Full Metal Jacket: Gary Gilbert's '39 Ford Coupe
When Gary Gilbert decided he wanted a real knock-out rod, he didn't have to contemplate doing all the work himself. Gary lives in Gananoque Ontario and, since it is a small town, there are some very tight-knit groups . . . especially in the car community. Gary knew he had a group of friends he could call-on for help. The core group included Gary, Dave Brooks for body and paint. Joe Vandervoort did the mechanical. Nick Bowles and George Kirkham worked on just about everything else. And Gary's wife Brenda fed the guys a lot of hot meals.
The start point for the project was a 1939 Ford Standard Coupe. This was a fairly popular body style in its day, with a body run of about five years from 1936 to 1940. It featured the basic 60 HP Ford V8 and a three-speed manual transmission. Of course everything else was manual, although 1939 was the first year for the hydraulic brakes.
Gary bought the car from a drag racer in Kingston. It's not clear where the Kingston owner found the car but, when Gary came to buy it, it was in pretty rough shape. In order to get the car lightened for drag racing, it had been taken apart, sandblasted, and every piece of reinforcing metal had been taken out of the car. This included the bracing in the hood, doors and trunk lid. Like many projects, however, the car never made it to the track and was parked outside for several years before being sold to Gary. When Gary bought the car in 1999, the body was quite "flexible."
The project itself didn't start until 2003 and took a little over four years. As always, it is the story of the "journey" that is the real point of interest. In this case, it was a series of trial and error stages that served to illustrate how truly difficult it is to design and build a successful street rod . . .
