It may not be a "breakthrough" in street rodding to build a lowered Deuce highboy with a powerful engine, but if you stick with us for a bit, you'll see that there are indeed some new twists involved in this year's Road Tour car.
There have been other '32 highboys carrying the PPG/STREET RODDER Road Tour banner in the past, but when's the last time you complained to Playboy that they've featured too many shapely blondes? That's the icon status of a '32 Ford roadster, and people who own and drive them feel like all the rest of the street rodding world wants one too!
There's room for every make and shape of street rod, but we're revisiting this particular classic to showcase, as we do every year, the high quality of components in our industry and the caliber of professional street rod builders. What makes this beautiful highboy roadster different is the combination of two main ingredients that represent thinking outside of the proverbial box, the frame and the engine.
Our professional builder this year is Hot Rods & Custom Stuff (HR&CS) (Escondido, CA), and they just happen to build very special frames for Deuces that feature a non-stock shape to the rails from the firewall forward, resulting in a very low car without the standard alphabet of surgical C's and Z's. Randy Clark, owner of HR&CS, builds and markets it as the Deuce Steel chassis, and in 2002 it was awarded the Editor's Choice Award by STREET RODDER. Originally inspired by a car built by friend Dave Iverson, Randy has been making the unique '32 frames at the rate of about one every two weeks ever since the first one in 2002!
It happens that Randy, who has been in the street rod business for decades, "knows everybody," including the engine wizards at Gen III Performance, located close by in Escondido. Their participation in the Road Tour car is the other significant difference between our '32 and others: a brand-new aluminum LS-6, Gen III Chevy engine "upgraded" to 427 cubic inches! Another San-Diego-area business, Darton Industries, supplied Gen III with their special M.I.D. wet sleeves that allow one of these engines to have a substantial bore. Coupled with a forged stroker crank, blueprinting, custom cam and valvetrain, shaft-mounted rockers, and lots more, this is bound to provide a thrill way beyond the typical 350 crate motor! Topping it off will be a custom EFI using four billet throttle bodies (with stacks!) that give a menacing Webers/Hilborn look to the engine, and fuel/spark programming handled by a Tec-3 system from Electromotive. The combination of this engine and the Road Tour highboy's stance equals a classic hot rod with a bigger-than-usual dose of attitude!
Our new car began taking shape as HR&CS fabricated the low-ridin' frame in their jig. They use American Stamping rails and cut them off right where the reveal stops near the firewall, fabricating the new upswept profile of the Deuce Steel frame and joining it to the stamping, then cutting a C-notch just above the rear axle spot that allows a lower stance at the rear as well. They finish the frame off by adding a double-tube X-member and A-type front crossmember, then inset-box the whole frame for superior strength with no grinding on these welds.
You can see from our source list that the new roadster will be utilizing products from some of the best names in the street rod business. Rounding out the mechanicals, the new engine will be backed by a TCI Automotive 4L60E transmission, while the suspension is from Pete & Jake's Hot Rod Parts, consisting of a traditional dropped axle frontend and a 9-inch rearend from Currie Enterprises hung on four-bars and coilovers. Supplying the whoa to match this car's go will be no small task, but we've got proven four-wheel discs from Stainless Steel Brakes Corp. to do the job.
Taking the honor of riding atop all these state-of-the-art components will be a reproduction steel roadster body from Brookville. We won't tell you too much about the body part of the story yet, because in future installments there will be some subtle surprises and interesting features to see that are, once again, innovative approaches to traditional mods. Just what we like to see in this magazine.
It's all we can do to keep our printed mouth shut on all the details of this year's exciting Road Tour roadster, because we have seen the finished product and can't wait to get behind the wheel of this bad boy. As with our past Road Tour cars, the Tour part of the title is fulfilled when the car makes the rounds to all the NSRA meets around the country in what becomes a six-month, 25,000-mile road trip that shows off what our magazine and street rodding in general are all about today. Along the way, the car generates the good will and interest in our hobby we'd like to see spread to a wider segment of the public.
There will be several more installments here in STREET RODDER on the new Deuce, but for details in full, there will also be a book and DVD available with graphic step-by-step information from conception to completion, as was done with last year's full-fendered '33 roadster. You'll even see a full-on road test!
Here's how the Deuce Steel...
Here's how the Deuce Steel (top) chassis "stacks up" with a stock-shaped rail. The side profile of the HR&CS framerail is stock right up until the reveal ends at the front, where a gentle curve upward allows a '32 like ours to sit really low.
The profile at the rear of...
