In Our Garage: Kev Wood 1932 Ford Tudor

Kev Wood spent countless hours over the last 30 years getting his 1932 Ford Tudor to a standard which he considers to be a finished hot rod.

Now he gets to look forward to the many more hours he will spend keeping it in top condition.

Kev shares with us his labour of love for his hot rod.

Q. Tell us about this custom hot rod

A. This car of mine, it's a 1932 Ford Tudor. I've had it 30 years.

When I bought it it … needed a full-on update, so we have done some major things to the vehicle.

The paint needed a total repaint, I changed the wheels, did a chopped top and put some flames and skulls on it.

We changed the engine, changed the gearbox, we changed the diff and did an upgrade on the brakes and suspension.

Soon after I got it, I replaced the 351 Cleveland motor, which was a wider and bigger motor with a 351 Windsor motor which has a narrow V that suited this particular bonnet.

It’s a V8 which is pretty powerful, but we did a few internal modifications and bigger pipes to give it a deeper throatier noise.

Being as deaf as I am, I like to hear it, so it is a little bit loud but I do drive it properly, so I don't offend anybody.

Q. Why did you buy the Ford Tudor?

A. I've had a lot of cars in my younger days but when I bought this years ago it started me off on a Ford fan project and now, I only have Fords.

I just love the car, driving it around and going to car shows.

Q. How many hours do you think you have spent on the car?

A. It is a labour of love, really that takes up a lot of my retired life but gives me a great interest to keep it all perfect and running, which is a pretty big job, but I do love doing it.

I don't really know exactly how many hours are spent on it but the time commitment on this vehicle is a huge amount, although this has been done over probably 30 years since I had it.

Q. Tell us a bit about the history of the car

A. It was found in a barn in America and came over just as a cab and Dick Bushell in New South Wales built it up like 38 years ago.

We basically chopped the top and put an L300 vein top in it, put some beautiful, coloured flames on it, skulls and things like that.

I did a trip up to Gladstone to a car show and they were doing major road works up there and I got like 20 stone chips, so it was touched up with more skulls to cover those chips.

We did everything inside the hood lining, the seats, carpet and made the console for it, so it has all the instruments that and we kept the original dash.