AHR Issue #2 is nearing completion with much of the production now completed.

We recently photographed Colin Bates’ beautiful ’36 Ford coupe, the car that will feature on the cover of AHR #2 and it looks spectacular. Shot against a threatening sky with dark storm clouds gathering in the distance the stunning white coupe shines.

Colin has been building hot rods in Melbourne for 40 years and his reputation for engineering excellence and build quality is renowned within the hot rodding community. A hot rodder at heart, Colin not only builds great hot rods, he is also regularly seen driving them at rod runs.

He first eyed the ’36 coupe back in the 1960s when a fellow member of the Sultans Hot Rod Club owned it. He bought it in 1975 when the owner’s life took a different direction and he’s owned it ever since.

In that time it has been rebuilt twice, winning top coupe at the Victorian Hot Rod Show in 1977 at the completion of the first rebuild. It has also been driven for much of that time, clocking up 150,000 miles in daily use, as well as being drag raced and displayed at rod shows.

Colin is a big fan of the ’36 and has honoured Ford’s original design by sticking to the stock appearance and retaining much of the original chrome and stainless trim, but underneath the Art Deco skin he’s used a 350 cubic inch small block Chev V8, Saginaw four-speed gearbox and nine-inch “Tank” Fairlane diff.

The full story on Colin’s Classic Beauty is featured in AHR Issue #2.