With Bob Drake and company moving onto new product and parts development, Dennis Carpenter Reproductions has been named the Official Body and Sheemetal Sponsor for the 2012 AMSOIL/STREET RODDER Road Tour.
The '40 Ford coupe reproduction steel bodies are assembled at the Real Deal Steel facilities in Sanford, Florida. Real Deal Steel is the company that introduced the '55-57 Chevrolet reproduction steel bodies to the hobby in 2011. Dennis Carpenter is a national distributor for the '40 Ford coupe bodies and the exclusive distributor of the fenders, doors, decklid, and the individual body and sheetmetal panels that are used in the completed bodies.
Dennis Carpenter has been a very familiar name in the auto restoration hobby for many years. In 1968, Carpenter needed a set of plastic knobs for a '40 Ford DeLuxe he was restoring. Not able to find quality originals, he set out to reproduce a set of knobs for his '40. The rest, as they say, is history. Dennis Carpenter and company grew along with the auto restoration hobby and now produce over 11,750 different classic Ford parts. They have even expanded into the popular Ford tractor and Cushman scooter restoration market. Many of their products are produced at their 300,000-square-foot facility in Concord, North Carolina, just down the road from Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Work is progressing on our '40 Ford DeLuxe coupe and everything is right on schedule. Scott Bonowski and the pros at Hot Rods and Hobbies, in Signal Hill, California, have applied the beautiful gold PPG waterborne paint and the body has headed back to Troy Ladd and the team at Hollywood Hot Rods in Burbank to finish the build that they started last fall. We are all anxiously looking forward to our summer on the Road Tour in the Ford Coyote-powered '40. We are also looking forward to our new relationship with Dennis Carpenter Reproductions, their reproduction '40 Ford coupe body, and their complete line of Ford parts and accessories.