Gordy Brown's First 1954 Ford

Gordy's chopped Skyliner with fellow Crusaders of Salt Lake City members in Salt Lake City, Utah at Liberty Park around 1959-60. Photo courtesy of Gordy Brown.

Photo courtesy of Gordy Brown.

Photo by Gordy Brown.

Photo by Gordy Brown.

Photo by Gordy Brown.

Photo by Gordy Brown.

1954 Ford Skyliner owned and restyled by Salt Lake City Crusaders member Gordy Brown. Gordy bought the Skyliner at age 16 as a repossession from the local Ford dealer. The year was 1957. The car was customized, lowered and painted in a new 1956 Mercury Pinewood Green Metallic color with 1956 Lincoln Shenandoah Green for accent color on the wheels, park light trim rings and on the check marks on the outside chrome band above the rear window. Both colors were a blue green color with the Lincoln color being the darker of the two. After the build was completed, Gordy was in a minor accident with somebody turning left in front of him. The right frenched headlight and grill were damaged in the accident. At the time Gordy decided that if he had to repaint parts of the car he might as well paint it all over again. Since this was the case, he decided to also chop the top. He was carrying around a small custom car book with an article on Duane Steck's 1954 Chevrolet. A radical custom for its time that is better known as the Moonglow. He figured that if they could chop a Chevy hardtop, why not do the same with a Ford? He was having trouble finding anyone to do the job. The fellow Gordy worked for at the time did a large percent of of the local custom work. He did also build some custom Ford trucks by extending the tudor cabs into four door cabs by using a second cab that he grafted onto the stock one. After reading everything he could find in the small books about chopping, and after watching what Vern did on his trucks, he decided with all the confidence of a 17 year old that he could do it. Gordy managed to chop the top, and he drove the car around quite a bit after that. After the top was chopped, he didn't repaint the top and front end areas, they were just primered. As custom paint was changing rapidly in the late 1950s with different hues of candy and pearls, Gordy decided to buy a second 1954 Ford Glasstop rather than strip the enamel paint off his first '54. The first '54 was a street custom, the second one became a show car.

After the second 54 was built, Gordy put the first one away. He kept it in storage for many years until he finally decided that it was time to get it back on the road again. He stripped it down with intention of sectioning the car. Luckily, Bo Huff and Rob Robinson amongst others convinced Gordy that he should put it back as it was in the 1950s. After buying a fourth 1954 Ford glasstop that he could chop and section, Gordy decided to put his first 54 back as it was.