The Thomas’ 1937 Five-Window Coupe Is Relentless With Beauty

The Hot August Nights event covers territory in Reno and Sparks, Nevada. Any attempt to label this as a single show is a misnomer, because there are several locations in both cities that hold individual car shows. Practically every casino has their own individual car show during the week-long event.

A former Ridler contender, this custom ’37 Ford Coupe swept a round of awards at Reno’s Hot August Nights this year.

One of the larger shows is held at the Grand Sierra Resort Casino and Spa, with cars completely filling up the casino’s back parking lot for the entire week. At the Casino’s front entrance where the valets typically wait for arrivals, the special cars are parked for Best In Show judging. This is where we found Ryan Thomas’ 1937 Ford five-window coupe “Relentless.”

First Time

One of the show’s judges saw us admiring the car and pulled us over to the side. “Ask him to show you how the door opens and watch the front of the door disappear into the car,” he said. Obediently, we walked up to Thomas and asked to see the car’s door open. As the door swung open, the front end appeared to disappear into the front fender – hidden by some of the best metal work we’ve ever seen.

The leading edge of the door hides in a concealed space between the front fender and the body. From the outside, everything looks smooth. From the inside, the door is not noticeable at all.

“Has this car been featured in any magazines yet?,” we asked. “Nope.” With a stunned look on our faces, we followed up with: “Where have you been hiding?” Thomas, and the Relentless Ford, have been hiding in Delano, Minnesota, where the builder put this car together in his garage.

When opened, the door’s leading edge is not visible from inside the car.

He did have several top-end builders contribute different skills and parts, but the coordination and the assembly was all completed by Thomas. His original goal was to build a car that could compete for the 2013 Ridler Award. In one of the most competitive fields for the award in several years, Thomas’ car made it into the top ten for consideration. Barely missing the “Great Eight,” Thomas’ entry was one of the crowd’s favorites.

Award Winner

Since its debut at the 2013 Detroit Autorama, the Relentless Ford has traveled around the region, picking up awards wherever it goes. These include capturing a special “People’s Choice” award at the 2015 Starbird-Devlin Rod & Customs Charities Car Show, and a Magnificent 7 Favorite for the show.

The interior is complete with Classic Instrument’s custom gauges. The Hix Design custom interior is worthy of any award winning car.

The car won Best In Show at the Dwight Harvest Days car show in 2016, before heading to Reno for the Hot August Nights round of events. Starting the week with a Top Five award at Peppermill Resort Spa and Casino, Thomas went on to collect the Best in Show at the Grand Sierra Resort Casino on Friday night, then wound up as the Grand Champion and Best In Show for the Week.

What It Takes

When you see a car taken to this level of craftsmanship is a thing of beauty. “The car’s body is all steel, with the panels all handcrafted and fabricated using an English wheel, hammers and dollies, planishing hammers, and other metal shaping tools,” said Thomas. “There are tens of thousands of hours in the body and chassis of this build.”

The more you look at the car, the more the details pop out. From front to rear, there is no imperfection. Dave Tucci (Tucci Hot Rods) provided the handiwork with the body panels that make this hot rod stand out with absolutely flawless beauty. According to Thomas, the windshield is from a first generation Saab 900.

Tucci worked with House Of Kolor to come up with a unique, one-off, special color mix that Thomas calls, “Liquid Metal.” This coating over Tucci’s 3,000 hours of body work is simply gorgeous. The House Of Kolor paint was applied by Mike’s Restoration & Customizing, where the final assembly was completed as well. If you think the exterior work is impressive, the custom interior work by Hix Design is top show quality too.

Every panel and piece of sheetmetal was handcrafted on this build. The details are obvious, and fit into the overall theme of the build.

Relentless has been shown in the Pirelli Tires booth at SEMA, and has been featured in Classic Instruments’ catalog. We have no doubt that this car will continue to be seen at car shows and in automotive publications for many years to come. We can say that we were among the first to feature this timeless classic. We can hardly wait to see where the coupe turns up next.