By David Fleet
Editor
Ortonville—Post World War II, Americans came home to a landscape full of well used Ford Model As and Ts. Starting in the 1950s, the hot rods grew from those rusting family cars often found in junkyards and barnyards nationwide.
Today the hot rods and the need for speed on a budget remain with a tapestry of car parts expressed to perfection by the local Suder family.
“Our 1931 Ford Coupe is junkyard built,” said Jim Suder, a 1978 Ortonville High School graduate and longtime resident, who at 15 years old traded his dirt bike for a 1934 Ford pickup that remains in his garage today.
About 1974, Suder’s quest for classics continued when he found a 1931 Ford sitting in a parking lot at Rochester University.
“I talked my mom into stopping so I could look at it when we drove by,” he said. “I would hide the for sale sign behind the seat of the old car. Then we’d drive away. I still don’t know why she did that for me.”
This went on for about a year until dad, also named Jim, finally purchased the old Ford for $600.
“My dad tried to buy his grandfather’s 1929 and could not get it,” he said. “That sparked my dad’s interest in cars once again wanting an old hot rod. That’s what led me to spend my entire career professionally restoring cars and building hot rods.”
The Model A he discovered did not run, the engine was seized up, and to make matters more challenging, there were no brakes, recalled Suder.
“So we hooked on with 20 feet of chain and pulled the car back to Ortonville from Rochester,” he said. “To stop I just let the clutch out and the drag of the engine slowed me down.”
Over the next few years the family moved to New Caney, Texas while Jimmy stayed in Ortonville.
“The car went to Texas along with my day and brother David,” he said.
In the late 1990s his father moved back to Ortonville and retired.
The pair reunited and built the car.
“We built it in the 1950s junkyard theme,” he said. “We did not buy new parts, rather scrounge up parts when we could find them. As near as I could tell there are 26 different vehicles represented in the hot rod.”
All the sheet metal is original, although every inch of paint was sandblasted off. Under the hood is a 1969-383 cubic inch Big Block Chrysler engine with a four speed transmission, topped with a Holly four-barrel double pumper carburetor.
“I can burn the tires all day,” he said. “That engine came out of a car that weighed 4,500 pounds and now powers a 2,200 pound ride.”
The hot rod includes a Chevrolet S-10 rear end, the steering is from a Chevrolet Vega and Ford bench seats are original but recovered.
“Part of the frame is from an old hay wagon I drugged home from a neighbor,” he said. “I took two model A frames and put them together.”
The steering wheel is a Buick Century tilt steering column to accommodate his father’s 6 feet 2 inches height. “We pushed the dash forward two inches and the seat back six inches too,” he said.
The car frequents the Woodward Cruise, Back to the Bricks and Autorama in Detroit.
“My son David is the third generation that drives the hot rod,” he said. “Two grandchildren, aged 4 and 11, request a ‘smoky burn-out’ when they come over to visit. That will be our fourth generation.”