When STREET RODDER ran across Mike and Marcia’s 1940 Ford at the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show, we were knocked out by the impressive Fordor sedan. Like a lot of enthusiasts, we like all ’40 Fords. The curves of the coupe body are some of Ford’s best lines, but the mildly Art Deco arch of the sedan has an appeal all its own.
Mike and Marcia, from Moraga, California, bought the sedan about four years ago. At that time, the car was a well-preserved original survivor, with black paint on the outside, Bedford cord and mohair upholstery (protected by a Mexican blanket) on the inside, and a mild Flathead with an Eddie Meyer manifold under the hood. The McAuliffe’s enjoyed driving it in that form for a couple years, then decided that they liked the car too much to leave it alone. It deserved a teardown and rebuild.
East Bay Speed & Custom in Concord, California, has a reputation for building some extraordinary fat fendered cars, among other types of street rods. In 2016, Brandon Flaner and Aaron Groesbeck of East Bay were at the Grand National Roadster Show with an amazing restoration of Mickey Himsl’s 1929 Ford Model A Pickup, which had been at the Oakland Roadster Show 54 years earlier, in 1962. The McAuliffe’s had teamed up with East Bay for work on the ’40 and started discussing a transformation.
Mike’s taste in hot rods was established in the Fifties, when he was driving his ’46 Ford to high school. That taste is reflected in the ’40. The body was customized with mild time-honored mods such as radiused corners, shortened hood trim, and decked trunk lid. A pair of ’40 Merc bumpers were added, along with rear fender skirts, a ’46 Ford gas door, and a pair of taillights from a ’41 Studebaker. In keeping with the period style, Firestone piecrust white walls were mounted on 16-inch 1940 Ford wheels, dressed with flipper hubcaps. The 1940 framerails were C’d in the back and a dropped front axle and reverse eye leaf springs were added to lower the car. A Columbia rearend and ’40 Ford drums are additional classic components.
The sedan is still Ford Flathead powered, but the engine now providing the power is a 293ci French Flathead, built by Rick Hall and Rankin Performance Machine. It runs Navarro heads, and a Cyclone intake manifold topped with three Stromberg 97 two-barrels with frog’s mouth air scoops. All that chrome ensures the engine doesn’t go unnoticed. A ’40 transmission backs up the Flathead.
There is plenty of interior in a Fordor ’40, and this one is covered in green and white two-tone tuck ‘n’ roll, from the front and rear bench seats to the door panels, and continuing into the trunk. The look was kept nostalgic with a Crestliner steering wheel on a column shifter and gauges from a ’46 Ford truck.
East Bay Speed and Custom finished the sedan two days before it was due to appear at the Grand National Roadster Show. The indoor lighting at the Pomona Fairplex isn’t the best for showing off the paint on show cars, but didn’t seem to diminish the sedan’s impact on the spectators or the judges. The Everglade Green is a ’50 Merc color, contrasted by ’50 Ford Palisade Green on the engine and wheels, and Wimbledon white (with a few drops of yellow) on the firewall and inner fenders. The McAuliffe’s’ sedan earned a PPG’s Outstanding Paint award as well as STREET RODDER’s pick as PPG Rod of the Month. Mike and Marcia also left the event with the H&H Best Dressed Flathead award and the First Place trophy for Custom Rod Sedan ’35-’48.
Mike and Marcia will be busy displaying the sedan at car shows for a little while, but it was never intended to be pampered and they are eager to get it back on the street. Mike told us that Brandon Flaner predicts he’ll be doing burnouts in his driveway before long. That might not happen, but Mike promises that his ’40 Ford sedan is going to stay driven.
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