From the Workbench of Shadow Rods and Greening Auto Company Comes This Incredible XL27
By Brian Brennan – Photography By Author
It’s the fifth day of the 2024 Barrett-Jackson Auction and the third day of cars continually across the main stage. So far prices are good and there are some great buys for hot rodders looking for their next project. But what’s of most importance to us is this is the third day of the Barrett-Jackson Cup Top Five finalists reveal. Today’s Top Five reveal is the ’27 Ford roadster owned and built by Jon Hall at his Shadow Rods shop along with Jessie Greening of Greening Auto Company.
The power for this hot rod comes from a new generation Flathead built at Motor City Flathead and is all-aluminum in its design featuring the block, heads, intake, water pumps, covers, oil pan, and more. The vintage-appearing but modern-built and performing Ford Flathead V-8 is backed up by a Phoenix-prepped 4L80E overdrive transmission. Shadow Rods is famous for its recreation of the Ford ’27 Ford roadster body but scaled up to ’32 Ford proportions. The body is named the XL27, and it was reworked and is complemented with numerous other handmade and stamped components. The XL27 body rests on a stamped custom ’32 Ford-style frame with 5-inch framerails. The rolling stock consists of Colorado wheels with one-off hubcaps. The sheetmetal is painted in a custom-mix Glasurit 55 Line in Brilliant Marron, from here the body was painted by Greening Auto Company.
This amazing build is another award-winning hot rod having taken home the 2023 Triple Crown of Rodding Best Street Rod. It was also awarded Outstanding Display, Outstanding Undercarriage, Outstanding Engine, and 1st in Street T-Roadster Pre-1928 while competing for America’s Most Beautiful Roadster at the 2023 Grand National Roadster Show. The Barret-Jackson Top Five finalist has also won the 2023 CASI Cup at the Detroit Autorama. The roadster also appears as the main topic on the “Castrol: Path to Performance” YouTube channel series. MR
