Page 11 - Issue 42

The external mods don’t end there. Every
seam on the car has been brazed for added
depth to the appearance. Copper water tubing
was aged to take off the shine and weaved
throughout the body. Maybe it’s a subliminal
message that says, ‘snitches get stitches?’ To
add to the already sinister look, Matt ditched
the stock Model A grille shell and fabbed one
up from the remnants of one from a mid-40’s
International truck that he found rotting in the
woods. The headlights started out as units
from an old M35 or ‘deuce-and-a-half’ military
truck, but he spent hours upon hours turning
them into something unique.
Once powered by a wheezy 283 Chevy,
Matt stepped up his game and plopped a
355 roller with Vortec heads between the
frame rails. A big cam, an Edelbrock 650 carb,
and some home-brewed headers now make
cruising quite effortless. He reports that “it’s
hard to keep her under 75MPH. She’ll cruise
at 80 all day in third without the overdrive
because of the gearing.” Having a full manual
valve body in his 700R4 trans makes that a
simple trick. That said, what is she capable of?
“I had her up to 109 once, but I didn’t have the
gonads to go any faster!”
To cruise at 80 all day long, your suspension
has to be dialed in. Out back is an axle (with
posi) from a Chevy 1500. It’s a four-link
setup with airbags. Up front is the stock axle
mounted suicide-wise, with a single transverse
leaf spring setup. The frame is all custom with
about 24 inches of Z out back to tuck that
back axle up near the roof somewhere.
One of the cooler features of Matt’s car is
that as wild as it looks, it was built with more
than a modicum of practicality in mind. Tired
of having to get his hot rods back to a shop
if something broke, he designed The Felon
so that you could disassemble it by hand if
necessary. The dash, interior, and roof all come
off with a series of wing nuts, most of which
are brass. Matt estimates that he has $2,000
on brass hardware alone throughout the car.

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