My first week driving the "Deuce of Spades"

As I said in my other post, my 32 hiboy has gone through a series of transformations to be ready for the movie "Deuce of Spades". And since those were transformations I wanted to do anyways, but ended up doing faster so the car would be ready to film, it all worked out very well.

Other than the new paint job, now polished metal gauge panel, custom spade in the horn button (just completed saturday), new 16 inch rear wheels, and the straight pipes (well, I'm definitely LOUD now ), the most noticeable change has been the switch from radial tires to Bias plys. Everyone had told me I was going to HATE them and would switch right back to radials. I was told I would be "all over the road", I would "crash", I would this and that...

Although bias plys do not handle entirely like radials, I have been driving the deuce of Spades daily for a week now, on the bias plys, and have not experienced any BIG difference. I also made it a point to take the freeway daily (which I usually avoid) just to be sure. The groves seem to not affect me much, if at all , the roadster has been driving straight. So far only one road (Victory Blvd) has caused wandering, but I don't seem to have any problem letting the roadster hunt and seek a bit and by not overracting, and not oversteering, the roadster seems to always go back to where it belongs in a jiffy... The feeling of 'gliding' does not bother me a bit. I tested hard braking and found the car was going very straight. I tested little burn outs here and there and found I was not able to get my roadster's butt to slide sideways anylonger . My burn outs have become "whimpy" because my tires are now taller. Not by much, maybe 1.5 inches but it appears this was enough to impair my rubber peeling fun (rats). Time to hook up those two other Rochesters and get them to pump some gas in that 350. That's my next crusade.

OK, that's the lowdown about my first week on bias, I love them and I'm not switching back to radials ever (I hope).

I do have one question though: How does bias plys tire pressure affect the tracking?

1- not at all
2- higher air pressure more tracking?
3- higher air pressure less tracking?

I was told to keep 30 psi in those firestones.

I await your input and many thanks to you all...

 

Wasn't able to successfully post the photos of my current bias plys tires in my above post , so here they are:

 

I run 25-28 psi. Nice car.

 

Hmmm. You've got me thinking about changing my roadster tires now!

 

Good thing ....."it never rains in California".........

I just had to say it.
Good luck.
I didn't care for bias plys on my car when I tried it one summer so I used up all the rubber on the bottoms of them and now have a new coffee table.

 

Those look great!
That whole car is spot-on perfect!

 

HBGirl -

Don't know anything about the tire deal, but just wanted to complement you on one fine hot rod. You have shown excellent restraint in the overall look and details - and it has paid off "in-spades", if you'll allow me a little pun.

How about some more photos? I'd sure like to see the interior.

 

Lookin' good!! Those bias plys "fit" the car. Bravo.

 

Way to make a move into the dark side.. Bias-Ply's are not for the weak...
They make the car, they give it the fininshing touch...
You should post a before and after....

 

Nothing to say about the bias tires but your Highboy is absolutely dead-on. Tell us more about it, glass or steel, modified stock frame or after-market. Show us the interior.

 

Is that you Oscar? - Ok you see, as much as I HATED the paint job when I first got the car back, as much as I now LOVE IT. Go figure . Everyone has been commenting about it, asking me how we achieved it. Maybe all the HELL I went through for 5 weeks was worth it after all
Sure glad I didn't go for the "blueish black" version HAHA!

 

Nice pun

OK, here are some more photos, I just made a custom horn button with a spade in it. I'll post that later today, will snap some photos this morning. For now here is the car dash as it looked a week ago.



Here is the car rear



A closer view of the current 350

 

I have seen and read about your Highboy on another sight,..... love the car and your passion for driving the wheels off of it,.......... Glad to see you on the HAMB

 

That's the first 32 I've liked in a long,long time. Its just right,

 

Here is an older shot of the interior, before I repainted the car and stripped the primer paint off the gauge panel and polished it. The stock bench seat and upholstery are still exactely the same. As you can see it is simple. I have the spoon gas pedal and the old style brake pedal. I have a lockar shifter. I also have a hide away radio that swings up and hides up behind the dash. The color is strannge... A marronish / burgendish/ whateverish color. I can't say I've seen anything like it around here... That's what the car came with when I bought it a year ago. I will need to recarpet soon, but I'm out of funds so it will have to wait.



And here is a shot taken at Bob's Big Boy, before I started the transformation - you can see the radials (yuk) and the primer color. I was running the deuce with a hood, but since I painted it I have enjoyed running without a hood and showing off my now black firewall (used to be beige). So will run hoodless this summer (keeps it cooler too).

