1931 Ford Coupe

By Jay Hirsch

This 1931 Ford coupe was purchased in 1953. The owner was in high school at the time, and this was his first car. Over the next seven years the car became a work-in-progress. Except for repainting the car in the late 1990s, this is how the finished car looked in 1960.

It is a very rare example of a 1950s custom hot rod, and a true car of the 1950s. Most people do not realize that many of the cars seen today at car shows, summer time cruise nights, and in period movies of the 1950s and 1960s do not accurately portray the 1950s car scene. The typical car of a teenager then was for 1930s or 1940s.

In the 1950s no parent bought their son or daughter a new Ford or Chevy convertible to go to high school in. When the parents of a teenager drove a two- or three-year-old four-door sedan, the best their teen would expect was a seven years or older car. If the car was more then ten years old it was often called a “jalopy.”

This 1931 Ford is such a jalopy. As a basic two-door sedan no teen would have be “caught dead in it.” But as a custom/hot rod it was the envy of all who viewed it. One did not have to be a rocket scientist to know that if you took a modern (for the period) OHV V-8 engine and dropped it into a light car such as the 1931 Ford, you would one have one heck of a car. The power to weight ratio would be “fantastic.”

One of the best, if not the best, V-8s at this time was the new-for-1949 Cadillac OHV V-8 331 cid engine. This engine revolutionized the American car scene in 1949 and was the catalyst for all car companies to speed up the making of their own, new OHV V-8s. By 1955 all major American car companies had an OHV V-8 engine.

The 1949 Caddy V-8 in this 1931 Ford was bored out to 337 cubic inches, and the original horsepower of 160 @ 3,800 rpm was increased to 220 hp @ 4,400 rpm. An Isky Q-900 cam was added along with Isky adjustable rocker arms.

The hood and side panel are hand made for this car. They had to be, because nothing else would fit. Without the aid or luxury of computer imaging, the owner made the hood and side panels. The color is a soft 1957 Cadillac pastel blue, named Daphne Blue. It is very close to the popular Larkspur Blue used on the 1957 Chevrolet.

The bright metallic flip-flop colors seen on many 1930s to 1950s customs and rods today are really colors of the 1980s and later. Nothing wrong with that, but these colors do not represent the 1950s and early 1960s custom and hot-rod scene.

What delineates this 1931 Ford as a true 1950s hot rod is the fact that it is “Zeed.” Zeed refers to the “Z-ing” of the cars frame, which is the cutting of the rear frame uprights into a Z pattern to allow the body to sit lower (in this case, 6 inches lower) and retain the same frame and rear. It is an old (tried and true) custom trick.

As befits this child of the ’50s the front tires are smaller than the rear (or power wheels) tires. This gives the car the proper rake and stance.

If you take a careful look at many of the new so-called sports sedans, you will notice that the front end sits lower than the rear. In the case of new sports cars, the front tires are smaller than the rear tire. What “young guys” did in their backyards or parents’ garage in the 1950s and 1960s car manufacturers are doing today.

The lower center of gravity up front makes for better stability. The larger rear tires are for where the power is. We are talking rear-wheel drive, the only real wheel power drive.

The original owner, Tom Matroni, sold the car in 1966. The second owner had the car until 1975 when he sold it to the third owner who had it painted a dark wine color.

The original and now fourth owner, Tom Matroni, at his wife’s and son’s urging, bought the car in 1989 and “restored” it back to its 1950s glory. The late 1970s dark wine color was sanded off and the car repainted in its 1957 Cadillac Daphne Blue.

The OHV Caddy engine was rebuilt along with the six Stromberg carbs which are mounted on an Edlbrock CA 6 manifold. The Ford rides on bias ply 5.60 x 15 tires up front and 7.60 x 15 tires in the rear. Given the weight of 2,200 pounds and the driving the cars does, “the bias ply tires are just fine, and they go with the car’s original stance,” Tom told me.

The Ford was converted to a 12-volt electrical system by Tom when he first had the car. There is ample room in the passenger compartment, as the body was never chopped. The suspension was lowered by its being Zeed giving the car it low 1950s hot rod look. The car is also channeled, which is the process of removing the floor, lowering the body over the frame and then reattaching the floor at a higher level in relation to the body. Since the top is not chopped the headroom is still adequate.

In 1931 the Ford Coupe cost $495.

Ford sold 615,000 cars of which 122,583 were coupe’s. Tom and his family still have the car  •