A love for old Fords fuels 27-year project
Ross Blewett’s fondest memories of his teenage years revolve around sharing a 1936 Ford “slantback” sedan with his younger brother Milt and taking long drives with their girlfriends for lakeside picnics.
The boys had personal use of the then-15-year-old Ford every second day.
They lowered the car and installed mellow dual exhausts. Their father was a New Westminster police officer and noisy exhaust pipes didn’t go over so well.
Ross and Milt had learned mechanics at the ages of 12 and 14, when their dad brought home a worn-out Ford Model A sedan. He helped his boys build a garage off the rear lane before they tore the old car apart and rebuilt it.
They never drove the old Ford Model A but that experience developed a love for machinery and mechanics that would never leave them.
The brothers married their girlfriends from their teen years — both named Joyce — and became telephone linemen. Their adult hobby was hydroplane racing: first with the smaller boats powered by 60 horsepower flathead V-8 engines salvaged from Ford cars of the 1930s, and then a larger, more powerful hydroplane that Milt Blewett piloted at 175 km/h on Seattle’s Lake Washington.
In mid-life, Ross rediscovered his love for old Fords, bought a 1932 Ford V-8 sedan and restored it and then followed it with a 1940 Ford coupe.
That Ford coupe would lead directly to the 1934 Ford coupe that would become the object of a total nut-and-bolt restoration over the next 27 years.
Ross was attending the 1987 Vintage Car Club of Canada’s Easter Parade, which started at Vancouver’s Oakridge Shopping Centre, when he was approached by a stranger saying his father had a 1934 Ford three-window coupe that he wanted to sell.
It turned out the car had been completely disassembled, with the body separated from the frame and the hundreds of parts stored in boxes. Ross paid the steep $10,000 asking price to get the car of his dreams.
“I like 1934 Fords,” he says.
It took four trips from Chilliwack with a pickup truck and trailer to bring all the boxes and parts back to his Coquitlam home. He put the boxes in his garage, the frame alongside his house and stored the body under his back porch.
A longtime member of the Early Ford V-8 Club, Ross received a lot of advice, assistance and encouragement as he embarked on the daunting task of restoring every piece of the car and reassembling it.
Fellow club member Cliff Haller had a restored 1934 three-window coupe which was helpful in providing information.
Remarkably, almost all the pieces of the car came with the purchase, limiting the need to chase rare parts.
The car’s body was in exceptional condition.
Ross did all the mechanical work himself and some of the bodywork as well.
The final body preparation and flawless paint job, along with the wood-grain finish on the dashboard and interior garnish mouldings, was applied by fellow club member Sandy Morita.
Ross chose an original 1934 exterior colour called Cordoba Gray which looks more like beige.
“People thought that wasn’t a good colour for the car until they saw it,” he says. “It really suits the car.”
Another Early Ford V-8 Club member and longtime friend Slim Easton did the upholstery work
Over the years, Ross became an expert on the Columbia two-speed rear axles that could be ordered with Ford vehicles from 1937 to 1948.
The Columbia accessory could have been installed by the Ford dealer in earlier Ford vehicles. Ross installed a Columbia two-speed rear axle in his 1934 Ford, which acts as a fourth gear to give the coupe better highway performance. His car also features the rare ashtray radio option.
With the completed car sitting in the Blewetts’ driveway, one can see how the graceful lines of the 1934 Ford three-window coupe captured the attention of the motoring public, even at the bottom of the Great Depression.
The Ford Motor Company introduced the V-8 engine to low-priced cars with its redesigned 1932 models. The 1934 Ford was essentially a continuation of the 1933 Ford design, which featured a longer wheelbase than the previous model, allowing for significant styling changes.
Many believe the 1934 Ford was the marque’s styling high-water mark of the 1930s. Ross Blewett sure thinks so. He’s so excited about the completion of the near three-decade restoration odyssey that he really doesn’t know what he’s going to do with the car other than take it to a few shows.
So far, he hasn’t driven it and hasn’t even put gas in the tank. It’s just too perfect. Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. Contact him at aedwards@peakco.com.