New member with new ride under construction...
Hello all,
I'm in the early stages of a build-up of a '32 Dearborn Deuce highboy that I hope to have finished in time to drive to the '07 NSRA Nats in Louisville but the beginning of the story of this car actually began with the experience I had in another '32.
I had been planning the build of a '32 phaeton highboy for some time when I came across a '32 5 window highboy for sale at the '04 Turkey Rod Run in Daytona. The car looked pretty nice but what really caught my eye were the modifications that had already been done to the car, things that I really dig in a '32 highboy such as bobbed rails front and rear and a 3" stretch in the front. Overall it was a really clean build. After talking to the owner, I put my "building" plans on hold, made him an offer for the car and ultimately drove it home from the show.
After giving it a thorough "going over", I drove the car as much as possible over the following 8 months. It was alot of fun but my vision of the ultimate highboy (for my tastes) started to overtake the satisfaction of driving the 5 window and I decided to sell the car and go back to my building plans.
After the experience of the coupe, the build-up plan was now changing from a phaeton to another 5 window. The comfort of a closed car with A/C is too much to ignore here in central Florida. But even that plan was about to change. My wife had previously owned a black '99 Camaro SS convertible and had been mentioning off and on that she would like to get another convertible. One afternoon she saw me looking at some pictures of a Dearborn Deuce body and asked me about it. I told her about all of the features and I also mentioned that it cost quite a few more coins than the fiberglass 5 window body I was planning to buy. She remarked that if I bought the Dearborn body, we wouldn't have to buy her a convertible as well and therefore we would actually be saving money! Well, there was no way in h*ll I was gonna argue with that rationalization. So now, I'm building a Dearborn Deuce highboy and I've got the best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned.
I purchased the body from Hot Rods & Horsepower at the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona, November '05. I contacted my friend and rod buider extrordinaire, Jesse Greening, to build the chassis for the car. After working all of the design details out with him, Jesse proceeded with the fabrication of the custom rails. I delivered the body to his shop New Years Eve and I'll be visiting the shop at the end of March to check out the progress.
The basics of the car are as follows:
Chassis - 109" wheelbase, bobbed rails front and rear, pinched and "z"ed front, 5"dropped axle, quarter elliptic springs in front and coil-overs in the rear, custom 4-bars in the front with the upper bars located inbetween the rails, raised drivetrain (so nothing hangs below the rails), Currie Alloy 9" rear.
Drivetrain - 450HP/450Torq 383ci. SBC, Tremec TKO 5speed transmission (it just doesn't "feel" hot rod unless it's got three pedals ;) )
Body - Dearborn Deuce with rear wheelwells raised 2", lower reveal @ cowl area straightened, rolled pan with integrated custom stanchions for '37 Ford style tailights, cowl bead removed, grille shell bead removed and grille shell thinned 1" shortened 1.5" crown lowered and shell dropped 1",smooth hood sides, '33 commerical style headlights on custom stands mounted to the sides of the grille shell.
Well, that's all for now. Sorry if this ran on too long (never get a car guy talkin' about his next project...) I'll be bookmarking this site and contributing my 2cents every now and then. I'll also post pics of the project along the way.
Vudu
