Let's face it, the main reason we're all into the street rod hobby is to have fun. Sure, there are those who treat rodding as a sort of contest to see who can spend the most money, build the most extravagant car, or clock the most trailer miles. Nevertheless, the majority of rodders mainly strive to own a street rod that represents their individual taste-sort of an extension of personality, so to speak, and hopefully to drive the wheels off 'em as well. A perfect example of what we're talking about is Ed and Karen Martin and their cool '40 Ford coupe. You can tell right off the bat that it's no Ridler contender-and that suits both them and us just fine, because in reality, it's meat-'n'-potatoes hot rods that make the world go 'round.
The Martins' "real world" street rod is a tried and true example of a classic, a '40 Ford Deluxe coupe-one that's nice enough to turn heads but not so nice as to preclude a jaunt to the local Wal-Mart for a load of household necessities, or a thousand-mile trip to a gathering of contemporaries.
The couple found the car of their dreams down in Texas (after a disappointing trip to check out an unfortunately misrepresented one over in Florida). Luckily, this one was in fine shape, though it did have to lose its billet wheels, bucket seats, and Chevy steering wheel as soon as they got it back home to Missouri.
Replacing the aforementioned components with a stock seat and wheel, a quartet of painted steelies, spider caps, and wide whites, as well as a pair of dropped spindles and lowering blocks accomplished the transformation from a contemporary to a more traditional style. And, as a finishing touch, an Indian blanket seat cover and shrunken head were added too.
The crux of the biscuit, so to speak, is this: A street rod by no means needs to be a professionally built gold brick to show up between the covers of STREET RODDER-or to be admired and respected by the rest of us folks. After all, it's all about havin' fun, and the Martins are rightfully havin' a ball.