Car of the Week – “39 dragr”
It should be no surprise that when @hotrodraycm shared his 1939 Lincoln Zephyr with us, we quickly wanted to share it with all of you for a new Car of the Week feature.
“As far as the concept of the car / build, may goal is always to have a theme and carry it throughout the entire build. It is important to me to maintain that theme in order for the car to maintain consistency from end to end and top to bottom. Starting with a 3 window coupe, my goal was to create a fastback that could have been a Lincoln factory design back in 1939. We did the opposite of what most builders do by adding rear quarter windows vs removing them. The chop and height of the windshield could not be too extreme. The lines had to flow from every angle. All of the body modifications had to appear original to the car, at least to the non-Lincoln Zephyr purist. The car had to look correct both lowered all the way down as well as aired up to ride height. Finally, I wanted to use a color that was very different from other customs I have seen but the color had to once again appear to be period correct or maybe even an original color.
When I purchased the car, it was already a project that was far from complete. Although the roof conversion had been done, I did not agree with the shape and concept. We cut the roof off, cut off the tops of the doors including the entire B pillar and part of the A pillar and recreated the entire roof. We enlarged and re shaped the quarter windows, hand made the running boards, lengthened the doors and rear fenders, pancaked the hood, slopped over the front fenders, re skinned the trunk lid and split the windshield.
In addition we custom made all of the exterior trim, custom modified a 39 front bumper to be used on the rear of the car which fit the shape / contour of the rear and custom fit 1947 Cadillac taillights to the zephyr fenders. The front of the car including the hood ornament, twin grills, headlights and front bumper were all left original. The front end of a 1939 Zephyr is so iconic and in my opinion did not require any changes. I restored and changed the color of the glass to an amber brown on the 1938 Zephyr hood side badges and 1936 Lincoln K car hubcap medallions. The hubcap medallions were custom mated to 15 inch Cadillac sombrero hubcaps and the rims wrapped in 650 x 15 4.5 inch wide white BF Goodrich Super Cushion tires. In addition, I had custom amber lenses made for the 1947 Cadillac taillight lenses.
Although the car is configured with a modern chassis including a crate Chevy 350 engine, 700R auto transmission, a ford 9 inch rear end, full computerized air ride suspension, independent front suspension, 4 link rear suspension, all wheel disk brakes and power steering, it was important to dress what was visible to suit the style of the car. That is most shown in the engine bay. We used Lincoln Y block scripted valve covers, and early oil bath style air cleaner with a modern air filter internally, a vintage oil filter canister modified to house a modern oil filter, polished copper and stainless hard lines, clothe spark plug wires and just enough chrome and paint to achieve the desired look.
Once again, we used the same thought with the interior. Using a combination of late 40’s German wool, high quality leather, German square weave carpet and a few other unique fabrics we were able to achieve a elegant but subtle interior. We topped it off with a NOS 1947 Lincoln steering wheel.“
Great job by those involved in this build: @wilkworx @hillviewcustoms @westminsterautoupholstery @hotrodraycm.
