Photos by: Chadly Johnson Words by: Jon Hageness
I was obsessed with 1933 to 1942 Willys. Starting in the late 1980’s up until the early 2000’s I had built: A ‘31 Willys roadster, ‘32 Willys pick-up, ’35 Willys coupe, ’38 Willys 2dr sedan, ’39 Willys sedan delivery, ’40 Willys Australian Ute and a ’41 Willys gasser coupe. Plus during that time I had bought, sold and traded numerous other Willys cars and parts. After my last Willys build, I felt like Forrest Gump when he was running across American, and realized he was done running. I realized I was done building Willys (for a while anyway).
I needed a change, a new challenge, but what next? I have a wide interest in hot rods and like so many others, I love the lines of the ’33 & ’34 Fords coupes. One day I happened across a picture of the Mooneyham & Sharpe ’34 Ford 5 window coupe, and oh mamma, she is sexy - I was in love! That would be my next quest: to find and build a ’34 Ford 5 window highboy coupe.
I put the word out and started the search, but nothing was turning up. It was July 2007 and I was wandering around the swap meet in Iola, Wis. when I ran into my friend Wally Rahl, and I told him of my quest. Wally had just run across a vendor's booth with a small cardboard sign stating “1933 Ford 3 window coupe for sale,” with just a price and a phone number. Wally passed on the phone number to me.
Now, a 3 window coupe wasn’t what I was looking for; in fact, I never even considered one, as much like a Willys coupe they are very hard to find and usually very expensive. I really wanted a 5 window, but after a few days, my curiosity got the best of me and I called the number. The owner of the car gave me a brief description; it was an old hot rod which at some point started to be converted to a dirt track car, but was never finished. I asked if some photos would be available to get some idea of what the car was. The answer was no. Apparently the old coupe was buried in an old garage and the owner was not willing to dig it out to take pictures. If I was interested in the coupe, I would have to just come and see it. Of course I had better be serious, as he wasn’t going to take the time to dig it out if I was just a “wanna be tire kicker. Oh, and of course there are other people interested as well, so the clock was ticking. I assured him that when I come to look at a car, I bring a trailer and cash; plus if I didn’t buy it, I would help put everything back into the garage once we dug the car out.
The next weekend I recruited the assistance of my good friend and photographer extraordinaire, Chadly Johnson, to take the 3 hour journey to the Green Bay Wisconsin area to check out the mystery ’33. When we arrived at the unassuming little garage in a small town east of Green Bay it was the fantasy we all dream about - a hidden gem squirreled away for years, forgotten to time… And then the moment of truth. We were standing there with the excitement of the hunt at its peak and the garage door opened... and nothing. You couldn’t see the coupe even though it was just 3 feet inside the door; it was literally buried under a pile of old Arctic Cat snowmobile parts (remember, this is Wisconsin) and other miscellaneous debris. After a short while of digging, it emerged: a 1933 Ford 3 window coupe, or what was left of one anyway. The owner’s description was spot on; iIt was the remains of an old hot rod which now had a partial roll cage and various frame doo-dads and what-chama-jiggers added on. Even the front axle was widened about 8” with some crazy homemade radius rods holding it all together. The doors and hood were laying off to the side. The interior consisted of an old bus seat and a narrowed ’50 Ford dash. She was definitely no beauty queen.
I had Chadly crawl inside the car and hold one of the doors in place so I could get a better visual of what could be. While I was standing and studying the old girl, Chadly was inside the car, sweating his ass off, wondering why I was even considering buying such a POS! To Chadly’s surprise and dismay, I shook the guy's hand and said I’d take it.
We loaded up my new prize and helped put the snowmobile and other debris back into the garage, then headed home. On the three hour drive, we talked about my plans for the ’33 build. All the while, Chadly was silent about his real thoughts about the ’33... But I had a vision; it just wasn’t clear yet.
A couple of months later, when I had the new floors installed, the excess doo-dads trimmed away from the frame and the 401 Buick nailhead installed, the vision became clearer. It was at this time Chadly decided to tell me that he thought I was completely nuts buying the ’33, but once he got to see the car with some of the ugly removed and some lipstick applied, he saw my vision too.
I built the ’33 in 9 months, retaining the original paint from its hot rod glory days. Because the ’33 hood had already been trimmed back to fit some other grill, I decided to channel my inner “Jake” Jacobs and narrow a ’37 Ford truck grill to fill the void. I found the headlights at a swap meet, but have no clue of their origin. They are similar in design to the Mopar head lights of the ‘30’s, only larger.
The chassis was saved and completed using a “Pete & Jakes” 9” rear assembly as well as a Super Bell dropped front axle. I wanted the power train to be something I had never done before, so a 401 Buick nailhead was chosen and backed up by a 700R4 overdrive connected via an adapter kit. The headers were soured from Matt at “Gear Drive” and I added down tubes to run the exhaust through the frame sides for a purpose built look. Porter mufflers and home built tail pipes finish off the rumbly exhaust. I was able to use a 605 power steering box and the stock Buick PS pump setup, and since I was able to use power steering, why not power brakes as well? As room was getting tight in the engine bay, I mounted the power brake booster behind the firewall and inside the cockpit so only the master cylinder is showing. A Walker radiator and a mechanical fan take care of the cooling chores.
I love Lincoln Zephyr dashes, so one was sourced from a local wrecking yard and narrowed to fit the ’33. Mid ‘60’s Tee Bird seats are my go-to seat of choice, so a pair was retrieved from my storage van and installed. The steering wheel is a NOS Oldsmobile mounted to an early Buick Rivera tilt steering column. Once I had all of the main components in place, the only things left to decide on were the wheels & tires. As we all know, wheels, tires, & stance on a hot rod is everything, so my choice had to be spot-on. As luck would have it, my good friend Gordy Bruss had an old car trailer he had built years ago from an old travel trailer that sported some Acme Streamlite wheels. I had no clue as to how rare the wheels were until after I bought the trailer and tried to find some information about the wheels. All I knew is that they looked cool and that Ford hubcaps fit them - good enough reasons for me!
I drove the ’33 for a couple of years with no interior until Jenny Bloedorn (Stitch Bitch) was able to fit me in for a full interior make over. Jenny is a master of her craft, so my only instructions to her were to try to match the material color to the Oldsmobile steering wheel and to throw in some zodiac for a little sparkle. Damn, she nailed it! Her vision is amazing and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
There are still some finishing touches to do (we all know they are never done), but this car is a blast to drive as is. Once spring hits, the ’33 is one of the first out of the stable, and I drive it every chance I get. It’s always entertaining to listen to people try to figure out what the car is (the narrowed truck grill throws them off) and what the wheels are from.
As a side note, I finally did find a ’34 Ford 5 window coupe and it’s under construction now, but that’s a story for another time. This coming summer I’m planning a west coast run to Oregon in the ’33 with a possible side trip up to Alaska (I hear they have good fish up there). So if you see a crusty ’33 three window coupe with some crazy wheels blast by, give me a wave, or if I’m parked, stop by and say hi - I’ll be the guy with a big-ass smile on his face.