1932 Koszis Roadster Redux
Owner: Chick Koszis
Making Lemonade from Lemons……..
In 2002 the crew at Hot Rods & Custom Stuff completed the build of Chick Koszis’ hot rod. It was a ’32 hiboy-style Ford roadster. This car had a lot of hot rod attitude when it was first completed and acquired more as time went on. A tweak now and then increased the level of “bad ass.” Since its’ inception, the car was driven extensively throughout the western United States and Canada. It has been driven to Bonneville twice, San Antonio, Texas twice, the Puget Sound area four times, including three to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Other destinations included Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon.
The roadster was dubbed “Bare Bones” because of its’ minimalist build style. It lacked fenders, heat and air, tweed upholstery, and cup holders. What it did have though was a GMC 6-71 blown small block Chevy for power coupled to a 700R4 4-speed automatic transmission and a Ford 9-inch rear end. It used a drilled I-beam front axle with Pete Eastwood-style hairpins and Pete & Jake ladder bar with coilover shocked rear suspension. The old school half-inch pitch, 3 inch wide blower drive belt sent out a song that would give plenty of warning that the car was coming. The deck lid was well ventilated with a couple hundred louvers, and the engine exhaust was handled with custom built lakester style headers coming directly out of the side. Semi-gloss black paint and a healthy dose of classic styled pinstriping finished off the body. The interior consisted of a simple bench seat (originally trimmed in Mexican blanket and black leather) and bead-rolled aluminum door, kick and back panels.
CHECK OUT THE DEUCE STEEL LINE OF ’32 PRODUCTS
The car became pretty well known over the next nine years then disaster struck. Chick was attending the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California in January 2011 and he stayed at the hotel adjacent to the GNRS venue. He came out to the hotel parking lot on Sunday morning and discovered it missing. The police were notified and a report filed. Jack at www.hotrodhotline.com was kind enough to put out an alert on his website within a couple hours of Chick discovering the car was gone. Later that day the Jalopy Journal’s HAMB message board had the news of the theft posted. When all was said and done, the car was not found and became considered a total loss by the insurance company. The planning for the “Bare Bones Redux” (pronounced re-do) could begin.
Chick was extremely happy with the build experience at Hot Rods & Custom Stuff the first go around, so there was no doubt where the new roadster would be born. The plan is to build a car very similar in style and driving characteristics as the first roadster. The two underlying themes would be, first; long distance driveablility, and second, present a bare bones ‘60’s hot rod attitude. Basic choices had to be made early in order to get moving. A look at the two cars side by side would reveal these similarities and differences:
| Feature | Original Bare Bones 32 | Redux 32 | Comments |
| Chassis | SoCal Speed Shop | Deuce Steel | Bare Bones 32 would have had the first Deuce Steel frame if the build project had started a couple of months later than it did. |
| Body | Rod Bods steel | Brookville steel | Steel is Real |
| Windshield | Stanley Wanlass/Dick Rodwell raked windshield | Stanley Wanlass/Dick Rodwell raked windshield | The original build had a stock Ford windshield with a 2-inch chop. The Wanlass/Rodwell version adds a bunch of attitude to the car and was added later. |
| Engine | Chevy 355 CID small block | 1957 Chrysler 392 CID Hemi | Had to have one blower-motored car in his life and one hemi-powered version. |
| Induction System | Mooneyham GMC 6-71 supercharger with dual quads | Electronic fuel injection via dual throttle bodies on a Weiand dual quad intake manifold | Old school – new tech |
| Transmission | GM 700R4 four-speed overdrive automatic | GM 4L80E electronically controlled four speed overdrive automatic | The overdrive is essential to good, long distance driveablility |
| Rear Brakes | Ford drum | Ford Drum | Reliable as a rock |
