As a kid growing up in the far north........myself and many of my old car buddies always dreamed about California .......maybe going there some day, and seeing in person some of the incredible hot rods that came out of there. All we had were the stories and the Magazines such as Hot Rod, Car Craft, Rod & Custom and Hop Up. One that stuck in my mind all these years was Bob McCoy's 1940 Ford Sedan.
Bob is an extraordinarily talented hot rod artist with much of his work featured in many of the hot rod press magazines and books. This hot rod was Bob's high school car, and has probably appeared in print more than most other hot rods through the years.
He built the car in the mid 1950's, using a tidy but stock '40 Ford sedan as the base. The front end was lowered 12" using a Dago'd axle(Dago'd axles were flattened out in the dropped area and have hammer marks in the dropped area also) and reversed eye springs, along with much smaller 5.50 X 15 front tires. The rear tires were 8.00 X 15, giving it a timeless hot rod stance. The engine was a Flathead V-8 pulled out of a drag car, to full race specs.
The '40 was flamed by Ray Cook, with McCoy adding the lakes pipes and custom nerf bar. Bob's car was given huge amounts of press between 1955 and 1957, including making the covers of Car Craft, Rodding & Restyling and Hot Rod Magazine.
Nothing certain is known of the whereabouts of the car today, thought the majority of rumours centre around it being turned into a street rod at some point. Bob McCoy currently owns a '40 Ford Coupe which is running the original nerf bar from the sedan.
The Sedan is epitomised by '40 Ford owners as inventing "The Look".
I don't exactly know where I got this story but it is one of those incredible California tales that us northern boys always loved to read about. This one in particular was written by Bob himself.
.......and this is the second page of the story....Enjoy! then scroll down.
This is a self portrait of Bob's car...where?....but of course at the famous Mel's Diner from "American Graffiti". If you want to see some of the incredible stuff that Bob is up to today, head out to this link then come back...click here
http://www.bobmccoyart.com/index.html
I don't usually write about anyone out of our home area of Fort William and Port Arthur, but I've wanted to include this as a blog post for some time now......lots more to come in the New Year as usual. ...and as usual click on all the photos especially the written ones to be able to read all the stories. Hope you enjoyed this one....D.
FOOTNOTE: Given the nickname of the town from whence it came, San Diego - "DAGO" - the Dago dropped axle, was requisite metal for any ride worthy of being called a hot rod. Re-manufactured, as it was, and marketed by San Diego speed merchant Ed Stewart, the axle was such a pervasive part of hot rodding that it's nickname became a description for a down-in-front hot rod.....when someone described a car as "Dago'd", there was no question about it having a nose-down stance.
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