Built in the '30s. Forgotten in the '50s. Recently unrestored.

 

Built in the '30s. Forgotten in the '50s. Recently unrestored. How a barn find 1933 Ford was resurrected as the Devil's Coupe.

Automotive journalist Chuck Vranas has written hundred of stories about other people's hot rods. Today, he's telling the remarkable story of his own 1933 Ford coupe, a long-lost survivor from the pre-War era, resurrected from a half-century slumber and driven in preserved condition from hot rodding's earliest years .—HRM

 

 

If the Devil drove a hot rod it would have to be as nasty as this 1933 Ford five-window coupe. This is a car with a battle-scarred body that tells its story with an attitude, and with the accent of a snarling hopped-up Flathead V-8 breathing through straight pipes.

Fate that brought this car and owner. As a hot rod photojournalist, I see plenty of wicked hot rods on a regular basis with some of the best stories being unearthed along the way. Typically, by the time I see them, the cars have already changed hands and moved on to their new owners. In the case of this particular coupe, the game changer was a scheduled visit to Dave Simard's legendary East Coast Custom in Leominster, Massachusetts. I was working on a photo assignment, shooting a build book for a roadster destined to compete for America's Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR). As I pulled up to the shop I came face to face with the '33, parked under an open-air storage area.

How The Devil's Coupe Got To Massachusetts

This was a fresh arrival — still covered with cobwebs after being unearthed and with an obvious story to tell. The first thing I noticed was a tortured 1961 Texas license plate bolted to the front bumper. Simard informed me that he had known about the car for a decade and had been calling the owner in Texas twice a year for the last 10 years to inquired about it. The owner finally agreed to sell the car and it had just been dropped off at the shop the night before.

Dave is one of the foremost experts, collectors, and builders of traditional Ford hot rods in the world today, and I quietly listened as he told the story behind the car. In front of my eyes was a truly rare survivor car. The rust-free 1933 Ford five-window V8 business coupe had been a pre-War (World War II) hot rod, then transitioned into a '50s rod before being put to sleep for 52 years.

Unmistakable Omens and Irresistible Distress

When Dave told me that the coupe was last registered in 1959, a light seemed to suddenly hovered over the car. That's the year that I was born! Maybe this was fate bringing me closer to the car. Lifting the hood revealed the Flathead V8 parked between the framerails. A check of the heads proved it to be a 59AB; again, the '59 reference was in place! Opening the rock-solid driver's door revealed haunting details like weathered chrome garnish moldings, a flaking red painted dash filled with mismatched accessory gauges, a cracked 1940 Ford steering wheel, and a thrashed seat topped with a vintage Bolta-Quilt seat cover in a ghastly green plaid and accenting dirty-green door cards. This was indeed a true pre-War survivor.

The fact that the car still wore all of its factory sheetmetal, was fully-fendered with its original bumpers, and was unchopped was a miracle. Everywhere you looked, it was well-worn and tattered in all the right places, giving it a personality that few could understand.

The Deal Is Struck

Vintage cars tell stories and this coupe was no different. Its stories came out in the areas where old metal-to-metal bodywork had been started, and in the remnants of a minor front collision where the passenger-side fender had been hammered out and gas-welded, leaving scars that only a mother could love on a payday The trunk and rain drains were still unbelievably solid, making me wonder if the car had ever run moonshine back in the day, through dark streets with the law on its tail. One fateful question lingered on my brain: was it for sale or had it moved on to new owners already?

Once and a while things go your way and this happened to be one of those rare days. Dave said that the car — one of the cleanest 1933 Fords he had ever seen — was indeed for sale, having just arrived the night before. Knowing that the car would be gone in a flash if I waited, I made two phone calls to explain the car's story and the mystical appearance of the "59s." The first call was to my wife Kim, who knows her hot rods and understands the rarity of a pre-War survivor. The second was to my friend, hot rodder and artist Jeff Norwell. After seeing my cell phone photos, they both agreed that this required immediate action or a rare car would slip through my hands and I would regret it forever. A confident handshake secured the deal.

Preserving Hot Rod History

Now was the time to sit back and study its future. When Jeff saw the car for the first time, he told me that it was a piece of hot rod history and there was a reason it had been preserved in its current state. Don't act on impulse to strip it down, chop it, alter it, or change its personality in any way, he advised. Study the car for a couple years and it will tell you what it needs. Kim and I have been studying it ever since. Preserving its legacy is something we take seriously. When a change is made, it's made with respect.

