Q and A: the Jack Stewart Ford Book,

May 31, 2013July 12, 2015 Office

RIK HOVING’S FIRST CUSTOM CAR BOOK

Part of 2011 and most of 2012 Rik spent most of his spare time working on one of his long lasting dreams. Writing his own book about Custom Cars.

Right: the book is called The Jack Jack Stewart Ford. So basically the book is about one car?
Well YES, and NO. When I started working on the book, few people knew. When they heard I was writing a book that focussed on the Jack Stewart Ford, they were somewhat skeptical (and slightly afraid it might not be interesting enough). However as soon as I showed them the first drafts they loved it. I wanted to created a rather unique book that was appealing to a wide audience.

And what’s inside?
Even thought the Jack Stewart 1941 Ford plays the key roll in the book, it sure has a lot more to offer. The book starts with a inspiring foreword by Pat Ganahl. And then there is a chapter about the history of the Jack Stewart Ford, showing many great, never before published photos of this trend setting historical important car. This chapter tells the story on how the car was built, when, where and how it ended up on the Mid West of the US and later al the way in Denmark, Europe. There is also chapter in the book about inspiration, things that inspired Jack to built his custom car in the later part of the 1940’s. It shows and tells about other custom cars that influenced Jack, or that were built with a similar theme. There is a chapter on the two major Custom Shops, Ayala and Barris that created this car. Showing more cars built by these shops during the same time frame.

What’s with the caretakers you mention in the subtitle?
Well, actually that’s my favorite part of the book. Those chapters are devoted to the four major caretakers. They get to talk about their years with the car. But these chapters also highlight many other cars and other vehicles these guys have owned prior and past the Jack Stewart Ford. The Jack Stewart Ford has always been owned by people that had some very interesting cars, and done some great stuff. During the Jack Stewart Research trip we’ve interviewed the former owners of the cars. And since then we’ve been in constant contact. Actually, I still am. Verifying the text I had written, to make sure the stories are as accurate as they can be.

Tell me more about the caretakers and their cars
Jack Stewart had a 1953 MG Custom Sports Car that was customized by George Cerny. Later Jack built his famous 1932 Ford Roadster. Both of these, and much more, are shown in the book along with many never before published photos. Jim Skonzakes (Jim Street) had several very nice custom cars before the Jack Stewart Ford. After he had sold the 1941 Ford, there was the famous Golden Sahara, kookie T and many other famous projects. Bob Drake made the Jack Stewart Ford famous by driving it all around the mid West and creating several other great cars during the time he owned Jacks Ford. And last there is Palle Johansen, the current caretaker. He has done everything in his power to restore the car back to its 1951 version. Plus he has had some great cars in the past and present as well. All these caretakers had a great collection of wonderful info and photos to be shared in this book. The book shows a great selection of never before published material on a lot of really great cars.

What’s the importance of the photo’s?
There are some really great color photos in the book dated back to 1948-52 from the collection of Jim Street showing his early customs. 1941 Ford, 1949 Buick both in beige and dark purple and couple of the only color photos we ever found on Jack’s 1941 Ford in 1951. It also includes a series of amazing photos of the Golden Sahara with the most accurate information on this fantastic show car ever published including the REAL story with documents on how the pearl white paint job was created.

Is the book well received at GNRS?
The book was finished in time to be shipped to the 2013 GNRS,together with the car restored to bare metal. The whole weekend the crew from the Jack Stewart Ford Project team had a wonderful time. We showed the car and talked to an incredible amount of people. Three of the caretakers Jack Stewart, Bob Drake and Palle Johansen and I were selling and signing the Jack Stewart Ford book. We ll had a fantastic time and a lot of custom car enthusiasts, from all around the world, came to check the car and buy a copy of the book.