The profile at the rear of the stamped rail is left alone, except for a large notch that's been cut to allow the rear of the car to sit almost as low as the front for an "ideal" stance.
After being severed at the...
After being severed at the front, each rail is put into its own jig where the new steel pieces to make up the revised front shape are added and tacked in--note how many clamping stations there are for this jig (that's what is required to make it repeatably "right" enough for Randy Clark and his crew--each rail is fully "inset-boxed" while in this fixture).
After the rails are finish-welded,...
After the rails are finish-welded, they are placed upright in another fixture--this time to have the double X-member, mounts, and crossmembers added.
Here, the crossmembers have...
Here, the crossmembers have been added and the frame is removed from the fixture and turned upside down for more welding--this shows the finished C-notch for rear axle clearance and the inset boxing that is stronger than the traditional method of welding to the edge and then grinding the welds.
This is a rear view of the...
This is a rear view of the top-and-bottom nature of the Deuce Steel X-member--using rectangular tubing here allows for bigger "windows" for the exhaust and other plumbing to go through.
From below, you can see how...
From below, you can see how the A-style front crossmember has been fitted with a plate and mounts that secure the front spring for a cleaner look without using traditional U-bolts--the Deuce Steel frame is pinched at the front and small C-notches are cut to prevent the spring from hitting on serious bumpage.
We're now looking at the completed...
We're now looking at the completed frame, with engine and transmission mounts, crossmembers, and suspension attachment brackets in place. The HR 7 CS chassis is stretched 3 inches overall to provide for more engine room, and this time they really needed it for the 427!
Because the front rails are...
Because the front rails are "pinched" together closer than stock, the mount for the Vega-type Flaming River steering box is set back inside the boxing on the left rail to allow more header and steering shaft clearance.
The roadster's classic front...
The roadster's classic front suspension consists of a dropped axle (albeit a new aluminum one), transverse spring, hairpin radius rods and shock attached to some beautiful custom headlight/shock mount brackets that you'll see more of later--sorry, all the chrome is covered here with masking paper for protection.
The mockup LS-6 engine may...
The mockup LS-6 engine may not look like much here, but it was an exciting moment to drop an engine and transmission into the chassis, and then to attach the radiator and start checking for clearances all around!
The Gen III engines mount...
The Gen III engines mount a whole different way than older SBC's, but HR&CS left their standard Chevy frame mounts in place and made adapter plates like these so a stock SBC rubber mount could be used (the rubber mount was replaced with a chrome and urethane mount during final assembly).
This was also a good time...
This was also a good time to check the clearances around the new hi-temp-coated Hedman hedders--both sides fit fine, with the collectors having a slight bias to the rear rather than being centered like most SBC shorties.
At this stage of construction,...
At this stage of construction, the "plumbers" are called in and routing of brake and fuel lines begins--at the front, these thru-frame fittings from Stainless Steel Brakes Corp. make a clean point to attach the flex lines from the front calipers.
The dual-chamber master cylinder...
The dual-chamber master cylinder was mounted and became the "start here" point for running lines fore and aft--here you can see the SSBC residual pressure valve mounted in the line to the front brakes, while a second RPV was mounted in the rearward line, along with an adjustable proportioning valve.
This shot (taken before the...
This shot (taken before the motor mounts were finished) shows how much length was needed to clear the big electric water pump at the front of the LS-6 engine--with a stretched frame, clearance to the firewall was still good.
Now sans masking paper, you...
Now sans masking paper, you can check out the bling-bling up front and the SSBC Force 10 Elite series aluminum calipers--makes you want to leave the wheels off just to admire it all!
All the braking is from SSBC,...
All the braking is from SSBC, and at the rear the stopping power is handled by Force 10 Elite calipers, grooved rotors, and SSBC's billet mechanical parking brake (seen here at the front of the rotor).
Now painted and installed,...
Now painted and installed, the Currie 9-inch Ford rearend sports their polished aluminum street rod housing and polished pinion support--the Pete & Jake's rear suspension consists of parallel four-bars, Viper coilover shocks, and a chromed Panhard rod mounted off the pinion.
When assembling the painted...
When assembling the painted and finished chassis, the whole HR&CS crew got involved--this is the real 427ci stroker motor from Gen III with the wild stack injection coupled to a new 4L60-E transmission from TCI Automotive.
This is jumping ahead to the...
This is jumping ahead to the final assembly phase where the finished chassis is waiting for the painted body, but we had to give you a glimpse--picture all this in bright yellow PPG paint!