| Exhaust | Rick Carlyle SoCal Speed Engineering outside the frame megaphone headers | Rick Carlyle SoCal Speed Engineering outside the frame megaphone headers | Not to be confused with SoCal Speed Shop: Rick custom builds headers per order, by hand and to your cars specific dimensions. No two are alike. |
| Body Modifications | Louvered deck lid | Louvered deck lid | A 100 MPH cheese grater |
| Fenders | None | None | FTF |
| Wheels | American Racing Torque Thrusts (5-spokes) | PS Engineering Kidney Beans | Both are classics |
| Paint | Semi-gloss black with a bunch of red/white/blue Pete “Hot Dog” Finlan pinstriping | Semi-gloss black with a bunch of red/white/blue Pete “Hot Dog” Finlan pinstriping | Part of the “hot rod” vibe |
| Front Suspension | Chromed and drilled 4-inch forged steel dropped I-beam axle, Durant monoleaf spring, Bilstein shocks, hairpin radius rods | Chromed and drilled 4-inch forged steel dropped I-beam axle, Durant monoleaf spring, Bilstein shocks, drilled Ford split radius rods | Another classic touch |
| Rear Suspension | Bilstein coilover spring/shocks with Pete & Jakes ladder bars | Bilstein coilover spring/shocks with HR&CS custom built drilled Ford radius rod four-bar | Wait till you see these!! |
| Rear Axle | Currie Ford 9-inch posi | Winters Championship quick change with Ford axle bells | Nothing says “hot rod” like a quick change rear end |
| Front Brakes | SoCal Speed Shop Buick finned drum covers over Wilwood discs | SoCal Speed Shop Buick finned drum covers over Wilwood discs | More of the classic touch |
| Instruments | Stewart Warner curved glass black face | Moon Equipment curved glass black face | Out of Randy’s private reserve stash |
| Cooling System | Walker Radiator with electric fan | Walker Radiator with electric fan | Reliability again |
| Interior | Aluminum paneled, Ron Mangus upholstered bench seat and carpets | Aluminum paneled, Ron Mangus upholstered seat and carpets | The interior evolved from a leather-trimmed Mexican blanket Glide bench seat to a full leather form-fitted Ron Mangus work of art |
| Steering | Vega steering box with Tri-C Engineering tilt column and engine turned Lobeck spoked wheel | Vega steering box with Tri-C Engineering tilt column and engine turned Speed and Chrome spoked wheel | Both steering wheels were engine turned spoked swap meet finds |
The target completion date is January 2012 to enter the Grand National Roadster Show. That’s a fitting venue since that’s the last place that Chick saw his original Bare Bones Deuce.
When Chick designed his last ’32 roadster, he said, “I’ve gotta have ONE blower-motored car in my life. The result was his “Bare Bones” ’32 with a 6-71 blown small-block Chevy engine. This car, built at Hot Rods & Custom Stuff, proved to be a reliable and roadworthy combination. Over the span of nine years, Chick racked up 62,000 miles in his hot hiboy. The opportunity arose to build another car, and the axiom, “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” played in his head. The second engine on Chick’s bucket list of appropriate hot rod motors is the legendary early Chrysler hemi. Had to have ONE of them, too! Chick sourced a bare 1957 Chrysler 392 block and commissioned old friend and drag race engine builder Ray Zeller to screw one together. The result is shown here in this video taken in the dyno control room at Vrbancic Brothers Racing in Ontario, California. l
The dyno time had several key objectives: first, start the engine for the first time and break in the camshaft; second, check for fluid and combustion leaks; third, check for undesirable noises; fourth, check vital engine operating parameters such as oil pressure, water temperature, intake vacuum, exhaust gas temperatures at each cylinder; and finally, general engine operating characteristics. Getting maximum power out of the engine was not one of the objectives.
Ray’s is the voice you hear predominantly in the video. Obviously he’s pleased with the results that the dyno instrumentation is showing. Engine initial start and cam break-in took place off of this video. The pulls against the dyno were made at progressively higher engine rev limits. The fifth and final run netted 520 horsepower at 6200 rpm with a torque of over 400 foot-pounds all the way from 2000 rpm all the way up to 6200, with a peak of 477 foot-pounds at 5200 rpm. This means that gobs of torque will be available at any time. Everyone is confident that this will be an awesome powerplant for a 2800 pound hot rod.
