Words & Photos: Gary Rosier
Christopher Manfre is the proud owner of this beautiful 1929 Model A two-door sedan, which he affectionately calls “Bella-Cosa,” meaning “beautiful thing!”
Chris recalls that his “Car-Mania” began at a very young age. It was 1958, a beautiful spring day, and he was just hanging around in the front yard. He heard a most unusual sound, as he describes it, as this silver “Spaceship” pulled into his driveway. Like in a spaceship, the door slowly opened upward, revealing a gorgeous red leather interior and an inscription on its side saying: Mercedes SL300 Gullwing! His Dad was behind the wheel and his head was spinning – the excitement, the look and the smell of that car ignited his passion about the automobile and he was smitten!
Family vehicles included several Alfa Romeros, a Masserati or two, a Porsche and then as he grew older, his own TR 3, several Corvettes, Porsches and even a couple of Superformance Cobras!
Over 20 plus years later, after retiring from his successful practice of architecture, the desire to build a street rod/rat rod which had always been there came back to him in full force, so he decided to venture down that path for something “different.” He wanted to build a Ford sedan and found a 1929 model “A” body in a hot rod shop that was closing and had sat around since the seventies. He was able to purchase the car, and then the hunt for someone to help build it began.
In 2013 on e-bay he saw a rat rod for sale; he tracked down the shop that constructed it and contacted them. After some back and forth he hired them to create his dream hot rod. Dreams quickly gave way to heartache soon after delivery. The shop shall remain anonymous because of their poor business practices and less-than-satisfactory work. Buyer beware, they always say, and this was no exception.
Some of the problems Chris faced were poor fit (the doors still need to be addressed), poorly designed rear suspension, front suspension installed with old grease fittings, poor geometry… the list goes on and on. He shares all of this because it is notice to us all, he says, to use due diligence when hiring someone!
The body had a great patina but he wanted to do a white and black scheme using primer sealer instead of paint. The roof perforations from the canvas top were smoothed before painting. The rear taillights are Cadillac lenses in cans frenched into the body. On the interior you will see he used a ’57 Chevy pickup dash, positioning the gauge cluster in the middle, and sectioned the dash with the ends attached to the doors. In the end they chopped the body 6 inches and channeled it 3 inches over the frame.
The rear buggy springs were replaced with Viking double adjustable coil-overs with custom traction bars, a 4-link and heavy duty custom drive shaft and u-joints. Now she has a real suspension which can handle the engine torque and rides very well.
It’s powered by a Chevy 350, bored .30 over with high compression Keith-Black pistons, and is a 4 bolt main truck block. The carbs are Eldebrock 94’s. The power is transferred back through a Turbo 400 transmission shifted by a Lokar shifter. Classic instruments monitor all the vitals and were purchased from Speedway Motors, as was the dropped and drilled 6 inch I-beam, control arms and many misc suspension pieces.
It rolls on a set of Firestone tires (7×20 wide whites) mounted to Dodge truck “fish mouths” 20 in. spare tire wheels (rears) and 5.25×5.50 17’s (fronts).
The control arm and steering joints were all upgraded to heavy duty Heim joints, which took a lot of the sloppiness out of the front end, as well as the steering box being re-positioned and bolted properly to its new mount.
He found an “old school” guy who was able to correct the geometry of the front end through proper new shock brackets and installed some 10 inch Viking double adjustable shocks which totally took the bounce out of the suspension and normalized the ride.
Chris said it was important to share his story so that others might end up in a better situation, avoiding some of the pitfalls and expenses that he faced. It happens to the best of us – we are so excited to be able to “build” a hot rod, many of us have the cash but not the time nor ability necessarily, and so fall into that pitfall where you trust someone to do a job right. It may look ok on the surface, but you soon find yourself in a precarious position – with either an un-safe car to drive or a vehicle undeliverable and way over-promised.
In the end, though, Chris came through with a winner. Its runs and drives great, is dependable and attracts a lot of attention. To him, and us, it IS one “Bella-Cosa” or “Beautiful Thing!” Thanks for sharing, Chris!
