Owning a body shop undoubtedly gives you an advantage when it comes to building a hot rod, but Kenny Gould undertook 100 percent of this project, including building and stitching the interior. He also fabricated his own chassis in a homebuilt jig, starting with a pair of American Stamping 'rails, before boxing them and adding a tubular SO-CAL rear crossmember and owner-fabbed K-member. The rear ladder bars were also made by Kenny, from 1/2-inch stainless tube, then welded by Emmit Haskins. "I can weld pretty good," Kenny said, "but Emmit's welds are absolutely perfect-better than a robot."
Those ladder bars locate a SO-CAL 9-inch Ford rear axle, hung on a chromed transverse spring, while another buggy spring locates a dropped and drilled Chassis Engineering I-beam and hairpin radius rods, all chromed of course. Kenny spent numerous hours grinding and wet-sanding with WD40 and 1,200-grit paper before turning over the parts to be plated to Superior Chrome Plating in Houston. The finish was so flawless that the plater asked why he wanted the parts re-chromed! The '39 Lincoln backing plates also took a dip in the chrome vat, while the finned Buick drums retain their aluminum finish. A Vega 'box handles directional duties.
The traditional look is enhanced by employing stock door hinges and an opening windshield on the Boyd Red Gibbon three-window body, along with a four-piece Rootlieb hood with louvers. The big 'n' little (Firestone 7.00 16 rear and 5.60 15 front) bias-ply tires don't hurt either. Inside, tan pleats cover a stock-style seat and door panels, while a homebuilt extra-long shifter connects to a four-speed transmission. Kenny fabricated his own stainless mechanical clutch linkage that "looks and works great." The column came from LimeWorks.
In front of that four-speed is a small-block Chevy equipped with a triple deuce Offenhauser intake wearing a trio of Rochester carbs, dual point ignition, and a "big Lunati cam," Kenny said. It's dressed with no-name finned valve covers and a finned oil pan, with block-hugger headers removing spent gases.
Kenny said he has around 12 months of solid work in the car over a three-year period, adding, "When you don't have a lot of money you have to wait. I have some good friends who helped. Scott at Wolf's Sandblasting treated the frame and his dad ceramic-coated the exhaust, both for free, while all the stainless was provided by Tennille Inc. fab shop, again for nothing. Without these guys, there's no way I could afford to build a car this nice." Looks like a fun way to cruise around the Galveston Bay area.
Peter GrossLoganville, Georgia'27 T Roadster
Finished just in time to debut at a rod run in North Carolina last November, apparently "quite a chilly ride in a roadster," this '27 T took Peter Gross and his father-in-law a mere two months to build. Starting with a fiberglass one-piece body and fabricating their own 2x3-inch box section frame, complete with 11-inch kick-up in the rear and repro Model A crossmember and horns up front, the guys added a 350 Chevy with a Crane cam and Holley 650 on an Edelbrock intake, backing it up with a TH350. A much shortened driveshaft from a '71 Chevelle feeds the power to an '85 S-10 rearend on a four-bar and QA1 coilovers. A 5-inch dropped tube axle went on next, followed by a set of American Racing Torq-Thrust wheels, and a bunch of "swap meet- bought odds and ends," and the project was a roller.
The body, chassis, and modified '32 grille shell were treated to silver courtesy of the Mercedes-Benz color chart, complemented by a red interior in marine vinyl "in case I ever get caught in the rain," Peter said. With a Lokar shifter, Speedway quick-release column, and Billet Specialties wheel, the roadster was almost ready for that debut run. "The thing I am most proud of is that it was definitely a budget build and most people think I have a lot more money tied up in it than I actually do," Peter said.
Send Your Photos And Info To:Rod & Custom774 S. Placentia Ave.Placentia, CA 92870or kevin.elliott@primedia.com