Though it’s a big part of it, a finished car isn’t the whole point for most builders. Sometimes, as Robert Pirsig demonstrated in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the journey is more important than the destination. Custom cars and hot rods that bear their owner’s mark are proof of the concept, working examples that validate their builder’s ideas.
And though he didn’t invest himself absolutely in its construction, the car represents a big part of Fred’s life. “One reason I wanted a ’47 car, besides being a convertible, is that was the year I was born,” he notes. “So now in my shop I have my very first car the Model A (the Tudor SAR restored), a ’69 GTO exactly like my first brand-new car, and now the ’47 to show how old I am.”
And while we think that’s great and we’re proud of Fred Reynolds for the car he created, we have to admit his exercise serves another purpose for us. We really like it that someone finally figured out how to use ’49 Lincoln headlights, thereby proving the theory that some of the oddest-looking cars give us the coolest custom parts.