Builds
How many times have you heard the statement, “If I could just get that one car finished, I could sit back and never build another”? We’ve heard this more times than we care to remember, only to later bump into the same person who mumbled it and learn of one or two more projects under way.
By name alone, Reflections Restorations attracts enthusiasts whose worlds revolve around period-correct classics, muscle cars and other favorites built in the Motor City over decades past. Then again, not all of the exquisite creations emerging from this Cabot, Arkansas-based creative shop reflect originality, as an equal number of customers these days prefer a more modern approach to the cars they’ve found and have been attracted to for so long.
“The car was made out of bits and pieces that I acquired over a couple of years.”
Lots of people know what they want, at least generally—as in, “I want a car” or, more specifically, a performance car. A slightly more motivated person might narrow it down to a late-model car, as opposed to an old car, or even refine his goal further to a Ford car. The ability to thoroughly define your goals is generally the province of the mature individual who, with the wisdom of a few years under his belt, has come to truly know what winds his clock.
The poor Falcon.
Were it not for Ford’s inglorious first compact car, who knows what the early Mustangs would have been like, built as they were on Falcon architecture? Today, everyone wants a Mustang, yet Falcon fans are few. Fewer still are those who crave Falcon wagons, and initially, Norman Schmitt was not one of them, either. He wasn’t after a Falcon, or a wagon, but when a friend told him about an old wagon for sale, he went to check it out. What he found was a rare ’63 Falcon two-door wagon, and it was in great shape. The price was right, so he bought it, with visions of a wicked Pro Street Falcon in his head, and he set out to transform those dreams into steel.
Back in the summer of 2004, Harry Cline found a ’34 Ford three-window coupe body on eBay. When the auction ended, Harry was the high bidder. He made the trip to Jacksonville, Illinois, to pick up the body. The overall condition of the car was better than he expected, and the doors fit very well for a car that was 70 years old. The seller told Cline that it had actually been stored for nearly 40 years.
Rich Oakley is not your average hot rod builder. There is no room for cookie cutter cars in the Retro Rides by Rich shop in Archdale, North Carolina. In fact, he prefers to be one step ahead of the norm when it comes to building his personal rides. Loosely inspired by the Tony Nancy 22 Jr., his Model A highboy comes equipped with an attitude. “The car has a loud, rude nature. That’s what I like about it, the way it shakes, smells, and of course, the noise,” Oakley says. It has an aggressive stance, and those six Holley 94 carburetors are an indication that the roadster might have a chip on its shoulder.
Kirby Kennedy grew up around street rods in his hometown of Selmer, Tennessee. His father, David, had several rods and even operated his own shop. Kirby hung around Kennedy’s Kustom Auto Shop and helped with many of the projects. He also learned many of the required skills to build a rod along the way. Once Kirby reached high school, he knew quite a bit about the history of hot rodding and had developed a fondness for traditional hot rods. His school required each graduating senior to complete a project before they reached graduation. While only a sophomore, Kirby decided to build a traditional-styled hot rod.
Here in the United States, we have been conditioned to find vintage tin in many places. The availability of good cars to build into street rods has become more limited as the years have passed, but depending upon your choice of bodies, there are still quite a few options. Of course, the advent of reproduction bodies has added to the choices. Now put yourself in a foreign land and think about how hard it would be to find a good 70-plus-year-old imported American car to build. That is what Wayne Streams faced as a native of the United Kingdom. Building street rods has grown in both popularity and participation in the UK. There are many vintage English vehicles available, but American cars are the most cherished among British rodders.
