Orange ’31 coupe takes its place in the sun

Vernon Bishop credits his wife, Chris, with providing some really good advice that he incorporated into his stunning orange 1931 Ford coupe.

He had been working on a T-bucket roadster at Ray Trahern’s shop and when he finally got it drivable, they took it to a car show in McPherson. They got caught in a downpour and Mrs. Bishop told him, “Your next car is going to have a top on it.”

It turns out there was just such a car in Trahern’s shop, the aforementioned ’31 Model A coupe, and Bishop had been eyeballing it for years.

“He hadn’t driven it in several years and I finally talked him out of it,” Bishop said. The car was painted blue and was powered by a 327 Chevy V-8 with a tunnel ram intake and two 4-barrel carbs.

“It was in good shape. I picked it up on a Saturday and we went to Cars in the Park at Newton and we trophied,” he recalled. And they didn’t have to worry about getting rained on coming or going.

That was about 15 years ago, and the coupe performed well, although it gradually underwent some changes.

“I dressed the engine up a little, put three two-barrels on it for a more traditional look.” The car had no fuse panel, so it was rewired. The paint job was looking out-of-date, so Bishop began thinking about a new paint scheme.

“My wife said, `If you’re going to repaint it, pick a color that’s an eye-catcher,’ ” he said.

He settled on House of Kolor’s Candy Tangerine and he hasn’t regretted the choice for a moment. Jeff Ames sprayed the mile-deep color on the car as part of a major makeover, lasting from October until January seven years ago. Shane Zimmerman applied tasteful pinstriping to the ’32 Ford grille shell and the rear deck lid.

“There were a lot of transformations in that time. After it was painted, we pushed it into the Starbird show three days later. I put the interior in the car during the show,” Bishop said.

As originally purchased, the steel-bodied Ford had already been channeled 5 inches over the frame rails, giving it a lower, but still unchopped, profile. Inside, a pair of first-generation Bronco seats were wrapped in black vinyl by Ross Harrison, who also created the pleated door panels. New Haneline instruments were installed in the dash.

A set of hefty 15-inch American Racing Salt Flats wheels, 12 inches wide in back, half that width in front, were swapped in place of the original 14-inch wheels. Hoosier tires measuring a full 16.5 inches across put the power to the pavement, with narrower Hoosiers handling steering duties up front. Aftermarket disc brakes provide stopping power.

But perhaps the most noticeable change came in the exhaust department, where traditional street rod headers gave way to a set of Sanderson funny car-style “zoomies” that direct an impressive wall of sound out from the engine. No mufflers, no tailpipes.

When someone asks how that can be street legal, Bishop points out that each pipe contains a baffle to tone things down a bit. “It’s loud, but it’s legal,” he says.

The sound system was removed to add some legroom to the cabin, but it’s not missed.

“We don’t listen to the radio anyway,” he said, indicating the exhaust pipes.

The Bishops have logged a little over 2,000 miles on the lava orange coupe since it was transformed.

“We don’t get to take it out very often, but we do take it to Alva (Okla.) every year and it’s been to the Street Rod Nationals in Springfield (Mo.) a couple of times. “We still get a lot of attention with it, if it’s on a trailer or we’re driving it someplace,” Bishop said. “People are taking pictures of it as they’re driving past.”

“Everybody asks, `How fast will it go?’ I just tell them it will keep up with traffic,” says Bishop, who has never taken his hot rod down the drag strip.

But he confesses, “These things are never done.” He plans an upgrade from the current 2-speed PowerGlide transmission to a TH350 3-speed automatic and a swap from the 10-bolt GM rear end to a 9-inch Ford.

He always tries to display the car in full sunlight, to show off the paint to best effect. This little 5-window coupe has clearly earned its spot in the sun.

This story was originally published July 8, 2017 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Orange ’31 coupe takes its place in the sun."