Doug Grande
Edmonds, Washington
1930 Ford Roadster
With the intent to drive it...
With the intent to drive it hard (which he does), Doug built his coupe with a T10 transmission and an 8-inch axle. Now that he’s finished the roadster he said he intends to finish and paint the coupe.
Chances are you can’t remember specifically meeting even your closest acquaintances. I certainly don’t; I’m blessed to know some of the neatest people but cursed with the inability to remember how and where, much less why we met.
But I remember meeting Doug Grande. The occasion was the 2003 Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals in Puyallup, Washington. What made him stand out wasn’t that he was an important builder with a legacy of significant cars to his credit. In fact, it was quite the opposite, really.
He’d just finished one of the neatest track-nosed Ts that I’ve ever seen. For all intents and purposes it looked to have driven right off the pages of a Don Montgomery book. I was sufficiently impressed even before he told me it was the first hot rod he’d ever built.
Past Tech DuVall–style windshields...
Past Tech DuVall–style windshields require filled cowls but Doug found probably the most novel way yet: he used the cowl from a Model AA-based fire truck.
To be honest he wasn’t entirely new to cars. He’d owned a number of neat ones before—an Austin Healey comes to mind—but that was sometime in the ’60s. And he also had the advantage of a few friends’ insight and instructions to guide him. But nothing quite explained how he did something that eludes some of the most seasoned builders: he made the car not only comfortable—a feat considering the body’s size—but fun to drive, despite its modest Pinto power.
OK, so even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then but a few years later Doug followed up with another outstanding car, a Flathead-powered, four-speed Deuce five-window. To say the project had humble beginnings is an understatement; he literally pieced its body together from random, rusty, bullet-riddled panels. In fact, he left the weld seams visible to show contemptuous restorers that he didn’t so much “tear up a perfectly good car” but built one from the parts they deemed unworthy of their own effort. It’s quite amusing to see him set them straight.
Doug Grande with his latest...
Doug Grande with his latest masterpiece sometime last year. He mocked it up with the T’s wires but the Ford disc wheels it’ll ultimately wear are more appropriate for the car’s postwar build style.
Recently, Doug undertook another project, a late Model A roadster. Though nobody knows the particulars, the car has a history: It came with chopped top irons and someone had started to channel the body. Doug restored the subfloors and dropped the body on a Deuce chassis he built.
We’ll use the photos to tell the rest of the story. In fact we should probably cut it short; in the two months since these photos were taken he’s not just driven the car but flogged it hard enough to report that it’s particularly fierce. By the time you read this it’ll practically be old news!
We’re nothing without the...
We’re nothing without the graces of friendship. Doug is friends with Dave York, aka Past Tech windshields. He’s modifying a pair of Larry Zilinsky’s cast-aluminum windshield headers for a folding top.
The Airguide marine compass...
The Airguide marine compass was a leg puller, but the ’32 three-window dash and the old Stewart-Warner Ensign panel are the real deal. More recently he made a panel insert from ribbed decorative stainless.
He’s close to verifying it...
He’s close to verifying it but so far the Flathead he bought appears to be a Dave Tatom engine. It boasts an early block-script Edelbrock standard manifold, an aggressive cam, a fair bit of compression, and a Merc crank.
To visually lighten the roll...
To visually lighten the roll pan, Doug extended the body’s character line into it. He formed the nerf bar from steel bar stock and chromed it.
The synchronized first and...
The synchronized first and additional gear in the T10 transmission made his coupe faster and more tractable. The reduced weight and the additional overdrive gear in its T-5 should make the roadster that much better. Note how he adapted a Lokar parking brake to the T-5 housing.
Doug tied the nerf bar into...
Doug tied the nerf bar into the spring crossmember. Multiple set nuts make fine tailpipe tip adjustments possible, a thoughtful consideration considering the tight fit between them and the roll pan.
For reference, here’s Doug’s...
For reference, here’s Doug’s first hot rod—the T that he built just before we met. Apparently he’s confident about the car and his friends because he’s loaned it to a number of people to drive on the legendary Swindlers poker runs. It’s not the fastest but it’s certainly one of the most fun rods I’ve driven.
Luckily a warm (and relatively...
Luckily a warm (and relatively dry) spell late in the winter coincided with the pizza party Doug hosted to unite the body and frame. Neither dull nor too shiny, the black acrylic lacquer he applied makes the car look like an older, well-maintained rod.