Jim had been in the midst of completing a '39 Ford when the '31 was purchased. With the arrival of the new, open car, his attention was shifted away from the closed Ford to the more sun-drenched vibe of the roadster pickup. As with any car, the frame is the foundation and is usually the first part that gets sorted when a build begins. Jim started with a chassis from Total Cost Involved, hung a dropped Magnum axle on hairpins up front, and a Halibrand quick-change out back, located by Bilstein shocks and a Pete & Jake's ladder bar setup. A set of Wheel Vintiques steelies was mounted at all four corners on BFG rubber and finished with '47 Ford hubcaps and trim rings. For the stopping duties, Jim utilized 9-inch Ford drums in the rear and a SO-CAL Speed Shop hidden-disc setup up front.
Jim picked up a Bow Tie block from GM to power the pickup, and had it machined at NuTech and built at Bushy's Machine using Childs and Albert rods and pistons swinging off a forged crank. A Schneider Racing Cams bumpstick was slipped in to give the motor some lope and an Offy intake topped with a trio of Rochester 2GCs feeds the fuel to the fire. Other dress-up items include Cal Custom finned valve covers, a Joe Hunt electronic distributor, and an Austin Healy mechanical fan painted to resemble an airplane prop and mounted off a modified Opel water pump. This nostalgic powerplant was then mated to a modern T5 five-speed manual transmission to provide the ultimate in comfortable highway cruising.
As with most of the build, Jim used shops near his hometown of Julian, California, when the time came for paint and upholstery. Billy Sandvik was tapped to get the steel body and bed massaged into shape before spraying the custom-mix PPG green and contrasting red highlights. Once the paint was dry, cut, and buffed, it was off to North County Upholstery in Escondido, California, to stitch up the red leather over the custom bench seat, and door and kicker panels. Jim added a number of custom touches to the interior as well, including the vintage heater and one-off early Ford-style pedals.
After nearly four combined years of collecting and assembling parts, Jim brought out his freshly completed roadster pickup to the Goodguys Del Mar Nationals, where it caught the attention of one particular SRM editor and was picked as a finalist in this year's Turtle Wax/Street Rodder Top 100 (for more info, see our Del Mar coverage on page 97). Jim's roadster pickup struck a chord with us here at SRM because here was a guy who rescued an otherwise derelict old car body and built an absolutely stunning hot rod out of his own garage. No trick, super-billet, state-of-the-art parts were used, just good old-fashioned American ingenuity and a keen eye for detail.