1932 Ford Tudor - Electric Blue

If you haven't read The Cobra In The Barn: Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology by Tom Cotter (or his subsequent book, The Hemi In The Barn), then you've missed a great collection of true stories of how automotive gems, such as a '63 Shelby Cobra or a '54 Corvette, had been squirreled away in some garage or outbuilding for decades before being discovered and restored to life by an appreciative new owner.

If you think all those "barn finds" are gone and that couldn't happen in this day and age, then you need to speak with Richard Sides, from Orangevale, California.

A long-time hot rodder, some of Richard's earliest memories are of his dad taking the family to the nearby Sacramento Autorama in 1961, back when it was held in the Governor's Hall at the Sacramento Fairgrounds. As a young boy, he distinctly remembers seeing the King T on display just a few short months after it had won the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award in 1964 and, in the ensuing years, cars of the '60s would have a big impact on the young hot rodder.

Four years ago while looking for cars on the Internet, Richard spotted a '32 sedan in the ritzy Southern California city of Palm Springs. Though he couldn't make the 500-mile trip to go look at it, he had a buddy who could check it out for him. After his friend e-mailed some photos of the car (he says it was parked in a chicken coop), Richard said "buy it," and soon his buddy not only picked the car up for him but even towed it back to Richard's garage.

What he bought was a roller with fenders, minus an engine. Something corrosive had been put on the roof, and Richard knew the Tudor had seen better days, but this wasn't Richard's first endeavor at rod building. He'd done a lot of work for friends in the local area and he already had a '37 Chevy coupe that had its roof removed and the car made into a custom. But the concept for his new ride-a '60s-era car that would look at home in the Sacramento Autorama in 1968-was something he didn't need to research too much, as he had been designing this car in his head for the past four decades.

The body soon came off the chassis and work began on the chassis. Classic hot rod looks would come from a Halibrand V-8 quickchange and a Model A buggy spring out back while the front got a drilled and chromed I-beam from Super Bell as well as chromed 'n' drilled split wishbones.

The chassis was then fitted with its new powerplant: a 331 Chrysler Hemi set up with an 8.5:1 compression ratio and backed to Muncie four-speed trans. The V-8, with its exterior ground smooth by the owner, looks vintage, even though some of the parts, such as the PowerGEN alternator that looks like a generator, are contemporary parts. A Weiand 3x2 carb system feeds the beast, which is topped off with a pair of chromed '56 Imperial valve covers. An Isky cam was also used, and Richard made his own exhaust system, from the headers to the mufflers.

The body had come with a set of fenders, but Richard opted to make his ride a fenderless highboy, and cleaned up the body before taking to well-known painter Art Himsl to get its signature shade. Art, a Hall-of-Fame painter known more for some of his creative ribbon and panel paint jobs, went with Richard's idea of a color choice, which is similar to what you'd find on a Grotto Blue Camaro parked in a Chevy dealership in 1968-a brilliant, almost electric, blue. The paint works well against a white accent, which Art painted on the exposed firewall (this hot rod has no hood top or sides).

Richard ran with the blue-and-white theme, using wide whitewalls to wrap the chrome wheels as well as using a white roof insert. The blue-and-white combo was also used extensively in the interior, where upholsterer Dave Putman made good use of the sedan's cavernous space. Realizing there is no trunk in a Tudor, nor any type of glove box, Sides and Putman came up with a pair of covered pockets, similar to what you'd find on a roadster door panel, but added them to the back of the front buckets. The front seats are Model A units, covered in blue and white material (white Naugahyde and blue '50s-era Cadillac fabric) and the same layout was used on the back seat, too, as well as the door panels.

Up in the driver's seat, Richard takes control of his sedan with the aid of a white Cal Custom steering wheel, which bolts to an ididit column. Five Stewart Warner gauges are set into an engine-turned insert (a tach is also mounted off the steering column), and the Pioneer stereo unit is hidden from view far under the dash. Richard did all the wiring on his ride, going as far as using an old-time cloth covering on the wires (wrapping the bundles with wax string), as well as utilizing '60s-era glass tube fuses.

As car builds go, some are more of a chore than others, and Richard reports this one was so easy it "just snapped together." Other than a small tick in the motor, which he has since fixed, no major problems popped up during the build or since he finished the car.

We should all be that lucky in our builds, but his talent and tenacity will be tested in the coming months as he is in the process of redoing his '37 Chevy, plus he has a '32 five-window in the works, which will be fitted with a S.Co.T.-blown 390 Cadillac. We'll be watching for when those two hit the road, too!