By D. Brian Smith
Photography: D. Brian Smith
While this humble scribe was on staff as the feature editor of Custom Classic Trucks magazine and later as the editor of KIT CAR magazine, my Dad, brother Kevin, and I were building a 1934 Ford roadster pickup as a project vehicle for the magazines.
Steve's Auto Restorations, in Portland, OR fabricated the Ford car body roadster pickup cab by crafting the back wall of the cab and mating it to their 1933-34 Ford new roadster all-steel body. The fully boxed 1933-34 Ford chassis has custom tubular crossmembers and was welded together from frame strips on a frame jig by a master welder who learned his craft as an underwater deep sea oil rig welder. The chassis is comprised of a polished stainless and aluminum Kugel Komponents independent front suspension and independent rear suspension system with double Aldan coil over shocks in the rear and Aldan coil over shocks in the front. As for stopping power, there's Wilwood Engineering six-piston caliper disc brakes in the front and four-piston Wilwood's on the rear, clamping on 16-inch rotors in the front and 13-inch discs in the caboose.
The '34 RPU has a Smeding Performance 427-cubic inch Ford 351 Windsor stroker V8 balanced and blueprinted engine that's topped with a Hilborn velocity stack EFI system. The engine produced 555.3-horsepower and 557.6 lb.-ft. of torque on the ninth and final pull on the engine dyno at Superior Automotive Engineering! A Tremec TKO-600 five-speed manual trans backs the mill.
Above: A custom fabricator at Steve's Auto Restorations rendered this version of the RPU before the SAR crew went to work handcrafting the roadster pickup cab.
My Dad instilled in my brother and me from a very young age a love of all things automotive. The best thing about the old car hobby for me is working on, driving, and enjoying vintage vehicles with my family and friends.
Above: From left to right that's my cousin Kenny stabilizing the tailshaft of the Tremec TKO-600 five-speed manual trans. Kenny used to race 1st generation Ford Broncos for Mickey Thompson Racing. He also has restored several Broncos as a hobby, so he knows his way around Ford hi-po mills. My Dad, Dan Brian Smith, Sr. is helping to steady the engine/trans as it's being moved into its new home in the '34 Ford RPU chassis. Dad's first car was a 1932 Ford three-window coupe that had a hopped-up '37 Ford flathead V8 engine backed by a three-speed manual Ford trans. Kenny's good buddy Ben is 'driving' the engine hoist. Ben has worked a number of years for Ford dealerships managing the parts counters. Notice all three of those great gentlemen are wearing smiles. A picture speaks a thousand words (get it?).
Above: The Smith Men commissioned famous automotive artist/cartoonist George Trosley to draw/create a rendering of our 1934 Ford roadster pickup.
