Episode 4 - Kingsport, Tennessee

Mike Phillips · 04-19-2011, 09:46 AM

Season 1 - Episode - 4 - Autogeek's What's In The Garage

It was a genuine pleasure meeting Fred Datson at his body shop which is also his garage for his daily driver, a 1938 Lincoln Zephyr and the cool thing besides being incredibly rare is that he stuffed a 396 Big Block Chevy engine into this fine streetrod and it's his daily driver.

The Lincoln Zephyr is known as having one of the most beautifully designed, aerodynamic looking body styles...

Not a lot of engine compartment room to work with but Fred managed to slip the big block in and then mate an automatic transmission to send power to the rearend...

Originally, these cars came with a V-12

This ain't no new car tail light...

Also very unique was the dual glove boxes, one on each side and the gauges all clustered in the center of the dash.

Fred also has another Lincoln Zephyr in the works...

Here's something else that's very unique about the Lincoln Zephyr, the bodies are welded to the frame, not bolted on like most cars. So if you want to remove the body to do a "Frame-Off Restoration", you have to cut and grind the welds first. This one aspect will dramatically make restoring a Lincoln Zephyr more costly as well as time-consuming.

Mike Phillips · 04-19-2011, 09:47 AM

Continued...

Fred's shop was full of antiques and stuff... stuff everywhere, most if it has a story too... This is his office desk, it's actually an old "Steelcase" desk, which are dang near indestructible.

This is a picture of the Lincoln from where he originally purchased it on an old farm...

He had some pictures of a custom Lincoln that inspired him to build his current Lincoln Zephyr. The purple Lincoln in the pictures below are of a car called "Scrape" built by Terry Cook, former editor of Hot Rod Magazine and I'm good friends with Terry and have toured with Terry and Scrape and buffed out Scrape at least 3 times in preparation for display at car shows.

In this photo I was applying Meguiar's M98 Medallion to Scrape at the Portland Roadster Show, so I have keen interest in Lincoln Zephyrs just from my experience with Scrape.

His office walls were piled high with memorabilia collected over the years...

The clown is kind of eerie...

Fred then showed me some pictures of himself, his wife, his daughter and a 1955 Ford he purchased new and still owns today...

Mike Phillips · 04-19-2011, 12:55 PM

Continued...

And here's that same car in the pictures... out in an adjacent garage...

100% Bone Stock, Number Matching, All Original 1956 Ford

Out in the back of the shop there's a rusting hulk of a Lincoln Zephyr that's been used for parts... now it's just car art...

The old Banjo Steering Wheel is still there and restorable...

And an old Ford Parts Car next to the old Coke machine...

All around Fred's shop were cans of old No & DuPont Auto Polish and old car waxes like this one from Shell...

Very cool Lincoln and Fred was a very interesting guy... I loved the fact that he installed a 396 BBC into the old Zephyr and this car is his everyday transportation...

Mike Phillips · 04-19-2011, 12:56 PM

***Placeholder***

I'll post another car from Episode 4 on Wednesday...

Here's a teaser picture... can you guess the car?

Mike Phillips · 04-19-2011, 12:56 PM

***Placeholder***

I'll post another car from Episode 4 on Thursday...

Here's a teaser picture... can you guess the car?

Mike Phillips · 04-19-2011, 01:03 PM

I had a guy call me yesterday trying to find out more about a car he saw on a TV Show on Speed Channel. I wasn't on the TV show but his search for more information about the car led him to my name on our forum.

I couldn't for the life of me help him to find more information about whatever car it was he saw on whatever the TV show was, but I let him know that for all the cars on our TV show you can find pictures of them here on our forum.

He says he'll be watching us this coming Sunday...

I also had another guy call me and ask if TJ's 1956 Ford Thunderbird was for sale, I sent TJ an e-mail and let him know about the inquiry and TJ is going to get back to me.

The thing about all this is on most, if not all the other car guy TV shows, if you have a question about something you saw on the show... where do you go with it?

Here at Autogeek... I made sure to take lots of pictures and, if needed, I have all the contact information for all our guests... and... I post to our forum...