The Detroit Autorama - The Best Reason

You can tell that this photo was taken after the doors to Cobo Hall had been locked because that was the only time this group of historic show rods didn't have a crowd around them. The group included the Orbitron, Milk Truck (restored by Dave Shuten), Car Craft Dream Rod (restored by Mark Moriarty), Outlaw clone (built by Fritz Schenck), and the Trojan T (restored by the Flying A Garage). We'll be bringing you features on a few of these soon.

Mike Stowe has owned and enjoyed this '35 Chevy coupe for decades. After he wore it out he decided to have it completely redone and turned it over to John McLeod and the boys at Great Lakes Motor Works. The all-steel (except for factory wood) coupe is now powered by a vintage Corvette mechanical fuel-injected 283 and rides on a Lobeck chassis. The painted Dayton wires give it a traditional yet up-to-date look.

It's real hard to improve on the basic shape of the '40 Ford coupe, and black just seems to fit no matter the build style. Unfortunately both of the coupes here were brought out as memorials to their owners who had passed away and weren't able to enjoy showing them off. Fred Dudek's traditional hoodless coupe is powered by a built three-carbed Flathead and was brought to the show by his wife Mary and the crew at Motor City Hot Rods.The nasty big-tired coupe was brought out by the guys at Juliano's Hot Rods. Jim Darby had bought the coupe in the mid-Seventies and after driving and enjoying it for several years, tore it apart and started collecting pieces. Jim passed away in 2001 before he could complete building his dream hot rod. Over the next 7 years his friends and family made it a point to make sure Jim's dream survived and finished the blown 392ci Hemi-powered coupe.

What do you do with a four-door sedan when you don't have anyone to ride in the back seat? If you're Bill Towers you send it to the So What Speed Shop and have it shortened into a two-door and go have fun. With all that extra weight gone, a V-8 wasn't really needed any more, so a four-cylinder out of a Ford Ranger was dropped under the hood. Years ago when I worked at a body shop we repainted a mid-Seventies full-size Ford which had solid aluminum wheels with big center caps and I always thought the wheels looked a lot like the solid Halibrands. Apparently so did Bill, which is just what he used on his sedan with a little modification.

The unusual color of this '32 Ford roadster, brought out by Ron Ward Jr., really caught my eye. It had a sticker on the headlight from the LA Roadster's Father's Day show, but I can't say whether Ron drove it out from Eastpoint, Michigan or not.

The Cavalcade of Customs had several customs lined up once again this year. Two of my favorites were Michael Shea's chopped Shoebox Ford and Jake and Tami Moomey's chopped and channeled '54 Chevy.