Rex Hurley's 1949 Ford

The Ford as it appeared when Rex bought it in 2014. "People were crying when I said what I was going to do to it," Rex told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama in 2019. Rex is building the car in the same house and the same garage as his dad. Using the same tools that his father used. "On his wrenches, he always put a punch mark in the center of the C in Craftsman." The garage has a pit with an engine hoist above that Jim built. Before Jim passed away, Rex promised him he would build the car. Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

A photo of Jim Hurley's 1949 Ford as it appeared around 1955-1956. This is the car that Rex is recreating. Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

Rex's Ford as it appeared in September of 2019. Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

Headlights frenched in. Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

Rex running the original plaque that was on his dad's car. Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

Paint stripped and holes filled. A photo of the project as it sat in February of 2020. Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

Photo courtesy of Rex Hurley.

1949 Ford owned and restyled by Rex Hurley of Long Beach, California. Rex's dad was a member of the Renegades of Long Beach car club back in the 1950s, and the Ford will be built as a clone of the 1949 Ford that he built back in the 1950s.

Rex is the second owner of the car. He bought it in 2014, and it was completely original with only 17 000 miles on it. "People were crying when I said what I was going to do to it," Rex told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama in 2019. Rex is building the car in the same house and the same garage as his dad. Using the same tools that his father used. "On his wrenches, he always put a punch mark in the center of the C in Craftsman." The garage has a pit with an engine hoist above that Jim built. Before Jim passed away, Rex promised him he would build the car. Work schedule has made it a very slow process, "but I will keep my promise," Rex told Kustomrama.

Winfield hood

Rex was able to locate a 1950 Ford hood that Gene Winfield had extended, shaved and louvered. By September of 2019 the hood had been installed, the taillights had been modified, molded and tunneled in, and a 1955 Ford grille had been installed. Rex cut down and installed 1951 Chevrolet parking lights in the grill. Originally he thought they were 1952 Chevrolet, as the Car Craft May 1957 story states, but that turned out to be wrong. He had also installed baby spotlights.

The sidetrim

One of the hardest parts of the build was to figure out the sidetrim. Rex knew they were Olds, but the 55 year had so many options. "I have stacks of pieces of trim from those cars, it turns out he used it from the four-door model where the year drop was on the rear quarter panel, having said that, no piece is long enough for the door, this really stumped me, but thanks to Kustomrama, the pictures I sent in were cleaned to the point that I could tell he used the original Ford door trim, you have to look close, but you can see it."