I'll clean the carbs up for the shoot," Rolf strm said as we parted company. The carburetors he fretted over are the three Strombergs atop the Buick Nailhead in his Model A coupe. They're 97s, and they're damn near perfect-almost too good if you know Strombergs. They match, nobody's ever hammered on 'em, and at the time, they just barely started weeping at the float bowl gasket. "Touch 'em and the deal's off," I warned. To that, he looked perplexed, almost panicked. "C'mon, Strombergs are supposed to be dirty," I explained. "They leak a little when you use 'em. It's natural. Get it?"
Of course he gets it; Rolf's one of those guys who left his home country-in this case, Sweden-expressly to pursue a life with old cars in America, and his Nailhead-powered '31 is one of the finer examples of an old-timey hot rod. Then again, he's also a perfectionist, and the carburetors serve as a great metaphor for the car itself; it's almost too nice. Once Rolf's inner Felix Ungar shows, it's perplexing why he chose to paint the car in a flat color.
That, too, was also part of Rolf's tactic. "I wanted to build a car that looked like something someone would've built in 1958," he notes. And that he did; the engine, brakes, and interior-the size of the pleats even-are late-'50s hallmarks. But flat red? In 1958? Not a chance. On the other hand, doesn't it look a little like red-oxide primer? How 'bout a torch-red Earl Scheib alkyd enamel job gone to seed? Paint applied when Ike was in office looks that way nowadays, you know.
Beneath that age-enhanced surface is a ton of detail. Less obvious than the 4-inch chop and drilled visor is a set of Deuce 'rails that Rolf pinched a scant 3/4-inch at the cowl just to make the body and frame profile match. Subtle? You bet; however, not nearly as understated as the 1/2-inch he channeled the flat-bottomed body to make it conform to the belly in the Deuce chassis. Need more intricacy? Then look how he recessed the firewall at the beads to conform to the Nailhead's profile.
For proof of how far Rolf goes to make things just the way he wants, consider that he built the frame from a set of American Stamping 'rails at home on a borrowed jig. The investment paid off, too, since he noticed he had to move the Model A crossmember forward an additional 1 1/2 inches during the build process to accommodate the Buick engine.
Defining a point to set a car in a specific period is one thing; however, finding parts that would've been appealing to a kid building a car at that point in time is another subject altogether. Furthermore, one errant step-something as seemingly insignificant as using an alternator, for example-blows the charade too.
Rolf is the first to admit that he fudged his personally mandated end date with a few parts, but he certainly pulled off his indiscretions. For example, while Buick made the Nailhead from 1953 on, it didn't introduce the 425-inch version of the engine-a markedly different engine-until 1963. The Vega, the car that donated the steering box, didn't even exist until 1971. True, ladder bars came around in the '50s; however, the company that made his, Pete & Jake's, didn't open 'til 1974. The dropped axle idea is old, but Rolf's came from Chassis Engineering.
It's by no accident that Rolf struck upon his car's righteous combination; guys like Eric Schill and Doug Grande contributed input, parts, and, in Bruce Donelan's case, even a chassis jig. Furthermore, "I read a lot of old magazines," Rolf says. Nor is it by any accident that he pulled it off so well; he invested a lot of time making it just right, and it shows.
Sure, we tease Rolf for his perfection, but we also realize his fussiness is part of what makes his coupe look so right. Most importantly, rather than fret the consequences of actually using his car, Rolf drives his-sometimes hard even. For those reasons, we commend Rolf strm. Nevertheless, I'd prefer not to be around when he notices that first rock chip.
DrivetrainBuick's Nailhead was a curiosity at best until Tommy Ivo dropped a Max Balchowski-built version into a Kent Fuller chassis and went racing. That was 1958, the year Rolf pinpointed for his car. Rolf decided to run the larger, later-model 425ci Nailhead and de-burred and prepped the block, heads, and Offenhauser 5190 manifold prior to reassembly (the finish is better than most cars' bodies). He ran a '58 generator and bracket and '58 Buick (pre-PCV) valve covers to continue his 1958 theme. A U.S. Radiator copper/brass radiator keeps it running cool with the help of a trimmed GM mechanical fan. He built his own headers using a big-block Chevy kit and Buick-style flanges. A Borg Warner T10 four-speed is mated up with a stock Buick bellhousing and shifted with a Hurst Comp/Plus shifter.
Rod&Custom Feature CarRolf strmWoodinville, Washington1931 Ford coupe
ChassisRolf started with a pair of '32 Ford-style American Stamping 'rails and assembled the frame in a borrowed jig using Model A crossmembers. He stretched the wheelbase 1 1/2 inches to 107 1/2 inches and pinched the 'rails 3/4-inch at the cowl. The front suspension consists of a Chassis Engineering forged axle with '46 Ford brakes with '58 Buick drums, '37-40 Ford wishbone (split and spring hangers removed), Vega steering box, Chassis Engineering tubular shocks, and a '28-36 spring with reversed eyes and radiused and chamfered ends. Out back, a 3.55:1-geared Moser Engineering 9-inch is located with Pete & Jake's ladder bars, brackets, and tubular shocks, and a Model A spring with radiused and chamfered ends.
Wheels & TiresNothing but '40-48 Ford solids wrapped in Coker Tire Firestone Deluxe Champion bias-plies (6.00-16 front; 7.00-16 rear) would have looked as good on this coupe.
Body & PaintThe coupe has been chopped 4 inches and channeled 1/2-inch, and the firewall was trimmed and recessed to conform to the Nailhead. In true '50s racing fashion, Rolf drilled his visor; however, he took things one step further by welding it to the A-pillars. They blend seamlessly, leading one to wonder why Ford didn't do it (we know; Ford was cheap, right?). Chris and Dan at Newlook Auto Body in Kirkland, Washington, prepped the body and squirted it with Rolf Red (PPG base with DCU 2060 Flexed 'n' Flat clear). The taillights are '50 Pontiac, and while the Lucas license plate lights were common in the day, most have overlooked them recently in favor of Hollywood repops. Rolf retained the decklid handle; the rearend would be lost without it in our opinion (it balances the pipes). Model A headlights on a trimmed Model A headlight bar on Ford F-1 shock mounts sits in front of the Deuce shell.
InteriorAlthough he's quiet about it, Rolf did everything on this entire car except paint it. Everything includes the interior, which is admittedly JC Whitney pleated vinyl-itself a common material by the late '50s. Can you recognize the cut-down '90s Chrysler minivan bench seat in there? Rolf smoothed a Deuce closed car dash and filled it with '52 DeSoto gauges. He also built the sub-dash, which includes a '62 Buick ignition switch and dash knobs. To the dash's right is an Allstate accessory heater, re-cored and rewired for 12-volt operation. Rolf found a '56 Ford passenger car steering wheel to top the '50s F-100 steering column and a '58 Impala rearview mirror to keep an eye out the back. The pedal assembly is an F-1 piece (connected to a '40 Ford single-circuit), although Rolf admits he'd run swing pedals next time.