Alan Pinaire's classic 1935 Ford pickup proves you can have beauty and utility in one package. "I want to be able to drive it, not just show it," he says.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Power is supplied by the original flathead V-8, which is basically stock except for the Red's headers flowing into dual Smithy mufflers. Plans call for an upgrade to a rebuilt '41 flathead V-8.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The midnight blue paint is so deep and dark that it appears the truck is black, but only the fenders are actually black. The red wire wheels, wide whitewall tires and chrome ribbed beauty rings with factory hubcaps are perfect accents, highlighted by red pinstriping.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The truck had a steel bed floor when Pinaire bought it about 14 years ago. One of his must-do modifications was this stained oak bed with stainless steel ribs.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The stock instruments were left in the dash, with an oil pressure gauge added to the left to help keep track of engine lubrication.
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The sleek vertical grille shell flows down to the V'd bumper; being a basic model pickup, the truck is equipped with a single horn and a single windshield wiper.
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Pinaire spent a little extra money to get just the right 1935 Kansas license plate for his front bumper. While it might appear his plate has two markings from 1935, the first three characters on the plate actually indicate different information. The 'T' in the plate designates it as a truck, while the first '35' was the county code in use at the time. That puts it in Ford County, or around Dodge City. Instead of the current two-letter code we have on plates now, Kansas indicated the counties numerically based on population from 1930-51. Under that system Sedgwick County tags carried a '2', just behind Wyandotte's '1' status.
The T35 designation could stand for 1935 truck, but actually was a Ford County tag that year.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Pinaire decided he wanted a '35 Ford pickup after attending a national street rodding event in Oklahoma. He says the '35 appealed to him because it had the first rounded cab design, but retained the smaller grille of earlier Ford trucks.
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One of the few upgrades to the pickup is this later-model banjo-style steering wheel, a reproduction piece intended for late '30s Ford cars.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The seat is original, but covered in gray cloth. Pinaire might have it reupholstered in Naugahyde to more closely approximate the factory look, which already includes textured door panels and headliner.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Chrome dual exhaust tips exiting under the stylish rolled rear bumper give the truck just the right rumble; the vanity plate personalizes Pinaire's pickup.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The rear fenders sweep back over the period-correct wire wheels. Factory 16-inch wheels were traded for 15-inchers and the original 4:11 gear set was swapped for more highway-friendly 3:59 gears in the factory rear end.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
BF Goodrich Silvertown radial wide whitewalls mounted on bright red reproduction 15-inch wire wheels are used as rolling stock. Pinaire was able to retain the stock '35 Ford hub caps, adding ribbed beauty rings and red crown valve stem caps for a vintage look.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
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