 

OH, and if you notice on the last photo, the hairpins had been painted red. I had to strip the paint and spent about 8 hours straight one saturday down on my hands and knees polishing the bare metal. These may have been chromed back in the 70's, but there is no chrome left. Down to metal, so I just polished (actually I sanded with #600 then #1200 then steel wool and then polished) until most of the black spots were gone...

The result is pretty old looking hairpins, which I like. I then had them covered with a coat of clear coat paint when we painted the car, to protect them from further corrosion.

 

Bonus shot,

I like this photo taken at nitgh at Bob's Big Boy, it simply is too cool. You can't SEE the roadster with your eyes, but you can SEE it with your soul.

 

It's me....looks awesome! I knew the paint would be perfect, all the grief paid off.

 

Boy, I can't believe you actually changed to Bias after all those warnings. After all, every car made in the 50's and earlier veered off the road and straight into a ditch right after coming off the assembly line.

Ok, that was sarcasm for those that didn't catch it. I drove BSB all the way to Detroit and back on bias plys. Firestone Cheater Slicks in the back even. And it rained. Both ways. Believe it or not, at 70mph all the way there and back I survived. Great car HiBoyGirl! What's the movie? When's it coming out?

 

Looks good. Also her site is really worth a look-see. The repairs section is great- a diary of all the mods and repairs to this point since buying the rod. Good Job!


http://www.myhiboy.com/

 

Interesting...

IMDB says the movie, "Deuce of Spades" is a silent film from 1922.. Looks like those Bias Ply's can also act as a time machine! I'm sure they will all be blown away to see a Deuce ten years before they came out! haha!


Oh. just went back to your original post and saw that you're shooting a new independent film. Here's the link to that for those who are interested. http://www.deuceofspadesmovie.com/

 

Congratulations, that's a sweet looking ride.

 

More info on this movie you are talking about please. Love the shot of you at bob's. Gonna have to print that out and hang it on the shop wall.

 

Great looking car. It has the perfect look.
Jim Selton won the Rod and Custom Ego Rama two years ago running Bias Plys
on his 32. That included everyday driving, milage, Drag racing and a road course.

 

Looks good!!! Keep us posted on the movie release or DVD or however it's gonna come out.

 

yeah whats the movie about?
you car is awesome. love it
love it even more with the bias plys.
it just looks right with the bias plys.

 

Hey hotrod Ron, nice burn out on your avatar... I miss burning out. My deuce is so loud now I am afraid to splatter the gas pedal to the floor like I used to, cause I think every Highway Patrol cars in that zip code would come flocking ... Rats.

I did do a burn out yesterday at the 101 freeway on ramp. The light was red and it was a two line on ramp. The guy to my right, driving some SUV, was chomping at the bit, I could already tell he was planning to cut off the "old jalopy" so to be ahead of me when the two lanes turned into one (just an 1/8th of a mile ahead). And I thought to myself:

"Yeah buddy, that'll be the day"

So when that light turned green... Well... Need I say more? I looked in my rear view mirror and boy was he small back there . The cool part is that I am not sure what was louder, my rear tire peeling rubber or the overall explosion of sound that spilled out of my tail pipes... At any rate the SUV stayed the heck away from me from that point on. I had fun . I was happy there was no CHP cars near by... I know, I know.. I'm a bad girl.... But it's so good to be bad in a deuce I just can't help it. After that monumental freeway 'entrance' I went right back to driving at my usual "freeway snail pace" speed. Really, I don't drive fast. I guess I'm not that "bad" after all.

 

Hey Elrod, I see you are a "Them", Troy is my hotrod doctor . I'm also good friends with Aaron. Love his coupe. Can't wait to see how his merc is going to come out. How many members in THEM!?

 

Here is video of the whole deal in frt of Metalshapes house for you viewing pleasure on firestones from Coker. They light up just fine just need a heavy pedal. So what is the 411 on the movie.


Shttp://video.google.com/videoplay?do...bullit%20coupeo

 

Deuce of Spades Horn button.

How it was made: Sent specs to my plexiglass shop and convinced them to try to make a dome. The guy didn't think they could but was willing to try . He pulled it off. Also had him make me a flat plate, 1/4 inch smaller than dome.

then I created the spade graphic. Created the simple "pinstripe" look, since in 1953 pin stripping was just at its infancy. Color matched it to interior. then affixed it to the flat plate. Affixed the flat plate inside the steering wheel and then placed the dome on top of it. Siliconed it.

And VOILA! Personally, I really dig it.