The body for the project is a combination of aluminum, fiberglass, and steel. Starting with a 'glass coupe body that was made by Tony Minotti, the back half was modified to accommodate a '32 gas tank (just to mess with people's minds a little more). A cowl vent was also added, as were door hinges and body reveals. Many other custom pieces were also fabricated for this car, including the '36 headlight and '37 taillight stands, the rear spreader bar, license plate frame, and more. The main focus of this coupe is, of course, the nose and hood. In the beginning, Ken's shop (chiefly Dennis Graff) tried to re-proportion an original '36 grille, shrinking its height, width, and depth to work with the smaller size requirements, but it didn't look right. The option was to build the grille from scratch, which wasn't the "easy" way to go, but it's how Graff chose to do it (recording 400 hours doing so). He also built the aluminum hood sides (with blisters) to replicate the look of the '34, louvers and all.
When the major work was done, the car was turned over to Wayne Saunders of Alternative Automotive Design (Colorado Springs, CO) who prepped the coupe before laying down the DuPont two-stage paint-a modified Washington Blue. Pinstriper Dennis Ricklefs soon followed, adding fine lines down the side of the coupe along the bodyline. Though the interior of the coupe looks basically stock, it is anything but. Based on the Foose drawings, the one-piece headliner is Ultra Leather over fiberglass-the same material used on the modified Glide Engineering bench seat and the door panels-and all stitched up by Dick Shelton Upholstery from Colorado Springs. Aussie Steve wired the coupe using a Ron Francis kit, which included the Eclipse stereo system, Alpine amp, Focal speakers, and the Classic Instruments gauges found in the handmade dash insert. Between the gauge cluster and the glovebox door is what looks like a revolving '34 Ford ashtray, but it now operates the engine's starter switch. Other items found inside Ken's coupe are seatbelts from Summit Racing, a custom-drilled Bell-type steering wheel (which matches the shifter), Dynamat insulation, a Flaming River column, and a Vintage Air A/C system.
It might be an easy decision for some folks, after building such a car over a period of six years, to handle it with kid gloves (it has, after all, over 1,000 handmade parts on it and over 8,000 hours of build time) but Ken is thinking up a little different plan. Since being finished, the car went on a mini tour to some of the indoor shows he has frequented with his super high-end show cars around the country, but his idea is to drive this one, possibly on a coast-to-coast tour in 2011. So keep your eyes peeled. If someone tells you they just saw a '32-33-36 Ford coupe driving down the highway, tell them you've already seen it in STREET RODDER.
The headlights came from a...
The headlights came from a '36 Ford, while the taillights are from a '37.
The body is a '33, the nose...
The body is a '33, the nose a '36, and the gas tank is from a '32 Ford. The classy spreader bar is a nice touch, too.
Besides designing the basic...
Besides designing the basic shape/concept for the car, Chip Foose also designed the wheels (17x4.5 and 18x6), which were cut from billet by Curtis Speed Equipment before being shod in Excelsior front rubber and Firestone rear hides.