Chromo Devoido

Living in America provides its residents with many luxuries, including a wide choice of vehicles to drive. So why would a 33-year-old American male decide that an old '32 Ford sedan would be the vehicle of choice? To find the answer, you wouldn't need to go any farther than Jim Benitez's driveway in San Diego, California.

Working on cars since he was 13 (that means for the past 20 years!), Jim's past vehicles have included everything from a '50 Chevy pickup, a '56 Ford, and a '67 Camaro to a '66 VW Notchback. But Jim was introduced to the rodding world after painting a truck for Larry Phillips. Larry has been a hot rodder for many years (he won Best Deuce at the Merc/Deuce Reunion in 1979) and after Jim did the truck job, Larry wanted him to paint his '32 roadster. And the price for the work? Larry offered Jim a '32 sedan body and to do the work on the chassis. From there, it was off to the races!

More than 110,000 two-door sedans were built by Ford in 1932 (that includes both DeLuxe and standards, four- and eight-cylinder versions) and Jim's steel example looks nearly stock, but upon a closer look, reveals a 2 1/4-inch chop, shaved driprails, and a filled roof and cowl vent.

Most of the work went into the stock '32 chassis (by Larry Phillips) and revolved around adding new crossmembers, stretching the wheelbase an inch (to 107 inches), C'ing the rails front and rear, and boxing the entire frame. Larry also installed a triangulated four-link out back to center the Ford 9-inch rear (3.55:1) and added a split '29 Ford 'bone to the front. An early Dago dropped axle, '40 Ford spindles, a '29 Ford spring, Speedway shocks, and drum brakes from a '56

Ford were all used to complete the front suspension. Power for the Tudor comes from a basic small-block Chevy that was bumped to 355 cubes (and topped with an Edelbrock carb) and secured to a TH350 trans. The wheels, an important facet of the rod's look, are 16 x 4 Ford smoothies (painted a complementary brown) and are mounted to each corner, wrapped with Firestone rubber (7.25-16 in the rear, 5.20-16 up front), and finished off with a set of caps 'n' rings.

The interior boasts the most amount of modification with the addition of a '38 Ford dash. Benitez installed the dash as well as all of the original gauges, which had been rebuilt to original specs (but converted to 12-volt). The old-time theme continued with the steering wheel (a '36 Ford) and column (a combination of parts from '56 and '36 Fords). Though the bench seat looks vintage, it's actually a unit out of a mid-'80s Toyota, recovered in brown leather by Frank Jacklone (Poway, CA).

After Jim finished the bodywork, he and Mike Gonzales (San Diego, CA) gave the rod its color by spraying the PPG two-stage Pheasant Brown (more of a butterscotch, really) paint. With finishing touches such as the E&J headlights and the year-of-manufacture California license plates, Jim was ready to roll on down the road. As it happened, the Goodguys organization had decided to hold one of their national events in Del Mar, California, which is Jim's backyard. Benitez entered his car and walked away with both a Boyds Pro's Pick and a STREET RODDER Top Ten award. The more he drives it (the only way you'll see this rod on a trailer is if it's broken!), the more he gets used to the little peculiarities it has. But the sedan is no tooth-rattler. Benitez says, "It's very low-buck, but is very nice to drive. No rattles, no bumpsteer, and no wandering. It's smooth at 100 mph and it stops on a dime."

Driveability is important to Jim as he can be found tooling along California highways and byways most every weekend with his wife, Carrie (who enjoys working on the sedan and is especially interested in knowing more about motors), and six-year-old Dillon. (Dillon wanted to know what the difference was between a hot rod and a street rod. Jim told him hot rods are like his car and not very shiny, and street rods are super shiny and have lots of chrome!)

But like most rodders, Jim's eye has been wandering towards other projects (he'd like to build a belly tank, and is currently working on a '31 Ford pickup) and other possibilities (he's wanted to open his own shop in the San Diego area, but he says there are too many obstacles). Either path he decides to travel, he's already got a great foundation to start from!