History
If Al Capone was not in Jail in 1934 you could imagine that he might well have been seen driving this car or at least one like it.
The car is an all steel 1934 “J Model” Hupmobile and was called The Aerodynamic 8. The Hupmobile Saloon and was manufactured by the Hupp Brothers Motor Corporation, Detroit USA.
In 1934 the Hupp Bros. Motor Corp manufactured only 2264 of these ugly yet magnificent motor vehicles.
Kym purchased his car from an add placed in the Sunday Times, a Western Australian News Paper for $500.00, its condition as you can imagine was rather sad. The car had apparently spent 10 years of its life in a creek bed on a farmers property and by its condition the car had given someone a great deal of fun bashing paddocks before it was destined for land fill.
There is more to the story of this car and it nearly never was, however for this story of the sheet metal being separated from the body and the fortune of how it all came back together you will need to ask Alan Barton of the West Coast Street Rodders and that is another story.
Kym has built many rods, custom cars and restorations and had there been a choice this car would probably have been restored. The car when purchased was missing front axel, rear axel, all associated wheels, braking components, boot, headlights, taillights, many body mouldings, all body glass, and decorative trim. When someone had decided they needed the Hup’s differential, more than the Hup did, they removed it in the usual bush way, the hot spanner. They cut the front spring hangers off and then ran the oxy through the back of the guards and the last ten inches of chassis. Of course they did not leave the discarded pieces in the car for the future.
In order to breathe new life, considering the rarity of parts there was only one real choice, and here you see the result.
This is the longest project that Kym has undertaken, taking 6 years almost to the day. Kym purchased his car in Easter 1994 and registered it the week before Easter 2000.
The Hup, as with most of Kym’s rods has only subtle changes that Kym believes improves the car without destroying the designers original lines. Aside from the door handles, a three inch chop and of course the wheels, the outside of the cars appearance is almost unchanged.
This is the first car that Kym has ever chopped. What do you think, not a bad first attempt? Prior to chopping the roof Kym asked other rodders for their opinion, some said to chop others not. They were all unanimous in one thing; don’t tackle a roof with so many curves for your first chop. Never say die, Kym searched his stack of rod magazines and found what he was looking for, an American Rodder Magazine with step-by-step photos of chopping a 47 Chev and the 3-inch chop was on the menu.
Special thanks to Daryl for salvaging the car from the creek bed, Steve Houlahan for his advice while on the WA TAC committee, Steve Code and Phil from the Qld TAC committee, Ben for his help on the bodywork, Dave Carmen for the trim, Marvin Rice in the US for the headlight lenses and anyone else I have overlooked.
Modifications
Let’s start at the ground and work our way up. No axels and extremely distorted sheet metal, how do you set up your wheelbase? Fortunately the front axel and rear axel bump stops were still on the chassis, so the front axel was set from the bump stops and the rear axel set, measuring center to center, all 121 inches. The chassis is of X frame design which measure a depth of 200mm and is of 3mm U channel. The front and rear sections boxed for added strength (mind you I think even without the boxing and extra gussets this chassis would have been happy with a supercharge KB). The front suspension is IFS provided by an integrated HT Holden front cross member assembly. There is a story attached to that! Kym ventured down to the local “Pick a Part” wrecker, who offered $50 for all you can carry. The bloke looking after the yard could not believe his eyes when Kym approached his counter with the entire front end drum to drum, sway bar and all, on his shoulder and large toolbox in hand. The drums have been exchanged for Leyland P76 ventilated discs which narrow the track approximately 25mm from the standard Holden track and a shortened VB Commodore rack & pinion for the steering. A donor car was chosen to assist with the completion of the project. This was a 1981 ZJ Ford Fairlane. One thing with building a rod, according to Kym, is as far as possible keep everything off one model of vehicle. This will ensure compatibility with things such as braking systems etc; it also makes it easy to get parts from your local auto parts supplier. The Fairlane donated the seats, steering column, console, air conditioner electronic instrumentation (behind the original fascia), electric windows, central locking, door locks, interior lighting, gearbox, differential, braking system, leaf springs, body wiring, bonnet struts, boot lock, windscreen wipers/washer, windscreen wiper motor, radiator and rear seat floor pan. The engine in the Fairlane was a 351 Cleveland which was sold to allow the purchase of a 1990 5 Litre high top electronic fuel injected Windsor from a Ford F150. This motor had only completed 38,000 km at the time of purchase in 1994 and when stripped only required new gaskets, seals, cleaning and painting. The motor was chosen based on value for money at the time of purchase and that it was unleaded. Although this particular motor has a history of intermittent problems, which this motor certainly displayed in the beginning, they were all solved when the poor earth was discovered between the ECU and ground.
The grill was a particularly difficult task, with strips of sheet metal folded and a jig made to curve the top of the bars each bar was formed one at a time the old replaced with new. The boot presented the biggest challenge; a boot from a 36 Plymouth ??? that had a role top was used as it had the correct spare wheel well. 3 months of work was undertaken to cut and shut the boot to look like the original from photographs.
The car had also seen some extensive repair work in its past with almost a bucket of lead being removed from various areas on the body.
Kym also completed all the wiring with over 150 connections between the butchered engine harness and the body & chassis wiring donated by the ZJ Fairlane. Using two wiring diagrams and a lot of luck, or was it, the engine started first turn of the key and all electronic sensors, lights, instrumentation all worked.
