Deluxe Speed Shop is a Colorado family conglomeration comprised of Bryan McCann, his father Scott, and his uncle, Mark. Along with some help from an outside source or two-namely Ted Bowen-the McCann clan put together a trio of tasteful, true-to-tradition hot rods; not merely interpretations of an era gone by, rather, more like pages right out of a Don Montgomery book. As a matter of fact, they credit Montgomery's historic pictorials as providing not only inspiration, but reference material, as so many of today's hot rodders have. Here are their stories.-Rob Fortier
Bryan's Story
('28 A-V8 Roadster)
I bought the '28 Ford roadster body on the Mexican border of Arizona from a produce importer. My dad, Scott, Ted Bowen, and I drove the 1,000 miles from Colorado to Rio Rico, Arizona. We get to the address, and this maid answers the door, speaking Spanish. We can't understand her, and she can't understand us. We leave, thinking that we had the wrong address. But we end up right back at the same address. We go talk to her again, this time showing her pictures of the car, but she still has no idea why we are there. Sitting in the truck, we all thought we'd been had, that we were part of a scam. We were so discouraged that we almost turned around and headed back.
We decided to look around the place, and through one of the windows of the garage door, we could just barely see the top of a '28 roadster. I was so relieved. We rang the doorbell again, but this time a guy in a robe answers the door saying, "Sorry, I was in the shower!" We loaded the roadster in the back of the truck, threw the fenders and the top on the floorboards, shook hands, and headed back to Denver.
I found the frame at one of the few swap meets that we have during the winter. I got a straight Model A frame, complete rearend, and a good steering box for $300. Bowen had a '32 frame that had been boxed and cut up, from which he said I could have the K-member ... as long as I took it out. It took me three weeks to build the missing center trans mount, build the driver side leg, and graft it into the A frame. I had to move the stock steering box down an inch and back 2 1/2 inches to clear the head on the Flatty. I also had to move the radiator forward 1/4 of an inch for the fan. My dad's friend was selling the drivetrain out of an old '34 Ford hot rod-I got the complete frontend and rearend with '40 Ford brakes, motor, and '39 trans, all for a $1,000. The best way to describe building an A-V8 is "tight"!
It took me about a year to build the car, though most of that time was spent with my dad on his '32 three-window. We had a blast building these two cars together. I don't know what was more fun: building the cars or doing the research to find the correct parts for the period. I have had the car done for about six weeks (that was as of July 2010), and since have put 1,500 miles on it. I drive it as much as I can.