- Hot rod cars are classic
- A 392-cube “Firepower” engine
- This roadster screams nostalgia
Building the traditional “form” and adding modernized “function”
When Troy Ladd started his business “Hollywood Hot Rods” in Burbank, California, he knew that one-way to show potential customers his visions of how to build hot rods was to create a shop car. A “rolling business card” if you will, a machine that can showcase the talents he and his crew possess plus to reflect the shop’s dedication of "respecting tradition.” The tradition aspect is all about when it comes time to look back at hot rodding history and some of the specifics that made the original hot rod cars so classic and unique.
Besides respecting the hot-rodding tradition, HHR also allows for some room for added creativity. In other words, HHR isn’t all about recreating exact “period-correct” replicas of the cars from the 1940s and ‘50s that originally shaped the hot rod scene, but rather to do a balanced mix of building into a single vehicle the traditional “form” and adding modernized “function.”
Case in point, when selecting an engine for this project, the shop car of HHR, the pictured copper-colored-’32 Roadster, there was a unique blending of old and new all done in a traditional-appearing package. The powerplant looks like something that could have been built in the 1950s for a hot rod, however it has been enhanced with modern technology.
The car, that can only be described as a “low highboy”, features a very traditional 392-cube “Firepower” Chrysler Hemi engine was chosen, but modernized electronic fuel injection was added, and to the eye it looks total old-school, but this vintage Hemi runs on a computer!
You’ll start to appreciate the efforts put into the project
Add in the overdrive-equipped 200R4 automatic transmission and ABS braking, then you’ll start to appreciate the efforts put into the project that takes advantage of modern technology without upsetting the ‘50s flavor. Hemi historians will point out that the Chrysler Corporation actually did offer an optional fuel injection system on 1958 300-D models, a Bendix electronic unit mounted atop the 392-cid Hemi engine, called the Electro-jector. Unfortunately, it proved to be unreliable and too complicated, plus few if any out in the field knew how to repair them.
The interesting thing about the Hilborn induction is that what the eye sees is really not what the system is all about! Note the plates that are fitted between the cylinder heads and the injectors, and also take notice of the slightly raised aluminum valley cover that sits in the middle, and this is where the modern electronics are hidden for the EFI that Troy Ladd engineered.
While many hot rod builders today start their projects with a Brookville ’32 Roadster body, as Hollywood Hot Rods did in this case, not too many of them immediately start cutting it up and removing strips of sheet metal out of them! On this build the body and cowl was sectioned two inches, plus material around the rear wheel well area was yanked out as well. Troy wanted a hot rod that had tall rear tires on the rear, but it was important to him that the car ended up with an appearance that kept the arches of the wheel wells on the body above the tops of the oversized rubber. This was the key reason for all the extra “slicing and dicing” of the cars sheet metal.
Also, because the frame of the car had 5-inches of rear kick-up added, the body needed some creative changes done to it in order for the end result to look “right” as far as Troy was concerned. It took a ton of work and planning, but the body is now far from stock, yet it's got the desired look, all done the hard way. And the hard way was by doing a great deal of hammer and dolly work and performing metal working techniques that Troy had learned over the years.
Circular-themed patterns were incorporated into the overall design at various points on the car, including the hairpins, front frame horn boxing plates, motor mount plates, lower section of the grille shell and corner gussets on the cowl, and they have the extra detailing of being made from stamped material complete with contoured radius.
The fabrication work on the car is one of the highlights and a great sampling of the talent at HHR. Case in point, the firewall bracing, it looks great plus has a function of stiffening up the cowl area to help eliminate shake.
Firestone Dirt Track rubber is used on the rear, and the Vanilla-colored 1934 Dodge artillery truck wheels were reworked to use a different center section that would accept a Moon hubcap that used the Chev 5 x 4/34 bolt pattern.
The interior features bucket seats and a tubular center console-effect feature, however this work wasn’t done just to be different,
it was added to increase structural strength and support to the cabin, thus eliminating vibrations and unwanted squeaks and rattles.
Seats are Volvo units from a 1958 model and the tubular supports of the interior, center console that runs to the rear of the cabin, are used not so much for looks but to add structural strength.
A cool instrument cluster pirated from a 1941 Pontiac was selected to occupy the center of the dash. Five-gauge cluster is recessed into the dash panel and very distinctive look that draws double takes from people that see it for the first time!
This low-slung roadster screams nostalgia and when you peer into it a bit closer, one realizes all the subtle changes done are important modifications to solve the problem of this car just looking like another ’32 Ford roadster with a Hemi engine, not that there’s anything wrong with that!
