1933 Ford Coupe - Canadian Coupe

If it's true a tiger can't change its stripes, then what can be said about the true nature of a hot rod? Street rodding has seen all sorts of looks and fads come and go through the years (remember Gumby green paint jobs?), but just like a black tuxedo, there are some things that are just eternal.

Traditional hot rods have certainly come on strong in the past few years, and though the smooth, gumdrop cars are not out of vogue, it seems nearly everyone can identify with cars like a black highboy set up with caps 'n' rings.

So, if you were to find an old, ratted-out drag car back in the mid-'90s, what style of car would you build? For the then 35-year-old John Foxley, from the Vancouver, British Columbia, region of Canada, the choice was billet. Billet wheels, billet door handles, billet steering wheel, billet valve covers-billet everything. The car was going to be his first true hot rod (though he'd built a handful of Pro Street-style Tri-Five Chevys) and the billet look was what was popular.

The car he started with was an original steel '33 Ford coupe that had been severely channeled (Z'd 8 inches in the rear) over a '34 frame. The vehicle's registration number can be traced back to 1948 in the Vancouver area, but no one is really sure what the car's history is from 1933 to the mid-'70s.

When John bought it, its recent history included a stint as a drag car. It was painted black with, as John tells it, "big, ugly red flames running down the side." It also sported a red grille and chassis, a plywood floor, and Weld drag racing wheels. But John saw some potential through the ugly, albeit not its true potential at first. After doing the billet thing, chopping the car, and painting it yellow, he thought it looked OK, but felt it had something else to offer.

He then entered a transition period where the car was slowly made to look more traditional, and he began by adding American Torq-Thrust wheels wrapped in wide whites, bobbing the rear fenders, and installing a louvered hood (punched with 340 louvers!). The color was then changed to its current brick flavor, and John had Bob Spencer, a pinstriper from the Portland area who works under the handle "Spirit," add the gold leaf lettering along the hood top and the number 61 to each door (which is the year John was born).

John would occasionally take the coupe to the drags, and, partially because of the 2.54 gears in the Chevy 10-bolt rear, be able to buzz the quarter in 13.65 seconds at 100 mph and trip the lights just as he was getting into Third gear. But John's day job, running his own sign business (vinyl lettering for vehicles along with pinstriping) in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, soon demanded he sell his ride.

As fate would have it, Paul LeMoine, from Kelowna (about 200 miles away from John), had also known about the car, as there aren't too many original steel, channeled '33 Ford coupes in that part of Canada! Paul had wanted to buy it years before, but to no avail; however, the timing was right in 2005, and Paul bought the car from John and continued with its de-billetizing.

The steering wheel was replaced with a white, three-spoke Cal Custom unit, and the billet door handles were removed in favor of some stock items. Paul likes the car's current theme, and will continue that look by removing some of the steel-braided line that runs throughout the motor. And since Paul was also born in 1961, the door number will stay. Paul would like to make the car even more period-perfect, but since he has no interest in ever selling the car, he feels he has the time to make his dream a reality.

One of the few things Paul has been able to do that eluded some of the car's other owners is rack up some miles on the odometer. He's recorded more than 8,000 miles in the past year, visiting stateside events such as Goodguys Pleasanton and Puyallup, and Andy's Picnic (in the San Francisco Bay Area), as well as a handful of smaller Canadian events.

When all is said and done, Paul was able to divine his coupe's true nature while also discovering his own hot rod path too. So, even though it may be true a tiger may never change his stripes, it seems a traditional hot rod will always be a traditional hot rod.

Facts & Figures
Paul LeMoine
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
'33 Ford five-window