1933 Ford Three Window Coupe - Not A Trl Quen

Roger Hansen has been into hot rodding since starting with a '40 Ford coupe back in 1961. He's had a string of hot rods since then, including a '29 Tudor sedan, a '29 Magoo-built highboy, and his last car, a '33 Ford highboy coupe. That last highboy coupe, as a matter of fact, was the inspiration for the car you see on the pages before you. Upon completion of the coupe a few years back, Roger and his wife Jeanette hit the road and put over 25,000 miles on the odometer in the span of a year and a half. That's a lot of driving! In that time, Roger realized some things he might have done differently if he had the chance. His chance came in the form of a Poliform-bodied '33 Ford three-window coupe.

To get the complete story, one must understand what drives a man like Roger Hansen. Where most people may have simply refined their existing car to suit the changes they desired, Roger enjoys the actual build process so much that he'd rather build a whole new car just for the sake of doing it. That's our kind of guy!

While the Hansens' coupe now resides in Arizona, it originally started its young life in California. The chassis was a Magnum Axle Company product that was sent over to Snow White Ltd. to receive the Jaguar XKE rearend conversion. From there, the frame was assembled using a Super Bell aluminum I-beam front axle hung on a POSIES monoleaf spring with Wilwood disc brakes at all four corners. A Mullins aluminum steering box transmits the steering controls from driver to spindle via a Flaming River column and LeCarra steering wheel.

Roger Hansen builds all his cars in his garage, but there are a couple things he opts to let the pros accomplish. When it came time for the paint and body chores, he took the coupe over to Gary Crisp at Crisp Custom Painting in Phoenix, Arizona, to get the body straight and lay those ghost flames over the bright PPG yellow paint. Ron Hernandez was then brought in to 'stripe the flames and make the graphics come alive. The other aspect of the build he chose to leave to the pros was the upholstery. For that, he handed the car over to the skilled hands of Lance Troupe. Lance has been stitching cars for years and is one of the best in the biz. For Roger's coupe, he started with a custom bench seat built to clear the B&M shifter. Using tan leather, he then covered the seat, door, and rear panels, while tan German square weave covered the floorboards. Finishing off the interior is a smoothed, leather-clad dash with seven Classic Instruments gauges handling everything from engine speed to trans temp. Also sharing the dash space is the headlight and ignition switch, climate controls, and vents.

Roger and Jeanette barely debuted their car when it was invited to Blackie Gejeian's Fresno Autorama. Since then, the car has also attended the Grand National Roadster Show and has won many local cruise night and event trophies. As excited as they are to have a newly built hot rod, in talking to Roger, he seemed equally excited about the prospect of selling off the coupe to make way for a new project. But, he said, not before putting a few miles on her. And if we know the Hansens, a few miles could mean well over 25,000!