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ALOTSADOORS To fit the whole Lund clean
The Vortecheaded smallblock Chevy looks good surrounded by fine sheetmetal work done by Ray. He cleaned up the firewall, kept the stock four-piece hood and custom fabricated the body-colored fan shroud.
Heaven only knows how long ago Ray Lund started street rodding. In the early days, Ray had a regular job, raised a family and built some sweet rides in his basement/first floor shop. Then Ray started helping his buddies in their car club (The Roaming Relics) and one thing led to another. Then Ray realized it made more sense to open a little rod shop. Ray did great work in his shop. I personally shot a couple of tech stories at Ray’s back in the day and he did things right. Like many of us who start working in our hobby, Ray burned out a little and the Lund clan (Ray and wife Cori) headed to Pueblo, Colorado, to be closer to family. Ray put rodding aside and focused on grandkids and great grandkids for a while. Then in 2008 he slipped over to the Rocky Mountain Nationals to spend some time with his old friend and our former leader, Joe Mayall. Joe’s enthusiasm for the hobby rubbed off on Ray. Not long after the June 2008 event, Ray decided he needed to pick up a cool four-door and have some fun cruising around in it with his grandkids. He found a clean Model A body and got to work. It took Ray nine months to go from a bare body with decent fenders, a pile of wood, another pile of parts and sheetmetal and access to the checking account from Cori to complete the ’30 A-bone.
The basic Model A chassis was retained, boxed and Ray slipped in a leaf-bounced Superbell I-beam axle controlled by a four-bar setup. The rear suspension of choice was a Ford 8-inch differential bouncing on a de-arched stock spring and held in place by owner-fabricated ladder bars. Stopping powers are provided by Maverick brakes in the rear and F100 front drums. The chassis looks great painted in ’53 Buick Tilton Red and golden hues. Ray slipped an ’88 350ci Chevy with a factory roller cam and Vortec heads between the frame rails. The final piece of the powertrain puzzle was a rock sturdy Turbo 400 automatic transmission. The steel body was in good shape, but the wood was totally rotten. After Ray got the four doors re-wooded, he went to work on the rest of the body and fenders. Ray started by removing the gas tank and hiding the battery under the cowl. The gas tank was moved behind the rear seat and has a hidden filler in the back. The body came sans runningboards so Ray made a set with stainless runners. He then straightened everything up and laid down the Tilton Red and Gold PPG paint. Ray got the whole family involved, having his grandson (Carlos) and great grandson (Cody) doing lots of sanding. Rounding out the look are the Diamondback wide-whites wrapped around red steelies with Ford baby moons. The reason Ray built his ride was for cruising with his (great) grandkids, so the interior had to be comfy and family friendly. With the original gas tank out of the way, Ray fabricated an Auburn-style dash from sheetmetal with a Ray-made stainless inset and Auto Meter gauges.
The front and rear seat frames were made from fiberglass, ala the Joe Mayall ’27 T project (circa ’72-80). Ray then hired Steve Thompson of Complete Auto to stitch the white and maroon vinyl interior. He then finished the interior off by installing a white Juliano’s top insert. The last step was getting power throughout the car with an Affordable Street Rods 20-circuit wiring kit. Ray sent Joe updates all along the way and our fearless leader loved watching Ray’s progress and hearing his excitement grow with every new project on the car. Joe forwarded the e-mails to everyone he knew and bragged about the ride. Joe and Ray had planned to meet at the Rocky Mountain Nationals in 2009, but as you know Joe missed the rest of the rodding season. We spotted Ray’s ride as soon as we saw it and knew it was just the kind of story you’d like to hear—a street rodder re-finds his love of cars, meets up with old friends and inspires a new generation of rodders
