As the high-powered postwar designs nudged the performance bar year by year, it became evident: the prewar hot rod had to find a new venue to dominate. As the indoor car show scene blossomed, the prewar hot rod found a new niche, although this time with a spit shine in lieu of a lakes-dust finish. Instead of cams, carbs, and compression, the hot rod vernacular adopted words like candy and chrome. Anymore, heavy chops and channels weren't to cheat the wind so much as to court the judges. By the mid-'50s, show trophies certainly took precedence over timing tags as far as prewar hot rods went.
And, Jay Dean's chopped '28 Ford sedan? Well, it's one of those reminiscent of a hot rod that might have rolled from some garage during the Eisenhower years. The difference: the Dean heater started from a parts pile at the tail end of the last millenium.
Dean and his new wife, Tanya, spotted the Montana-expatriate '28 Ford sedan body in a junkyard while motoring across Arizona on their honeymoon. Dean knew the body had potential, so he bought it and came back six months later to haul it home to San Diego. Since its snowbelt tenure left the body badly rusted, Dean first rebuilt it, replacing all the wood with steel tubing and grafting '33 Plymouth coupe wheelwells out back. Dean filled and smoothed the cowl and firewall, shaved the door handles, and sunk '59 Caddy taillights in the filled tailpanel. He whacked the top 8 inches and channeled it another 8 over a boxed '28 chassis. As if it wasn't low enough, he Z-stepped the rails 3 inches in the rear. Furthermore, Dean's chopping routine included a 10-inch slice from a '35 Chevy grille shell.
The severe chop and channel required Dean to fabricate a pair of custom seats. He covered them in white vinyl in a tuck 'n' roll pattern and accented the remainder of the interior with a chrome dashrail, door tops, garnish moldings, and steering column. For the body's finish, he found a rather vintage-looking '75 AMC Sea Spray Green and accented it with almond white for the engine and firewall. Neil Melliard in San Diego (via London, England) tastefully pinstriped and lettered the body, while the top got a tuck 'n' roll insert to match the seats.
Remaining faithful to the traditional look, Dean built a stout flathead. He started with a ported and polished 8BA block that got a 3 5/16-inch bore, to which he added a 4-inch Mercury crank to total 276 ci. An Isky 400Jr cam nudges Johnson adjustable hollow lifters and oversize stainless valves for a bit of attitude.
Along the way, Dean found N.O.S Offenhauser heads that, like the Eddie Meyer intake, went under the polishing bobbins. Perched atop the intake sit a pair of chromed Stromberg 97s. Following suit, the water pumps, pulleys, headers, bellhousing, and shortened '40 Ford torque tube got the chrome bath. Seeing this is a gennie San Diego hot rod, no axle could supplant the look of one of Ed "Dago" Stewart's original 2 1/2-inch stretched axles-drilled and chromed, of course. The rear axle is a completely chromed '40 Ford unit, and both front and rear wishbones underwent the drilled-and-chromed treatment. The brakes are '40 Ford with chrome backing plates and fully polished Buick drums up front. The transmission is a '39 Ford truck unit with Zephyr gears. With the exception of the Dode Martin (of Dragmaster fame) engine machining, Dean did all the work.
Seeing this period-perfect execution of true Americana is one thing these days, but when considering that Dean learned his automotive skills in his home country, England, it's that much more impressive. Learning the car trade in his parents' auto repair business and as a result of his auto racing ventures, Dean's first car was a hot rodded Morris Minor. He graduated to Volkswagens and eventually moved to Southern California to build more, but in the end, he "really started to learn about early-American hot rods," Dean said. "I moved back to England for a few years, but my heart was in California, where true hot rodding takes place. I moved back to California for good in 1998." Dean settled in Fallbrook, California, and soon started building hot rods in his home garage. Shortly thereafter, he partnered with Gregg Lowery and opened North County Customs and Hot Rods. The success of the business developed into two more hot rod related businesses: C & G Early Ford Repair and the Jalopy Shoppe, which was built to showcase his shop's car building skills.