Sometimes the weirdest fads from rodding’s past repeat themselves. Back in the late-1960s hot rodders building early cars such as Model Ts, As, and 1932 Fords went through the “resto-rod” phase where rare components such as a luggage rack or flying greyhound hood ornament were a highly prized part for one’s car. Adhering closely to the way Henry Ford built them, but pitching the banger or flathead for late-model drivetrains, air conditioning, and cruise control was the trend – and it lasted through most of the 1970s. Today the trend has reared its head again, but with a twist. This time it’s rare vintage speed equipment and original parts instead of lesser repro parts that is driving the latest phase of building old hot rods. It’s an arcane passion exemplified no better than in Cory and Ashley Taulbert’s chopped Deuce 5-window coupe.
The full-fendered 5-window has been built in a traditional manner, but Cory and Ashley have painstakingly sought out only the most select of select parts. Hailing from Clarkston, Michigan, Corey is an Assistant Performance Variant Manager at GM, having helped in the development of most of the high performance parts found on any manner of ZL1 Camaros, and ATS-V and CTS-V Caddys. It’s a good gig for a hot rodder, even one with a passion for past performance.
Ashley rolled up her sleeves to assist Cory, and if that sounds like “the little woman made sandwiches while Cory labored in the garage burning the midnight oil” it’s not that way at all. Ash is the daughter of Dan Webb, out of Burton, Michigan, who has hand-built a series of more complex hot rods over the last few decades. Look him up if you care to see some of the most dynamic builds ever. She grew up with all aspects of hot rodding and knows as much as anyone plying the roadster roundups or vintage swap meets. Together, they have built a number of Deuces including their black highboy roadster and the chassis under the 2016 America’s Most Beautiful roadster of Darryl and Teri Hollenbeck. Their skills and passion for old Fords runs deep.
Starting with a mildly hopped up coupe found in Austin, Texas two years ago, Cory knew he wanted vintage GM power, as he was getting a bit nervous showing up at the GM employee car shows with his roadster under Ford power. He wanted a vintage 1957 Corvette 283ci, 270hp dual-quad engine, that featured all of the arcane pieces like matching dual carbs, stock linkage, intake, one-year-only 9-finned valve covers, 1957 block, and so on. He wanted the old coupe to look like a late-1950s hot rod that had its flathead pitched in favor of the latest and greatest Corvette power of the day. The exhaust manifolds are Speedway items, smoothed off, that mimic the original rams horn castings. The 327 crank was cut down at the counter weights as these early blocks can’t normally fit a 327 crank. Cory cheated by using the Power Pack fuel injection heads as the one-year-only dual-quad heads are hyper-expensive, as you can imagine.
Cory says the small-block begs for high revs, but the stock 3-speed isn’t conducive to high speeds so there may be an upgrade in the future to experience all that the Corvette engine has to offer. In the manner that they would have pulled off this conversion in that hypothetical 1957 time period, a 1939 top loader, closed driveshaft, and 1940 rear end converted to a Halibrand quick change would not have caused so much as a second glance it was so common in 1950s hot rods. This combo was standard hot rod fare, and is what’s found under the coupe.
Cory and Ash gathered up the pieces for their coupe caper, and then started in. The original plan was to keep the top stock. But with the wood and steel-frame seat assembly they made to sit nice and low, they thought it looked kind of silly with the driver sunk down into the coupe and all of that top above as seen from the street, so a top chop was performed with the aid of Bill Ganahl. Together they whacked 3 ¼-inches up front, and 2 7/8-inches in the back for a nicely wedged slice. The windshield was laid back, and after chopping the window frames they were sent out for some chrome.
Cory and Ash, with help from Cory’s dad, worked nights and weekends getting the body in shape before Cory shot the 1940 Ford Mandarin Maroon low gloss paint, making up a temporary paint booth inside of their garage. With the exception of the repro’ running boards, all of the outside panels including the 25-louver hood, gas tank, and frame horn covers are from 1932. Even the rear spreader bar is an original from Ford for use with luggage racks—the only spreader bar Ford made without a provision for a spare tire mount.
The frame is an unboxed stock 1932 with riveted original K-member. The front end is a dropped “heavy 1932” axle with 1940 Ford brakes, un-split wishbones, and 1950s Ford, F-1 truck steering that was cut up to adapt the stock 1932 mounting arrangement. Besides the quickie, the rear end was adapted for slide-in, 8-inch Ford axles and later Ford drums.
Mike Curtis machined the wheels that mimic Halibrand Sebring knock-offs, with offsets patterned after 1940 Ford steel wheels so Cory could use his heavy front axle without having to narrow it. The Dow-7 mock finish is a ceramic coating handled by Russ Meeks out of Portland. 500-525 x 15 bias-ply Firestones run up front and 700 x 15’s in the rear ride nicely up inside of the original fenders.
Since they found success with the paint, our dynamic duo tackled the upholstery, using a used sewing machine to fashion a black tuck ‘N roll interior. The gauges are curved glass Stewart Warner units that haven’t been made in decades. Cory filled a stock dash and then drilled it out for the gauges. An original sprint car steering wheel tops the stock column, held by a stock Deuce column drop that Cory lengthened one-inch for a bit lower steering position.
The coupe currently has 5,600 miles on it, mostly racked up driving the car to Texas in the rain, snow, and even ice this past April. The Taulberts say it rides nicely for being so low. Cory did C-notch the rear for axle clearance, but up front the leaf spring is far enough away from the frame that no cutting was necessary. They plan on performing some small tweaks and changes over the winter, because this is both a driver and a keeper.
It’s interesting to conclude that if the Taulberts could do the work themselves to keep the cost down they did, but that when it came to stepping up for just the right part like the carburetors, wheels, or gauges, they did not hesitate to spend some dough.
It’s all about having a plan, then blending the right components, colors, and coolness to create a coupe that both visually, and on the road, makes no compromises. This is state-of-the-art hot rod building in 2016.
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