The steering wheel bears the...
The steering wheel bears the name of Italian sports car designer and racer Enrico Nardi, and looks just like a wheel Nardi might have gripped in a ’52 Pegaso Spider.
In addition to the wheel and tire change, there were some exterior adjustments as well. “The idea was not to change the style of the car, with the wedge channel, the lines, and the metalwork,” Doug says. The changes he did make are not radical from our perspective, but Doug said Squeeg had a hard time seeing his original work altered. The hood side scoops got a new pair of hand-fabricated inserts. The handbuilt windshield was left intact and Boyd’s headlight structure was also retained. In the rear, a new pan was built with a recess for the license plate. The old pan had housed the taillights; new taillights in the fenders are 100 percent handmade with LED lights, hand-tinted lenses, and machined brass bezels finished in brushed nickel. When the bodywork was done, the roadster took its second trip into the Squeeg’s paint booth, rolling out with a reflective black finish, done with PPG Concept DCC paint.
The old Chevy drivetrain was switched to an aluminum 427ci Ford Windsor-style engine, machined at Basko Engine Service and built by Mark Clark Speed Sports, both in Gilbert, Arizona. The Dart block was stuffed with 10.2:1 JE Pistons and SCAT rods turning a SCAT crank. The electronic fuel injection is a Hilborn individual-runner system; Dart aluminum heads are topped by custom valve covers. Terry Palmer installed the engine and built the headers, which feed a Joe Spovati–built stainless exhaust system with Stainless Works mufflers. Gary Rogers at Arizona Precision Transmission Center built the Ford AOD trans backing up the 427.
The 700hp Dart aluminum 427...
The 700hp Dart aluminum 427 was bored, stroked, balanced, and blueprinted. “We wanted a high-tech race look for the engine,” Doug says. “It sounds like a race car too. When we pulled into the roadster show, nobody noticed us—until we fired it up. Then they came running.”
As with most project cars, attention to the interior was saved for the end of the build, when the roadster was shipped to Gabe’s Street Rod Custom Interiors in San Bernardino, California. Gabe Lopez built the custom bench seat and wrapped it up in milk chocolate brown leather. The door panels and shifter boot got the same treatment. The square weave carpeting and the Nardi Torino steering wheel enhance the hot rod/sports car hybrid look. Doug built a new aluminum insert panel for the dash and filled it with Auto Meter gauges, wired by Mickey Dwyer.
By the time of the 2011 Grand National Roadster Show Daryl’s ’34 had been done for more than two years and had racked up some local miles—but hardly anybody had seen it, and it had not competed in any other events, meaning that it complied with the show’s new “debut car” rule and was eligible for AMBR competition.
“We decided to enter the car to promote the shop,” Doug says. “We had no idea it would win.” And truthfully, the ’34 might not have won in 2010, 2009, or any recent previous year. But this was the year the revamped rules reinstated “beauty” as a judging criterion for the AMBR award. So in January 2011, Daryl’s ’34 was back at the L.A. County Fairplex, where he found it in the early ’80s. But this time it wasn’t in a swap meet seller space. It was at the center of attention as America’s Most Beautiful Roadster.
Tri-bar spinner caps dress...
Tri-bar spinner caps dress up 15x5.5 and 16x8 Real Rodders Original Sprint-style rims. Diamond Back tires measure 195/50R15 in front with 235/65R16s filling the rear fenders. The black sidewalls have been buffed smooth.
The radiator from the ’80s...
The radiator from the ’80s still cools the car but the upper and lower hoses and thermostat housing—made at Squeeg’s—are new. Brackets and pulleys were also fabricated in-house.
Instead of polishing and chroming...
Instead of polishing and chroming undercarriage and underhood components, the crew at Squeeg’s decided on a more natural brushed-nickel finish, accomplished by Custom Chrome. Other brushed stainless and aluminum was done by Russell’s Custom Polishing.