Employee Rides: Model A Tudor Sedan - Colton Bass
Growing up the way I did it was extremely hard not to fall in love with cars and everything about them. From my dad and his Camaro to my uncle and the continuous multiple projects tucked into the shop, it’s safe to say from a young age I was sucked in. In early 2013 my uncle began tackling the daunting task of resurrecting this almost 100-year-old car. Somewhere along the way I slowly began to fall in love with the car and learning the process of fabricating and the design aspect of this car and just understanding how all the parts and pieces slowly fall into place and taking a hunk of metal into a piece of art. When this project was first started, I was young and had a lack of knowledge, but somehow with the helpful guidance of my Uncle Shane, He taught me the importance of patience and persistence. With those two things you can accomplish anything you sent your mind to.
The car is mainly built from a 28 body and frame, but with the damage that was suffered the cowl and doors were replaced with those from a 30 four door sedan. Once the damage was fixed the car underwent a 4-inch chop on the roof. The frame has a 12-inch Z in the in the rear and is swept up close to five inches in the front. Most of the frame is original to the car, minus the rear and the boxing added. For the power plant, we chose a tried-and-true combo of a small block 350 with a 350 transmission, but to fit the look of the car we dressed the engine up to look Like a 283 with the center fill oil breather. The rear end is out of an 80s ford explorer which was an 8.8, with a 3.00 gear in the rear so the car is very highway friendly and a joy to drive.
It’s extremely hard to put into words exactly what this car means to us, I was growing up sitting next to him just watching and trying to ask as many questions as humanly possible, which as you guys can guess had to be terribly annoying, but looking back now, it has taught me so much that I use my experiences almost every day to help with the job I do. As those questions come to mind again I can’t even remember most of them, mostly just the memories of sitting in a two stall garage and learning life lessons and just trying to keep the rust out of my eyes. In reality, if I had to give the car meaning, I think the meaning isn’t the car itself, everything that became the car is truly what means the most to me. Shane has countless hours in this car, but some of those hours he would slow down and show me the ropes of every aspect of building a car which I am forever grateful for. To nail it down to a meaning of this car, it means the world to me, but it's the memories spent with him that give it that meaning
In 2015 I lost my father and Shane lost his twin brother. We were still in works on the project when this happened, but with this we found solace in this car. It was an escape from the ties of life, and allowed him and I just to escape, even if it was a small project like a mount for the fuel cell or body work. Now whenever I decide to take the car for a drive I almost feel like my dad sits down in the passenger seat, hitches a ride and just shares the drive with me. It’s a feeling that I can’t explain. I am forever grateful for the experiences and the memories with this car. If it’s taught me anything, it’s that in this world family is irreplaceable.
