1936 Ford Roadster by Coachcraft

Coachcraft was formed by three ex-employees of Howard “Dutch” Darrin when he sold his California operations to Packard and closed up in the Summer of 1939. Burt Chalmers, Rudy Stoessel and Paul Erdos established Coachcraft, Ltd. at 8671 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood California in the Spring of 1940. Their reputation was to apply their metal shaping and design skills to lower-cost Mercury, Studebaker, and Ford models like this one.

So what if a young Hollywood celebrity or sporting business icon had a mundane 1936 Ford Roadster and delivered it to Coachcraft with the desire to modify his American vehicle to fit a longer V-12 engine (or Duesenberg inline-8). A bit of restyling would be required given the setback cowl and the desire to compete with some of the unique European glamor automobiles with their flamboyant bodywork that were being imported into the region. He’d probably spend 5X the original price of the 1936 Ford but he could also claim “I just drive a Ford”…

And please note that not all reflections are always as they seem.