When it comes to being a car guy, there are those who can dream about how our ultimate garage would be stocked (a group that would include most of us), and those (the very few) who already have an impressive array of vehicles from which to drive.
John Mumford is one of the guys who falls in to the latter category. With more than 50 cars in his stable, John has the luxury to pick and chose from either N.O.S. original '32s and '34s, or maybe from one of the street rods he owns to go on trips with his wife, Chris. And drive them he does-John isn't a show car, trophy-hunting kind of guy; he just appreciates having the best examples of the types of cars he likes.
Though '32 and '34 Fords are at the top of his list, '39 Fords come in at a close third. In 1938, Ford started its Deluxe and Standard lines of vehicles where the Deluxe version of one year would be the Standard design for the following year (so a '38 Deluxe would look very much like a '39 Standard, and so on). John's love of '39 Standards compelled him to own a few examples of that body style, but after seeing a particular '39 built at Roy Brizio's shop in South San Francisco, California, and painted by shop owner Marcos Garcia of Lucky 7 Customs in nearby Antioch, the wheels in John's head started turning to have a unique custom built.
The car would revolve around two basic concepts: it had to be reliable (as John enjoys driving his cars, he has participated in five cross-country AmeriCruise trips), and it had to be unique in its styling. John had some specific ideas on what this new ride should look like, but to get both of those concepts combined, he turned to the two who built the other '39 he liked so much: Roy and Marcos.
John's relationship with Roy goes back a long time, and the two have worked together on several car projects. Not the type of guy to lean over a builder while he works, John already knew that if it was going to come out of Roy's shop, he'd be able to climb in it today and meet you across the country in a few days. So after John found a restored original '38 Deluxe in Iowa, it was soon on its way to Roy.
Roy's dialed in the stock chassis with an independent front suspension from Heidt's and a power rack while the rear is set up with a Ford 9-inch housing and leaf springs. A stainless steel brake line was added for the system that includes 11-inch discs in the front and drum brakes out back. John also had two sets of wheels for the car, one for "show" and the other for driving. The show versions are 15-inch chromies fitted with wide whites (as pictured), which really give the car a classic custom feel. But John also had Wheel Vintiques make up a set of billet 16- and 17-inch artillery wheels topped off with N.O.S. '38 Deluxe hubcaps and shod in Goodyear rubber. After the chassis became a roller, the car was then delivered to the body shop.
When the '38 arrived at Lucky 7 Customs, Marcos knew he was going to have his hands full. The stock, 70-year-old metal was in decent shape, but a lot of modifications were about to happen to it!
Lucky 7's Vince Byrne would perform most of the fabrication and metalworking needed to transform the tall, round convertible into a sleek, low and lean street rod. Working from the top down, Vince started by chopping the windshield two inches, and reworked the top mechanism to fold down and rise up and latch in its new location. The factory rumble seat was converted to a functional trunk, the rear pan was stretched, and a section of it recessed to accommodate what looks like a factory license plate location (one of the many body mods on the car that most folks don't catch).