Fly The Coupe
by Dan Burger

How about a sweet street rod? It’s a daily driver and much, much more...

Chuck Edwall calls it “the best seat in the house.” That’s how he describes the feeling of lining up his ’38 Ford coupe at the San Diego Antique Drags. The nostalgia drags are held twice a year at Carlsbad Raceway near San Diego. His classic hot rod Ford put a smile on his face to the tune of 11.21-second times and 126 mph. After a half dozen or so runs down the quarter-mile asphalt, Edwall has had some good, old-fashion fun. But this is no twice-a-year toy. This vintage-style rod is at the track five or six times a year, and it gives Edwall the best seat in the house almost every day of the year.

“I’ve been having a ball with this thing since 1986.” Edwall said. “I put 120,000 miles on it before I ever painted it.” Apparently the best seat in the house appeals to Edwall quite a bit. He not only uses the car as a daily driver, he regularly enjoys road trips to destinations as distant as Arizona and San Francisco - those are round trips in the 1,000-mile range.

Those numbers are as impressive as the 120-mph quarter-mile figure. But wait. That’s not all. Edwall has also tested this coupe on the California dry lakes course at Muroc, flying through the traps at 140 mph. It’s beginning to sound like the car runs the Hurricane Hell Drivers’ circuit.

Edwall first laid eyes on this car 12 years ago. “It was hammered,” Edwall remembers. “The top was all caved in, and it had been sitting in a back yard since 1955. It was leaning over on the driver’s side and resting in the dirt. It had rusted bad enough that I had to replace the bottom one-third of the body behind the driver’s-side door.” At some point, the body had been detached from the frame and a Ford 302 V-8 had been set into the chassis. When the body wouldn’t fit over this arrangement, the firewall had been crudely cut with a torch to allow the body to more or less sit on the chassis again.

Sounds like a nightmare. “I saw the potential from the shape of it,” Edwall said. The roof was chopped; the taillights were filled and taillights were mounted on a spreader bar between the rear bumper brackets; the window frames were chromed; and it was wearing 1937 DeSoto bumpers - all signs that this car was customized in the late 1940s. “I saw that it would take a fair amount of metal work to bring it back, but I knew it was absolutely savable.” Edwall had found the vintage hot rod he was looking for.

Later, through a chance meeting with a man who helped work on the car in the early 1950s, Edwall learned the original custom touches were created by John Vesco, a legendary dry lakes racer famous for his streamliner cars of the early post-war era.

The nostalgia hot rod is a popular project car these days. Edwall appreciates the style. His coupe definitely has the nostalgia look. He added personal touches like the full disc
wheel covers borrowed from a 1950 Olds. They combine nicely with the wide whitewall radials that he runs as street tires. (When he gets to the track, he replaces the rear tires with a pair of 8 1/2-inch wide, 26-inch tall Mickey Thompson wrinklewalls.) Other custom touches include Appleton fog lights, 1941 Studebaker taillights, a dome light from a 51 Cadillac limo, and a ’55 Olds steering column with column-mounted shifter. Naturally, the hood is louvered. The bullet-shaped taillights, mounted on the spreader bar between the rear bumper brackets, are maintained from the original late-’40s customizing.

Edwall also added Stewart-Warner gauges and reclining bucket seats from a Mercury Capri. The upholstery is Naugahyde and the design is his own, admittedly with a nostalgic flavor. The 250-watt stereo system is cleverly hidden, and although it sounds great, it is seldom used. “I love the sound of the motor so much I never listen to the stereo, “ Edwall said.

How about that paint? “I looked at lots of 1950s and ’60s car magazines hoping to get an inspiration for a paint scheme,” Edwall said, “but this actually came from the old GeeBee racing airplane of the 1930s. It’s modified a little. I saw similar scalloped designs used on dirt-track racers. I’ve never seen another one like this on the street.”

Based on the times this 38 Ford turns, you probably guessed this car does not want for horsepower. Under the three-piece hood is a 507-cubic-inch Cadillac engine (500 cubic inches bored .30 over). The block is from a 1974 and the heads from a ’69. It was massaged by Cadillac Motorsports, Lakeland, Florida, and CPR Racing, San Diego, and dyno-tested at 550 horsepower. It features small-chambered heads with forged pistons and rods, a shaft rocker system, 10.75:1 compression, and Eldelbrock manifold topped by a 850-cfm Holley double pumper.

“I wanted to put a Cad engine in it from the start,” Edwall said. “It’s really cheap horsepower - more than 500 ft.-lb of torque at 1800 rpm.

The exhaust system features fender-well headers with a 3-inch turn-outs that exit ahead of the running boards. The full exhaust is routed under the running boards and exits behind them. Edwall says the arrangement improves accessibility to the underside of the car.

To get the power to the pavement, there is a Turbo 400 transmission mated to a 9-inch ford rear end. The suspension is a four-link set up. Edwall claims the car is a half second quicker at the drags because of the four-link suspension. He tried an 8-inch rear end and parallel leaf springs with traction bars before getting it right. Coil-overs are used on the rear, and the stock Ford transverse leaf spring in front.

Many of the parts were scavenged from salvage yards, an adventure that Edwall relishes. The rear end, for instance, came from a boneyard Mercury Cougar. He bought a complete Eldorado for $200 to get the engine, then sold the tilt wheel and the six-way power seat for $200 and the rest of the car was sold back to salvage.

Edwall is a graphic designer by trade and he has traded graphics work in exchange for upholstery, engine work and a removable roll cage that he uses for racing but dislikes for everyday use. “I did as much of the work as I could and ended up spending about $10,000 over the course of the 12 years I’ve had the car,” Edwall said.

Over the years of owning and driving this classic, lessons are bound to be learned.

“I’ve spent a fair amount of money buying things - like carburetors and ignitions - that others have told me would work, but don’t,” Edwall said. “At one time, I bought a Gear Vendors overdrive, and thought that would be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It cost me a half second at the drags. I thought with my narrow rpm range I would be able to pick up an extra gear with that 30 percent overdrive, so I put in a shorter rear end gear and used overdrive as high, but it used too much horsepower.

I learned that with a 500-horsepower motor, you can’t expect your rear springs to not wrap up like a pretzel. I started with traction bars, then after learning a thing or two, decided to go with four-link set up. That was the best improvement I made on the suspension. It allowed me to preload the suspension, adjusting it to perform in accordance with the demands my engine was making.

I use 2.75 gears on the street and 3.25s when I race. I’ve tried everything from 4.56 to 3.25, and the 3.25s allows the torque to do its job. I get good times on the track and can drive 70 mph on the highway. Even in heavy traffic driving back and forth to work, this car doesn’t overheat. I run cold racing plugs, and one will foul about every two weeks. That’s not too bad. I use 92 octane pump gas and add a couple gallons of aviation fuel to every other tankful. If I’m racing, I like to run straight av gas.”

Whether this classic is running down the highway, dragway or dry lakes, you can be assured that Edwall is flying high and thoroughly enjoying the best seat in the house. His modern version of a classic nostalgia hot rod was built and is driven the way he wants it.

For all those who believe old cars should be driven to be enjoyed, this Ford coupe is a champion.