to talk to about the details. I walked over every day while the build was going on. Even took my own pictures and tried not to get in Baskervlle's way. It was just another day in paradise for those guys, and this for me it is a good memory. I know why the couch is in Grader's '36. I once owned a '54 Chevy Sedan Delivery. It was the flower car at a funeral home before I got it. They stuck a red leather front seat in it out of an old hurse. It made you feel as comfortable as a man in a million dollar casket to ride around on it. The comfort level surpasses all other aesthetics. And, the older you get, the more it matters. That's howcome! I would bet he drove the wheels off that puppy. And, Ryan, you should read some John Cage. He understood randomness in a way it turned his music into an accident that when listened to with an open mind reaches levels like none other.

 

48 Seat I bet, that's the answer to "What's up with the seat" on such a good looking car.