1933 Ford Roadster Built in 1950 and Unrestored to Perfection

Intentionally hidden for decades, this historic and preserved East Coast hot rod was lost until David Simard found it.

The enduring popularity and surprising prevalence of so-called barn find cars makes us confident that there will be plenty of raw material for great hot rod projects for years to come. There's a rod shop about an hour west of Boston called East Coast Custom where David Simard and his team build hot rods for customers. The Leominster, Massachusetts, shop also features a spectacular barnful of David's own iron, traditional prewar Fords mostly, collected over the past several years and in various stages of progress.

We've talked about David's Simard East Coast Customs before. Just a few weeks ago, we profiled a 1933 Ford five-window coupe called The Devil's Coupe, a surviving '30s-era hot rod that had been out of commission for more than 50 years before being revived and put back on the street in perfect period unrestored condition.

If The Devil's Coupe had a brother, it'd be this channeled 1933 roadster—another perfectly preserved piece of hot rod history—with a pedigree just as impressive and a personality just as wicked as the coupe.

"In 1975, a fellow member of the Boston Area Roadster Club introduced me to Bill Schultz," David started the story. "Bill owned Country Club Auto Body in Norton, Massachusetts. He had numerous old Fords around his small one-man shop. Sitting outside was the 1934 three-window coupe, which he'd raced on the oval tracks in the area back in the '50s. But inside, buried under numerous auto parts, was the channeled '34 Ford roadster that he built in 1950 and parked in 1962. Bill intentionally buried the car in the corner to avoid everyone inquiring about it.

"Bill purchased the roadster in 1948 as a complete original car (15 years old at the time). When he channeled it in 1950, he carefully removed the original floor. He cut the frame at the rear crossmember, allowing him to save the original rear section of the truck floor. The floor subrails were bolted to the bottom of the framerails. The original floor was retained and bolted to the top of the frame. Bill's method retained the strength of the body and the door alignment. "

Bill swapped the '33 grille with a Deuce grille and added a cut-down 1946 Ford front bumper, plus a custom roll pan in the rear. The door handles are stock 1934 hardware. The fenders and running boards were replaced with bobbed motorcycle-style fenders, a style that has become associated with East Coast traditional hot rods. He painted the roadster with black lacquer and added a full folding top and side curtains.

Channeled bodies, unchopped tops on coupes, and custom bobbed fenders or bike fenders are three prominent elements of the East Coast style of traditional hot rods associated with New England. Removing the fenders and running boards started out as a practical weight-reducing move on the early roadsters racing on the dry lakes of Southern California. The fenderless style caught on all over but was out of compliance with the fender laws in the rainy eastern states. Bobbed fenders were the compromise solution.

The front suspension was built using a 1937 tube axle and springs, as well as Bill's crafted hairpin radius rods, customized with his initials in the bars. All the components were chrome plated. The 1946 rearend runs 4.11 gears. Brakes are 1946 Ford in the front and 1940 in back. Those 5.90-15 whitewall tires roll on 1937 thru 1940 Wide 5 style wheels with mid-50s Ford Fairlane covers. Bill installed a full race Flathead engine with a column-shifted 1939 Ford transmission. In 1959, the Flattie was replaced with '58 Ford 312 Y-block, with a single four-barrel carb. Custom zoomie headers point exhaust directly past the driver's ears or via cutouts, to the rear via the dual-pipe setup.

On the inside, the cut-down original bench is still covered in the red-and-white vinyl Bill used to upholster it decades ago. His custom aluminum dash houses original Stewart-Warner Wings gauges.

Bill drove the roadster until 1962, when he parked it inside his body shop. Despite his best effort to keep the car out of sight and to avoid inquiries, the historic hot rod caught David's attention right away. "I would check in with Bill every year to discuss buying the car. The answer was always the same: 'I'm going to get it on the road again. '" It took years of patience and persistence, but eventually Bill agreed to sell the roadster.

David says the years of indoor storage protected the roadster from rust and that Bill's skill as a bodyman is the reason the doors open and close with perfect alignment after almost 90 years. He has numerous projects in the works in his personal barn—not to mention customer cars. For now, the roadster remains virtually unchanged from when he bought it, but David, like Bill, is determined to get it on the road again, maybe with the Flathead that powered it before. One thing is certain: There will be no cosmetic makeover. David Simard's preserved 1933 Ford roadster has aged beautifully and will be preserved that way.