'32 Ford
Three-Window Coupe
Builder: Troy Ladd, Hollywood Hot Rods,
www.hollywoodhotrods.com
What would you get if you started with a traditional American hot rod and added early European sports car design elements? Troy's interpretation is this Deuce three-window, spiced up with some tasty Bugatti flavor-and maybe some Ferrari, Delahaye, and other old world coachbuilt influences.
After a 5 1/2- and 5-inch front and rear chop, the A-pillars get laid back and fitted with a DuVall-style windshield. The body is sectioned a couple inches and the wheelwells raised ( la Troy's AMBR contender). The cowl seam is reclined to line up with the door seams, and an early Bugatti center rib runs the length of the extended hood from the V'd cowl to the matching handbuilt grille with a meshed valance. Headlights and taillghts are Bugatti parts, with T35-style racing wheels. The engine (maybe vintage Jag or Ferrari) is shrouded by more mesh, in the style of European sports cars.
The style spills into the interior with Bugatti vintage leather buckets (or maybe custom sculpted seats), plus a Bugatti four-spoke wooden wheel-a four-spoke banjo or Ferrari wheel would also fit the flavor of this Euro-American hybrid hot rod.
'32 Ford Roadster
Builder: Brian Bass, Bass Kustom,
www.basskustom.com
When his build budget matches his imagination and skill, look for Brian in this mid-Sixties-style Show 'n' Go lowboy. The rake ("not cartoonish") comes from planting a factory (or Brookville) body on a gennie Deuce frame with a '40 X-member, stretch-dropped drilled chrome axle, drilled front and rear wishbones, and chrome ladder bars with neat-o drilled gussets.
That unpolished GMC 6-71 with a magnesium Bowers case and a polished Savage Speed Weiand top with six new cad-plated 97s feeds a '56 354 Hemi with Mondello heads and 300C Firepower valve covers. The block will be painted pearl white for contrast, and bolted up to a Tremec TKO trans. Unpolished center, polished lip 15-inch Torq Thrusts roll front and rear, with pinstripe Firestones in front and tall Radir or Hurst pie-crust slicks in back.
The white pearl interior has Martinez-style 1-inch pleats. An engine-turned panel in the '32 dash houses Stewart-Warner gauges. Don't forget the '61 Plymouth "square" steering wheel with Lucite inserts. Brian would chop and rake the windshield, and add a louvered decklid and faired door hinges, with '59 Buick "teeth" for the '32 grille insert. The King Bee headlight bar matches the rear Nerf bar; taillights are '48 Buick. It's all finished in '56 Chevy Nassau Blue with heavy pearl and some tasteful white 'stripes.
'56 DeSoto
Fireflight Two-Door Hardtop
Builder: Zane Cullen, Cotati Speed Shop,
www.cotatispeedshop.com
A car with history is great; one with a cult following is better. This DeSoto was in American Graffiti and is now owned by Zane's family.
We went traditional, but with high-end flair-as if it had been built in1956 by a design-conscious owner with some serious capital-using parts available when the car was new. It got a mild chop, reworked '56 Chevy side trim, Meteor grille bar, gold-toned expanded metal grille insert, handmade outer grille surround trim supports modified Caddy Dagmars in a peaked opening, and a lightly peaked hood (matching the Dagmar coves). We removed the hood inlet and extended the hood/grille shell to create a V, lightly peaked the fenders and rear quarters, filled the front plate recess, gave the bumpers a mild tuck, added '56 Olds headlight rings, and the shaved handles, emblems, and upper fender trim.
The '56 Packard taillights (one pair per side) fill '56 Buick housings over a '56 Chrysler bumper with a '55 Kaiser plate surround. Chrysler wires with bullet caps on wide whitewalls continue the high-end theme. Black paint with Watsonesque panel/scallops in pearl white and candy gold with subtle pinstripe accents add visual "pop." A custom tuck 'n' roll interior with custom knobs play the low-key card, as does the stock Hemi engine and drivetrain.
'64-'70 Dodge
A-100 Pickup
Builder: Doug Jerger, Squeeg's Kustoms,
www.squeegskustoms.com
Here's something that seems to click with most hot rod hearts: making a mean little mover out of something unusual or utilitarian. Take this Dodge A-100 pickup. What was good enough for Bill Golden's Little Red Wagon is golden for us. Candy yellow over a gold base with a trippy thumbprint graphic makes a statement while paying homage to the great drag car painters from the era, including, of course, Doug's dad: Squeeg Jerger himself! Naturally, many of the things that trip Doug's trigger evolve from the late Sixties, early Seventies portion of drag racing history.
Those 16x13 big-window mag Hals are hard to come by, as are the original sunburst spindle mounts, but here we have a beautifully aged quartet for our little yellow wagon. A new in-the-crate 426, blown with a 4-port Hilborn injector and Enderle birdcatcher hat, makes the loudest statement of all. A two-speed 'Glide transmission under the dashboard mates to a drag boat V-drive reaching out to the solid mounted rearend. A yellow 'glass and diamond-tuck silver firesuit material interior rounds out this mean, wicked (and just a little bit cute), nitro-powered projectile!
'32 Ford
Five-Window Coupe
Builder: Neil Candy, Candy's Hot Rod Supply
Neil spun this steel five-window off of the one he actually drives. His dream Deuce gets an angle chop (3 1/2 inches in front and 2 1/2 in the back) with the A-pillars leaned back for an aggressive stance. High-luster red is contrasted by an off-white original-style firewall, recessed to accept the Art Chrisman-built 427 Ford SOHC with a polished 8-71 BDS Airloc blower fed by a Hilborn fuel injection setup, converted to electronics for streetability. Windows are red Lexan. Chromed Guide headlights rest on So-Cal Speed Shop stands straddling a chopped Deuce shell (with a crank hole, of course). The polished Moon tank (now used as an overflow bottle) rests on a chromed spreader bar. The decklid is skinned with a panel of louvers; Zephyr taillights feature dual sergeant stripes in the bezels, crossing the lenses. Baseball-stitched brown leather race-buckets, a removable chrome four-point 'cage, and a '36 dash painted to match the body round out the interior. The body sits on American Stamping boxed 'rails, with a chromed and drilled I-beam axle, drilled and doweled 'bones, and chromed reverse-eye front spring. Unpolished Torq Thrust "D" rims include 4 1/2-inch front runners with wide white Firestones and 8-inch rears with 31x10 piecrust cheaters for in town or M&H Racemaster wrinkle-walls with rim screws for the ol' 1320.