As an automotive enthusiast ages, their personal tastes evolve. This also can be said when an enthusiast starts a family and needs a bigger vehicle but still wants something custom. Some of us that previously owned small pickups end up with big Sport Utility Vehicles. Others that owned fully custom show trucks decide to pick up something like a classic car, muscle car, or hot rod. The name Chad Fincher may be familiar to you from our previous feature of his GMC called "NSPITE". After our shoot, Chad's new goal was to redo his truck or sell it and build something else. The day after we shot that feature Chad was at a show and noticed a 1950 Ford Tudor Sedan that grabbed his immediate attention. He even remembers saying that some day he would own a car like that. Not long after that, Chad found a trade partner in Ohio that had a pretty nice looking 1951 Ford Tudor. The trade was agreed upon and the '51 Tudor was delivered to Chad's house while Chad's GMC was then shipped to Ohio. After doing some work on the Tudor, Chad started talking to Steve Abner about his 1950 Tudor that had originally sparked his interest. Through a fellow club member, Chad was asked to call Steve about a proposition. Steve wanted the '51 and another trade was made. Chad was now in possesion of the exact car he said he wanted to own someday. Chad is very happy with it and wants to give Steve all the credit for building most of what you see here. Chad has added some cosmetic touches to it but mostly, he has just been driving and enjoying it with his wife Shelly.
The sedan was brought down to the pavement with the help of a 1974 Chevrolet Nova front clip, tubular control arms, and four Firestone air bags. The rear has a custom 6-link consisting of a triangulated 4-link plus 2 rear bars for lift. Air delivery to the bags is accomplished using 1/2-inch SMC valves, 3/8-inch air line, two 3-gallon tanks, an Air Zenith compressor, an AVS 7-switch box and AVS manual air gauges. The body of this Ford is sitting down over some Pete Paulson steel wheels with 1950 Oldsmobile caps and 3-inch wide white wall tires.
The exterior of Chad's ride is relatively stock. It has an old blue paint job that is showing some patina in spots. In case you are wondering, patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of some metals. It gives the car character and also shows its age without being unsightly. It isn't perfect but to Chad, and many others, that’s what makes it cool. It has an aftermarket accessory fog light in place of the original bullet in the grill. It was converted to 12v and works great.
As with the exterior, the interior isn't perfect and is pretty much sticking to the factory design as well as keeping with the hot rod theme. No bells or whistles here. The interior is done in black vinyl while the seats and door panels have a nice tuck and roll treatment. The door panels and rear panels are either original or were done a very long time ago. Again, part of the charm is the simplicity and age of everything in this car. The seats were done to match the rest. There is black carpet and a black vinyl headliner along with the wrapped deck cover. One thing that was fully rebuilt was the dash with new switches along with a new wire harness throughout the vehicle. The factory clock and gauges have been rebuilt and converted to VDO 12v by Redline Gauge Works in Santa Clarita, California. A Gennie shifter was installed and was capped off with a hand carved evil 8-ball from an artist named Dmitry Trosman out of Riga, Latvia. The steering column is a polished stainless GM tilt from Ididit and the brake pedal is a firewall mount from So-Cal Speed Shop.
The motor is a 355 GM Vortec block using older style heads. All internals are new using a Scat rotating assembly, hypoeutectic pistons all balanced with new flywheel and damper. It includes a Comp Cams Thumper Kit with hardened push rods and steel roller rockers from Speedway. The heads are reconditioned old style with new valves that have not been reconditioned. A new Performer intake was installed with a Edelbrock AVS Carburetor and a Summit Billet HEI. To dress it up, a lot of chrome bolt on equipment from the Chrome guy was used with a 100 amp alternator. The radiator is a custom 3 row 5/8 tube from Performance radiator so the car runs 18 degree of timing and maintains below 185 all day. It also has a 7-inch brake booster and dual chamber master cylinder to help compliment the disk brakes on the front. The transmission is a completely rebuilt 2004R OD with new converter, cables and dipstick. The 3.73 gears allow for easy burn outs and snappy at the light while the .86 final drive in the tranny allows good freeway driving. A custom polished aluminum fuel tank with baffling from Mouse's Custom Fab was installed. It has a shut valve at the tank with AN fittings for easy removal. The filler neck for the tank is sealed with a threaded o-ring cap and the tank is vented below the trunk with a brass filter screen. The tank is filled from inside the trunk.
