Whatever they lack in all-weather capability, roadsters more than make up for in jaunts on a sunny day. The wind through your hair, the smell of the landscape and burnt gasoline, and the roar of a flatty; is there anything more perfect or freeing?

That’s more or less the sensation that John Gillman gets whenever he takes out his beloved Model A, which he took to calling “Cogstripper” after he noticed its voracious appetite for chewing up and spitting out gearboxes. That phase seems to have ended for the better, and what’s left is a black beauty that gets a lot of fun in the sun, a realization of Gillman’s notion of what a hot rod really is.

“I think if you asked a thousand people what a hot rod [is], you’d get a thousand different answers,” said Gillman. “For me, this is sort of my rendition of what a hot rod is. The powertrain is always going to be a flathead, definitely always going to be a hi-boy, and as much as people [complain] ‘Oh, another black one?’ it’s always going to be black.”

Gillman suped up his flathead with traditional components that purists enjoy: Offenhauser heads, Iskendarian camshaft, Stromberg carbs, all the usual suspects. The body and interior were outsourced to professionals, simply because Gillman’s confidence in his skill set only goes so far: “For me, it’s about knowing limitations. I mean, I can do the mechanical work all day long…but I don’t paint, I don’t upholster.”

As it stands today, the roadster is a fine piece of work and a source of pride for Gillman. “There’s not a day that goes by when the sun comes out that I don’t enjoy getting behind the wheel and going out,” he said. “It’s a great car to drive, and it sits on the road nicely. Plenty of power, and they’re so light.”