Everywhere you look, there it is-that Jeff Norwell illustration of the highly hot-rodded red '32 Ford open-wheeled roadster pickup with the all-steel body, an engine that looks an awful lot like an injected Ford 427 SOHC race motor, and the familiar Raybestos shield-shaped logo on the doors.
As we reported four months ago, the Raybestos Roadster Pickup is being built by Hollywood Hot Rods (HHR) in Burbank, California, and will eventually be given away in a sweepstakes sponsored by Raybestos.
The body is a '32 Brookville rpu repro and the engine isn't a 427 cammer at all, but Ford Racing's brand-new Coyote engine. We'll be taking a closer look at the 32-valve DOHC Coyote in the future-but this one stands alone, due in part to those custom valve covers and lakes pipes, and a Hilborn fuel injection system combining old-timey stacks with an up-to-date electronic engine management system to efficiently feed the 32-valve twin independent variable camshaft timing 5.0 liter.
Before the body and bed were...
Before the body and bed were dropped onto the frame, we got a good look at the Indy-car-inspired chassis, including the boxed Deuce frame, corner-to-corner tubular crossmembers, Speedway Engineering quick-change rearend, upper four-bars, and rear torsion bar suspension. "Everything is based on an X because the triangles are the strongest shape," Troy from Hollywood Hot Rods explains. "We went nuts with the tubing to make it all extremely sturdy."
Contemporary technology disguised in traditional styling is a growing movement in hot rodding and is the signature look of rods rolling out of HHR, where Troy Ladd and his crew keep coming up with cool ways to crossbreed the heritage of the old and the performance advantages of the new. The Coyote engine we just mentioned isn't the only part of the Raybestos rpu to get this treatment. The truly unique suspension, designed and fabricated at HHR, has the appearance of traditional-style front and rear hairpin radius rods, but-as we figured out from the engine-looks can be deceiving. For example, those rear hairpins are really the lower arms of a triangulated four-bar rear suspension.
Thanks to simplicity and performance advantages, parallel four-bars have become a very common rear suspension choice among rodders. The upper bars help maintain pinion angle and control axle rotation, while the lower bars serve to control front to rear motion of the axle. Lateral (side-to-side) motion of the rearend is controlled by a diagonal Panhard bar running from the rearend housing to the frame.
The front hairpins serve as...
The front hairpins serve as traditional front axle radius rods. HHR notched the front of the frame approximately 1-1/2 inches to drop the roadster. The notch will be out of sight when the body is dropped over it. The left-side trailing arms are visible just rearward of the front axle. More on that later.
A triangulated four-bar system is similar, but instead of running parallel to the lower arms, the upper arms are mounted at the center of the rearend on either side of the pumpkin and extend at an angle forward and outward to the framerails. The lower arms provide front-to-back control like they do on a parallel setup. The angled design of the upper arms provides the same control as parallel upper arms, in addition to lateral control, centering the rearend without the need for additional support from a Panhard bar. The result is greater stability and a more compact package, which is an especially valuable benefit on small applications like a Deuce roadster pickup.
HHR built a similar "subterfuge" suspension about a year and a half ago on a '32 highboy. On that car, they had used wishbones as the arms, so that the triangulated four-link had the appearance of split 'bones. On the Raybestos rpu, they've taken the concept to another level.
The rear 'rails were kicked...
The rear 'rails were kicked up a lot more, with a sweeping Z in the frame where the bed will sit. The bed is positioned so that the bed 'rails will align with the belt line in the body; the wheels where centered in the bed, resulting in a longer wheelbase. The chassis was modified to match.
Along with the rear four-bars, they also used front and rear torsion bars-not typically found on hot rods, but more frequently on race cars. HHR has used this type of suspension on a project before, too, when they built Ron Lee's '31 roadster pickup for the La Carrera Panamericana race, adding front and rear torsion bars by Steve Moal at Moal Coachbuilders (for a close look at torsion bar technology, see our coverage of the '31 rpu chassis buildup in the Feb. '09 issue). The advantage of torsion bars, which function as springs, is that they are adjustable for weight changes or handling requirements-a huge plus in race applications.
