Tomas Kaakinen

Tomas Kaakinen ( b. 1948) from Borlänge in Dalarna county, Sweden.
Tomas is a well known motor profile who has been engaged in the hobby since a kid in the 1960s.

Mostly known as a successful local car dealer, he have had his own teams in various motorsports, mainly Drag Racing, over the years.
His interest in motorsport began, as for many others, in his moped years and soon Tomas would find the A-Ford leading in to the world of Hot rodding.

As a thirteen-year-old, Tomas knew that there was an A-Ford more or less sunken into the ground behind a workshop in the Hytting / Åselby industrial area.
- “I just had to have that one”, thought Tomas as he cycled past almost daily.
He became acquainted with the owner Einar, known as “Plåt-Jesus”, who thought it would be good for the boy to grow up a little more before the car could be released!
But he promised to get in touch when the car was for sale!

Tomas waited patiently, and sometimes almost forgot about the car.
It took until 1969 when he was 21 years old and running the gas station at Gylle inn, that Einar called and said "Now you can buy the car"!
Tomas dropped everything, rented a transport trailer and picked up the car right away! Apparently he now was old enough!

Incidentally, Einar's son was Rune Jonsson, whose 1935 Hudson convertible Hot rod is featured here at Kustomrama.
One of the many A-Fords that can be seen in the photograph with Rune and father Einar was the one that Tomas bought!
Tomas and Rune of course became good friends.

The first thing Tomas did when he got the car home was to put in a 59A 100-horsepower flathead with a -39 gearbox. And fix the cab.
Then around 1972, Rune, Tomas and their girls were going to go to France with their cars.
Rune's Hudson worked perfectly but Tomas had a noise from the transmission which meant that he unfortunately had to park the A-Ford and take his Corvette on the trip instead.

The flathead engine was bought by Lars "Larre" Andersson, and the same engine is still in it, except for the block which unfortunately froze when Tomas had to park the car outside.
Otherwise, the car was built traditionally to pass the inspection. The brakes are hydraulic from -47 and the rear axle is from a Ford Mustang 1965.
Rack and pinion steering was also fitted to the rigid axle, which is not recommended due to the risk of "bump-steer", but it has worked very well according to Tomas.
The gearbox was replaced with an automatic gearbox from Opel which was modified to suit the engine and the car.
Ingemar Becker striped the car in lighter green "on-the-fly" during a Classic Car Week in Rättvik.

There were many fun trips and rides in the car during the 1970s. Among other things to Mantorp Park and some testing on the dragstrip.
Unfortunately, something happened to the gearbox there, so the car was put aside in 1978 when many new projects, family and activities came in between.
The car fell into a bit of oblivion but was kept in safe custody as there was space at the company facilities.

Today, the 1931 Roadster is about to get a face-lift as Tomas is reliving the car with some NOS parts. -"I eager to get the car out on the streets again", says Tomas, "it deserves a nice retirement, as I do myself" !!

A restored flathead from 1954 is waiting, with Jahns pistons, Isky cam and a 4" Mercury crankshaft.
Also a converter kit to fit a new transmission from Ford Mustang.