Haute Wheels: Lyle Kuhlman's 1934 Ford Coupe 
by Stephen Faure
It’s usually a word-of-mouth process to pick what wheels to feature in IN’s Haute Wheels section. We find a cool car or bike, and ask the owners if they know anyone else with a cool and interesting vehicle and continue the quest from there.
This issue’s Haute Wheels came to us on a platter from reader Judy Kuhlmann. She suggested her husband Lyle’s pride and joy—a 1934 Ford street rod—to IN as a candidate to run as a surprise for his January birthday.
“Judy and I designed the car,” Lyle explains, while chatting at the Kuhlmanns’ weekend getaway home. Located in the country near Franklinton, it was the perfect setting for taking photos of the hot rod, christened “Bayou Rod.”
The car, a ’34 Ford, 5-Window Coupe model, was purchased in 2000 at the estate auction of the Kuhlmanns’ friend Arthur O. Allred. The Kuhlmanns are only the car’s fourth owners since it rolled off the assembly line in midst of the Great Depression. Lyle said Allred was in the process of restoring the car to its original appearance, using a lot of modern parts for performance and comfort to make it a “resto-rod.”
When purchased, the car was in pieces packed in boxes, a giant jigsaw puzzle for Lyle to solve. Although Allred had kept meticulous notes on what he planned and what parts he had purchased or refinished, not all the parts were labeled. Lyle and Judy chuckled as they recalled one part Lyle took forever to identify as he assembled the car; it turned out it was a bracket that, in the end, was designed to hold three other separate components together.
Lyle and Judy decided to design a more stylish street rod than Allred had envisioned, resulting in the hot, 400-horsepower, “chopped and dropped” scorcher presented here.
“Art’s wife said we turned his sophisticated lady into a tramp,” Lyle remembers.
Lyle solved the assembly puzzle, although it took him about a year to get the car running. He installed a 305 Chevrolet small-block ZZ4 V-8 engine, fuel injection and stainless steel exhaust. Everything that can be chromed is chromed, as evidenced by the gleaming engine.
After assembly, it went to Ronny Sandifer’s Hillside Street Rods shop in Covington for body- and paintwork. Sandifer, whose time, like that of most masters of the hot rod arts, is in high demand, had the ’34 coupe for 3 1/2 years. The time was worth it, as he preserved all of the steel body parts, which many restorers replace with fiberglass reproduction panels available from a number of suppliers.
“People at shows ask me, ‘Who’s body is it?’ I tell them it’s Henry Ford’s.” Lyle says with a smile.
Sandifer put on the car’s bright finishing touch, a blazing deep PPG Radiance II Orange Glow paint job that shimmers over a gold base.
After the body- and paintwork were finished, Lyle turned it over to Lawrence Bergeron for installation of a deluxe interior. Lyle and Judy had the front seats picked out, rescued from a 380 ZX sports car. They also turned over to Bergeron another element they wanted him to incorporate into the interior design that kept the Bayou Rod theme: a dark-tanned alligator skin.
Bergeron’s upholstery work includes a large wedge of the alligator hide dividing the leather in each of the front seat backs. The unique skin also provides the trim for the dashboard and shows up as elements in the door panels.
“He did a phenomenal job. You couldn’t ask for anything better in an interior,” says Lyle.
Lyle finished the Bayou Rod by installing all the modern conveniences—air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, power windows and an automatic transmission. These come in handy, because in keeping with the street rod tradition, the Bayou Rod is a car that gets driven everywhere it goes. With a comfortable interior and 400 horsepower under the hood, Lyle says it’s a fun car to drive, and, to Judy’s delight, noisy, too.
“I wanted it loud,” Judy says, remembering when they were discussing engine and exhaust options as they designed the car.
Each weekend, Lyle and Judy drive it up to their country home, and whenever there’s a car show, it’s driven there, too. The Kuhlmanns enjoy going to all the local shows, where the Bayou Rod garners much attention. “We usually finish in the top ten,” Lyle says. In the Madisonville Chamber of Commerce show in 2006, the car won best in show.
The longest drive they’ve taken is to the National Street Rod Association’s Street Car Nationals in Nashville, a round trip of 1,500 miles.
When asked what it was like to drive around in this hot car, Lyle says it’s quite an experience, with everyone waving and taking pictures with cell phones as they pass on the road.
“And a lot of thumbs-up,” adds Judy.
