Photo: Ed Umland
Any average Joe or Jane could commission a custom car of their dreams built for them if their bank accounts are padded enough. But it takes a different internal fortitude entirely to make the car of your dreams enter reality by your own hand, without paying a shop hand over fist just to wait on parts for months on end. That's the kind of skill that California native Ed Umland can take advantage of. This 1937 Ford with a mid-mounted turbo V8 is proof positive.
At Eddie's Chop Shop in the Sacramento suburb of Orangeville, custom American iron of all shapes and sizes takes its ultimate form under this roof. From purpose-built drag cars to pro-touring track beasts, classic 4x4s, and even streamlined land speed record vehicles, there's very little out there that's American and comprised of eight cylinders that Ed's team hasn't wrenched on. But it was mostly Ed alone who spent 15 years painstakingly stripping down this 1937 Ford Model 78 coupe down to its bare body shell, including getting rid of the original chassis in favor of something more modern.
From there, Ed spent thousands of hours over the years painstakingly doing bodywork and rearranging sheet metal until this body looked as if it left the factory with a mid-engine layout. From there, a custom tube frame mated to C5 Corvette suspension components all around forms a fitting foundation for the considerable engine hardware going in underneath. Gone is whichever variant of the Ford flathead V8 came with this car. In its place, predictably but not exactly unwelcome, is an LS engine of some variety.
In this case, it's a 6.2-liter LS3 V8 you would've found in the late-2000s and early-2010s Corvettes, manual-transmission Camaros, Pontiac G8s, and the Vauxhall VXR8 sports coupe over in Europe. Around 430 horsepower left with this LS3 engine straight from the factory. But with two chunky 80 mm turbochargers added for good measure, this is the kind of restomod with the potential to walk modern sports cars at the drag strip at least. Doubly so, when you realize that transmission comes from a 2006 Ford GT, so at least you know there's nothing but quality parts lurking under this body.
Now, a custom build like this doesn't always necessitate a matching interior to go along with it. Often, people get the drivetrain and suspension all dialed in, only to throw a single Reccaro seat and a Momo steering wheel, not bother to connect the dials on the dashboard and call it a day. But with a set of leather-wrapped aircraft-style seats, a full roll cage, and diamond plate accents on the dashboard, this interior toes the line between Mad Max and Cyberpunk 2077 with its use of polished metal and minimalist styling cues.
As for what kind of price you could put on a custom build like this? Well, the labor alone over the years would've likely cost hundreds of thousands to have it commissioned at a restomod shop. With all the high-quality parts underneath the skin, there's likely at least a quarter million dollars worth of parts and labor staring right back at us. At the sacrifice of time, we're sure Ed Umland's budget never quite reached that figure. Learning how to wrench and tune yourself sure does wonders for your wallet.
From there, Ed spent thousands of hours over the years painstakingly doing bodywork and rearranging sheet metal until this body looked as if it left the factory with a mid-engine layout. From there, a custom tube frame mated to C5 Corvette suspension components all around forms a fitting foundation for the considerable engine hardware going in underneath. Gone is whichever variant of the Ford flathead V8 came with this car. In its place, predictably but not exactly unwelcome, is an LS engine of some variety.
In this case, it's a 6.2-liter LS3 V8 you would've found in the late-2000s and early-2010s Corvettes, manual-transmission Camaros, Pontiac G8s, and the Vauxhall VXR8 sports coupe over in Europe. Around 430 horsepower left with this LS3 engine straight from the factory. But with two chunky 80 mm turbochargers added for good measure, this is the kind of restomod with the potential to walk modern sports cars at the drag strip at least. Doubly so, when you realize that transmission comes from a 2006 Ford GT, so at least you know there's nothing but quality parts lurking under this body.
Now, a custom build like this doesn't always necessitate a matching interior to go along with it. Often, people get the drivetrain and suspension all dialed in, only to throw a single Reccaro seat and a Momo steering wheel, not bother to connect the dials on the dashboard and call it a day. But with a set of leather-wrapped aircraft-style seats, a full roll cage, and diamond plate accents on the dashboard, this interior toes the line between Mad Max and Cyberpunk 2077 with its use of polished metal and minimalist styling cues.
As for what kind of price you could put on a custom build like this? Well, the labor alone over the years would've likely cost hundreds of thousands to have it commissioned at a restomod shop. With all the high-quality parts underneath the skin, there's likely at least a quarter million dollars worth of parts and labor staring right back at us. At the sacrifice of time, we're sure Ed Umland's budget never quite reached that figure. Learning how to wrench and tune yourself sure does wonders for your wallet.
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