Rod & Custom Feature Car
Blake Burwell
Cypress, Texas
'29 Ford Coupe
Chassis
Jon Marchman of Houston, who originally hot-rodded the coupe, built the chassis. The stock '29 frame was fully boxed and suspended in the front by reversed-eye Model A leaves mounted to a dead perch, aftermarket chrome shocks, and a Magnum drilled I-beam axle plus '39 Ford spindles. The rear suspension includes hairpin radius rods, a Panhard bar, after-market tube shocks, and cut salvage yard coils. The rear brakes and rearend are from a '59 Merc; '39 Ford brakes with '46 drums are used in the front.
Drivetrain
Marchman also built the '53 8BA Flathead, running Edelbrock aluminum heads and an Edelbrock aluminum intake with triple non-progressive Stromberg 97s, topped with chrome helmet-style air cleaners and fired by a Mallory dual-point distributor converted to electronic with a Unilite kit. Marchman also built the headers with Harley-Davidson baffles. A Hurst shifter stirs a '60s T10 four-speed hooked to the '59 Merc rearend.
Wheels & Tires
Coker came through with the 8.25-16 and 5.60-15 big 'n' little bias-ply whitewalls mounted on chrome-reversed wheels. The rear 16x7s from Wheel Vintiques have a 4-inch backspace; the Pete Paulsen 15x5s feature 2.75-inch backspacing. The '42 Ford hubcaps were added just before the '06 Lone Star Roundup.
Body & Paint
Marchman covered the top with Hartz canvas, and originally left the top stock. Burwell's Web site dramatically shows the difference made by Rodney Belt's 3 1/2 inch chop. The exterior was mildly modified with Deuce headlights and a reproduction Deuce grille and insert, along with '48 taillights. Auto Glass Installers provided the custom glass, and Blake covered everything in a coat of suede using PPG DP90 epoxy primer.
Interior
When Blake bought the coupe, the only thing on the inside was a Nissan minivan seat. Sean Johnstun at Fat Lucky's in Austin wrapped the lengthened, widened, and peaked bench in black and ivory pearl vinyl, decorated with some seat-back stitching in a traditional pinstripe style. A set of VDO Classic gauges fill the steel '32 dash, and a tach mounted on the steering column sits below the '36 Ford wheel. Blake created the skull shift knob and dropped a 1-inch-thick rubber stable mat from Tractor Supply on the floor-both cool details.