After fabricating a surround,...
After fabricating a surround, Tucci flattened each 1/4-inch stainless tube to make the bars for the grille. After it was complete, it was sent to Sherm's Plating for chroming.
For the taillights, they used Greening Auto Company buckets but, instead of mounting the taillights on top of a stanchion, they hung the bucket under the stanchions. The headlight stanchions were re-engineered by Arcuri Design so they could be CNC-machined from 6061-T6 aluminum by Warner Machine. The original headlight buckets were also cut down and screw-on rings were machined, incorporating '36 Pontiac 'glass lenses (that have a ribbed design that matches the spacing and look of the grille bars).
The powertrain Tucci used is a fully polished LS2 from Street & Performance with a Professional Products intake manifold and a fully polished 4L60 automatic transmission. The LS2 uses individual coil packs for the spark plugs, and Tucci decided to hide the coil packs by using an original valve cover on the motor and then taking a second set of valve covers, a tall cast aluminum pair from Street & Performance, and machined the inside to house the coil packs. Holes were then drilled to have the spark plug wires connect directly to the coil packs.
Greening Auto Company made...
Greening Auto Company made the buckets for the taillights, but their mounts (so they hang from above instead of below) were fabbed at Tucci's.
What do you do if you don't...
What do you do if you don't want to see the brake rotors behind your wheels? You cut them down so the sections can be hidden behind each spoke of the wheel. Obviously not done for performance, but it is an effective answer to the problem.
For the wheels, Brent Gill (Brent Gill Design) supplied a concept drawing, which was then given to Arcuri Design to create a 3D rendering. While designing the wheels, they found that using a solid rotor would take away from the look of the wheel, so they machined portions of the Wilwood rotor to be hidden by the wheel spokes, while still keeping enough of the stopping power of the six-piston Wilwood calipers up front and the four-piston calipers in the rear. But before Greening Auto Company could get started on machining the wheels, Tucci found forged motorcycle wheels to obtain the same soft lip on both the outer part of the wheel and the inner part of the wheel, which means the centers would have to be bolted to the outer hoops, which would create a clean sharp line between the center of the wheel and the hoop. The 17x7 wheels are wrapped in BFGoodrich 215/40/ZR17s while the 20x10 wheels are wrapped in BFGoodrich 295/40/ZR20s. Advanced Plating then gave the wheels their show-quality chrome coating.
The gauge bezel was milled...
The gauge bezel was milled a single piece from a solid block of aluminum.
Instead of doing a tubular control arm suspension, a billet aluminum control arm suspension was designed by Arcuri Design and machined by Profile Racing in St. Petersburg, Florida, incorporating a suspension from RideTech. A custom rack-and-pinion was supplied by Unisteer Performance, though they used joints, shafts, and a steering column from Flaming River.
Once all of the car's custom parts had been fabricated and test-fit, the body and chassis were sent to Rich Thayer from RJ Customs where he transformed the bare metal car into a flawless Ridler-worthy car using modified Lexus Candy Brown (Tiger's Eye) paint. After bodywork and paint were completed, the entire car (including the underside) was hand rubbed and polished. Next on the list was the interior, which was turned over to Jamie McFarland of McFarland Custom Upholstery in Puyallup, Washington, who used a Carmel leather throughout, including covering the Wise Guys seat frames and the top of the dash.
The gauge faces are made of...
The gauge faces are made of milled Plexiglas, to which vinyl lettering was applied to the inside, painted (by Rich Thayer) and then the vinyl was removed, leaving clear Plexiglas in its place. The faces were then backlit for the full effect.
Tucci had designed and machined a set of custom gauge faces from 1-1/2-inch Plexiglas, to which vinyl lettering was then applied. Rich Thayer then painted the gauge faces and removed the vinyl, which can be easily read when backlit. Needles were laser-cut by Classic Instruments and shaped by Tucci to follow the contour of each gauge face. Tucci then took a set of domed glass faces from Classic Instruments and cut them down to fit their receptacle. The electronic guts from a set of Auto Meter gauges were used, and then everything was wired up using an American Autowire Highway 22 system by Tucci Hot Rods.
The center console of the car houses the RetroTek electronic shifter with a Tucci-fabbed lever-style paddle shifter to move gears from First to Fourth and back. Rich Perez from RP Interiors created a headliner that incorporated a flip-down, Windows-based touch-screen that has both the Internet and iTunes music.
Showing some promise more...
Showing some promise more than half-way through the build, the Schraders' coupe certainly lives up to the concept that if you can dream it, it can be built.
It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to see a high-end car through a 10-year build, and once the car was finally finished, the Schraders named it "Sinuous" and entered it in the Detroit Autorama in 2009, where it was picked as one of the Pirelli Great 8 contenders for the Don Ridler Memorial Award. And though it didn't end up winning the Ridler that year, the Schraders have been very happy to continue showing the car around the country for the past year, collecting awards and accolades everywhere it goes.