The Bomb Factory
Joe and Jason Kennedy were raised around old Fords. Their father, Bob Kennedy, is a member of the Early Ford V-8 Club, and took them to shows and on regular flathead-motivated road trips. Though Dad is more into the restoration end of things, Joe, 40, and Jason, 35, were always fascinated by hot rods. Joe says, "We built a lot of model kits and read a lot of custom-car magazines. We'd always build the models to look like the hot rods instead of the stockers. If they had mag wheels and a lot of modifications, we liked them best." But the ones that really stuck in the Kennedys' young minds were the traditional hot rods that appeared in HOT ROD magazine between 1948 and 1968.
Working out of a sprawling Pomona complex formerly occupied by their father's early-Ford restoration business, the Kennedy brothers (www.kennedybrothers@hotmail.com) started their shop about15 years ago. Joe says, "We didn't know where it was going to go, we didn't know how we were going to survive, but we just started with taking on some of the restoration work through my dad's friends. Then we shifted over to doing traditional hot rods, guided strongly by what we learned during our model-building years and what we learned from those old HOT ROD magazines." The name of the business was changed from Kennedy Brothers Vintage Ford to the Bomb Factory as a way to shake off the pure-restoration seekers and court retro hot rod customers. But advertising wasn't necessary. As Joe tells us, "One guy would get his car done, then another guy would ask him, 'Where'd you get that?' Then they'd come to us." As time went on, word of mouth spread, and Kennedy-built cars started appearing in national magazines.
The Kennedys agree with Gray Baskerville, who often said the perfect hot rod must have a single theme with few, if any, deviations. Joe adds, "You need to select a time frame, then do lots of research by reading car magazines and how-to books from that time. This will be your best guide for getting the car right. If the customer wants a period-correct car, it takes a lot of discipline." For example, the '53-up Ford steering box was a popular replacement for the stock prewar Ford steering column. But if the time target is 1952, the use of that steering setup is considered cheating. Tires are another major detail, according to Joe. They've got to be bias-ply.
The same goes for chrome-reverse wheels. Joe says they didn't really come into play until the later '50s, but you will see chrome-plated stock wheels (nonreversed) on cars built in the early '50s. Again, they're both chromed, but the look is radically changed when the hoops are reversed on the center spiders. These details, pro or con, add up fast to make or break the look of the car. Transmissions, axles, and brakes must all be right out of the era. Engines are an entire world unto themselves. But Joe knows that some customers want to drive their period-looking hot rods every day and says, "I'll cheat for them if that's what they want. There are ways to get by with it and not draw too much attention to the soft spots."
While the demand for traditional hot rods continues to grow, Joe says that the outrageous price of original, prewar Ford cars and parts (no fiberglass is used at the Bomb Factory) is getting tiresome. "The crazy prices are taking a lot of the fun out of the process." Joe admits to a growing interest in the Gasser build style. "You can pick up a '58 Ford sedan for next to nothing, then remove the front bumper, stick a straight axle under it, and drop in a built 390 or 428 for what it costs to buy a clean '32 Ford frame-a bare frame." We'll keep an eye on the Kennedy brothers' upcoming projects. Until then, let's take a tour of the Bomb Factory.

Photo Gallery: The Bomb Factory - Hot Rod Magazine



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