Rod & Custom Feature Car
Troy Ladd
Burbank, California
1932 Ford Roadster
Chassis
Troy used one of his own Hollywood Hot Rods (HHR) signature super-low '32 chassis with a Model A rear crossmember in the kicked-up rear, a flat front crossmember, incorporating chrome transverse leaf springs at both ends, HHR gusseted hairpins with teardrop rear mounts, exhaust cutouts and modified Pete & Jake's-style ladder bars. The dropped and drilled front axle uses hidden disc brakes behind Buick-style drum covers, modified with added bleeders and bolts, while underneath are dimpled and ribbed aluminum belly panels. Faith Plating handled all the chrome work, though the Vega steering box is polished aluminum.
Body & Paint
California Roadster Company and Brookville Roadster supplied the steel body, which HHR sectioned 2 inches, moving the rear wheelwells by 5 inches at the same time. The cowl was smoothed, the cockpit edges radiused and re-shaped, reveals added round the taillights and door hinges, and the license plate recessed. Pretty much every panel was modified in some form, including the grille shell, which houses a Dan Fink insert, before Butch Lynch at The Hop Up Shop applied the custom-mixed PPG paint, Troy extending his thanks to Scott Smith at PPG for the color. Handmade rear lights and side-mounted Guide headlights are used, with custom HHR rear nerf bars and European decklid hinges and gas filler up on the rear deck. The center post of the DuVall-style windshield was modified to flow into the trim on the as-yet unfitted hood, while no one ever notices the bottom edge of the firewall was rounded to curve under the body. Maybe the dimple die gussets and feet attract the eye first!
Drivetrain
The 392ci Hemi was rebuilt and treated to a vintage Hilborn fuel injection system Troy converted to electronic injection. Twin coils and a Spaulding Flamethrower, converted to electronic operation and controlled by an ECU, fire the motor. Lakes-style headers with oval tubes were designed and fabricated in-house at HHR, feeding into a 2 1/2-inch mandrel-bent stainless system. A race-prepped 200-R4 trans courtesy of Transaction Transmission in Sun Valley, California, sends the power through a polished aluminum Inland Empire Driveline driveshaft to the rare vintage Franklin quick-change, with Lynn racing cover and Detroit Locker, set up by Ken Sapper at Speedway Engineering.
Wheels & Tires
Heavily modified 16-inch 1934 Dodge artillery wheels replace the steelies the project started out wearing, wrapped in 5.00 and 8.90 Firestone dirt-track tires front and rear, respectively-not that you'd know the sizes, as they've had all lettering ground off and the sidewalls smoothed.
Interior
A roadster's interior can make or break the overall look, but Troy and upholsterer Mark Lopez nailed this one! It's probably the most contentious part of the car, but Troy's glad it gets people talking. There's a tube framework under the cowl to prevent cowl shake, which you can't see, but the remainder of the tubing used to attain a semi-race look is all on show. Redline Gauge Works restored the '41 Pontiac dash insert that now lives in the one-off HHR-fabbed dash, with the steering wheel coming from the same year Poncho. More in-house fabrication produced the rearview mirror/windshield brace, the seat frames, pedals, and modified '37 Chevy brake handle that now shifts gears, as well as the stainless trims on the Daytona weave carpet in each footwell and the modified aircraft handles that now open the doors.