Darrel Potter's 1950 Ford Coupe - Sworn To Fun, Loyal To None

What are some of your childhood memories? Nowadays kids have all sorts of diversions, from video games to the Internet. But back before the net, before MTV, and even before most folks had color TV, you had to make do with what you had.

Darrell Potter knows all that. Now based in Bradford, Pennsylvania, he remembers as a youth an older kid in town that had a '50 Ford coupe with a Corvette motor in it. He'd take young Darrell on rides and, in turn, Potter would help him work on his car (mostly by washing and waxing it).

Darrell got his first car, a '49 Olds four-door, at 14 from an older lady who was a customer on his paper route, and he kept it behind his parents' house and worked on it on a dirt road. When hitting the gas station, the attendants would sell him the gas for 25-cents a gallon if he'd burn rubber for them, and Darrell got pretty good at it. Good enough, in fact, to attract the attention of the local police, who told him not to drive the car on city streets any more.

Darrell didn't take their advice, so after returning from school one day to find his car missing, he learned the police had towed it to the scrap yard where it got crushed. When he informed his father about the development, his dad said "I guess you won't be driving it anymore," and that was the end of that. It was 1960, and Darrell has been building hot rods ever since.

Darrell credits the older kid's '50 as being the inspiration for his love of hot rods, so it was only natural when, years later, he found an ad for a '50 Ford Club Coupe that said "for sale or trade" at a vendor's booth at York that he began thinking about that car from his childhood.

The Ford was located in Iowa, and the deal was struck when Darrell offered his '46 Ford convertible in trade. As it turned out, the fitment of the fenders, doors, and hood was not too good on his new ride, and Potter decided to refurbish the entire car from the ground up.

Though he used a portion of the original FoMoCo frame, Darrell fab'd a complete rear section out of 2x4 box tubing and added Strange axles to a Ford 9-inch rear (3.89:1), narrowing it to 48 inches. Suspension came in the form of a triangulated four-link and a pair of bags from Air Ride Technologies.

Up front, a Fatman Fabrications stub was installed with a pair of QA1 adjustable shocks, along with 11-inch disc brakes (10-inch truck drums went in out back). American Racing Hopster wheels, 15x7s and 15x10s, were shod with BFGoodrich radials (215/65R-15 and 275/60R-15), and the big 10s out back let everyone know there is more to this car than just a perfect stance.

Bob's Automotive's Bob Repine in Eldred, Pennsylvania, assembled the 1970 400-inch Chevy V8 using most of the rotating parts from Lunati, including the camshaft. Dialed in at 10:1, the Edelbrock heads are fed by a pair of Edelbrock 500-cfm carbs, breathing through a Cal Custom air cleaner. An MSD Digital 6-Plus box supplies the spark, which is carried along MSD 8.5mm wires. Southeastern Transmission, in Olean, New York, assembled the 700-R4 trans using a 2,200-rpm stall converter and a shift kit with heavy-duty clutches.

Updating the Ford's interior was accomplished with a new, smooth dash that features a single quad gauge from Hainline (though a small tach resides in a chrome bucket just off the left side of the ididit steering column). Controls for the Pioneer stereo system and the switches for the Air Ride bags are found on a custom console that starts under the dash and ends between the two bucket seats, which were obtained from a Lincoln and then recovered in red Ultra leather by Carl Zellner, out of Buffalo, New York.

Even though most folks would be happy owning just one car like this one, Darrell has a garage full of interesting projects and drivers. He's currently working on a '53 Coupe De Ville, but also owns a '60 Chevy Biscayne and a '37 coupe (he chopped it himself and has owned it since 1980). In another corner sits a stock '36 coupe, which he only recently purchased after trying to buy it for more than 30 years! The last time it was serviced was in 1961, which ought to give you an idea what the condition of the car might be.

Over the years, Darrell hasn't been loyal to any one body manufacturer or style-he likes everything and everything appeals to him. But what Darrell was able to do with his '50 Ford was take a bit of his childhood and mix it with contemporary parts to come up with a hot rod that speaks to every age, as there isn't anyone alive who wouldn't take a second look at his classy Club coupe.