Ah, the roadster. One step up from the motorcycle in creature comfort, the open two-seater calls to the enthusiast with a siren song that has irresistible appeal. Veteran hot rodders have reinvented the roadster countless times and often the most successful efforts are based on traditional concepts. Dennis Incardone of Fairfield, California, has a long and colorful history with bikes and hot rods. His 22-year career with all matters automotive began with building Harley choppers and a variety of hot rods based on cars from the '20s and '30s and has culminated with the mean little lakes-modified depicted here. Hey, this guy has it bad-there's another track T in his shop out back. The red one occupies the front garage, and daily transportation vehicles, such as work trucks and family sedans, are relegated to curbside parking.
Initial inspiration for this car came from seeing the STREET RODDER build on Editor Brian Brennan's car, and when Dennis encountered Harry Claycroft's classic example at a Goodguys event at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds, the lakes-modified roadster bug bit him hard and deep.
In the classic tradition of hot rod builders throughout history, Dennis began to amass a pile of parts to begin construction. The optimistic Mr. Incardone found a T touring and a 350/350 powertrain combo and visualized scouring up the rest of the car and heading for happy hot rod hunting grounds. This time-honored approach does impose some limitations on the builder, however. You can only go as far as your parts allow you to go; waiting to discover the necessary components can frustrate the bit-chomping enthusiast who wants to ride and not sit around hoping the pieces needed for completion will fall out of the swap meet sky. Once the reality of his situation hit Dennis where it hurts, he had an epiphany: Call Zipper Motors, order up the body and frame, and take that pile of parts to a swap meet and make some restorer really happy. After consulting with Zipper proprietor Darrell Zip, Dennis quickly decided to order as many parts as possible in order to get the best jump possible on getting the car project completed. Instead of years of searching, a mere eight months of waiting passed before the "Z" people called and said, "Come and get 'er!"
Dennis and his buddy, Ralph McWhirter, hooked up the enclosed trailer and split for Grand Junction, Colorado, the home of Zipper Motors. Because nothing is ever easy, the dauntless duo braved rain and snow in their relentless push to acquire the project pieces. Of course once they arrived they had to wait for final assembly and the fitting of custom plywood wheels that would allow the requisite clearances to fit the car into the trailer. Once loaded, the lads returned to sunny California to begin the assembly.
The advantage of getting the bulk of the parts at once is that you can make serious headway very quickly. The rough build time to final assembly stage was about six very focused months
The chassis is a 108-inch Zipper version constructed from 2x3-inch rectangular tubing. Dennis' own modifications include putting discreet directional signals into the framehorns and installing his own hand-fabbed gas tank mounts. The rearend is a Winters quick-change with Dutchman axles and a 2:70 to 1:00 final drive ratio. Dennis said his most memorable moment building the car came when he realized that the reason he was only achieving 10 mph at 2,000 R's was that he had installed the gears in the quickie upside down; "I thought my tranny was stuck in Second gear!"
The suspension solution both front and rear is parallel-mounted quarter-elliptical springs snubbed with Zipper Motors' own friction shocks. The springs have Teflon buttons between each leaf to help smooth the ride. Dennis is a fan of the fine esthetic of the tubular front axle and his painted version is located with a four-bar setup, as is the rearend. The forged '37-41 Ford front spindles mount 15x4 1/2 Wheel Vintiques 88 Series Billet Lakester wheels and the corresponding rear wheels are 15x10s. In a well-advised concession to modern performance and safety standards, Wilwood four-piston disc brakes are employed fore and aft, drilled 12-inchers out back, and drilled 11 forward. A 2 3/4-inch bored Wilwood master cylinder pushes fluid to the corners when foot pressure is applied to the Wilwood swing pedal assembly. Directional control is accomplished through a Flaming River Vega steering box. The connection from steering box to draglink is through the cowl in true hot rod tradition. A 14-inch Speedway steering wheel sits atop the stainless steel column. In lieu of such unnecessary niceties as a turtledeck or pickup box, Dennis fabricated a fuel tank from a piece of 10-inch aluminum irrigation pipe and mounted it on his own handmade drilled brackets. The businesslike appearance of the rear of the roadster is made especially unique with the use of this tank, poised over the quick-change.