Flashback

The name Rick Dore has become synonymous with custom cars and well, pretty much anything custom from classics to brand-new cars and trucks. Rick didn't just get that reputation from building a ton of cars; he got it by building a ton of stellar show-winning hot rods, street rods, and customs. You've seen many of them on the cover and within the pages of STREET RODDER Magazine since the '80s. Rick's latest addition to his lengthy resume of rides has to be one of the finest we've seen. When you bounce around building cars from all different eras, over time you start to really understand what makes a custom car look right. No matter what era of custom car you like, customs are designed with simplicity, style, and smoothness. Take a look at the car on this page and you'll find those aspects and much more.

To start the project off on the right foot, Rick went to automotive artist Jimmy Smith (www.jimmyshotroddesign.com) to take all of his ideas and turn them into a reality on paper. Using a '34 roadster body to build a custom isn't the most popular choice and most people probably never even think of a '34 Ford as anything but a hot rod. Rick knew this but ultimately felt the '34 body style would be perfect with a few major changes. First on the list of changes would be the rear fenders. To many, a custom car without skirts just isn't a custom car, but the original '34 fenders don't have the right shape for what Rick was imagining. So to complement the rearend of to his car perfectly, and because they might just be the sexiest fenders ever, Rick decided to run a set of '36 Ford rear fenders and skirts. After running over every detail over and over again, Jimmy and Rick came up with a perfect foundation to start building on.

To get the '34 driving just right, Rick and good friends Butch Clark and Lee Larson went to town building a TCI Engineering chassis with a TCI dropped axle up front and an Air Ride Technologies suspended 9-inch Ford out back. The '34's chassis also includes a Flaming River Vega-style steering box and column, a Corvette power master cylinder, and stainless-steel plumbing throughout. Rolling stock consists of a set of 15-inch Colorado Custom Waverly ribbed-style billet wheels with Coker wide whitewall radial tires for smooth sailing no matter the conditions. Rick has been transforming new cars as well as old and through that made some great friends at Ford Racing. This obviously made the decision to run a Ford powerplant almost obvious, so Rick looked to one of Ford's most tried and true small-blocks. The Ford 302ci crate engine pumps out 345 hp, sending this glass body flying down the road. Helping the Ford small-block run to its fullest potential is a Performance Products intake and Holley carburetor, a Weiand water pump, and a US Radiator and electric fan.

While the drivetrian may sound mild and quite normal for a well-built ride, the bodywork on the other hand is as wild as it gets. Rick has been working with Squeeg's Kustoms of Mesa, Arizona, for years and knows what kind of work Squeeg can do. Starting off with a quality aftermarket body is as important as it gets, which is why Rick went to Rats Glass for the roadster body. Once at home in Squeeg's shop, the long list of body mods was started. First off was to fabricate a steel hood and hood sides and fit them perfectly to the cowl and the Valley Custom '34 Ford grille. Not wanting the typical slab-sided hood sides, Rick designed a tear-drop-shaped opening that would soon have a beautifully constructed piece of billet trim running through it from the craftsmen at Concept Works. The side trim actually started out as a wood carving before being transformed into the billet brightwork you see here on the finished car. Back at Squeeg's shop, a pair of early Ford headlights were molded to the front fenders before moving on to the DuVall windshield mods. Rick wanted a different look from the standard DuVall so they chopped it an inch and moved the "A" pillars slightly more vertical to match the '34 body shape nicely. Next on the list was to stretch the doors some 3 inches longer, adding to the desired look of length to the body. It's hard to imagine how much work it is to add 3 inches to the doors, but what a difference it makes. As for the rear of the '34, this is where most of the body changes took place. The first challenge in the rear was to get the '36 Ford fenders to fit to the '34 Ford body. This took a lot of time, trial, and error before the later-model fenders looked like they belong on the body. To help achieve this look, Squeeg needed to also extend the rear tail pan over 13 inches. This new longer pan created a perfect spot to sink the license plate into as well. Once the fenders were squared away to the body, it came time to fit the fender skirts. This was another arduous task, because the skirts not only needed to be flush mounted to the fenders, but Rick wanted the arc of the skirts to match the fender arc perfectly. The fenders were then molded to the body and cut for a set of custom taillights by Concept Works. After many hours of blocking, the '34 was ready for a truly custom paint job. With Rick's shop backed up with other projects, he looked to good friend and accomplished painter Doug Jerger for help. Doug of Mesa, Arizona, went to town mixing exactly what Rick had envisioned using PPG pearl pastel greens. Rick's original idea was to come up with a Caribbean-style pastel pearl green color. We think Doug hit the nail on the head with this color and quite possibly will start a new trend in custom paint color tones. We aren't sure why calling the color Caribbean is such a perfect description, but then again that's why Rick has taken so many trophies with his cars--he just knows.

Now with the car taking shape nicely, it needed an interior that would complement it while looking very natural in the car and very custom at the same time. First, a set of Wise Guys bucket seats were mounted between the custom console before stretching the rarely seen imported Italian Mother of Pearl white vinyl. The vinyl is actually just as pearly as the paint (did I just write pearly?). Anyway, with the perfect material, a super-clean dash filled with Classic Instruments gauges and a MotorHead Jewelry gauge surround with a pearl Gibson Guitar insert, and a Colorado Custom steering wheel wrapped with the imported vinyl, Rick's '34 is the definition of style from head to toe.