1940 Ford Coupe - Second Time 'Round-Street Rodder

Don Floyd's passion for '40 Fords has never ceased over the last 50 or so years. It has been about as long since he's owned his first, back in the late '50s. Like a lot of teenagers back then, owning a hot rod was of utmost importance. Don was 18 when he owned his first '40 coupe, but as the story goes, life ultimately forced the sale of the car and it took another 30 years before Don would once again see a hot rod in his future.

Around 1989, a friend had told Don about a '40 Ford coupe that was sitting beside a barn in the Eastern part of his home state of Kentucky. The car turned out to be all original with lots of rust and the usual 50-plus years of road rash, but for $2,400, Don and his wife Pam just couldn't pass up the chance to own a hot rod again. It wasn't long before Don was tearing into the car, updating the ancient drivetrain and making the car a reliable driver. More than 30,000 miles and 12 years later, the Floyds decided it was time to tear into the coupe again, this time pulling out all the stops.

The foundation of the rebuild consisted of a Lobeck's V8 Hot Rod Parts chassis, swinging on a Heidt's Hot Rod Shop Mustang II IFS, and a 9-inch Ford rearend with Air Ride Technologies airbags at all four corners. Wilwood disc brakes back the 17- and 20-inch Boyd Coddington billet wheels. To power the coupe, Don went with a '91 Chevy 350ci crate engine with a matching TH350 trans and topped the engine with a Holley 4-bbl carb. The usual chrome, polished, and painted goodies are also found throughout the engine bay.

The steel body was sent to the Shelbyville, Kentucky, shop of Ron Dressing where, among other things, Ron set about getting the tarnished steel back into shape. He contributed a number of body mods to the car, including shaving the hood, decklid, and door handles. The '39 Ford taillights and headlights were a custom addition to the body, as was frenching the units into the fenders. A single sheet of glass replaced the two-piece windshield, as did a one-piece unit on both side glass and vent windows. Before long, Ron was ready to shoot the DuPont Fire Popper Red and Champagne two-tone paint. Once the paint was dry, Ron wired the car using a Ron Francis wiring kit and installed a Sony sound system. The system consists of a Sony head unit powered by a Thunder 895 MTX amp, a Boston Acoustics subwoofer, two 6x9s and two 5 1/4-inch speakers.

With the paint dry and the wiring complete, the coupe was brought to Warren Skinnemoen in Winchester, Kentucky, to stitch up the leather interior. Warren built custom molded door panels that accent the Wise Guys bench seat and flow into the kick panels that house the front speakers. In the trunk, Warren continued the great job, fully covering the trunk area, including a panel that accesses the stainless fuel tank.

We caught up with Don and Pam in Louisville at the NSRA Nats as they had just completed their beautiful '40. You could see it in their eyes how excited they were to be back on the road, cruising in their hot rod!

Facts & FiguresDon and Pam FloydShelbyville, Kentucky1940 Ford standard coupe