Building a Factory Five '33 Hot Rod - New Age Hot Rod

Ever since the beginning, many hot rods have led a double life. As the years moved on and the Flathead V-8 went into production, hot rods continued to evolve. Look back to STREET RODDER January, 2009 and you will see where this story really began.

Factory Five Racing, Inc. located in Wareham, Massachusetts, builds performance and their Mk3 roadsters, race-bred Challenge Series cars, and GTM super cars are known as the benchmark for sports car performance and ride quality in the component car world. Factory Five President Dave Smith wanted to match his proven performance standards with the heritage of the classic '33 Ford bodylines.

His memories of hot rodding encompassed its amazing creative side and vast racing history. He was determined to craft a car that would not only allow for straight-line performance, but one that would allow its owner the capabilities of true sports car handling while not forgetting the hot rod lineage. Working with his team of engineers and designers he was able to develop their new FFR '33 Hot Rod roadster and coupe, which will create another chapter in FFR history. Wider, lower slung, and packed with loads of race car engineering, this clearly isn't your dad's hot rod; it's one that rewrites the book on performance.

It wasn't long before another local legend, custom motorcycle builder Dave Perewitz of Perewitz Cycle Fabrication heard about the development of the new car. As the story goes, Dave is a longtime friend of our very own Editor Brian Brennan. Brian has been trying for a long time to get Dave involved in building hot rods, and when Dave from FFR entered the storyline the rest as it often said, "was a done deal."

Having always been a fan of early hot rods, the two Daves met up and discussed the possibility of building one of the new cars at the Perewitz facility under a tight deadline (there's that magazine deadline "thing" kicking in via Editor Brennan) for debut at the Detroit Autorama in the STREET RODDER booth.

Once the FFR '33 Hot Rod was delivered to Perewitz Cycle Fabrication, it was time for Dave's team to get busy and start building the rolling chassis. The chassis features a high degree of torsional rigidity, is wider than the original `33, and is loaded with safety features. Constructed of MIG-welded high-strength carbon steel tubing and plate steel, it weighs in at svelte 275 pounds.

With the suspension components laid out it was time for the PCF team of Kory and Jason Souza to begin. The frontend assembly begins with the installation of the adjustable unequal-length upper and lower A-arms, ball joints, and the adjustable inboard Koni coilover shocks. Continuing with the frontend assembly they focused on installing the custom-designed front spindles and hubs, which were then matched up with a set of 11-inch Ford Mustang GT rotors and twin piston PBR calipers. The PCF team also molded many of the front suspension parts before giving them a squirt of PPG Brandywine gloss. They also powdercoated countless brake and suspension components, giving them a whole new personality. To complete the front suspension, the team installed the rear-steer Unisteer manual rack-and-pinion with the provided hardware that includes inner and outer tie rods, and a polyurethane bushing and mount. Factory Five prides itself in properly identifying every piece of hardware in their kits, which helps take out any of the guesswork in locating components.

The rear half of the chassis is set up to accommodate the standard FFR four-link suspension configuration (as found in the late model Ford Mustang) or the optional high-performance three-link system, both of which are bolt-in units. The four-link system is directly derived from FFR's well-known Mk3 roadster and coupe, but it's the three-link that has endured thousands of hours of brutal track testing of the Challenge Series cars. The team decided that they would make the upgrade to the high-performance three-link system and located a suitable Ford solid axle 8.8 donor rearend from a late model Mustang GT. Once the rearend was blasted clean, fabrication wizard Ronnie Landers determined a few items needed to be cleaned up and prepped for paint. Since the three-link system was selected, there was no need to retain the factory upper control arm mounts as well as the ears on either side of the rearend centersection. Using a disc grinder and acetylene torch, Ronnie removed the unwanted mounts. FFR provides upgraded combination lower control arm and shock mounts that bolt in along with the new lower control arms and three-link mounting bracket (which Ronnie welded for additional strength) to set the rearend into place. Dave worked with Jason to complete the install which also included the mounting of the Koni adjustable coilover shocks, three-link system with adjustment bar, and Panhard bar with all of the supplied hardware. The installed suspension components will no doubt give the car both razor-sharp handling and cutting-edge performance with every corner taken.

To bring life to the project, a Ford Racing modular 4.6L three-valve with 350 horsepower (PN M-6007-A463NA) was chosen. Arriving at PCF, the new V-8 was complete from injection to pan including all of the wiring making the installation that much easier. Combined with a Tremec five-speed transmission the '33 will have more than enough power to make it a contender both on the street and at the track. Factory Five sets up their new chassis with the option of mounting a combination of Ford engines including the 289/302/351ci engines or the 4.6L matched with either a manual or automatic transmission. The kit also supplies the correct driveshaft for the combination selected as well as the complete exhaust system as a part of the package. With the suspension and drivetrain install now complete, it won't be long until it's time to set-up the braking, cooling, and fuel systems...stay tuned for our next installment which will cover them all.