CONOVER, N.C. – He was 17 years old when he bought the car in 1960. His friends were driving ’55 and ’57 Chevys and Fords to high school, but John Hemmings had just $200 to spend on a ride. So he bought the car he could afford – a 1940 Ford Standard Five-Window Coupe.
You’ve seen these cars in film noir and gangster movies. They’re the two-seaters that the state troopers are riding in when they’re chasing the bootleggers who are driving the same model cars.
In fact, notorious former bootlegger and NASCAR legend Junior Johnson once sat in Hemmings’ Coupe and told him, “I probably ran liquor in this car before you bought it,” Hemmings said.
Maybe you’ve already seen Hemmings’ Coupe. It’s been featured in specialty magazines and “Our State.” Now a tight shot of its distinctive grill and hood graces the cover of the March/April 2015 edition of the “V8 Times” magazine in honor of the 75th anniversary of the ’40 Ford Coupe.
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A PASSION
Hemmings drove his coupe to high school. He drove it when he was courting the sweetheart he’s been married to for nearly 53 years. Hemmings drove it to college. He drove away from his wedding in it – just like his son did at his wedding and his daughter did at her wedding.
“This car is like a member of the family,” Hemmings said. “It spends its nights in a garage directly under our bedroom.”
It was 75 years ago in April that they made the 1940 Ford Coupe that John Hemmings shows all over the country. Today it’s essentially a museum piece. You can comb your hair in the reflection off the black fenders, or you could pretty yourself up while lying on your back.
“We wax the underside of this car the same as we wax the hood,” Hemmings said.
Its deep bench seat is covered with luxurious brown leather. The immaculate dashboard is home to gauges, knobs and a slim line radio, all of which are in perfect working order. And the whitewall tires are flawless.
Every nut, every bolt and every screw was specifically made for a ’40 Ford Coupe. And they’re all pristine – like they’ve never been touched by a wrench. Hemmings’ car is as virginal as it was when it was fresh off the assembly line and sitting on the showroom floor.
The way to get flawless nuts, bolts and screws is to know a guy who makes new ones cast in the original Ford factory molds. But you have to have a careful eye.
When he’s competing at the national level a team of six eagle-eyed men spend 30 to 40 minutes eyeballing every inch of Hemmings’ car. That’s two under the car, one in the interior, one in the trunk and two in the engine and down the sides. They work down a long list to see how many of the 1,000 available points to dock. At a recent show Hemmings’ Ford lost one of those 1,000 points because a screw at the firewall was a quarter inch too long.
In another show the judges docked Hemmings because his car’s wood garnish molding on the doors and dash was two shades off. So Hemmings brought the car back home where his team pulled the moldings, refinished them to proper specifications in time for the next competition.
But it wasn’t always like that.
THE BEGINNINGS
Hemmings and his wife, Betsy, used to drive the car from Mt. Airy to Boone. In the rain. And the windshield wipers didn’t work, so it was Betsy’s job to reach out the passenger window, grab the wiper on her side and push it back and forth across the windshield, which cleared the glass on John’s side too.
In the late ‘60s, the Coupe stood derelict at Hemmings’ mother’s house. But even in that condition he had to fend off potential buyers. He remembers the moment in 1969 that he finally gave in and told his mother to accept the buyer’s offer. He didn’t sleep that night. When morning finally came Hemmings called off the sale.
“That was the last time I ever considered selling this car,” Hemmings said.
In 1970 he got it running so he could drive it around town. And for 40 years he collected original stock parts with an eye on the day he’d be able to get his Coupe back in showroom shape. It was a transformation that took a team of artisans a year to accomplish.
“We took it all apart, the springs, the seats – everything,” Hemmings said. “You can take a magnet and put it anywhere on this car and you won’t find any Bondo anywhere.”
In 2011 the Coupe was complete. A matched pair of 1940 North Carolina license plates adorn the front and rear of what’s been called the finest restored ’40 Ford Coupe in America. It’s a claim that Hemmings’ trophy collection will attest to.
THE DETAILS
These days, Hemmings keeps eight precious vintage 1940 H10 Champion “Coke bottle” spark plugs in his trunk. Each little plug is tucked in a baby sock and placed snug into its private pouch in a canvas roll. When the car comes off its trailer and rolls into its spot Hemmings’ team gets to work. The mechanic trades out the modern plugs and replaces them with the vintage ones while the other members of the team make sure that every square inch of the Coupe is perfect.
Hemmings said he bought the eight precious plugs for $600 in Hershey, Pa. A few weeks later he got a call from Montreal, Quebec. The man on the other end of the line was looking for a set of stock plugs to put the finishing touches on his own ’40 Coupe. He offered Hemmings $1,500 for the set. Hemmings said no and refused the opportunity to turn a $900 profit.
It’s a car. It’s history. It’s almost a member of the family. It’s an obsession.
Hemmings and his team are going to have to be obsessed if he wants to continue his dominating the competition this summer. From June 8-11, the Early Ford V8 Club is holding its Eastern National Meet in Charlotte. Hemmings predicts 300-400 1940 Ford Coupes will be on hand competing.
But only one can be the best.