Cliff Sherlock sent us these photos of an original Hot Rod era car built by Boyd Coddington, a '32 Ford Flathead.
The photos were taken in Orange, California — just down the street from Boyd's shop — where Cliff's friend Steve Eisenhaur purchased the rod from Boyd before he passed. Boyd was one of the original hot rod builders who built and raced his earliest creations.
Cliff shares the story behind the photos:
The photos were taken in Orange, California — just down the street from Boyd's shop — where Cliff's friend Steve Eisenhaur purchased the rod from Boyd before he passed. Boyd was one of the original hot rod builders who built and raced his earliest creations.
Cliff shares the story behind the photos:
"Steve called me and said 'Man this car is fast and still has the drag raceway name plates, but it runs hot, rough and is not idling consistently.' So I found that the Ford Flathead V8 engine had so much torque that the synch rod and accelerator shaft going from the gas pedal through the fiberglass tub and firewall would distort, causing the 3 Stromberg carbs to not open in synch or idle properly to a stable idle, and often hang at a high idle at the stoplight making the car run hot and degrade performance.
So my friend called me to help him come fix the problem, knowing that my 25+ years of experience tuning carbs, building engines and fabrication, would most likely find a fix. Well, there were several fixes, both mechanical, structural and I re-tuned the carbs, fixed the leaking float bowls and other common issues well as we tore out the carpet on the floor board and installed Thermo-Tec heat cloth to prevent heat distortion of the fiberglass tub from the headers below, which was causing some of the hanging up of the throttle shaft. I also added some Red Line Water Wetter radiator coolant to keep the stoplight temps stable.
In the end, she really ripped much harder and idled down like a purring kitten. Steve was all smiles. He had bought some books from The Motor Bookstore that provided the proper specs (torque, etc.) to make sure our work was all high quality, just like the car.
Steve, still owns the '32, but moved to the East Coast."
