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The Story... For the twin’s birthday Grandpa had decided to give the boys a shoebox. He had bought the green Ford coupe brand new, being the newest post-war design. The fenders merged into the body lines to become one smooth, aerodynamic shape, or a “Shoebox!” It was 1949, the same year that Don and Jim were born, and now they were turning eighteen. Their Dad had spent most of the war in the Pacific servicing and maintaining naval aircraft aboard American carriers. Afterwards, returning to Tucson he continued to modify and race, an early Hot Rodder! The boys developed a gear-head mentality early with soap box derbies and later go-carts and motor- bikes. In high school Don excelled in auto mechanics while Jim was becoming quite a body man. Grandpa’s car was a treasure as its main uses were ceremonial or religious duties, as Gramps preferred his F-1 pick up as his ride - “What’s the use of it, if it can’t haul”. Don had already salvaged a Y-block out of a rear ended 57 Fairlane and Jim began smoothing out the body with plans for mild custom touches front and back. The local club had access to a paint booth where the final gold metalflake would be applied. While being built for “Go”, it was also for “Show”. A custom interior was the ticket and fortunately a number of Tucson upholstery shops had begun to specialize in leather car interiors. The next couple of years would be spent creating the “Inca Jewel” - a mild custom built by hand with part-time jobs funding it and help wrenching from friends and club members. Many evenings and weekends spent in the garage... Details to follow, cheers Misha

1949 to 1951 Fords are commonly referred to as “Shoebox” Fords mainly because of the flat slap sided look of the vehicles. I refer to this custom as “Satin Slipper” for obvious reasons. This vehicle began life as an AMT 1950 Ford Convertible “Nostalgia Edition” kit before I made major revisions to it. I had a roof which I removed from a Tamiya Lexus SC430 race car hanging around and I thought it could look pretty good on the Ford body….. which it did, but with one major issue. The roof was too short to look appropriate on the standard length car, but it would fit fine if the body was shortened. So I cut 14 scale inches out of the side just behind the doors and before the rear wheel well. Now the roof fit fine, but the body seemed a bit too tall for my liking. So I sectioned a scale 4 inches out from the side of the car to bring the proportions more in line with what I thought was right for a custom like this. You can see the two pieces of the body I cut out, and on the scale ruler, you can see the sizing issues. Next, I flared the wheel wells with a mild ridge, front and back, so to give the side a bit of a sculpture, which is in contradiction to the style of the “Shoebox” Ford. The body was shaved of all moldings and ornamentations. I grinded back the tops of the headlights and built up the bottoms and added rounded sloping headlights from the new Mini Copper. On the trunk, the license plate area was recessed in to the vertical wall. The doors and trunk were opened and hinged and the hinges on the hood were relocated and rebuilt. Inside the trunk there is a parts box spare tire cover, battery and tools from the old AMT ’49 Mercury kit. For the taillights, I omitted the chrome bezel because they appeared too chunky….. It looks more streamlined without them…..I think. In the interior, the inside door panels were lifted from a 1962 Thunderbird. The area behind the seats, which came from my parts box, has a new panel built in with 6 speakers with the amps being built-in behind that (if it were a real car). The windows are made from acetate. The engine is an old parts box Chevy small block 283 with 6 deuces and trumpets. Wheels and tires also were resurrected from the parts box and the car was dropped down as low as possible. The windshield wipers are photo-etched items I had made from my design when I had the Timbs’ Special photo-etched items produced a few years ago in Scotland. Finally, the body was sprayed flat black to give the vehicle a satin sheen, hence the name, Satin Slipper. see the google album below satin slipper