You've probably already noticed that the chassis is painted in some of the photos and in bare metal in others. Obviously we made more than one trip to HHR to follow the progress of the chassis buildup. We thought it was helpful to show both earlier shots of the chassis as it was going together and later shots, closer to the final effect.
Even with kickups in the front...
Even with kickups in the front and rear, HHR still ended up adding a C-notch over the rear axle to position the car low to the ground. You may have noticed the rear brake is reversed and missing a couple bolts. During the mock-up assembly period, the brakes were on and off the car constantly and sometimes got switched. In the later photos, they are complete and correct.
This is the driver side torsion...
This is the driver side torsion bar (arrow) connected at 90 degrees to the torsion arm in the front and running rearward. Troy told us that the Vega steering box was mounted high up on the frame due to the car's low-to-the-ground stance.
The front torsion bars are...
The front torsion bars are similar to the suspension on the HHR La Carrera Panamericana car. The outer ends of the drilled torsion arms (driver side and passenger side) pivot on roller bearings attached to this hairpin batwings built by Steve Moal from Moal Coachbuilders.
The rearward ends of the front...
The rearward ends of the front torsion bars (arrow) connect to the frame at the right and left front crossmembers. The driver (left) side is shown here.
Unlike the front-to-rear position...
Unlike the front-to-rear position of the front torsion bars, the rear torsion bars run laterally (from side to side), connecting in the center of the frame. The torsion bars (arrow) attach to the forward ends of the torsion arms on each side. The back of the torsion arms attach to the rear axle. The whole setup is seen in the first photo on the previous page.
HHR cut a slot in the lower...
HHR cut a slot in the lower 'rails of the bed to slide it over the torsion bar. When the project was finished, the slot in the sheetmetal was covered with a housing to hide the torsion bar and add a retro design element. Here is a look at the bracket that attaches the hairpin to the axle.
Adjustable torsion keys on...
Adjustable torsion keys on each end of the rear torsion arms at the center connector plate allow for adjustment of the ride height. Changing the length of the torsion arms and the diameter of the bars also allows adjustment of the spring rate.
Looking from above before...
Looking from above before the bed floor was added gives another view of the upper bars, which run at an angle from tabs on the rear axle, near the pumpkin, to a bracket off the framerails.
What appears to be a hairpin...
What appears to be a hairpin rear suspension is really a triangulated four-bar system, with the hairpins serving as the lower bars. From underneath the chassis, one of the upper four-bars (arrow) can be seen. Here's another look at the rear hairpin bracket.
From the outside, the upper...
From the outside, the upper bars are invisible. To all appearances, these are vintage outboard-mounted hairpins. The hairpins acting as lower arms are attached to the 'rails with traditional-appearing tie-rod ends fit into bungs extending through the boxed frame. The hairpin bracket allows the front mounting point and the rear lower mounting point to maintain the correct parallel-to-the-ground position at ride height, and to pivot on the axle.
Since Raybestos is sponsoring...
Since Raybestos is sponsoring the roadster, Troy Ladd wanted the brakes to be as cool as everything else on the car, choosing track roadster-style "Skeleton" Buick drum brakes from Wilson Welding and Machine. Since Raybestos does not manufacture the Ford shoes and drums for this specific application, HHR adapted the brakes to accept Cadillac brake components from the Raybestos catalog, including 12x2-1/2-inch drums and shoes. They have no backing plates, to better show off the Raybestos products.
Even the front discs contribute...
Even the front discs contribute to the mid-'60s race car theme, featuring GM rotors combined with jumbo '65 Corvette calipers-the type used on race cars 45 years ago.
Take a look at these custom...
Take a look at these custom upper shock brackets extending up off the front nerf bars alongside the '32 Ford grille shell. Strengthening reinforcements are hidden in the shell. The QA1 shocks are fully adjustable, and were also hidden inside covers to give them a retro appearance.