Back in 1932, Mr. & Mrs. Whitaker bought a brand new 5 window, rumble seat Ford Coupe. She drove it to work at the Suffield, CT post office until 1954 when she retired. She then sold it to my friend, Nelson Lafrancis, of Agawam, MA for $40.00. At this point, it was a rust-free, shining example of a “hot rodder’s dream” for rodding material. Nelson took it home and promptly removed the fenders and channeled it to 7 inches over the frame, dropped in a 3/4 Race flat-head Ford V-8 and a Lincoln transmission.

Nelson drove the car like this for a year and put it up when he got drafted into the Army. During his 2 year hitch, he took the car apart on weekends and rebuilt it with some very crafty creative features (i.e. an Olds Starfire Engine, T-10 4 Speed Transmission and 4 Wheel Independent Suspension using stock Ford parts. (Very similar to the Allard A-20). The fenders were put back on and the bucket seats fabricated out of electrical tubing and foam rubber. The car was very heavy as it was made up of scrap that was “liberated”. Finally, it was painted silver metallic and Nelson went on the road. (Detroit, Rochester, Boston, Charleston, NC, New Jersey, etc) as a Meal Fabricating Iron Worker. Back then, it took a great deal of self confidence and mechanical know-how to take a rod 500-600 miles from home. This car saw 60,000 miles as a Hot Rod before it was put away in 1973. It sat around his garage and back yard until 1983, when I gave him $3000. for it and a garage full of extra parts. He figures he made $1800. on the deal.

This is Nelson beside the car in about 1955. IT’s channeled 7”, has a ‘49 Olds motor and is painted purple and yellow. These headlights remained throughout Nelson’s use of the car