Lou Costable of My Car Story got the chance to get up close and personal with an extremely rare car. In the video above, Costable utilizes an intimate view of an original 1936 Ford Stainless Steel Tudor Deluxe Touring Sedan on load to the Early Ford V8 Foundation Museum. Built at the end of the 1936 model year production run, Ford built six cars identical to this for Alleghany Ludlum Steel Company to use as promotion and incentive pieces. The top salesmen of each of the six company districts would get to drive the car for an entire year.
Four of the six cars still remain intact and accounted for. For the other two, one is said to have been in an accident and destroyed and the other is flat out missing. For all is known, it could be in the barn down the street from your house. Each of the cars were daily drivers for the salesmen. The travelling racked up a reported 200,000 miles on each vehicle by the time they were retired from the Alleghany Ludlum fleet in 1946.
This particular car is from the Chicago district. It is the only privately owned vehicle of the survivors; the rest are in museums or the company headquarters. The car went through a complete restoration in recent years. Every single part was touched, cleaned up and painted or refinished. The stainless steel panels, said to have damaged Henry Ford’s stamping tools because of the material’s strength, were meticulously sanded and polished to a shine. The original cars were left with stainless steel panels in a raw and unfinished state. Many believe the mirror finish is part of the mesmerizing draw this car has.
Stainless steel is an excellent material. Unfortunately it was not one that was meant to be used for automotive sheetmetal. Check out the video above for more info on this gorgeous and unique car.
Four of the six cars still remain intact and accounted for. For the other two, one is said to have been in an accident and destroyed and the other is flat out missing. For all is known, it could be in the barn down the street from your house. Each of the cars were daily drivers for the salesmen. The travelling racked up a reported 200,000 miles on each vehicle by the time they were retired from the Alleghany Ludlum fleet in 1946.
This particular car is from the Chicago district. It is the only privately owned vehicle of the survivors; the rest are in museums or the company headquarters. The car went through a complete restoration in recent years. Every single part was touched, cleaned up and painted or refinished. The stainless steel panels, said to have damaged Henry Ford’s stamping tools because of the material’s strength, were meticulously sanded and polished to a shine. The original cars were left with stainless steel panels in a raw and unfinished state. Many believe the mirror finish is part of the mesmerizing draw this car has.
Stainless steel is an excellent material. Unfortunately it was not one that was meant to be used for automotive sheetmetal. Check out the video above for more info on this gorgeous and unique car.
Article courtesy of Street Legal TV, written by Jake headlee.
