Thread: New member with new ride under construction...

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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

Welcome from one Floridian to another.

Sounds like your Deuce will be a great car. Does your wife have a Sister?

See you at next years Turkey Run. I swear I'm driving mine NEXT YEAR.

Don

Originally posted by Itoldyouso

Sounds like your Deuce will be a great car. Does your wife have a Sister?

Don [/B]

Sorry, but no sister. ;(
Ya jus' know that ya gotta marry a woman like that! She thinks that the new generation Viper is bad *ss and actually tried to convince me that we could buy a Viper for what this '32 is going to cost. I told her that she's not far off on the cost issue but as bad as the Viper is, it's still no hot rod.

Speaking of the Sunshine state, I could use some input from anyone regarding the FLA DMV process of getting a title put together for a street rod.

There is a form you pick up where you get your tags. It is an application for a title on a reconstructed car. Basically you have to provide receipts for all the parts you used, especially the major components like engine, etc.

You then take the car to the tag office and an officer looks at the car and all of your receipts to make sure it isn't hot, or something else. Then it goes to Tallahassee and they issue a number plate that you afix to the frame.



OR.........................you buy a title at a swap meet or somewhere else, and register your car as that car. They really don't get too excited about this when you are dealing with a 70 year old car.

But the right way to do it is the DMV form. But I think your car has to meet current standards on emissions, steering wheel locks, etc. Could be wrong on that, as I have never gone this route to title any of mine.

By the way, ever since I first saw the Vipers I wanted one. Then I worked as a Production Manager at a local body shop and actually got to drive one. I don't want one any more. It is smaller inside than my '27, and every time I turned around to look out the drivers window to back up, I banged my head on the roof. I was really disappointed.
Maybe old age is catching up with me.

Don

Thanks for the info Don.

I've been looking for a '32 Ford title but as you can imagine, they're pretty scarce. There is a guy based out of Maryland that advertises in the NSRA Street Scene mag as well as the GoodGuys Gazette and he is a title re-seller. I contacted him about a month ago and he didn't have too many details about the process of getting a new title issued from what he can provide.

I never had the pleasure of driving a Viper but I did ride in a Viper coupe a few years ago. Interesting experience.. not much in the way of interior room as you mentioned and between the flesh griddles on the outside (rocker panel exhaust) and the large door sill to step over, getting in and out is an adventure. I don't know if it was the tune on the particular car I was riding in or if it is just the nature of the Viper motor but it sure didn't seem to like running around at any speeds lower than 35mph...always felt like it just wanted to be let out of the cage. The car was owned by one of my bosses at my former place of employment. This guy had a stable of toys that he used to rotate more often than some people change underwear. His Ferrari 355 was probably the nicest ride in his fleet. Now that was one sweet sounding motor!

aha...hmmmm

I mean..I have a title already..I just forgot about that...yeah, right here..yup...a real title......