1932 Ford Highboy Roadster - Contemporarily Nostalgic

Keeping up with the trends is something with which Barry White and his Speed Shop are all too familiar. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that Barry is setting the trends more so than keeping up with them. He has graced the cover of numerous magazines, been the subject of television shows-including his own show, "Wrecks to Riches," with which many of you are no doubt familiar-and has even won a little something called the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award. And all this has happened in a time span of about 20 years! Barry's shop has no less than five projects going at any given time, in addition to all the local cars that get dropped off at his shop for maintenance and repair.

One of the most recent cars the shop has completed is this stunning red 1932 Ford highboy roadster. Barry has a reputation for building high-end contemporary street rods but felt that the time was right for the shop to try its hand at a more old school-type build. The guys at Barry's started with a 1932 Ford roadster body from GMT in nearby Huntington Beach, California. From there, they built a chassis using a pair of aftermarket Deuce 'rails and set it up for a traditional frontend and a coilover suspended rear. A Chassis Engineering I-beam axle swings off a POSIES spring and a pair of QA1 shocks, while a Currie 9-inch Ford rearend suspends from a pair of QA1 coilover shocks out back. Wilwood 11-inch disc brakes sit behind Budnik Muroc II wheels at all four corners, with 17s up front and 18s in the rear.

When it came time to drop a motor between the newly completed framerails, Barry chose to go with a GM Performance Parts ZZ4 crate motor backed by a TH350 transmission. This crate motor is arguably perfect right out of the box with the advertised 355 hp, but Barry didn't want to keep his motor stock in appearance or performance. To keep with his traditional-yet-contemporary theme, Barry thought what better way to epitomize this than to use a crate motor dressed in vintage parts. To this extent, Barry called the guys up at Edelbrock and ordered the latest in twin-four intakes with the new Endurashine coating along with twin Edelbrock 500-cfm four-barrel carburetors. Accenting the Edelbrock system topped off with Edelbrock air cleaners is a Mooneyes fuel block, polished and coated Doug's Headers, plenty of chromed and polished accessories, and the engine compartment is both sanitary and classic.

Barry wanted his highboy to have a certain race car element to it, so it's no surprise to find the Spartan interior lacking such things as upholstery (for the most part), air conditioning, and a stereo. What you do find are a pair of bomber-style seats that were covered in black leather by Gabe's Custom Auto Interior, black pile carpet, aluminum door and sill panels, and a dash filled with Mooneyes gauges. The drilled four-spoke steering wheel and matching pedals add to that race car vibe, and if Barry wants to cover it all up and really get that lakes look, a tonneau cover snaps into place over the whole passenger's compartment.

While the staff of Barry's Speed Shop undertook most of the fabrication, a couple items were tended to outside the house. GMT not only manufactured the body, but also fabbed a number of pieces on the car, including the rear nerf bar, while neighbors Marcel DeLey and his team at Marcel's Custom Metal Shaping were given the opportunity to work their magic on the hood that graces Barry's highboy. The House of Kolor Blueblood Red was sprayed at the Speed Shop headquarters, but Phil Whetstone in Santa Ana, California, did the pinstriping and cowl graphics.

Since the car's completion, Barry and his crew have finished a dozen or so cars, but when the topic of the little red highboy comes up, you can see something light up in his eyes. Like so many hot rodders before and after him, the allure of hopping in a souped-up and stripped-down highboy and hitting the road strikes a certain nerve.