Staffan Runhag's 1936 Ford

A rare photo from Hot Rod Show Marmorhallarna in 1969. Photo by Jan Adolfsson.

A construction photo of the coupe taken shortly after Staffan bought it. Tord Enström shared a garage with Staffan back then, and he remembers the car had been damaged by fire by the rumble seat, and that it needed a lot of work. Photo by Per-Henrik Cellton, from The Tord Enström Collection.

Photo from The Tord Enström Collection.

Photo from The Tord Enström Collection.

Photo from Colorod 6 1976

Photo from Colorod 6 1976

Photo from Colorod 6 1976

A photo of Staffan's 36 taken at the 1981 SSRA show outside Gröna Lund. Photo courtesy of Rolf Sandin, from the Göran Nordenberg's Collection.

Staffan's coupe as it appeared when it was advertised for sale in Wheels Magazine Januari 1986.

With Lennart Helsing as owner. Photo from The Tord Enström Collection.

Photo from The Tord Enström Collection.

Staffan's old coupe as it appeared in June of 2020. Photo by Mats Wallander.

Another photo taken in June of 2020. Photo by Mats Wallander.

This 1936 Ford 3-Window Coupe was found by Arne 'Ghandi' Gullmarstam in the mid-60s. It was located in Tureberg, in a yard next to 'A-Ford Lasse', Arne told Mats Wallander for Kustomrama.

Arne took care of the car which was is rather bad shape. Rumours says he cut and lowered the body at the firewall instead of fixing the rust there. He bought and installed a Chevy 283" from Bo Kasby with money saved from his military service. He installed brakes from a Mercedes 300 SL in front and a Chevy 3-speed manual transmission together with a rear end also from Chevrolet. A tinted top window was inserted from a Ford Crown Victoria, electrical power windows and seats from Ford Mustang were installed.

Arne painted the car dark blue before he sold it in 1967. The new owner was Tony Jädert from Tumba. The famous dragracer Gunne Back helped Tony to finish the car and it was displayed at Hot Rod Show 1969 Marmorhallarna. Gunne later took the ownership. Gunne got it approved and registered in 1969-1970 .
To finance an estate affair, Gunne sold it 1970 to Staffan Runhag in Enköping for 10 000 SEK and a color TV!
The trade might have been through some car dealer in Stockholm as Staffan should have traded his Ford Ranchero for the coupe.
(In the same deal, a very bad 1935 Ford cab was included, that Staffan Runhag and Anders Larsson had found in northern Uppland.
Staffan later gave the cab to his friend Tord Enström as a Christmas gift! More on that car in another article.)

Back to the -36:.... The coupe wasn't in a good condition, there had been a fire in the rumble seat, but Staffan knew exactly what stance he wanted and started eagerly.

13" wheels mounted on the dropped front axle and 15"x10" rear wheels. Many subtile body modifications and Staffans artistic eyes gave the car the right look.

A 1:25 scale model car was test painted several times before Staffan decided to use BMW Polaris Silver metallic and Castillian Gray panels.

The paint worked very well with all the chrome and black interior. Tord Enström helped with several things, such as installing a new electrical system.

Once completed, the car attended the Hot Rod Show 1975 Marmorhallarna where it won 1st price Hot Rod. The coupe became a permanent prizewinner at car shows!

For some reason, Staffan sold the car but ended up buying it back some years later. He then painted the car black with red pinstriping. He also installed a chrome roll bar, sidepipes, a louvered trunk cover, and more. This iteration of the coupe was shown at Hot Rod Show 1980 and Gröna Lund Show 1982. It was also featured in Colorod with a big poster.

Even today, many still consider this as the wildest Hot Rod ever built in Sweden!

After that the history becomes unclear. The car was advertised for sale by Staffan according to an ad in Wheels Magazine in 1986. The new owner became Lennart Helsing in Ludvika who radically rebuild the car in a new hi-tech shape including paint in painted beige/purple. The rear end was now a Jaguar and driveline Chevy 350/350.
The car later was 1st price in a lottery at a Street Rod meeting. 250 tickets 100 SEK each. The story tells the winner was Håkan "Dacke" in Kungsör.
Dacke kept it some time and put an ad for sale for 140.000 SEK.

We are not sure to whom it was sold to at this time.

Checking the national archives, the car was first registered in 1973. In 1998 a new owner, Matti Pajunen in Ulricehamn keeping it to 2005.
Then the new owner is Claes Wallin from Falköping who keeps it to 2007.

By 2007, the car returned to Enköping and Lennart Fors. It was in a bad shape, completely changed from when Staffan owned it. Staffan was happy to see the car again and
had no hard feelings that it was so radically changed. Staffan and Lennart decided now to give the car a more custom look with fender skirts etc.

It was never Staffans intention to restore it back to how it looked when he owned it, even though many others meant this should have been done.

Staffan passed away in 2011.

Lennart sold the car to Håkan Lindberg from Fjärdhundra in 2019. Håkan still owned it in 2021 and the car is under complete restoration.
We will see in what shape the new edition of this iconic hot rod will appear!