Video: Swap to Street Challenge | Day 2 - Hagerty Media

The big news first: We have an engine.

It’s a 1953 Flathead Ford V-8 with transmission. The best part: It runs! The team saw it fire up on a stand.

The only downside was location. On Wednesday we’d had a gentleman stop by the booth who told us he had a flathead V-8 for sale, with tranny. We’d had no solid engine leads at that point, so we were interested to say the least. Well, I meant to bring it, he told us, but it’s at my house…in Virginia.

We mulled it over all day on Wednesday, and with no good options onsite by the end of the day, we decided that Davin and Tara would drive out there to check it out. After a two-and-a-half-hour drive, they arrived at a garage that contained several flatheads, each more pristine and beautiful than the next. Ours was the first and least pristine, but it ran. They snapped it up and drove it back to Hershey.

On Thursday morning, the team was in great spirits due to the engine score, but there was lots of work ahead.

Luckily, they made good progress. Davin finished up the floor pan and Matt got a good deal of the wiring completed. Tara installed water pumps on on the flatty and the team worked to install the bed and prep for the wood.

We had success on the parts front, too. Corky Coker  of Coker Tire hand delivered a set of steelies with beautiful wide whites, and POSIES Rods and Customs delivered wood for the bed. Matt tracked down all of our electrical components but the wiper motor. Other Hagerty staff got in on the action, too. Marketing VP Doug Clark and magazine Publisher Jonathan Stein went way out to the Red Field and returned with horns, hood springs and hinges.

The main pain point on Thursday was missing parts for the engine. We needed a clutch disc and fuel pan before we could drop it in. We found and installed the clutch disc by end of day, but still no luck on the fuel pan. We’re hoping a lead pans out early Friday morning.

In the meantime, our 1946 pickup is starting to look more like a truck.