Just Cool Cars: '51 Ford goes 'old school'
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Just Cool Cars: 1951 Ford now gleams
Greg Benoit of Costa Mesa, Calif., talks to Paste BN's Chris Woodyard about how he brought a 1951 Ford back to life.
Video by Leslie Smith and Dan MacMedan
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. --- To see Greg Benoit's 1951 Ford is to see a picture of perfection, but it wasn't always this way.
Benoit basically rescued the car from a garage in Bellflower, Calif, where it has been sitting unregistered since 1979. He poured his heart and spare hours into the car, enduring some incredible frustration along the way over more than four years. For instance, he had to switch out the flathead six engine twice before settling on a small-block Ford.
In the end, he came away happy. The car, which turned heads at a car show here recently, has an "old-school, 50s kind of look," says Benoit, of Costa Mesa, Calif.