It's not uncommon to read about a wife buying a car for her husband. In fact, more project cars are purchased by someone's significant other than you might think--especially after years of hearing him go on and on about that dream machine that got away. This one is a bit more unorthodox in its origins.
Eric Hall was in high school in the late '70s and early '80s, and had been searching for his dream hot rod--a '56 Ford Victoria. His then girlfriend, Twylla, travelled with him on weekends searching farms, fields, and back alleys of western Idaho and eastern Oregon for that elusive treasure.
After more than two years of scavenging, they finally found one right there in their hometown of Boise, Idaho, in May 1981. Eric had heard that the owner refused to sell, so he never bothered to even ask. Well, apparently Twylla saw an opportunity to bring their weekend searching to an end, and marched right up to the owner's door, pulled out her checkbook, and simply asked, "How much?" The owner must have assumed the young woman would buy it and restore it as a driver, so he gave her a price, to which Twylla responded with a filled out check, and told him they would be back the next day to pick it up. Eric couldn't believe she had bought it for him. They weren't even married! Neither one of them was even 18 yet. Twylla's parents were less than enthusiastic about her tapping her college savings to do it, but it all worked out in the end.
Eric drove the car for the remainder of high school, then for several years after he and Twylla were married, powered by a built 351 Cleveland and Top Loader four-speed. The car has seen many exterior colors including dark blue with red flames, white pearl, and finally the ink toner black covering the sheetmetal today.
The car is a complete departure from its original state, now sporting almost ten times the horsepower originally offered in 1956. This Ford gets its oats from a 4.5-inch bore and a 4.5-inch stroke displacing 572 inches of Boss 429-based muscle. Eagle 6.7-inch connecting rods and custom Ross pistons are flung around by a Scat crankshaft and produce ear-piercing 15:1 compression. Wes King worked his magic on the rare Boss heads by raising the ports, and reshaping them before filling them with 2.45-inch intake and 2-inch exhaust valves. K-motion springs try to hold those titanium valves closed, but the Comp Cams/John Kaase spec'd solid roller camshaft pries them open 0.850/0.830-inch and holds them there for 286/304 degrees at 0.050. A bumpstick this big required utilizing a Jesel 1.8:1 rocker setup and Smith Bros pushrods as big around as your finger. Eric has done all of the assembly on the engine which, given the estimates of John Kaase and Wes King, should make around 1,000 horsepower.
Rounding out the intake tract is a Jack Roush tunnel ram intake manifold topped with two Holley 1150 Dominators being fed by a pair of Holley black pumps. Exhaust pulses are ushered out by a custom set of headers featuring 2-3/8-inch primary tubes that dump into Borla 4-inch mufflers. A Meziere water pump, Griffin radiator, and twin Flex-A-Lite electric fans cool the max Boss.
Eric has always preferred to row through the gears, so when the power level exceeded the limit of the Top Loader, a Jerico five-speed, along with an aluminum flywheel, and a McLeod twin-disc clutch assembly, replaced it. Out back, a Moser aluminum bolt-through rear axle houses a 4.33 gearset driven by a Mark Williams Accu-bond driveshaft and slowed via Aerospace rear discs. Bob Lewis and Dennis Blackstone of Boise, Idaho, performed the top quality frame and suspension work.
Supplying the "old-school" hot rod look is the custom-built straight axle front end complete with rack-and-pinion steering, and Aerospace binders. The car is pictured herewith Weld Pro-Star wheels, but by the time you read this, they will be replaced with Weld Racing's new black powdercoated Magnum Drag wheels measuring 15x4 and 15x16.