Fred's Page

  

Hello one and all,

In a request from Charlotte Murray for someone to volunteer a page per month for the “Clutch Chatter”, I decided to give it a whirl. My name is Fred Hultin and I’m the guy you see holding the hand of Lynda Bates. Right up front I want everyone to know that I am in no way an expert on old Fords and will probably learn more from corrections to my effort here than I now know. My purpose as I see it is to put out a page or so per mo. with a technical and entertaining slant on our old Fords. I will try for humor and things I have run into on my Ford adventure. Please feel free to correct me when I make what you feel is a mistake.

To let you know who I am, I will give you a thumbnail description. I was born on the Oregon Coast near Bandon in 1941. In 1954 I bought a “Hot Rod” magazine in a drug store at Newport, Or., I was hooked. In the 8th grade I bought a ’36 Chevy 2 door and immediately the same day cut the muffler off with a hacksaw, washed the engine off with gasoline and painted it with silver paint. That $35 car took extreme abuse of spinning wheels and flying gravel for about 2 weeks on the back roads out of sight of anyone who might report me to my Mother. When the u-joint let loose, the show was over and I sold it to a neighbor kid for $15. At age 15 we moved to So. West Portland and guess who bought a ’40 Ford convertible for $125, it was a nice old Ford that I later cut up and hauled in for scrap. Had a string of cars, mostly Fords through high school and put a Cadillac engine in a ’39 Ford Tudor my senior year. Did 3 years in the Army as a aircraft mechanic, then married and did the American dream with 2 kids, and was pretty much out of the car hobby from 1963 to 1985.

When my Son got to be about 14, we got into Pontiac GTO’s. One day while looking at the Auburn Journal I saw a ’32 Ford 5 window coupe for sale. This car was a solid ‘50’s mild hot rod from Idaho, with a 1936 L.B. (loose bearing) engine. The engine had dual pipes and a relatively rare hexagon tool 2 pot manifold. The interior, other than the seat, was and is upholstered with the material used on the old chrome dinette sets. This work was done around 1959, so I was told.

As you can gather by now I’m not a purist as far as old Fords go. When I put the Caddy in the ’39 in high school I had gathered everything except bearings to build a hot flat head. I got the chance to get the Cad Engine and sold all the Flat Head stuff. It left a yen to build that engine that never went away. Now I had the ’32, so in 1989 I got back into Flat Heads and I built a ’59’ series engine ‘42-48. Bored the block to 3 5/16” and used a ‘49-53 Merc. crank to give 276 cu. inches. Ported and relieved in the traditional manor with triple Stromberg carbs. With an Offenhouser manifold and heads. Fenton cast iron exhaust headers. This car, except for an elect. radiator fan and gauges, is just like they were when I was a kid.

Well I think I have bragged enough on this session so will close now. Next time I will get into some of the things I have come across with the ’32 Coupe and the Flat Head powered nostalgia drag car that Lynda and I are having fun with.