The 1940 Ford is a totally iconic car in the world of hot rodding. From the era of the bootlegger running ‘shine through the back woods with a muscled up flattie to the gasser era at drag strips across the country, the 1940 Ford has been there. Building one in modern times requires luck, time, and piles of money. Why? They haven’t made ’em in 70 years and finding one to start on is a hunt. Typically they’re rotten to the core, and by the time you spend hundreds of hours on labor getting the body right your hot rod project has the budget of a small country.
Enter Bob Drake and his company. They have been working for some time to perfect the tooling and process to reproduce 1940 Ford bodies. By all accounts, they have done it and will start taking orders in January for them. Those orders will then ship out in March.
The coolest part? We’re talking complete bodies (sans fenders and hood) stamped in fresh, unrusted steel. The parts are direct copies of the stuff the factory was churning out more than 70 years ago. The list price will be $14,500 which is no chump change. That being said, it seems like a lot smarter money than pulling something out of a lake and paying a skilled metal man to completely rebuild it!
