FIVE DECADE SLUMBER
Hot Rod|October 2021
Built in the ’30s. Forgotten in the ’50s. How a barn find 1933 Ford was resurrected as the Devil’s Coupe.
Chuck Vranas & Tim Bernsau
FIVE DECADE SLUMBER

Automotive journalist Chuck Vranas has written hundreds of stories about other people’s hot rods. Today, he’s telling the remarkable story of his own 1933 Ford coupe, a long-lost survivor from the pre-War era, resurrected from a half-century slumber and driven in preserved condition from hot rodding’s earliest years.—HRM

If the Devil drove a hot rod, it would have to be as nasty as this 1933 Ford five-window coupe. This is a car with a battle-scarred body that tells its story with an attitude, and with the accent of a snarling, hopped-up flathead V8 breathing through straight pipes.

It was fate that brought this car and owner together. As a hot rod photographer, I see plenty of wicked hot rods on a regular basis with some of the best stories being unearthed along the way. Typically, by the time I see them, the cars have already changed hands and moved on to their new owners. In the case of this particular coupe, the game-changer was a scheduled visit to Dave Simard’s legendary East Coast Custom in Leominster, Massachusetts. I was working on a photo assignment, shooting a build book for a roadster destined to compete for America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR). As I pulled up to the shop, I came face to face with the ’33 parked under an open-air storage area.

This story is from the October 2021 edition of Hot Rod.

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This story is from the October 2021 edition of Hot Rod.

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