[Flathead Fever]

I own the Mitchell Muffler Pickup built by Dave Mitchell, the inventor of the glasspack muffler. It has'41 Ford cross steering that works real nice. Possibly the first Model A Ford with it. Definitely the first one with glasspack mufflers. It was built during the War or right after in 1946. Mitchell had a welding shop during the War and then changed it to Mitchell's Roadster Shop in 1945 and then Mitchell's Muffler Shop. It's a strange car, it was never originally a pickup, it was an early '28 AR roadster "car" cut off at the top of the deck lid and a Studebaker touring body grafted on the rear. The purpose was that when the top folded down it disappeared behind the seat. It has rare late '25 T bed on it. It took second place in the pickup division at the first Grand national Roadster Show in 1950. Right after that it was repainted black and a '50 Olds and Hydramatic installed. The firewall was moved back so the space behind the seat for the disappearing top was lost. It won the Pasadena reliability Run and tired for best appearing car. It was in a lot of Magazines in the early 1950s. Wally Parks drove it for the first ever road test of a hot rod.

Mitchell welded a bracket below the frame and blended it into the frame. Then he welded a plate with bolts to the inside of that bracket so that from the outside you did not see any bolts. The front axle he built himself. He pie cut the ends and laid them out to form the drop and welded it back together and then filled in the back of the axle to reinforce it. At the time the only dropped axles were the Dagos that were drop hammered and looks a little crude. His welds are still holding up.