My name is Pat Teehan, an almost 66 year old Florida Native that still plays with cars. I am the founder and current President of the East Coast Cruisers Car Club Inc., and also a member of the Daytona Beach Street Rods, who put on the Turkey Run shows. This is the story of my 1929 Ford Model A Sedan. She was originally built in 2006 by a guy in South Carolina. After he built it the car went thru several hands until I got her in 2022. I usually build my own rides but did a trade for this one from the last owner in Pennsylvania. She came to me a running, driving Rat Rod in black primer, with a 6-inch chopped top, and channeled 6-inches. When I got it the car was wired with a mixture of house wiring and automotive wiring. None of the gauges worked, and the headlight wiring was melted together. So, I got to work making her “Mine” doing a complete nut and bolt redo. I completely disassembled her and started over.

Now all new Dolphin gauges are mounted in an early Dodge truck dash, and a new EZ Wiring harness was installed. It also received a new spun aluminum 12-gallon fuel tank with a sending unit so I can tell how far I can cruise. I took the visor off and dimple died a bunch of holes in it to help see out of the cab a little better. For Christmas my wife, Sissy Teehan, got me a backup camera that I mounted in a 39 chevy tail light housing placed on the back of the roof which transmits to a mounted iPad so I can use it for my rear view mirror since the rear window is so small and hard to see out of. I also had Tony’s Upholstery put in a clear vinyl sun roof in the black marine grade cloth top to help out at the traffic lights. I built all new seat pans and seat backs, then had East Coast Cruisers club member Wayne Wilcox do some diamond stitch fawn upholstery on the seats. While not very comfortable for more than an hour of cruising, they get the job done. Because its always about style over comfort, LOL. Then I put in all the carpet. Jimmy Graham at Jimmy’s Rod & Custom bent up some aluminum door panels, which were powder coated black for durability. A chrome tilt steering column is topped with a Kool nostalgia 13-inch white 4-spoke steering wheel.

I rebuilt the entire brakes, and added a rear Ridetech air ride system so the rear of the car will raise and drop around 7-inches. With the car being so small, I installed LED tail light lenses in the ‘39 Chevy taillight housings to make her more noticeable when stopping or driving at night. Everything on the 6-inch drop tube front axle and suspension including old school friction shocks and most of the external parts on the 350 engine were powder coated by Volusia Powder Coating. Future plans for this engine are a set of aluminum heads that I have sitting on the self in the garage. The engine is topped with twin Holley 450 cfm carbs (one day I will have a blown hot rod, but right now I only have tunnel ram money, LOL). It is backed by a Turbo 400 automatic shifted with a 32-inch Lokar shifter running back to a triangulated 4-link 90’s Chevy truck rear axle, turning 16-inch staggered Coker radial tires on Rocket Racing wheels front and rear.

She is a great cruiser, will run 70 mph all day, and lights up the road at night with Model “AA” commercial headlights. The “stereo” is courtesy of Sanderson Zoomie headers that I got from a very good friend of mine, Mark Abeling (the local hot rod community is great). Then after all of that, and with a lot of soul searching I chose Joey T. at BD Customs in Edgewater to fine tune the 95 year old body and spray on the “Mango Tango Pearl” paint job. Joey also did all of the pin stripping and she turned out beautiful, I think. What started out as a rough Rat Rod has now turned into a very nice Hot Rod. I have to give a huge thanks to my wife Sissy and my son Sean for all of the help pulling and installing the motor and transmission numerous times, welding, wiring, and their support throughout this whole build. I retired with 38 years on the rail road back in 2014 at 56 years of age and my full-time job now is working in my shop every day on my ‘29, my wife’s big block Chevy powered 1959 Apache Pickup and my son’s bagged 1956 Chevy Pickup. We cruise as a family several times a month year round and have a blast doing it. To quote a friend of mine, “See you in the streets”. CN