1931 Ford Model A Sedan - Rockwell Rebel

One of the great things about the hot rod hobby is it can bring people together. Whether it's your buddy from across the street that helps you get that engine and trans into the chassis one night, or a friend across the country who will discuss paint and pinstripe combinations on the phone, a hot rod can be the glue that holds people together.

Sean Vesely invested his entire life in rodding, starting back in New York where he built go-karts and mini-bikes when he was a kid. He got his first rod (a ratty '31 sedan) when he was 16 and worked in a local body shop until he was 20, when he opened his own shop in Deer Park in 1977.

Sean sold the shop in 1988 and worked out of his home garage for several years until opening a new shop in the mid-'90s in Lindenhurst. Being recognized by Street Rodder in 1999 with a feature in June on a Model A coupe he built, sold, and re-purchased showed he was a traditionalist. Bucking the trend of slippery, gumdrop-smooth rods prevalent in that time, Sean built his chopped A coupe with an off-white paint job with red scallops because that's the way they used to do them.

The Model A was sold to a friend who moved to North Carolina and, by 1999, Sean had moved to Trinity, North Carolina, and opened The Hot Rod Shop, which specialized in traditional hot rods.

Selling car parts was a part of Sean's business, and one day he sold a set of Radir cheater slicks to Joe Corl. After seeing the type of cars in the shop, Joe knew his 28-year-old son, Dustin, would probably like to meet Sean, so he called him up to tell him about the place.

Having just bought a completely restored '31 Ford sedan a few weeks prior, Dustin was happy to learn that Sean knew his way around Model A sedans (as it was Sean's first hot rod), and the two rodders really hit it off. They ended up talking a lot and, after a lengthy meeting at Dustin's house to discuss how the Ford might go together, they started together on the project.

Dustin's original conception was to have a nice car, but not something so nice he had to worry about going out and spinning the tires when he wanted to. Work on converting the two-door into a hot rod began with the chassis, which used the stock 'rails, but they ended up being boxed, smoothed, Z'd 8 inches in the rear, and stepped 3 inches up front by Vesely.

When the chassis came back from painter Travis Rabon, Dustin wasn't prepared for how glossy and nice it turned out. It was at that point he decided to take the car up a couple of notches and build a real nice car.

The chassis was finished with a '48 Ford rearend (3:73:1), Pro Shocks, and a stock Model A spring behind the axle. Up front a suicide-style mount brings the car down low, and the drilled I-beam works with split 'bones and '41 Ford steering. Ford spokes (16-inch) wrapped in BFGoodrich Silvertown wide whites (5.00/5.25-16 and 6.00-16) appear on each corner, though the spare mounted under the rear window is a 6.00-16.

The next item on the list was to take a Sawz-All to the pristine, restored sedan body. Done with a group of friends in Sean's shop during an all-night Chop Party (with Sean's wife, Pam, supplying the pizza and beer), Sean drew out the lines but handed the tool over to Dustin. It was his car-he'd have to cut it!

Over the next couple of years during the build Sean took Dustin under his wing and taught him not only how to chop, but also how to weld, channel, and fabricate parts for a hot rod. Spending 3 or 4 nights a week and many a long weekend on the project didn't hurt their friendship-in fact, it made it stronger. The two families even vacationed together up in New York and New Jersey!

Dustin's great-uncle, Harold Myers, is a 79-year-old who has been building Flathead motors for many years, and Dustin believes he can probably do so in his sleep. Harold assembled the '48 Mercury for Dustin's sedan, using pistons for a .020 bore and set up with a 9:1 ratio. Offy heads were bolted on, as were a pair of Stromberg 97s (with little Mr. Roadster Tru-Helmet air cleaners up top).

Though there is an electric SPAL fan pressed up against the custom aluminum radiator, nothing else speaks to contemporary parts on the engine (even the old-style generator was converted to 12-volt by C&F Electric). Sean fab'd the lakester-style headers (with internal mufflers), which were Jet-Hot coated copper by a local HPC dealer. The rest of the motor was dress-up, with red spark plug wires, a bee-hive oil filter, red fuel lines, a chrome coil, and copper tubing used for all oil lines. The Flattie backs to a '39 Top Loader 3-speed, which was also assembled by Harold Myers.

After friend Chris Pekarek and Sean helped Dustin with the 6-inch chop, the body was channeled 4 inches and then sent over to Travis Rabon for its bodywork and paint. Though he wasn't sure at first what shade to cover the car (green? gold?), Dustin checked in with Ken Shoaf, who runs an old auto parts store called Rouzer's. Ken has amassed an archive of old paint chip books (probably worth their weight in gold on eBay) and allowed Dustin to browse through until he found what he was looking for: a '54 Plymouth color called San Diego Gold (kind of a Gulden's mustard shade).

After it came back from paint, final assembly began, and the interior started going together. JB's Custom Upholstery in Raleigh got the call to recover the '98 Dodge Caravan center seat, which had its center hump removed so the seat still folds down for access to the rear storage area. A black 2-inch roll and pleat covers the door panels and seats, with an original Model A roof insert being used up top. The dash remained stock, and the stock gauge set was retained, though some Stewart Warner gauges (temp and oil pressure) can be found under the stock gauge cluster. Vesely used old-time cloth covering for the wiring, and a '49 Ford Prefect banjo steering wheel keeps everything age-appropriate.

The sedan was finished in late 2007, and the pair decided the Detroit Autorama would be a good place to debut the car (after 30 years of building rods, Sean never had a car shown at the Autorama). A month before the event Sean delivered the car to Dustin's house so he could begin prepping it for the show, but only a few days later, Corl got a phone call saying Sean, at 51, had passed away due to a severe asthma attack.

Devastated by the news, Dustin, now 32, decided to honor Sean's memory by going ahead with their plans to take the car to Detroit. While there, Voodoo Larry Grobe pinstriped the car during the show, adding the finishing touch the car needed. Winning first place in the Altered Street Sedan category was icing on the cake, and it seemed like destiny had smiled on both Dustin and Sean.

Being a father figure to Dustin, Sean left a lasting impression with many hot rodders over the years, and the cars he had built are now even more prized. One car in particular, a '27 roadster Sean and Dustin would buzz around town in, is now at home in Dustin's garage, and Corl is proud to say he owns the last two cars Sean ever built.

Through tragedy sometimes comes triumph, and Dustin is convinced he's all the better for knowing Sean, and he will continue to honor his legacy every time he starts his Model A sedan.