38 Zephry coupe wins America's Most Beautiful Street Rod

This last weekend at the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association West Coat Nationals in Pleasanton, California Mike Shifflet's 1938 Lincoln Zephry coupe was chosen as America's Most Beautiful Street Rod. It is a much modified custom but is still running the original V-12 but with finned heads and a tri-power manifold. Watch the magazines for pictures of this cool car.

You mean this one?

http://community.webshots.com/photo/65879247/65881477yJMLBL

http://community.webshots.com/photo/65879247/65881718wutmnN

http://community.webshots.com/photo/65879247/65881798HuRqIv

Right, it sure is a beautiful car. It's probably the nicest custom Zephyr I've seen. They didn't carve up the inherently beautiful lines of the car. be advised however, I did NOT take the Webshots Community photos of Mike & Linda Shiflett's 1938 Zephyr at the Boise Roadster Show. The photos were taken by Karl Fengler of Meridian, Idaho (karl.fengler@hp.com). I just found them while "surfing" the Webshots Community photo albums.

Dear Phil,What kind of dough do you think it would take to pull off a project like this,obviously depends on how much you are able to do yourself,my GUESS would be 250,000 might be WAY off.diz <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Hi Diz,

The off-the-cuff estimate to build "SCRAPE" four years ago was around $250,000. The body work on this one might be a little cheaper, but "SCRAPE" sits on a CHEVY station wagon chassis (how ordinary can you get!) and they NEVER show it with the hood open (probably not much to look at in there). That full dress V-12 engine couldn't have been cheap!

I guess I haven't figured out how to attach a photo to these messages yet. Take a look at http://www.lzoc.org/links/gellercpe4.jpg to see Mike Geller's REAL 1938 Zephyr next to Terry Cook's "SCRAPE".

Dear Phil,I think the latest 38 Zephyr is soooooo much neater than Scrape.Great Zephyr LINEs are too exaggerated on Scrape,as always just my 2 cents,diz <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I completely agree with you, Diz. When SCRAPE first came out, I thought it looked great, but the passing of time has put the original styling back on top. It's tough to improve on E. T. Gregorie's design! The Petersen Museum in Los Angeles is reported to have paid $250,000 to acquire SCRAPE. I saw it at the Petersen Museum when I was in LA last year. Notice in the photo of Mike Geller's '38 coupe and SCRAPE, all the attention is being paid to the original car!

I am proud to say this car was built at my shop near Spokane, Wa. My son Marty Stromberger did most of the body mods including chopping the top 3 inches, suicide doors, complete new floor, engine installation and the complete air ride suspension. We even used a 54 Lincoln bumper on the rear that Marty sectioned 18" and turned upside down. My other two employees, Bob Bissonette and Eddy Whipple were instrumental in its wiring, air ride system, stereo system and final assembly.

Extreme Customs owned by Chris Ledgerwood and Russ Freund and their employee Kory Huenink in Otis Orchards, Wa. did more modifications including extending the rear fenders, pie cutting the hood, fabing the smooth curved running boards and the Mercedes headlights. The fender skirts were fabricated to follow the extended fenders. They did all the finish body work and painted the body in Chrysler pewter and Prowler Copper.

Dave Tatom in Mt. Vernon, Wa. built the fabulous V-12 with some extremely rare speed parts.

Flat-o-matic in Oregon built the transmission and provided the adapter to the V-12.

C&B Upholstry in Spokane did the fabulous job on the all leather interior. Mike Shiflett who is the owner was inspired by the "Scrape" car but wanted to retain more of the cars original character by keeping the original flat windshield and the stock hood and side trim.When we first started on this car I felt kind of bad taking a nice looking older restoration and cutting it up, but after disassembling it and and media blasting it I changed my mind. We found that it had rust holes through the roof and all over the firewall. I think the old owner found it at the bottom of a lake. The floor had been replaced and reinstalled with pop rivets. Any sheetmetal that had been replaced had been put back with pop rivets. I guess the guy who restored it didn't own a welder. After several hundred hours if metal replacement we had it back to its former glory. I am extremely proud of my crew and the guys at Extreme Customs for the job they did on this car to allow it to win the "Americas Most Beautiful Street Rod"

Tim Stromberger

Tim's Hot Rods

Greenacres, Wa

Dear Tim,Thanks for the information in regards to the construction of the car.Would you mind telling me how many total man hours were involved in this project.I prefer original cars authentically restored but i can certainly appreciate the workmanship and talent to see a project of this QUALITY and magnitude to the end.Thanks for your input and bringing a Lincoln Zephyr 3-window coupe to the head of the street rodding class.diz <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />