MAYALL’S ’33 FORD SEDAN
beam headlight conversion, and bolted back on the old stuff (Insta Resto Rod). The rod stayed like that while Joe built a ’27 roadster, but the ‘33 started looking cooler with a luggage rack on the spare mount and switching out the old Appliance wires with the Real Wheels. He rebuilt the rod in 1988 and smoothed up the bumpers, pulled the horns, and fully filled in the spare tire holder. The fit of the passenger door had always bugged him, so one day he had Darryl Zipp over to check it out and when Darryl realized that the passenger door was not only slightly bent but also shorter than the driver’s door it was determined that this was just how they were made by Henry. Darryl fixed up the door and Joe painted the car ’87 Chrysler Silver
30 years later (the fenders need a second redo due to mileage). The old interior was ‘70s street rod standard with a tuck and roll job over the stock seats, the Deluxe dash was filled with old mechanical VDO gauges, a junkyard heater, layers of heat shielding trying to hold back the heat under plain black carpeting, and a Mohair headliner that scratched back at any attempt to touch. The basic interior was last redone in 1989/90 with Vintage Air A/C added, a slick Mr. Street Rod dash extension, and a full complement of electric VDO gauges were slipped in a custom billet insert in the Deluxe dash. The sedan currently runs Pioneer tunes in a custom lower dash console and Dakota Digital
over standard DP 90 Black fenders. It would be the second and last car he painted, and the silver is still looking good The ’33 has been to the Street Rod Nationals numerous times, and it was done with its ‘80s rebuild just in time to run to the 20th. A stop was made in Memphis and Joe cruised in with the Walkers. A lot of people get stressed out when their rod breaks down, but these two guys taught me that the breakdowns and hiccups of traveling are not a problem, but just a story in the making. The worse lady luck screws you, the better the story.
The ’33 was finally completely torn down and rebuilt in the late ‘80s. The go fast small-block was replaced with a crate 350, the rear suspension was switched to a Ford 8-inch on Posies leafs, the interior was completely upgraded, and everything was finally all lined up (a nightmare on a built ‘33/34). In the background you’ll see Joe’s 4-inch chopped T- touring that took him 15 years to build and had tech/build-up articles in seven different street rod titles.
Joe returned to the 10th anniversary of the Yellowstone Rod Run and had a great time just being a participant. The rod had a SuperBell under it by then, a fully balanced and blueprinted 350 backed up with a B&M Turbo 350, and some lowering blocks finally got the rear sitting low enough.
62 JUNE 2025
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