Not Flashy, Not Fancy, Just Fun!

We want to sell you on an idea--an old idea, really. It's the idea of a car built from an amalgam of cast-off, forgotten, and unloved parts. It's the idea of a car cobbled together with good ol' Yankee ingenuity. It's the idea of a bare-bones, naked, and exciting machine that sets souls afire.

Plainly put, we want to sell you on the idea of Doug Shadley's T modified. "I wanted to build an unusual car using period-correct old parts--the way they really did it after World War II," he said.

"I started with a drawing. Using yellow highlighter and red pen, I drew basic frame drawings all to scale," he said. "I knew I was going to use a flatmotor and old banjo rearend, so I started gathering parts from fence rows, tree claims, and farmers' iron piles. I spotted a '52 Ford pickup for $300 and after a few weeks got the engine unstuck. Then I stripped the radiator, steering sector, trans cover, center crossmember, driveshaft, shock towers, gauges, start button, pedals, and hubs...and I sold the sheetmetal for $250."

He made the parts union by calling on three important things: his machine skills, his welding skills (he's a welder by trade), and on his 9-year-old daughter and lead "gopher," Adrianne.

He fabricated a frame from 2x3 mild steel rectangular tubing and a 2 1/4-inch round tube front crossmember. The frame's width increases towards the rear and terminates into a 3-inch round-tube rear crossmember out back. Shadley used the donor pickup's center crossmember to mount the brake and clutch pedal assembly and master cylinder.

Up front Shadley split a set of heavy-truck '35 rear wishbones and removed their axle mounts. He also removed the axle mounts from a set of '35 front wishbones. He mated the long rear wishbones to the front axle ends to create extra-long front wishbones. He pinned the extra-long wishbones to a stock '35 front axle. He even utilized the otherwise useless transverse '35 spring by cutting it in half, fabricating frame brackets, and mounting the two halves longitudinally to the frame. The now-quarter-elliptic springs mount to the axle via four tabs Shadley welded to it. He mounted the '52 pickup steering box on its side for a drag link-style steering arrangement.

Out back Shadley used a 3.54:1-geared '42-48 axle with split wishbones and an A spring. He converted the axle to open drive by cutting the torque tube just ahead of its rear flange and pressing a double-sealed bearing into the tube. He then machined a 10-spline sleeve's OD to fit into the bearing's ID. He welded the sleeve to a Ford yoke and pinned it to the pinion with a 1/4-inch pin.

The 8BA engine Shadley used saw a rebuild in 1970 and seven easy years' use in the donor '52 pickup. He disassembled it and judiciously ported and relieved it prior to reassembly. He stuck the mill with an Isky 3/4 Race cam, Johnson adjustable lifters, and stainless valves. Offenhauser heads and a Fenton twin-pot manifold top the mill. For the crowning jewel, Shadley fabricated lakes headers from Speedway Motors' kit. When corked, they push through 2-inch pipes and Smithy's packs. When uncorked, believe us when we say that engine lopes and barks with the best of 'em.

The flattie backs to the donor pickup's three-speed trans. The roller rides on '35 Ford wires with 5.00- and 7.00-16 BFGoodrich Silvertown rags. Shadley procured a '25 bucket body from Speedway Motors and mounted it flat atop the rails. He cut down aluminum windshield stanchions and machined them for glass. He formed an 18-gauge steel hood to span the area between the body and the Model A grille. Sealey Body Shop in Hastings, Nebraska, punched it full of louvers.

For a fuel tank, Shadley formed 6 1/2-gallon cell from 18-gauge steel. He hammer formed the tanks' sides over wooden bucks for the general shape. He then wrapped the sides with more 18-gauge and soldered the seams. The tank stays put by two WalMart pants belts.

The sparse interior features a homemade aluminum dash with the donor pickup's speedometer flanked by two Stewart-Warner mechanical gauges. The dash mounts a '39 column drop that, in turn, mounts a '39 mast jacket over the pickup's steering shaft. The homemade plywood seat sports marine-grade Naugahyde that Shadley's mother-in-law helped stitch up.

Shadley hit the road in a mere seven months with the T in red oxide primer. He initially ran the rearend in its spring-in-rear configuration, however, he realized the wheelbase could use a few more inches. So he swapped the axle housings side to side, thereby moving the axle rearward and lengthening the wheelbase. The mod required Shadley to extend the rear wishbones and driveshaft. We caught a glance at the car at last year's Americruise.

This year, however, the T sported a snappy white/yellow scallop job with red mechanicals. We really took notice. Then Shadley offered us a ride--which ultimately spelled our demise; we were hooked!

What a damn fun car to drive! No, it's not the prom queen and it tends to beat you when pushed hard down bumpy roads, but that's part of its rough-and-tumble charm. As Shadley put it, "It's like a big, flathead-powered go-cart." I think he said that as I unfurled the clutch on second gear and howled the tires.