It’s a well-known understanding that if you’re going to attend a Goodguys event, you’re going to want to bring your essentials. For regular visitors, you bring friends and family who are going to get the most out of the event; for hot rod owners, you bring the detailing kit and a lawn chair; for media, you bring a camera, business cards, and some water bottles.

What unites these disparate persons, however, is the passion: the love of seeing something unique and wholly attributable to its creators. We saw countless examples at the recent Goodguys 17th PPG Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, back in July, but when we saw this particular low-slung Model A, there wasn’t any one angle of the car that we wished had been done differently.

From front to back, the car conveyed just the right amount of aggression and class that makes a true hot rod so alluring. We caught up with the builder, Ricky Bobby, and opted to conduct an interview at a later date to get the full scoop on this black beauty.

What Lies Beneath The Steel

Rod Authority: Good morning, Mr. Bobby. How are you doing today?

Ricky Bobby: “Hey, pretty good. Thanks.”

RA: Excellent. So, let’s dive right in. Would you mind sharing what it is you do for a living?

RB: “Not at all. I operate a hot rod business called Ricky Bobby’s Rod Shop here in Manchester, Tennessee, as part of Hawk Hardware. We teamed up–they sell the parts, and I build the cars, all under one roof. I’ve been at it for about 10 years now, cutting and fabricating old cars to make them shine again.”

RA: Where did you learn to fabricate? Was it a family member or friend, a trade school, or were you self-taught?

RB: “I was self-taught. Basically, I just picked up a welder and started doing it. I didn’t have any kind of training at all, it was just more of, ‘see what you can do’ kind of stuff. It started one day when I picked up a hot rod magazine and I said to myself, ‘Man, I’d like to have one of those.’ So I got myself a beater Model A and played around with it, and in a matter of weeks I’d gotten it chopped, channelled, and burning tires.”

The finned valve covers and carb assemblies were a great touch on this lowrider.RA: What made you want to get into building hot rods?

RB: “I was just born into old cars and hot rods. Everybody in my family, especially my dad, had these old cars when I was a kid. Growing up around that, you get a little jealous of the things adults get to play with all the time. He used to buy a lot of hot rods and we even built a couple over the years.”

RA: What was your first car-related memory?

RB: “My dad had a ’70 Plymouth Duster that he liked jumping railroad tracks in. It had a 340 six-pack V8, and he’d take me along for rides in the car. He also raced for 22 years in dirt track circuits, and I raced for 10 years myself.”

RA: How about your influences? Were there any hot rod builders out there that inspired you?

RB: “I don’t really think so. I just do this for the love of cars and I’ll keep doing it because of that. You know, not everybody gets to go to work every day and say they love what they do. I just love seeing something get finished, building something that people say you can’t build; that’s the cool part.”

• 
• 

“People like to get the idea that there are ways of making cars that aren’t possible. I get a kick out of building something that proves them wrong; at the same time, I get better and better at my craft. It’s encouraging, and it gets me to try a little harder the next time.

It’s also nice that people are willing to give me a free pass to build what I like. Most folks will specify one or two things that they’d prefer to be done, like the color, wheels and tires, stuff like that. Everything else, however, I do according to my vision.”

RA: What’s the most important car-related lesson you’ve ever learned?

RB: “Basically, build what you like. You’re the one that’s got to live with the result, not anyone else. I’ve known guys who get wrapped up in what other folks think about a build, and they hem and haw over things that they wish they could’ve done a little better. There’s always going to be cars that have $300,000 invested in them, but you can’t do anything with it; you can’t drive it, you can’t do anything with it.”

“To me, those kinds of cars are junk. The stuff we build at our shop, we build drivers that we can have fun in. And yeah, they look kind of cool, but at the same time, they’re at least ‘believable cars,’ as I call them.”

RA: What sort of advice would you offer to the young upstarts who are eager to get into hot rodding?

RB: “Don’t regret anything. I mean, it’s just metal–worst case scenario, you’ll have to scrap it and start all over.”

RA: What are some trends that you like to see in hot rods? Are there any you think are dying out?

RB: “Heh, I don’t know. I don’t really care to comment on what other people build or don’t build. I love traditional styles like the hi-boys and gassers. Those kinds of hot rods will never go out of style, if you ask me. The cars I make tend to mix the new and old together with, like, big and little wheel combinations and stuff like that, and I’m happy enough just keeping the torch burning with the cars I create.”

• 
• 
• 
• 

The Ford has won several awards since its completion--three from Detroit Autorama, Top Ten at Goodguys Indianapolis, the Roadster Shop Award from Goodguys Columbus, and a Fab Five Award from the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.

RA: Last question: Were there any fond memories, or interesting events that transpired during the build?

RB: Well, we entered the car at the Goodguys Indianapolis Hot Rod of the Year competition back in June. We were seven miles from reaching our destination when bam, the transmission went out. It was kind of a ‘what could’ve been’ situation, since we were in the Top 100 pool, but life went on and we fixed the car after the event was over.”

How The Ford Came To Be

At the outset of the build, Bobby took to calling the Ford “30 Days or Less,” half-jokingly, but also half-seriously. “We didn’t quite make that deadline,” said Bobby, “But we were done with it in 33 days. Close enough!”

The owner didn’t specify any desires for the final product, other than wanting it to be drivable and house a flathead V8. As for further modifications, neither the owner nor Bobby see any need to refine anything but the tires.

“When those get worn out, we’ll replace them, and that’s about it for future plans,” joked Bobby. In its original state, the body panels had all but fallen off from years of neglect. “We had to put on new skins on the doors, quarters, and the cowl,” explained Bobby.

His shop created the door and quarter skins, while the cowl skin was purchased from a third party and installed by the build crew over the span of three days. Bobby admitted that the car was in rather rough shape at the start, but given its results, the experience has proven more than worthwhile.

We left the show in awe of cars like this well-built Ford, making us ache for the next time we’d be making our way to the Ohioan capital in 2015. Be on the lookout for more epic creations like this one by finding the Ricky Bobby Rod Shop online, and be sure to read our overall recap of the 17th PPG Nationals to get a sense of the mind-blowing smorgasbord of classics we saw.