The Roadster
Sykes
Family Too
D/Blown
Fuel Roadster
Darren, Jeff and Valerie
Jeff Sykes
Story by Bobby Sykes Jr.
Jeff has this thing for perfection.
Ever since we were young, Jeff seemed to have the patience and vision to
complete projects with great detail.....especially when he
crafted or built something from scratch. Years went by
pondering what he could build to display his talent. After
building the Camaro for the drylakes, which is a total pain to service at the
track, Jeff
took what he learned from that project and proceeded to build
something a little easier to maintain. Jeff has a passion for
Ford HiBoy roadsters, so in early 1994 Jeff started to
procure the materials needed to build his business card, also
known as the "Sykes Family Too" Roadster.
Practically everything was built from
scratch as far as the frame and aluminum body skins were
concerned. The project started as a Dick Williams Polyform fiberglass 29 Ford
Roadster body. Jeff built all of the undercarriage,
including the home made 1932 Ford frame rails, the tube bending
machine, all tools for forming aluminum and took the
knowledge he learned from working at his regular job building
buckets for heavy equipment and proceeded to build his dream
machine. Along the way Jeff got help talking to people like Kent
Fuller and Jocko Johnson to give him some more ideas in the art
of forming aluminum. Jeff built his fuel and water tanks along
with all the inner frame safety panels which are held in place
with dzus fasteners. Most bracketing is milled from billet stock
to give it a clean look. Jeff decided to mount the 9 inch Ford
rearend above the frame line so he could keep the car low, at the
same time keeping the 32 Ford frame rails exposed to maintain the
HiBoy Roadster look. At the front, he added a Mark Williams
torsion bar front end and Jeff machined his own aluminum hubs to
mount his front wheels.
We have to thank the late Clarke
Cagle for helping us with the early hemi parts. Clarke was sick
with cancer and he gave us his stock of early Windsor hemi parts
before he died. Unfortunately, Clarke never got to see the
finished project. The roadster is powered by a 300 ci early
Chrysler Firepower Hemi, vintage 1955. The family chipped in and
bought a set a Carrillo steel rods for insurance and Dad had John
Engle at Engle cams grind us a modern roller cam with a profile
similar to what the Top Fuel and Funny Cars run today.
Click on a Thumbnail to see the
larger pictures...
Jeff Sykes Race Kraft
Custom Fabrication, Landspeed
Cars, Streetrod Restoration
Aluminum Bodies, NHRA Frame Repair
for Certification
Los Molinos, Ca
Near Red Bluff and Chico 530 384-1106
E-mail Jeff
Click picture for Jeff's latest projects
[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Next ]
