Vehicle Description
1934 Ford Coupe Zipper
During the Prohibition Era in the United States, (1920-1933),
bootleggers would modify their cars to make them run faster than
the cars of revenue agents and other law enforcement, and this can
be seen as a predecessor of the hot rod hobby. The oldest known
uses of the term hot rod is from the 1930s, when car owners in
southern California, USA would modify their cars and race them on
the huge, dry lake beds located northeast of Los Angeles. In 1937,
the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) was formed in an
effort to standardize the rules for land speed racing events. The
origin of the term hot rod is unclear, but it might have something
to do with replacing the camshaft of a vehicle with a "hotter"
version - a hot stick or a hot rod.
Offered for consignment and your viewing pleasure, a totally
different take on a street rod. In today's world of high tech and
high dollar hot rods, it's hard for a guy or gal on a budget to
have a car that is different. Enter Darrell Zipp, the founder of
Zipper Motorcars, a US Army veteran of the Vietnam War who came
home in 1968 and worked as a freelance artist before being hired by
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth to work on Ed's "Chopper" magazine. Ed
recognized talent when he saw it and arranged an interview for
Darrell with the Revell Inc. model company. Darrell stayed with the
Revell until the time they were sold, working as their head of
research and development, but all the while dreaming about building
full scale cars. In 1976 he opened Traditional Street Rods in
Newville, CA which operated for 3.5 years and took its toll as
Darrell was still employed full time by Revell. Fast forward to
1992 and the LA roadster show in Pomona, the Diamond Anniversary
Deuce made its debut and from there people started calling the car
and others that Zipp built a "Zipper".
Exterior
Made of durable and non-rusting fiberglass, this rod is based on a
1934 Ford. Some key components were removed like the fenders and
the car's wheelbase was lengthened and lowered for that sleek racer
look. Leading the way is the long forward flipping track style
grille and lengthened hood. Chrome trimmed headlights flank the
small oval grille and hover above the exposed chrome laden front
suspension and give us the start to the racer look. Moving to the
sides we can breathe in the wonderful black and red paint scheme
with a sweeping silver painted inlay delineating the bottom black
from the upper red. This inlay wraps around the body and gives the
air of motion even while standing still. Another silver swoosh
highlights the exposed side engine bay and looks just fab with the
chrome header pipes which reach rearward. An extremely shortened
cowl leads back to the suicide doored passenger compartment where
the '34 styling cues really come into play. A sedan style rear body
encloses the back of the cab giving a "shorty" look to the overall
design. Dual chrome trimmed tail lights are mounted low on the cab
and the money shot of this whole car is the exposed and chromed
rear suspension and quick change rear axle. Weld Rodlite wheels
adorn the 4 corners and are wrapped in 25x7.5 and 31x12.50 radials
on the front and rear respectively. Their faces are highly polished
and the fenderless wheel and tire combo is exposed for the whole
world to see. Boyd Coddington, eat your heart out!
Interior
Red leather, all in first class condition with big tuck and roll
inserts and smooth bolsters fill the interior of this racer. Deep
pleated tuck and roll leather covers the inserts on this contoured
bench with smooth bolsters surrounding this pattern above and
below. A snappy cut out is seen in the center of the lower cushion
and provides the perfect home for the pistol grip Hurst shifter.
This red leather makes an appearance on the door panels
highlighting the smooth gray panels with a lower black insert. This
gray and black is warmly wrapping the rear panels and toe kicks. An
oval 32 coupe black dash containing the Shark white faced gauges
and some warning lights and pulls sit to the sides. A quick release
3 spoke steering wheel is fronting this miles deep dash and lightly
soiled charcoal gray carpeting covers the floor pans and presents
with some wrinkling. Just fantastic on the looks and comfort
end.
Drivetrain
Shoehorned in under the forward tilting once piece hood sits a
350ci Chevrolet V8 in its black blocked glory. It has custom chrome
ribbed Chevrolet badged rocker covers and a chrome Edelbrock air
cleaner assembly. Feeding the finely tuned amounts of air of fuel
is a Holley 4bbl carburetor attached atop an Edelbrock aluminum
intake manifold. Bolted to the back of this blinged out mill is a
TH350 3-speed automatic transmission which in turn sends power back
to the chrome plated Winters quick change rear axle. All is kept
cool by an electric cooling fan attached to an all aluminum
radiator. Exhaling is done through custom chrome headers that can
rack off for the whole world to hear.
Undercarriage
A marvel of engineering shows up under neath. We are talkin' about
a chrome I-beam front axle that's been dropped along with Zipper
friction style knee action shocks and a 4 bar arrangement. In the
rear we note an independent rear axle with a transverse leaf spring
and more of the Zipper knee action shocks. This suspension is
chromed and polished to the nines and is so clean you could shave
in your reflection. Disc brakes are courtesy of the folks at
Wilwood on the front and rear. The belly pan is also doubling as
the twin fuel tanks and the frame is all custom Zipper. Just
perfection underneath!
Drive-Ability
Just a beautiful driver and awesome cruiser and thanks to the
suicide doors and quick release steering wheel a breeze to enter
and exit. And it all looks good while doing it. Handles great and
stops on a dime. I love this street rod!
5 stars for this screaming 2 tone zonker! From the skillful mind
and pen of the great Darrel Zipp and built by Zipp himself along
with the 2 owners of Fiberblast Hotrods prior to them acquiring the
Zipper company, this is one of the 2 cars built by these 3 greats.
Like none other!
Classic Auto Mall is a 336,000-square foot classic and special
interest automobile showroom, featuring over 650 vehicles for sale
with showroom space for up to 1,000 vehicles. Also, a 400 vehicle
barn find collection is on display.
This vehicle is located in our showroom in Morgantown,
Pennsylvania, conveniently located just 1-hour west of Philadelphia
on the I-76 Pennsylvania Turnpike. The website is
www.classicautomall.com and our phone number is (888) 227-0914.
Please contact us anytime for more information or to come see the
vehicle in person.