At Xtreme Restorations in Satersville, Rhode Island, it took 20 minutes with a bottle of fuel and spark to bring the coupe back to life. And it came back with plenty of attitude, its war-torn headers and straight pipes belching fire and brimstone and gasping for air after a long sleep. This was no average old man's car — it's got a nasty Flathead and had plenty of secrets to reveal as we dug deeper into its past. During the following four years we would rebuild its systems, rewire the entire car with cloth wiring in the original 6-volt style, and freshen-up the Flathead, transmission, brakes, and steering — with special thanks to East Coast Custom, Hot Rod Services, and Xtreme Restorations. They say you always add a little special voodoo to a project to make it your own and this is where the stance was studied to dial in just the right rake — not too much, not too little, wanting to maintain the pre-War look. I think we got it just right, adding just enough edge to the car's character, topped off with a set of vintage caps from Neil Candy at Candy's Hot Rods Supply. The Devil's license plate was the finishing touch, solidifying the car's personality and raising a few eyebrows whenever it goes down the road or parks at the local cruise night.

What Next?

I was able to locate a set of N.O.S. vintage Bolta-Quilt seat covers, but it's still not the time to freshen things up inside. Grasping the weathered '40 Ford steering wheel and feeling all those cracks and blistered bits under my palms brings it all full circle whenever I hit the starter, summoning the unmuffled Flathead V8 to life. There may be more to be done, but for now the Devil's Coupe is back raising hell on the highways and back roads like it was meant to be.

Preserving A Pre-War 1933 Ford Coupe

Body & Paint

• Stock steel five-window business coupe body, unmodified, all scars intact
• Stock hood
• Stock grille
• Stock headlights
• Stock taillights
• Stock front and rear bumpers
• No chop. No way
• Time-worn original black lacquer paint

Chassis / Suspension

• Stock Ford 1933 frame
• Stock wishbone
• Stock spindles
• Stock front transverse leaf spring
• Vintage aircraft front shocks, lever-style
• Stock steering box, rebuilt
• Stock Ford banjo rearend
• Stock rear axles
• Stock rear ladder bars
• No-name rear tube shocks
• 1940 Ford front drum brakes
• 1940 Lincoln self-energizing rear brakes, 12-inch Bendix-style
• Stock master cylinder, rebuilt
• Stock pedal assembly, reworked

Wheels & Tires

• 1940 Ford steelies, 16 inches
• Firestone / Coker Dirt Track rear tires, 8.90x16
• Firestone / Coker Dirt Track Ribbed front tires 5.00x16

Engine & Transmission

• 1946 Ford 59AB Flathead V-8, 276ci
• Mercury crankshaft
• Stock rods
• Speed Co pistons, 8.5:1
• Ford 59AB cylinder heads, massaged
• Iskenderian camshaft
• Isky valves and springs
• Vintage Edmunds 2-pot intake manifold
• Dual Edelbrock 94-series carburetors
• Vintage chrome air cleaner, no-name
• Red's Headers exhaust headers
• 1 3/4-inch steel exhaust system, uncorked
• Early Ford truck water pump
• Stock fan
• Original radiator, re-cored to car
• Stock generator
• Stock ignition
• Black cloth covered wires with original Raja ends
• 1939 Ford transmission, Lincoln Zephyr gears, assembled by Dave Simard, East Coast Custom
• Stock clutch
• Auburn flywheel
• Stock disc
• Stock torque tube

Exterior

• Stock steel 5-window coupe body, unmodified, all scars intact
• Stock hood
• Stock grille
• No chop. No way
• Stock headlights
• Stock taillights
• Stock bumpers
• Ford original black lacquer paint

Interior

• Stock dash
• Stock engine-turned dash insert
• Mismatched original and aftermarket gauges
• Cloth 6-volt wiring, rewired by Dave Simard, East Coast Custom
• Cowl vent "air conditioning"
• No insulation
• Beat up 1940 Ford steering wheel, original to car
• Stock interior mirror
• Stock bench seat
• Bolta-Quilt seat cover
• Gnarly green vinyl door panels
• Fred Carello Upholstery top insert
• Stock shifter