MisFitting In

Truly creative people are out there, and in more ways than one.

They’re not limited by time or money, or any of the other excuses a lot of us fall back on. They work with what they’ve got and blow the rest of us away with their results.

This Ford Anglia creation is one I’ve wanted to see for a long time. If you look at the featured image above, you can see what it started out as sat on the right. It first appeared in maybe 2014 or 2015 looking a lot like this, but with an upright early Anglia/Prefect grille.

The new look is killer, though.

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It makes me think of 1950s Ford trucks, but is just as likely to have been handcrafted from plain steel tube when you check out the quality of fabrication elsewhere around the build.

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Hiding up front is a BMW four cylinder, and looking back at this image now I realise I should have delved deeper as it possibly features forced induction too.

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Inside it just gets wilder. It’s part steampunk, part bomber – all the labels you want are here. But that’s the other thing about builds like this; it takes a list of labels for people to understand them, when in reality there was probably no consideration given any sort of conformity when putting it all together.

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Some people might say ‘it just works,’ but I’d disagree. It doesn’t ‘just’ work, it takes a whole load of talent to end up here.

The rear quarter treatment is one of my favourite angles, and that’s saying something. The sculpted panel has echoes of the body shape you’d find on an early Ford fender-less hot rod.

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Another thing I think is very clever – and I’d like to think is not just by chance – is the colour choice, which serves a couple of purposes. First, with this much detail a wild paint job might be too much, and second, it means you can spray local areas as you chop and change them through the life of the car.

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Do you like the throttle pedal? A quick internet search reveals T-H Marine Supply Inc. have been going since 1975 and still make this alloy pedal. But you can’t use it now, because you saw it here. It seems like an obvious choice, but would you have thought of it?

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The switch box is the top half of an old ammo box, the sort of thing you can find for a few pounds or dollars, chop it in half and rivet into place. But again, it takes vision rather than eyes sometimes.

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Now I’m sat here writing this, two things occur to me: One is that I should have found the owner, as I’m fairly sure he was sat behind the ‘Misfit’ while I took these pictures. But I was in my own world and on a tight schedule, and I would have bored him to death with compliments.

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The second is that this is the perfect example of what I meant in my recent Classic Motor Show story about going to different types of car events.

Because you find stuff like this when you least expect it. So get out there.

Bryn Musselwhite
Instagram: Brynmusselwhite

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1
Daniel P Huneault

So much beautiful creativity put together - There are so many things I like about this car it's hard to comment on, BRAVO!

2

Epic, but should be pale blue surely?

3
Bryn Musselwhite

It's still magic though.

4

Sometimes it seems like the builder tries too hard, but this is perfect in it's exploration of period themes and putting on heirs. This is built in the style of post-WWII and has all the right bits, without trying too hard. I get it. It's a later rendition of something built in the mid 60's without trying too hard.
I don't mean that as some sort of "period" expert or even as a "revisionist" histoy wonk.
This is using what's available to you, while hearkening back to a period in time that has come and gone. This is perfection without the trope.
It's as once a tribute as well as original hot-rodding. The builder has tried and succeeded in reckoning a period, while also advancing the theme.
It's hard to describe, but it's post-modernist, as well as period.
This is a great ride that someone has put alot of thought into as well as effort, while being effortless.
Some might blag this one, but I dig it. I get the overall message. Build what you can, with period parts, while using available parts, without trying overly hard.
This is a great build. Maybe not in the context of Ridler award winners, or whatever the analog is on the Continent, but the effort has yielded something that the viewer can bond with and enjoy.
I say none of this to take away from the builder. It's all context.
This is a car that can be shown, driven and enjoyed, by not only the viewer but also by the builder. It's not overly precious, while also not necessarily a driver.

5
Bryn Musselwhite

How perfectly put, thank you for taking the time to write that. Makes total sense to me.

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