Here is a nice 1940 Ford Deluxe convertible built to the late Forties hop up style. This neat original Ford was modified about 25 years ago by Hot Rod Historian Don Montgomery. The car was set up to be as it might have been in the late 1940s. The exterior has genuine steel, DeSoto bumpers, flipper hub caps with beauty rings andoriginal style rear fender skirts, with the correct lever clamping arms. The car is lowered using longer shackles and de-arched springs as was often done back then (Note that the car is not as low as the present day street rods are). The 15" Ford wheels have 6.70 x 15 Firestone whitewall tires on them. The car is like a mild hop up (street rod) of that postwar period.
High performance was not forgotten. The Ford/Mercury flathead engine has added speed equipment including a 1936 McCulloch supercharger, Edlebrock heads, a Potvin cam and Fenton iron headers. A Stromberg 48 carburetor feeds the gas and spark is provided by a rare Harman & Collins dual coil distributor using two DSM Mallory coils. The smooth exhaust note comes through two original Douglass Steel pack mufflers. Howard Douglass had a header/muffler shop in Alhambra at that time and Harman & Collins ignitions came from Alhambra also.
The car is in good condition. The paint, rebuilt engine and top were done over 30 years ago. It is in driver condition, not "concours" perfect. The mechanical things-brakes, shocks, kingpins, steering, rear axle bearings, etc- were repaired after the car was bought. The modifications were done in the 1990 period. The car has only been driven little since then. I would guess that we have put less than 4000 miles on it., because we have other cars we use. The one item to note is that the rear main seal drips as do so many flathead engines do. We have displayed the car a little and find that the blower setup is a great conversation item. Many people today have never seen this centrifugal supercharger setup, manufactured by Robert McCulloch, the man who built Lake Havasu City in Arizona. Hopefully this car can find a new home with someone with a appreciation for the early hop up period of the late1940s. It is a neat representative of the early hop up period.
Call Don at 760-728-5557 for questions - talk to the answer machine so we will pickup or return the call.