everything in French, and I just sat back and watched. I learned about the custom teak bed box, knew to check out the seats, something was up with the tranny (manual), and much more. It was cool to pick all that up from just watching and thought it would be cool to see what it’s like to cross the lan- guage divide. Eventually I caught up with Stephane, but he already had plans, so I shot his ’39 with his brother later that day. Stephane has been a car nut since his youth and has been building his collection for over 40 years. Like us he loves his hauler, but he bought the ’39 so some of the details got lost between own- ers, but I’ll give you all I know. A ’39 Ford frame was
boxed, reshaped/narrowed to fit the channeled body, the rear was Z’d, and new crossmembers were fabricated and installed. The front suspension is a dropped I-beam bouncing on a transverse leaf behind the axle with cross-steering, shorty gas shocks, split shorty wishbones, and disc brakes behind steel covers. The rear suspension is a Ford 9- inch with disc brakes and held in place with a set of hairpins. Power comes from a ‘69 Ford 302 small- block wearing Edelbrock heads, an Air Gap mani- fold, a Holley 750 double-pumper, custom Lakester- style headers, and a five-speed manual. True hot rods are all about getting rid of the extra stuff and Stephane’s ’39 has had a few mods and its MARCH 2026 31
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