Mustangs, and Much More Author When Ford introduced the 1978 Fairmont, it could not have suspected at the time that it was beginning something that would change the company—and the high-performance aftermarket—forever. While the Fairmont may have been a forgettable mid-sized sedan and wagon platform, the car’s basic underpinnings proved to be an ideal basis for the new 1979 Mustang, just as the early Falcon gave birth to the first Mustang back in 1964-1/2. It’s not that the ’79 Mustang set the world on fire, either. The car was better than the ’78, but it wasn’t a real performance car. That didn’t happen until the ’82 GT was introduced, which was a step in the right direction, as was the ’84 SVO Mustang. What really made the Mustang great was the 1986 addition of electronic fuel injection, but even that wasn’t initially identified, and wouldn’t become a young man’s performance car of choice until some time after its introduction. The Mustang did become the perfect car to upgrade for speed without sacrificing a bit of practicality, and the aftermarket responded to this car (and vehicle platform) like no other before or since. To build the car, Ford used the Fox platform, which was the basis for that earlier Fairmont. Ford used the Fox platform to build other cars as well. The Thunderbird, Cougar, LTD, Marquis and Capri, and even the luxo Lincoln Mark VII, were all spawned from the basic Fairmont architecture. The Mustang’s aftermarket support largely crossed over to these other cars as well, and while none of them became as popular as the Mustang, today, availability, pricing and other considerations make all of them worthy contenders for any potential performance project. Fox-body cars changed over the years, usually for the better. So, while everyone can spot a Fox Mustang, we decided to take the time to compile photos of some of the more popular Fox variations so that you can tell just what you’re looking at the next time you head to a car show or dragstrip. Sadly, we can’t provide an absolutely comprehensive guide to spotting every Fox-body model produced. Some of these cars, such as the Mercury Marquis, are just too rare in enthusiast circles for us to have a single example of one in our photo library. We’ve also included a few pictures of historic Fox-platform racecars, for no other reason than we like them, and thought you would, too. So, if you don’t know an SVO from a Turbo Coupe from an XR7, study this guide so that you, too, can become a true Fox fan. The Fairmont is the car that started it all for the Fox platform, and the Fairmont has remained reasonably popular in drag-racing circles. They are ultra cheap and will accept any engine from a 2.3 turbo to a 460; they are fairly light, too, at about 2,700 pounds. This example is a more upscale Futura coupe. If you want a sleeper, you’d be hard-pressed to beat this ’80 Fairmont. Steel wheels on a base-model Fairmont make this car a natural for the strip, but you could clean up with a ride like this on the street, too. The Fox LTD was only built from 1983 to 1986, and finding a solid example might be difficult for those looking to buy one. It’s a typical ’80s Ford product, with an egg-crate grille, quad headlights and a boxy overall shape. Still, it beats most sedans being built today. Those Mustangs built from 1979 to 1982 are easily identifiable thanks to the egg-crate-style grille that spans the entire distance between the two pairs of headlights. This 1979 Pace Car features an updated drivetrain, but the body remains original. In 1993 Ford revived the Cobra name on a special version of the Mustang hatchback. This one-year model received an increase to 235 hp, unique front and rear fascias, wheels and taillight lenses borrowed from the old SVO. Those changes, combined with a production run of only 4,993 cars, make it one of the most popular of all Fox bodies. The regular Capri never received the attention the Mustang did. The only real styling changes were the addition of a bubble-back model in 1983, along with new taillights and a rear bumper. The ’84-’86 RS models also got a new air dam, but that’s about it. A few special models, such as the Black Magic and Crimson Cat, also exist. The ’83 Thunderbird was a huge leap forward in styling compared to the earlier Fox ’Birds. The ’Bird was smaller, rounder and better in every way, attempting to leap on the European sport sedan look coming into vogue. The ’Bird still showed a family resemblance to the Mustang, though, as it had egg-crate grilles and quad headlamps. The face of the Fox in NASCAR was Bill Elliott and his Thunderbird. Elliott helped Ford win its sole driver’s championship and only outright manufacturer’s championship during the Fox era, in 1988. Fox Cougars are relatively uncommon, rarer by far than their Thunderbird cousins. These two examples show what stock and modified versions of the ’87-’88 model looked like, which shares styling cues with the Thunderbirds of the same year. Likewise, the ’83-’86 models have four non-flush lights and an egg-crate grille. The Mustang SVO is a limited-production version of the third generation Ford Mustang sold from 1984 to 1986, with fewer than 10,000 built. SVO is an acronym referring to Special Vehicle Operations, a Ford Motor Company skunkworks. 5.0 Mustang GT The 1986 McLaren Euro Coupe was a limited-production sports car renowned for its sleek design and powerful performance. The Capris were contracted to be built by the American Sunroof Company (ASC), partnered up with the McLaren. With a turbocharged V8 engine delivering exhilarating acceleration, it offered an unmatched driving experience for enthusiasts of the era. Its rarity and distinctive styling make it a highly sought-after collector car today. Pictured here is car #19 of 47 produced (Oxford white, automatic transmission). Here’s a nice