Few people had heard of Bodie Stroud until he showed up at the SEMA Show in 2009 with a 1960 Ford Starliner that had a real Ford GT40 engine mounted midship.
“It was an insane build,” Stroud told Classic Car News earlier this year, but a build that not only won top honors from Ford but propelled Bodie Stroud Industries into the hierarchy of custom car builders.
Stroud was back at SEMA last week, and this time with another sort of insane effort, debuting three cars at the show. Those cars were a 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge, a 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxie and a 1967 Ford Mustang fastback.
“I’ve never had more than two cars here, so three on a tight deadline was tough,” Stroud said. “We pulled a few 24-hour shifts to get here.”
In an amazingly short three months of the day, the GTO Judge, a 44,000-mile original, underwent a full frame-off restoration to come out looking factory fresh.
“I hate to say restorations are easy, but this one was,” Stroud said, explaining that he was able to find a clean and complete original car to use as a canvas for the client.
The ’63 1/2 Galaxie looks stock except for its Brembo brakes. However, Stroud said, the build actually “is crazy. It had an 800-horsepower motor and is a realy R-code 427 car. I think it will be underestimated because it is so subtle.”
The ’67 Mustang looks unfinished, but that’s on purpose.
“The car is unfinished and we wanted to leave it the way it is to really showcase the Roush motor and show the chassis,” Stroud said. “We want people to see the raw product and the progress of our build.”
Photography By Hans Marquez and Matthew Fink
