By the ’80s, David and Roxy had moved to Salem, Oregon, and David, still on his quest for an old hot rod Ford, found himself at the Portland Swap Meet. A mountain of parts and cars, it can take days to take it all in. Quite rare in fact, this ’38 Ford caught David’s eye. It was an all-original 60hp model. David had bucks burning a hole in his pocket, enough to drive the all-original coupe back the 40 miles to Salem. He says the car was not really all that roadworthy. His wife and daughter followed him home on the back roads, stopping for oil on a regular basis.

Being a Ford mechanic at a local dealership, his plan was to build an all-Ford traditional hot rod. Stripping the car down to bare bones and separating the body and chassis, he worked on the rolling parts and sent the body pieces out one at a time when budget allowed. In the meantime, they bought another house, the pieces were attached to make the car a roller to the new house, where they sat dormant for the next 24 years. David, of course, was discouraged, but amazingly, reading the car magazines kept the dream alive.

After cleaning up and painting the chassis, David added a Super Bell I-beam axle with a Posie spring, Ridetech shocks, and a Pete and Jakes sway bar. The Panhard bar was supplied by Speedway Motors, and to this a Saginaw steering box and Mustang disc brakes were added. On the other end, Chassis Engineering came to the rescue with their parallel leaf springs and sway bar. Ridetech supplied the shocks. Seeing that David spent his career fixing Fords, he wanted to make the car all Ford, so he slipped in a Ford 5.0L H.O. crate engine with a C4 tranny filled with a shift kit and then shifted into gear by a Gennie shifter. Cooling the V-8 is a Walker radiator and shroud. Tying up loose ends is a Ford 9-inch from a ’70 Cougar with 3.25:1 gears.

David had a good, no-rust body to start with, and when master body man Stan Dietz was finished, it was perfect by the time it arrived at painter Steve Arnold’s shop in Salem. Arnold laid on a perfect finish of Dark Cherry Metallic paint topped off by “Line King” Mitch Kim’s stripes. Then David wired it with some help from a wiring harness by Ron Francis.

The interior is a perfect mix of vintage style with the quality and design of today. Classic Instruments led the class with their timeless gauges and their column-mounted Rocket Tach. The ’37 Ford Banjo steering wheel tops up the stock column with LimeWorks column drop and turn signals. Covering the Glide Engineering seat, door panels, and headliner is black and gray vinyl by Matt Enos, also of Oregon.

Finally, after David retired, he had the time and money to finish his long-held dream. David says, “It was a longtime coming, but never give up your dreams.”