Custom Car Chronicle
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Another Historic Custom Being Restored

Rik Hoving
BILL PAGE 1940 FORD RESTORATION

On September 16, 2013, Richard Dreiling shared two photos of the ongoing restoration of the Bill Page 1940 Ford Convertible on his Facebook. Great news for all us historic custom car enthusiasts.

The car had been for sale for quite some time, on ebay and other ways. Fortunately the car did find a new owner who wanted to resort it back to how it looked in the early 1950’s. A wonderful custom 1940 Ford with full padded top and some distinctive and very stylish customizing. The car is currently in the works at Greazy Johns shop in Florida.

CCC-Bill-Page-40-Ford-Resto-01

CCC-Bill-Page-40-Ford-Resto-02

A little history on the car.
The car was built by Bill Page and most of the body work was done by Don Riggs. He chopped the windshield 3.5 inches. And a matching padded top was made for it. The shape of the top is just perfect for this car. The flow of the rear into the body is as good as it gets. At the front Don removed the original grille and filled the opening with some hand shaped sheet metal. Together with Bill he created a new grille out of 1948 Pontiac grille bars. Most of the chrome including the door handles were removed. The taillight holes in the rear fenders were filled and 1949 Pontiac taillights wish a small portion of its surrounding sheet metal was molded into the fenders just above the new rear bumper. The car was lowered all around and the bumpers replaced with 1948 Mercury units. At the rear a 1949 Chevy license plate surround was added. The hubcaps are aftermarket units. (same once that were used by the Valley Custom Shop a lot). The interior was done in white and maroon leather. The headliner was done in maroon with white piping which gave the car an unique feel inside.

When the restoration gets along we hope to be able to bring you some more updates…
Another early custom saved.

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Below are some photos from the time when the car was for sale, before the restoration had started.

CCC-Bill-Page-40-Ford-Resto-04

CCC-Bill-Page-40-Ford-Resto-05

CCC-Bill-Page-40-Ford-Resto-03

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Rik Hoving

Rik is the CCC editor in chief. As a custom car historian he is researching custom car history for many years. In 2004 he started the Custom Car Photo Archive that has become a place of joy for many custom car enthousiasts. Here at CCC Rik will bring you inspiring articles on the history of custom cars and builders. Like a true photo detective he will show us what's going on in all those amazing photos. He will write stories about everything you want to know in the realm of customizing. In daily life Rik is a Graphic Designer. He is married to the CCC webmaster and the father of a 10 year old son (they are both very happy with his excellent cooking skills)

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3 thoughts on “Another Historic Custom Being Restored”

  • Rik, do you know what colour the car was when the title photo was taken? It doesn’t quite look like black, yet there seems to be a lot of black in the in-progress restoration pics. Was it maroon to complement the interior (or vis-versa)?

    So nice to see yet another quality custom from the early era being saved.

    Dave

    • The car was dark maroon when it was first built. And yes very nice to see this one getting restored to how it used to look.
      The guy who used to own it also owns the Bill DeCarr 1941 Mercury.

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