Lamar turned to Alan Johnson’s...
Lamar turned to Alan Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop for the leather interior to his ’48 Ford. They stitched it up, made the bench seat, and created the cool saddle pouches for the door panels. There is a Vintage Air A/C system in the car as well as an ample stereo system. Big Classic Instruments gauges (a speedo/tach on the left, a quad gauge on the right) fill the dash, and a repro ’40 Ford steering wheel was color-matched to the car’s exterior.
As anyone who has really messed with the ’46-48 Fords knows, alignment of the body panels takes time and effort to get right, and every section of this car fits great. Though you couldn’t imagine Ford doing it today, back in the day, they produced two different body styles for the coupes: one, a long door; and the other, a short door version (the long doors are roughly 44 inches wide while the shorts are about 37 inches wide). Short-door ’48s are typically three-passenger cars, such as the Business coupes and four-door sedans, while the long door cars were used nearly everywhere else, including the convertible.
Once the bodywork was complete on Lamar’s ride, Bobby Hartshorn (Douglasville, GA) painted it PPG British Racing Green. With Billet Specialties mirrors and Bob Drake taillights finishing up the exterior, Lamar turned his attention to the interior.
Much of the interior components were hidden from view (such as the Vintage Air system and the wiring from Painless), including much of the stereo system (Panasonic head unit, and Rockford Fosgate amplifiers, speakers, and subwoofer) that was installed by Carlos Robles.
A Ford 9-inch (3.90:1) is...
A Ford 9-inch (3.90:1) is used out back while a Heidt’s Superide IFS went in up front, and Pro Shock coilovers were used at each corner. The wheels are 17-inch Halibrand Sprints, and the paint (sprayed by Bobby Hartshorn) is PPG British Racing Green.
Lamar turned his car over to the aforementioned Alan Johnson for its threads, as Johnson’s now has an in-house upholstery shop to create interiors for their customer’s cars. Johnson’s crew created the bench seat and the saddle pouch door panel design before covering everything in leather. Matching carpet went in, as did a minor amount of chrome trim pieces here and there to accent and break up the appearance of the interior.
Of course most people, when they start a street rod project, just want a driver to cruise around in, but some of the cars Lamar has built in the past might appear to be a little too nice to take down the gravel back roads around his home in Georgia, but he says this car will be a driver, too. And that’s what it is: just a really, really nice driver.