Bob Benn's Custom 1936 Ford Coupe

There’s something in the way she moves—actually, there’s something in the way she sits still, too. There’s just something primal about a Westergard-style kustom that blows a hole in yer guts. That’s what happened when we first encountered Bob’s coupe. His own first encounter with this ’36 happened on his way to Oregon to attend the Portland Roadster Show. He had wanted a ’36 for a while and, on a tip, took a side trip to check out a ’35 that was for sale. The thing was barely a car, with the bottom 6 inches of the body lost to the elements. But, like your typical car guy, he didn’t see a rusted-out heap sitting neglected in someone’s yard, he saw a finished kustom, and by the time he’d completed building it in his mind, all the ’35 stuff was replaced with ’36 metal. As it turns out, Bob also happened to be friendly with top-notch builder Donn Lowe, whose vision of the ’36 was as clear as Bob’s. Luckily, Donn knows when to stop and kept Bob from going overboard with modifications. Three years later, the results were stunning enough to win the King of Kustoms award at the 2001 Portland Roadster Show on its first time out.