My name is Ben Thomas, I'm a mechanic and I run a company called Rancho Deluxe which
is basically a workshop that specialises in early hot rods. Flathead powered
fords and yeah mainly fords up to sort of 1950 or something. This is a 1932 Ford
Roadster and also called a B model. That's the first of the V8 powered fords so
Ford was the first to introduce a mass produced V8 car and for that reason
they're pretty cherished because they were the first of their kind. My father
my father sort of got me into into cars by you know probably when I was a young
teenager we did up a couple cars together and he's always been just in
racing cars and yeah I followed him into that and he organised an apprenticeship
for me when I was 18 so I yeah worked for Porsche for four years and yeah after
that continued working on cars on and off. I didn't didn't stick in the industry
for very long but I came back to it sort of later in my 30s and yeah found a
passion for these these vintage fords and they're now what I do all the time. I
guess I was always working with I was always building things as a kid and you
know mucking out the MX's and that sort of stuff and you just step up from there
I always liked mechanical things and working with my hands so that's why I
headed down this path. The cars that I really focus on are 1930 to 1940
fords that era that sort of pre-war and post-war era is when I guess the
American economy was was booming the most and they they built a lot of
cars that that I'm I don't know I've got some sort of connection to so everything
from the A models of 1928 to 31 and through to these 1932 fords and later
ones as well. I found this car in a million pieces all over the country it
came the chassis comes from Western Australia the body came from South
Australia the suspension and a lot of the running gear came from a car I bought
from Queensland so it's just it's a slow process of piecing together and buying
things when they become available. It's the basics of it started about four or
five years ago with the chassis the final build I did most of it in 2008 and
probably took about six months my time full time to build the car once I had
the body in place. I guess going back to an era with a car is it's about it's
about emotion it's about nostalgia and it's about creating something that when
you drive it it's it's a an accurate expression of what it felt like to
exist in those times so for me when I drive that car I feel like I'm actually
driving down a road in 1948 and this the cars you know conduit that lets you do
that because it gives you all the feedback that a car from that era would
it's not you know it's not modernized it's you know bangs and crashes and
rattles and makes lots of noise and you know it gives you a lot of feedback and
it the yeah the emotion you get from having having a I guess a yeah an
experience that's that's not modern in any way is just you know that's what I'm
looking for. It's surprisingly fast it's for an engine that was built in 1939 and
isn't a long way from stock I mean a lot of that comes from the lightness of it
it's obviously a very simple and light car it doesn't have fenders or bumpers
or a lot of heavy accruements on it that would slow it down so it's pretty
nimble and it's it's certainly easy to drive and keeps up in modern traffic yeah
it's not a hot rod in the way a lot of people thinking there's been a high
horsepower drag car sort of thing it's on a whole nother level to that this car
behind me is the 1933 Ford pickup truck that was built by a guy in southern
California in about 1954 a guy called Larry Montreal and he he put this truck
together to tow his race cars with and yeah this it's it's basically existed in
the same form since then it's been a bit neglected but has remained as it was
built then still with the same paint all the original parts on it so my job with
this is just to basically get it back to a rover of the estate and make it a
safe drivable car for the new owner and yeah just remain true to what it was
back in 1954 I find well in terms of the automotive world today I don't I really
can't comment on it because I don't feel a part of it I've worked on modern cars
when I was an apprentice but after that I really just kept going further and
further backwards you know I started working on 60s cars and then went back
to these old things and maybe when I'm an old man I'll be restoring Edwardian
Rolls Royce
